Voice of the Nazarene 1-26-25

Voice of the Nazarene 1-26-25

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Episode Transcript

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 God,sponsored by the Bucha Ohio
Church of the Nazarene. We joinour pastor, Reverend Ray La
Salle, and the voice of theNazarene.

Pastor Ray LaSalle (00:17):
It's the psalmist and the 142nd verse
one, I cried unto the Lord withmy voice, many of us have and
with my voice unto the Lord didI make my supplication. I poured
out my complaint before him, andI showed before him my my
trouble. Instead of justconsuming yourself with your

(00:40):
trouble and your problems, takehim to the Lord in prayer. Take
him to God, share him now.
Here's the background of thestory, the stories built around
David. David, when he was 17,was anointed to be the king.
There was another preacher, ourKing, that had been on the

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throne for a while, hispopularity is fading and His
power is getting away from him.
He hadn't stayed close to Godand stayed humble, and God
raised up David, and although hewas anointed to be king at 17,

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he did not become King till hewas 30. And there's 13 years
between the time that heunderstood that God wanted him
to be the king and the time thatit ever happened. And sometimes
it's in that space that we getdisillusioned, and we go through
awful things and and David did,and Saul the old king had become

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jealous, especially after Davidkilled Goliath, the giant, the
ladies would sing that song.
Saul has killed his 1000s, butDavid his 10 1000s, and jealousy
is an awful, awful thing. It caneat away on you till it rots you
from the inside out. And Saulwas so very jealous that he set

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out to destroy and to kill theyoung man, David, who had been
nothing but gracious and good tohim. If you want to read the
stories found in First Samuel,chapter 24 I'm not going to get
into it this morning, but Davidhad had to run from Saul. Saul

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had gathered 3000 of hiswarriors, his soldiers, and they
went out after David. And Davidwas just a young chap. He's only
got a handful of men, andthey're literally running for
their life. And they come to acave, and they go into this
cave, and they're hiding there,and they hear the army coming,

(02:52):
and they go clear back in theshadows, in the darkness. And
Saul makes his way into thatcave, and you can read the
story, and I'd encourage you todo it now, David's discouraged,
he's disoriented, he's dismayed,and he's hiding for his very
life in this cave. But David didnot win victory over Saul that
day. He had a better victory. Hewon victory over himself.

(03:17):
Remember, he had gotten thevictory over the lion early on.
Fact, no matter, he gainedvictory over a bear, he gained
victory over a giant. But it wasin that cave, in the darkness of
that time between him becomingking, that he gained victory

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over himself. And here's what Iwant you to know, I truly
believe that if God's going touse a person greatly, you'll
have a cave experience somewhatlike David did. Tozier said, I
doubt that God can use the manor the woman greatly until he
first hurts them deeply. Thinkabout it for a little while.

(04:02):
Charles Stanley said itdifferent. He said, God can't
bless you until he bleeds you.
And then Jerry Falwell, he saidthe life that pleases God is
often painful and and difficult.
Somebody said, Well, I want tobe a leader. Well, be careful
what you're asking for, becauseif you're leading, you're
bleeding, because that goes withit. It's sometimes the lonely

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cave experiences I want to takein your thinking back to
Genesis, 32 Jacob. You rememberthe story of Jacob? Jacob? He
was a conniver manipulator. Hehe tried to outmaneuver
everybody, and he'd take you andand he'd steal from you if he
could, but he had an encounterwith God, and he's wrestling

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with the angel of the Lord inthis particular instance, and
God would change his lifeforever, change him from that
old. Old conniver that he wasand make a prince out of him.
And as you read through thisstory, he's wrestling with the
angel of the Lord. And as it gottoward mourning, the angel said,
let me go. I've got to go. AndJacob said, I'll not let you go

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until you bless me, till youbless me. And suddenly that
angel literally threw the hipjoint out of its socket and
disappeared into the morningmist. And from that point on,
Jacob never walked the same. Healways had a limb. And anytime
you saw him coming, you'd seehim coming. But remember what he

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had said, I'll not let you gotill, till you bless me, and
getting that blessing from thenon, the rest of his life, he
always limped, and here hecomes, and you say, Jacob, what
happened to you? Jacob wouldwhisper, I got blessed. I was
blessed. And that's a wonderful,wonderful thing. So let me tell

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you something. Do you you wantto know how you can tell someone
that's been blessed? Would youlike to know how you can tell
that God has done a great workin somebody's life where they're
no longer strutting, they'relimping. Arrogance is gone. I
want to tell you something Godcannot use any of us, as long as

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there's any arrogance and it'sall about us and we're trying to
get the credit instead of givingit to God. God has a way to
develop our character, sometimesin the night before, the picture
that God has in mind for ourlife to become,

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and he had a cave experience.
And God sometimes has to do adeep work in our life. Now, in
Genesis, 32 verse 28 God said,I'm going to change your name.
It's no longer going to be Jacobthe surplanter, the underminer,
but I'm going to change it toIsrael, which means prince with
God. But wait a minute, he hadnever been that before that hip

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was thrown out of socket, and ittook that to bring on this fact
of God being able to use him andmaking a prince out of him,
meaning sometimes there arecaves in our life, sometimes
it'll mean you're limping andyou're not strutting, and your
world may seem like it's aboutto collapse, and it's in moments
like that you have to dependtotally on Almighty God, and

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that's where God wants my lifeand He wants your life to be. So
I want to talk to you for a fewminutes about how to behave in a
cave, because you're going intoexperience some of those things
in life. That's why I said. Idon't want you to come out of
those things bitter. I don'twant you to be like the

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porcupine and you just send outthese sharp spines into
everybody else just becauseyou're going through something
bad. Allow God to show you howto behave in the tough times.
It's easier to act like aChristian than it is to react as
a Christian. Now, David's in acave. He's going through a very

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difficult time. You say, Well,Pastor, I'm in a cave. Well,
you're either in a cave, oryou're heading into a cave, or
you just came out of a cave. Iwant to promise you that. And
here's how you behave in a caveand how you do makes all the
difference in the world. So howshould I behave? Six things I
want to point out. They're notmine. They're right out of the

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Scripture. It's so simple, Iapologize in advance for the
message. Okay? But how should Iwhen we're in a cave, what do we
need to do? Number one, simplypray. Just right out of the
Bible. Look at what David said.
Verse one, I cried unto theLord. And here's what I've
learned. There are times you'llhave things happen into your

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life that you cannot talk toanybody else about ever, only
God, not you glad that God'swaiting to hear us. Sometimes
there's things that happen thatyou're never comfortable in
sharing, even with family, butGod wants to hear about it. And
you can do more than pray afteryou pray, but you can't do any

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more than pray until you haveprayed. So if you're in a cave,
what do you recommend? Pastor? Irecommend just unburdening your
heart to God and calling out tothe Lord. Here's the second
thing, trust. Look at what Davidsaid here in verse three, when
my spirit was overwhelmed. Thatmeans muffled within me. Then
you alone. Know the way I shouldturn wherever I go, my enemies

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have set traps for me. And sohe'd found that sometimes you
can't hardly trust anybody, andthere's times in life that you
can't trust yourself. What doyou do? You learn to lean in and
trust God. And I found when I'mreally out of it and I'm. Trying
to find my way that I've said,God, would you just help me to

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find an example out of theScripture, a biblical example?
Give me a verse. Give mesomething from your word that is
so basic and so real, it'llguide my life. You say, Well,
this is the way I feel. Nobodycares how you feel. Feelings are
so fickle. Feelings just comeand they go. And when people

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start giving their religiousexperience about how they feel,
it's scary. And I said at theearly service, you know, it's
like somebody said, Well, I'm inlove. Well, that black singer
Tina Turner said, What's LoveGot to do with it? And sometimes

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we just got to obey God. Forgetthe feeling, whatever God you
want me to do. So I don't alwaystrust myself. That's why I lean
on the Word of God. Want to giveyou something Spurgeon said, and
I just talked to somebody theother day, and they told me
about a book I'd never heard of.
It written by his wife. Her namewas Susie, one of the godly
ladies of that time, and apastor's wife of a church that

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ran around 3000 fact of thematter that his building would
fill up with people. He was ayoung guy when he pastored, and
he had as many people standingon the outside that couldn't get
in on the inside, and around3000 on the inside. Must have
been a powerful preacher,English preacher, well his wife,

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she was as good as him. Shedonated more than 20,000 books
to impoverished pastors. And hadyou ever heard what actually is
Behind every successful man?

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It's a surprise woman Susie, buthere's what Spurgeon said. He
said, God is too loving to beunkind, and he's too wise to be
mistaken, and when I can't tracehis hand, I can trust his heart.
Now get in the Bible, here'sJacob, and Jacob found there's a

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famine throughout all of theland. And people are starving to
death. The trees are dyingwithout water. Animals are
laying out carcasses, laying outon the soil. Famine swept its
way. And he's he's down, andhe's discouraged, and and he, he
said, you know, and he makesthis statement in Genesis, 42

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verse, 36 he said, all thesethings are against me. He said,
Joseph, my my son is dead, andnow Simeon is dead, all these
things are against me. And maybeyou felt that way. But here's
what he didn't know, Josephwasn't dead. Joseph was Prime

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Minister down in Egypt, and he'sgot the keys to all of the silos
and all the food storage. AndSimeon wasn't dead. Simeon was
right down there with hisbrother Joseph. And we reach
those points in life when we sayall these things are against me.
That's what mama used to say.
Nobody's ever had it as tough asI have. Okay, mom, bless me

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again, if you think you can. Butthat's what Joseph all these
things, and he didn't know thatGod said in Romans, 828, that we
know that all things worktogether for good, to them that
love the Lord, and to them whichare the called according to His
purpose. So while Jacob issaying all these things are

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against me, God is saying no,all these things are working
together to help you to findyour purpose. Aren't you glad
God's at work and he's workingthings out? So when you're in a
cave, learn how to pray. Be sureyou trust and I'm just throw in
a third thing that I read out ofthe Scripture. Here's what I

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see. Stand alone if you must.
Now, if you please, God, itdoesn't matter who you don't
please. But if you don't Please,God, it doesn't matter who else
you do please. You can try to beat peace with everybody and be a
people pleaser and stand firm onboth sides of every issue, but

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when it's all over, if you don'tplease God, you're going to be
miserable. So learn how tostand. And here's what David
said in verse four. I looked onmy right hand and beheld, but
there was no man that would knowme. Refuge failed me. No man
cared for my soul. He felt likethe Lone Ranger. Have you ever

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felt like him? I have. There'stimes when you feel all alone.
The Lone Ranger in one of hisprograms, he looked around and
they're totally surrounded byIndians, and he said to to.
Said, what are we going to do?
And Tonto said, Who's we? Whiteman. So that's what David is
saying. He looked and said, onmy right hand, there was no one.

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Nobody knew me. Refuge. Felt me.
Nobody cared. Pastor, that willnever happen to me. You just
don't know my family. You don'tknow all of my friends, it'll
never happen. Don't you. Rule itout. The Apostle Paul said in
second, Timothy, 416 at my firsthearing, no man stood with me,

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but all men for shook me, butnot withstanding, he said, The
Lord stood with me andstrengthened me. You. Others may
walk out, he or she may walkout, he said, But God stood with
me. You can lose your job, butyou don't have to lose God, and
God doesn't want to lose you.
Stand alone if you must. Buthere's the fourth thing, delight

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in God. Pastor, I'm in the cave.
What should I do? Hey, in thosekind of moments, think about God
and delight yourself in him. Hesaid, I cried unto the Lord,
verse five. I said, Thou art myrefuge and my portion in the
land of the living. What does itmean? Refuge? Well, it means a

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safe place in the middle of astorm, safe place. Safety is not
the absence of storms. Safety isthe presence of the Savior.
Wouldn't you rather be in astorm with him than to be in a
calm without him?

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Sometimes God calms the ragingstorms. Other times God just
lets the storms rage, but thenhe calms me. He's my refuge. But
look, he goes on, and he saidhe's my my portion there in
Deuteronomy, 10, nine, all thechildren of Israel about got
that inheritance, and when theygot into that promised land.

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They gave them this portion, andothers got that portion, and
others got this. And Caleb said,I want that mountain to be mine
and and you got all of but whenit came to the Levites, they
didn't get a portion, becauseGod said, I am your portion. You
know what? God wants us to knowthat he can be our portion. He's

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our joy. He's my source, he's myresource. He's my everything.
And he said in Psalm 37 versefour, Delight thyself also in
the Lord, and He shall give theethe desires of thine heart. My
only warning would be, don'tallow your desires to exceed

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your delight. And then I lookedat this sixth verse, And I I
felt this thing of sympathy thatwere to sympathize attend unto
my cry for I'm brought very low.
Do you know, until you've beenbrought low, you can't help
anybody else that's low, youdon't understand. I believe that
most of the things that happento us, God allows them to happen

(18:08):
to us so that we can help otherpeople. Now think about that
here in Second Corinthians, onefour Who comforteth us in all of
our tribulations, talking aboutGod that we may be able to
comfort them, which are in anytrouble by the comfort where we

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ourselves are comforted of Godso we go through things to help
others. God doesn't comfort usto make us comfortable. He
comforts us to make us aComforter to others. So we go
through things in life, and Godwants us to step aside and help

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others. How else are you goingto know how they feel if you've
never been through it yourself?
Acquaintance, preacher.
Acquaintance had a man come tohim, and he said, Preacher, my
wife and I did not get together,right? She was another man's
wife. I stole her from him. Shecheated on him to get with me,

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and I thought I had lifealtogether. And then she started
cheating on me. I didn't realizewhat I'd done to him until I
went through it myself. And hesaid, I got on the phone, and I
called him, and I said, I wantyou to know I did you wrong, and
I'm sorry I did not know how itfelt, but I want you to know

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that now I know how it feels,and there's something about
knowing how it feels and whenyou go through something, don't
bury that and don't hide it fromothers. If you've lost a child
and you see somebody else losinga child, don't not say anything.
When my boy was going throughcancer, and the doctor said,

(20:01):
there's not a chance underheaven. He didn't use the word
heaven, that your boy will live.
Nobody's ever lived very longwith this cancer, one of the
darkest hours that my wife and Iever went through in our lives.
They burned him up withradiation, they poisoned him

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with chemo, until finally, hebegan to bleed through the
membranes of the stomach. And aman that his kids went to school
with my kids a well known figurein the community. I come to find
out that he had been he'dsurvived cancer three times. And

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I wondered, why didn't he justgo to my boy and tell him I made
it, and I believe you could makeit the encouragement it would
have been, but he never, lateron, he didn't make it. But when
you go through something, don'thide it. Find somebody else
experiencing the same thing, andbe grown up enough to help them

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and encourage them and sharewith them. There's something
about knowing how others feel.
Here's the sixth thing, and it'spraise I just found in verse
seven. David said, bring my soulout of prison that I may praise
thy name. And this is what Ibelieve. I believe that when
you're walking through difficulttimes, I believe your praise
will come differently out ofthose kind of moments. That's

(21:34):
what the Bible says in Isaiah,61, three, for the spirit of
heaviness, put on the garment ofpraise. In other words, when
life gets difficult, instead ofbecoming difficult with it,
learn how to just praise God.
Did you know that God inhabitspraises? Sometimes when the only

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way to get through thedifficulties of life, it's to
praise. I've been there when youcouldn't sing your way to
victory. You couldn't pray yourway out of the loneliness of it.
You couldn't obey your waythrough but when you begin to
praise God, you're resisting thedevil, he flees, and you're
drawing nigh to God, and Godcomes, and God inhabits praises.

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Fact of the matter for everytime that prayer is listed once
in the Bible, Praise is listed50 times. And if you're planning
on going to heaven, I want youto know something. You better
learn how to praise God. Youwon't be praying in heaven. All
prayers have been answered. Andover yonder they're praising
God. And it seems to be the lastthing some of us are accustomed

(22:39):
to. And we need to limber up andbegin to praise God for the
spirit of Heaven is put on thegarment of praise. And here's
what I've realized, when youcan't always praise the Lord for
your family, because he may bewalking out on you or she may
desert you, and when you can'talways praise God for your

(23:00):
health, because maybe you'redying of cancer. And when you
can't always praise God for yourjob, your job may have already
gotten away from you. And whenyou can't always praise God for
your children, although youraised them right, they have not
turned out to do what is right.
But we can praise God for who heis, we can praise God that he's

(23:20):
a friend that sticketh closerthan a brother. Now I've learned
that on the way to the throne,there's going to be some trials,
and what I've learned on the wayto the palace, there'll be some
persecution, and on the way tohonor it, there's going to be
some hurt, and on the way topromotion, there will be pain,

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and on the way to coronation,there will be some caves.
David's in a cave, and he'swondering, Will I ever survive?
He became king, but he didn'tknow if he'd live out the day.
DL Moody, he's the evangelistthat literally pulled the
Western world and the easterncontinent of Europe, and all of

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that pulled them together inrevival. Never did get ordained
to preach, but became one of thegreat evangelists. He'd built a
church in Chicago, and crowdswere coming and things were
going well, and then the GreatChicago Fire hit. His Church
burned to the ground. He had noplace for his people to meet.

(24:27):
Houses by the hundreds wereburning down across the city. He
hurried back to his own home,and it was already incinerated,
and it was up in flames. When itwas all over, all he had left
was a cast iron stove. He losteverything, and he said to his
wife, honey, we need to talk toGod. We can rebuild the church.

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I can build back a house, butwho's going to build me back?
You? So discouraged, and walkingdown the streets of New York in
the middle of hisdiscouragement, he just looked
up and he said, God, I'm goingto praise you anyway, though you
slay me, yet will I serve you?

(25:14):
The devil tells me that youdon't love me, but I want you to
know I love you and I'mbelieving you in spite of the
doubts that you love me. And ashe began to praise God on those
streets, the presence of theLord, so settled on him. He got
to a friend's home and asked, Doyou have a spare room? I need to

(25:34):
get alone with God. And in thatroom, began to praise God. And
he said, God. So settled on me.
I had to finally say, God, wouldyou stay your hand? I don't
think I could survive this. Andafter that, he said, I preached
the same sermons I'd alwayspreached, operated like I'd
always operated, but it wasdifferent, conviction and

(25:55):
anointing and God's blessingscame. Here's what d l moody did.
He behaved in the cave. It makesall the difference in the world
when you're going through a darktime, how you handle that,
because if you can't survivethat, you're not going to make

(26:16):
it in the big days, he losteverything and decided, I'm
going to praise the Lord, and nomatter what happens in our life,
let's make a commitment. God,don't rule me out. I'm going to
serve you now. I don't knoweverything fact, no matter i I'm
kind of like the guy here. Awhile back, he learned that he
had a whole lot to learn. But Ican say this, I I've been

(26:40):
through a few caves in my lifewhen it seemed like everything
was gone, and people even werelooking at me like something
must be wrong, the wayeverything's falling apart for
Him. And there were people thatlaughed about it, and all I
could do was just hang on andsay, God, I believe in you
anyway. And when I walk out ofthe pulpit, I'm not going to

(27:02):
whine about it, not going totalk about it. I'm not going to
mention and if some of youremember back in those years, I
never said a thing about it. Ionly talk about it and allude to
it once in a great while now,but I never mentioned it, then,
never said much to my friends.
Then I just kept hanging on. NowI'm here to tell you you can
make it through the dark, andyou can make it through the

(27:27):
night, and you can make itthrough your disappointments,
and you can make it through evenwhen you feel almost disoriented
and you're not just sure what ishappening. Just trust his heart.
Just trust his heart. You maynot trace his hand. You may not
figure out what what his handsare involved with, but you can,

(27:48):
you could trust him. He'll neverfail you. And God is working all
these things out. I'm not sayinghe put it on us, but he's going
to make all things work togetherfor our good. Trust Him and
behave when you're in a cave,Father,

Unknown (28:07):
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.