Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000047
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00:00 (Island Music) PB: Hello.
00:02 My name is Dr. Carlton Byrd and I'm the speaker director 00:04 of the Breath of Life television ministry. 00:07 Right now I'm standing on the beautiful island of Bermuda. 00:10 That's right, Breath of Life is in the county of Bermuda. 00:14 This wonderful island nation of 20 miles long, pink sand, 00:18 beautiful beaches, palm trees, it's just paradise on earth. 00:24 But when I think about how beautiful it is, I say to 00:28 myself, God must have something even that much 00:31 better for us because the Word of God says, eyes have not 00:36 seen, neither have ears heard the things that God 00:39 hath prepared for them that love him. 00:41 Heaven is going to be that much better than this, and 00:44 while I can come here and vacation, I can come here and 00:47 swim and jet ski, we've come, Breath of Life has, to preach 00:52 the Word of God. 00:53 That's right, we're here for their campmeeting and we're 00:55 preaching that Jesus Christ loves us and he 00:58 is soon to return. 01:00 May God bless you as you watch as we minister 01:04 to you to tell a dying world that Jesus saves. 01:09 ♪ (Music) ♪ ♪ (Theme Song) ♪ 01:16 ♪ Jesus is worthy. . . ♪ ♪ oh yes, he's worthy. . . ♪ 01:24 ♪ worthy of all... ♪ ♪ all the praise. ♪ 01:31 PB: You ought to thank God for his mercy. 01:36 Let me tell you something. 01:38 Somebody today, you got your car through 01:42 the mercies of God. 01:43 Your credit was bad, it was jacked up, but God had mercy 01:47 and gave you a car anyway. 01:49 Every time you get in your car you ought to say, 01:51 thank you, Jesus. 01:52 You ought to drive down Middle Road talking 01:54 about thank you, Jesus. 01:56 Everybody else is honking their horn trying to get into 01:58 town saying bad stuff in traffic, you ought to lift 02:01 those hands and bless him and say, thank you for your mercy. 02:04 You ought to drive down the road, thank you, 02:06 Jesus, praise the Lord. 02:07 Folk will think you're crazy, but you know if it had not 02:09 been for God's mercy you'd still be walking 02:15 around somewhere. 02:16 Did he give you mercy? 02:17 Let me talk about somebody else. 02:18 I'm going to stay here for a while because you all still 02:20 don't understand. 02:21 Many of you could be in jail right now, could be locked up 02:25 on prison cell block B or A or C or D, trying to get this 02:29 service on the Internet only if the warden said 02:32 it was okay. 02:32 But God gave you mercy. 02:34 You're living in mercy. 02:36 You're driving in mercy. 02:37 Your apartment is mercy. 02:39 Your house is mercy. 02:41 Your job is mercy. 02:42 Your marriage is mercy. 02:44 Your relationship with your son and your daughter 02:46 is mercy. 02:47 Nothing but the mercy of God. 02:49 Should have been dead, should have been strung out 02:52 somewhere, but God gave you mercy. 02:56 Anybody who's been through what you've been through 02:58 should have lost their mind, but when you were falling 03:01 apart and you were talking out of your head, mercy came down 03:04 and rescued you. 03:06 You went to bed weeping at night, but mercy woke you up 03:10 in the morning, gave you joy. 03:12 Mercy came to you late at night in your bed. 03:15 Somebody ought to thank him for his mercy. 03:19 Mercy gave you another chance. 03:22 Mercy gave you health, mercy gave you strength. 03:25 That's why you can't afford to be cute. 03:27 I will bless the Lord at all times. 03:29 His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 03:31 Somebody ought to praise him right now for his mercy. 03:33 You ought to tell someone, excuse me, I've got to praise 03:37 him for his mercy right now. 03:38 You see, when people raise their hands, you don't 03:40 know what they're raising their hands about. 03:42 When people stand up and shout, you don't know 03:44 what they're shouting about. 03:45 God gave somebody mercy over their daughter, mercy over 03:48 their son, mercy over those grandbabies, mercy, 03:51 mercy, mercy. 03:55 Let me tell you. 03:58 Let me hurry up and get off this. 04:01 I don't need all of you. 04:02 I just need 10 praising folks who don't care what anybody 04:04 thinks, who don't care what anybody has on, who don't care 04:06 what side of town you live on. 04:08 You're just glad you're not in a hospital somewhere, you're 04:10 just glad you don't have a nervous breakdown somewhere, 04:13 that you don't have needles sticking out of your arms, 04:15 that you're not in a jail cell somewhere. 04:17 Give me some radical folk who don't mind thanking 04:22 God for his mercies. 04:27 So Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the 04:32 mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living what? 04:37 Sacrifice. 04:42 Let me teach some more. 04:45 In the Old Testament we had an Old Testament 04:47 sacrificial system. 04:49 Let's be clear. 04:51 As a Seventh-Day Adventist Christian fifth generation, 04:55 both paternally and maternally, the Seventh-Day 05:01 Adventist Church has many doctrines, the Sabbath, the 05:06 Second Coming, the State of the Dead, our health message. 05:09 But the one distinct doctrine of the Seventh-Day Adventist 05:15 Church is the doctrine of the Sanctuary. 05:21 And we've got to teach our young people the 05:24 doctrine of the Sanctuary. 05:27 Back in the day we had an Old Testament sacrificial system, 05:33 an Old Testament sanctuary understand, 05:36 but then came Jesus. 05:39 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins 05:42 of the world. 05:44 It was Jesus who died for my sin. 05:47 It was Jesus who offered up himself as a sacrifice. 05:51 He was both the offerer and the offering. 05:56 Oh, I can't get a witness in this place. 05:59 What does that mean, Pastor Byrd. 06:01 I'm glad you asked. 06:02 Jesus is not only my attorney pleading my case, but Jesus 06:08 is the judge who will decide my case. 06:13 The same one that's arguing my case is the same one 06:17 that's going to judge my case. Hallelujah. 06:21 So Jesus is both the high priest and the Lamb of God. 06:24 He went in by himself, went up himself, the propitiation 06:29 for our sins. 06:31 And because Jesus died for me, because Jesus bled for me, 06:35 I don't need anybody to go in for me, I can go in by myself. 06:39 I don't have to tell you what I did so you can go in and get 06:49 forgiveness for me, but I can go in boldly by myself and I 06:57 can go in to the throne of grace and obtain mercy. 07:04 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 07:09 us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 07:14 The text says, present your bodies a living what? 07:18 Sacrifice. 07:20 Let me teach some more. 07:24 Now a dead sacrifice was a forbidden sacrifice, because 07:28 priests couldn't touch dead things. 07:32 It had to be a living sacrifice. 07:35 In the tabernacle when you came through the door 07:39 there was a piece of furniture called the altar 07:43 of burnt offering. 07:44 The sacrifice had to be laid on the altar alive. 07:47 The sacrifice was on the altar still wiggling. 07:51 If it were not wiggling when it was offered up 07:54 it was not accepted. 07:55 This is why, friends of mine, Abraham brought his son Isaac 07:58 alive to Mount Mariah that he might become a living 08:06 sacrifice and offered up for sin. 08:09 This is why Jesus couldn't die on the whipping post before he 08:13 got to the cross because he had to be a living sacrifice. 08:16 Somebody say a living sacrifice. 08:19 If it were dead, God couldn't touch it. 08:21 It had to be a living sacrifice. 08:23 Expand your mind. 08:26 Think about it. 08:28 When Isaac was offered up to be a sacrifice, 08:31 Isaac was not a little boy. 08:34 Isaac was old enough to resist the will of his father. 08:41 Remember, Abraham had Isaac at an old age. 08:46 Isaac could have taken Abraham out. 08:50 But he became obedient unto death, because he had to be a 08:55 picture of Christ who was to come. 08:57 Not somebody who was taken against their will, but 09:00 somebody who was obedient unto death and became 09:03 a living sacrifice. 09:06 And so, expand your mind and understand with me. 09:09 They asked Isaac, Brother Isaac, how could you do it? 09:14 Isaac said, it would have been better for me not to have been 09:17 born than for me to have been born and not do 09:20 the will of God. 09:22 So here comes a grown man climbing up on the sacrifice. 09:31 He says, Daddy, I've seen the knife, I see the wood, 09:37 but where's the sacrifice? 09:42 And there Isaac is, laid up on the altar as his old man 09:47 father begins to strap down his son, a living sacrifice. 09:56 Tied to something that's killing you and that's 10:03 what it means to be a living sacrifice. 10:06 That if you walk with God, sooner or later, sometime 10:11 in your life the will of God will tie you to something 10:16 that's killing you. 10:22 But yet you've got to be willing to be 10:27 a living sacrifice. 10:30 When Jesus told his disciples that you're going to have 10:33 to be willing to take up your cross and follow me, we think 10:37 he was talking about wood, but the cross that you live on 10:40 is not wood. 10:42 Let me bowl down your alley. 10:45 Somebody's cross is a child who won't obey and you're 10:50 loving a child that won't love you back, and you're tied to 10:55 it, you can't get away from it and say whatever you want, 11:00 but if it weren't for that child you wouldn't 11:02 pray like you pray, you wouldn't fast like 11:06 you fast, you wouldn't be in church like you're in church. 11:11 But God--listen to me--is using that disobedient child 11:13 to make you a living sacrifice. 11:15 Do I have a witness in this place? 11:18 Let me go somewhere else. 11:21 Somebody today is married to some egotistical, 11:26 inconsiderate, thoughtless, selfish somebody 11:30 and you're tied to it. 11:32 And there you are praying for other people's marriages and 11:37 they're getting healed and going on second honeymoons to 11:40 Bermuda, but you're going home to be a living sacrifice. 11:49 Haven't been loved in years. 11:52 You're a living sacrifice. 11:53 Yeah, you come to church, dressed up, smell good, have 11:56 perfume on, wearing your hat, wearing your suit, looking 12:00 good, hair done, nails done, but yet you've got a cross 12:03 at your home. 12:05 And in the spirit of equal opportunity, there's a man 12:08 who's married to a woman who treats him like a dog, but yet 12:11 you work with a woman who thinks you're wonderful. 12:14 Getting quiet in the church. 12:19 Get off work and you ride in your car as slow as you can 12:25 go, because you know when you get home there's a cross 12:31 waiting for you. 12:32 I see a brother laughing. 12:34 I know you can't say anything in here because some of you 12:37 all are sitting right next to your cross right now. 12:44 I'll look the other way. 12:48 But let me tell you this, God knows exactly what kind of 12:53 cross you need to kill your flesh and God 12:58 will tie you to it. 13:02 He will tie you to a job, somebody else, where you keep 13:06 training other people and they keep getting the position you 13:08 trained them for and you're being mistreated, but yet you 13:12 can't quit because you're tied to it. 13:18 This is where you learn humility. 13:22 This is where you really learn how to pray, where on your 13:25 cross you say, Father, forgive them for they know 13:30 not what they do. 13:31 This is where you actually learn what it means 13:34 to be a living sacrifice. 13:36 This is where you learn how to give God 13:39 the sacrifice of praise. 13:41 You're emotionally frustrated, financially frustrated, 13:45 socially frustrated, and you're up there talking about 13:48 Hallelujah and Amen in church, but people just don't know. 13:54 It's the sacrifice of praise. 13:58 You come to church by yourself. 14:01 Single at 20 wasn't bad, at 30 it was okay, at 40 all right, 14:12 but now 50 and you're taking yourself out to dinner, buying 14:19 yourself something for Valentine's Day. 14:23 You're tired of seeing other folks get cards and gifts 14:26 and candy and flowers. 14:28 You're sick of it. 14:30 But let me tell you something. 14:31 I'm not here for a marriage seminar, but let me throw 14:33 this in free of charge. 14:35 It's better to be happily unmarried than to be 14:37 unhappily married. 14:42 I wish I had a witness in this place. 14:47 ♪ [Organ music] ♪ But you're sick 14:49 of seeing other folk find somebody and you can't. 14:53 I'm preaching to your needs now. 14:56 People don't know you're hurting. 14:59 You come to church, good morning, happy Sabbath, 15:01 welcome to Hamilton, welcome to South Hampton, welcome to 15:03 Restoration, welcome to Rockaway, welcome to 15:06 Summerset, St. George's, St. David's, Pembrook ward, 15:10 Devonshire, saving the best for last. 15:12 Come on, say Amen. 15:19 Eleventh, Midland Heights, you pastor that church. 15:29 Come on, say Amen. 15:33 And you go and say happy Sabbath. 15:37 But folk don't know that beneath your smile 15:42 you're a living sacrifice. 15:49 But I heard Job say something. 15:55 What you say, Brother Job? 15:57 Though he slay me, yet, yet, yet will I trust in him. 16:11 It's not working out right, but I'm still going 16:14 to trust him. 16:15 I'm not happy but I'm still going to trust him. 16:18 I'm frustrated but I'm still going to trust him. 16:21 I'm a living sacrifice because God can't use a dead 16:25 sacrifice, God wants a living sacrifice. 16:33 And so, God can't use anything that is dead. 16:38 A whole lot of folk in the church, but they're dead. 16:42 Whole lot of folk have their names on the role, 16:44 but they're dead. 16:46 In the number, but dead. 16:47 No zeal, no life, no enthusiasm, no Pentecostal 16:50 fire for the Lord, just dead, and that don't mean everybody 16:53 got to jump up and down, do cartwheels and flips either, 16:55 but when the spirit of the Lord says something, either 16:58 pray, praise, nod, moan, meditate, do something. 17:01 Are you hearing what I'm saying? 17:03 So many folk sit in a sea of shouting, bathing in an ocean 17:06 of the Holy Ghost, but yet they sit as stiff as a corpse 17:10 and as cold as a cadaver, the frozen chosen, but God 17:15 doesn't want anything dead. 17:18 God's not dead. 17:20 God's alive. 17:22 So if we sing, how great is our God, God's alive. 17:25 If we sing, what a friend we have in Jesus, God is alive. 17:28 If we sing, I come to the garden alone while the dew is 17:32 still on the roses and the voice I hear falling onto my 17:34 ear, I'm alive. 17:36 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 17:50 God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, 17:53 holy and acceptable unto God--now let's deal with the 17:57 last part of the text, then I'll sit down. 18:01 God wants holy sacrifices, not unholy sacrifices. 18:07 And don't get it twisted, because there's a difference 18:09 between holy and unholy sacrifices, because everything 18:12 that talks like holy is not holy, everything that walks 18:16 like holy is not holy, everything that acts 18:19 like holy is not holy. 18:20 Everything that shouts like holy is not holy. 18:24 Holiness expresses the awesomeness of who God is 18:27 and how God is working in our life. 18:29 Unholiness is what people pass off as religion that is 18:31 designed to impress others about something 18:33 about ourselves. 18:34 When you go to church and you give so that somebody else 18:37 sees what you put in the offering plate, that's 18:39 designed to impress. 18:41 When you carry your Bible just so folk can see you carry 18:47 your Bible, that's designed to impress. 18:50 When you come to church just to be seen, that's designed 18:53 to impress. 18:56 But when you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy 19:00 and acceptable unto God, you're not trying to impress, 19:03 but you're trying to express. 19:05 Express how much you love God. 19:07 Express how you'll do any and everything for God. 19:11 Express how you will obey God. 19:12 Express how you know God, because to know him is to love 19:16 him, to love him is to obey him, to obey him is to worship 19:21 him, and they that worship him, thus worship him in 19:23 spirit and in truth. 19:28 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 19:30 God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, 19:32 holy and acceptable unto God, which is your 19:34 reasonable service. 19:37 Service is the rent we pay for the space that we occupy 19:41 in the world. 19:43 To show you I've been to school, the word service is in 19:47 the Greek, the word latreia, which is defined by the words 19:52 ministry, service or worship. 19:54 God wants us to present our body as a living sacrifice, 19:58 holy and acceptable unto God which is our 20:00 reasonable worship. 20:01 In other words, what God wants is not just worship for the 20:04 sake of worship. 20:06 God wants reasonable worship. 20:09 Now, the word reasonable is derived from the Greek word 20:13 logikos, which comes from root word, logical. 20:18 Paul then is saying that God requires logical worship. 20:21 God requires worship that is as a result 20:24 of rational activity. 20:26 God requires worship that is the product of a reasoning, 20:29 functioning mind. 20:30 It's my made-up mind that makes me want to say Amen. 20:33 It's my baptized brain that makes me want to shout. 20:38 I teach in a master's program at Oakwood University and I 20:41 tell the preachers all the time, preaching is not just 20:44 decibel level. 20:47 Preaching is not just shouting. 20:50 If you're going to shout, say something worth 20:53 shouting about. 20:55 Because God is the author of intelligence. 20:59 God does not want anything that is haphazard. 21:02 God doesn't want anything that is less than the best. 21:04 God wants logical, rational, intelligent, 21:07 reasonable worship. 21:10 Worship that makes you want to say Amen, but worship that 21:14 also makes you want to say ah-ha. 21:17 Worship that makes you want to shout, but worship also that 21:20 makes you want to serve. 21:22 Worship that makes you, yes, want to clap, but worship that 21:26 also makes you want to care. 21:28 Worship is not worship until you do something. 21:33 Worship is not worship until you volunteer for service in 21:37 the Lord's army. 21:38 Worship is not worship until you put your hand 21:42 on the plow and hold on. 21:43 Worship is not worship until you say, for Christ I'll live, 21:47 but for Christ I'll also die. 21:50 Worship is not worship until you say, to obey is better 21:54 than to sacrifice. 21:57 Worship is not worship until you tell the Lord, God, if you 22:02 need me, here am I, send me. 22:08 Worship is not worship until you're able to lean and depend 22:10 on whom you worship. 22:12 So, when you can't understand, worship him. 22:19 When you can't see your way, worship him. 22:23 When what he asks is more than what you have to give, 22:29 worship him. 22:30 When you must surrender that for which you would give life 22:34 itself, worship him. 22:37 When you feel like giving up, throwing in the towel, 22:43 worship him. 22:45 When mama doesn't understand, worship him. 22:50 When daddy doesn't understand, worship him. 22:54 When the church doesn't understand, worship him. 23:02 When the preacher doesn't understand, worship him. 23:07 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 23:14 God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 23:24 holy and acceptable unto God which is your 23:28 reasonable service. 23:30 So, O come, let us worship, let us bow down before 23:34 the Lord, our maker. 23:36 I was glad when they said it to me, let us go into the 23:42 house of the Lord. 23:45 O taste and see that the Lord is good, his mercy 23:51 endureth forever. 23:54 Worship the Lord and praise his holy name. 23:58 Praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of 24:03 his power, praise him for his mighty act, praise him 24:07 according to his excellent greatness. 24:10 Praise him at the sound of the trumpet and the psaltery and 24:14 the harp, timbrel and the dance, string 24:16 instruments and organ. 24:18 Praise him with loud cymbals, high sounding cymbals. 24:22 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, 24:24 praise ye the Lord. 24:27 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye land. 24:30 Serve the Lord with gladness. 24:33 Come before his presence with singing. 24:36 Know that it is he that has made us and not we ourselves. 24:39 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, to his 24:44 courts with praise. 24:46 Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good. 24:53 I said, the Lord is good. 24:56 His mercy is everlasting. 25:02 His truth endures to all generations. 25:12 Why it was that in 1999, coming up on 12 years in my 25:22 life now, why it would be that my lovely wife and I would be 25:27 on our way to preach at another church in the United 25:30 States and we get in a catastrophic car accident and 25:33 our four-and-a-half month old baby girl be killed? 25:36 Why did that happen? 25:37 I don't know why God allowed it. 25:42 I felt like throwing in the towel. 25:47 But getting into ministry, yeah, I've been taught the 25:49 Sabbath and it's right. 25:52 Yes, I have been taught the State of the Dead 25:55 and it's right. 25:57 Yes, I have been taught that my body is the temple of God 26:00 and it was right, but I felt like throwing in the towel. 26:10 Twelve years later, twelve years, God has taken my pain 26:22 and turned it into power for his glory. 26:26 He's taken that valley in my life and turned it into 26:29 victory for his glory. 26:31 So, no, my little baby girl is not in heaven right now 26:35 looking down on me. 26:39 But at the coming of Jesus, the Bible says that the dead 26:45 in Christ are going to rise first and we which are alive 26:50 and remain are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in 26:54 the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 26:57 So if God's gotta tie me to this ministry, then tie me to 27:00 this ministry. 27:01 I love the Lord. 27:03 I won't take it back. 27:04 He's been so good to me. 27:11 Hallelujah, somebody. 27:12 >: The Breath of Life gift offer this week is "Help in 27:14 Daily Living," a practical guide to everyday blessings 27:17 by renown Christian author Ellen G. White. 27:20 The book contains four powerful chapters on having 27:23 true and lasting relationships, developing 27:26 godly characters, walking a practical daily faith that 27:29 brings blessings, and staying the course of being 27:32 a light in the darkness until the Lord returns. 27:34 You'll discover the benefits of trials, the importance of 27:36 little things, the influence of living a consistent 27:39 Christian life, and the joy of the Lord. 27:42 "Help in Daily Living" is yours for a gift of $5.00 or more. 27:45 Just call our toll-free number, 877-BOL-OFFER. 27:49 That's 877-265-6333. 27:52 Please have your credit card ready when you call. 27:55 Or you may write us to request your copy. 27:58 Just send your check to Breath of Life, P.O. Box 340, 28:01 Newbury Park, CA 91319. 28:04 Break out of the ordinary life and into the extraordinary 28:07 life God intended for you to live. 28:09 Get your copy of "Help in Daily Living" today. 28:13 PB: You ought to thank God for his mercies. 28:20 It would have been better for me not to have been born than 28:24 for me to have been born and |
Revised 2015-02-06