Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000582A
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00:03 Breath of Life Ministries Presents
00:07 Sermon B582 "Let's Move Forward" 00:10 [Breath of Life Theme Music] 00:20 PB: The Bible says in Numbers chapter 13, verse 30, 00:24 "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, 00:28 Let us go up at once, and possess it; 00:30 for we are well able to overcome it. 00:34 But the men that went up with him said, 00:35 We be not able to go up against the people; 00:39 for they are stronger than we. And they brought 00:42 up an evil report of the land which they had 00:44 searched unto the children of Israel, saying, 00:46 The land, through which we have gone to search it, 00:48 is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; 00:51 and all the people that we saw in it are men of 00:56 a great stature. And there we saw the giants, 01:01 the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: 01:05 and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, 01:10 and so we were in their sight." Israel has just 01:20 experienced the great escape. After living for 01:24 400 years in captivity in Egypt, God has rescued 01:27 His people and now they're on a journey to the 01:30 Promised Land. They had been slaves one day, 01:34 but now they're free the next day. They had seen 01:38 the mighty hand of God defeat the fiery hand 01:41 of Pharaoh. They had seen God release flies 01:44 and frogs and lice. They had seen God make a 01:48 Red Sea a dry highway. They had seen Pharaoh 01:53 and 600 chosen chariots get drowned in the Red Sea. 01:58 The Bible says it was so powerful that when Miriam 02:01 looked back and saw the man who had oppressed them, 02:06 the man who had raped their women and beaten their sons, 02:10 drowning in the Red Sea, she grabbed a tambourine 02:14 and started beating it, dancing before God. And God said, 02:18 Miriam, the enemies that you see today, you shall 02:22 see them no more. They had seen God heal through a 02:27 brazen serpent, that all they had to do was look 02:30 at that serpent and they were healed from all their diseases, 02:33 which is why today the emblem for medicine is still 02:37 the serpent around the rod, commemorating that 02:39 healing ultimately comes from God. 02:42 Do I have a witness in this place? 02:44 [Aud. reaction] PB: They had seen God rain 02:47 down manna from heaven. But not only that, 02:49 their clothes never wore out. Even as they marched, 02:53 and they marched in the wilderness, the tension 02:56 and the friction of their marching never ate 02:59 through their clothes, even though their clothes 03:01 were natural fabrics. In fact, God, in my holy hypothesis, 03:06 set up a dry cleaners in the desert. 03:10 [Aud. reaction] PB: That's right, a dry cleaners. 03:13 What are you talking about, Pastor Byrd? 03:15 God kept them smelling good and looking good at 03:18 the same time, because there's no way you can be 03:21 around folks every day for 40 years, with limited water, 03:25 in the same clothes unless God provided for you. 03:28 Are you hearing what I'm saying? [Aud. reaction] 03:30 PB: Somebody knows what I'm talking about, 03:33 because after all the things you've been through, 03:35 God still has you looking good; God still has you 03:39 smelling good; and folk don't know what you're 03:42 going through. You see, you're at church today, 03:43 but folk really don't know how broke you are. 03:46 [Aud. reaction] PB: Somebody knows what I'm 03:49 talking about. You can't afford napkins, 03:53 so you go to McDonald's and get some. Come on, say amen. 03:56 [Aud. reaction] PB: You fix your haystacks, 03:58 but you need some salt or some hot sauce, 04:00 so you go to your Taco Bell. "I'd just like 04:02 a glass of water," and you sneak a few hot 04:05 sauce packets. Come on, say amen. Folk don't 04:07 know how broke you are. You've got one suit. 04:11 Praise God. But you put a different shirt and 04:15 tie with it, and you go on about your business. 04:18 Somebody comes to you at church, 04:19 "Is that a new suit?" You just smile, 04:21 ha, ha ha ha ha. You never say yes and no, 04:23 you just say "God just takes care of me." 04:26 [Aud. reaction] PB: "Is that a new hairstyle?" 04:29 "Oh yes, it is." "Well, what did you do?" 04:30 Just flip it to this side today, flip it 04:32 to that side tomorrow it's a new hairstyle. 04:35 Do I have a witness in this place? God will 04:37 keep you looking good. Folk won't even know 04:42 what you're going through. God kept their 04:44 shoes from wearing out. Forty years of walking 04:47 and they're shoes still look brand new. 04:49 Is there anybody that knows that we serve a 04:52 God who can keep old stuff working for you. Ha. 04:54 God was careful for his people, that as they 04:58 walked for 40 years, not one of the thousands 05:00 of people walking for 40 years, not one of them 05:03 had their feet begin to swell. God had freed 05:06 the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and then 05:09 led them to the borders of the Promised Land. 05:11 But then when they get to the brink of the 05:13 Promised Land, God commands Moses to tell His people, 05:16 "Tell us if the Promised Land is everything God 05:19 said it would be." But before they get an answer, 05:23 guess what they do. They form a committee. 05:27 Tell the truth, shame the devil. [Aud. reaction] 05:31 PB: That's how the church works. Heh. 05:32 If we're gonna do something, form a committee. 05:35 Somebody says that the 11th commandment is 05:37 Thou shalt call a committee. [Aud. reaction] 05:39 PB: So when God says tell us about the 05:43 Promised Land, they form a committee, 05:47 made up of 12 people with one person representing 05:51 each one of Israel's 12 tribes. Moses tells 05:55 the committee, "Now, go out and spy out the land. 05:58 Observe the people; observe the cities. 06:01 Find out what the land is like; find out 06:02 if it's a land of milk and honey; find out 06:05 if the soil is fertile or poor; find out if 06:07 they have trees or not, and if they have trees 06:09 tell me what kind of trees they are. 06:12 And when you finish, come back. Give us a report. 06:15 Tell us if the Promised Land is everything 06:18 that God said it would be. The Bible teaches 06:20 that 12 men spent 40 days spying out the land. 06:25 Forty. Everybody say "40." Aud.: Forty. 06:27 PB: Come on, say it like you mean it, say "40." 06:29 Aud.: Forty. PB: There's something about the 06:31 number 40. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness 06:35 before he was called to lead Israel. For 40 days, 06:38 Ezekiel lay on his right side to symbolize the 06:41 40 years of Judah's transgression. Jonah prophesied 06:44 Nineveh's destruction would take place in 40 days. 06:49 Jesus was in the wilderness 40 days before He 06:52 was tempted by the devil. In the great Flood, 06:54 it rained 40 days and 40 nights. It's been 06:58 40 years since this church was built. 07:02 [Aud. reaction] PB: There's something about the 07:05 number 40. The Bible says in Numbers chapter 13 that 07:11 the 12 committee members spent 40 days spying 07:15 out the land, and now they come back to Moses to 07:19 give Moses a report. They didn't say the land was 07:23 flowing with milk and honey. They didn't say that 07:26 the land was fertile. They said that there was 07:28 a cluster of grapes so big that it took two men 07:32 to carry the large pole with the grapes on it. 07:34 They said the land was what God said it was. 07:38 The first part of their report was positive, 07:42 but then all of a sudden the Bible says their 07:45 report changed. Their report was no longer positive. 07:49 Their report was no longer unanimous. The committee 07:53 is divided 10 to 2. One committee, two different reports. 08:00 Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. The majority says 08:02 there are giants in the land. The minority says, 08:06 but if God be for us, who can be against us. 08:11 The majority says, we can't do it. 08:14 The minority says, we can do it. 08:17 The majority saw defeat; the minority 08:20 saw victory. One journey but two different reports. 08:24 One mission but two different opinions. 08:27 One report says go. The other report says no. 08:32 It's amazing--I've been pastoring 23 years now- 08:37 -how the same group of people can look at 08:39 the same thing, but yet they come out with 08:42 different interpretations of the same thing they saw. 08:45 The sermon was good to me. The sermon did 08:49 nothing for me. The music blessed me. 08:54 The music didn't do a thing for me. 08:57 I liked that suit. I can't stand that suit. 09:02 People can look at the same data, be confronted 09:05 with the same facts, experience the same events 09:08 and draw totally different conclusions. 09:11 Why do people have different reactions to 09:15 the same reality? It's probably because 09:18 we see things not as they are but as we are. 09:21 I wish I had a witness in this place. 09:23 [Aud. reaction] PB: The majority is motivated 09:26 by sight rather than faith, but somebody 09:30 today knows: we walk by faith, not by sight. 09:37 Praise God for the minority! Praise God for 09:42 Joshua and Caleb. So what does Caleb do? Quickly. 09:46 Caleb tells the people hush up. Be quiet. 09:48 Stop all that negative, fearful talk. 09:51 Let's go up at once and possess the land. 09:54 Now, my question when I study the text is this: 09:57 How did Caleb know they could overcome giants 10:00 in the land? Caleb knew that they were able to 10:05 do it not so much because they were able, 10:09 but because God is able. Let me put a kickstand 10:16 right there for a minute. Can I do that right now? 10:18 I know I gotta hurry up, but I hear people 10:20 all the time, "God is able. God is able. 10:22 Elder Phipps sings "God is able." 10:24 Everybody jumps and shouts. But we really 10:26 don't believe that. Because if we really 10:29 believe that God is able, we would spend 10:32 less time setting folks straight and telling 10:35 folk off if we believed God was able. 10:37 We'd spend less time worrying and staying up 10:40 all night if we believe God is able. Let me 10:42 tell you something. In the name of Jesus, God is able. 10:47 [Aud. reaction] PB: Cancer. God is able. Unemployment. 10:52 God is able. Death of a loved one. God is able. 10:58 Marriage in trouble. God is able. 11:01 A strung-out son; a wayward daughter. 11:06 God is able. Hurricane Irma. 11:09 [Aud. reaction] PB: God is able. 11:11 North Korea. God is able. President Trump, ha. 11:18 God is able! [Aud. reaction] 11:22 PB: A habit you can't break; a sin you can't shake; 11:29 a stronghold you can't overcome. You'd better 11:32 believe that God is able to do exceeding, 11:34 abundant and above all we could ever ask or think. 11:38 Caleb knew it; Joshua knew it. But the majority 11:42 of the committee disagreed with Caleb and Joshua. 11:48 So what did they say? Verse 31 in our Scripture text. 11:52 "We're not able to go up against the people; 11:54 they're stronger than we are. . . . The land, 11:56 through which we have gone to search it, 11:58 is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; 12:00 and all the people that we saw in it are"--giants. 12:02 We saw giants, and we in our own sight--I can preach 12:07 a whole sermon right there--we in our own sight are 12:12 as grasshoppers. And so because we saw ourselves as that, 12:17 so we were in their sight. Now you would think 12:22 that after all God had done for them, 12:24 after all God had shown the children of Israel, 12:27 that they would have more faith than that. 12:30 He opened up the Red Sea for them; 12:32 He closed the same waters against the Egyptians. 12:35 He'd given them water in the desert when 12:37 they were thirsty and food in the desert 12:38 when they were hungry. And now they have 12:40 amnesia about how God delivered them. 12:44 But let's be real today--I gotta keep 12:47 it moving--but let's not be too hard on 12:49 the Israelites, because we don't live in 12:51 a glass house. Do I have a witness in this place? 12:53 [Aud. reaction] PB: After all God has done 12:55 for some of us, we still doubt Him. 12:59 We see the enemies of God as giants. 13:03 We see ourselves as grasshoppers. 13:07 You see, the majority of the committee members 13:10 were defeated before they even started, 13:12 because they embraced grasshopper mentality. 13:15 You see, their grasshopper mentality was 13:18 rooted in their Egyptian experience. 13:21 You see, it's one thing to be delivered 13:22 from Egypt but it's another thing to get 13:24 the Egypt out of you. [Aud. reaction] 13:27 PB: I think somebody missed that, let me try 13:29 it one more time. It's one thing to get out of Egypt, 13:32 but it's another thing to get the Egypt out of you. 13:36 You see, what they're dealing with was grasshopper 13:39 mentality because of what they remember in Egypt. 13:42 Listen to me: Pharaoh told them when; 13:44 Pharaoh told them where; Pharaoh told them how, 13:48 and Pharaoh represents a system. A system 13:52 that controls and a system that manipulates. 13:54 And if you've been in bondage to the system, 13:56 it creates a mind-set that becomes institutionalized 14:00 to the system, and before long you begin to think 14:03 that you can never be anything; never do anything; 14:07 never amount anything because Pharaoh has you thinking 14:09 like a grasshopper. Remember, the enemy didn't 14:13 call them grasshoppers. They called themselves 14:17 grasshoppers, and when you act like a grasshopper 14:21 in your own eyes, you will ultimately be seen as 14:25 a grasshopper in other people's eyes, because 14:28 I've learned people treat you the way you let 'em. 14:30 [Aud. reaction] PB: But when you realize who you are; 14:37 when you realize whose you are, then you will seek 14:43 deliverance from grasshopper mentality that tries 14:47 to stop you from experiencing a living God's 14:50 purpose for your life. Somebody's not getting this, 14:53 but let me help you. Grasshopper mentality is 14:56 small-mindedness. Grasshopper mentality is myopic 15:00 thinking. Grasshopper mentality relies on excuses. 15:03 You're still not getting it. Let me try it this way. 15:06 [Aud. reaction] PB: Grasshopper mentality says go out 15:09 and buy an expensive car. Buy a Mercedes; buy a Tesla; 15:14 buy a, buy a Beemer. Buy a Cadillac, put some rims on it. 15:18 Put some spinners on it. Get a sound system in it. 15:21 But live with your mama and don't even try to buy 15:24 a house. Everybody say "grasshopper." 15:26 Aud.: Grasshopper. [Aud. reaction] 15:28 PB: Grasshopper mentality says go ahead, 15:31 listen to me, young people, get every credit 15:34 card you can. Max them out. Dress nicely; 15:37 look good on alumni weekend. Put all those 15:40 clothes on your back--Hugo Boss, Prada, Versace; 15:44 Luis Vuitton. You name it, you get it. Don't worry 15:46 about paying the balance off. As a matter of fact, 15:48 Pharaoh says, I'll give you a loan to buy a car 15:51 but I won't give you a loan to buy a house. 15:53 Look good but stay broke. Somebody say "Grasshopper." 15:57 Aud.: Grasshopper. PB: Grasshopper mentality says 16:01 go ahead, get a big flat-screen TV, even if it means 16:06 you have Rent-A-Center $50 for 50 years to do it. 16:10 [Aud. reaction] PB: And when it's all said and done, 16:14 you've b ought 50 flat-screen TVs for the price of one. 16:18 Somebody say grasshopper. Aud.: Grasshopper. 16:21 PB: But I'm gonna needle this a little bit more. 16:24 'Cause I gotta be intergenerational, young, old, 16:27 everybody. Grasshopper mentality says go ahead 16:29 and make as many babies as you want. 16:32 [Aud. reaction] PB: You don't have to work. 16:33 Let Pharaoh take care of them. Don't worry about it, 16:37 Pharaoh will raise your children, and when Pharaoh 16:40 gets through raising your children, don't get mad 16:43 at Pharaoh. You didn't pay them any attention when 16:45 you saw their pants hanging off their waist, 16:48 you didn't pay any attention. Well, don't worry about it. 16:51 Pharaoh won't give them 30,000 a year for college, 16:55 but he'll pay 30,000 a year to put 'em in jail. 16:57 Everybody say hey--[Aud. reaction] 17:00 PB: Who has [indiscernible]. Let's go to the Oakwood Church. 17:05 Grasshopper mentality told Elder Ward, we can't 17:10 built a church at Oakwood. It won't happen. 17:14 And see, I'm in the office, I'm in his old office 17:16 and I'm in the closet, and I'm looking at the 17:18 plans for the church he really wanted to build. 17:20 It was twice the size of this one. But grasshopper 17:25 mentality told him, if you do built it, 17:28 don't make it too big. Grasshopper mentality 17:34 continued 20 years later. You can't build an 17:37 elementary school. It continued 20 years after that. 17:40 You can't build a middle school. You can't build a gym. 17:44 You can't build a school cafeteria. Oakwood Church, 17:48 you can't build a family life center. We can't do this, 17:54 we can't do that. We've always done it like this. 17:59 We've never done it like that. We've never tried 18:01 new things. We never had a praise team. We can't 18:05 evangelize Huntsville. We won't baptize new people. 18:09 We'll never grow. Our doctrine, our message is too hard. 18:13 We can't. But in the name of Jesus-- 18:16 [Aud. reaction] PB: --I am tired of grasshopper mentality. 18:22 I'm tired of visionless folk. I know what God says. 18:28 If you can't see it, get up out of my way. His Word says, 18:33 "But my God shall supply all of my needs according to 18:39 his riches in glory." Let me tell you something. 18:41 You don't need grasshoppers in your house-- 18:43 [Aud. reaction] PB: --You don't need grasshoppers 18:47 in your car. You don't need grasshoppers around you 18:51 because if they can't see what God has for you, 18:53 they don't have any business around ya. Let me tell 18:57 you something: You will never get to the Promised 18:58 Land if you keep going back in the wilderness 19:00 because you have grasshopper mentality. 19:02 Caleb didn't subscribe to grasshopper mentality. 19:05 Caleb wasn't intimidated by the enemy. Caleb knew 19:08 he was a child of the Most High God. Caleb wasn't 19:11 a grasshopper. Listen to me: Caleb wasn't claiming 19:14 the Promised Land because he wanted it. Caleb was 19:19 claiming the Promised Land because God had already 19:23 given it to them. [Aud. reaction] 19:28 PB: Caleb was not some prosperity-gospel preacher. 19:31 Name it, claim it; blab it, grab it. 19:36 Caleb knew that the power of believing in 19:38 the promises of God, and acting on those promises 19:41 in obedience--but let me get ready to end. 19:45 But the tragic thing of this story is that 19:48 the majority report of the committee prevailed. 19:51 Ten of them saw barriers; but only two saw blessings. 19:57 Ten saw giants; only two saw God. Ten said, 20:05 the best is behind us. But only two said the best 20:09 is yet to come. But negative voices grumbled their 20:16 way into plans to do nothing. That's why I've learned, 20:20 when people come to me criticizing me, talking about 20:22 what I'm doing, I tell 'em, I like what I'm doing 20:25 better than what you're not doing. [Aud. reaction] 20:29 PB: So what happens? Israel wanders in the wilderness 20:38 for the next 40 years, doing nothing. Nothing. 20:42 Caleb was willing to honor God, but he was outnumbered. 20:46 And so, the Bible teaches that everyone in that 20:48 generation, except Caleb and Joshua, died without 20:53 seeing--somebody's with me--the Promised Land. 20:56 It wasn't the size of Israel's army that kept 21:00 Israel back. It was not the size, it was the 21:05 size of Israel's faith. A grasshopper is little. 21:11 It will always be little. God has not called you, 21:17 He has not called me, this church, this university, 21:22 this conference, to be little. I don't know about you, 21:27 but I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. I am not 21:33 a grasshopper. Ellen White said, "We have nothing 21:37 to fear for the future less we forget how God has 21:41 led us in the past." Church of the living God, 21:45 you're a child of God. Walk like it; talk like it; 21:51 act like it; think like it. You are not a grasshopper. 21:57 Let me tell you something. You've got some folks scared. 22:01 You've got some folk intimidated. It's not your fault, 22:04 you're just God's chosen. You're just God's blessed. 22:08 That's why some folk look at you like they do. 22:10 That's why they treat you like they do, because 22:12 you've got them intimidated. But let me give 22:14 them some help today. Don't hate the player, 22:16 hate the game. Do I have a witness in this place? 22:18 [Aud. reaction] PB: None of those majority 22:22 committee members with the bad report ever 22:26 got to the Promised Land. In fact, the Bible 22:30 says most of them died in the wilderness. 22:35 And when you look back over your life, and 22:39 you look at where you've come from, many of 22:45 the people you used to run with, they're not 22:47 here anymore. Many of the people that used 22:49 to be friends with you, they're not here anymore. 22:51 Many of your schoolmates are not here anymore. 22:54 They died in the wilderness. God has had to 23:00 lay some people to sleep just before His coming. 23:05 But you know what? There's a reason why you're 23:09 still here. Here we are in 2017, on the brink 23:15 of the Promised Land. We've got rumors of war 23:20 with North Korea, hurricanes happening every day: 23:24 Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Jose, 23:28 Hurricane Katya. We hear about an earthquake in Mexico, 23:32 a possible tsunami that's developing. Friends of mine, 23:36 God is speaking. God is trying to tell us something. 23:42 And God wants to use this church, this ministry, 23:46 the Oakwood University Church, the Breath of 23:50 Life Ministry, to serve as a catalyst to prepare men, 23:55 women, boys and girls for His soon return. He wants 23:58 to use this church as a model to show that public 24:01 evangelism still works; that Christian education is 24:07 still one of the greatest evangelistic tools our church has. 24:11 [Aud. reaction] PB: But we're not in Egypt anymore. 24:13 So that means we can't have Egyptian mentality. 24:17 Eight-track ministry in a DVD society won't work. 24:22 We gotta go forward. Just coming to church, 24:26 seeing each other, shaking each hand, eating 24:27 just with us, singing a few songs, hearing a 24:29 couple of sermons wont' work anymore. Having 24:32 conventional ministry won't work anymore. 24:35 Having conventional church school won't work anymore. 24:38 We've got to go forward. Praise God for our history. 24:43 We honor it today. Praise God for the paths that 24:47 have been laid before us, but we must go forward. 24:52 [Aud. reaction] PB: So if you have come today to 24:54 Anniversary Sabbath just to hear a feel-good sermon, 24:58 jumping on your feet, clapping your hands, saying 25:04 amen in your voice--you came to the wrong place today. 25:07 Oakwood Church. I want us to break loose from 25:13 worshipping our history so much, so we can step 25:16 into our destiny. [Aud. reaction] 25:19 PB: Eyes haven't seen; ears haven't heard, 25:25 neither has it entered into the mind of man the 25:28 things that God has prepared for them that love Him. 25:32 We're living in a different world today. People are 25:37 different now. People are tired of centralized structures. 25:42 People are tired of revelation without relevance. 25:46 People are tired of religion without relationship. 25:50 People are tired of fake, phony, plastic comatose ministry. 25:55 People are tired of coming to church getting beat up 25:58 in the pulpit, talking about what you have on and what 26:01 you're not. People are tired of getting all of that. 26:03 People are tired of coming to church, 26:04 in an Adventist church, and not knowing what we believe. 26:07 People are tired of emphasis placed on policy more than 26:11 it is on people. People are tired of coming to a church 26:15 where they can't share their burdens and problems simply 26:17 because they're afraid of what other folk might say about 'em 26:19 after they come clean. [Aud. reaction] 26:22 PB: So at Oakwood, are we gonna be like the majority 26:27 and see ourselves as grasshoppers? Or are we gonna do 26:33 big things for God? But as I close, the call is not 26:39 just a collective call. The call is an individual call, 26:43 because someone needs to go forward individually, as a person. 26:48 The man you used to be, the woman you used to be, 26:52 is not what God is calling you today to be. Many 26:56 people give up on their future, they give up on the 27:00 Promised Land so they can have the camaraderie 27:02 of their colleagues. They step back into their 27:06 past so they can hang around their old friends, 27:08 so they will accept you, because how they think 27:11 about you is more important than how you think 27:13 about yourself. But in the name of Jesus, 27:18 I refuse to go back. I refuse to go back to Egypt. 27:24 I refuse to go back in the wilderness. I refuse to 27:28 go back into slavery. I'm going to the Promised Land. 27:32 I'm going to make it to God's great heaven. I say 27:36 it all the time, I ain't going to hell for anybody. 27:39 [Aud. reaction] PB: If any man be in Christ, 27:42 he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, 27:47 all things become new. Somebody today, 27:50 look at where you were 40 years ago. 27:53 Look at where you were 20 years ago, 27:55 2 years ago, 1 year ago, and look at where 27:58 you are right now. Some of you used to have one suit, 28:02 one dress, one pair of shoes. But tell me now, 28:08 how does it feel when you come up out of the wilderness, 28:14 leaning on the Lord. Some of you used to have a 28:16 >: Thank you for joining us for another exciting 28:18 Breath of Life television broadcast. 28:21 Tune in next week at the same time, as 28:23 Dr. Byrd will deliver another dynamic message 28:26 from the Lord, just for you. 28:27 Until next time, may God bless you. 28:30 [END] |
Revised 2017-09-18