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Unknown (00:01):
Coming to you from North Central Ohio. We share
with you the voice of theNazarene. A week by week.
Venture into the Word of Godsponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio
Church of the Nazarene. We joinour Pator,Reverend Ray LaSalle,
and the voice of the Nazarene.
Pastor Ray LaSalle (00:18):
But in the 40th chapter, he wrote these
words, He's talking aboutsomeone that's going to come.
And verse 29 and he that cometh,giveth power to the faint and to
them that have no might. Heincreases strength. And he said,
even the use shall faint and beweary, the young men shall
utterly fall. But they that waitupon the Lord shall renew their
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strength. They shall mount upwith wings as eagles. They shall
run and not be weary. They shallwalk and not faint. I'm curious.
This morning, have you ever beenoverloaded? You ever been just
weighted down with issues oflife till it just seemed like
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you couldn't see any further.
Remember dad saying once to mymom, he said, I just like to get
in the car and start driving,never stop and never come back.
He was loaded. He wasoverwhelmed as we begin this new
year that we're facing, I don'tknow what all is ahead of us.
There's already been someturbulence and some lives and in
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the nation, but I want you to beable to handle the loads of
life. I was reading this weekabout a guy that had bought in a
truck, and he was going intothe, what we call the transport
business. He was going to haulloads and transport from one
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location to another. And he puton a sign on his truck for hire.
And among the variousdeliveries, he got a call to
haul some chickens, and heloaded the truck up with
chickens and started down thehighway, and then pulled over
and put it in park, and got outand walked back to the rear and
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with a ball bat hit the back ofthe truck, went back, got in,
started driving again. Everylittle bit he'd stop, do the
same thing, go back and hammeraround on the back of the truck,
get back in and drive. Andunbeknownst to him, was a
witness watching all of thishappening, and he's scratching
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his head and trying to figureout what's going on. The next
time he stopped, this guy pullsup, puts down his power window,
and he said, What in the world?
I'm about to lose my mind. Ithink I'm going crazy. What are
you doing? You stop and you getout, and you hammer on the side
of the truck with your bat. Youget back in, you drive, well,
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what's going on? Well, he said,I got a half ton truck, and I've
got a ton of chickens. What I'mtrying to do is I'm trying to
keep half of the chickens flyingup, and keep them in the air all
the time. Well, I don't knowabout you, but sometimes I feel
like that truck, I mean, Ialmost get the feeling sometimes
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that, like this guy, his bottomline, his truck, just wasn't big
enough. Sometimes I feel likeI've got a half ton truck and
got the weight of the world onme. Maybe you felt that way.
Apparently, others have 89% ofAmericans suffer from chronic
stress disorder. Nine out of 10.
Somewhere between 75 and 90% ofthe people going to doctors, you
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know, they call it ills andbills and whatever, and pills
too, and they go to the doctorand they they're dealing with
physical problems, and doctorsare now finding out that most of
it is stress induced, if peoplecan just lower their stress
level, they're overloaded,they're overwhelmed, and they
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can't hardly face life. You see,we don't get ulcers from what we
eat. We get ulcers from what'seating us, and we get ulcers
when we're overloaded and whenwe're under great pressure. In
the book of Deuteronomy, chapter25 verse 17 and 18, it talks
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about a group of people and howthey were overwhelmed by their
enemy. You know, when a persongets stressed, that's when
they're the most vulnerable, themost susceptible, and when
you're weary, mentally,emotionally, physically, or
whatever, generally, we're moresusceptible to the devil's
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attack when we're worn out.
He'll come and hit us when we'reexhausted. He can come and put a
lot of pressure on us. Andthat's generally when most
arguments happen around thefamily in the house, is when
everybody's up tight,overloaded, overextended, and I
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can't see you, but I imaginesome of you are not looking
what's going on. We'reoverwhelmed with life. Now I've
got a very fulfilled life. I'vesaid it many times. I'm happy. I
have a fulfilled life, but Ialso have a filled, full life,
and maybe you do as well.
There's a song that Alabamagroup used to sing, and
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sometimes I get the feeling it'sabout me. I'm in a hurry to get
things done. I rush and rush andlives go fun, and when all you
do is live and die, I'm in ahurry, and I don't know why.
Franklin Roosevelt is the onlypresident elected to four terms
in office just months after hewas elected for the fourth time,
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and he and incidentally, hedied. It was down in Warm
Springs Georgia. He had a littleguy from Missouri who was his
vice president. Nobody knew him.
Nobody knew anything about him.
His name was Harry Truman, andthey said that he did look very
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presidential. He had an IQ thathad blown out of the water with
the highest IQs of any man thatever served as president of the
USA. But Eleanor RooseveltFranklin's wife came into the
room where Harry Truman was andsaid, I need to talk to you. I
need to see you, Harry. And shesaid, Harry, he died. And Harry
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Truman said to Eleanor, said,What can I do for you? And he
she looked down at him and said,Harry, the question is not what
you can do for me. The questionis, what can I do for you?
Because you're the one introuble. You're suddenly got the
weight of the United States onyour back, the world's on your
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shoulders. The next day, HarryTruman met with Congress, and he
said to the those guys, he said,You know, I don't know if you
guys know how to pray, but if heever prayed, pray for me. He
said that, I don't know ifyou've ever had a load of hay
fall on you, but when they toldme the president died, he said,
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I felt like the moon the starsand the planets have all fallen
in on me. So what do you do whenyou feel like the moon and the
stars and the planets arefalling on you, because there's
times in life when everythingseems to be astronomical and
we're loaded down. And I've beenthinking about that this week,
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and then my mind hit on the lifeof Jesus Christ. I thought of
all of those that have everendured pressure. Jesus, our
Savior, endured morepsychologically and
philosophically and emotionallyand mentally and spiritually and
physically than anyone that everlived. I mean, the Bible said
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that he endured the cross. Hedespised the shame when they
turned against him. And there,in Hebrews 12, it says, Consider
him that endured that cross,despise the shame, lest you
become weary in mind. And I'msimply saying Jesus endured it
all. And I was amazed when Istarted this study about his
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life again, Jesus never got in ahurry. I'm always in a hurry.
I'm trying to catch up withmyself, and I'm sure you have as
well. Well, Jesus, he neverseemed to be in a hurry. So how
did he handle the pressures oflife? Let me throw five or six
or seven words at you. First ofall, identification. You say,
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What are you talking about?
Well, think about these verses.
Jesus said here in John, chaptereight, verse 12, I am the
light of the world. He knew hewas the light. He said, in John
1011 I am the good shepherd. Heknew sheep needed a shepherd. He
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said in John 1036, I am the Sonof God. By chapter 11, verse 25
he said, I'm the resurrectionand the life. What I'm trying to
tell you is Jesus knew who hewas, and if you don't know who
you are, you'll have somebodyelse telling you who they think
you are. And if you have faithin Jesus Christ, you are a child
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of the Most High God, you needto know who you are. God had
made us as a unique person andgave us a unique passion,
created us with a for a uniquepurpose, you say. Well, Pastor,
how can you deal with beingoverwhelmed and overloaded?
You've got to realize who youare. Jesus, there at His
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baptism, heard a voice out ofheaven and said, This is My
beloved Son in whom I'm wellpleased. And you'll find every
time the devil comes around,he'll try to put you down. He'll
try to minimize you. He'll haveyou questioning your pulse or
checking your heartbeat, andhe'll have you out of victory
every time if you listen to him.
But if you know you're God'schild and you're in his will,
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that's called identification.
The second word that comes tomind is dedication. I'm looking
at the life of Christ. Noticewhat He said in John 530 he
said, I seek not my own will,but the will of the Father. Now
here's what I know, folk,there's not enough time in life
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to do what everybody else wantsyou to do. You might as well
quit trying. There's not enoughtime in your life to do
everything that you want to do.
One day you're running out oftime and realize you didn't feel
up the bucket list. But I wantyou to know there's enough time
in the life of every one of usto accomplish what God wants us
to do. Jesus understood I needto be dedicated to the things
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that God has called me to do,because if you don't, and if you
don't do what God's called youto do, you cave in under
criticism. Have you ever beencriticized? Well, give me your
name and I'll work it out foryou. I want you to experience
everything. Okay, you know, whenyou're 20, you really care about
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what people think. By the timeyou're 40, you really don't care
what anybody thinks. By aboutthe time you're 60, you'll find
out that nobody was thinkingabout you anyway, but you gotta
be dedicated to what God wantsyou to do with your life,
because if you're not, you cavein under criticism, but also
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competition. You get it in yourmind that others are getting
ahead of you. She's gettingahead of me. He's getting ahead
of me, that business is gettingahead of my business. I'm
lagging behind. But you'rereally not lagging behind if
you're doing what God wants youto do. Now, identification,
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dedication. But there's anotherword I want to throw at you, and
I'm not going to build acampfire and camp around here
very long, but it'sorganization. Did you know what
would help tons of people? Can Ijust tell you? I'm not trying to
upset you, if people would justget organized. Get organized. I
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mean, if you'd put your keysback in your purse, if you put
your phone went back in yourpurse. You wouldn't have to
spend the rest of the day askingthe whole family to help you to
find it. Zoom. And there I wentagain. Get organized. It help
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everybody else. It take thepressure off of all the rest of
the family. Give you just getorganized you don't want so
while I'll look at somebody'svehicle. Somebody to bring me a
rental application. I'd likemaybe to rent from you. And I
look in the car and I think,good gracious, Tarzan would get
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hurt in there. Get organized.
I'm not going to do anymore, andI have to do as a rule for if I
can help it. For years, I didn'thave to put together receipts, I
didn't have to run thecheckbook. I didn't have to pay
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the bills around the house. Mywife did it for me, but when she
died suddenly, I found I had toget organized. I may not like
getting everything ready for theIRS and tax time and the March
15 and maybe an extension andall of that, but I've got to get
things together. I've beenspending the last couple weeks
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just getting my receipts downand and who I talked to, what I
talked about, because if the IRSlooks at that receipt and I
don't have that down, they'llpitch it out. They don't want me
to get any credit. Anyhow, I'vegotta be organized. And I can go
on and on about that, but you'dhelp everybody else. Did you
know that Jesus was organized?
You knew that boy, you're asmart crowd, when he fed the
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5000 that plus the women and thechildren. Do you notice what he
did? He said, I want to divideyou up into groups of 50. I want
50 to be seated over here, and50 over there, and 50 is from 20
to 30, some 1000 people. And heorganized him in groups of 50.
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He was organized you. Even thereduring the resurrection scene,
they interrupt him all up andput him in the tomb and and
there in John chapter 20, whenthey came and the stone was
rolled away and they looked inthe grave, clothes had been
folded neatly, and they had beenstacked over here in a certain
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area, and the head pieces hadbeen stacked in another area.
I'm simply saying he wasorganized. How does your bed
look this morning? Well, movingalong while you're shouting
happy. But don't say he wasn'torganized. And you could relieve
a lot of stress in a lot ofpeople's life if you just get
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organized, unless I don't haveanother service or to write
down, don't use that one. Skipthat one that don't go over
well. But what about delegation?
Mark, chapter three, verse 13.
Here's what it says. Jesus go upinto a mountain and called unto
him whom he would. And they cameunto him, and he ordained 12
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that they should be with him,and they that he might send them
forth to preach. One of the mostimportant things Christ did was
delegate. He wanted them topreach. He wanted them to share
the message and share the gospeland and if you're going to
accomplish anything in life,you've got to learn how to
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delegate. You have to learnthat. And there's two reasons
why we don't delegate. One'sperfectionism. We don't think
anybody can do it as good as wecan, and maybe they can't.
Jesus, he said to his 12 on whatyou're going to preach. Now,
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could they preach better thanhim? No, I don't think so. I
think by far he was a betterpreacher, but he knew he had to
trust Him, and the message wasto get out. He couldn't be
everywhere, and he would diereal soon. He had to have
somebody to continue to preach.
And so if he was going to make adifference, he had to delegate.
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Let's move to another one.
Insecurity is another reason whywe don't delegate. We get to
thinking, Well, what if they'rebetter than I am? What if
they're a better speaker? Whatif they can accomplish it easy?
What are they? A bettermusician. So we don't want to
offer up our seat and letsomebody else have it. But I
move on to another and that'srecreation. When I look at the
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life of Christ, I think of Mark,chapter six, verse 30, and you
can read it all, but I'llcondense it for you. Here's
basically what he said, If youdon't come apart, you're going
to fall apart. Once in a while,this brain of ours has to stop
working. Now, mine didn't lastnight, and I laid awake from
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about four and in the morningall the way up to like just
finally rolled out of bed. Icouldn't get it to quiet down.
Now, sometimes it's my arm thatgoes to sleep, but it's I guess
it's harder or more tired thanthe rest of my body, whatever.
But there are times when youneed a little bit of leisure.
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You need some relaxation, allwork and no play, makes Jack a
doll boy. Now, somebody told mea few years ago that the best
relaxation is golfing. I don'tmind golfing. I don't know a lot
about it,but I've got other things to do,
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and it's kind of hard to get outthere and relax when you got
everything else to do. But theytold me, said, You need to golf.
Well, I'm out in Delaware in arevival, and it's about two
nights into the meeting, and Ithe pastor tapped a guy standing
next to me on the arm, and hesaid, Could, could you take the
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evangelist golfing tomorrow? Hesaid, Well, I guess I could.
They didn't ask me if I wantedto go. I didn't know if he
wanted me out of the way orwhat, but he said he's going to
take you golfing tomorrow. I'lldrop you off at the golf course.
So he gets me up, and we driveout of the city and over here to
a golf course. And I get out andthere's that same guy, and he
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said, You got golf clubs? Isaid, not with me. He said,
Well, we'll get you a set out ofthe clubhouse. And he did, and
we got in this cart, and away wewent. Now the day before, I
decided to polish my car, and Iput this old white kind of
polish on, I think it was calledTurtle Wax. Anybody remember
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that kind it's terrible. I'm asslow as a turtle trying to get
it off. After I get it on, I rubit in good but boy, to get it
off there doesn't show a knife.
I rubbed and I rubbed till thisshoulder felt like was going to
fall off. Now I'm golfing. Thisside of my body is all tied up,
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and every time. I'd swing at theball, of course, he told me my
problem later was that the balldidn't go very far from where I
hit it. But we started in, and Iwas pulling every time, and he
kept bothering me. Said, you'reyou're pulling your club. It's
causing the ball to go over offthe course you talk about
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getting uptight after being toldthat about 20 times we're out
with it, we're out of the end ofthe golf game. And I'd gotten
out of the cart, and I looked,and I noticed one of the socks
had fallen off the one of thewood clubs, and I told the guy,
I said, Hey, we're going back tothe the clubhouse, and I've lost
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a sock. I'm going to walk backand see if I can find it. Well,
I had to realize, and have towalk to the last, to the next
green, all the way back to it.
There it was. I picked it up,and there are two guys standing
there and and one of them saidto me, I don't know. He said,
Are you catching on. I said,What? He said, Are you catching
on? I said, to what? Well, hesaid, the game of golf. I said,
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Does it look that bad? Well, hesaid, you know, you're with the
Golf Pro. I had no clue it wasthe Golf Pro. I would be the
best golfer in the world if I'dhave listened. Now an
acquaintance of mine, I don'tknow him well, but he hates the
golf, and he had an avid golferthat just stayed on his trail
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and said, You gotta go golf. Andhe said, I don't like to golf.
I'm not a golfer. He said, Yougotta go. You need to relax. And
so he took him golfing, and theycame to a lake, and he said, I'm
going to try to go around it.
No, he said, it'll take too longjust knock the ball over the
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lake. And he showed him how todo it. So he stuck the stick in
the ground, put the ball on topof the stick, swung at the and
it just dribbled down and wentinto the lake. Manny was upset,
and the guy said, hey, just haveanother ball and knock, knock it
across the lake. He hauled offand hit that thing, and it went
plop out in the middle like sixtimes. He put the ball in the
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lake. He was so mad. He wentback to the golf cart, grabbed
up the whole bag and all thesticks, walked down to the lake
and said, there's your buddiesin there here, and slung it out
into the lake. And the other guyjust standing there with his
mouth open, he said to that avidgolfer, he said, you just go
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ahead and play the rest of it,and I'm walking back to the
clubhouse. Pick me up whenyou're done. He said, I can't
you just threw all my clubs intothe lake. But relaxation,
whatever it is, find somehowwhere you can kind of let your
brain rest and your emotionsrest and your body rests. It's
good for you. If you want todeal with overload, you want to
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deal with being overwhelmed,you've got to find some way to
relax. But here's another thatJesus used. Was meditation.
Jesus said in Mark 125, and inthe morning, rising up a great
while before day, he went out,departed into a solitary place,
and there prayed. He meditated.
He got alone with God. Over andover and over, you'll find Jesus
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meditating. Now, let me get onto just a little bit of a touchy
subject. It's called tithing.
Does that offend anybody? Yousay, Well, preacher, if you're
going to get off on that, I'mgoing to find me another church.
Can I just tell you when you getthere, tell him I sent you, and
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when you get there, starttithing to that ministry,
because I want to promise you,God will bless you beyond
measure. I found there's aprinciple that when I give to
God the tent that belongs tohim, he can bless the 90% a
whole lot more than I if I keptthe whole 100% and that same
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principle goes over with this.
If you'll give God time everyday to spend with him, you'll
accomplish more from the resttime and from meditating and
getting along with him than ifyou'd ever stop for the break.
And if you take every day toread your Bible and to pray,
you'll find you'll get moreaccomplished. And I can rush
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around and do a lot of things,but I'll get a lot less done if
I don't meditate and get alonewith God. Here's the last one
with some sub points.
Transformation. Isaiah, 40verse, 29 he giveth power to the
faint, to them that have nomighty, increases the strength.
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And then he goes on to talkabout eagles, mount up with
wings as eagles. Several thingsabout that passage, the problem
was the faint. I've been theremany times. I've had that
problem in life. If I'd be tothe point where I didn't feel
like I could go on. But here'sthe provision of stress. They
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that wait upon the Lord shallrenew, renew their strength. I
looked up that word renew thisweek, and found that word in the
Hebrew actually means toexchange. So when I renew my
strength, what I'm doing, I'mexchanging my weakness for God's
strength. That make any sense?
And how do you do that? Pastor,it says they mount up with wings
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as eagles. Now, an eagle can fly50 miles an hour. I mean, it can
cut its way through the pathlessyonders, and it's amazing how
fast and fleet that an eagle is.
But if an eagle sees a storm,every place I've read, they say
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they never run from a storm, orthey'll head straight into the
storm, and the eagle, with hiswings out, will catch the
current, and he'll go up to 100miles an hour, riding the winds.
And I thought of Acts two, two,where it said, and when the Holy
Spirit came, it was like arushing, mighty wind, and it
filled all the place where theywere setting. How do you renew
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your strength? Number one, justsimply empty yourself of
yourself. And I wondered howmany of us have some junk in our
life, in our personalities, inour hearts that we do so well to
just say, God, I need to emptysome of this. Nobody else likes
it. I'm getting kind of tired ofit, and I don't want to claim
victory over it. I've got a meanstreak, or I'm an impatient
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streak, or I get an attitude.
Some of us just need to say,Lord, I want to empty myself of
myself. And then, Lord, I wantyou to just to fill me with your
Spirit. Just fill me with yourSpirit, not only this problem
and that provision, but I wantyou to notice the problem,
promise of overcoming stress,but they that wait upon the Lord
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shall renew their strength. Now,how do you wait on the Lord?
Just find an easy chair and youkick back and and you just will
go off into La, La Land. Ho hum.
And I'm waiting on God. I cannottell you through the years how
many people I've been around andjust said I'm waiting on God.
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God's going to show me what todo. I'm waiting on the Lord.
That's not what this waitingmeans here. That's just sitting
on our blessed backside. Whatdoes it mean? Well, let me tell
you what it means. It means youbecome a waiter, like they wait
tables.
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You got a guest, and you're thewaiter, and you go over and you
say, do you need water, sir,what do you need to drink? And
and what, what is your order?
What can I do for you? And whatdo you need on the table? And is
there something that needs? Andyou're waiting, and God is
saying to us, if you wait on meand serve me, I'm going to renew
your strength. And I'm wonderingwhat would happen if God could
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find a great handful of peoplehere that would say, from here
on, God, I need strength, andthe way to get that strength is
simply to wait on you. You say,Well, preacher, how do you wait
on the Lord? Well, he tells youa little bit here in Psalm 62,
verse five, wait Thou only uponGod. What does that mean? It
means to long for him. You longfor him. And then in Proverbs
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824, Blessed is the man thatheareth me, heareth me. That
means listen to him. I not onlylong for him, but I want to
listen to his instructions andto do them, and then to look to
Him. In Psalm 104, verse 27 theythat wait all upon thee, that
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thou mayest give them their meatin due season, looking to Him.
And then may I close by saying,we need to live for Him.
Proverbs, 27, eight, Whosokeepeth the fig tree shall eat
the fruit thereof. You're notgoing to get apples if you don't
raise apples. Some of you, onlything you're going to get is
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cane. You're going to raisecane. But if you want peaches,
you need to plant a peach tree,and you need to tend to it, and
instead of you, if you keep thatfig tree, you're going to eat
the fruit there. So is he thatwaiteth on his master shall be
honored. What are you doing?
Preacher, with your life, I'mjust going to wait on the Lord.
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He's my master, and I'm going toserve him. He's the guest of my
life, and so I'm going to waiton Him and what happens? He said
he would renew our strength. I'mtired of weariness. I'm tired of
being faint hearted. I'm tiredthat when the battles Come, my
mind's not big enough toencompass the battles, and I'm
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simply saying, God help me. I.
Not to sit over here in arecliner and said, Oh, I'm
waiting on God. No, I'm going towait on Him by serving Him, not
just occupied, but not justpreoccupied, but getting
involved in the kingdom of God.
And if God could take this greatministry that we have and take
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us to a new level, where we'reall waiters. How can I wait on
you? Lord, well, I've gotsomebody I'd like for you to
invite to church. I got somebodyover here that needs $1 and I
need you to get it to em.
There's somebody over here thatneeds some help, and I want you
to go as you wait on them,you're waiting on me. When you
give away that cup of cold waterin my name, it says, giving it
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unto me. That's what God hascalled us to do, to be waiters,
Father, take the message.
Unknown (30:48):
Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene.
Visit us every Sunday at 9amwith B and C's pastor, Ray
LaSalle, for more informationregarding B and C, visit
bucyrusnazarene.org, you.
Coming to you from North Central Ohio. We share
with you the voice of theNazarene. A week by week.
Venture into the Word of Godsponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio
Church of the Nazarene. We joinour Pator,Reverend Ray LaSalle,
and the voice of the Nazarene.
Pastor Ray LaSalle (00:18):
But in the 40th chapter, he wrote these
words, He's talking aboutsomeone that's going to come.
And verse 29 and he that cometh,giveth power to the faint and to
them that have no might. Heincreases strength. And he said,
even the use shall faint and beweary, the young men shall
utterly fall. But they that waitupon the Lord shall renew their
(00:43):
strength. They shall mount upwith wings as eagles. They shall
run and not be weary. They shallwalk and not faint. I'm curious.
This morning, have you ever beenoverloaded? You ever been just
weighted down with issues oflife till it just seemed like
(01:05):
you couldn't see any further.
Remember dad saying once to mymom, he said, I just like to get
in the car and start driving,never stop and never come back.
He was loaded. He wasoverwhelmed as we begin this new
year that we're facing, I don'tknow what all is ahead of us.
There's already been someturbulence and some lives and in
(01:27):
the nation, but I want you to beable to handle the loads of
life. I was reading this weekabout a guy that had bought in a
truck, and he was going intothe, what we call the transport
business. He was going to haulloads and transport from one
(01:48):
location to another. And he puton a sign on his truck for hire.
And among the variousdeliveries, he got a call to
haul some chickens, and heloaded the truck up with
chickens and started down thehighway, and then pulled over
and put it in park, and got outand walked back to the rear and
(02:09):
with a ball bat hit the back ofthe truck, went back, got in,
started driving again. Everylittle bit he'd stop, do the
same thing, go back and hammeraround on the back of the truck,
get back in and drive. Andunbeknownst to him, was a
witness watching all of thishappening, and he's scratching
(02:30):
his head and trying to figureout what's going on. The next
time he stopped, this guy pullsup, puts down his power window,
and he said, What in the world?
I'm about to lose my mind. Ithink I'm going crazy. What are
you doing? You stop and you getout, and you hammer on the side
of the truck with your bat. Youget back in, you drive, well,
(02:51):
what's going on? Well, he said,I got a half ton truck, and I've
got a ton of chickens. What I'mtrying to do is I'm trying to
keep half of the chickens flyingup, and keep them in the air all
the time. Well, I don't knowabout you, but sometimes I feel
like that truck, I mean, Ialmost get the feeling sometimes
(03:16):
that, like this guy, his bottomline, his truck, just wasn't big
enough. Sometimes I feel likeI've got a half ton truck and
got the weight of the world onme. Maybe you felt that way.
Apparently, others have 89% ofAmericans suffer from chronic
stress disorder. Nine out of 10.
Somewhere between 75 and 90% ofthe people going to doctors, you
(03:42):
know, they call it ills andbills and whatever, and pills
too, and they go to the doctorand they they're dealing with
physical problems, and doctorsare now finding out that most of
it is stress induced, if peoplecan just lower their stress
level, they're overloaded,they're overwhelmed, and they
(04:05):
can't hardly face life. You see,we don't get ulcers from what we
eat. We get ulcers from what'seating us, and we get ulcers
when we're overloaded and whenwe're under great pressure. In
the book of Deuteronomy, chapter25 verse 17 and 18, it talks
(04:26):
about a group of people and howthey were overwhelmed by their
enemy. You know, when a persongets stressed, that's when
they're the most vulnerable, themost susceptible, and when
you're weary, mentally,emotionally, physically, or
whatever, generally, we're moresusceptible to the devil's
(04:47):
attack when we're worn out.
He'll come and hit us when we'reexhausted. He can come and put a
lot of pressure on us. Andthat's generally when most
arguments happen around thefamily in the house, is when
everybody's up tight,overloaded, overextended, and I
(05:13):
can't see you, but I imaginesome of you are not looking
what's going on. We'reoverwhelmed with life. Now I've
got a very fulfilled life. I'vesaid it many times. I'm happy. I
have a fulfilled life, but Ialso have a filled, full life,
and maybe you do as well.
There's a song that Alabamagroup used to sing, and
(05:35):
sometimes I get the feeling it'sabout me. I'm in a hurry to get
things done. I rush and rush andlives go fun, and when all you
do is live and die, I'm in ahurry, and I don't know why.
Franklin Roosevelt is the onlypresident elected to four terms
in office just months after hewas elected for the fourth time,
(05:59):
and he and incidentally, hedied. It was down in Warm
Springs Georgia. He had a littleguy from Missouri who was his
vice president. Nobody knew him.
Nobody knew anything about him.
His name was Harry Truman, andthey said that he did look very
(06:19):
presidential. He had an IQ thathad blown out of the water with
the highest IQs of any man thatever served as president of the
USA. But Eleanor RooseveltFranklin's wife came into the
room where Harry Truman was andsaid, I need to talk to you. I
need to see you, Harry. And shesaid, Harry, he died. And Harry
(06:43):
Truman said to Eleanor, said,What can I do for you? And he
she looked down at him and said,Harry, the question is not what
you can do for me. The questionis, what can I do for you?
Because you're the one introuble. You're suddenly got the
weight of the United States onyour back, the world's on your
(07:06):
shoulders. The next day, HarryTruman met with Congress, and he
said to the those guys, he said,You know, I don't know if you
guys know how to pray, but if heever prayed, pray for me. He
said that, I don't know ifyou've ever had a load of hay
fall on you, but when they toldme the president died, he said,
(07:27):
I felt like the moon the starsand the planets have all fallen
in on me. So what do you do whenyou feel like the moon and the
stars and the planets arefalling on you, because there's
times in life when everythingseems to be astronomical and
we're loaded down. And I've beenthinking about that this week,
(07:52):
and then my mind hit on the lifeof Jesus Christ. I thought of
all of those that have everendured pressure. Jesus, our
Savior, endured morepsychologically and
philosophically and emotionallyand mentally and spiritually and
physically than anyone that everlived. I mean, the Bible said
(08:14):
that he endured the cross. Hedespised the shame when they
turned against him. And there,in Hebrews 12, it says, Consider
him that endured that cross,despise the shame, lest you
become weary in mind. And I'msimply saying Jesus endured it
all. And I was amazed when Istarted this study about his
(08:36):
life again, Jesus never got in ahurry. I'm always in a hurry.
I'm trying to catch up withmyself, and I'm sure you have as
well. Well, Jesus, he neverseemed to be in a hurry. So how
did he handle the pressures oflife? Let me throw five or six
or seven words at you. First ofall, identification. You say,
(08:58):
What are you talking about?
Well, think about these verses.
Jesus said here in John, chaptereight, verse 12, I am the
light of the world. He knew hewas the light. He said, in John
1011 I am the good shepherd. Heknew sheep needed a shepherd. He
(09:21):
said in John 1036, I am the Sonof God. By chapter 11, verse 25
he said, I'm the resurrectionand the life. What I'm trying to
tell you is Jesus knew who hewas, and if you don't know who
you are, you'll have somebodyelse telling you who they think
you are. And if you have faithin Jesus Christ, you are a child
(09:47):
of the Most High God, you needto know who you are. God had
made us as a unique person andgave us a unique passion,
created us with a for a uniquepurpose, you say. Well, Pastor,
how can you deal with beingoverwhelmed and overloaded?
You've got to realize who youare. Jesus, there at His
(10:09):
baptism, heard a voice out ofheaven and said, This is My
beloved Son in whom I'm wellpleased. And you'll find every
time the devil comes around,he'll try to put you down. He'll
try to minimize you. He'll haveyou questioning your pulse or
checking your heartbeat, andhe'll have you out of victory
every time if you listen to him.
But if you know you're God'schild and you're in his will,
(10:32):
that's called identification.
The second word that comes tomind is dedication. I'm looking
at the life of Christ. Noticewhat He said in John 530 he
said, I seek not my own will,but the will of the Father. Now
here's what I know, folk,there's not enough time in life
(10:55):
to do what everybody else wantsyou to do. You might as well
quit trying. There's not enoughtime in your life to do
everything that you want to do.
One day you're running out oftime and realize you didn't feel
up the bucket list. But I wantyou to know there's enough time
in the life of every one of usto accomplish what God wants us
to do. Jesus understood I needto be dedicated to the things
(11:21):
that God has called me to do,because if you don't, and if you
don't do what God's called youto do, you cave in under
criticism. Have you ever beencriticized? Well, give me your
name and I'll work it out foryou. I want you to experience
everything. Okay, you know, whenyou're 20, you really care about
(11:42):
what people think. By the timeyou're 40, you really don't care
what anybody thinks. By aboutthe time you're 60, you'll find
out that nobody was thinkingabout you anyway, but you gotta
be dedicated to what God wantsyou to do with your life,
because if you're not, you cavein under criticism, but also
(12:03):
competition. You get it in yourmind that others are getting
ahead of you. She's gettingahead of me. He's getting ahead
of me, that business is gettingahead of my business. I'm
lagging behind. But you'rereally not lagging behind if
you're doing what God wants youto do. Now, identification,
(12:24):
dedication. But there's anotherword I want to throw at you, and
I'm not going to build acampfire and camp around here
very long, but it'sorganization. Did you know what
would help tons of people? Can Ijust tell you? I'm not trying to
upset you, if people would justget organized. Get organized. I
(12:47):
mean, if you'd put your keysback in your purse, if you put
your phone went back in yourpurse. You wouldn't have to
spend the rest of the day askingthe whole family to help you to
find it. Zoom. And there I wentagain. Get organized. It help
(13:09):
everybody else. It take thepressure off of all the rest of
the family. Give you just getorganized you don't want so
while I'll look at somebody'svehicle. Somebody to bring me a
rental application. I'd likemaybe to rent from you. And I
look in the car and I think,good gracious, Tarzan would get
(13:31):
hurt in there. Get organized.
I'm not going to do anymore, andI have to do as a rule for if I
can help it. For years, I didn'thave to put together receipts, I
didn't have to run thecheckbook. I didn't have to pay
(13:52):
the bills around the house. Mywife did it for me, but when she
died suddenly, I found I had toget organized. I may not like
getting everything ready for theIRS and tax time and the March
15 and maybe an extension andall of that, but I've got to get
things together. I've beenspending the last couple weeks
(14:12):
just getting my receipts downand and who I talked to, what I
talked about, because if the IRSlooks at that receipt and I
don't have that down, they'llpitch it out. They don't want me
to get any credit. Anyhow, I'vegotta be organized. And I can go
on and on about that, but you'dhelp everybody else. Did you
know that Jesus was organized?
You knew that boy, you're asmart crowd, when he fed the
(14:36):
5000 that plus the women and thechildren. Do you notice what he
did? He said, I want to divideyou up into groups of 50. I want
50 to be seated over here, and50 over there, and 50 is from 20
to 30, some 1000 people. And heorganized him in groups of 50.
(14:56):
He was organized you. Even thereduring the resurrection scene,
they interrupt him all up andput him in the tomb and and
there in John chapter 20, whenthey came and the stone was
rolled away and they looked inthe grave, clothes had been
folded neatly, and they had beenstacked over here in a certain
(15:16):
area, and the head pieces hadbeen stacked in another area.
I'm simply saying he wasorganized. How does your bed
look this morning? Well, movingalong while you're shouting
happy. But don't say he wasn'torganized. And you could relieve
a lot of stress in a lot ofpeople's life if you just get
(15:39):
organized, unless I don't haveanother service or to write
down, don't use that one. Skipthat one that don't go over
well. But what about delegation?
Mark, chapter three, verse 13.
Here's what it says. Jesus go upinto a mountain and called unto
him whom he would. And they cameunto him, and he ordained 12
(16:00):
that they should be with him,and they that he might send them
forth to preach. One of the mostimportant things Christ did was
delegate. He wanted them topreach. He wanted them to share
the message and share the gospeland and if you're going to
accomplish anything in life,you've got to learn how to
(16:21):
delegate. You have to learnthat. And there's two reasons
why we don't delegate. One'sperfectionism. We don't think
anybody can do it as good as wecan, and maybe they can't.
Jesus, he said to his 12 on whatyou're going to preach. Now,
(16:42):
could they preach better thanhim? No, I don't think so. I
think by far he was a betterpreacher, but he knew he had to
trust Him, and the message wasto get out. He couldn't be
everywhere, and he would diereal soon. He had to have
somebody to continue to preach.
And so if he was going to make adifference, he had to delegate.
(17:08):
Let's move to another one.
Insecurity is another reason whywe don't delegate. We get to
thinking, Well, what if they'rebetter than I am? What if
they're a better speaker? Whatif they can accomplish it easy?
What are they? A bettermusician. So we don't want to
offer up our seat and letsomebody else have it. But I
move on to another and that'srecreation. When I look at the
(17:28):
life of Christ, I think of Mark,chapter six, verse 30, and you
can read it all, but I'llcondense it for you. Here's
basically what he said, If youdon't come apart, you're going
to fall apart. Once in a while,this brain of ours has to stop
working. Now, mine didn't lastnight, and I laid awake from
(17:50):
about four and in the morningall the way up to like just
finally rolled out of bed. Icouldn't get it to quiet down.
Now, sometimes it's my arm thatgoes to sleep, but it's I guess
it's harder or more tired thanthe rest of my body, whatever.
But there are times when youneed a little bit of leisure.
(18:11):
You need some relaxation, allwork and no play, makes Jack a
doll boy. Now, somebody told mea few years ago that the best
relaxation is golfing. I don'tmind golfing. I don't know a lot
about it,but I've got other things to do,
(18:33):
and it's kind of hard to get outthere and relax when you got
everything else to do. But theytold me, said, You need to golf.
Well, I'm out in Delaware in arevival, and it's about two
nights into the meeting, and Ithe pastor tapped a guy standing
next to me on the arm, and hesaid, Could, could you take the
(18:54):
evangelist golfing tomorrow? Hesaid, Well, I guess I could.
They didn't ask me if I wantedto go. I didn't know if he
wanted me out of the way orwhat, but he said he's going to
take you golfing tomorrow. I'lldrop you off at the golf course.
So he gets me up, and we driveout of the city and over here to
a golf course. And I get out andthere's that same guy, and he
(19:17):
said, You got golf clubs? Isaid, not with me. He said,
Well, we'll get you a set out ofthe clubhouse. And he did, and
we got in this cart, and away wewent. Now the day before, I
decided to polish my car, and Iput this old white kind of
polish on, I think it was calledTurtle Wax. Anybody remember
(19:38):
that kind it's terrible. I'm asslow as a turtle trying to get
it off. After I get it on, I rubit in good but boy, to get it
off there doesn't show a knife.
I rubbed and I rubbed till thisshoulder felt like was going to
fall off. Now I'm golfing. Thisside of my body is all tied up,
(19:59):
and every time. I'd swing at theball, of course, he told me my
problem later was that the balldidn't go very far from where I
hit it. But we started in, and Iwas pulling every time, and he
kept bothering me. Said, you'reyou're pulling your club. It's
causing the ball to go over offthe course you talk about
(20:20):
getting uptight after being toldthat about 20 times we're out
with it, we're out of the end ofthe golf game. And I'd gotten
out of the cart, and I looked,and I noticed one of the socks
had fallen off the one of thewood clubs, and I told the guy,
I said, Hey, we're going back tothe the clubhouse, and I've lost
(20:41):
a sock. I'm going to walk backand see if I can find it. Well,
I had to realize, and have towalk to the last, to the next
green, all the way back to it.
There it was. I picked it up,and there are two guys standing
there and and one of them saidto me, I don't know. He said,
Are you catching on. I said,What? He said, Are you catching
on? I said, to what? Well, hesaid, the game of golf. I said,
(21:06):
Does it look that bad? Well, hesaid, you know, you're with the
Golf Pro. I had no clue it wasthe Golf Pro. I would be the
best golfer in the world if I'dhave listened. Now an
acquaintance of mine, I don'tknow him well, but he hates the
golf, and he had an avid golferthat just stayed on his trail
(21:28):
and said, You gotta go golf. Andhe said, I don't like to golf.
I'm not a golfer. He said, Yougotta go. You need to relax. And
so he took him golfing, and theycame to a lake, and he said, I'm
going to try to go around it.
No, he said, it'll take too longjust knock the ball over the
(21:50):
lake. And he showed him how todo it. So he stuck the stick in
the ground, put the ball on topof the stick, swung at the and
it just dribbled down and wentinto the lake. Manny was upset,
and the guy said, hey, just haveanother ball and knock, knock it
across the lake. He hauled offand hit that thing, and it went
plop out in the middle like sixtimes. He put the ball in the
(22:13):
lake. He was so mad. He wentback to the golf cart, grabbed
up the whole bag and all thesticks, walked down to the lake
and said, there's your buddiesin there here, and slung it out
into the lake. And the other guyjust standing there with his
mouth open, he said to that avidgolfer, he said, you just go
(22:34):
ahead and play the rest of it,and I'm walking back to the
clubhouse. Pick me up whenyou're done. He said, I can't
you just threw all my clubs intothe lake. But relaxation,
whatever it is, find somehowwhere you can kind of let your
brain rest and your emotionsrest and your body rests. It's
good for you. If you want todeal with overload, you want to
(22:56):
deal with being overwhelmed,you've got to find some way to
relax. But here's another thatJesus used. Was meditation.
Jesus said in Mark 125, and inthe morning, rising up a great
while before day, he went out,departed into a solitary place,
and there prayed. He meditated.
He got alone with God. Over andover and over, you'll find Jesus
(23:19):
meditating. Now, let me get onto just a little bit of a touchy
subject. It's called tithing.
Does that offend anybody? Yousay, Well, preacher, if you're
going to get off on that, I'mgoing to find me another church.
Can I just tell you when you getthere, tell him I sent you, and
(23:42):
when you get there, starttithing to that ministry,
because I want to promise you,God will bless you beyond
measure. I found there's aprinciple that when I give to
God the tent that belongs tohim, he can bless the 90% a
whole lot more than I if I keptthe whole 100% and that same
(24:04):
principle goes over with this.
If you'll give God time everyday to spend with him, you'll
accomplish more from the resttime and from meditating and
getting along with him than ifyou'd ever stop for the break.
And if you take every day toread your Bible and to pray,
you'll find you'll get moreaccomplished. And I can rush
(24:24):
around and do a lot of things,but I'll get a lot less done if
I don't meditate and get alonewith God. Here's the last one
with some sub points.
Transformation. Isaiah, 40verse, 29 he giveth power to the
faint, to them that have nomighty, increases the strength.
(24:46):
And then he goes on to talkabout eagles, mount up with
wings as eagles. Several thingsabout that passage, the problem
was the faint. I've been theremany times. I've had that
problem in life. If I'd be tothe point where I didn't feel
like I could go on. But here'sthe provision of stress. They
(25:06):
that wait upon the Lord shallrenew, renew their strength. I
looked up that word renew thisweek, and found that word in the
Hebrew actually means toexchange. So when I renew my
strength, what I'm doing, I'mexchanging my weakness for God's
strength. That make any sense?
And how do you do that? Pastor,it says they mount up with wings
(25:28):
as eagles. Now, an eagle can fly50 miles an hour. I mean, it can
cut its way through the pathlessyonders, and it's amazing how
fast and fleet that an eagle is.
But if an eagle sees a storm,every place I've read, they say
(25:50):
they never run from a storm, orthey'll head straight into the
storm, and the eagle, with hiswings out, will catch the
current, and he'll go up to 100miles an hour, riding the winds.
And I thought of Acts two, two,where it said, and when the Holy
Spirit came, it was like arushing, mighty wind, and it
filled all the place where theywere setting. How do you renew
(26:14):
your strength? Number one, justsimply empty yourself of
yourself. And I wondered howmany of us have some junk in our
life, in our personalities, inour hearts that we do so well to
just say, God, I need to emptysome of this. Nobody else likes
it. I'm getting kind of tired ofit, and I don't want to claim
victory over it. I've got a meanstreak, or I'm an impatient
(26:37):
streak, or I get an attitude.
Some of us just need to say,Lord, I want to empty myself of
myself. And then, Lord, I wantyou to just to fill me with your
Spirit. Just fill me with yourSpirit, not only this problem
and that provision, but I wantyou to notice the problem,
promise of overcoming stress,but they that wait upon the Lord
(26:59):
shall renew their strength. Now,how do you wait on the Lord?
Just find an easy chair and youkick back and and you just will
go off into La, La Land. Ho hum.
And I'm waiting on God. I cannottell you through the years how
many people I've been around andjust said I'm waiting on God.
(27:23):
God's going to show me what todo. I'm waiting on the Lord.
That's not what this waitingmeans here. That's just sitting
on our blessed backside. Whatdoes it mean? Well, let me tell
you what it means. It means youbecome a waiter, like they wait
tables.
(27:44):
You got a guest, and you're thewaiter, and you go over and you
say, do you need water, sir,what do you need to drink? And
and what, what is your order?
What can I do for you? And whatdo you need on the table? And is
there something that needs? Andyou're waiting, and God is
saying to us, if you wait on meand serve me, I'm going to renew
your strength. And I'm wonderingwhat would happen if God could
(28:08):
find a great handful of peoplehere that would say, from here
on, God, I need strength, andthe way to get that strength is
simply to wait on you. You say,Well, preacher, how do you wait
on the Lord? Well, he tells youa little bit here in Psalm 62,
verse five, wait Thou only uponGod. What does that mean? It
means to long for him. You longfor him. And then in Proverbs
(28:30):
824, Blessed is the man thatheareth me, heareth me. That
means listen to him. I not onlylong for him, but I want to
listen to his instructions andto do them, and then to look to
Him. In Psalm 104, verse 27 theythat wait all upon thee, that
(28:51):
thou mayest give them their meatin due season, looking to Him.
And then may I close by saying,we need to live for Him.
Proverbs, 27, eight, Whosokeepeth the fig tree shall eat
the fruit thereof. You're notgoing to get apples if you don't
raise apples. Some of you, onlything you're going to get is
(29:13):
cane. You're going to raisecane. But if you want peaches,
you need to plant a peach tree,and you need to tend to it, and
instead of you, if you keep thatfig tree, you're going to eat
the fruit there. So is he thatwaiteth on his master shall be
honored. What are you doing?
Preacher, with your life, I'mjust going to wait on the Lord.
(29:34):
He's my master, and I'm going toserve him. He's the guest of my
life, and so I'm going to waiton Him and what happens? He said
he would renew our strength. I'mtired of weariness. I'm tired of
being faint hearted. I'm tiredthat when the battles Come, my
mind's not big enough toencompass the battles, and I'm
(29:56):
simply saying, God help me. I.
Not to sit over here in arecliner and said, Oh, I'm
waiting on God. No, I'm going towait on Him by serving Him, not
just occupied, but not justpreoccupied, but getting
involved in the kingdom of God.
And if God could take this greatministry that we have and take
(30:20):
us to a new level, where we'reall waiters. How can I wait on
you? Lord, well, I've gotsomebody I'd like for you to
invite to church. I got somebodyover here that needs $1 and I
need you to get it to em.
There's somebody over here thatneeds some help, and I want you
to go as you wait on them,you're waiting on me. When you
give away that cup of cold waterin my name, it says, giving it
(30:40):
unto me. That's what God hascalled us to do, to be waiters,
Father, take the message.
Unknown (30:48):
Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene.
Visit us every Sunday at 9amwith B and C's pastor, Ray
LaSalle, for more informationregarding B and C, visit
bucyrusnazarene.org, you.
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