Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000517A
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00:01 Breath of Life would like to invite you to our
00:03 upcoming 2016 spring revival entitled 00:07 "God's 10 Love Letters." Beginning Saturday evening, 00:10 May 28, at 7 p.m., live from the 00:13 Oakwood University Church. Join Dr. Carlton P. Byrd 00:16 as he expounds on these 10 expressions of our 00:19 love to God in a clear, enthusiastic, and compelling way. 00:23 Several special music guests will also be present: 00:26 Dove Award nominee Vicky Yohe; Grammy Award-winning artist 00:30 Yolanda Adams; Stellar Award-winning artist Smokie Norful; 00:34 and NBC's Sing-Off season 2 winner, Committed. 00:38 All seats are free. Free transportation is provided. 00:41 We look forward to seeing you on opening night, 00:44 May 28, at 7 p.m., at the Oakwood University Church. 00:48 For more information call (256) 929-6460, 00:53 or visit us at www.BreathofLife. TV. 00:59 PB: The Word of God says, "And Saul yet breathing 01:03 out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples 01:07 of the Lord went unto the high priest and desired of 01:11 him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if 01:14 he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, 01:19 he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 01:22 And as he journeyed he came near Damascus and 01:26 suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, 01:28 and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, 01:31 Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou Me? He said, 01:37 Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, 01:40 I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 01:44 It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 01:47 And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, 01:50 what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord 01:55 said unto him, Arise, go into the city and 01:59 it shall be told thee what thou must do." 02:05 Today I want to challenge you on the subject 02:07 "From Terrorist to Evangelist." 02:10 From terrorist to evangelist. 02:13 Father, bless us know as we preach Your Word. 02:15 May Your Holy Spirit move in this place today. 02:17 When the appeal is made, I pray the individuals' 02:19 response to your voice. Forgive me of my sins. 02:22 In Jesus' name. Amen. From terrorist to evangelist. 02:29 If you watch the news, it's not too hard to figure 02:34 out that our world is continually on the lookout 02:38 for terrorists. As soon as we hear of a plane going down, 02:42 like we did this past week, we think terrorist. 02:46 As soon as we hear of a building blowing up, 02:50 we think terrorist. As soon as we hear of a 02:54 murder-suicide, we think terrorist. Remember, 03:01 it was after 9-11 that the greatest attack on U.S. 03:06 soil took place, and questions like, how did this happen? 03:12 Who's to blame? Was this possible to prevent? 03:19 They all became commonplace. But long before 9-11, 03:26 long before Saddam Hussein, long before Osama Bin Laden, 03:35 long before Adolph Hitler, before all of them there 03:42 was a spiritual terrorist by the name of Saul. 03:46 Meet Saul today. Born as a Jew in a city called Tarsus 03:53 down on the southern coast of what we call Turkey today. 03:58 But somewhere early in his life, Saul and his family 04:01 moved to Jerusalem, and while there Saul had the 04:04 opportunity to study at the feet of one of the greatest 04:07 Jewish rabbis of the day, by the name of Gamaliel. 04:11 Being a student of Gamaliel was like going to an 04:14 Ivy League school: Harvard, Yale, Princeton. 04:20 Saul was able to boast that I was taught by Gamaliel. 04:25 Saul wasn't like the other apostles. Saul wasn't 04:30 like the other disciples, who were blue-collar fellows 04:33 with little or no education. But Saul was smart. 04:38 Saul was a man who was articulate, intelligent, 04:41 well-endowed to verbalize his various positions 04:45 and attitudes among the greatest thinkers of his time. 04:48 In our everyday vernacular, Saul was a bad boy. 04:53 Some theologians even report that Saul was multilingual, 04:58 because Saul could speak five different languages. 05:02 Saul was in a class by himself. Even before his 05:06 conversion he was zealous about what he believed. 05:08 He was a zealous sinner. He describes himself as 05:11 chief of all sinners. But Saul was not the kind 05:15 of sinner who was a sinner because of his depravity, 05:17 debauchery or decadence. Saul was a sinner because 05:23 Saul was zealous in religious ideologies that made 05:26 him persecute Christians. Saul hung out with the Pharisees, 05:32 and the Pharisees despised Jesus Christ. The Pharisees 05:37 had nothing good to say about Jesus, and so this 05:41 disdain for Jesus was something that Saul shared 05:46 with the Pharisees. So then, when Jesus was arrested, 05:50 Paul may have been one of those who was in the crowd, 05:53 who said, Crucify him. Crucify him. But now, 05:57 Jesus is dead. Saul's thinking, "Good riddance." 06:03 Good riddance to bad rubbish. But then, 06:08 there came these rumors. Rumors that Jesus wasn't dead. 06:15 Rumors that Jesus had risen from the dead and 06:18 appeared to His followers. Two of His followers, 06:22 Peter and John, those uneducated fishermen from Galilee, 06:28 had been preaching to crowds of people about Jesus. 06:32 In their preaching they even had the audacity to 06:35 stand before the Sanhedrin and defiantly refuse 06:38 to cease their false teachings. Saul is furious. 06:43 How dare they? How dare these ignorant men challenge 06:48 the Sanhedrin? How dare these men question the 06:53 leaders of his people. That would have been bad enough, 06:56 but then according to Saul there was this fool of 06:59 a man named Stephen. Stephen preached about Jesus. 07:04 Jesus, for them, was a heretic, and that's why they 07:08 put Jesus to death. And so because Stephen preached 07:11 about Jesus, Stephen became a heretic too. And he, 07:14 too, had to die. So when Stephen said that he saw 07:18 Jesus standing at the right hand of God, that pushed 07:22 the enemies of God over the edge. 07:25 Acts 7:58 says that "when Stephen said that, 07:30 they threw him out of the city and they began 07:33 to stone him. And it was Saul who held their 07:37 coats while they stoned Stephen." This incident 07:41 was the turning point in Saul's life. Because from 07:44 this point on, Saul knew what his mission would be: 07:48 to snuff out heresy before it got out of control. 07:53 That, my friends, is the definition of a terrorist. 07:57 A terrorist is a person who uses violence or the 08:02 threat of violence against other people in order 08:05 to obtain goals that are political, religious, or 08:08 ideological in nature. Saul's job: persecute the Christians. 08:15 Sniff out the Christians. Snuff out the Christians. 08:21 Persecute the Christians. Saul was a Christian-killer, 08:26 going up and down the road, high and low, looking for 08:29 anybody who was praising to Jesus. He would take them out. 08:34 Saul, robust and radical. Mean and malicious. 08:42 Terrorist of his day against Christianity. 08:47 But the Bible says that on one memorable day 08:52 Saul was going down to Damascus, and he was 08:56 going to persecute some Christians when he 08:59 was interrupted by a force he had never 09:02 encountered before. On the road to Damascus, 09:06 he saw a great light that paralyzed him. 09:10 Saul falls to the ground, hears his name 09:13 being called. Saul is bewildered; 09:16 Saul is dazed; Saul is perplexed; 09:19 Saul is disoriented; Saul is stunned. 09:22 Saul says, Who is this? The voice says, 09:26 It's Jesus, whom thou persecutest. 09:30 It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 09:33 Another translation goes something like this. 09:35 It says, "It's hard for you, Saul, 09:37 to kick against the goads." 09:40 An Acts goad was a sharp cattle prod, 09:43 which means the Holy Ghost had already 09:45 started steering, directing, and prodding Saul. 09:48 Saul had been resisting, but now this light 09:52 stops Saul dead in his tracks. Saul's 09:57 knocked off his horse. Saul is knocked to the ground. 10:03 This reminds me of the story of the old farmer 10:06 who bragged about his mule and said that his mule 10:10 was so well-trained that all he needed to do 10:14 was say a few soft words and the mule would respond 10:17 and do anything he told him to do. Well, 10:20 his friend down the road at the feeding store 10:23 had a hard time believing this, and he said, 10:25 "I gotta see this for myself. Show me!" 10:28 So they went back to the man's farm, 10:30 and there's this mule near the barn. 10:31 And as the friend watched, first with 10:33 curiosity but then in dismay, the old farmer 10:36 went and picked up a two by four and swung 10:40 it with all his might, hitting the mule in the ear. 10:45 When the animal stopped squealing, stopped bellowing, 10:49 stopped prancing around the farmer then said quietly, 10:51 Come here. And the mule came. The farmer, said, Sit. 10:56 And the creature sat down. The farmer said, Back up. 11:01 And the mule backed right on up. The old farmer 11:04 said to his friend, you see what I'm talking about. 11:07 He will respond to a simple voice command. 11:10 His friend said, Man, what are you talking about? 11:13 You said all you had to do is talk to him, but you 11:16 hit him with that two by four. What do you mean, 11:19 a few words? What do you mean, some soft words? 11:22 That's not what I saw. The farmer said, Oh. That. 11:27 Well first, I have to get his attention. 11:32 [Aud. reaction] PB: Don't misunderstand me. 11:35 I'm not promoting the hitting or cruelty of animals. 11:39 But the point I'm trying to make is, 11:42 sometimes God has to knock us down to get our attention. 11:48 Sometimes God has to shake us up in order that 11:52 He might save us. Sometimes God has to shake us 11:55 to bring us to our knees. Sometimes God will 11:59 shake stuff up so you don't trust in money. 12:02 Sometimes God will shake things up so you don't 12:05 trust in people. Sometimes God will shake things 12:09 up so you'll know who your real friends are. 12:12 Sometimes God will shake you up to get your focus 12:15 back on what really matters in life. Sometimes God 12:19 will shake stuff up because He's not really after you, 12:22 but He's after folk in your house. Sometimes God has 12:27 to shake you up in order that He might get their attention. 12:29 God will shake you up so your family can stop looking at you, 12:34 so they can look at God, who's the Author and the 12:36 Finisher of their faith. Sometimes God has to shake 12:39 things up. Sometimes He has to knock us down, 12:42 knock us out, to save us. Because anywhere you're 12:45 blessing me, I'll be satisfied. Sometimes God has 12:49 to do something drastic, because we don't notice that 12:52 He's trying to save us. We don't notice that He's 12:54 trying to call us to do something. He's calling us 12:56 to make a change in our life; He's calling us out of 12:59 our mulish stubbornness and is asking us to make a change, 13:03 but sadly we don't even notice it until He knocks us 13:06 over the head. Saul needed a two by four over 13:11 his head to see that he was missing it, and that 13:14 he needed to change. But notice. The second point 13:18 I'm going to make today. Saul wasn't saved on the 13:23 Damascus Road. A lot of preachers say he was saved 13:30 on that road, but that's not true. Saul was blinded 13:37 on the Damascus Road. But Saul was not saved on the 13:42 Damascus Road. After he's blinded, that's when the 13:46 Bible says he says, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? 13:49 The Lord told him to get up, go to Damascus, 13:53 and it shall be told to you what you're going to do. 13:56 Now, let's be clear. Jesus could have saved Saul 14:02 on that road to Damascus, but Jesus didn't. 14:06 He left that privilege to a mere mortal man by 14:09 the name of Ananias, and there's a reason for this. 14:12 Now, this Ananias--not to be confused with Ananias 14:16 and Sapphira--this Ananias was not mentioned anywhere 14:20 else in Scripture. This Ananias was not an apostle. 14:23 As far as we know, he was not a great orator, 14:26 he was not a church planter, he didn't write any books, 14:28 he wasn't famous, he wasn't important. Ananias was 14:32 an ordinary man, just like you and me. And that's 14:34 the point: God uses ordinary people who are willing 14:38 to do as He commands. Let me let you in on a little 14:41 secret today: You might just get the opportunity to 14:47 be involved in somebody else's salvation. Just might 14:54 send somebody your way that you can lead to Jesus Christ. 15:00 I wish I had a witness in this place. You see, 15:02 you don't need a theology degree. You don't have 15:05 to be an elder. You don't have to be a Bible worker 15:07 or be somebody important in the church. You don't 15:10 have to be a star in God's show. You don't have to 15:14 be outstanding for God to use you. If you don't 15:17 believe God will use ordinary people, then look 15:20 at the disciples. Plain, ordinary, workaday, 15:25 grass roots people. There wasn't a star among them. 15:29 There was not an aristocrat among them. Not one of 15:32 them was a genius or a scholar. They were unschooled 15:35 in philosophy, untaught by professors, unexposed 15:39 to high culture, lowly fishermen. They were ordinary 15:43 people, but what difference did it make? God used 15:47 that band of men, ordinary people, to build the church, 15:50 inspire His people, and turn this world upside-down. 15:54 God can do mighty things with ordinary people. 15:58 God can do extraordinary things with ordinary people. 16:01 God doesn't use just geniuses; God will use anybody 16:05 that will give God clean hands, a pure heart, 16:08 and dedicated life and an open mind. So don't you 16:11 refuse to serve God, and refuse to serve God's church, 16:13 saying I'm not rich enough, I'm not good enough, 16:16 I'm not old enough, I'm not spiritual enough, 16:18 I'm not holy enough. If you think like this, 16:20 you will feel that you'll never be good enough 16:22 for God to use you. Let me tell you something: 16:25 God doesn't use us because we're good enough. 16:29 But because God is good enough to use those 16:33 that are not good enough to do what God wants done. 16:35 Hallelujah, somebody. All you have to do is 16:38 love Jesus and be willing to tell people how 16:41 to become a follower of Jesus. Ananias is 16:45 instructed to go to Straight Street, 16:48 put his hands on Saul, so Saul's sight 16:51 can be restored. But Ananias was apprehensive 16:55 and skeptical at first, because Ananias remember, 16:58 was afraid of Saul. Saul had been such a terror 17:01 to the Christians and Saul, he thought was actually 17:04 a spy trying to infiltrate the church by faking a conversion. 17:10 So God had to speak to Ananias in the church and say, 17:12 Look, don't be afraid of him because he was a known terrorist. 17:17 You see, church folk knew him when. And sometimes 17:22 when people knew you when, they won't accept you now, 17:26 because they don't believe what God has done in your life. 17:30 But you'd better tell somebody, I may not be all that 17:33 I should be, but praise God I'm not what I used to be. 17:39 But there's one more thing, and then I'm going to sit down. 17:41 The interesting thing about this story--the thing 17:44 that sets it apart from almost every other narrative 17:47 in the Bible. Listen to me good--is that when 17:51 Paul was converted, Paul was already religious. 17:58 Paul wasn't a smoker; Paul wasn't a drinker; 18:04 Paul wasn't a curser; Paul wasn't a drug addict; 18:08 Paul wasn't a sex offender. Paul wasn't running from God; 18:13 Paul did not reject the Ten Commandments; Paul wasn't 18:16 purposely rejecting God. In fact, in his mind, 18:19 he thought he was serving God. He was doing everything 18:22 he could to please God. Paul was zealous for God, 18:25 but there was one problem. He was wrong about what 18:29 it meant to serve God. And that makes the story of Saul, 18:34 who became Paul, the most relevant possible story for us today. 18:38 We are living in supposedly a Christian society. 18:44 The majority of the people in the United States 18:47 believe in God. The majority of the people in our 18:51 country believe in heaven. Almost half of the people 18:56 living in this country say they're born again. 19:00 But the thing is, even though people can say 19:02 they're religious, that doesn't mean they have 19:04 the power of God working in them. That doesn't 19:07 mean their lives are being changed, that 19:10 relationships are being mended, that their 19:12 bodies are being healed, that the power of 19:14 God is on them in such a way that it gives 19:17 them joy and peace and love so they can shine 19:19 like flaming torches in a dark world. You see, 19:23 there's a big difference between religious and 19:26 in truly loving God. Saul was religious but he 19:31 didn't truly love God because he didn't even 19:33 know the true God. So God had to knock him down. 19:37 God had to blind him. God had to do this, 19:42 so He could stop him from his silly religious 19:45 foolishness long enough to get to know God. 19:49 And just like God knocked Saul down, 19:52 God just might need to knock some of us down, 19:56 too, so God can make some changes in our lives, 20:01 today. Don't fall in the trap of being religious 20:06 but then you miss God. Paul had gone several 20:11 years spiritually blind to the teachings of Jesus, 20:14 but when his eyes were opened spiritually, 20:16 he became blinded physically. Now, all throughout 20:20 Scripture we shout on people who were blind but 20:24 then Jesus healed them, and they were able to see. 20:26 We shout hallelujah! on blind Bartimaeus being healed. 20:31 We shout, thank You, Jesus, on the young man in 20:34 John chapter 9, who said, Look, I don't know who healed me. 20:37 I don't know where he came from. I don't know if 20:39 he was a sinner or not. All I know is I once was blind, 20:41 but now I see. We shout on that, but Jesus doesn't 20:46 just heal these people for physical reasons, 20:49 He also healed them for spiritual reasons, 20:51 and so then the converse of this must be true: 20:53 Sometimes the Lord will physically blind us so 20:57 we can see spiritually. You see, you can get to 21:01 heaven blind physically, but you can't get to 21:05 heaven blind spiritually. Some of us grew up 21:10 in the church, and we've been learning about 21:13 God all our lives. I grew up in the church. 21:18 You know my story, born in the church. 21:22 And I appreciate my upbringing and all I've learned. 21:26 All that I saw. All that I have experienced, 21:31 because it's helped me become who I am today. 21:33 But I've discovered, as I'm getting older, 21:36 that the problem is we can learn a lot of 21:39 stuff that doesn't have anything to do with 21:41 what God is really like. Some of those things 21:44 blind us spiritually, and whenever you get a 21:48 certain picture--listen to me good--whenever 21:50 you get a certain picture in your mind of 21:52 what a Christian looks like, and you start 21:54 trying to look like that, you've just taken 21:56 your first step away from grace. And you've 22:01 taken a step toward legalism. Because that's 22:04 not how God looks at us. A little girl had 22:09 been to a revival and had been happily converted. 22:12 She came home, laughing, singing, praising God. 22:16 Her little heart was so full of joy and gladness. 22:20 Oh, Grampa. She rushed in to see her grampa. 22:23 Rushed into the room where the old man sat. 22:25 She said, Grampa, I've got religion! Grampa, 22:28 I've got religion! The grandfather took his little 22:31 granddaughter by the shoulders and sat her down on a chair. 22:33 He said, Baby, you don't know what religion is. 22:35 He said, People don't shout and skip when they 22:39 have religion. Sit still. The child sat there awhile, 22:45 then she crept away. All the joy and the gladness 22:50 was gone from her little heart. She went and 22:53 climbed on the lot fence, where she went each 22:56 day to feed sugar to an old donkey. The old donkey 23:00 put his head up and as she stroked the old donkey's face, 23:05 she said, pityingly: Poor old donkey. Poor old donkey. 23:13 Poor old donkey, you've got religion. 23:18 I know you have it, because your face is long 23:21 just like Grampa's. [Aud. reaction] 23:24 PB: But I believe I've got a witness in this 23:29 place that knows that the joy of the Lord is our strength. 23:37 I believe somebody knows He woke you up this morning, 23:42 started you on your way. Put food on your table 23:46 and clothes on your back. So, I don't have time 23:48 for a long face. I don't have time to have 23:51 my lips poked out. This is the day that the Lord has made, 23:57 I will rejoice and be glad in it. Rejoice in the Lord always, 24:04 and again I say, rejoice. Because victory is in your praise. 24:10 Salvation is in your praise. Deliverance is in your praise. 24:16 Saul was converted, Saul was baptized, Saul became Paul. 24:21 Paul goes from being a mean man to a humble man 24:25 to a new man to a preaching man. 24:27 [Aud. reaction] PB: He goes from terrorist 24:30 to evangelist. He goes from being a pronounced 24:32 persecutor to being a prolific penman. In fact, 24:36 much of the New Testament writings we know today 24:38 are from Paul. It was Paul who said that all 24:42 things work together for good to them who love 24:46 the Lord and are the called, according to his purpose. 24:48 It was Paul who said I can do all things through 24:50 Christ which strengtheneth me. It was Paul 24:53 who said the wages of sin is death but the gift 24:56 of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. 24:58 It was Paul who told us the truth about the state 25:01 of the dead: Behold, I show you a mystery that 25:04 one day we shall not all sleep, but one day we 25:06 shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkle of an eye. 25:09 It was Paul who said the dead in Christ are going 25:12 to rise first, then we which are alive and remain 25:14 are going to be caught up together with them in 25:16 the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, 25:17 and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 25:19 It was Paul who said that God gave some apostles, 25:22 some prophets, some pastors, some teachers, 25:26 some evangelists for the work of ministry 25:28 until we come into the eulogy of faith. 25:30 It was Paul who taught the kind of truth 25:34 that made demons tremble, makes hell nervous. 25:40 It was Paul who helped us understand that 25:43 God has not forgotten us and we should 25:45 comfort one another with the same comfort 25:47 by which we have been comforted. It was 25:49 Paul who makes us to show we should not 25:51 compare ourselves to one another; by doing so, 25:54 we are not wise. It was Paul who was stoned to death. 25:59 But death couldn't take Paul, couldn't take him out. 26:02 Paul shook death off his clothes. Paul walked away 26:08 from death. It was Paul who ended up on the coast 26:11 of Melita, stoned and left lying for dead. 26:15 But Paul gathered up some sticks, got bitten by a snake, 26:20 shook the snake and started preaching the gospel. 26:24 It was Paul who said, For I am not ashamed of 26:26 the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power 26:29 of God unto salvation. From terrorist to evangelist. 26:34 Paul today provides us with the reason to pray for 26:41 the enemies of Christianity. Paul today reminds us, 26:47 friends, that no one is hopeless; that God can reach 26:53 out to even the most heartened person. That's why 26:57 there are three surprises when you get to heaven: 27:00 those you thought wouldn't be there will be there. 27:02 [Aud. reaction] PB: Those you thought would 27:05 be there won't be there. And then if you're like me, 27:08 thank You, Lord, that I'm there. Most people come to 27:14 Christ not through arguments for Christianity but 27:21 by exposure to it. Listen to that one more time. 27:26 Most people come to Christ not through arguments 27:31 for Christianity, most people come to Christ by 27:37 exposure to Christianity. Our task, then, 27:43 is to introduce people to Jesus. 27:47 That's why we have tract attack 27:50 That's why we have a revival. 27:54 That's why we invite Earvin Johnson. 27:58 That's why we invite Michael Vick. 28:02 That's why this service is broadcast 28:05 over the television airways. 28:08 Because people will not be brought 28:10 to Christ arguing about Christianity 28:13 >: Thank you for joining us for another 28:15 exciting Breath of Life television broadcast. 28:17 Tune in next week at the same time, 28:19 as Dr. Byrd will deliver another 28:21 dynamic message from the Lord, 28:23 just for you. Until next time, may God bless you. 28:26 END |
Revised 2016-05-26