Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000502A
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00:01 Breath of Life Ministries Presents B502 "Don't Forget to Say Thank You."
00:20 PB: Luke chapter 17, verse number 11. Luke chapter 17, verse 11. 00:28 If you have it, let me hear you say amen. 00:29 Aud.: Amen. PB: “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, 00:33 that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 00:37 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten 00:42 men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, 00:48 and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, 00:59 he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. 01:04 And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 01:07 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, 01:12 and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, 01:16 giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, 01:23 Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 01:30 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, 01:34 save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: 01:41 thy faith hath made thee whole.” Don't forget to say thank-you. 01:54 Father, we thank You right now for this privilege and opportunity 01:58 to stand before Your people God, You are exalted. You're the King, 02:04 You reign on high, and so we need Your Holy Ghost to reign in this 02:07 place right now. As we open up your word and preach and expound from it, 02:12 hide us behind the cross of Jesus Christ. And when the appeal time comes I pray, 02:17 O Lord, that You would move in a mighty way. Forgive me of my sins; 02:21 give me clarity of thought. Give Your people receptivity of heart. 02:24 In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Don't forget to say thank-you. 02:37 A story is told of a man and his wife who were on a strict diet 02:47 during the Thanksgiving holiday. As they sat down at the table for 02:53 Thanksgiving dinner, on the table before them was a meatless meal. 03:00 No turkey, no dinner roast, no chicken. Don't act like you don't know what 03:10 I'm talking about; I've been to some of your homes. No curry, no real meat, 03:19 no veggie meat, no nothing. It was all vegetables. Broccoli. Green beans. 03:31 Collard greens. Turnip greens. Mustard greens. Callaloo; 03:41 you all didn't know I knew about that. [Aud. reaction] 03:44 PB: Kale. Brussels sprouts. Lean and green. The man looked 03:55 at what was before him and said to his wife, “Honey, 03:59 you say the blessing. If I thank the Lord for this, 04:03 He will know I'm lying.” [Aud. reaction] 04:07 PB: I'm not going to ask you what you ate Thursday, 04:13 but I know you were lean and green. Do I have a witness in this place? 04:19 Praise God for Thanksgiving, a time when we can thank God for life, 04:24 for health, for strength, for our families. Somebody said we wouldn't make it. 04:32 Somebody said you wouldn't be here today. But the devil is alive. 04:39 Thanksgiving is a distinctive holiday. It doesn't commemorate a battle; 04:46 it does not celebrate anyone's birthday or anniversary. 04:50 It's just a day set aside to express our thanks to God. So, 04:57 thank You, God. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You for waking 05:03 me up this morning. Thank You for starting me on my way. 05:08 Thank You for food on my table and clothing on my back; 05:12 but thank You for saving my soul. Now, the biggest thanks-giving killer 05:19 is the day after Thanksgiving. We call it Black Friday. Everybody say Black Friday. 05:27 Aud.: Black Friday. PB: Now funny, how we can make it out early for 05:32 shopping on Black Friday but we can't make it to Sabbath morning 05:36 Sabbath School on Sabbath. Come on, say amen. Aud.: Amen. 05:42 PB: Preach, Pastor Byrd. I'm doing the best. But just remember this 05:47 about Black Friday: Only one Black Friday offers eternal savings. Black Friday, 05:58 the day after Thanksgiving, this is when Christmas shopping begins in earnest, 06:02 and we stop thinking about what we have and start thinking about what we want. 06:07 But the secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live with what you've got. 06:12 Many people spend their lives concentrating on what they don't have instead of thanking God 06:16 for what they do have. But let me give you some advice this holiday season: 06:22 Quit buying things you don't need with money you don't have to keep up with 06:30 people you don't know, trying to impress folk you don't like. 06:34 Are you hearing what I'm saying? [Aud. reaction] 06:37 PB: Be thankful for what God has given you, and for what 06:40 God hasn't given you, still be thankful. You see, when you can't pay 06:46 your bills be thankful, because at least you're not one of your bill collectors. 06:50 Be thankful for the person who sits behind you in church and they're 06:53 singing the morning hymn and they're singing off note. Be thankful, 06:56 because that means you can hear. Do I have a witness in this place? 07:00 [Aud. reaction] PB: In the text, Jesus and His disciples are on the move. 07:04 Jesus, as we know, is an itinerant preacher. He goes from place to 07:10 place to place. Jesus has moved the focus of His ministry south from Galilee, 07:14 getting closer and closer to the final showdown that will occur 07:18 in Jerusalem at His crucifixion. Now, what we read today, 07:22 this is the fourth of five miracles on His journey. 07:25 The first three involve one person each. The last miracle, 07:29 number five, involves two people. Two blind men whom Jesus heals. 07:34 But this fourth miracle involves 10 people; 10 lepers, to be specific. 07:42 Now, leprosy as we know was a terrible skin disease. 07:46 It was the worst disease of its day. Leprosy was like AIDS 07:50 or gonorrhea or syphilis of our current day. There was no cure. 07:56 To the rabbis, the cure of a leper was as difficult as raising 08:00 a person from the dead. Throughout biblical history, up until this time, 08:05 there were only two people who had been cured to date from leprosy. 08:10 The first person was Miriam. Everybody say "Miriam." Aud.: Miriam. 08:14 PB: Miriam, if you didn't know. We always talk about Miriam beating 08:16 that tambourine. But Miriam had leprosy for seven days as a punishment 08:21 for saying that God should have been speaking through both her and Aaron, 08:25 as He had done through Moses. But Miriam had to learn, that's why she was 08:29 afflicted with leprosy, that God is sovereign. And God can speak through 08:35 whom He wants, when He wants, where He wants and how He wants. Miriam should 08:41 have known not to try to put God in a box to make Him do what she wanted 08:46 Him to do. So I'm here to tell somebody, if you're going to go up against 08:49 God you'd better be prepared for the consequences. Are you hearing what I'm saying? 08:54 I like what James Weldon Johnson in “God's Trombones” puts it. He says, 08:58 “Young man, young man, your arms are too short to box with God. God says 09:03 it this way in Isaiah 45. God says, “I am the Lord. There is none other.” God says, 09:10 “I created the light and the darkness. I send the good times and the bad times. 09:15 I am the Lord.” I like how He puts it in Isaiah 45, He says, 09:19 “Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the 09:25 one who shapes it, saying, stop, you're doing it wrong. Do you question 09:30 what I do for my children?” Miriam had to learn, so for a couple of days 09:34 she had to be a leper. The second person who was cured of leprosy up until 09:38 this point was Naaman, commander of the Syrian army. When Naaman obeyed Elijah's 09:44 instructions to wash seven times in the Jordan River, he was healed. But a leper 09:50 had not been healed in Israel for 700 years. So who would think that somebody in 09:58 the Messianic Age could be healed of leprosy? But not only that, leprosy was contagious. 10:05 It was very easy to catch leprosy. Just touching a person who had leprosy; 10:12 touching something that had touched somebody with leprosy, you could get leprosy. 10:19 And so because leprosy could easily be spread from one person to another person, 10:23 there were strict rules that a leper had to observe. Two rules in particular: 10:29 Number one, the leper had to live outside the city. Outside the village. 10:35 Outside in a camp, away from other people. Away from other people so the 10:41 disease would not spread. So then, lepers were grounded together with other lepers. 10:49 They couldn't have much social contact with the clean members of society, 10:54 so they had to form their own society; their own community; their own village 11:00 of unclean; their own neighborhood of lepers. But understand, 11:06 today, while this was a blessing for the clean to stay away from the unclean, 11:10 it also presented a problem for the unclean in that everyone around each other 11:14 was in the same condition. They're outside the city; outside in a village, 11:21 in a leper's camp, and everyone around them is sick. Everybody is unclean. 11:29 And sometimes, friends of mine, when you find yourselves in a segregated, 11:35 isolated environment, cut off from the main community, surrounded by other 11:40 sick people in the same condition you're in, it will keep you sick. 11:45 What do I mean? I've learned that when people are really serious about 11:50 changing their lives; when people really want healing, be it social healing, 11:57 physical healing, economic healing or spiritual healing, sometimes you have 12:02 to change your environment. Sometimes you have to change your community, 12:07 because if you stay in the same environment, the environment is as equally 12:11 addictive as the sickness itself. Because the people you run with, 12:16 the people you hang with, if you're not careful, they will cause you to be sick. 12:20 You see, it's dangerous to surround yourself with sick people, 12:25 because their negative, sick condition can be contagious. 12:29 If you're around sick people long enough, you'll start feeling sick yourself, 12:35 and you don't even know why you're sick. You see, a sick attitude is contagious. 12:41 A gossiping spirit is contagious. A depressed disposition is contagious. 12:49 A jealous nature is contagious. And if all you do is talk to 12:56 or deal with sick people, gossiping people, depressed people, 13:02 jealous people, or angry people, after a while you'll start 13:06 acting and thinking like these same sick people. 13:10 The old saying says “birds of a feather flock together.” 13:15 Who are you flocking with? When you are a depressed person or 13:20 a negative person and you hang with depressed and negative people, 13:22 all you're going to forever be is depressed or negative. 13:25 Do I have a witness in this place? For the law said a leper 13:27 must not come near clean people. He must call out “unclean,” 13:31 so the clean person would know that he had leprosy. 13:34 Because no one wanted to be near a person with this dreaded disease, 13:37 so they would hurry away from anyone shouting the word “unclean.” 13:42 But not only that, the religious leaders who liked to add rules 13:46 to the laws of God, that God had given His people, the religious 13:50 leaders adding to God's law said that lepers couldn't even go to 13:54 the temple like everyone else could. They couldn't even go to church 13:58 like everybody else could. But this wasn't just because they were 14:01 afraid of catching leprosy, it was because the religious leaders 14:05 also thought the lepers were spiritually unclean. How sad for 14:11 those with leprosy. Not only do they have a dreadful disease 14:14 but they were also falsely accused of having unclean hearts. 14:18 And that's just like some church folk, trying to keep folks 14:21 out of church who need church the most. Aud.: Amen. 14:24 PB: Number two, the second rule was: If the sores went away, 14:31 he leper had to go to the priest to be examined. If the priest 14:37 said that the leper was no longer contagious, then the leper 14:42 was given a clean bill of health and could go back and live with his family. 14:46 In the text, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. The lepers are camped 14:52 outside the city. They stand at a distance. They cry out to Jesus, 14:59 “Master! Jesus! Have pity on us.” Now, notice in the text, the lepers 15:06 don't ask for healing. They ask for pity. Whatever Jesus would give them: 15:14 food, clothing, shelter or whatever He decides to offer. They know Jesus' 15:18 reputation for compassion, but they ask for pity not healing. Why don't 15:25 they ask for healing? If Jesus can heal everybody, why are they asking 15:31 for pity and not for healing? The Bible says we have not because we ask not. 15:39 Because if you need healing, then ask for healing. If you need deliverance, 15:47 then ask for deliverance. If you need salvation, then ask for salvation. 15:54 Don't ask for what you want, but ask for what you need. If you need healing, 16:00 just ask for it. Because if you name it, my Jesus can heal it. One minute, 16:07 podiatrist: the lame are walking again. The next minute, ear, nose and throat specialist: 16:13 the dumb are talking again. One minute, audiologist: the deaf are made to hear. 16:19 The next minute, hematologist: the woman is healed with the issue of blood. 16:23 One minute, He's an ophthalmologist: He's giving sight to the blind. 16:27 The next minute, He's a cardiologist: He's fixing broken hearts. One minute, 16:32 He's a gynecologist: He's giving new life. The next minute He's a psychiatrist: 16:38 He's fixing deranged minds. One minute, anesthesiologist: easing the pains of life. 16:44 The next minute, dermatologist: which means lepers can be healed. So if you want healing, 16:51 friends, ask for it. I hear people pray all the time, God, let Your will be done. 16:56 Nothing wrong with God's will, and I want God's will to be done in my life, 17:02 but we have not because we have not. Let me tell you something, when you 17:06 leave here today, be specific with God. Don't pray for these general things, 17:10 get specific with God. If you're sick, ask for healing. Ask for your cancer 17:17 to be removed. Ask the Lord to help you get out of that wheelchair. 17:21 Ask the Lord to ease your arthritis. Ask the Lord to ease your diabetes. 17:26 Ask the Lord to open your eyes and let you see again. Ask the Lord, 17:31 in Jesus' name, in harmony with God's will for your healing. 17:36 But the lepers don't ask for healing, they ask for pity. 17:41 And that's just like some people, feeling sorry for themselves. 17:46 They don't want healing, they really don't. What they want is 17:50 somebody to have pity on them. Because I've learned there are 17:53 some folk who don't want to be healed. They want to hang on to 17:56 their illnesses, their ailments and their sicknesses and sufferings. 18:00 They like to talk about what they don't have. It's a way of 18:03 self-atonement. They'd rather wallow in the pits of discouragement, 18:06 discomfort, depression and despair by indulging in pity parties. 18:10 These are people who don't want the responsibility of what goes 18:12 along with being healed. Being sick allows them to have an excuse 18:16 to lie on their backs and wait for somebody else to do something for them. 18:20 These 10 lepers, they asked God, “give us pity.” They don't ask to be healed. 18:28 After all, a leper hasn't been healed in over 700 years. Jesus, give me pity. 18:37 But I like Jesus' response. When Jesus sees the lepers, he says, 18:43 “Go show yourselves to the priest.” Notice, Jesus doesn't say “you're healed.” 18:51 Jesus doesn't say “your sins are forgiven.” Jesus doesn't say 18:56 up front “your faith hath made you whole.” Jesus says, 19:00 “Go show yourselves to the priest.” Now why would Jesus do this, 19:06 when He could just speak it and they could be healed? Remember, 19:10 according to Jewish law only a priest could declare a leper healed 19:17 of leprosy. Lepers had to receive a clean bill of health from the 19:21 priest who could grant it. So understand what Jesus is doing. 19:24 He's all that and then some and a bag of chips. 19:27 Jesus doesn't say that the lepers are healed, 19:32 but Jesus rather implies it by instructing them to go to the priest. 19:38 You all still don't get it. As they go to the priest, the Bible says 19:45 they were healed. Did you get that, everybody? Jesus couldn't tell 19:51 them they were clean, only the priest could do that. So Jesus just 19:57 simply says, “Go show yourself to the priest.” Somebody's still not 20:02 getting it. Let me try it this way: The Greek construction in 20:07 verse 14 uses the preposition “in,” which means “in, while, 20:12 when or during.” So that means, in the going, while they were going, 20:21 during their going. Somebody's getting this. The lepers were cleansed. 20:29 Somebody's still not getting it. Let me go for the deep folks at Oakwood. 20:32 The word “cleansed” in the Greek is in the aorist tense, which signifies 20:39 action at a single point of time in the past, rather than action over 20:45 a period of time. Which means, friends of mine, there came a single point 20:52 in time as they began to obey Jesus that the healing took place. I think 21:01 you got it now. Go show yourselves to the priest. He's implying, 21:07 you're already healed. If the lepers had disbelieved Jesus, 21:12 if they had laughed at Jesus' command, they wouldn't have been healed. 21:18 If the lepers had done a quick physical check to see if they were healed 21:22 before they headed off to the priest's village, they would have never 21:25 started and wouldn't have been healed. But, they believed in Jesus. 21:30 They had faith in Jesus. They obeyed Jesus. They went to the priest, 21:38 showed themselves, and they received their healing. But notice, 21:44 the healing didn't take place until after they obeyed. You see, 21:51 we sometimes want instantaneous healing before we even believe 21:56 Jesus can heal us. I wish I had a witness in this place. 21:59 But faith here is shown in the going. Faith is exhibited in 22:04 what we actually do. A person's faith is not judged by what 22:10 he says about it, but by what he does about it. 22:14 Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is like a car without gas. 22:22 Faith without works is like macaroni without the cheese. 22:26 Faith without works is like rice without the peas. 22:30 Faith without works is like ackee without saltfish. 22:34 Faith without works is like Thanksgiving dinner without turkey, 22:37 corn bread dressing and cranberry sauce. Faith with works is a force, 22:42 but faith without works is a farce.When we do what we can, 22:49 God will do what we can't. Now, there are certain cultural norms 22:58 that govern our social experience. We are categorized as either polite or impolite, 23:07 rude or refined, gracious or greedy, by our ability or inability to the proper 23:16 use of etiquette. Etiquette says there are certain responses for certain behaviors. 23:26 If you ask a favor, etiquette says you will preface your plea by the word “please” 23:35 If you make an error, you indicate your mistake with the words, “excuse me.” 23:41 If you interrupt others while somebody else is speaking, it is proper to say 23:47 “pardon me.” If somebody does something for you, to you or with you, 23:53 it is an appropriate response, as a result of their kindness, to say thank-you. 23:59 When I was a child, I was taught to say thank-you, and if I didn't 24:05 it was a reflection on my upbringing and my home training. And because my daddy didn't 24:12 believe in being embarrassed, I had better say thank-you in response 24:17 to people's kindness. Because I grew up in a home where a hard head 24:20 made a soft bottom. Do I have a witness in this place. You may not 24:24 have money but you can have manners. You may not be rich, 24:27 but you can't be rude. You may be poor, but you can be polite. 24:31 Everybody can say thank-you. But we live now in a world that's 24:36 been conditioned to be ungrateful, unfaithful, people feel they 24:41 are entitled to stuff. I grew up in a home, I was told, 24:45 All you've got to do is stay black and die.” Do I have a witness in this place? 24:49 [Aud. reaction] PB: But people feel somebody owes you something, 24:53 but nobody owes you a thing. It's the same self-entitlement, 24:58 this same ungrateful mentality, that people demonstrate toward God. 25:04 That God owes me. That God needs me. That God must do for me. 25:12 But God doesn't have to do another thing for me. In fact, 25:16 if God does nothing else for me, God has already done enough. 25:20 You may have all the power you need; all the money you want; 25:25 and you may have more degrees behind your name than a thermometer. 25:29 [Aud. reaction] PB: But if you don't have enough sense. 25:34 Mama says, good old common sense, to say thank-you, 25:39 then something is wrong with you. But some folk don't know 25:44 how to say it. Some folk don't know they ought to say it. 25:48 That may have been the problem with the 9 lepers, who went 25:52 on their way and no one came back but the one to say thank-you. 25:57 Maybe they were so happy to be healed, so they didn't return to 26:02 Jesus and say “thank-you.” But amazingly, beforehand they had cried 26:08 out in a loud voice to Jesus for pity, but when they weren't healed, 26:14 they didn't praise God with a loud voice when they weren't healed. 26:18 And that's just like some people who have what I call a spare-tire religion. 26:24 When they have a flat tire in their life, they pull the spare out of the 26:31 trunk and put it on. And once their tire is fixed they put Jesus back in 26:36 the trunk until they need Him again. The Bible says there was one leper. 26:41 One leper who cried out loudly to God for mercy. Cried out loudly to God 26:48 for pity. But then he came back and cried out loud in praise and thanksgiving. 26:56 He took the posture that Jesus had done something for him, and he had to say thank-you. 27:05 He was loud in his praise; he was loud in his worship; he was loud in his faith. 27:12 He wasn't cool, he wasn't calm, he wasn't collected, but he was loud, big and bold. 27:19 I want everybody to know what my Jesus has done for me. I want everybody to know that 27:27 He picked me up, turned me around, placed my feet on solid ground. He said don't 27:35 judge my breakthrough until you know my been-through. Because if it had not been 27:42 for the Lord on my side, where would I be? So don't look at me funny when 27:48 I raise my hands. Don't look at me funny when I stomp this foot. Don't look 27:52 at me funny when I shout hallelujah or glory. You don't know what 27:57 God has done for me. You don't know what God has brought me up out of. 28:01 You don't know how God has healed me. You don't know my testimony. 28:06 All the things I've been through. I've been through too much not 28:11 to worship him. Old folks say, I sing because I'm happy. 28:16 I sing because I'm free. His eye is on the sparrow and I know 28:22 He watches me. And if you've never been delivered or healed from anything, 28:25 I understand why you don't sing. I understand why you don't testify. 28:30 - END - |
Revised 2015-12-04