Are you looking for an exciting
change in your life? Well, get
ready for a breath of new life.
00:00:01.80\00:00:06.00
Today Dr. Byrd speaks on
the topic All Lives Matter." And
00:00:06.00\00:00:11.50
now, here he is,
speaker/director of Breath of
Life Ministries, Dr. Carlton
00:00:11.50\00:00:18.76
Byrd. Matthew chapter 22, verse
number 36. The Word of God says
to us today, "Master, which is
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the great commandment in the
law? Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with
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all thy" what? Heart. PB:
With all thy what? Aud.: Heart
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"And with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment.
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And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thy" what? Aud.: Self.
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"On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets."
Father God, now for the next
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couple of moments speak to Your
people. Hide them behind Your
cross. Immerse me in Your Holy
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Ghost. God, we promise You
through it all we will love You,
because we thank You for loving
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us. When the appeal time comes,
Lord, I want to be shaped, but
Lord, You do Your work, and I
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praise You in advance for what
You're going to do. In the name
of Jesus we pray, Amen. All
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lives matter. All lives matter.
For the past few months we've
heard black lives matter. We've
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heard hands up, don't shoot.
We've heard, I can't breathe.
We've even heard how to get away
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with murder. Many Americans,
both blacks and whites, who have
echoed these statements thought
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that the racial tensions of the
1960s were behind us. Many
believed that we were entering a
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post-racial era with the
election of President Barack
Obama in 2008 as the first black
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president of the United States.
Some naively believed that Jim
Crowe was over. That the
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segregated South was done. And
we were living in an era of
freedom, free will and
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forgiveness. But then came
February 26, 2012. Trayvon
Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old
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black male, is walking with
friends home from a 7-11 store
after buying Skittles and an
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Arizona-brand,
watermelon-flavored drink.
George Zimmerman, a non-black
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neighborhood watchman
volunteered. Better termed, I
believe, as a self-proclaimed
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vigilante, calls the local
police department to report a
suspicious person walking
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through the neighborhood. The
police tell Zimmerman, stay in
your car. Their words were
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clear: Don't follow the young
man. and manslaughter charges
and Zimmerman goes free. Then
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came July 17, 2014. Unarmed
black man, Eric Garner, is
simply walking the streets in
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Staten Island, New York. White
officers approach him. Garner
tells them, Single cigarettes
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from packs without tax stamps.
An officer, Daniel Pantaleo,
puts Garner in a chokehold.
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Garner yells, the officer goes
free. The next month, August 9,
2014, Ferguson, Missouri, is the
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city. An unarmed 18-year-old,
backs us his police cruiser on
the city street. An altercation
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ensues with Brown and Wilson
struggling through the window of
the police vehicle. Wilson fires
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his gun. Brown seeks to flee.
Brown's friend hides. Wilson
pursues Brown, and fires a total
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of 12 rounds. Brown is dead.
What's even more chilling is the
fact that his body lay in the
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streets for four hours. Wilson
is not indicted. Wilson goes
free. Then, on November 22,
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2014, a 12-year-old black boy,
Tamir Rice, is playing with a
pellet gun by himself in an
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empty Cleveland, Ohio, park. A
video of the incident captures a
police squad car racing up. A
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white officer, Timothy Loehmann,
jumps out of the car, fires his
gun and shoots the boy. All of
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this happens in two seconds. The
cop said he shouted from the car
for the child to put the weapon
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down. How, in two seconds? But
even before the cop got to the
scene, the neighborhood resident
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who called the police in the
first place told the police
twice that the gun was probably
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fake. Rice dies the next day.
The gun was a toy. His death is
ruled a homicide by the county
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medical examiner. It is later
discovered that Loehmann, the
police officer, in his previous
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job as a policeman in another
Ohio city, had been deemed
emotionally unstable and unfit
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for duty. The deaths of Martin,
Garner, Brown and Rice sparked
outrage and unrest in the United
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States and abroad. Questions of
black genocide become more
prevalent each and every day.
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The phrase "black lives matter"
is heard across the country.
Some people applaud the
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protests. Other people condemn
the protests. I get concerned
when people condemn proper,
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peaceful protests because let's
be clear today: it's because of
black America's protests in the
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'60s that all of us benefit
today. I get concerned when I
hear people say, If you're
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white, you're all right. If
you're yellow, you're mellow. If
you're brown, stick around; but
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if you're black, get back. I
don't have to get back for
anybody. I am somebody. God made
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me in God's image after God's
own likeness. Do I have a
witness in this place? [Aud.
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reaction] PB: Before Trayvon
Martin's death, before the
summer of 2014, before we saw
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Eric Garner lying on a Staten
Island street, before Michael
Brown was lifeless in a pool of
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blood in the Missouri sun for
hours, we may have lulled
ourselves into believing that a
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struggle was over. That it had
all been taken care of, back in
the '60s. We must keep our
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faith, even as we work to make
our country live up to its
creed. And we must know deep
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within our bones and deep within
our hearts that if our ancestors
could survive the Middle
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Passage, then we could survive
anything. Why? Black lives, they
do matter." It's shocking that
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such a slogan would have to be
spoken in the first place, but
too often in the history of our
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country and racial incidents
like Martin and Garner and Brown
and Rice speak otherwise. So in
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case you didn't know, that's why
we have protests. That's why we
have sit-ins. That's why we have
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die-ins. That's why so many
people are frustrated--not just
because of Trayvon, not just
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because of Eric, not just
because of Michael or Tamir's
deaths, but because of a
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pervasive sense of injustice.
Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere. But
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friends of mine, today it's not
just about black lives. It's all
lives. [Aud. reaction] PB: All
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lives matter. Police killings of
unarmed black men are not an
isolated problem. They are the
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logical outcome of a system
predicated upon the notion that
some lives simply don't matter.
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For 400 years there has been a
struggle for black people to be
treated with equality with mind,
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thought and in Let me be clear:
Whites will trample over whites
to get to the top. Whites will
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trample over blacks to get to
the top. Blacks will trample
over whites to get to the top.
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And Blacks will trample over
fellow blacks to get to the top.
We call it the crab mentality.
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Today, it's not either or in
reference to blacks and whites,
but it's both and. chemicals; 60
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percent of us are not even
registered to vote; 35 percent
of us are unemployed; and there
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is, friends of mine, a
conspiracy though, led by the
devil to destroy the black man,
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the white man, the yellow and
the red man. Society is trying
to eliminate each other, but the
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devil is trying to tear us all
up. That's why two non-black
police officers sitting in their
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more people died yesterday in a
hostage standoff in a grocery
store in Paris by a black man
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and a white woman. Nowhere in
Scripture is there any
indication that black people, or
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any other people whether of
color or not, are outside the
embrace of God's love. [Aud.
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reaction] Ham's son, Noah's
grandson, who Noah cursed. Noah
cursed Canaan because Canaan's
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father, Ham, saw Noah naked.
Genesis 9:25 says Canaan's
descendants would be servants of
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servants. But this servitude had
nothing to do with race or skin
color, because neither race or
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skin color is ever mentioned.
[Aud. reaction] The devil is
alive. [Aud. reaction] Let's go
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further back, even before the
incarnate Jesus came to this
earth. Let's go to the
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motherland, let's go back to
Africa. Too often we forget that
God was involved in Africa long
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before God was even known in
Europe. A lot of folk have
problems with that because they
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believe, friends of mine, they
believe that they don't think of
God as choosing an African to
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make a difference. But when
God's African people were being
oppressed by another group of
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African people, known as Pharaoh
and the Egyptians, God chose to
bring their deliverance through
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Moses. Another African, who had
to stand up and demand freedom
for his people. The black race
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is not cursed. When I read the
Bible, I find it very
interesting Slavery in this
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nation began in 1607, when the
Pilgrims settled in Jamestown,
Virginia, and it took 402 years
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for the color of a slave to be
the color of the president of
this nation. The black race is
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not cursed, but racism has been
a foundation cornerstone of this
nation from the very beginning.
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Say all you want about our
nation's vision for freedom and
liberty and justice, but you
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have to understand it only
applied to the Founding Fathers
in their eyes. Because the same
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Founding Fathers who preached
liberty had slaves in their
homes. They used slaves to get
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rich, and slaves for their own
sexual desires. Read about
Thomas Jefferson, third
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president of the United States.
Read about his black family with
Sally Hemings. Read about
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Senator Strom Thurmond, one of
the great voices of Jim Crowe
laws and segregation. He was a
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governor of South Carolina,
elected to the senate. He was
opposed to the Civil Rights
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Movement, yet he carried the
secret of having a black child
born when a black mother was 16
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years of age. But the Bible does
not focus on skin color as a
form of criterion for the love
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of God. All have sinned, all
have come short of the glory of
God. All are the recipients of
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God's grace through Jesus
Christ. For Jesus, all lives
matter. Red and yellow, black
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and white, all are precious in
His sight. Jesus said in the
text, "Thou shalt love the Lord
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thy God with all thy heart, with
all they soul and with all thy
mind. This is the first and
00:18:55.73\00:19:03.73
great commandment. The second is
liken to it, thou shall love
they neighbor as thy" what?
00:19:03.73\00:19:13.16
Aud.: Self. "On these two
commandments hang the law and
the prophets." These two
00:19:13.16\00:19:19.60
commandments we teach are just
extensions of the Ten
Commandments Law in Exodus. The
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first four deal with our love
for God; the final six deal with
our love for one another. In the
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text, "great," in essence, means
greatest. The text says that the
first and the greatest
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commandment was to love God. So
the Pharisees exalted the first
four commandments as being more
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important than the last six. But
they failed, when it came to
matters of practical religion.
00:19:51.13\00:19:59.60
Don't be so heavily minded that
you're no earthly good. Don't be
so enthralled by theory that you
00:19:59.60\00:20:04.80
forget application. Don't be so
engrossed in religion that you
don't understand relationship.
00:20:04.80\00:20:11.20
Don't be so entrenched in
legalism that you don't know
what it means to love. Well, you
00:20:11.20\00:20:20.60
weren't married. You slept
around. You got pregnant. The
law says, put you out of the
00:20:20.60\00:20:26.46
church. But don't judge somebody
just because they sin
differently than you. [Aud.
00:20:26.46\00:20:32.83
reaction] What happened to the
love that would bring that
person back to the church? Yes,
00:20:32.83\00:20:40.26
thou shalt love the Lord thy
God, but you've got to love each
other, too. Thou shalt love thy
00:20:40.26\00:20:43.83
neighbor as thyself. Thy
homeless neighbor; thy black
neighbor; thy white neighbor;
00:20:43.83\00:20:54.46
that Muslim neighbor; that
Jewish neighbor; that Christian
neighbor; that Catholic
00:20:54.46\00:20:59.13
neighbor, that Baptist neighbor;
that COGIC neighbor; that
Methodist neighbor; that
00:20:59.13\00:21:04.46
homeless neighbor; that addicted
neighbor; that atheistic
neighbor; that agnostic
00:21:04.46\00:21:08.70
neighbor; that adulterous
neighbor; that lying neighbor;
that gossiping neighbor. Thou
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shalt thy neighbor as thyself.
Jesus here quotes from Leviticus
19:18, where "neighbor" refers
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to a fellow Israelite. But Jesus
widened the definition of
neighbor to include all who are
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in need of help. This was
illustrated in the parable of
the Good Samaritan. A Jew was
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attacked by thieves. The priest
passed him by. The Levite passed
him by. But it was the Samaritan
00:21:31.60\00:21:39.70
who stopped by to help him. This
is what it means to love
somebody as yourself. To love
00:21:39.70\00:21:48.56
regardless of color. To love and
help, regardless of class. To be
selfless in dealing with others.
00:21:48.56\00:22:00.20
Don't get it twisted. To love
God was the first commandment,
because for you to be selfless
00:22:00.20\00:22:07.46
with others, you've got to first
love God. Every day someone's
asking the same question: Is God
00:22:07.46\00:22:14.03
hiding His face from our
problems? Why do bad things
happen to good people? Does God
00:22:14.03\00:22:19.76
really hold my destiny in His
hands? The Breath of Life
ministry has the perfect answer
00:22:19.76\00:22:28.93
in a beautiful new book called
"How Can I Understand the
Bible?" This helpful book
00:22:28.93\00:22:37.70
explores the Bible, its history,
meaning and impact in a way that
will help unlock its powerful
00:22:37.70\00:22:49.56
message for you today. Its your
gift free with your donation of
any amount. Contact us at
00:22:49.56\00:22:56.16
www.BreathofLife.t v. Or call us
at 1 (877) 265-633 3. Now, back
to Dr. Byrd with a message
00:22:56.16\00:23:03.63
already in progress. When you
love God, you can't help but
love others. When you love God
00:23:03.63\00:23:13.86
you can't help but love black
people. When you love God, you
can't help but love white
00:23:13.86\00:23:23.20
people, red people and yellow
people. When you love God, all
lives matter. If we're not here
00:23:23.20\00:23:33.20
for God, we can't be here for
each other. If we don't love
God, we can't love each other.
00:23:33.20\00:23:40.83
If we're not right with God, we
cannot demonstrate integrity
toward each other. If we are not
00:23:40.83\00:23:50.46
thoroughly related to God's
Word, instructed by God's Word,
energized by God's Spirit,
00:23:50.46\00:24:00.13
motivated by God's love, guided
by God's hand, strengthened by
God's power and saved by God's
00:24:00.13\00:24:08.96
grace, we cannot be connected to
the human family, members of the
church family, or active in the
00:24:08.96\00:24:15.06
political family. Today, all
lives matter. A doctrine of
black supremacy is just as evil,
00:24:15.06\00:24:21.36
Martin King said, as a doctrine
of white supremacy. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all
00:24:21.36\00:24:24.96
thy heart, with all thy soul,
with all thy mind, and thou
shalt love thy neighbor as
00:24:24.96\00:24:35.96
thyself. This is the first and
great commandment, and the
second is liken to it. So if
00:24:35.96\00:24:49.70
your Christian life were a door
swinging on two hinges, they
would number one be loving God,
00:24:49.70\00:24:57.53
and number two loving your
neighbor. All the rest of
Christianity swings on those two
00:24:57.53\00:25:04.83
hinges. Love thy neighbor. God
said, Moses wrote it, Paul
explained it, and Jesus quoted
00:25:04.83\00:25:16.90
it. A person can be a good Hindu
and be immoral at the same time.
A person can be a Muslim and
00:25:16.90\00:25:24.76
have a multiplicity of wives at
the same time. A person can be a
Buddhist and be a first-class
00:25:24.76\00:25:32.36
liar. But you can't be a
Christian if you don't love your
neighbor, and that's why all
00:25:32.36\00:25:39.96
lives matter. Because you've got
to love everybody. This is not
radical. This is not
00:25:39.96\00:25:45.80
revolutionary. This is not new.
Just love everybody. Is not
every man our brother? Is not
00:25:45.80\00:25:58.83
every woman our sister, who has
accepted Jesus as their personal
Savior? Christ is not the Savior
00:25:58.83\00:26:09.83
of any particular class or race.
[Aud. reaction] Jesus is the
Savior of the human race. He's
00:26:09.83\00:26:18.46
the Savior for everybody, and
because He died for everybody,
all lives matter. The gospel
00:26:18.46\00:26:25.83
Commission of Jesus is given
without regard to race, color or
condition. Jesus came to the
00:26:25.83\00:26:31.23
world to save sinners. Not white
sinners, not black sinners, not
red or yellow sinners, but all
00:26:31.23\00:26:38.33
sinners. The Christians at
Galatia were divided on this
issue. So Paul told them:
00:26:38.33\00:26:46.63
"Whereas many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. But there is
00:26:46.63\00:26:55.10
neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female, for ye
00:26:55.10\00:27:02.13
are all one in Christ Jesus."
And so the motif that all lives
matter, and we must love our
00:27:02.13\00:27:09.83
neighbor, must begin in the
church. In the household of
faith. It must begin in God's
00:27:09.83\00:27:16.23
house. The end of racism and
classism must begin in the
church. Don't act like you don't
00:27:16.23\00:27:25.30
know what I'm talking about,
'cause I'm about to bowl down
somebody's lane right now.
00:27:25.30\00:27:33.73
Today, I'm not speaking a
foreign language. There's racism
in the church. There's classism
00:27:33.73\00:27:43.10
in the church. Whites versus
blacks; blacks versus whites;
African Americans versus West
00:27:43.10\00:27:51.30
Indians. Preach, Pastor Byrd.
I'm doing the best I can. [Aud.
reaction] PB: West Indians
00:27:51.30\00:27:58.90
versus African Americans. It
must stop! [Aud. reaction]
Because it's not so much where
00:27:58.90\00:28:06.40
you come from, but where you're
going to. Because the truth of
the matter is we all came from
00:28:06.40\00:28:11.63
Africa; we just got dropped off
on different slave ships in
different places. Let me be
00:28:11.63\00:28:18.50
clear: I respect, I admire and I
appreciate who I am. I'm a black
man, and I'm proud of it. My ice
00:28:18.50\00:28:19.50