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Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000635S
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00:01 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:06 Sermon #B635 -Trust the Process 00:22 Pastor Byrd: The Word of God says to us in Isaiah 64, verse number 8, 00:31 "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; 00:42 we are the clay, and thou our potter; 00:52 and we all are the work of thy hand.” Today I want to speak on the subject: Trust the process. 01:06 Father bless us now. We give you praise. We give you Hallelujahs. 01:14 But now Lord in your word, we need You to speak. So, make this word relevant to your people today. 01:25 And through this message, that your people would hear your voice. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen. 01:40 Now, if you're a basketball fan, you know the phrase, “Trust the Process,” 01:50 has been made popular in recent years by the Philadelphia 76ers. 01:58 Now for those of you, who do not follow basketball, let me give you some background. 02:07 For years, the 76ers were bad. For years, the 76ers were awful. 02:21 Cellar-dwellers in the NBA. Worse record in the NBA. No excitement since Dr. J. 02:35 No excitement-- young people y'all know who Dr. J is. That's all right. 02:40 Before there was LeBron James and a Michael Jordan there was a Dr. J. 02:46 No excitement since Dr. J. No excitement since Moses Malone. 02:56 No excitement since Charles Barkley played for the 76ers. 03:03 No excitement until the answer, Allen Iverson has played for the 76ers. 03:11 And so in this process, fans got weary. Fans got discouraged. Fans got tired with the team. 03:25 But in the midst of turning the franchise around, there was a gentleman by the name of Sam Hinkie, 03:34 general manager of the Sixers, who told fans don't give up on the Sixers. 03:43 It was going to get worse before it got better. I wish I had a witness in his place. 03:51 So, those who follow basketball know that for the Sixers, even with high draft picks, it got worse. 04:00 Even with making trades, it got worse. Losing more and more games. No excitement. No energy. 04:12 Ticket sales were falling. Empty seats were everywhere in the arena. Fans were getting restless. 04:19 But Hinkie assured fans that there was a reason that they were doing what they were doing. 04:28 He told them to be patient and trust the process. 04:36 Some of y'all know a gentleman by the name of Joel Embiid, in his early years with the Sixers, 04:45 the seven-foot all-star center would always repeat this phrase and say, "Things may look bad now. 04:55 But we have a plan to make things better. Just trust the process." 05:05 And if you follow basketball, you know the process has worked for the 76ers 05:14 because now they're one of the best teams in the NBA right now, 05:19 and have their sights set on a championship. Do I have a witness in his place? [Congregation: Amen.] 05:25 No one likes losing. I know I don't. No one likes going through it. 05:31 No one signed up and said, "God I'll be your spiritual guinea pig. 05:37 Just take me through trial and tribulation and in the process, I'll be all right." 05:43 In my 25 years of pastoring, I have never heard anybody say that. 05:48 But something that has helped me, that I believe will help you, 05:53 make it through the process is the reminder that God is the potter and we are the clay. 06:06 And God is just molding and shaping us into what He would have us to be. 06:13 One of the things I like bit about being molded by God 06:15 is the fact that I'm quite aware of what God is doing with me. 06:19 But I wish sometimes-- I honestly wish that sometimes I could be placed in some spiritual sedative state. 06:26 And then when I came to, everything would be all right. 06:29 I mean, I wish I could go to what I call a spiritual coma, 06:34 so to speak and just wake up and become the best person in the world 06:40 without going through all the drama in life. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? 06:44 But life doesn't work that way. God has to mold you. 06:49 God has to shape you while you can consciously see and feel what's going on. 06:56 And this is not easy but it's all a part of the process. And in this process you have to trust God. 07:06 In my study of scripture, I studied this analogy of the potter and the clay. 07:11 It's one of the most powerful analogies in the Bible regarding the trusting process 07:15 -- trusting the process because when we understand the--- 07:18 the potter and the clay we will better understand why God allows us to go through what we go through 07:24 and why he keeps us conscious and aware in the process. 07:28 There are several things I've learned from the potter and clay that I want to share with you today 07:31 and then I must sit down. Number one: 07:34 Anybody will tell you, that when you're making pottery, you need water. 07:42 Before you can put a piece of clay on an electric wheel to start the actual molding process 07:52 to make the kind of pottery you want to make, 07:55 you must first add enough water in order to make the clay flexible, 08:02 in order to make the clay soft enough for you to be able to bend it, stretch its and twist it. 08:09 So, you can actually use it. Are you hearing what I'm saying? 08:13 Any potter will tell you, if you don't add enough water into the clay, 08:18 the clay will remain hard and rigid to be actually used. But when you add water in clay, 08:26 it makes the clay soft. It makes the clay flexible so you can use the clay 08:32 and make the pottery you want to make out of the clay. 08:36 Now, when we talk about God being the potter and we are the clay, 08:43 you must understand that the water used in this process is the Word of God. 08:49 Water in the Bible is also symbolic of the Word of God. 08:54 Yes, I know in revival, we talk about prophecy and we talk about Bible prophecy 08:58 and Revelation 17:15 suggests that water represents people but put another way, 09:05 water can be symbolic to the Word of God. Ephesians 5:26 gives us that. 09:10 It says, “That He might sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word 09:15 which means the Word of God is like water to our souls.” 09:20 God, the potter, can't begin to mold us, can't begin to transform us, unless, 09:30 we are first willing to get in His word, read His word and study His Word. 09:39 Too many people don't know the Word of God. 09:42 And what trips me out is when I'm watching CNN or I'm watching the news or ESPN and I see politicians, 09:48 motivational speaker, sports figures, celebrities, teachers and even some preachers quoting passages 09:54 that they say are in the Bible but they're nowhere in the word. 09:58 I mean really, where is the text? God helps those who help themselves. It's not in there. 10:07 Where in the Bible is the text that God works in mysterious ways? 10:13 It sounds like it comes from the Bible but it's not in the Bible. 10:18 God works in mysterious ways is a paraphrase of a 19th century hymn by the English poet William Cowper. 10:26 Where in the Bible is the passage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” It's not in there. 10:34 That was coined by John Wesley. Where in the Bible does it say that God helps those who help themselves? 10:44 It's not in there. Benjamin Franklin wrote that. 10:47 It's not in the Bible but I'm learning and I'm getting concerned as a 21st century cleric, 10:53 that there are even people in church who misquote the Bible. What am I talking about? 10:58 One example today, the Bible never says that three wise men visited baby Jesus. 11:08 The Bible says that wise men brought three gifts, gold frankincense and myrrh. 11:16 But where did you read in the Bible that three wise men visited baby Jesus. 11:24 That's why you got to know the word of God for yourself. 11:28 I can stand up here and preach till I'm blue in my face. But you've got to get in the word yourself. 11:35 You've got to read the word at home. You've got to read the word on your job. 11:39 You've got to read the word in your dormitory. 11:42 You've got to read this word in order that you might understand this process. 11:47 You've got to read the word in order that you might become flexible enough 11:51 to allow the potter to do what he needs to do in your life. 11:54 Just like potter can't use the clay unless there's enough water to it. 11:59 God can't do a thing with you, until we get some water. The word in us. God can't shape us. 12:07 God can't bend us. God can't stretch us. God can't mold us until we get some word to water our souls. 12:13 But the next thing I learned from the potter and the clay, number two: 12:16 After the potter adds enough water into the clay to make it soft and flexible, 12:20 so now it can start to work. 12:22 The next thing the potter does is he puts a piece of clay in the center of an electric wheel. 12:31 Now, this wheel has to spin, and start to spin, 12:36 so that the potter can use his hands to start the molding 12:40 and the shaping process with the clay as it is actually spinning on the wheel. 12:46 But if the piece of clay is not properly centered in the middle of the wheel, 12:51 then the clay will eventually tear apart before the potter can finish the process. 12:58 Somebody's not getting this. If the clay is not properly centered in the wheel, 13:04 then the potter can't work with the clay. 13:07 The potter will not be able to make the pottery he wants to make. 13:11 And just like the clay has to be properly centered in the wheel before the potter can begin to mold 13:19 and shape the clay, we've got to be centered in Jesus Christ before God can shape us and mold us. 13:27 To be centered in Jesus means that you're under complete control, 13:32 complete surrender that Jesus has to be your Lord and your savior. 13:37 I told people this week, "A lot of us want to make him savior but we don't want to make him Lord." 13:43 Because when He's Lord, we do what he tells us to do. [Congregation: Amen.] 13:47 We go where He tells us to go in order for the potter to mold you, 13:50 you got to let him be in the center of your life. Now, once the potter has added water, 13:58 once the potter has put the clay in the center of the wheel, we now come to number three. 14:06 The potter actually starts the molding process with the clay. 14:12 And what the potter first does as the clay is spinning on the wheel is, the potter takes his hand 14:18 and he pushes down his hand on the top of the clay to create an opening in the clay. 14:25 And once this opening has been made-- listen to me-- at the top of the clay, 14:30 the potter then takes his hand and he goes down deep inside the middle of the clay 14:36 as the clay is forming. And then he uses his hands to properly shape the clay 14:41 as it's building up during this spinning process on the wheel. 14:45 So then, the potter's hands are working both on the inside and the outside of the clay to mold the clay, 14:56 to shape the clay, to transform the clay into pottery that the potter wants it to be 15:02 as it continues to spin on the wheel. 15:06 But the potter can't make pottery unless his hands go deep down inside the middle of the pottery 15:15 as the pottery is forming. Somebody's going to get this in a minute. 15:18 In the same way God has to literally go deep down, deep into the middle of our souls. 15:26 He has to mold us and He has to shape us and transform us into the people that He wants us to be. 15:33 In most cases, however, this process is painful. It hurts. 15:40 It's uncomfortable because God's got to remove all that stuff that's in us that's not like him. 15:51 And then He has to instill some new stuff in us, so that we can be more like him. 15:58 And remember when the potter is molding clay, when the Potter is shaping clay, 16:03 the potter has to apply some pressure. 16:08 The potter has to apply some pressure with his hands as he's molding and shaping the clay. 16:15 And just like the potter, God has to apply some pressure. 16:21 He has to apply some pressure in order to get us to change and become the people he wants us to be. 16:29 And sometimes, it hurts. Sometimes, it's painful. Sometimes, it's uncomfortable. 16:37 Somebody knows and I've learned that sometimes you have to almost lose your mind 16:43 in order to change your mind. 16:46 Sometimes, you've got to go through something in order to change your position, change your posture, 16:55 change your perspective, and removing toxins from your life can be very painful 17:04 because our flesh wants to keep these toxins in our lives. 17:09 So, in the process of molding and shaping and adding pressure to the clay, it hurts. 17:14 I need somebody to know it's going to hurt. 17:20 When God is molding you, when God is shaping you into what you need to be, it's going to hurt. 17:30 But you got to trust the process because it's all a part of the process. 17:40 But then I've learned, number four. As the potter's hands start to work inside and outside the clay, 17:50 the clay begins now to grow and expand as it's on the wheel. The clay then gets bigger. 18:03 And so the last thing that the potter will do, number four, 18:08 is he will take a knife and he will start cutting off excess clay that has accumulated on the pottery. 18:19 You all don't hear what I'm saying? 18:21 And so the potter will cut this excess clay as he's molding and shaping the pottery on the spinning wheel, 18:30 the potter is smoothing out all the rough edges. 18:33 So, the pottery turns out complete and beautiful to the natural eye. 18:38 And that's just like God's in the cutting process, in the pruning process. 18:46 God is cutting out some stuff that you don't need in your life. God will prune out some of your friends. 18:56 God will even prune out some of your family. Sometimes spiritually, you outgrow your friends. 19:03 You outgrow your family. God will even prune out some of your co-workers. 19:08 Some of your employers, some of your worried about your boss, God will prune out your supervisor. 19:14 He will make your enemies your footstool. God will prune out some bad habits. 19:20 He will prune out some addictions and he will break some chains in your life. He's the potter. 19:27 We are the clay. And he knows just what we need and what we don't need. 19:34 And this cutting, this pruning, can be very painful. 19:42 But you still got trust the process and know that in the short term, it may hurt, 19:47 You all know how we'll go to a restaurant 19:50 and a server will come and you will order your food. 19:54 But before your food comes out, at the restaurant you sit there and you wait for the bread. 20:01 The rolls to come out. Don't act like y'all don't know what I'm talking about. 20:07 Some of you all just go to Olive Garden for the bread, come on say amen. [Congregation: Amen.] 20:12 Here you are ordering. The servers coming over thinking they going to make a big tip 20:16 because the tip is based on the total the bill. You all don't hear what I'm saying. 20:19 And here they come to your table and you say, "I would like to have some soup. 20:23 I would like to have some salad. 20:25 I would like to have some garlic bread sticks and I would like to have some water with some lemon." 20:30 You all hear what I'm saying. And the server says," That will be six ninety nine." 20:34 You say, "That sounds good, I'll take it," 20:36 because somebody knows sometimes it's about cost and not comfort. Do I have a witness in his place? 20:42 But you sit there waiting for the rolls to come out and while you're sitting there waiting, the server 20:51 --the waiter he comes over and says, “The rolls are in the oven. 20:57 The rolls are rising and as soon as they are ready, I'm going bring the rolls out to you.” 21:06 So, one day I'm in Olive Garden. I'm in my corner in Olive Garden. 21:11 Less you all take pictures of what I'm eating, but be assured it's eggplant parmesan. 21:15 Come on, say Amen. And I'm sitting next to the kitchen. And I hear some rolls talking to me. 21:24 The rolls start testifying to me. I'm not crazy but preachers can get a sermon out of anything. 21:32 And they're all said, "Carlton P. Byrd, I know you're waiting on me. 21:39 I know you really want me right now but I'm in a condition. I'm in unnecessary environments. 21:47 I'm in the fire. I'm not like anything else but I've been made from scratch. 21:54 Somebody put their hands on me. Somebody made me." 21:58 Everybody repeat after me God put his hands on me. [Congregation: God put his hands on me.] 22:02 Say God made me special. [Congregation: God made me special.] 22:05 The rolls say,"Byrd, I'm just like you. I've been handmade. 22:12 I've got something on the inside that really doesn't show up until I've been put through some heat." 22:19 And the rolls said, "Buddy Byrd, just understand. Don't rush me. 22:23 Let me stay in the heat because something is happening to me while I'm in the fire. 22:32 That's on the inside is rising to a new level. And don't rush me. 22:38 But let me stay in the fire because when I do come out, I'm going bless you. 22:44 And I've come to tell somebody, in the name of Jesus, that I know you might be in the fire. 22:52 I know you may be in the heat but you better tell somebody when I come up out of the fire, 22:58 when I come up out of this, I'm going to a new level in Jesus." [Congregation: Applause] 23:06 That's why you better learn to thank God for whatever you go through. 23:11 Because if you never had a problem, Andre Krauss said, "You would never know that God could solve them. 23:16 You wouldn't know what faith in God could do.” Trust the process. 23:24 Because he always has his eyes on you. [Congregation: Amen.] 23:34 He's watching you. He won't leave you. 23:44 Trust the potter. Trust the process. 23:55 When Daniel and I, lost our first daughter 20 years ago, I didn't sign up to be a spiritual guinea pig. 24:06 But I've learned to trust the process. I needed more water. I needed more word. 24:15 I had to keep Jesus at the center in my wheel. 24:20 I understood that do the molding and the shaping that every now and then, God will apply pressure. 24:26 I had to understand. I had to learn in my life that sometimes, God's got to cut the fence. 24:33 You've got to cut the excess clay. But through it all, He never left me. 24:44 Through it all, he kept his eyes on me. 24:49 I know there might be somebody in this process who sometimes feels God has left you, 24:58 that God has taken his eyes off of you. 25:01 But you got to trust the process. He will never leave. 25:05 He will never forsake you right there. 25:11 [Congregation: Applause] 25:19 Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's Breath of Life broadcast. 25:23 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 25:28 If you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety, 25:30 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv. 25:36 Or, call us at (256) 929-6460. 25:42 [ENd] 25:49 [MUSIC][Congregation: Cheering] 25:57 Dr. Byrd: Our Miami revival was a special treat. 26:00 Truly the Holy Spirit was in the place, as over hundred individuals were baptized. 26:06 One of these persons who was baptised, was an old classmate of mine; René Castillo. 26:12 I hadn't seen René in over thirty years, but when the appeal was made for baptism, 26:18 René surrendered his life to the Lord, and was baptized. 26:23 René: Every word that man said, man it's just- 26:28 Every time he opened his mouth I would have an epiphany. 26:33 Everytime he said something, I already knew it but I had buried it. 26:40 That it was like - almost like relearning it and I'm like, I know that. 26:43 I know that. I know that. 26:46 He did say something, and it's been going over and over in my head. 26:53 He says-- Lord I hide your word in my heart, so that I don't sin against you. 27:03 [Sobbing] 27:09 I feel grateful because I brought one of my sons-- 27:20 for two days and he actually enjoyed it. I didn't want to push it on him you know? 27:26 It is my responsiblity, according to word of God, to be the leader-- 27:31 the spiritual leader of my household; and I have not done that. 27:38 Dr. Byrd: I am so grateful, that René had the opportunity 27:42 to renew his relationship with the Lord. 27:44 René's story makes us mindful, 27:47 that the work of evangelism restores and strengthens individuals and families! 27:54 To help Brearg of Life continue its mission, 27:57 of spreading this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. 28:00 Please share a gift with us today. 28:03 Make your tax deductible gift payable to Breath of Life by mail, 28:07 at Breath of Life PO BOX 5960, Huntsville, AL 35814 28:13 Give us all call the number is 256.929.6460 28:19 Or you can visit us online at www.breathoflife.tv 28:25 [The End] |
Revised 2021-08-18