Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000034
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00:01 ♪ (Theme Song) ♪ ♪ Jesus is worthy ♪
00:11 ♪ oh yes, he's worthy ♪ ♪ worthy of all... ♪ 00:18 ♪ (Music) ♪ PB: Exodus Chapter 20:17. 00:25 The Word of God says to us, "Thou shalt not covet thy 00:33 neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, 00:40 nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor 00:48 his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." 00:57 God, come now in this place, move in this room. 01:02 Father, there are still individuals in the audience, 01:04 still individuals watching who need to be in this number. 01:08 God, move by your powers, sprinkle out your grace. 01:13 Lord, we just want you to be pleased with our praise. 01:17 Forgive me of my sins, hiding behind your cross, make me a 01:23 fit vessel to be used by thee as we proclaim your word. 01:28 In Jesus' name, let everyone say Amen. 01:33 What is this business of coveting? 01:41 Some of you today may be saying that this word 01:45 belongs right where it is, Old Testament antiquity. 01:51 It doesn't apply to me. 01:54 I, Pastor Byrd, don't covet. 01:59 But let me ask that question again. 02:04 If you put a new, contemporary definition to the word covet, 02:07 that word would also mean greedy, and would you then be 02:13 able to say you're not greedy? 02:17 You shall not be greedy for your neighbor's property. 02:22 You shall not be greedy for your neighbor's wife, greedy 02:27 for your neighbor's husband, manservant, maid-servant, 02:31 ox, or other resources. 02:33 You are not to be greedy for that. 02:37 So what does this commandment say to a bunch of people like 02:41 you and like me? 02:43 Does it have a place in the body of Christ? 02:47 To covet simply is, I want what you have, and I'll take 02:56 it by any means necessary. 03:01 To covet is, I want what you have and I'll take it at any 03:05 cost so I can have it, because I want it. 03:08 It's yours but I want to make it mine. 03:11 Some of this comes along because of the way 03:14 we look at life. 03:15 I think we would term it our vision. 03:17 How we look at life really determines how we handle this 03:20 whole issue of what we're going to do with 03:22 another's property. 03:23 The best way to handle an issue that has been invisible 03:25 is to put flesh and blood to it. 03:28 Nobody can do this better than the one named Jesus. 03:33 So take your Bible, go with me, under the premise of thou 03:39 shalt not covet, to the New Testament, 03:43 to the book of Luke. 03:44 Let's put story, life and blood to this issue of covet. 03:49 Go with me to Luke 12:13. 03:56 It is the classical story that Jesus deals with coveting. 04:07 Now to covet, remember, is to I want what you have. 04:12 I want it in my possession. 04:15 I want it for my person. 04:18 In Luke 12, Jesus begins to tell a story about two 04:22 brothers who were having an argument. 04:27 It is apparent by the reading of the text, according to the 04:29 Jewish heritage that the father of these sons 04:32 must have died. 04:34 The older brother has moved into a position as patriarch 04:36 of the family, which gives him the religious rights to 04:39 oversee as trustee the estate that has been planned and set 04:42 aside for the family. 04:44 He is managing the resources that his father has 04:52 left behind. 04:53 Each brother is to receive a certain percentage, but the 04:57 management responsibility belongs to the older brother. 05:02 Now, the younger brother has problems with that. 05:05 What he wants to do is he wants to bring in a mediator 05:08 to oversee the process and see if he can get more out of the 05:15 deal than what his daddy left for him. 05:18 It is apparent that the younger brother is 05:21 disappointed because he doesn't have as much as he 05:23 thinks he should receive. 05:25 So he asks Jesus. 05:27 He addresses Jesus as teacher, and he says to Jesus, would 05:31 you come and oversee this legal dispute that my brother 05:36 and I are having because daddy apparently was not himself 05:39 when he wrote his last will and testament and left 05:43 my brother in charge. 05:45 I know what the Jewish law says. 05:48 I know what Hebrew heritage says. 05:51 I know about the equal and symmetrical distribution of 05:54 resources, but there's something wrong with this. 05:57 I ought to get more than what I have. 06:02 Jesus says, don't drag me into this dispute, because I'm not 06:08 an arbitrator or a referee. 06:11 I've not come on the world's scene to decide who's to get 06:15 one-fourth, one-half, one-third, or one-fifth. 06:21 In fact, you just ought to be grateful that your father even 06:25 included you in the equation. 06:28 But it is clear to me that you have problems, not only with 06:32 your brother, but with your deceased father by saying he 06:37 did not know how to leave behind the right resources 06:40 for his family. 06:41 So you've got an issue that you've got to wait until the 06:44 resurrection to fight with. 06:46 I'm not an arbitrator, I'm not a negotiator, nor am 06:51 I a referee. 06:53 I'm not the one who comes in and settles these disputes. 06:56 Let me give you one word and this word is covetousness. 07:02 He says, watch out. 07:04 If you read this story in your Bible, it's right there. 07:07 Jesus says, watch out, be on guard against all 07:13 kinds of greed. 07:15 He says your life does not consist only in the abundance 07:19 of the possessions that you have. 07:21 But yet, in our society it seems that we predicate one's 07:26 being, one's self, one's work, and one's value based on how 07:31 much one has. 07:33 Consequently, the more one accumulates, the higher we 07:38 value that person's life. 07:40 And they who have not in the world are usually those people 07:45 who walk by and we don't give them much attention or 07:49 credence. 07:50 This has become not only a theological problem, not only 07:53 a sociological problem, but an ecclesiastical problem. 07:56 That is, it has become a problem in the church because, 08:03 I'm faulting us, my colleagues, my self preachers, who handle 08:07 the Word of God, many are standing up 08:11 now and feeding the idea that unless you drive a car 08:15 with two names on the back of it, unless you have a four- or 08:19 five-car garage, unless you have a watch on your wrist 08:24 that has two names on it, unless you wear tailored suit 08:28 this and custom suit that--and let me put a disclaimer here, 08:32 I'm not arguing against having all that, because you all know 08:38 me, but there just seems to be in our world today, even from 08:41 some who claim to preach the Word of God, that if you have 08:44 that you are more valuable than somebody else. 08:48 But let me tell you something. 08:50 You can have all of that and still be morally bankrupt. 08:53 You can have whatever you want to have, but you better know 08:57 something, you and I are living souls. 09:02 Genesis 2:7 says that God took dust of the ground, breathed 09:08 into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a 09:10 living soul, and the day is going to come, sooner than 09:14 later, when your body is going to return to dust, your spirit 09:18 will return to God and your soul will cease to exist. 09:22 Let me be clear, Bible students, today. 09:25 When an individual dies, they don't go to heaven. 09:30 Body go to dust, spirit go to God, soul ceases to exist, 09:39 waiting on the voice of the Life Giver. 09:41 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 09:44 with a shout. 09:45 With the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, 09:47 at that time the dead in Christ shall rise first. 09:50 Then we who are alive remain to be called up together with 09:53 him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall 09:55 we ever be at that time with the Lord. 09:58 But all the material trappings in the world will not bring 10:02 you the eternal comfort that you need. 10:04 What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 10:09 lose his own soul? 10:11 What shall it profit a man to drive the finest car, wear the 10:15 finest clothes, live in the finest home, have the finest 10:20 job and lose his own soul? 10:22 And so your life consists more than in the abundance of 10:27 things you possess. 10:29 Yeah, go get 'em. 10:30 Ain't nothing wrong with that habit if you will. 10:32 If you have the ability and the mental capacity to do it 10:34 and the energy to invest your time and resources, do it. 10:37 But let me be clear today, do not mistake your material 10:40 trappings to be your eternal security. 10:43 Jesus said, I figure you all don't want to talk about greed 10:48 and covet, so he said, let me do it this way. 10:51 Let me tell you a story, because stories have a way of 10:54 sneaking up on you and getting you. 10:56 Well, in case you're not watching out and being on 10:59 guard for all kind of greed and you just assume that I'm 11:02 picking on you, Jesus says, there was a farmer and this 11:05 man had to get the horticulture. 11:08 Agricultural gifts were abundant to him,. 11:11 Every year this man's crops produced bountifully. 11:15 So much so that this man would stand out of on the back of 11:18 his house, look at the beautiful gardens, look at the 11:21 lush vineyard and inhale the ripening grapes, see the 11:24 ripening fields, the ears of corn that had been ripened and 11:28 ready for picking. 11:29 He would look in one corner and see his fig trees. 11:32 In another corner he could smell the grapes and the 11:35 orchards. 11:36 And all around there was nothing but agriculture. 11:39 Every year this man had this, so much so that the man was 11:43 plagued with a problem. 11:46 He said, what am I going to do with all that I've got? 11:51 I guess you say, great problem to have. 11:54 So he decides, he said, this is what I'm going to do. 11:58 I'm going to answer the question architecturally. 12:02 He says, I'm going to build bigger barns, and I'm going to 12:07 bestow my goods. 12:10 I'm going to bestow my fruits. 12:13 It is apparent that this man was rather astute, but I 12:16 wished he had picked up Martin Luther King's writing, 12:19 "Strength of Love" and read the passage because King said, 12:22 rather than putting all these goods in a barn, he could have 12:24 fed the empty stomach of some child and put all of these 12:26 leftovers in, it would have been a good place to invest 12:30 his agriculture. 12:31 But he said no. 12:32 Um-um. 12:34 Not me. 12:34 I'm not giving my goods away. 12:37 I'm going to build more barns. 12:40 And so the man had a construction project going on. 12:44 He built a barn, then a bigger barn, and then yet a bigger 12:47 barn and bigger barns and he had so many barns that he put 12:51 so much food in and than he was plagued again. 12:53 What in this world as I'm going to do with all that I've 12:56 got? 12:57 Grain is pouring out the top windows and breaking out of 13:02 the cracks and crevasses. 13:03 I don't know what to do with all that I have. 13:05 And so if you read the Word of God in this parable of 67 13:09 words, he refers to himself 11 times in personal pronouns. 13:13 I, me, my, mine, and he completely extricated all 13:23 other human beings out of his world. 13:26 He assumed that where he was, he was because he got himself 13:30 there. 13:33 The man had forgotten where he had come from. 13:36 Apparently he wasn't a student of Greek literature. 13:40 He hadn't read any of the Greek classics, he hadn't read 13:42 the Greek story about the snake who wrapped himself 13:45 around the tree, climbed up the tree and looked up. 13:49 He sees his tail wagging and gets envious about what he 13:51 sees. 13:53 So he reaches out and he eats his lower end and he dies 13:57 because he's wrapped up in himself. 14:01 Some of you'll get that when you get home. 14:04 And so this man uses words like independent and 14:09 interdependent. 14:12 I, me, mine, self, that kind of language. 14:16 He had a vernacular that had an appeal to that which was 14:19 personal and he just assumed that somewhere I'm responsible 14:23 for all of this. 14:26 So you know at that moment he was not a man who pays much 14:29 attention to the other world. 14:32 He didn't think out of the right brain. 14:35 Nothing contemplative was about him, because it really 14:38 doesn't take a genius to know that wherever you are in life, 14:41 somebody else helped you get there. 14:44 Somebody paid the way for you. 14:48 That's why, yes, on this Sabbath, even with baptism, 14:52 even with my announcement, I still got to acknowledge Elder 14:54 Wentforth, I still have to acknowledge Lewis, Elder Hill, 14:59 Elder Muzon, because somebody paved the way for me to get 15:04 where I am today. 15:05 Somebody toiled in the sun of existence. 15:10 Let me tell you something, don't you forget where you 15:13 come from. 15:14 Do I have a witness in this place? 15:16 It's like the painting that was hung behind the wall and 15:18 head of Alex Haley in his office for three years, a 15:21 turtle on the fence. 15:24 Beneath it, it said, I didn't get here by myself. 15:29 But there are some of us, we can't even rejoice, we can't 15:34 smile at that because you think where you are, you got 15:37 there by yourself, the success that you've experienced in 15:42 life, that you got there by yourself. 15:45 But let me tell you this, you better check the road that you 15:49 walk. 15:50 There have been some bent backs, some bloody feet, some 15:55 tear-stained eyes that have come along the way to make it 15:57 available for you to be just in a place like this. 16:00 You did not make it here by yourself. 16:04 Folks in the '60s sweat so you can smile. 16:08 They fought so you could be free. 16:11 They marched and gave their lives for voting rights, equal 16:15 rights, and civil rights. 16:17 I've got a problem when we don't register to vote or go 16:20 to vote when there's an election. 16:25 We make big money at our big time job, but some of us don't 16:30 give back anything to the community that has been a 16:33 blessing to us. 16:34 And that's why even with my decision, I can't live the 16:38 life I don't preach, talk about letting me get mine, but 16:41 what about the people? 16:42 I'm not excited about you driving your Rolls Royce. 16:47 I'm not impressed by your Mercedes Benz or your Jag and 16:51 you don't put a dollar back into the place that's been a 16:55 blessing for you. 16:56 You ought to be able to put back into the coffers more 17:01 than what you got on your back, your feet and your 17:05 wrist. 17:06 We want from life but we don't want to give back to life. 17:08 We want to take from our institutions but we don't want 17:11 to give back to our institutions. 17:13 And a whole lot of folk cry that you want more but give 17:16 more because the more you empty your barn, the more God 17:20 will fill up your barn. 17:21 Do I have a witness in this place? 17:23 So I'm about through now. 17:25 I'm just trying to tell a story. 17:28 Keep in mind the word is covet. 17:31 So the man said, I know what I'm going to do. 17:35 I'm going to sit down, I'm going to take it easy, and so 17:38 he does. 17:39 He kicks back in his nice easy chair, lifts his feet, takes 17:45 his weight off his lower half of the body, leans back and 17:48 then he says, hmm. 17:50 He may not have read some things, but it was clear he 17:56 knew some stuff. 17:58 He said, I know what I'll do, I'll eat, I'll drink and I'll 18:05 be merry. 18:06 And you know what I'm going to say? 18:09 In Luke 12:19, "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast 18:15 much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, 18:18 drink and be merry." But you know where the man made his 18:21 big mistake? 18:22 He confused the satisfying of a stomach for the filling of a 18:25 soul. 18:26 Let me say that again. 18:30 He thought if you could fill your stomach, fill your head, 18:36 fill your heart, fill your wallet, or fill your house, 18:40 that it would compensate for your soul. 18:44 But the soul is an eternal vacuum that can only be 18:47 replaced and filled by the presence of an eternal God. 18:52 Paschal said that the human heart is an open vacuum that 18:55 can only be filled by an eternal God. 18:58 Augustine said, God has made us for himself and you can't 19:02 rest until you rest in him. 19:04 Paul Tillich said, your soul has to be connected to an 19:08 ultimate concern. 19:09 You've got to be something bigger than what's down here 19:12 to fill up what's on your inside. 19:14 But I like what Ellen White said. 19:17 She said, God cares for each and every soul as if there 19:22 were not another one on earth for whom he gave his son. 19:27 It's what God meant when God said, I'm not willing that any 19:32 should perish, but all should come to repentance. 19:36 Some of you can't sleep at night. 19:39 Some of you, you're mean, you're miserable, you're mad, 19:45 you're angry. 19:46 Cutting your odds. 19:48 You want more and you've got to have more, and you got more 19:52 than what you know what to do with. 19:54 But you don't know what to do with what you have because 19:56 there's something fundamentally wrong with you 19:59 and it has nothing to do with your money, nothing to do with 20:04 your cash, nothing to do with your resources. 20:08 It's your soul that's hungry. 20:10 When your soul is hungry, you can't sleep at night. 20:15 When your soul is hungry, you can't look on the bright side 20:21 of life. 20:22 When your soul is hungry you can't see the good in people. 20:27 When your soul is hungry you can't stop complaining about 20:32 something. 20:33 When your soul is hungry you can't rejoice on Sabbath 20:38 morning, you can't lift those hands and bless him, you can't 20:42 praise him for what he's done, what he's doing and what he's 20:46 getting ready to do. 20:47 When your soul is hungry you try to fill it up with a whole 20:51 bunch of stuff. 20:52 But, oh, when this man sat down that night, when he sat 20:59 down, he forgot one thing, that there is a common 21:05 denominator that becomes an equalizer to all of us. 21:09 Some call it the Grim Reaper. 21:13 It doesn't matter who you are when this equalizer shows up. 21:16 If you don't believe me, ask Howard Hughes. 21:19 Some of you know Howard Hughes was one time one of the 21:22 richest men in the world. 21:23 Hughes had gotten really peculiar. 21:25 He was over in Acapulco and on his way back he got sick and 21:28 they tried to revive him. 21:29 Thirty-two thousand feet in the air on his Lear jet, but 21:33 death, I found out, can take wings. 21:38 It doesn't matter whether you are on land, air or sea, death 21:42 can catch you where you are. 21:45 The Grim Reaper. 21:47 The common denominator. 21:49 You don't believe me, ask Elvis. 21:51 The King. 21:52 Elvis Presley. 21:54 Elvis will tell you down on a cold marble floor in the 21:58 Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, that you can keep 22:01 all of the people that want to view your mansion out, but 22:04 there's one Grim Reaper who has the access code, who knows 22:10 how to unlock doors, who knows your private number, knows 22:14 where you are. 22:16 Took his life and left him lying right there. 22:19 Ask J. Paul Getty. 22:20 When he was the richest man in the world, he too had become 22:23 peculiar. 22:24 He had bought six killer Alaskan dogs and had put them 22:26 outside the door of his penthouse. 22:29 But one night death walked through the door and left the 22:34 dogs sleeping. 22:36 Death went in, smacked their master out of the bed and when 22:41 other folks showed up, the dogs were still asleep. 22:45 Death is a common denominator. 22:47 He said, I'll say to my soul, soul, you have much laid up 22:53 for many years to eat, drink and be merry. 22:55 But Jesus said in the story, I don't want your barns, 22:59 I don't want your grain, I don't want your property, 23:03 I don't want your manservant. 23:05 I don't want your maid-servant. 23:07 I don't want any of that. 23:08 Today I'm coming to get what belongs to me. 23:13 Your body's going to return to dust, your spirit is going to 23:17 return to God, your soul ceases to exist, and Jesus 23:21 called him a word that's a bad word in the Bible. 23:24 Jesus said, look at the text, thou fool. 23:29 Anybody that is greedy and covet what somebody else has, 23:35 thou fool, because you want what somebody else has. 23:41 You don't even know the price they had to pay 23:43 to get what they've got. 23:45 And most of what we want is accessible and attainable if 23:50 we work and invest and give time to it. 23:53 But a whole lot of us, too many of us, hate on somebody 23:57 else because we want what somebody else has. 24:00 A whole lot of us covet what somebody else has. 24:04 But let me be clear today, you don't know how many 24:08 tears they shed at night. 24:09 You don't know the number of nights they couldn't sleep. 24:12 You don't know the days they had to go without light, 24:16 no food, no car. 24:18 You just don't know. 24:20 You don't know how many dark roads they had to walk. 24:23 You don't know about their valleys, their shadows, 24:26 their deaths. 24:27 You don't know about their hurts, their disappointments 24:30 and disconcertion. 24:31 You don't know the price that they paid, thou fool! 24:35 Quit hating. 24:37 Quit envying. 24:40 Quit resenting. 24:42 Quit begrudging. 24:45 Quit coveting. 24:47 And say, like I've had to say this week, 24:51 what God has for me, it is for me. 25:00 But the day is going to come, y' all, when God is going to 25:04 ask us to give an account of ourselves and there are two 25:08 words that are going to come. 25:11 If you're right with God you're going to hear faithful, 25:16 but if you're out of relationship with God, you're 25:19 going to hear foolish. 25:21 And I don't know about you, but I want to hear 25:23 God say faithful. 25:25 I don't want to live and die a fool. 25:31 So today, do you believe in God? 25:38 And if you do, if the answer is yes, then thou good and 25:46 faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few things. 25:51 God says, I'll make thee ruler over many things. 25:57 Leave other folks' stuff alone, because while you're 26:03 getting your new car, while you're getting your new house, 26:07 while you're making your bank account fat, while you're 26:10 getting some investments, make sure you get some God. 26:16 Get some Jesus that can stand the test of time. 26:21 PB: My name is Dr. Carlton T. 26:23 Byrd and I'm the senior pastor of the Berean Seventh-Day 26:27 Adventist Church here in Atlanta, Georgia. 26:29 I'm also privileged to be the speaker director of the Breath 26:32 of Life television ministry. 26:33 So when you see the Berean church, you're also seeing 26:37 Breath of Life television because we are one and the 26:39 same. 26:40 While in the Atlanta area, we invite you to come and visit 26:43 us as we worship the Lord together. 26:46 Our midweek worship service is on Wednesday evening 26:50 at 7:00 p.m. 26:52 and then we have two worship experiences 26:54 on Saturday morning. 26:54 The first worship experience begins at 8:45 a.m. 26:58 and the second worship experience begins 27:02 at 11:30 a.m. So, visit us. 27:03 We're located at 291 Hamilton E. Holmes Drive, 27:07 here in the city of Atlanta. 27:09 Also, you may feel free to log onto our web site, 27:12 www.atlantabereansda.org or www.breathoflife.tv. 27:19 May God continue to bless you. 27:21 >: The Breath of Life gift offer this week is the book, 27:24 "The Ten Commandments Under Attack." God's law has stirred 27:27 controversy in recent years. 27:28 So, are the ten commandments out of date? 27:31 Offensive? 27:31 Find out how the ten commandments lay a solid 27:34 foundation for society and how each commandment is so 27:38 important to us every day. 27:39 Contributing authors include Dwight Nelson, Clifford 27:42 Goldstein and Mike Tucker. 27:44 There's also an introduction by Mark Finley. 27:46 Living by the ten commandments will bring blessings to us, 27:49 our families and our country. 27:51 "The Ten Commandments Under Attack" is yours for a gift of 27:54 $5 or more. 27:55 Just call our toll-free number: 877-BOL-OFFER. 28:00 That's 877-265-633. 28:04 Please have your credit card ready when you call. 28:07 Or you may write us to request your copy. 28:10 Just send your check to Breath of Life, P.O. Box 340, 28:14 Newbury Park, CA 91319. 28:17 Get your copy of "The Ten Commandments 28:19 Under Attack" today. 28:21 PB: It's your soul that's hungry. 28:25 You did not make it here by |
Revised 2015-02-05