Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000026
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00:00 ♪ (Theme Song) ♪ ♪ Jesus is worthy ♪
00:09 ♪ oh yes, he's worthy ♪ ♪ worthy of all... ♪ 00:18 (Music) PB: Tonight, how do you draw God? 00:27 All of us in some way or another, we draw him. 00:29 Whether you're a liberal, conservative, male, female, 00:31 old or young, all of us in some way or another 00:34 have our own images of God. 00:38 And those who worship the true God understand the limitless 00:43 possibilities of how God, in fact, would come to us, 00:46 be with us, if we stopped trying to reduce 00:50 him down to size. 00:53 Now let's remember the setting behind which 00:55 this law was given. 00:56 The law was given when Moses was on Mount Sinai. 01:00 Remember, Moses is on the top of the mountain, God 01:05 is speaking to him. 01:07 God speaks to Moses and Moses needs something 01:11 to take with him. 01:13 And God doesn't give him keys to the car or promotions on 01:16 the job, God doesn't give him health and wealth and 01:19 prosperity, all God gives him is a name. 01:23 And that name is Yahweh, which means "I am who I am." Then 01:28 God speaks and sketches out his law upon two tablets to 01:33 speak of their thoroughness, durability and 01:37 supernaturalness. 01:38 God says to Moses, take these ten words, take these ten love 01:42 letters, take these Ten Commandments, the decalogue 01:45 and take them back to my people. 01:49 And while Moses is receiving these ten words, the children 01:53 of Israel, who have been brought out of Egypt by this 01:56 God who has written out his own words, they're breaking 02:00 love letter number two. 02:03 They're pressed against the base of the mountain, pressed 02:09 against Aaron the priest, and they're saying, Aaron, use 02:13 your skill, use your craftsmanship and make us a 02:18 god out of your hands that we can worship. 02:22 Aaron, in a moment of weakness, gives in to the 02:27 people and he receives the silver and the gold and the 02:32 bronze and he begins to make, the Bible says, a golden calf. 02:36 Now this brings conflict because it seems at this 02:40 moment that Aaron is introducing idol worship. 02:43 But that's really not what's happening. 02:46 Aaron, nor the people, never really lost their 02:49 love for God. 02:51 They just shifted their loyalty and what they wanted 02:56 was what they had left. 02:59 They wanted a god that was tangible, touchable, 03:01 reachable, seeable. 03:05 They wanted a god that they could perceive 03:08 with their senses. 03:10 They wanted a god that if they saw it they would know how it 03:14 looked, if they heard it they would know how it sounded. 03:18 If it spoke, how it would utter, if they touched it, 03:21 how it would be felt. 03:23 That's what they wanted to know and this was the 03:27 restriction that God put upon the commandment that they 03:30 were not to reduce God to managerial sizes, down to 03:34 drawings, down to images, for God prohibits us from reducing 03:39 the transcendent in temporal and in temperate things. 03:44 No image of God. 03:46 Trying to picture how God ought to look is nothing new, 03:50 but to correct this I can hear God saying in Isaiah 55, but 03:57 my ways are not your ways. 04:00 My thoughts are not your thoughts. 04:03 For as high as the heavens above the earth, my ways are 04:08 not your ways. 04:10 And that speaks tonight of the transcendence of God, that God 04:14 is above everything else we could ever imagine and it 04:19 prohibits us from limiting God in these manageable sizes that 04:24 people are so accustomed to doing because in our own 04:28 selves that's the kind of God we want. 04:31 We want a God we can manage. 04:32 We want a God that we can control. 04:38 In fact, with God we want kind of a genii in a bottle, that I 04:43 can rub God when I want him to do what needs to be done and 04:47 once I get what I want, I don't need God anymore, 04:51 back in the bottle, God, you go. 04:55 And here comes the struggle of this whole second commandment 04:58 of how do you draw God? 05:01 How do you sketch God tonight? 05:05 How do you do it? 05:07 Well, let me be clear. 05:08 God is not to be drawn at all. 05:12 God is beyond the page. 05:15 God is beyond the picture. 05:18 God is beyond any image. 05:21 Now this is not to say that you and I, we can't imagine 05:25 God, but you run into danger when you start to 05:28 try to define God. 05:31 For example, some of you tonight you have friends 05:34 that you try to tell other friends about. 05:38 You start talking about your friend to another friend and 05:40 at that moment that person begins to imagine what that 05:43 friend looks like or how that friend operates. 05:46 As long as you're telling the person about the friend 05:50 they're able to imagine in their mind that friend. 05:55 But if you hold a picture up of that friend, all of the 05:58 imagination stops. 06:00 At that moment, the picture stops the imagination process. 06:05 All of a sudden there's no need for you to imagine 06:09 anymore, you just have it right in front of you. 06:13 That's what God was saying. 06:14 You are not to reduce who I am. 06:17 You are not to reduce my transcendence into some 06:21 temporary prescription or picture of what you 06:25 think I am. 06:26 God says, I'm bigger than all of that. 06:29 I'm bigger than any picture. 06:31 I'm bigger than any image. 06:34 I'm broader than any image. 06:36 I'm greater than any image, and your mind, your heart 06:41 cannot begin to conceive of who I am. 06:44 That's the best thing, the best thing we know and have 06:48 about God is Jesus Christ. 06:50 The theological question that always comes to service is 06:52 this, if you want to know God, look at Jesus. 06:55 If you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus. 06:59 If you want to know how God loves, love Jesus. 07:03 For Jesus is the face of God and even though we don't know 07:09 that much about God, you do not know, even though I know 07:12 you meet people and you hear folks talking about God in 07:15 such familiar tongues, like they just wake up and shake 07:22 hands with God, like God and they are just home boys. 07:27 God is my God. 07:29 When the angels come into the presence of God they fall at 07:33 his feet and say, holy, holy, holy. 07:36 That's why when I walk up into God's house, I can't walk up 07:40 into God's house like I'm walking up into the mall. 07:43 I'm walking up into the house of the King of Kings, 07:46 the Lord of Lords. 07:48 Are you hearing what I'm saying tonight? 07:51 So God says, I'm not to be reduced to the celestial, 07:55 which is the above only. 07:57 Do not image me to anything that is heaven above. 08:02 Secondly, God says, I'm not to be reduced to the terrestrial, 08:04 which means, neither am I am to be imaged by anything on 08:08 earth below or beneath. 08:10 And then he says, number three, I'm not to be 08:13 imaged below the sea. 08:15 Now, if you read the Bible, if you read it as a casual 08:20 reader, then you know what this is juxtaposed to. 08:23 Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, the creation narritive of God. 08:27 In the creation we see why God set the celestial 08:30 in the heavens. 08:31 God put beasts of the field on earth and God deals with 08:36 marine or water life in the water. 08:38 God is saying that there is nothing, no star, no moon, no 08:45 sun, no galaxy that you are to image and assume that 08:52 that's what he's like. 08:54 You are not to look at stone or wood or gold or metal on 08:59 earth and say that God is like that. 09:02 You are not to look beneath in the waters and find some 09:06 mysterious figure moving about and say God is like that. 09:12 And the reason why that can't be God is because 09:14 God created them. 09:16 Creation can never speak the creator into anything. 09:23 That's the danger of images. 09:25 What God is saying, no image that you use is enough to 09:30 define or describe my transcending. 09:33 There is nothing on earth that you can compare to me. 09:37 God says, you're lower-case-g god is too small. 09:42 You have to approach God with reverence. 09:46 I listen to some people and I say to myself, how dare you 09:50 refer to God as Big-G or Jesus as J.C. 09:56 This is disrespectful. 09:59 This is a reduction of the transcendence. 10:03 When we come to God, we ought to come to God in holiness and 10:09 we should glory to be in the presence of God, because in 10:13 the presence of God, as we said last night, 10:16 is fullness of joy. 10:17 Verse number 4 tells us that there is a prohibition 10:21 attached to us in reducing God into manageable sizes. 10:26 But then there's something else here. 10:28 Verse 5 tells us that there is punishment for those 10:32 who reject the transcendence of God. 10:35 God tells us in verse 5 that we are restricted about bowing 10:38 down to anything or anybody else as worship reverence if 10:43 it's anybody other than me. 10:47 And then God throws something else in. 10:49 He throws something else in about himself and God says, 10:52 let me give you an attribute about who I am. 10:55 God says, I'm a jealous God. 11:00 But this word jealous is not to be mistaken for how some of 11:04 us operate, because our thoughts, again, 11:08 are not God's thoughts. 11:09 Our ways are not God's ways. 11:11 So what we see as jealous is not what God sees as jealous. 11:15 Are you hearing what I'm saying? 11:18 This case of jealous means holy zeal. 11:21 That God says, I have a holy zeal towards my people. 11:26 But what God is saying is, I'm not insecure. 11:30 I'm not saying I'm a jealous God because I'm an 11:33 insecure God. 11:35 For God says, who can rival who I am? 11:39 I'm not uncertain. 11:42 I already told you in verse 2, God says, that I am 11:45 the Lord thy God. 11:47 But I'll tell you what, I'm jealous because I will not 11:53 tolerate you to give allegiance or alliance to 11:57 anyone other than me when it was I who brought you out. 12:01 God says, I am a jealous God, and I like that because it 12:10 says that God has a zealous passion for those 12:14 who love him. 12:15 God says, I'm God and those are my children. 12:18 God says, those are my children and so I get excited 12:22 about that because God gets jealous if I give my love to 12:26 somebody other than God. 12:27 I'm a kings' kid. 12:29 God says, I will be the destroyer of any idols that 12:33 get in the way of trying to reduce me down to your size. 12:39 Now, throughout the Bible there have always been people 12:43 trying to show how God ought to look. 12:48 And in Jeremiah, Chapter 10, there's a description of this 12:52 beginning at verse 3. 12:55 If you have your Bible, go there, Jeremiah 10. 12:57 And so I want to read about the people who the prophet 13:00 says reject God by the acceptance of imaging God into 13:05 something they can manage. 13:07 Jeremiah 10:3, the Word of God says, "For the customs of the 13:13 people are vain." 13:15 The customs of the people, Jeremiah 10:3, are vain. 13:19 "For one cutteth a tree out of the forest; the work of the 13:24 hands of the workmen, with the axe. 13:26 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with 13:29 nails and with hammers, that it move not. 13:32 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not; they must 13:35 needs be borne, because they cannot go. 13:38 Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither 13:40 also is it in them to do good. 13:42 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou 13:47 art great, and they name is great in might." This prophet 13:53 says, why would you want a god that had eyes but can't see? 13:58 Why would you want a god who has ears but can't hear? 14:03 Why would you want a god that has a mouth but can't talk? 14:07 Arms, but they can't reach down and deliver you? 14:10 They have feet but yet they can't walk to you? 14:13 Understand, anything that is other than God is just that. 14:18 It may have all the image, all the picture, all the drawings 14:22 of what you think God ought to look like, but it can't be God 14:25 because there is only one God. 14:28 Because John says in John 1, "In the beginning was the word 14:32 and the word was with God, the word was God, and the word 14:37 became flesh." Which means God walked this earth. 14:41 God touched somebody. 14:43 God looked at somebody. 14:44 God saw somebody. 14:46 God spoke to somebody. 14:49 There is only one God. 14:51 Don't give me a god that you've made out into a statue. 14:54 Give me a God who's the real God. 14:58 Give me a God who's the real thing. 15:01 God is more than what you possess. 15:04 God is more than the stuff you can buy. 15:07 God is more than the stuff you can get. 15:11 That's the danger of idolatry. 15:13 Idolatry says, I can possess God, but how can you draw the 15:18 invisible God? 15:20 How can you draw the wind? 15:22 How can you take that which is eternal and make it earthly? 15:28 You can't do it. 15:29 I don't care how hard you try, you can't do it. 15:32 You can't hem God in. 15:34 You can't box God in. 15:36 I don't care how much you think you can back God into a 15:40 corner, God cannot be domesticated. 15:43 God will be your God, you will not be his god. 15:47 God's going to be your God. 15:48 You can sit there if you want to, but the Lord 15:52 is still in control. 15:53 God is still in control of creation and that which he 15:58 has created. 15:59 But now this thing gets a little heavy because I haven't 16:01 even gotten to the punishment for the rejection of the 16:04 transcendence. 16:06 Because God says, when you have rejected me and because 16:08 I'm a jealous God, I'm going to curse the children of the 16:12 father on through the generations. 16:16 Now let me put a disclaimer here. 16:18 Understand me well. 16:20 This is not about generational curses. 16:22 But there's a reason why God said it. 16:24 When God said it, God was saying to Moses, when you get 16:28 down there from the mountain you've going to be shocked at 16:32 what's going on. 16:35 Aaron crafted this golden calf and now they're down at the 16:40 foot of the mountain worshipping this golden calf, 16:46 and the sad thing is they're assuming that God is in it. 16:52 They're trying to worship God as if he were it that got them 16:57 out of Egypt. 16:59 They're trying to worship it, the calf, like it was it that 17:02 was feeding them in the wilderness. 17:05 They're worshipping the golden calf like it was the 17:08 one that opened up the Red Sea. 17:10 They're trying to worship the golden calf like it was the one 17:14 that gave them a pillar of cloud by day and gave them 17:18 a pillar of fire by night. 17:19 They're trying to worship this golden calf like it tried 17:23 to reduce God down to it. 17:25 But God told Moses, tell those people 17:29 when you get down there that you can't lock me into 17:33 any idol or image, that everything that they've used, 17:37 that I'm the one that made it in the first place. 17:41 And when you get down off this mountain, 17:45 tell them this, that the way 17:47 they worship me is how they're going to transfer 17:51 their worship down to their children. 17:56 In other words, the tendencies of the father become the 18:01 traits of the children. 18:04 And what happens here is this, God is giving us this 18:08 prohibition and the term of his punishment is to say to 18:12 all of us that, I'm not sending a curse down to you, 18:16 you're sending a curse down to your own children, 18:20 your own flesh and blood. 18:24 Let me tell you what I'm talking about. 18:26 And now, let me be clear. 18:27 I'm speaking specifically to the men, specifically to the 18:32 brothers, because God has given the man in the creative 18:37 order the right to be the priest in the home. 18:42 And many of the problems in our world today, I'm speaking 18:45 to my own brothers, many of the problems that exist in the 18:49 world today are because the brothers won't be 18:53 the priest in the home. 18:56 Now, I don't care if the women don't want to hear, 18:58 but I'm going to tell it anyhow. 18:59 Men are supposed to be the priests of their home 19:04 and their family. 19:06 That is divine order. 19:08 And men need to be men. 19:09 Walk like a man. 19:12 Talk like a man. 19:13 Act like a man. 19:14 Be a man. 19:16 Quit these pity parties and be a man in the name of Jesus. 19:20 And now, as a priest you've got a right to transfer the 19:27 transcending down to your children. 19:30 In other words, our children will worship what they 19:33 see you worship. 19:34 And if they see that you worship your job, they will 19:39 worship their jobs. 19:41 If they see you worship your money, they 19:43 will worship money. 19:44 If they see you put everything else in front of them, then 19:47 they will put everything else in front of their children. 19:50 And so God is trying to say to the brothers, in creative 19:55 order I have set you as priests over your family, and 20:00 as priests over your family, whether you're in that house 20:05 or not, if you have children you have a right to transfer 20:11 the God that you worship on down to them. 20:14 Do I have a witness in this place? 20:16 And the problem in our world today, our country, our city, 20:23 our people are under a curse because of how many of the 20:28 priests of the family have worshipped other gods than 20:32 the one true God. 20:34 Let me go a little further. 20:38 If you don't believe me, all these deaths, shootings, 20:43 gang-banging, rip-offs, pants all hanging off your waist are 20:49 often a result of a godless country. 20:57 Call them bad all you want but you can trace it back to a 21:02 preceding generation of a father who has neglected 21:06 giving God to his children. 21:10 And let me tell you, I'm a man, a full man, 21:14 preaching to myself. 21:16 Are you hearing what I'm saying? 21:18 If we brothers would become the priests in culture, 21:23 priests in the country, priests in the church, God 21:30 will begin to revolutionize where we live and what we do 21:36 is let our children see that there is an authority that's 21:40 greater than who we are. 21:43 In other words, real men worship God. Ha-ha. 21:48 It's all right to stand up and worship God. 21:53 But every now and then, men, you ought to let your wife, 21:57 your children, your woman, your girlfriend know, they 22:00 ought to see you, let me be clear, they ought to see you 22:04 on your knees in the presence of God. 22:09 Because when your survival is dependent upon God, if bowing 22:14 down is all I've got to do, guess what, I'll lay out. 22:19 If that's all it takes, I'll lay it all out for the Lord 22:24 and show God, you are in control. 22:26 Do I have a witness in this place? 22:28 Look at Exodus 20, verse 6. 22:31 Go back to verse 6 of Exodus, Chapter 20. 22:33 The Bible says, "And showing mercy unto thousands of them 22:40 that love me." Thousands of them that what, 22:43 everybody? Love me. 22:44 And keep my, what? 22:47 What God is talking about is this. 22:50 If you introduce to your children that God is above 22:56 everything, the creator of the ends of the earth. 23:01 If you pass that down to your children, then your children 23:05 will pass that down to their children. 23:08 Their children will pass that down to their children and 23:12 they will pass it down to their children. 23:15 I'm almost through, but let me get to this point. 23:17 Let me tell you what to do. 23:20 Go on and get the job, get the promotion, make the money, get 23:25 the house, have the clothes, get the car. 23:29 God doesn't care anything about that, as long as you 23:33 don't make that represent who he is. 23:39 Stop going around talking about because you've got a car 23:42 you've got divine favor. 23:44 Because the fact is that a drug dealer has a nicer 23:47 car than yours. 23:49 What kind of favor does he have? 23:53 You've got something they ain't got. 23:56 You've got joy when everybody else around you is sad. 24:01 You've got peace. 24:04 When folks can't sleep at night, you can lay down on 24:07 your bed, go to sleep at night. 24:11 You've got hope in your hopeless situation. 24:13 You've got love of God that transcends all understanding. 24:18 Yes, can anybody say yes tonight? 24:21 Take the name Yahweh. 24:24 Because that is who we worship. 24:28 That's who I worship. 24:29 I am that I am. 24:31 That's what you go home with tonight, that God says, 24:35 I am that I am. 24:38 When folks start talking about where you live and start 24:41 talking about what you've got, tell them, no, no, no, no, no. 24:46 You're looking in the wrong place. 24:48 You're looking at the wrong person. 24:51 I want you to look at the God who owns everything that I 24:57 have, where I live, the keys belong to him. 25:00 What I ride in, the keys belong to him. 25:04 What I wear belongs to him. I am that I am. 25:09 Whatever you need, call on his name, for God says, if you 25:13 want me to free it up, learn how to bow down. 25:19 Bow down before me. 25:21 Quit bowing down to those other idols and bow 25:24 down before me. 25:25 That's all I want you to do. 25:27 Learn how to bow down in my presence. 25:30 Prostrate yourself. 25:33 Lift holy hands. 25:35 Open up your heart. 25:37 Open up your mind. 25:39 Open up your mouth and bless his name. 25:43 And so he says, stop bowing down to these idols. 25:48 Stop worshipping these manmade idols. 25:50 How are you going to worship something I created 25:53 in the first place? I am God and without me there is 26:02 none other. 26:05 PB: I would like to thank you very much for tuning in to the 26:08 Breath of Life telecast today. 26:09 I do hope that you were blessed by the Word of 26:12 God today. 26:14 I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to 26:17 become a partner of the Breath of Life television ministry. 26:20 That's right, you may give a tax deductible donation and 26:25 partner with us as we seek to give hope and peace of mind to 26:28 the dying world in which we live. 26:31 To contact us, feel free to give us a call at 26:33 877-BOL-OFFER. 26:43 Or feel free to write us at the address shown 26:46 on your screen. 26:47 Finally, you can reach us by logging on to our web site at 26:51 www.breathoflife.tv. 26:56 Again, thank you very much for tuning in today and we want to 26:59 thank you in advance for partnering with our ministry. 27:02 May God continue to bless you. 27:05 >: The Breath of Life gift offer this week 27:07 is the book, "The Ten Commandments Under Attack." 27:10 God's law has stirred controversy in recent years, 27:12 so are the Ten Commandments out of date? 27:15 Offensive? 27:15 Find out how the ten commandments lay a solid 27:18 foundation for society and how each commandment is so 27:22 important to us every day. 27:24 Contributing authors include Dwight Nelson, Clifford 27:26 Goldstein and Mike Tucker. 27:28 There is also an introduction by Mark Finley. 27:30 Living by the 10 commandments will bring blessings to us, 27:34 our families and our country. 27:35 "The Ten Commandments Under Attack" is yours for a gift of 27:38 $5 or more. 27:40 Just call our toll-free number 877-BOL-OFFER. 27:44 That's 877-265-6333. 27:49 Please have your credit card ready when you call, or you 27:52 may write us to request your copy. 27:54 Just send your check to Breath of Life, P.O. Box 340, 27:58 Newbury Park, CA 91319. 28:01 Get your copy of "The Ten Commandments Under Attack" 28:03 today. 28:07 PB: Real men worship God. 28:09 Ha-ha. 28:11 Our children will worship what they see you worship. 28:15 Pick me up, turn me around. 28:17 I lay it all out for the Lord. 28:22 How do you draw God? |
Revised 2015-02-05