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January 8, 2025 • 40 mins

Voice of the Nazarene 11-24-24

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Pastor Ray LaSalle (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 sponsoredby the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of
the Nazarene. We join our PastorReverend Ray LaSalle and the
voice of the Nazarene.
Join me in the book of Jude andthe 20th verse, But ye beloved,

(00:24):
building up yourselves on yourmost holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost, Keep yourself in thelove of God, looking for the
mercy of the Lord Jesus Christunto everlasting life. And he
said on some have compassion.
Others save with fear, pullingthem from the fire, building up

(00:46):
yourselves on your most holyfaith. Have you had a workout
lately? All kinds of privatefitness clubs, workout gyms and
smalls for the undernourished,the overfed, the out of shape,

(01:09):
the underperforming. We've gothospitals and doctors for those
who are struggling with theirphysical health, counselors and
psychiatrists to help you withyour mental and emotional
instability. We've got the DaveRamsey's on the networks and all

(01:32):
the other financial gurus tryingto help you with your money
struggles. But I ask you thismorning, where is the gym for
the spiritual unfit? For thosewho spiritually are
malnourished, out of shape,unconnected? I mean, we've got
all kinds of religious sects.

(01:55):
We've got denominations that areso busy plucking their one
string, the big deal to them.
Whatever it might be, go throughyour cities, check em out there.
There'll be one. And theiremphasis is, you gotta worship
on the Sabbath day. And that'stheir big string, and they're
plucking it about everySaturday. Somebody else is
plucking their string. Thatthey've got some kind of an

(02:17):
unknown language. Somebody elseis plucking their screen. We got
an eternal glue that'll hold youforever. Somebody else is
talking about their works, andsomebody else, we've got the
only priest you have to come inthrough our channel. And the
poor world is struggling.
They're trying to figure outwhere they're going to eat next,

(02:40):
according to Matthew chaptersix, verse 31 the world is
asking those kinds of questions.
I mean, if they're saying, Takeno thought, The Lord is saying
what you shall eat or what youshall drink wherewithal you
shall be closed. And the world'ssaying, what restaurant are we
going to eat at next, and whatkind of a bar and nightclub and
hell hole and Honky Tonk, but weget our next drink, and do do we

(03:02):
go to a store, or do we go withAmazon online to get our
clothes? God is screaming fromthe heavens, and he's saying,
but Seek you first the kingdomof God and His righteousness and
all these other things shall beadded unto you. We need to get
healthy. We began our littleseries about relational health,

(03:25):
and I talked to you about how afrog has the evange advantage
that he can eat whatever bugsthem. We don't really have that
luxury, because we need theright people in our life. And if
you're always eating people upbehind their back, it gets
around in a little town, it getsback and people know. And soon

(03:47):
we don't have any real friendsthat we can trust. We're the
people business. I think we'veforgotten that we think that we
sell hamburgers or we sell cars,but if you're rude to people,
you'll soon be out of whateverkind of business you think
you're in, because we're in thepeople business. Churches need
to realize that we're in thepeople business. We're

(04:08):
irritating each other all thetime. It won't be long. We'll be
back to four and no more. Andthen we we talked about
financial health, and soon we'llbe in that season of the year
where it's Jingle Bells and thenjuggle the bills, and we
endeavor to talk about physicalhealth, and people are on one or

(04:30):
two extremes. They're eitheridolizing their body or they're
ignoring their body. About amonth from now, we'll be into
what they call new resolutions,and it doesn't start much of a
did you know that those thatmake new resolutions generally

(04:54):
only about 80 or about 8% Sinever achieve those goals? Did
you know that? And how is itthat those 8% how do they
achieve their goals? This isabout six common denominators.
One, they make few resolutions.

(05:18):
Dave Thomas, founder of Winnie'sWendy's, he said, only do a few
things at a time and a few in alifetime. Over red and bucker,
he said, only do one thing anddo it uncommonly well. But it is
biblical. Philippians, 313,brethren, I count not myself to

(05:38):
apprehend it, but this one thingI do, do you know that a dog
chasing two rabbits, both ofthem get away. And the second
thing, they make themselvesaccountable. And that's
biblical. James 116 Confess yourfaults. Course, some of you
don't have any, so you wouldn'thave any confessions. Do I need

(06:01):
to repeat that? Confess yourfaults one to another and pray
one for another that you may behealed. They hold one another
accountable. And the thirdthing, they break the goals down
into a series of time basedsteps. And that's biblical
Exodus. 2330 by little andlittle. You see, most of what

(06:24):
you accomplish in life will be alittle by little, not massive
steps. How to eat an elephantone bite at a time. And the
fourth thing, they write downtheir goals. And that's biblical
Habakkuk, two, two, Write thevision, make it plain. 95% of
the people don't write downtheir goals out of the 95% that

(06:46):
do they accomplish? 95% andhere's the seventh thing, they
regularly remind themselves ofthe benefits. If we didn't think
there was a heaven to go to,most of us would have lost hope
a long time ago, right? If youdidn't think life could get

(07:06):
better, most of us couldn't holdour head up, but we believe
there will be a brighter day. Itgives us hope. David, when he
faced the giant, it wasn't justa happens. Whole thing. He
asked, first of all, if youdefeat the giant what? What's
the reward? Do you get anythingout of this? They said, Well,

(07:28):
you get to marry the king'sdaughter, and she's a looker,
and you'll never pay taxesagain. Boy, I'd work hard for
that one, and you get financialsuccess, you gotta stay focused
on the promise of your goal andthen purpose not to give up

(07:48):
Daniel one eight, but Danielpurposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself. Hepurposed. Now I want to deal
we've dealt with relational andphysical and and financial. I
want to talk to you aboutspiritual health this morning,
and I left it to last because Iwanted to leave it on your mind

(08:10):
and I wanted to lay it on yourheart. Genesis 126 says, And God
said, Let us make man in our ownimage. Now he was talking to
someone, and it wasn't theangels. The angels are not into
creation. God said, Let us makeman in our own image, and if we

(08:35):
understand God to be a TriuneGod. Now I'm not going to argue
the Trinity theory to try tounderstand it, you'd lose your
mind, and if you deny it, you'dlose your soul. But I'll tell
you this much, everything thatGod made, he made in threes.
Explain that one to you. I can'tget my mind around it. I mean,

(08:57):
you just go out in the universe.
You have the sun, the stars andthe moon you get here on Earth,
and it's Earth and and water andgasses. And when God made us,
everything is in threes. If youget a four legged chair, if you
don't have a real level floor,it won't set very well. It'll be
like some of the tables up atthe restaurant,

(09:22):
with paper wadded up under it.
But if you want a perfectsomething to set, try a tripod.
Try a tripod, three leggedstool. It'll set anywhere. And
God made us as a tripod, ourtriune being. Did you know, your
eyes is made up in three parts,and your ears is made up in
three parts. Your brain hasthree sections to it. You have a

(09:45):
head, you have a body, you havelimbs. Everything is made in
threes. And so when God said,Let us make man in our own
image, God being a triune, Godmade you and I as a triune
being. 18. And that's why, inFirst Thessalonians, 523, the
very God of peace sanctify youholy. That's entirely

(10:07):
completely. And I pray God, yourwhole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless under thecoming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has an experience that willkeep you. It's not a eternal
glue. It's the power to livevictoriously. You can choose to
have victory and be preservedblameless. God will keep you.

(10:31):
Now, even the Egyptiansunderstood this whole
preservation thing. That's why,when they built pyramids,
they're in a triangle, like atriune, and they can preserve
bodies for 1000s of years. Theycame out here a while back with
a special accompanied with razorblades for they'll get dull over

(10:52):
time, even in a package, butthey made them in a little
triune package, like a pyramid.
And here's God building us inHis own image, and he made us as
a triune being. And first ofall, may I say that you have a
body.

(11:17):
Let's stick with the notes. Youhave a body, and it has five
senses. You have taste, you havesmell, and you have sight, you
have ears to hear and and youand you can feel. You have a
body. And the secondly, it's notjust a body, but you also have a
soul. And that word soul comesfrom a Greek word Psaki. It's

(11:40):
where we get the word psychologyfrom. And you have a soul and
and what is the soul? The soulis the mind. It's the will and
it's the emotion. So you have abody, you have a soul. But
that's not all. You also have aspirit. The spirit is what
separates us from the dogs andthe animals. The dog doesn't

(12:02):
have a spirit so it cannotconnect up with God. God made us
in His image, triune being gaveus the spirit so we could
connect up with him. They thatworship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth. And if youlook at God's Spirit as a
capital S, and man's not so quitgetting so wrapped up in

(12:26):
yourself. So there's a spirit,and that part of us that
connects with God, the body hasthe motion and the soul has the
emotion, but the spirit has thedevotion. It can connect with
God. Can worship God. They thatworship Him, must worship him in
spirit. So you are a spirit thathas a soul that's housed in a

(12:48):
body. So let's talk about thesteps to spiritual health. And
if you'll take these steps,it'll revolutionize your life.
If you take them, it'll changeyour life. It'll change it for
the better. And I'll only giveit to you in four steps this
morning. First of all, I want totalk to you about salvation,
assurance. Where did you getthat word? I needed an S

(13:14):
and the old English word forassurance. Assurance, you okay.
Can you handle that? Remember, Isaid, all of us have a spirit.
Every person has a spirit. Lookat Ephesians, two, one, it says,
and you have He quickened whowere dead in trespasses and
sins. We all have a spirit, butthat spirit was quickened or

(13:35):
made alive when we acceptedJesus Christ as our personal
Savior, that spirit was dead inevery person and is only made
alive through the Holy Spirit.
That's why Romans, chaptereight, verse 16, The Spirit
itself, bear the witness withour spirit that we are the
children of God. His Spirit,again, is capitalized. Now

(13:57):
listen, you were a dead spirit,but when the Holy Spirit
quickens you, it made you alive.
And here's what we've got tounderstand, that's the
confirmation of our salvation.
Have you ever watched a filmabout a little child that was
born and it's deaf and cannothear, and they develop some kind

(14:20):
of a special hearing aid,whether they put it in the inner
cochlear or not, but they'llhook that little kid up, and you
get to watch there on the film,and suddenly its eyes get big
and it looks around, and ithears something coming from
somewhere it never heard before.

(14:40):
And it looks up at Mama and abig smile begins to break across
its face. He can't believe hecan hear he never heard before.
My boy, I've been you blame fortelling stories on your kids.
That's at least. That's what mykids have blamed me all their
lives. You always gotta get up.
To pull, but tell the story onus. Well, I didn't have anybody

(15:01):
else, just you two. If you'ddone better, I'd told better
stories. I didn't tell them thatjust after thought here, but,
but my boy, he got up to to batwhen he's just a little shaver,
and they're throwing the ball,and they hit him the first time,

(15:22):
and he said, I never play ballagain. But his mother talked him
into it and got back up and gothit again. He got hit the first
five times at bat. He got hit bythe ball. I thought kid move out
of the way, but he didn't. Andwe finally realized that maybe
there might be a problem. Tookhim to an eye doctor. The kid

(15:45):
couldn't see. They put glasseson him, and he got up to play
ball, and he said, stop. He toldthe referee, stopped. And he
went over and said to his mom,it was a, um, okay, he but he
went over to his mom, and hesaid, I can see the ball coming.
He'd never seen the ball. Hedidn't know how to get out of
the way. Couldn't see it ridingdown the highway. He said, Mom,
did you see that? That's a big,great, big sign. She said, Yeah,

(16:08):
it's been there all along. Hesaid, I never saw it before, and
I watched him on film when theyput eyeglasses on a little child
and they'd never seen him,suddenly their eyes get big and
they're gonna growl, and theyreach out and they touch their
mother's face. And you, who weredead, are made alive when the
Holy Spirit quickens you. Andsuddenly you come alive, and you

(16:32):
begin to see things you'd neverseen. You begin to hear things
you'd never heard. It's theconfirmation of our pastor. Is
there anything any better thanbeing saved or a Christian?
Well, yes, there is. It's beingsaved or knowing it that's even
better yet. Out in California,there's a city called San

(16:57):
Francisco, and there's a littlebridge across the waterway
there, called the Golden GateBridge. And it just spans what
the water I mean, it just goeson and on until it finally
disappears. It's still goingGolden Gate 1937, when it was
built, 23 men accidentally losttheir lives, and somebody came

(17:21):
up with the idea, and they put asafety net under that bridge,
and something happened.
Productivity went up 25% peoplequit worrying about dying all
the time and begin to get towork. If some of us would
realize that God has forgiven usof our sins and He saved us, and

(17:45):
get over having a nervousbreakdown about it and just
begin to serve God. It'd beamazing, and that's the kind of
assurance that God wants to giveus. DL Moody said it best, I've
never known anyone to be good inthe service of the Lord unless
first of all, they had theassurance of their salvation.
And ladies and gentlemen, you'renot prepared to live until

(18:06):
you're prepared to die. And thatcomes to that assurance that God
is our Savior. Christ is ourelder brother, John 316 that
none should perish but haveeverlasting life. I like that.
Our problem is we want to putour safeguard in performance.

(18:29):
You know, I don't drink and Idon't chew and I don't run with
women that do no but what elsedo you do? So we try so hard to
perform, to impress God andothers. My question is, how good
is good enough? When do you everget good enough that you please

(18:53):
God or please the pastor, pleasesomebody and then others.
They're more dependent upon someplace. I've I've heard a
whisper, I've even heard atestify stand and said, I can't
wait till I make a home run andI slide into heaven and the
doors click shut behind. Hey,wait a minute. There were some
angels that got kicked out ofheaven because they sinned. So

(19:16):
I'm not putting all of myassurance and all of my security
in a performance or in a placeI'm putting it in a person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'mgoing to put my faith where God
put my sins, and that was on theLord Jesus Christ. He's my
certainty, he's my assurance.
He's my safe guard. And ifyou're going to be spiritually

(19:37):
healthy, you gotta quit runningaround trying to have a nervous
breakdown. You're like the lady,you know, she just got over a
nervous breakdown. Was right inthe middle of another one and
had another one planned thatthat one didn't work. Get over
it. Get spiritually healthy. Andhere's the second thing, if
going to be spiritually healthy,you need self esteem solution.
You've got to base. Your valueson the fact that you're a child

(20:00):
of God, Child of God. You knowthe enemy wants to come around,
and he wants you to base yourvalues and on the facts that how
people treat you.
I can hang around that one awhile, people, Hey, are whatever

(20:27):
achievement you feel like you'veaccomplished, or your size, or
maybe your looks or what youown. But the problem with all
that, all those stuffs, thatstuff comes and goes and stuff
changes, and you gotta base yourvalue on the fact that you're a
child of the Most High God.
Think about this. God lookeddown from heaven in Luke chapter

(20:50):
three and verse 22 and he said,This is My beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Right downthere, that's my beloved Son.
And did you know that Jesushadn't performed one miracle
yet, he hadn't opened oneblinded eye, he hadn't unstopped

(21:13):
one deaf ear, he hadn't cleansedeven a half of a leper. He had
never steal the storm. He'dnever walked on the water. He'd
never fed a multitude of peoplewith a handful of fish and
couple biscuits. Not onemiracle. And yet God said,
That's my beloved Son. And youknow that God looks at us at

(21:34):
whether he sees all thesespectacular things going on, if
you've given your heart to Him,He's saying, that's my child
down there, and I'm pleased.
Boy, the enemy doesn't likethat, does he? Child of God.
Devil came in the very nextchapter, chapter four, and and

(21:56):
he tried to get Jesus to placehis assurance of a number of
other things. One wasperformance. We've already
mentioned that, but he tried todo that with Christ. There in
verse three, the devil said, Ifthou be the Son of God, the
devil will always come around,and he'll tell you if you're
really a Christian you wouldn'tfeel if you if you were really
the person you think you are.
If, if, if. And it said you'rehungry. 40 days you've been

(22:23):
without food. Why don't you turnthose stones into bread so you
could eat? Why don't you pulloff a miracle once you perform
performance, and the devil comealong and he wants us to get our
self esteem out of performanceif you do this or don't do that,
and we can brag about what we doand we don't do but that didn't

(22:43):
work, and then the devil hit himwith possessions. Verse five,
taking him up into a highmountain, showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world. If youwant all this, just bow down to
me. You can have all this. Youhave possessions. Do you know
what you can be a child of God,whether you wear Gucci or
goodwill, it doesn't impress Godone way or the other. It didn't

(23:06):
matter that the God, if you gota you go, you got a Rolls Royce
might feel better at one or theother, but you gotta make
payments, but it's not inpossessions. So the devil tried
popularity there in verse nine,took Him to Jerusalem, up to a
high pinnacle, and said, Whydon't you jump off and let the

(23:28):
angels catch you and make you sopopular you'll be holding
crusade soon. And you know what?
The devil wants us to get ourself esteem from popularity. But
I found out a long time ago, youcan be a peacock today, but you
may be a feather dustertomorrow. Jesus rolled into

(23:48):
Jerusalem. They all said, Hailhim before the day was over, the
next morning, Dawn, and theywere saying, nail Him to a
cross. You don't get yourselfesteem from performance,
possessions and popularity. Youknow where we get it? Oh yes, oh
yes. I'm a child of the King.
His royal blood now flowsthrough my veins. That's where

(24:14):
our assurance comes. That'swhere we get our self esteem. We
know that. We know that we're achild of the King. Could you
throw up that jersey That's TomBrady? In case you didn't know
it, he makes a little bit morethan me. Not much, but a little

(24:35):
bit more. Do you know they soldthat jersey? Do you know how
much it went for? It went for ahalf million dollars. So I
checked it out, I went online,and I found you could buy the

(24:55):
same thing with the same numberfor $49 i. God. You know what
makes that soul worth so muchbecause of who it belongs to?
You know where your value is?
It's to whom you belong to. I'ma child of the King. I'm a child

(25:15):
of God. That's what it allamounts to. You want to get
healthy? Then thirdly, I'd say,search the Scriptures. John,
chapter five, verse 39 says,search the Scripture. Want to
find eternal life, I'd suggest,if reading is tough on you, get
you a little devotional. There'splenty of em, and most of em are

(25:38):
good, and have at least adevotion time with God every day
where you read a story and readsome scripture. I'd even
encourage you more even to getinto the Bible and just begin to
read the Bible. My wife calledme. She was on her way to the
other campus and and I said,Hey, I just saw something I

(26:00):
never seen, and I just told herthe day before of something, I
said, listen to this sermon.
Idea, everything turns into asermon, but every time you read,
you'll see something new. Searchthe scripture, and you don't
have to read the Bible all theway through in one year. I don't
know who said you needed to. Imean, it took 1600 years to

(26:22):
write it. Who's to say you hadto read it one year? I'd rather
get into it and have it get intome, to get discouraged and not
read it at all. And may I alsoadd, when you search, get into a
prayer time. Pray. Pray. Can Igive you a simple little outline

(26:42):
on prayer? If you'll throw up ahand, there we go. Do you ever
see this illustration? Do youever notice when you hold up
your hand, you know what thethat little thumb there is
closest to you. Do you evernotice it's closest when you
pray? I always say, Pray forthose closest to you. You don't

(27:06):
like your wife, well, I'm prettyupset at him. Just pray for it.
You'll get over the upset alittle bit more, and pray for
your husband. Pray for yoursister. Pray for Mama. Pray for
that pray for those who areclosest to us. If you need and
you're struggling and want topray for just use the hand

(27:29):
method. The next is that fingerthat's always pointing. Pray for
the pastor he's always pointingat you. Pray for that Sunday
school teacher. Pray for themusic guys. They always got a
stick point at you. Their handpointing at you. In fact, the
matter, I need the prayer, andyou need the practice. And then

(27:55):
that finger that's the longestfinger. Pray for those that are
in authority. Pray for themayor. You might even hang up
and find out what his name is.
Pray for the governor. I don'tlike the governor. That don't

(28:17):
matter. Pray for him anyhow.
Maybe we'll get another one.
Pray for the President, boy, webetter be careful here. Well, I
wish I could tell you everythingI'm thinking, No, you wouldn't
want to hear it. Pray for thosein the leadership. Pray for the

(28:39):
police. Pray for those that arerisking their lives. Pray for
soldiers, those who are inauthority, those who give us the
peace that we have. May I addthat next finger said to be the
weakest finger, sometimes that'swhere they wear a little golden

(29:00):
ring around it. You know what Imean, wedding band. Back when I
was growing up, they'd send youto hell for having to ban the
gold around your finger. Boy,I'll tell you what. We got a lot
of people with the itch for goldin their fingers. I'm not sure
which is the worst, but theweakest finger. Pray for those

(29:21):
who are weak, those who arestruggling, those who are
struggling with their health,struggling with their finances,
struggling with their marriage.
Pray for those and that littlefinger that's you, pray for you.
Pray that God will keep youhumble. But somewhere there have
prayer. And then may I also add,not only searching the
Scripture, not only have aprayer life, but may I encourage

(29:43):
you to get into church. Somebodysaid that go 90% of going to
churches habit. Well, it's moretrue than you think. If you'd
get into habit, you'd be hereevery Sunday. And if you don't
get into habit, you. Won't besalvation, assurance, self
esteem, solution, searching thescriptures. But may I close by

(30:08):
mentioning serve withsignificance. Nobody was saved
to sit.
We were saved to serve you, say,Pastor, I'm looking for the
perfect church that I can justslip in and set back and go
unnoticed and nobody bother me.
And I Hey, there's plenty of em.

(30:32):
I'll help you to find them. Butit's not here. Everyone of us
need a job. We need some placewhere we can fit into the body
of Christ and we can serve. Doyou know the difference between
success and significance?
Success is about you.

(30:52):
Significance is about others. Doyou know that I get a call every
month, sometimes two a month,sometimes three a month, from a
guy that I've never met, andI've got him now for the last 10
or 15 years, just out of theblue, he'll be calling me from

(31:14):
some other country, calling mefrom across over there by the
Pacific Ocean. I'll get thisphone call, and it's Ron on the
line. His wife, Nikki, is in thebackground and and he's called,
How you doing, preacher. Is thechurch still there? Are you
alive? I'll say how you doing.
And we've never met each other,but he calls me. I don't know
what all he owns, but it's morethan I do. Last count, I knew he

(31:41):
had property up all over thearea, up in Nova Scotia. I knew
that he had at least 50 someapartments and and and business
fronts and and offices in theIdaho area. I know he's got a
property down in Arizona. He'smentioned to me several times

(32:03):
there's a house down there. Youcan run down there, you and your
wife can stay. It's furnished,it's ready. It's right near the
stadium. Help yourself. He'llmake a deal on a on a property
for a million and a half or500,000 and it's like pocket
change. And she's in her 80s,and he's almost 80, probably

(32:27):
1000 properties, not only in theUnited States, but in other
parts of the world. And when ourown denomination that out in the
state of Washington, no longerwanted to have a campground,
said it's too expensive, butit's a headache. Got rid of it.

(32:47):
Rather than see it closed, theywent in and bought it. I don't
know if they spent a half amillion or a million dollars,
but they bought the campgroundshundreds of acres. You Yes, went
in there almost he was almost80, and she's past that, and

(33:07):
begin to work the campgrounds,trying to get the grass cut and
get the buildings back inrepair, and crawling under those
things and getting the drains towork or the lines fixed where
they busted. And now they've gotthe campgrounds the last couple
years every summer, open allsummer, along with group after
group after group coming in andexperiencing the presence of

(33:29):
God, keeping that campground.
And yet, they got all this otherproperty and houses to keep
rented and things to work on andand I got a call just a couple
years ago. Ray, I said, Yes,sir. He said, We just bought a
campgrounds down in Ecuador,hundreds of acres. Said we

(33:52):
getting little trees, CoffeeBean Trees, growing to make
itself sufficient for thefuture. We let people come in
and have camp meeting. We've gota board that they fly in from
over in Ireland and and we'reflying down right now. We're

(34:13):
here at the airport, and we'reflying down to Ecuador, and
we're meeting with the onethat's over young life in the
entire nation and going to serveon the board. And fact the
matter, said there's a propertyright next to the camp there on
the ocean, and and we we askhim, well, what would they want?
They want? 350 What do they wantfor it? He said, I'll check

(34:34):
back. And they call back. Saidthey just donated it to the
camp. He said, Ray, you and Jen,can just come down if you want.
You can stay in that house onthe ocean, right next to the cat
grass. When are you going to flydown to the cab? At some point,
success wasn't satisfyinganymore, and they wanted to find
significance, and they found itin running a large camp. Time

(35:00):
there in the state of Washingtonand buying and putting together
a large camp turn another nationdown in South America and
Ecuador. I've never met him. Imet his brother one time. His
brother was a Nazarene pastor.
The two boys went to high schoolat Bucha High School, and the

(35:20):
two brothers, their daddypastored the church and built
the church building over on Ironstreet a number of years ago.
Dad's in eternity and hisbrother's in eternity. But to
have significance, he said, I'mjust a layman. I didn't get the
call to preach like my brother.

(35:41):
Never was called a preacher likemy Daddy, but we're trying to
run a campgrounds. Never plan tohere. He said, I'm shoving seven
and nine, but we're going tomake it work. We're making the
camp grounds and getting itready and making it work in
Ecuador, building up yourselveson your most holy faith. Anybody
in the gym? Anybody wanted toget fit? Anybody wanted to get

(36:05):
spiritually healthy around here?
You need to meet me in the gym.
It's at the church. And not onlyis it that the church, when we
come in here and and we get fed,and I hope you're getting fed,
and I hope the music is speakingto your heart. And I hope having
relationship with others andothers holding us accountable

(36:27):
and and steal against steelbegins to sharpen us, and we
begin become better and and wecatch the vision, and we go out.
Did you read the rest of thatverse? Not only keep yourself in
the love of God, praying in theHoly Ghost, looking for the
mercy of the Lord Jesus Christunto everlasting life. But he

(36:48):
said on others have compassion,and others save with fear,
pulling them from the fire. I'mtalking about when we leave the
gym and after the workouts over,and we leave on a Sunday
afternoon and we go out into thework week, we're meeting people
that we need to have compassionon, not be judgmental, but be so

(37:08):
full of compassion and otherssave with fear, pulling them
from the fire. Do you realizethat people are dying all the
time and are slipping into hell,and the only hand that will
reach for them is the hand froma burdened heart. And if we're
not spiritually healthy, and wedon't have the eyes of Christ,
and we're not seeing people aslost souls, and our heart is not

(37:32):
burdened and we're not broken,our hands are not going to reach
out to save them. Nobody else isgoing to save them, but the
spiritually healthy God give usa burden for something besides
ourself, to sit and sour, but tobegin to serve and begin to look

(37:54):
for people that we can bring tochurch, bring them into the gym,
bring him into the fitnesscenter so they can get a workout
too, and the God can work onhim. I'll tell you, the town is
dead in trespasses and sin andneeds to be quickened by the
Holy Spirit. And it'll happenone by one as we win the lost to

(38:19):
Jesus Christ, that ought to bewe work our jobs just to put
food on the table, to keep bodyand soul, not to separate. But
we need to live for Christ. Weneed to live for the kingdom of
God. And if I'm out and I'mdoing a little bit of work
someplace, I'm looking aroundand trying to figure out where I

(38:40):
gotta have a little influence.
And God has put everyone of youwhere you're at on purpose, not
to be an attorney, not to bejust a school teacher, not to be
just a factory where God put youwhere you're at, to have an
influence in that area, to havecompassion on folk and others,

(39:01):
save with fear, pulling themfrom the fire. No wonder the
devil fights us like he does.
He's grabbing a hold of folk andtrying to keep him and we're
standing at the very gates ofhell and trying to pull him back
from going through the door ofthe lost in the damned and get

(39:21):
him into the kingdom. And I wantto tell you something. We're
running out of time to do that,and some of us better get
spiritually fit. We'remalnourished and we're
underperforming, and it's timewe get spiritually healthy. Let
the Thanksgiving meal be a mealthat puts some health on our

(39:42):
bones. And let's give thanks toGod. And let's go to work. Let's
have the workout that Godintends for us to have. Let's
build up ourselves in the mostholy faith. Anybody joining
joining me in the gym nextSunday, father? Thanks for being
a part of the voice of theNazarene. Visit us every Sunday

(40:04):
at 9am with B and C's pastor,Ray LaSalle, for more
information regarding B and C,visit Bucyrus nazarene.org, you.
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