WEBVTT 00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:14.820 Coming to you from North Central Ohio. We share with you the voice of the Nazarene. A week by week, venture into the Word of God sponsored by the buchars, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:24.320 And here in the third chapter, verse one, now, Peter and John went up together at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour. 00:00:24.405 --> 00:00:29.481 It's a beautiful scene, two people going to church together. 00:00:29.565 --> 00:01:34.957 Together Simon Peter, the oldest disciple, John the youngest. But this still got together. No age gap, more yap than gap. And Simon Peter was an extrovert, John was an introvert, kind of a quiet sort, and Simon Peter was always talking. And yet they came together. I think we do life better together. It's one of the reasons people get married. They want to be together with someone. It's why when you want fellowship, you'll call someone I'm going on a drive, Would you like to go with? Would you like to meet me for lunch? We want to be together. Life just works better together. And so that's my theme for the next few Sundays. Turn with me to Second Timothy, chapter one, verse 16, the Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not 00:01:35.043 --> 00:01:45.787 but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. 00:01:40.542 --> 00:04:18.821 The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: And in a few but catch this, and in how many things he ministered unto me in Ephesus, thou know us very well. Life works better together. Back in 1960 they aired for the first time the Andy Griffith Show, black and white. It was a plot about a small rural town somewhere in the bean fields of America, kind of a comedy sketch. The lead player was probably the sheriff, and it was played by Andy Griffith, and he was called to Andy Taylor, Andy, I guess, didn't want to get mixed up on his name. If you marry somebody, just marry another Jan. You won't make the mistake of calling her by the wrong name. And Don Knox played Barney Fife. I don't know what happened, but I'll tell you, the viewership went through the ceiling. It was viewed by more people, and was back in the days when there wasn't a lot of cursing and nudity and vulgarity and violence and it was just a family time. And it went strong through 1960 and in 1965 something happened. Don Knox decided that he wanted to go into films, and he no longer wanted to be on that show. He no longer wanted to play and be aligned with this thing of Barney Fife. And when he left the show, the viewership literally plummeted. They did everything they could to revitalize it. They brought in another Warren Ferguson, and the problem was Warren wasn't Barney Fife. They tried the program in color, and by 1968 they went off the air because Andy and Barney were better together than anybody else. Some things just kind of go better together, like bread and butter, like peanut and jelly, kind of like tooth brushes and toothpaste. If you only got one tooth, try it, it'll help. It's kind of like politicians and promises, kind of like a bow and arrow. Some things just go better together. 00:04:13.661 --> 00:05:04.927 And I want to tell you around the church, we do things better when we are together. You could even be in the same house and be married and not be together, but when you're together, it's better. And a lot of churches, I've watched them flounder out across the country because they never got together in the same house, but they weren't together. They had board meetings, but it wasn't together. But on that great day of Pentecost, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there was a sound from heaven when they got together. 00:04:59.596 --> 00:05:49.593 In this service I'd like to talk to you about a man that probably you've never heard of by the name of the Onesiphorus. The Bible only mentions him two times, and so we don't know a whole lot about him, but what little we do know. We know, first of all, that he was from Ephesus, a 3000 year old city with Greek culture, right near the Aegean Sea. It was there that Apollos came and affluent oratorical sort, and crowds begin to gather and were converted under his ministry, and Paul came and established a church there at at Ephesus. 00:05:45.110 --> 00:06:57.016 Ephesus, of course, is in Turkey, and Ephesus now is 99% Muslim. The second thing that we know about Onesiphorus is the fact that not only was he a Christian, but all of his family were Christians, and were a part of that church at Ephesus. A third thing that we know about Onesiphorus is the fact that he was a friend of the great Apostle Paul, and he stood by his friend, and he encouraged him and held him up and uplifted him and cared about him. And the Bible said, according to Paul, he refreshed me. He didn't depress me. He refreshed me. And I'd like just for a few moments this morning to look at refreshers and how we can know them, and how maybe a couple of us could become a refresher of others. How do you know them, and how can we become one? Do you know why we come to church? 00:06:51.687 --> 00:07:21.634 It's not so that Pastor LaSalle can have a job. We come to church according to Hebrews 10 verse 25 so that we're not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but that we exhort one another so much the more as we see the end times coming or that day approaching. 00:07:16.642 --> 00:07:26.709 To exhort, to encourage, to refresh, to uplift, we're not here to critique one another. 00:07:26.795 --> 00:08:08.161 We're not checking what clothes you're wearing or maybe not wearing and we're not here to look one another over. We're not here to criticize. We're here to encourage and uplift and refresh one another. So let's talk about refreshers. What do they look like? First of all, their identification. How do we identify a refresher? Well, look at the life of a Onesiphorus and what he did for the Apostle Paul. And you notice, first of all, he respected his plight. 00:08:03.086 --> 00:09:00.697 When Onesiphorus realized that Paul had been locked up somewhere. He's in jail and he's in prison, he's in bonds, Paul said this, thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom Phygellus and Hermogenes, and that's in Second Timothy 1:15. Now whoever Phygellus was and Hermogenes were, evidently, at one time, they'd been friends. They'd been supporters. They'd been on the intimate side of Paul. They knew him well, and yet they didn't stand with him when times got tough, when the tide went low and when popularity began to die, they backed away. And Paul said, like everybody else, they forsook me, but not Onesiphorus. 00:09:00.780 --> 00:09:16.092 He never let where Paul was overshadow who Paul was. Paul said when I was in chains, and even at a low time in my life, he was not ashamed of my chains. 00:09:11.017 --> 00:10:07.190 You know, in prosperity our friends know us, in adversity we know who our friends are. Am I going too fast? Paul said, when everybody walked out, Onesiphorus walked in, when everybody else seemed to be walking away Onesiphorus begin to approach me, and he came toward me. Kind of reminds you of that story in John chapter eight, doesn't it? Where they those Pharisees came dragging in that account, came dragging this woman into the presence of Jesus and said, we caught her in adultery. Fact of the matter, we caught her right at the very act of adultery. And every time I read that, I wonder again, why didn't they bring the guy? 00:10:09.309 --> 00:10:17.529 I don't want to surprise you, but it generally takes two to tangle. I mean, get real folk. 00:10:12.610 --> 00:10:27.190 Maybe he was one of their buddies. Maybe they were just out on a hunting trip and trying to catch somebody in something. 00:10:21.580 --> 00:13:47.110 Anyway they said we caught her in the very act the law said that we're to stone her. And I thought about this, they saw what she had done, but failed to see who she was. Jesus sees who we are, but he forgives what we have done. Maybe we could be a little bit more like Jesus. I got a phone call the other day by a guy, and he was just telling me how bad the church was where he was, and he was leaving, and everybody turned against everybody, and everybody was going to leave, they're probably going to close. And I thought, Sir, our job is not to rock the boat be like Jesus, calm the storm. Well, moving along. Don't use that in second service. So anyway, they said we've caught her, and the law says that we're to stone them to death. And Jesus, the only time that he ever wrote anything in the Bible, is listed right in that account, chapter eight, John, he bent over and begin to write in the sand. What did he write? I don't know you don't either, but all my preacher buddies do. They all tell me what he wrote. They tell me that he wrote the sins of those guys and said, He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone, and they all begin to leave. And if maybe they had a thrown a stone, maybe it would have turned to rubber and bounced back and knocked their brains out. I don't know. I just read this stuff, but he not only respected his plight and cared about him, but he responded promptly. I like that. You know, refreshers are always Johnny on the spot. They know how to spot Johnny. And here's what the Bible said. Paul said he sought me out diligently. He knew that Onesiphorus had left Ephesus and come up to the great capital of Rome and to that humongous city, and searched the streets and asked, Do you know where this man is? This preacher is his name is Paul. We call him an Apostle. Can you tell? And finally located him behind bars in a prison in chains. Do you want to know how to have fulfillment in life? Can I tell you, it's not complicated. It's so simple, it'll embarrass you, just when you get up in the morning, ask God, who can I help today? Who can I be a blessing to today? Wouldn't it be wonderful, instead of being mirror people, we're always looking at our own reflection, that we can become window people begin to look out on the world around us and see there are needy and there are people besides us that it's not always about me, me, me, me, me, it's about others, and God, who can I bless today? Who can I encourage today? Who can I just get on the phone and say a kind word to today and pour into somebody else. The nice things about giving away flowers, it always leaves a fragrance in your own hand. And what Onesiphorus did, He responded promptly. Said, he needs me. I'm going to find him. 00:13:42.370 --> 00:13:49.750 And he went after him. But there was a third thing he did. He relieved the pressure. 00:13:50.409 --> 00:14:11.799 Everybody's got some pressure in life at some point. And in verse 18, he said, The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many things. He ministered unto me at Ephesus, and he said, all of you know it very well, many things his identification, but look at His manifestation. 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:35.320 Pastor, how can I in some practical way refresh and encourage somebody? Just name some practical things. Well, let me give you four words. One is presence. Just show up once in a while when somebody needs you, just be there for them. Notice what Paul said, I was in prison. 00:14:31.059 --> 00:15:03.190 I was in chains, and Onesiphorus came. Remember when he said, Luke only was with him, and he said, Would you bring Mark? Why he was lonely? He wanted somebody? You know, sometimes you get called out, and all you gotta do is just go, every time I get a call at night to go to the hospital and go into that emergency room or wherever, and then somebody's asking for a chaplain. My wife will say, what are you going to say to them? I said, I don't have a clue. 00:15:04.149 --> 00:15:25.149 Number one, I don't even know who they are. I don't even know their name. I'm calling up to find out, is it a man or is it a woman? And could you just give me a little detail and I don't know. Sometimes, just being there. Do you have all the answers? No, I don't even know the question, but just be there. 00:15:26.080 --> 00:16:38.230 And here's what I hear people say, Well, I'd do something if I just knew what to say. Nobody cares what you say. They care that you do that you just show up, that you care. Think about it when Job was at his lowest tide in life for seven days, his friends just sat there, and everything went great until they started talking. If they'd just kept their mouth shut, wouldn't have been nice. But they just sat there for seven days, and when they finally started talking, Hey, you can't do all the explanation. You can't explain God. I can tell you this much. God's too loving to be unkind. He's too wise to be mistaken. And when you can't always trace his hand, you can trust his heart. His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and you can't stand there and explain why this happened and why that happened, and why somebody's baby died, and why you lost your job, and why, your car wasn't fixed right, and why somebody walked out of your life. You can't explain it all. Quit trying. 00:16:39.460 --> 00:17:50.859 Just show up. If you want to be a refresher, your presence counts so much just be there for them. Jackie Robinson was the first black man to get into professional baseball, and when he began to integrate that sport, there were all kinds of boo's from the stands, and he got letters of hate and all kinds of death threats. He was playing for his own team, the Brooklyn and on their own field, and a ball was hit and it went between his legs, and he missed it and his own stand, the Brooklyn crowd began to boo him and boo him and boo him, and he stood there broken. And about that time a short stop by the name of Pee Wee Reese walked over, put his arm around Jackie Robinson, and just stood there and looked back up at the stands. And suddenly it got a silent as death. They said you could have heard a pin drop. 00:17:44.710 --> 00:18:17.920 Somebody said that Pee Wee Reese saved the career of Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson said he didn't save my career he saved my life. He stood by me when no one else would. And sometimes just standing with what's right and standing with someone and just being there counts, and it counts very loudly, your presence. But what about your preference? Look at what the Bible says in Romans, 00:18:17.950 --> 00:18:50.170 10, be kindly affected one to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring, preferring preference, preferring one another. What does preferring mean? Well, it simply means you step back and let somebody else step up for a change. You don't have to be the hero in every happening. Sometimes you can just let somebody else have the credit. Sometimes you can let somebody else have the stage. 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:59.559 Sometimes you can just let somebody else get the pat on the back or the praise. Sometimes it's just good if we don't win. 00:18:55.569 --> 00:19:23.619 Sometimes it's good if we don't get chosen, or we don't get picked, or we don't capture it all, you'll never go very far in life until you are willing to celebrate other people. You want to be a refresher. Do it with your presence. Do it by showing preference for others. And here's another way. Do it with your pen. Martin Luther said, if you want to change the world, pick up a pen, pick up a pen. 00:19:24.460 --> 00:19:47.109 And I thought of Miss Millie. I thought of Miss Millie. She's been, what gone now about what three months maybe, I think we buried Miss Millie about three months ago, she sent out more postcards and more letters and encouraged others of anybody I've ever known in my lifetime as a pastor. You could count on your birthday, you'd get a letter. 00:19:47.589 --> 00:20:23.259 You could count on your anniversary, you'd get a card, always writing, and her pen was busy. We miss her, don't we. So we refresh people with our presence by showing preference to others, and we can do it with a pen. But what about your purse? I'm talking about giving to people. How do you make friends? Well, some people, if they'd barbecue a squirrel and invited all their friends over, there'd still be some meat left when they finished eating. Now, some of you're slow and you're worth waiting on, and I'm just waiting till you catch it. 00:20:24.970 --> 00:20:28.420 Pastor, how can I have friends do what the Bible says there in 00:20:28.420 --> 00:20:32.319 24, man hath friends that show themselves. 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:38.799 What? What? Friendly, boy you're catching on a little bit. 00:20:39.490 --> 00:20:58.779 Pastor, I want friends. Show yourself friendly. I'd like to have some friends. Be kind. I'd like to have friends. Well, be nice. I'd like to have some friends. Well, smile. I'd like to have friends. Well, why don't you speak to others? Do you know it's not somebody else's responsibility to speak to you? 00:20:58.869 --> 00:21:08.470 You can speak first. It's not somebody else's responsibility to call you. You can call them. 00:21:04.359 --> 00:21:35.500 Be the bigger person, be the initiator. Well, that church, nobody even spoke to me at that church. Well, how many people did you speak to? I've got my pen. I'm ready to get the numbers here. You get what you give. Everybody just hold up your main finger. Just just for a moment. Humor me. Hold it up real high. I can't already see in here. Now, take that finger and touch it to your thumb. Can you do that? Just like that? 00:21:32.289 --> 00:21:41.440 Hold it up just like that. Now, put it against your chin. Just put it right up here, against your chin. You got it against your chin. That's not your chin. 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:51.940 So if you can't even get that, you're probably not getting the rest of this. I'm just saying. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:51.940 So do you really want friends? 00:21:51.940 --> 00:21:55.809 Let me give you another verse. 00:21:51.940 --> 00:22:44.200 It's here in Proverbs 19, verse six, many will entreat the favor of the prince, and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts, that giveth gifts. I wouldn't offend anybody, on purpose for the world, I may offend people, but I don't do it on purpose. And I'd like to just I received a card yesterday. I opened that card, and then the card was a letter, and I'll not give any names, so hopefully nobody will get upset at me for reading this. I don't think you'll catch on, but Dear Pastor Ray, I want to thank you and the staff and my church family for the beautiful flowers that were sent for my dad's funeral, and I want to share my story with you. 00:22:44.980 --> 00:23:06.009 September services were scheduled to be held at the funeral home for dad. I asked my husband to stop in before services were to begin. Just wanted to check in making sure everything was ready to go. I went to peek in on the room that the service was going to be in. 00:23:02.230 --> 00:25:01.809 I saw flowers had been sent. Of course, out of curiosity, I had to see who they were from, so I went and looked at the card on some flowers. And I'm standing in the room alone, and I see that Bucyrus Nazarene Church has sent flowers. The tears started coming. I proceed to leave. My husband's waiting for me. He sees that I'm emotional, and by now I'm full blown crying. My husband's wondering what happened. I said to him, our church sent flowers. We have a church family. I'm just trying to say that act of thoughtfulness was a very big deal to me. Those flowers will die and just be a memory, but for me, that was the day I realized I have a church family that cares, and I praise God for that. To some, it was just flowers, but to me, it was so much more thanks to all involved, lots of love and was signed. Sometimes just a thought, just taking a moment of our time, sometimes just a small gift, can make all the difference in the world. You see, it's not just the gift, it's the thought of that person, Sir Lancelot, said, there's not gift without a giver. So I've talked to you about an identification of a refresher the manifestation. I want to talk about the motivation, and I'll close out what caused Onesiphorus to go all the way to Rome, to hunt through all the streets of that gigantic city, and finally make his way to the prison? An underground labyrinth, tunnels, and to find Paul now chained and strapped with metal between guards. What was his motivation? I'm asking. 00:24:57.099 --> 00:25:47.829 Do you have a clue as to what was his motivation? I think I know. I think that Onesiphorus remembered when he was much younger, an aged preacher coming into their city. A number of believers have been converted under this oratorical speaker named Apollos. And now Paul shows up, and he brings us some stability, and he begins to organize and establish this church, a strong church, in this little city of Ephesus. And his life was transformed, and he was saved, and he was changed. And not only was he converted, but his entire family came to the knowledge of Christ. And he's thinking, after all that man did for me, it's the least I can do. 00:25:47.859 --> 00:26:11.710 What's my motivation? I want to tell you what my motivation is, what the church and what God and what Christian friends have done in my life. The least I can do is to give my life in return and encourage and try to refresh others. Our Upper campus yesterday had a fall festival. 00:26:06.460 --> 00:27:59.890 90 some people came out, and a number of them were children from out of that immediate neighborhood that had never happened before. Some were adults. One of our men borrowed one of these large trailers and put it behind his truck, and went and loaded up a big tractor and hauled it into the church, and then went back and got a load of straw and came back and hooked up the tractor to the trailer and took these kids and adults on rides around that area of the town. Lives we're drawn toward the kingdom. Churches don't grow by accident. Churches grow when people find something they can do to make a difference. The kids enjoyed rides. Food was prepared, and I called our campus pastor. I said, How did it go? He said, one of the best days of our life, God gave him a lot of pocket change. That turtle on the fence post. I've told you before, it didn't get there by itself. Somebody put it there, and you're not where you're at spiritually this morning, by accident, somebody saw you, and somebody believed in you, and somebody invested in you, and somebody supported you, and somebody called you when you were missing, and they came around and they refresh you, they encourage you. And I'm simply saying we do life better together. Now I want to do a little bit better together with you in the days ahead. Don't miss a service over the next few weeks. As we do it together, I want you to take your emblems for communion, if you would. 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:11.769 Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle, for more information regarding BNC, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org, you.