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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 God sponsoredby the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of
the Nazarene. We join our PastorReverend Ray LaSalle, and the
voice of the Nazarene.
Pastor Ray LaSalle (00:18):
Let me talk
to you just for a few minutes
about something calledforgiveness, and go with me into
the 45th chapter of Genesis. Iwould assume that you know the
story of Joseph out of the OldTestament. He was his father's
favorite son. Jacob was not agreat dad. He had 12 sons, and
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he showed favoritism. Not a goodthing for a dad to do, but he
picked Joseph out of all thelineup, and he had made for him
a coat of many colors. Not onlywas it bad because none of the
other boys got a coat, butJoseph put it on and begin to
strut around in his coat. And tomake matters even worse, he had
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a gift to prophetic dreams. Andin his dream, he saw his
brothers bowing down before him,and he was stupid enough to tell
them, not smart, and they becameso jealous. They were so
consumed with jealousy, theywanted to kill him. And when the
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opportunity came, they yankedhis coat off and tore it, put
him in a pit trying to decidewhat to do with him. Knew they
had to silence his voice dippedthat coat in some animal blood,
and fabricated a story to theirfather that an animal had killed
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him. Of course, the old manmourned and said, an animal is
devoured my son and I will go tothe grave mourning, but some
Ishmaelites, who were slavetraders, were traveling through
the country and and to get ridof the kid rather than just kill
him. One of the brothers said,let's sell him. They sold him
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for the price of a slave, thesame price that Jesus was sold
for. Out of the Old Testament,there's not one character that
his life so aligns to Christthan Joseph. And then the story,
you know, the the brothersbreathe a sigh of relief, and
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they're saying, we got away withit. But the Bible says, Be sure
your sins will find you outthere in Numbers 32:23. Years
later, the children of Israelneeded food. Famine had come in
the land, and the old man, Jacobhad said to his boys, they have
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food down in Egypt, we have losteverything. The animals are
dead. The trees have died. Wellsare empty, and you need to go
down to Egypt. He gave them somemoney and a wagon, and they head
down to Egypt because of thefamine, and they meet with the
Prime Minister. They had no ideawhat had ever happened to their
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baby brother they'd sold intoslavery. And when they meet with
him, he has now learned theculture, and he can now speak
Egyptian, and he's wearing thegarb of an Egyptian. 22 years
have passed, they didn'trecognize him, but he recognized
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them. He knew it was hisbrothers, and he knows that his
dreams have finally come true,that they've been fulfilled, and
the thought that his dreams havecome true, that one day he would
look at his jealous brothers andsay, got you. But this was a new
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Joseph. This is a changedJoseph. This is a broken Joseph.
He'd not only been sold, but asthe years passed, he'd been lied
on. He'd been thrust away inprison. Promises made to him had
been broken, and so he'schanged. The pride is gone, and
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the haughtiness and thearrogance is gone. And he stands
broken before them. And insteadof getting even, he begins to
sob, and he begins to cry. And Iwant to pick up the reading.
It's Genesis, 45 verse one. ThenJoseph could not refrain himself
before all his brothers thatstood by him. And he cried calls
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every man to go out from me, andthere stood no man with him.
While Joseph made himself knownunto his brothers, he wept aloud
and the Egyptians of the housePharaoh heard about it. Joseph
said unto his brothers, I amJoseph. Is my father still
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alive? But his brothers couldnot answer him, for they were
dismayed and horrified in hispresence. And Joseph said unto
his brothers, come close to me.
And his brothers came near, andhe said, I am your brother,
Joseph, whom you sold intoEgypt. And now do not be
distressed or angry withyourselves because you sold me
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here, for God sent me before youto preserve life. For these two
years hath the famine been inthe land, and yet there are five
years in which there shallneither be earring or harvest.
And God sent me before you topreserve you a remnant on Earth,
and to save your lives by agreat deliverance. So now it was
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not you that sent me hither, butGod, and he has made me a father
to Pharaoh and Lord of all ofhis house and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Themessage I'd like to share with
you today has been born out ofmy past, from some of the
darkest hours and days andmonths of my life, things that
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happened, that were unjust,unfair, they were wrong, and I
fought not to become bitter. AndI wondered, how could this be
happening? How can I walk out ofone great field of labor and run
into a wall? And I saw a friend,and I had opened up to him, was
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sharing with him, and he put uphis hands, and he stopped me,
and he said, don't go anyfurther with the story. You've
got to totally forgive them. Anduntil you totally forgive them,
you're going to be in chains. Ifyou release them, you will be
released. And then I rememberedsome things that I hadn't told
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him yet. I said, there's somethings I forgot to tell you. He
said, Ray, the wounds of afriend, but thank God for a
friend, Ray, you've got tototally forgive them. And until
you totally forgive them, you'regoing to be in chains. You've
gotta release them in order tobe released. And I can tell you,
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across the years, every sooften, some of that would rush
in kind of like a storm and allover again. You have to say,
God, that's not the attitude Iwant to have. Don't let me get
bitter, but help me again toremind myself I forgave. And
God, I want you to know they'reforgiven. One of the hardest
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things that I've ever done inall of my life. Maybe that's one
of the hardest things thatyou've ever done. And I said, I
can't. And he said, you can, andyou must. Total forgiveness
means setting your enemy free.
Well, that's not natural, is it?
There's something within thehuman heart that wants to get
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even, that wants to retaliate,that wants to say, you hurt me
and you owe me something betterthan this. And so when you
totally forgive, it means youkiss goodbye vindication,
vengeance to those that wantedto hurt you, maybe to destroy
you, and then you're to pray forthem the Bible says. Where in
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the world does the Bible come upwith this stuff? Gotta bow your
head and say, God, would youforgive them? You can kill him
if you want to, but it goesopposite of what Jesus said.
Pray for those who despitefullyuse you and bless them. You say,
Well, Pastor, I can't do that.
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Well, I know it's againstnature. The natural thing, you
want your enemy punished, butJesus said, bless them. And
maybe, I don't know, maybe youwere abused as a child. Maybe a
spouse was unfaithful to you.
Maybe you were abused byprejudice. It's kind of like
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James chapter five. Do yourealize that 2,000 years ago,
the issue was not blacks againstwhites, the issue was the rich
against the poor? And the poorwere saying, God, I'm not being
treated right by those who arerich. But you know, God looked
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in and God knew, and the wayforward is always to forgive.
Now,if it can be proved that you've
suffered worse than anybodyelse's ever suffered. I don't
know if we can prove that, butif you have the angels have a
word for you, and that word iscongratulations, because you're
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promised a special blessing thatthe one sitting next to you may
not have been promised becausethey have not suffered quite
like you have. And instead offeeling sorry for yourself
because of all that you've beenthrough, it could be that you
need to realize, and I promiseyou one day, you'll look back
and say the best thing that everhappened to me was when I went
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through those difficult days,and that's what I've had to say.
But it's only if you come to theplace you forgive them totally
and set them free. Now thequestion, how do you know if
you've forgiven someone totally?
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Well, proof number one, youdon't tell anybody what they did
to you. You just tell God. Therein Psalm 142 verse two, pour
your complaint out unto theLord. It's a lot easier to get
on the phone, though, and spreadit isn't and tell everybody
else. Now, how do you know,preacher, that Joseph did that?
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Well, if you look at verse one,then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them thatstood by him and he cried,
caused every man to go out fromme, the servants, the aides, all
those that are helpers. I wanteverybody else. I want their
brothers. I want you to stayhere. I want everybody else to
go. And now behind closed doors,he speaks to them in Hebrew and
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says, I am Joseph, and they'respeechless. And why did he make
everybody else leave? Because hewanted to persuade them to go
back to the land of Canaan, getall of his brothers and his
father and bring them down toEgypt to live with him, and he
would take care of them. And heknew that if they found out how
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his brothers had treated him,they would deal harshly with
him, and he didn't want theEgyptians to know how his
brothers had treated the nowPrime Minister. He knew he was
popular, he knew he was likedand he wanted to make sure that
everybody would love hisbrothers instead of hate them,
and so he never let his brothersor anybody else know he didn't
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tell behind closed doors, andthe proof that you've totally
forgiven is when you quitrunning around, telling
everybody that you've been hurt.
And that's how Joseph got to theplace where he was spiritually.
Now I don't know who I'm talkingto. I know by live cast and
telecast. I could be preachingto a future governor. I could be
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preaching to a future BillyGraham. But God will never be
able to use any of us as long aswe're angry and feel like we've
got to prove ourselves and feellike we've got to vindicate
ourselves, we've got to totallyforgive. There's only two
exceptions, if therapeutically,you need to talk to someone,
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find you a pastor, find adoctor, somebody that can keep a
secret and unload to them. Andsecondly, if there's been a
crime like a rape or a murder,crimes have to be punished
according to the law. But thereason many of us get on the
phone and we call around and wetell how somebody has hurt us is
that we don't want them admired.
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We don't want them liked, and sowe make sure everybody knows.
But let me ask you this. Howwould you like it if God told
everything that he knew aboutyou, why don't you put it up on
the screen? We got some screensin the back. I'm not sure we
have enough screens in here toput everything that I've done or
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everything that some of youdone, only a couple of you. But
the good news is, he'll nevertell it, because as far as the
East is from the West, has ourtransgressions been removed from
us? According to Psalm 103,verse 12, Jesus washes away our
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sin and nobody will ever know.
And when you tell what somebodyelse has done, you violate a
principle, and God doesn't likeit. You don't tell everybody.
And proof number two, you don'tlet them be afraid of you. Now
these brothers are scared todeath. I mean, they're
frightened, they're speechless.
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They're standing before thePrime Minister. They suddenly
know who he is, and they'refound out. They're scared of
death. And the funny thing is,this is the way that Joseph
wanted them to feel, but he's adifferent Joseph now, he's
changed. He's broken himself.
He's a new man. And he hear whathe said to them, come close to
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me, and he loved them, and theycouldn't believe it. And when
you totally forgive your enemy,you put them at ease. You know
what we do in our marriagessometimes? We like to keep our
spouses nervous. And you say,Well, I'll tell you, I'll never
forget what you've done. And wedon't couple days later we bring
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it back up again, but the Bible
says in First Corinthians, 1 (15:21):
5,
love keeps no records of wrongs.
And you know why we would keep arecord of wrong because we want
somebody to have to pay. Wedon't want them to get off so
easy. We want them to feel asbad sometimes as we do. And do
you know that most marriagescould be healed by sundown
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before the day's over, if bothparties would quit pointing
fingers. So you don't tell whatthey did, and you don't make
them afraid. And proof numberthree, you don't want them to
feel guilty. Listen to this. Hesaid, I'm your brother, whom you
sold into Egypt do not bedistressed or angry with
yourselves because of what youdid. Now, just imagine for a
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moment that you went to somebodyand you say, well, I forgive
you, and you better feel badabout it, and they don't. You
still gotta forgive them. Thetoughest thing in the world is
to forgive somebody that don'tfeel bad about what they did.
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The only thing worse is you goto somebody and you tell them,
you forgive them, and they don'teven know what you're talking
about. And, they've run yourwhole life. They ruined your
day, and they're almostinnocent. I don't even know what
you talking about. A littleadvice here, before I go any
further, don't go across theauditorium this morning and say,
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I forgive you what you did ordon't get on the phone if you're
by live stream and say, I'mgoing to call you and I forgive
you. And they're going to say, Idon't know what you call me. Oh
yes, you do. No, no, I don't youknow you do. You get all riled
up. Next thing you know, yougotta fight, and you got a good
one on your hands. Now, Jesus onthe cross is the great example.
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Father, forgive them, for theyknow not what they do and the
way to get major victory beforeGod, that's the way you do it.
They may not even know whatthey've done but God does. And
may I just say, don't besurprised if it's a member of
the church that hurts you, notthis church, of course, I'm
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talking about the other one. Orif it's an important person, or
if it's a godly person that'smeaner than the devil. Not so
godly, huh? All of us have beenhurt along the trail, and I
think back on some of those, myface gets red, and I'm not
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talking about anger, I mean withembarrassment. I remember back
in Bible college days, and I wasat a Christian high school. They
also had the college, but I wasin the high school department,
and I lived on campus. I stayedin the dormitory, and I rode
with somebody to a new church. Imaybe had been there one Sunday
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before. I'm just a boy, I satdown on the end of a bench over
here on one side, about thirdrow back, and a great big guy
comes in Sunday school had justlet out. He walks up and said,
that's my seat. I always sitthere. Would you just mind
moving someplace else? And youcouldn't just walk out, plus I
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didn't have a ride back to theschool. My face was so red, and
you know, years passed, and Ilooked in a magazine and saw
that he was the GeneralSecretary of the denomination of
the church. Sometimes big peoplecan hurt you don't have a clue.
It'd been nice if he just said,Would you mind just scooting
over and just let me sit withyou today? But he didn't. And
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you know what? You've got to letall this stuff go, or you're
living just leafing back throughthe foul cabinets of the hurts
of yesterday's. They have alittle poem. You know, living
with the saints above. Oh, thatwill be glory. Living with
saints below. That's a differentstory. Well, you don't tell what
they did. Number two, you don'tlet them be nervous around you.
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Number three, don't make themfeel guilty. And proof number
four, you let them save face.
You don't rub their nose insomething. Better still, give
them a way out that's graceful.
Joseph said you didn't do it Goddid. And I can imagine those
brothers. Gad looked over atAsher, and he said, Did you hear
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what he said? He's not evenblaming us. Look what we did to
him. And he said, Hey, Godallowed it,
and you're forgiven. And 400years before, God told Abraham,
the day will come when I bringthe children of Israel up out of
Egypt. For that to happen,somebody had to go down there
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first. I've gotta send somebodydown there. Hey, Joseph, why
don't you go? And so Joseph wasthe first to go, and God did it
to preserve lives. And thesebrothers couldn't believe their
luck, the very man they weregoing to kill is used of God.
Somebody said God moves inmysterious ways His wonders to
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perform. Living in totalforgiveness is the only way to
live. But I'm not done. Here's afifth proof. You protect them
from their darkest secret. Now,what was these brothers darkest
secret, what they had donebehind their dad's back, the
fabricated lie they told him,and what they had done to this
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boy called Joseph, 17 years ofage, when they sold him into
slavery. And all they had done.
They put him in a pit. Theytried to destroy him. They were
so jealous, and they'd ratherdie than to tell their father.
Joe said, You need to go tellDad what you did to me. That
isn't what he said. Now, Ididn't read all of the account.
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I didn't read all the chapterdue to time when you get home, I
would urge you just to read downthrough it for clarification.
Genesis, Chapter 45 it's notwhat Joseph did. He didn't allow
him to do that. Verse nine, hesaid, haste you and go up to my
father and say unto him, Thussaith my son, Joseph, God hath
made me Lord of all Egypt. Comedown unto me and tarry not. They
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didn't have to go back and fallon their knees and be
embarrassed before their father.
They didn't have to tell theirdad all that, and that's the way
God is. You know, most of ushave some skeletons in our
closet. Most of us have somethings in our life that we're
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ashamed of. Nobody has to runthe aisles here. Most of us have
things that we have said that wewished had never come out of our
lips. And God doesn't yank allthe skeletons back out of the
closet and try to embarrass usin front of everybody. He lets
us save face. Fact of thematter, he remembers that we're
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but dust a gracious God, andJoseph would not let them tell
it. And another proof thatyou're forgiven number six is
that you pray for them. 17 yearslater, the old dad, Jacob, dies,
and the brothers get togetherand said, Now what are we going
to do? Now, is Joseph's chanceto get even with us for what
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we've done. Dad's dead. Nobodycan stop him. But it turns out
Joseph felt the same way he hadalways felt, you're forgiven.
Let me read it to you, verse 19,and Joseph said unto them, Fear
not for Am I in the place ofGod, but as for you, you thought
evil against me, but God meantit unto good to bring to pass,
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as it is this day, to save muchpeople alive. Now there fear you
not I will nourish you and yourlittle ones. And he comforted
them and spake kindly unto them.
Let me just put it this way,total forgiveness is a life
sentence. We're sentenced forlife to always forgive, and you
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gotta keep doing it over andover and over. No wonder when
Peter asked, how many times youthink we gotta forgive? And
Jesus said, 49 times whatever,it wound up somebody said about
490, I don't know. In otherwords, it meant just forgive and
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keep forgetting. And if it comesback up and the emotions try to
return and the devil's trying totip you to get back in that old
attitude of unforgiveness,rebuke the enemy and say, That's
not the way I feel. That's theway Devil you want me to feel.
I've forgiven them, and I stilldo. Do you know what I did a
number of years ago? And I do itevery so often. I tell God, God,
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if somebody's hurt me, ifsomebody's angry and they're
trying to destroy me, forgivethem. If they never come to me,
if they don't even say anythingto you, if it's possible, I'm
saying, God, forgive them. Don'tput it on their account. And
incidentally, God, be sure youdon't have anything on my
account either. Forgive me. Youknow God's not going to forgive
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us if we've got unforgiveness inour heart toward another, you've
gotta forgive if you expect Godto forgive you. So I close by
saying this, be willing not totell quit telling. You say,
Well, it's too late I've alreadybeen, don't do it anymore. Quit
bringing up the past and don'tlet them be afraid of you. Don't
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make them nervous when they'rearound you. Let them save face,
protect them from their darkestsecret, and pray for others and
bless them. And that's the way Iwant us to close today, is to
ask a blessing on those thathave been enemies through the
years, those that never let usget close, never really put
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their arm around us and pulledus into their little world. But
instead of being bitter aboutit, forgive and we'll be better
people for it, Father, we thankyou today for your spirit, your
presence, your love. We're gladfor this story that's lodged
back there in those dusty pagesof a history book called
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Genesis, of a man that waswilling to forgive, and the
years had passed, thedisappointments overlooked lied
on in prison, and yet the Lordwas with him, Over and over and
over, and as time passed, hebecame a changed man, a new man,
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a broken man, who was willing tolet the past go and let wrongs
be forgotten and let people beforgiven, make us a little bit
like Joseph, and help us to prayfor others that they too can be
released and they too can beforgiven. We pray it in the name
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of Jesus this morning, Amen.
Me, this is what is that the wayyou feel this morning?
Unknown (28:46):
Thanks for being a part
of the voice of the Nazarene.
Visit us every Sunday at 9amwith BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle,
for more information regardingBNC, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.