Dr. Carlton P. Byrd, All In

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Romans chapter 12 and we're going to verse number one one verse one verse alright the Word of God says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of whom that you present your bodies a living what everybody holy and acceptable unto whom which is your reasonable what everybody father we thank you God we praise you we lift you up we magnify your name for the next couple of moments lord I pray that you would illuminate our minds give us receptive hearts as God we seek to hear a word from you we read this text we recited this text many times but make this text come alive today we pray in the name of Jesus let everyone say amen amen you may be seated now when Paul says in the New Testament present your bodies a living sacrifice he says this against the backdrop of the Old Testament sacrificial system you remember that in the Old Testament the priests would come put an animal on the altar and the offering whether it was a sheep a lamb or a goat it would be slain the offering would be dead in the Old Testament priests would offer dead sacrifices not living sacrifices are you hearing what I'm saying because Jesus had not come yet they were offering dead sacrifices that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Jesus Christ who was to come had not come yet but who wants to come and die paying the penalty for our sins but in the 21st century we are not to offer dead sacrifices that system is gone it was dismissed when Jesus died on the cross and the temple veil was rent in two with the sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world the Old Testament sacrificial system the sacrificial system of dead animals has gone away God doesn't want anything dead now God something alive so in the New Testament there's a new kind of sacrifice it's not an animal but it's you and me God is calling us to place ourselves on the offer on the altar as an offering to him but not as a dead offering but rather as a little living sacrifice are you hearing what I'm saying so a woman asked her pastor one day she said what does it mean to be a living sacrifice so her pastor held up a blank sheet of paper and he said a living sacrifice means that you just sign your name at the bottom of the sheets but you let God fill in what he wants that's a living sacrifice that's what it means to be all-in everybody say all-in so many people think that God is always gonna do what they want when they want where they want and how they want and when God doesn't perform in the way they think God ought to perform they feel cheated that God isn't good enough that God is not a loving God he's not a good God that he's on a prayer answering burden bearing god but God is not a vending machine God is God God doesn't have to do another thing for us and I'm learning in my life that sometimes you have to let go of the life you pictured in order to have the life that God has planned but let's get back to the text quickly the text begins with the word therefore everybody say therefore Paul says I beseech you therefore now anytime you see the word therefore in the Bible you should always ask what it's there for somebody gonna get that in a minute and so when we come to Romans chapter 12 and Paul begins with word therefore Paul is making a shift from doctrine to practice he's saying you've got the theory now get some application you got the book since now get some common sense he establishes doc during the first part of Romans but then moves to application in the second half of Romans bonus saying based on everything that I've said earlier in this book this is what you now need to put into practice because theology must always have a practical application Your Honor what I'm saying and so therefore in Romans 12 is a therefore of surrender Paul is saying that even though we have sinned even though we have messed up even though we are guilty and deserve to die we have been declared righteous through Jesus Christ and so based upon the entire argument of chapters 1 through 11 we should surrender our lives to him fully in Romans chapter 12 in other words Paul is saying based at all God has done I urge you brothers even though Paul could have used a command here he begins and uses a word and makes an appeal with the word beseech and he refers to the people he's speaking to as brothers pointing to his affection for them as members of God's family which means Paul's begging believers not unbelievers I wish I had a witness in his place I beseech you therefore brethren I beseech you therefore brothers by the mercies of God now I wanted to skip this heart but I have to go do this part right now he says the mercies of God now notice Paul does not say in light of God's grace I beseech you brethren by the grace of God Paul doesn't say that Paul says I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God why does Paul talk about mercy and not grace will to understand you have to understand the difference between grace and mercy grace and mercy are not the same grace is when we get what we don't deserve but mercy is keeping us from what we do deserve let me say that again God's grace is getting what we don't deserve God's mercy keeps us from getting what we deserve somebody's still not getting us I'm seeing that you're looking at me let me try this way it's like the man I told the story before it's like the man who stormed into a photo studio complaining about the quality of his photographs he slammed his fist on the counter and he said to the photographer man these pictures don't do my looks justice the photographer said sir with a face like yours you don't want justice you want mercy do I have a witness in his face so be careful about asking for justice because you just might get it and we're just like the man if we received what we deserved we'd end up in hell but it's because hallelujah of God's mercies that we are not consumed the mercies of God that's what Jeremiah said our news every morning do I have a witness in his place thank God for mercy mercy woke me up this morning mercy started me on my way mercy put food on my table and clothing on my back mercy kept my heart beating while I was sleeping through the night mercy kept you from getting in a car wreck on your way to church mercy we're living in an age where people don't they think they don't need mercy but somebody knows you wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for the mercy of God somebody ought to thank God for God's mercy and what I love about Paul is he Paul does not reduce God to one mercy he's his mercies plural morning by morning new mercies I see people like to preach that God is a God of a second chance no God is not a God of a second chance God is giving you chance after chance after chance after chance oh yeah I don't feel like it today some y'all on the balcony looking at us like we crazy let me bowl down your alley some of y'all are in school right now because of God's mercy bad grades preach mr. bird I'm doing the best I can money low but God's mercy you're living in mercy you're going to school in mercy somebody you're driving in mercy your apartment is mercy your house is mercy your marriage is mercy nothing but the mercy of God somebody should be in jail right now you should have had a nervous breakdown right now but God gave you mercy he gave you life he gave you health he gave you straight so don't sit there act like you all cute you can't worry about what other folks say about you you're just praising God but God's mercy I will bless the Lord at all times and his praise shall continually be in my mouth praise God for His mercy praise Him it just ought to be glad you're not in the hospital somewhere that needles aren't hanging out of your arms I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living one but a living sacrifice sounds like an oxymoron because how can you offer your body a living sacrifice our sacrifice is dead how can a sacrifice be living to sacrifice means to slaughter the compound term living sacrifice is somewhat a contradiction in terms animals that were sacrifice were always killed first then they were burned and then they were either cook they were cooked and eaten so because animal sacrifices were killed they weren't being sacrifices so then what does Paul mean when he says living sacrifice living implies life not death so to help us understand what Paul is trying to say there are two living sacrifices that are recorded in the Bible and these two examples give us a clue as to what Paul was trying to say the first example was Isaac everybody say Isaac the second example is Jesus everybody say Jesus all right quickly I'm gonna say these two things and I'm gonna sit down let's talk about Isaac first you will remember that Abraham Isaac's father was told to take his only son Isaac and offer him up as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah he remember that now remember when Isaiah Isaac rather was offered up to be a sacrifice Isaac wasn't a little boy he was not a little kid understand Abraham and Sarah had Isaac at an old age which means then Isaac was old enough and strong enough to take Abraham out y'all don't hear what I'm saying but because Isaac became obedient unto death because he had to be a type or a foreshadow of Christ not somebody who was taken against their will but somebody who would be obedient unto death yelling getting this somebody who was all-in and would become a living sacrifice so here comes Isaac climbing up the altar a sacrifice and he says to his father daddy I see the knife daddy I see the wood but daddy where is the sacrifice because remember he didn't know that he was going to be the sacrifice Abraham says son don't worry God will provide and there Isaac is laid up on the altar as his old father begins to strike down his son a living sacrifice Isaac is tied to something that's killing him so that's what it means to be a living sacrifice that if you walk with God if you're all-in with God sooner than later sometime in your life the will of God will tie you to something that's killing you what am I talking about somebody's tied to a child who won't obey and you're loving a child who won't love you back you can't separate yourself from your child regardless how bad your child is because you're tied to it and say whatever you want but if it weren't for your child you wouldn't pray like you pray you wouldn't fast like you fasts and so maybe God is using that disobedient child to make you a living sacrifice somebody else is in a marriage that was supposed to be a match made in heaven but it seems like a nightmare on elm street and every day you go home you're going home to be a living sacrifice you're on your way home and you're driving and you drive as slow as you can because you know when you get to that house you about to be a living sacrifice don't say Amen too loud because the sacrifice maybe sit next to you come on say Amen Isaac was put on the altar he was tied to something that was killing him but he was willing to die in obedience to God's will but God just in the nick of time stopped Abraham from killing him and sent a ram to take his place he's Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide but Isaac died just the same he died to self yielded himself God's will so when he stepped off of the altar Isaac was a living sacrifice he became an offering of one's life even unto death he was still living and this is what Paul is talking about we saw him on a living sacrifice he means the full commitment of somebody's life to God even if it means daddy I gotta hurry up I gotta throw this in it's not popular to talk about sacrifice anymore people just want to talk about success but I'm here to tell somebody young people listen to me good I passed for 47 years old I've set where you sit you can't have success without sacrifice you gotta sacrifice the second living sacrifice was Jesus but Jesus was the perfect living sacrifice because Jesus actually died as a sacrifice in obedience to his father's will Jesus did what his father told him to do Jesus became the perfect lamb the perfect sacrifice for our sins Jesus died that we might live Jesus shed his blood so our sins could be forgiven in the Old Testament sanctuary a live animal remember was brought to the priest and the sin Barrett would lay his hands on the animal's head the sin offering to symbolically say this animal takes my place the animal was then killed blood was spilled because remember there could be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of what everybody but Jesus when he went to Calvary he took our place his blood was spilled our sins were forgiven but let me remind you service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in the world the word services from the Greek root word Latrell it is defined by the words ministries service or worship God wants us to present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which in essence is a reasonable worship the word reasonable is derived from the Greek root word logic house which is our root word for logical Paul then as he closes this text is really saying that God requires logical worship God requires worship that is as a result of rational activity God requires worship that is the product of a reasoning functioning mind which means it's my made up mind that makes me say Amen it's my baptized brain that makes me want to shout I tell people all the time young theology majors listen to me preaching is not just decibel level preaching is not just shouting if you don't shout say something were shouting about God is the author of intelligence God does not want anything haphazard God doesn't want anything that's less than the best God wants logical rational intelligent reasonable worship worship that makes you say Amen but worship that makes you say I have worship that makes me want to shout but worship that makes you want to serve worship that makes you want to clap but worship that makes you want to care worship that makes you say hallelujah but worship that makes you want to help and I don't know about you but I've come this Sabbath morning to worship Him so when you can't understand worship Him when you can't see your way worship Him when you feel like giving up worship Him where your body is rocking with pain worship Him when people don't understand worship him I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord o taste and see that the Lord is good his mercy endure forever worship the Lord bless the Lord O my soon at all that is within me bless his holy man praise the Lord worship the Lord bless the Lord and guess what if you don't like to worship Him here I don't know where you going because when we get to heaven we don't sing and shout the victory and when you think about the fact that we serve a God who became God in the flesh with the calorie to die for our sins that he was the ultimate living sacrifice but he said I died all I ask is that you live live for me I don't know about you but Wow horses don't stop me from missing out on God's kingdom nothing I'm not consider what Jesus has done for me after I think about the mercies and mercies and mercies that I brand-new every day nothing is gonna stop me from making it to his heaven because when I get to heaven I'm a worshiper I'm gonna praise him I'm gonna lift him up I'm a magnify his name but you know what I'm not gonna wait til I get to him birth is supposed to be preparation place for paradise so I'm not gonna wait till I get there but I'm gonna worship him down here i'ma praise him down here I'm gonna lift him up down here I'll go back to find him down here I'm gonna get strolling down here I don't know what you gonna do but i'ma worship the Lord I don't know what you gonna do but i'ma praise the Lord I'm gonna sit my body an [Music] acceptable to God which is my reasonable service you know that song everybody stored past me nuts [Music] thank you very much for tuning in to this week's breath of life broadcast we hope and pray that you've been blessed by dr. Byrd's inspirational message if you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety please feel free to visit us at WWF of live TV or call us at two five six nine two nine six four six zero [Applause]

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Keywords: Adventist, Byrd, Breath of Life, Preaching, Dr. Byrd, Love, Seventh-day Adventist, Adventism, Jesus Christ, Sermon, SDA, TV, God, Religious, Worship

Id: arHODMxiv1E

Length: 24min 14sec (1454 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 19 2020