Pastor Byrd Test Time

[Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] take your bibles with me those who are viewing today to the book of daniel chapter 3 verse number 16 daniel chapter 3 verse number 16 17-18 and we will read three verses and you're hearing from the king james version of the bible daniel chapter 3 verse number 16 the word of god is clear shadrach meshach and abednego answered and said to the king oh nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter verse 17 if it be so our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand o king but if not be it known unto the o king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up on this special back of the lord's sabbath we've entitled this message test time test time father the name of jesus have thine own way thou art the potter we are the clay mold us and make us after thine will while we are yielded waiting and still i pray god that you would speak to these graduates speak to the family speak to the virtual audience go through the television airwaves the electronic technical airwaves on laptops and computers iphones and smartphones and have your way today hi you're behind your cross forgive us of our sins and in the end we give you praise we give you honor and glory what you're going to do forgive me of my sins in jesus name amen test time all right so right about now to the graduating class you don't want to hear another word about tests act tests s.a.t tests star tests citizenship tests bible tests science tests you don't want to hear another word about a test but today i'm going to talk to you about tests because your model says sometimes we're tested not to show our weaknesses but we're tested to discover our strengths now let me remind everyone in this place and everyone who is watching every experience every test that we have in our lives is tied to a purpose everything that god allows to happen in your life through his providential will you have to know it's a sovereign set up that's why i tell people setbacks are just setups for comebacks do i have a witness in this place so whatever you go through in life you have to learn to give god glory for it because it's tied to a higher and bigger picture that's going to unfold in your life and reveal to you the destiny that god has on your life and that's why you got to let the lord lead your life and let him order your steps because the bible says that the steps of a good man the steps of a good woman are ordered by the lord but not only that young people you got to learn from this point on you should have known before but definitely from this point on you've got to learn how to hang around the right people in life because if you're going to do bad you can do bad by yourself i've learned that you have to have the right mentors in your life one of the greatest decisions that any of us can ever make in our lives is lives it's who we allow to mentor or us because whomever you stand under is ultimately what you understand if you allow nothing to mentor you you'll end up chasing nothing if you allow ignorance to mentor you you'll end up chasing ignorance if you allow confusion to mentor you then you will end up chasing confusion but if you allow integrity if you allow success and spiritual focus to mentor you then you will learn the principles of how to move through life overcome the obstacles of life and live god's purpose for your life it was the word of god jeremiah 1 5 god said before i formed thee in the belly i knew thee and before thou camest out of thy mother's womb i sanctified thee and i ordained thee to be a prophet to the nations which means young people before you were even thought of before your mom and your daddy got together god had already placed his destiny on your life so for those watching today i don't care if you're a graduate or not i don't care if you're young old thin or not so thin i don't care if you're a man woman black or white there's greatness in you there's destiny that's in you there's a promise in you and to the graduate right now the person sitting next to you doesn't even understand who they're sitting next to because if they understood who they were sitting next to you they might act a little differently because they're sitting next to somebody who has greatness in them tia you're sitting next to christian see kristin she has greatness in her kristen you're sitting next to tia she has greatness in her somebody with god's hand is on them somebody that god's about to use to do something for his glory but i've learned in my life before god can use you you got to go through some tests not to show you your weaknesses kaley but so that you might discover your strengths now class your model in my opinion eden epitomizes daniel chapter 3 where we find the story lexi of hananiah missile azariah better known to us as shadrach meshach and abednego the king at this time everyone is nebuchadnezzar and he has commanded everyone to bow and down and worship a huge statue which she has created and anyone who does not bow down to this statue sean as we know is thrown into a fiery furnace nebuchadnezzar says it in daniel chapter 3 verse number 4 to you it is commanded o people nations and languages when you hear the sound of all kinds of music fall down and worship the golden image that nebuchadnezzar has set up notice everybody nebuchadnezzar's grand idolatry was accompanied by music elaborate and well-produced music by the way which reminds us of the great power in music and the fact that music can be used for both good and evil i don't care if it's choral music classical music anthem music acapella music or gospel music put music in the wrong hands and it can be used for the wrong purposes but notice in the text the kind of music that is used notice the kinds of instruments in daniel chapter 3. there weren't drums it wasn't a hammond organ it wasn't a bass guitar or a keyboard because you know sometimes we try to label instruments and we try to label instruments and say that a drum in and of itself is demonic that the hammond is devilish that the bass guitar is diabolical but notice in this text that the instruments that are being used were being used for a demonic devilish and diabolical purpose were the cornets the flutes the harp the sackbutts the saltery and the dulcimer let me remind somebody today that no instrument in and of itself is bad but it's the person playing the instruments there's nothing wrong with that drum but is the person on the drum consecrated is the person playing the keyboard christ like does the organist love jesus verse 8 wherefore at that time all the chaldeans came near and accused the jews they spake and they said to king nebuchadnezzar oh king live forever thou king has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the coronet flute heart sup butt salsa and dulcimer and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image and whoso followeth not down and worship it that needs to be cast in the midst of the burning fiery furnace now there are certain jews whom thou has set over the affairs of babylon let's stop there there are certain jews nebuchadnezzar there are certain people your boys those three boys you passed over some of us four those three boys you promoted over us those three boys you're always bragging about those three boys you're always looking out for those three boys they didn't bow down to your image let me remind someone and i have learned even this week that there will always be some haters some gossips some tattletails in the midst these are professional haters who don't have what you have who can't get what you've got so instead of being happy for you they hate on you and discredit everything you do i have learned and been reminded this week everybody does not joy in your success i have learned that everybody is not happy when you do well i have learned and been reminded that the first and the greatest moments in your life can produce the greatest moments and envy in somebody else's life but let me give you some advice don't hate to play or hate the game you do what's right and god will bless you young people somebody's gonna hate on you in your life but learn to be a cheerleader learn how to cheer somebody else on because if god is blessing somebody else god must be in the neighborhood and it's just a matter of time before god starts blessing you are you hearing what i'm saying nebuchadnezzar is it true that you shadrach meshech in the middle is it true that you will not serve my gods or worship my golden image is it true you will not bow down in other words the word on the street is that you three boys have defied my decree but don't you remember i promoted you from nothings to noblemen i promoted you from the upperclass lower class to the upper class i changed your name i open doors for you i no you don't want to cross me so tell you what i'ma give you one more chance let's just say you didn't hear the music let's just say you didn't hear the musicians let's just say you didn't fully understand that you're from another country and so you really didn't know what was going on because if you don't bow down i'm going to throw you into a fiery furnace but then verse 16 of our text one of my favorite texts these three 16-18 gives the three young men's response oh nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer you in this matter in other words we ain't scared of you in other words we are not intimidated by you we've talked this thing over we put a motion on the floor and the vote was unanimous we're not bowing this doesn't even take a lot of thoughts it doesn't take a lot of discussion no matter what you say or what you do we're not going to bow yes we should be obligated to you yes we should be indebted to you yes we should be loyal to you yes you've elevated us we appreciate what you've done but we have a different perspective because every time you open the door for us we thank you but we praise god every time you elevated us we thank you but we praise god every rank you promoted us to we pray thank you but we praise god in fact king we can't worship you because you're just a courier you're just a conduit you're just a channel through which god sent our blessing we can't worship you any more than we can worship a tree for giving us shade a cow for giving us milk a bee for giving us honey rain for giving us water we thank you but god is worthy of our praise we love you but we're going to worship him we might respect you but we can't worship you we might honor you but we can't worship you god and god alone is worthy of our praise king never says but hold up young people if you don't bow you're gonna burn that's okay king because the god we serve he is able i said he's able to deliver us out of thine air but if not in other words we know god can save us but if not we know god can free us but if not we know god can heal us but if not we know god can remove the cancer but if not we know god can break that habit but if not we know god can give us a job but if not we're still not gonna worship you but we gonna worship the god of heaven and earth the god of abraham and isaac the god of abraham and isaac and joseph and jacob and miriam and moses and enoch and elijah the god of rachel and rebecca the god of your mama and your daddy the god of you and me let me tell you young people those who are watching moms and dads grandpas and grandmas as a child of god you've got to get to the point in your faith where you learn how to say even if god doesn't even if i lose my job even if i lose my house even if i lose my car even if i lose my friends even if my spouse walks out on me if my family doesn't understand even if i don't pass the class even if i don't get in the school i want to get into even if i don't get the job i want even if i have to stand alone god is able because it's not a matter if god can but i know that god will let me tell you something somebody today you're not a graduate but you're facing a test right now or it's coming in the future but i'm a witness and i'm just believing for my own life that god is bigger than the stuff you face bigger than your problems bigger than your circumstances bigger than your fears bigger than your troubles bigger than you he's god just ask david about goliath just ask noah about an ark and a flood ask samson about blinded eyes and being in a temple with philistines asked moses about being 40 years in the wilderness and then asking about a red sea ask joshua about canaan land ask abraham about having to offer up his son ask joseph about the pit the prison and the palace ask a thief on a cross if you don't get anything else get this god is able so we know the story about the end now because nazar is mad he's furious nebuchadnezzar is angry so he turns up the fire in the furnace seven times hotter than its normal heat in fact if you read the bible the bible says in verse number 22 that because the furnace was much hotter than usual that the very ones who threw the three hebrew boys in the fiery furnace they were killed by the very flames in the furnace they didn't get in the furnace but they were killed by the flames from the furnace let that be a reminder for all of us today be careful about fueling the flames for somebody else because the same flames will reach out and grab you i wish i had a witness to this place too many of us are setting traps for others waiting for others to fall and the same traps that we set for others are often the same traps we fall in ourselves you can be so busy turning somebody else against somebody else you better be careful that these same people don't turn on you oh the bible says that you reap what you sow the lies we spread on others the gossip we spread on others the dirt we do to others well come back to get us be ye sure your sins we'll find you out the bible says the nebuchadnezzar through the three boys in the fiery furnace and after we read this we get excited we shout preachers hoop the organ gets to plan we stomp our feet over god's deliverance of the three hebrew boys and then we want to go home but before we get there let's look at verse 23 and then we'll stop verse 23 the bible tells us that the three hebrew boys fell to the ground it says and these three men shadrach meshach and abednego fell down bound into the midst of the fire furnace now one would think that if they fell to the ground in a fiery furnace they surely were on their way to death but somebody knows man's extremity is god's opportunity and when it seems like you're going to fall that's when god holds you up i wish i had a witness in this place when it seems like you're about to fall that's when jesus stands up for you when you can't stand for yourself it seems as if the three hebrew boys were on their way to sure death but all of a sudden nebuchadnezzar says hold up wait a minute i thought we put three boys in the fiery furnace we did i thought we heeded the fiery furnace seven times hotter we did well why do i see four men walking loose in the fiery furnace and the fourth has the appearance of the son of god somebody knows that when jesus shows up that jesus shows out and if god be for us who can be against us no weapon formed against us is going to prosper fred not thyself because of evil doers neither i be thou envious of the workers of iniquity god will cut him down like the grass i once was young but now i'm old but i've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread let me tell you something jesus will be with you in the worst of your trials jesus will be with you in the worst of your tests jesus will be with you in the furnaces of your life and i'm a witness if you're a child of god get ready for the furnace you will at one day or another be thrown into it every child of god has to go through it and sometimes god will intentionally test your faith and allow you to go through a furnace so he might bring integrity to your testimony have you ever wondered why god why the trial why the test i mean you weren't sitting back saying lord i'll be your spiritual guinea pig and you can try and do whatever you want test me any kind of way but god in his sovereign will because god because god my friends can do what he wants when he wants where he wants how he wants and to whom he wants and he doesn't have to ask you or me for permission to do as he wants god knows that he has to allow certain things to happen in our lives to bring integrity to our testimony because our testimonies are shallow they have no substance they have no validity unless we've been through what we're telling somebody else they can make it through you see i've learned in life you can't young people have a testimony without a test don't tell me to trust god when the rent is due and the money is low and you've never been unemployed or had to rob peter to pay paul don't tell me god knows what's best when you've never had to bury a son or a daughter or a relative or somebody you love you has never been diagnosed with cancer or some terminal illness don't tell somebody it's easy for them to give up cigarettes and you've never smoked a day in your life and you've never had an addiction don't tell these young people older folk that it's easy to be single you don't need companionship you can make it alone it's easy to be celibate and abstinent but yet you've got a god-fearing spouse you go home to every day but i've got a witness in this place that when you're going through it i don't know about you but i need to hear a real testimony from a real somebody to let me know to remind me to encourage me that i serve a real god and my god's gonna work this thing out because if he's done it for you he'll do it for me but don't tell me a thing if you haven't been through what you're telling me i can make it through your testimony has no substance your testimony has no credibility unless you've been through some things unless you've had some tests that you've been through it but i'm so glad when you've been through it when you've been talked about when you've been criticized when you've been so sick you didn't know how you were going well get well when you were so broke that you had to go to your couch to find some change anybody know what i'm talking about you had to go to your ass tray in your car and find some change y'all don't know what i'm talking about i'm talking about so broke you had to put a dish rag in the tub and call that a stopper so bro that you had to run by mcdonald's tell the truth save the devil and get some napkins run by taco bell and get some hot sauce run by popeyes and get some jelly but when you've been through the fire when you've been through the floods you'll go from shown up test a lion to testify at because when i think of the goodness of jesus and all he's done for me my soul cries out hallelujah somebody says god why do you leave me in the test so long i'll tell you why sometimes god will leave us in the test so long because it doesn't have to be long to feel long because god knows that if he brought you out when you want it to come out god knows you suffer from anthropomorphic arrogance you'd suffer from ecclesiastical elitism he knows your nose would be so high in the air that if it rained you drown so i've learned in my life that god will leave you in the test to your money can't buy you outs to your degree can't think you outs till your family can't bail you out so when you do come out you'll know it wasn't your family you'll know it wasn't your money you know it wasn't your friends but somebody knows i said somebody knows somebody knows it was nobody but jesus sometimes young people we're tested not to show our weaknesses that's what you said but today so that we might discover our strengths so let me illustrate now close so i've told this before i'ma tell again every now and then inanimate objects talk to me elder jones i'm not crazy but inanimate objects talk to me because preachers can get anything sermons out of anything but for the sake of illustration we go to a restaurant and the server will come out and you order your food cameron you order your food but before your food comes out you sit there and you wait and the server comes by your table and he gives you some bread now you know what i'm talking about don't look at me like i've lost my mind because some of you go to olive garden just for the salad and the bread sticks do i have a witness in this place so you're sitting at your table and you're waiting for the rose to come out and you're sitting there waiting at your table and while you're sitting there your server sister cunningham comes over to you and he says the rolls are in the oven they're rising and as soon as they're ready i'm gonna bring them out to you so one day i'm on university drive and i'm in olive garden and the restaurant is packed so danielle and i have to go sit back in the back at a table that's near the kitchen and all of a sudden i hear some rolls talking to me and they're all start testifying to me and the rose doctor wanted saying carlton bird i know you're waiting on me i know you really want me but i'm in a condition right now i'm in a necessary environment right now i'm in the fire right now i'm not like anything else but i've been made from scratch somebody put their hands on me and somebody made me you better tell somebody god put his hands on me god made me and the rose began to talk to me and they said carlton bird i'm just like you i'm homemade and i've got something that's on the inside that really can't show up until i've been put through some heat the rose said don't rush me let me stay in the heat because something is happening to me while i'm in the fire y'all don't hear what i'm saying that that's on the inside of me is rising to a new level and don't rush me but let me stay in here in this fire because when i come out i'm going to bless you i wish i had a witness in this place and i've come to tell a graduate today i've come to tell somebody today that i know you might be in the fire i know you might be in the heat i know you might be tested but you better tell somebody when i come out of this i'm going to another level when i come out of this i'm rising to something better i don't have time to be cute when i come out of this i'm rising to a new level in jesus because sometimes we're tested not to show us our weaknesses but we're tested that we might discover our restraints you got to start young people and everybody you got to start learning how to thank god for stuff that other folk thought you were crazy for lord i thank you for everybody who played me because i'll never be played again lord i thank you for everybody who hated on me because now i know who my real friends are i've learned in my life if your faith is gonna be tried if your faith is gonna be tested if your faith is gonna be justified at all you must go through the furnace of affliction faith has no way to be tried in comfort faith is not proven in abundance you don't prove your faith by how much money you've got you prove your faith when the lights are off when the water is off when the bills are due this story teaches me a lot number one it teaches me that sometimes god allows us to go through the fire to purify us in order that he might promote us 11 years ago when i was at the berean church in atlanta the same southwest region conference voted and asked me to be the president of the conference 11 years ago i was 38 years old 11 years ago the same conference that just voted me this week voted me 11 years ago but this story and the fire has taught me that sometimes because god went through training me yet and he's still training me are you hearing what i'm saying but this story has taught me 11 years ago it wasn't the right time because god wasn't through putting me through enough fires because he still had to purify me to promote me y'all don't hear what i'm saying today god never uses anybody in a great way until he first takes that person through the furnace of affliction joseph you can't be governor of egypt until you thrown into a pit elijah you can't stand on mount carmel in power until you go to the brook of cherith and humility david you can't lead the children of israel until you learn how to watch some sheep in the wilderness paul you can't be the greatest new testament writer of the christian church until you go blind on a damascus road carlton byrd you can't be the president of a conference till you learn what it means to suffer to have some sleepless nights to vacuum some floors to paint some walls to get on some ladders to humble yourself so that in due time he can exalt you y'all don't hear what i'm saying the three hebrew boys had the test of food in daniel chapter one so they could be ready for the test of worship in chapter three which leads me to the second point in the i want to share with you i've learned god will never allow us to be tested beyond our capacity to respond first corinthians 10 13 there has no temptation taking you but such as is common to man but god is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able but with the temptation make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it so god gave shadrach meshach and abednego small tests at first until they knew how to withstand the great test to their faith with nebuchadnezzar and his furnace graduates you had the test in eighth grade so you'd be ready for the test in 12th grade you had tests in your life at age 14 so you would be ready for the tests of life at age 18 because every round goes higher number three we can trust god to protect us even when we don't know the outcome of the situation we find ourselves in shadrach meshach and abednego believed that god would protect them but they still declared to be faithful to him even if they perished in the fire number four if god allows you if he allows us to be put in the furnace we can be sure that he's going to be there with us if he allows us to be put in the furnace and i'm preaching to myself now we can be assured that he will be with us you all are graduating jd you graduating you're graduating but it's test time but don't you ever forget that sometimes we're tested not to show our weaknesses but to discover our strengths 31 years ago i sat where you now sit 31 years ago but i've gone through some tests yes i've graduated from college yes i've graduated from grad school yes i have an earned doctoral degree yes i married the love of my life yes we have three wonderful daughters yes we lost a child in that terrible car accident yes i passed it all over this country yes i'm privileged and have been privileged for the last nine and a half years to pastor the largest black seventh-day adventist church in the north american division yes i'm privileged and have been privileged to serve as the speaker director for the breath of life television ministry and now yes i've been voted to be the president of a regional conference [Music] but i've been tested along the way i've been lied on i've been criticized i've been misunderstood i've been tested kaylee but not to show me my weaknesses but so that i might discover my strengths [Music] and so now 31 years later i'm stronger i'm wiser i'm better [Music] so much better when i look at all he's brought me through all i can say is i never would have made it i never would have made it i would have lost it all but i never i never would have made a scene y'all a long time ago when i'm so glad come never on to make it

Channel: Breath of Life TV

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Length: 37min 12sec (2232 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021