Participants:
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000700S
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00:01 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:07 Sermon #B700 - Greater Things 00:20 Dr. Byrd: It is now time for us to present the word of God and so I invite you to take your Bibles 00:25 and go with me to the Book of John. We are going to go to John 14. Just one verse today 00:32 and we are going to read this one verse from The New International Version of the Bible, John 14:12. 00:42 John 14:12, the word of God says, "Very truly I tell you, whoever 00:48 believes in me will do the works I have been doing. They will do even greater things than these, 01:00 because I am going to the Father." Let me read that one more time, "Very truly I tell you, 01:05 whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. They will do even greater things than these, 01:14 because I am going to the Father." 01:17 Today I want to challenge you the First Sabbath of 2021 with the subject "Greater Things". 01:28 Greater Things. Father in Heaven, Lord, right now, speak to your people. 01:34 I first ask that you would forgive me of my sins and hide me behind your cross 01:38 because I am unworthy to stand here before your people today. But Lord, 01:43 cover me with your robe of righteousness, cleanse me with your blood right now. 01:48 I pray that this word penetrate the hearts, the minds, bodies, the souls, and spirits of all who listen. 01:58 Go now to the internet. Go to the television. Go to the computer, and God speak. 02:07 We be careful and give you the praise and the glory now. When we get to the end of the message today, 02:12 I pray that people everywhere, people in Huntsville, people in Madison, people in Alabama, 02:18 people in the North, the South, the East, the West, people in the Caribbean, people in Africa, 02:23 people in the UK, people in Australia, people everywhere, 02:26 that God we would be changed as a result of your word this day. I thank you for hearing this prayer. 02:34 I thank you for answering this prayer. God this is one of those days I got to preach it. So God speak to me. 02:45 I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 02:52 "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, 03:00 and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." Greater things. 03:06 2020 was supposed to be the year. 2020 was supposed to be the year where we could accomplish anything. 03:18 It was supposed to be a year of great exploits, great discoveries, new opportunities. 03:28 2020 was supposed to be the year, a vision. We were supposed to see things so clearly. 03:38 When 2020 began, everybody was talking about vision. It was supposed to be amazing. 03:48 But it wasn't so amazing. By the time we got to March, by the time April rolled around, 03:57 and May, and June, because COVID-19 hit us. Infection rates skyrocketed. 04:07 There are lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, ventilators, deaths, job losses, toilet paper shortages, 04:16 stock market plummets, Church doors closed, sports venues cancelled. Then there were unmerited 04:25 and unwarranted killings of black people. Racial injustices, racial unrest, hurricanes, wildfires, 04:40 election drama, election protesting, bombings, and then the second wave of COVID-19. More closings, 04:53 more lockdowns, more stay-at-home orders, more ventilators, more deaths. And at midnight yesterday, 05:07 there was this thought among many that on January 1, we can put 2020 in our rearview mirror 05:14 and things magically will return to normal. 05:19 We live through 2020, and we believe that things have got to get better in 2021. 05:28 I must admit that I really hope that they do. I pray they do. 05:31 I want things to not only get back to a sense of normalcy, but I want them to be better than normal. 05:37 Better than it was before COVID. But then, what happens if they don't? What happens if things get worse? 05:50 What happens if there are more coronavirus cases? What happens if there are more COVID deaths? 06:00 What happens if there are adverse effects to the vaccines? 06:06 What happens if people's personal finances don't bounce back? 06:10 What happens if the church doesn't return to normal and people don't come back to church as normal? 06:18 What happens if this year is just a repeat of last year or turns out to be even a worse year? 06:25 What happens if this is not a better year, a brighter year, a greater year because we all want greater? 06:32 Greater health, greater wealth, greater security. But what if things don't get greater 06:43 or what if we are being called to a different greater? 06:49 In the text Jesus says that if we believe in Him, we will do greater things than He did. 06:56 What is Jesus talking about? We can't do greater things than Jesus did. 07:01 There is no one who comes close to the work that Jesus did. This verse, though it is inspiring, 07:08 it is one of the most difficult text in all of Scripture to understand. Jesus is giving encouragement. 07:15 Jesus is giving inspiration and comfort to His distraught disciples, 07:19 who are troubled by the fact that He was leaving them to go to His Father. 07:23 But then He tells them that after He is gone, they will do greater works and greater things than He did. 07:30 And whatever they ask in His name, it would be done. But friends, how can that be? 07:36 At this point, in John 14 prior to that, Jesus in John 2 has turned water into wine. 07:44 He has read the mind of a Samaritan woman in John 4. 07:49 He has healed the man at the pool of Bethesda who was crippled for 38 years. 07:54 He has fed five thousand with two fish and five loaves of bread. He has walks on water. 08:01 He has healed the man who was born blind. He has raised Lazarus from the dead. 08:06 So, what does Jesus mean? What is He talking about when 08:11 He says whoever believes in Him will do greater things? I mean, let us be honest. 08:19 It is 2000 years later and I don't know of anyone who has exceeded walking on water, 08:23 feeding five thousand, or raising the dead. 08:26 I don't know of anyone other than Jesus who has done all three of these things, 08:30 all three of these miracles, let alone something more miraculous. But experience your mind more than that. 08:37 I am Carlton Byrd, I am a believer. I am a Christian. I am a pastor, 08:44 and Jesus has never used me to perform a miracle. I can't say that whatever I asked Him to do, 08:51 He does it every time because if that were the case, Mr. Roddy wouldn't have died. 08:58 Be careful of the health and the wealth preachers who use this text to name it and claim it, 09:04 and blab it, and grab it. Give me a mansion and give me a Mercedes. Heal me of my cancer. 09:13 They tell people to claim it by faith, and when it doesn't happen as the people have asked, 09:20 these same preachers tell the disappointed person that the reason they didn't receive what 09:25 they asked for is because they didn't ask in faith. But don't get it twisted. 09:29 Jesus isn't promising us that He will do anything we ask as long as we tack on "in Jesus' name, 09:35 Amen" to your prayer. 09:37 Prayer isn't a means of getting God to give us what we want so that our lives can be more comfortable. 09:41 But prayer is the means by which we ask God to extend His Kingdom 09:45 and do His will on Earth as it is in heaven. But let us get back to the question, I digress. 09:51 Is it really possible for us to do greater things than Jesus? 09:58 The answer to that question is a resounding "no". You are not God. 10:06 Quit trying to be God because you are not God. 10:11 Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth", 10:16 which means God created us. God made us. God does not need us. 10:23 God can work all by God's self-independent of all human agency and assistance. 10:29 God has the power to go and do any and everything without us. 10:34 There are those who say God has no hands but our hands, but the fact is God made our hands without our hands. 10:39 God made us without our help. God is Sovereign. God doesn't need help from anybody else. 10:46 Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God says I am to beginning. I am the first. 10:54 I am the last. I am the end. I am God." God says I can't show you my beginning 11:02 because I never had a beginning. 11:05 Jesus is God. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God, 11:14 and the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him, 11:20 there was not anything that was made. The word became flesh, dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, 11:29 the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. 11:32 So, can anybody do greater things than Jesus? No, because He is God. 11:39 Don't you misunderstand this text. Don't take what Jesus said in the text out of context. 11:46 Jesus was not saying that every believer would walk on water or raise the dead. 11:51 Jesus was not saying that every believer would feed multitudes or healed blind men. 11:56 If Jesus meant that people would do greater miracles than He performed in the sense of displaying more power 12:01 and greater things than He did, then He obviously one of the things that 12:05 Jesus failed to perform was sound the prophecy, because nobody exceeded Jesus' works. 12:12 Now, let me be clear just in case someone tries to twist what I am trying to say. 12:15 We should never doubt that if it's God's will, God can miraculously heal 12:21 or do other miracles through His people. But I do not know of anyone in our day experiencing near the same or 12:28 greater miracles than Jesus did. The greater things that Jesus promised cannot refer to greater miracles 12:35 that He did. 12:37 Then what is Jesus talking about? Jesus says, "Greater things." What does he mean? 12:45 When Jesus says, "Greater things", He is talking about greater in quantity rather than quality. 12:54 You see when Jesus was on this Earth, Jesus' activity have been largely limited to Galilee and Judea. 13:01 But after His Ascension, after He went back to His Father, and like the text says, 13:05 His disciples were going to extend His ministry to the uttermost parts of the Earth. 13:08 When Jesus my friends ascended back to Heaven, His followers only numbered in the one hundreds, 13:16 but empowered by the Holy Ghost. 13:21 Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, that number from hundreds leaps into the thousands. 13:30 And the Bible says that on the day of Pentecost, 13:33 the Bible says that three thousand people were saved in one day. 13:38 And then the Book of Acts says that the message kept spread. It kept growing first around Jerusalem 13:46 and eventually to the Gentiles around the entire Roman Empire as a result of the Pentecostal outpouring. 13:54 The Gospel was proclaimed with such power that about 40 years later, 14:00 Paul could say in Colossians 1:23 that the gospel was preached to every creature which was under Heaven. 14:09 Jesus departure was the catalyst to the Disciples' greater works. 14:14 The gift of the Holy Ghost depending on Jesus return to the heaven 14:17 and it was through the Holy Ghost that the church was able to do the work of God. 14:20 So even after Jesus's Ministry on Earth ended, His work would go on. The followers of Christ, 14:27 empowered by the Holy Ghost, will continue to preach and teach. The followers of Christ, 14:35 empowered by the Holy Ghost, will continue to help and heal, and the Gospel would have worldwide impact. 14:46 There is one more thing from this text before we put theory into practice. 14:52 Jesus doesn't get exclusive in the text. Jesus says, "Whoever believes in me." 15:01 You all have to hear what I am saying. "Whoever believes in me will do greater things." 15:10 That whoever is every believer, not just the Disciples, not just Peter, not just Paul, 15:21 not just the pastors, not just the elders, not just Bible workers, not just the general conference, 15:32 not just the local conference, but whoever is all of us, which means all of us 15:38 because we are all Believers that can do greater things for the Lord. 15:43 I don't know because I am not a fortune teller. I don't know what is going to happen in 2021. 15:49 I don't know what the future holds. I don't know if things on planet Earth are going to get better or worse. 16:00 But what I do know is that God is calling whoever. God is calling us. 16:09 God is calling Believers to greater things. 16:13 There are three things I believe that He is calling us greater things. Number one, 16:17 He is calling us to greater methods. I said He is calling us to greater methods. 16:24 My great-great-grandfather rode a horse but was afraid of the train. 16:35 My great-grandfather rode on a train but was afraid of a car. My grandfather rode in a car 16:44 but was afraid of an airplane. Today I ride in an airplane, but I am afraid to ride a horse. 16:52 You all hear what I am saying? 16:54 Things changed. Seventy-three percent of college graduates are going to jobs today that didn't exist when 17:01 they were born twenty-two years ago. Things changed. 17:06 The church has changed too. Gone are the days when the choir would walk in 17:13 before Divine worship from the back of the church with their robes on swinging in the aisles, 17:19 walking to the front of the church, processing into the sanctuary for the intro. Things changed. 17:25 Gone were the days when pastors and elders set in pulpit chairs on the rostrum, 17:30 and the deacons sit in front chairs facing the congregation in the sanctuary. Things changed. 17:36 Gone all the days when every church would sing after the offering 17:40 and we really didn't know the words, "we give thee but thine own. Whatever the gift. 17:45 May be all that we have is thine alone. A trust O Lord from thee." Things changed. 17:50 Do I have a witness in this place? And now with the coronavirus, even before the coronavirus, 17:58 people don't have to physically come to church anymore. They can watch it online. 18:05 It is no longer Bedside Baptist, St. Matthew's Methodists, or hearing a word from Pastor Pillow. 18:13 It is now virtual viewing. It is now online Adventists. 18:19 You can now even return your time and offering online with the click of a button. 18:24 You don't have cash, you can now return your tithes and offering to the Oakwood University Church cash app. 18:30 Please don't misunderstand me. I am not disparaging these changes, 18:35 but I am just trying to point out to somebody somewhere that we live in a changing world 18:39 and these changes are impacting the church. So either you go change with the times 18:44 and be relevant to the times, or you go die a slow death because you refuse to change. 18:52 God is calling us in 2021 for greater methods. 18:57 For example, today most people don't like to read like they did twenty years ago. 19:02 They would rather get their information from the television or the internet. 19:05 So if a church wants these people to learn our message, we must present our message in a way they are used to. 19:10 That is why we have to have PowerPoint and we have to have audiovisual tools in the church. 19:14 Not so we can brag and say, "Look at us, we are Oakwood. We have the latest technological equipment." 19:20 No, that is not the reason for it. Not so we can boast video laws, not so we can boast HD or 4K cameras, 19:26 but we have to speak in a language that people in 2021 understand. We are changing the method, 19:33 not the message. 19:36 What if the church never returns to what it was before COVID-19? 19:39 What if we never have fellowship dinners like we had before? During this current period, 19:46 listen to me, do we just operate in maintenance mode hoping things change or return to what they were? 19:52 No, I don't believe that is what God has called us to. God has called us to do greater things. 19:57 Greater things for him even now. You know what that means? I'm a bowl down somebody's alley right now. 20:05 But you know what that means if we got to change our methods? 20:07 That means our infrastructure must change to reflect a more digital emphasis. 20:12 That means our financial budgets must change to facilitate the divisional emphasis. 20:18 That means the allocation of our resources must change to facilitate the Gospel. 20:24 I hear people all the time. We are not like Oakwood. We don't have the money for digital Ministry. 20:29 The devil is a lie. I hear people all the time. We don't have money for media staff. 20:33 We don't have money for a communication scene. We don't have money for cameras. 20:37 We don't have money for screens. Yes you do, but you got to reallocate your resources. 20:42 Your methods must change. You can't do 8-track Ministry in a COVID world. 20:47 God wants to do greater things. Greater things means change. A change in our thinking. 20:55 A change in our ideas. A change in our methods. He is calling us to greater methods. 21:04 But not only He is calling us the greater methods, number two, He is calling us to greater Ministry. 21:09 Now, Ministry is service. In 2021, God is calling us to greater Ministry through service. 21:19 All right, what am I talking about? Greater Ministry that has businesses to employ it's members, 21:29 reducing unemployment numbers, and providing employment opportunities for people who have Sabbath 21:36 work conflicts, and also provides residual streams of income for the church to be able to do increased 21:42 Ministry for the community and the world. 21:46 Praise God for our church barbershop. Praise God for our church food market. But God is trying to say, 21:56 "Greater things than these." Greater Ministry where our in-person 22:04 and our online membership is financially faithful. Where everybody is returning an honest tithe 22:10 and giving a liberal offering so when children need to be in church school, we can help. 22:16 When we want to respond to persons and communities in crisis here in Huntsville and beyond, 22:22 we can help. So whether it is clothes in Huntsville, clean water in Flint's, blankets in Buffalo, 22:31 or food in the Caribbean on the Gulf Coast after a hurricane, we can help. 22:37 Greater Ministry where if our tithe and offering receipts for a single church are over 6 million dollars 22:45 annually, that we have a credit union, we have a bank where our people online and traditional can get help 22:55 and realize their professional and personal callings by God enabling them to do greater Ministry exploits 23:02 for the Lord. Praise God for Bank of America. Praise God for Regions Bank. Praise God for BB&T. 23:12 Praise God for the Southern Union Revolving Fund. But God says, "Greater things than these." 23:23 Greater Ministry where we can have our own Video and Studio Ministry Center for our Oaktown Children's 23:30 Ministry where children in Huntsville, children in Atlanta, children in New York, children in Chicago, 23:39 children in Los Angeles, children in Jamaica, children in Africa, 23:43 children in London can come here to Huntsville and they can come to Oakwood and we can record gifts that God 23:51 has given them through preaching, through singing, through playing an instrument, through drama, 23:57 through the hearts so they don't have to go to other places. 24:01 They don't have to go outside of a Christian environment to pursue their God-given talents and gifts, 24:06 but we can do it right here. It can be seen on the internet, seen on television, seen on Breathe of Life. 24:15 Greater methods, greater Ministry, and the number three, 24:21 God is calling us to greater motivation for Ministry. 24:26 As of yesterday, 84 million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus, 24:34 and 1.83 million people have died of the coronavirus. In the United States alone, 24:40 the most industrialized nation in the world, 20 million people have contracted the coronavirus 24:46 and 346,000 people here in this country have died from it, including people in our church. 24:53 It is ripping at my heart. Health experts are forecasting that things are not going to get better, 25:03 but things are going to get worse. We've got racial unrest, election drama, stimulus strife. 25:15 If we ever needed the Gospel like we've lost our minds, we need it right now. 25:23 Daily, people are going to Christless graves. We don't have time for confusion. 25:30 We don't have time for mess. We don't have time for gossip. If we ever needed the Lord before, 25:38 we sure do need Him now. If we ever needed to be motivated from Ministry, it is rights now. 25:45 Yeah, but His church in North America. Through the first three quarters of 2019, 25:46 According to the Pew Research Center here in the United States, 25:49 only one in five online worshipers say they will watch virtual worship services more now that we are in a 25:57 pandemic. Also, according to the Pew Research Center, 26:00 35% of virtual church viewers are still exclusively watching their own church, 26:05 while 14% have switched churches from their pre-COVID church, 26:09 32% have stopped viewing church during this COVID-19 pandemic, 26:15 and 18% are viewing multiple churches throughout the month, 26:19 and then 50% of all Millennials have stopped attending online church altogether. 26:29 Now, if these statistics don't motivate the Church Universal to do greater Ministry, 26:39 then I don't know what will, and God is calling Believers in 2021 to do greater things, greater methods, 26:54 greater Ministry, greater motivation for Ministry. For me, for Carlton Byrd, 27:06 I can't worry about what everybody else is doing. I can't worry about what everybody else is not doing. 27:14 I just want to hear Jesus say to me, "Well done." I just want to do greater for Him. 27:23 You see, if I testify right now, God has blessed me. God has blessed me with a wonderful, 27:30 beautiful wife who loves me and I love her. We just celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. 27:38 God has blessed me and my wife with three beautiful daughters. We love them and they love us. 27:45 God has blessed us with a beautiful church and a wonderful television Ministry. 27:51 God has blessed us with the best pastoral staff, church staff, media staff, and music staff. 27:59 But God says, "Greater things than these." Greater things I have for you. He has not called us to mediocrity. 28:08 He has not called us to maintenance Ministry, but God has called us to greater. 28:17 Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's Breath of Life broadcast. 28:21 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 28:26 If you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety, 28:28 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv. 28:34 Or, call us at (256) 929-6460. 28:40 [END] |
Revised 2021-01-06