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Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000675S
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00:01 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:06 Sermon #B675 - Liberty Is Pregnant Again 00:20 Dr. Byrd: If you have your bibles with you, I invite you to turn to the book of Galatians, 00:24 book of Galatians, 00:26 Galatians chapter five verse number one. Galatians chapter five verse number one. 00:31 We only have one verse today, Galatians chapter five and verse number one. 00:38 Galatians chapter five and verse number one. You have it in your Bibles. 00:43 You have it at home. I want to invite you to turn there, 00:46 Galatians chapter five verse number one. 00:49 I am going to read from the King James version of the Bible. 00:53 I am going to read from the King James version. 00:55 Just one text, Galatians chapter five verse number one, the Apostle Paul. 00:59 Galatians chapter five verse number one, the Apostle Paul speaking to us today. 01:06 If you were in the building, I would say if you have it let me hear you say Amen, 01:10 but you are not in the building. It is just me and the media team 01:12 and so I trust that you have it and we are going to read now 01:16 and you are hearing the word of God says, 01:17 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, 01:26 and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.". 01:31 Let me read that one more time "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 01:36 made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 01:42 Today, we want to challenge you with this tax on the subject, Liberty is pregnant. 01:49 Again. Liberty is pregnant again. God bless us now. 01:54 We thank you for what you have done already today in this worship experience, 01:57 but now speak Lord your servant heareth. 02:02 Lord bathe me in the Holy Ghost right now that God people say, 02:07 what is gotten into Pastor Byrd, but it will not be me, 02:09 but it will be the Holy Ghost working and living through me today. 02:13 Lord, I feel like preaching today[?] fire. Shut up in my bones. 02:17 Lord preach, speak, and teach your people and then at the end of this sermon Lord, 02:23 I pray that individuals be willing to give their life to you 02:28 and say what must I do to be saved, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ 02:31 and thou shalt be saved. We pray this prayer asking for forgiveness of sin in Jesus' name. 02:38 Amen. Liberty is pregnant again. 02:46 Today, as everyone has said is July fourth, America's birthday. 02:55 July fourth, America's birthday. Independence Day. Two hundred and forty-four years ago, 03:02 America got its freedom. America got its liberty and independence from Britain. 03:10 Now to make sure you are with me today. I am going to quickly do a historical review. 03:15 A historical review of America's history. 03:18 Now, you remember that in the seventeenth century, that is in the sixteen hundreds, 03:22 the pilgrims and the Puritans came to America. So they could practice religious freedom. 03:29 They wanted to worship as they wanted. They wanted to preach as they wanted. 03:33 They wanted to sing as they wanted. They wanted to serve as they wanted. 03:38 They wanted to be free. You also remember that it was in the next century, 03:43 the eighteenth century, the seventeen hundreds, 03:46 that Great Britain established a number of colonies in America, 03:51 but it was not just the British who want colonies in America. 03:54 It was also the French who wanted colonies in America. 03:58 So there was a war between the British and the French and it was called the French 04:03 and Indian War. The British won in this war. They defeated the French, 04:11 but after this war Britain was in some debt because of the war 04:17 and so Britain wanted to pay some of its war debts. So what the Britain decided to do, 04:22 the king of Britain and the British Parliament believed that they had to right, 04:26 the right to tax the American colonies, 04:30 but the American colonists they did not see it this way. 04:33 They did not like the idea of being taxed by Britain 04:37 and then having no say-so in their own government affairs. 04:42 And so the phrase and you all know it, no taxation without representation became popular. 04:49 As a result, the American Revolutionary War was fought from seventeen seventy-five to 04:55 seventeen eighty-three and it was fought between Great Britain 04:59 and the Thirteen American Colonies. The colonies, 05:03 one resulting in the overthrow of British rule in the colonies 05:08 and the establishment of the United States of America. America was born. 05:18 Freedom from Britain was realized. 05:21 Independence from Britain was granted now to consummate this Independence, 05:28 the Declaration of Independence was adopted 05:31 and signed by the Continental Congress on July the fourth, 05:35 seventeen seventy-six and the Thirteen American Colonies broke their political 05:39 connections to Great Britain. This declaration said. We all learned it in school. 05:46 We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal 05:53 and they have three basic rights that the government can not take away, life, liberty, 06:01 and the pursuit of happiness, but friends, you can not take what you have never given 06:09 because over these two hundred and fifty years. 06:12 This ideology of Liberty has been more acceptable in theory than in practice. 06:19 What am I talking about? In the Declaration of Independence, 06:23 the founding fathers presented grand, stately, and lofty written words of freedom, 06:30 liberty, and equality but these were nothing more than hypocritical, sanctimonious, 06:38 self-serving, feel good, and sound good words 06:42 because while they wrote these words there were still six million black people who were 06:48 enslaved in America. So in seventeen seventy-six America was born, 06:55 but in seventeen seventy-six, Liberty was stillborn. 07:01 And so today nearly two hundred and fifty years later, 07:05 I am what I call a conflicted American, 07:09 there is a conflict between what I have been taught versus what I have been shown. 07:15 History books have taught freedom, but actual history has shown something else. 07:21 Somebody is still not getting it, so let me break this down. 07:25 Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence 07:31 and third president of the United States was a slave owner who had an affair 07:37 with his black slave mistress, Sally Hemings. 07:41 Their lecherous, lude and lust -ful, produced six children, 07:49 but if all men were created equal, why did Thomas Jefferson, 07:55 author of the Declaration of Independence have slaves. 07:59 If all men were created equal, why did Native Americans have to give up their land 08:04 and be relegated to reservations usually on the worst patches of land? 08:09 If all men were created equal in seventeen seventy-six, 08:14 then why were blacks counted as three-fifths of a person at the Constitutional 08:19 Convention in seventeen eighty-seven? If all men were created equal, 08:24 then why were black people, slaves, until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment 08:29 in eighteen sixty-five when slavery was abolished? If all men were created equal, 08:35 then why could not black people vote until the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment 08:40 in eighteen seventy that said "Voting rights could not be denied on account of race 08:45 or color."? If all men were created equal, 08:49 then why could not women vote until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in nineteen 08:53 twenty? If all men were created equal, 08:57 then why did we have to push for the Civil Rights Voting Act, 09:00 Civil Rights Act in nineteen sixty-four and the Voting Right Act in nineteen sixty-five? 09:08 Jesus wants to know. I want to know just like all men are created equal seem to apply 09:19 only to the white property only males at the time of the Declaration of Independence 09:22 in seventeen seventy-six. 09:24 There is still a question of whether we are living up to this universal standard of 09:28 equality in twenty twenty, which leaves to the reality that America was born, 09:36 but Liberty was stillborn. I hear people all the time, "Pastor, it is twenty twenty, 09:44 the world is different. Things have changed. Quit holding on to the past. 09:53 Get over it." but I can not get over it in twenty twenty. 09:57 When Ahmaud Arbery is shot while jogging, Breonna Taylor shot while sleeping 10:02 and George Floyd's got a knee to his neck. 10:06 I can not get over it in twenty twenty when black persons 10:09 have a COVID-19 hospitalization rate approximately five times higher than that of 10:14 their white counterparts and in a period of the coronavirus pandemic, 10:18 where more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand people have died 10:21 from this virus in America and millions of others have lost their health care due to lost 10:26 jobs. The White House is trying to end Obamacare which will leave twenty-three 10:32 million Americans without health coverage and make it harder for sick people to get 10:36 new coverage at a time when the coronavirus is disproportionately impacting Black 10:41 and Latino Americans and leaving hundreds of thousands with potentially 10:45 lasting health problems. I can not get over it. 10:48 But what are we going to do? 10:50 So today, I just have one verse in my text, Galatians five one, 10:55 the Apostle Paul says simply, "Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ 11:01 hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.". 11:07 I like the way the New International Version puts it, it says, 11:09 "It is for freedom, Hallelujah, that Christ has set us free, 11:15 stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.". 11:22 Now, let me help you understand what Paul is saying here. 11:25 Paul here is warning the Galatians not to put the yoke of the law back on again. 11:29 He is telling the Galatian church that number one, 11:31 there were people who had rejected the gospel of grace. 11:34 There were people who had started saying that believing in Jesus was not enough 11:38 and then number three, there were people who were teaching that, 11:41 to be saved they still need to be circumcised, circumcised 11:44 and obey the ceremonial law or the law of ordinances or the Mosaic law. 11:50 So Paul tells them that they believe all of this then they do not 11:55 believe that Christ's death on the cross was sufficient to save them from their sins, 12:01 for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, 12:06 Our Lord. Paul was trying to stress to them that living under the ceremonial law not to 12:11 be confused with the Ten Commandment law but living under the ceremonial law could never 12:16 bring freedom. That it can only bring bondage. 12:19 But when Christ Jesus came he fulfilled the requirement of the ceremonial law 12:24 and was the atonement, Hallelujah, for our sins and that through Christ's death. 12:28 There was no longer a need to kill animals, no longer need to sacrifice lambs. 12:33 Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world, 12:37 which means then that the burden that the yolk was lifted from the people 12:41 because the requirement of the ceremonial law had been met by Jesus Christ. 12:46 The Lamb of God was sacrificed in their place and put simply, Jesus had set them free, 12:54 Instead of living in the freedom of Christ. 12:56 The Galatians thought they needed something more. 12:59 So the Galatians allowed some folk to come in and spread some heresy among them. 13:04 They allowed fold to deceive them into thinking they needed something more, 13:08 in order to earn their freedom, in order to earn their salvation. 13:13 But let me remind you today, we can never earn our Salvation. 13:17 Our Salvation in the sight of God is but as filthy rags and more than that, 13:23 if we try to earn our Salvation, we deny the truth of God's grace. 13:29 Paul says, "It is Jesus' sacrifice that restores us to a right relationship with God.", 13:33 but do not get it twisted. Yes, we have been freed from sin, 13:36 but we are not free to sin. Yes, we have been ransom. Yes, the debt was paid on Calvary. 13:43 Jesus paid it all. Yes, we have been saved from a sinful life 13:47 and brought it to freedom through the precious blood of Jesus, 13:50 but that does not mean we go out and sin. 13:52 Yes, we are free from the traditions of the ceremonial law, 13:55 but we are not free to disregard or break God's Ten Commandment law. 13:59 And so what does Paul tell us he says, stand up. He says, stand firm. 14:05 In the freedom which Christ and Christ along brings. 14:08 He says stand and when he says stand, 14:12 it is a reminder that freedom comes at the cost of continued vigilance. 14:17 You got to stand daily. You got to stand weekly. You gotta stand monthly. 14:22 You got to stand yearly. Standing does not stop. 14:27 When you stand for something, it never stops. 14:31 The Galilean Christians were beginning to drift they were beginning to drift. 14:34 They were beginning to drift away, beginning to drift from the values of Jesus 14:37 they were beginning to drift from their priorities 14:40 and their priority that Jesus that Paul gave them a Galatians five can be read in verse 14:44 number fourteen, where they were to love their neighbors as themselves. 14:48 That is the context of Galatians five, 14:51 but I do not want to limit our use of the text today to its just so contextual use, 14:56 but today I also want us to consider from this text, a topical use. 15:00 Remember, Paul says, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. 15:06 Stand firm and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 15:12 Today is July fourth. Two hundred forty four years ago, today America was born. 15:22 Today America celebrates its independence. 15:26 Today we are reminded of the Declaration of Independence. 15:31 Today we are reminded of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 15:37 And just like the text tells us, Do not let the ceremonial law keep you in slavery. 15:43 God told me to tell somebody. Don't let the law of supremacy, the law of privilege, 15:51 the law of xenophobic, chauvinistic, racist, prejudiced, bigger than inequality, 15:58 keep you in slavery. 16:00 The Galatians had gotten out of a spiritual 16:02 slavery with the ceremonial laws, but they were still in a salvific slavery 16:07 because they did not understand what Jesus had done for them on Calvary 16:11 and some of us today are just like the Israelites. 16:15 Some of us today are just like the Galatians 16:17 but we are not in a physical slavery per se but many of us black 16:23 and white are in a supremacy slavery. 16:27 Privileged folk think this is how it is supposed to be. 16:32 Underprivileged folk think this is how it always will be. 16:37 But with all that is going on in our world as of late, 16:41 with all the awareness that has been brought up to the forefront regarding racial 16:46 inequality, we now have an opportunity for Liberty to really be born. 16:53 We have an opportunity for Independence to be born. 16:57 We now have an opportunity for Freedom to be born. 17:02 Just like our forefathers could birth their freedom by severing ties with Britain. 17:08 Today, our country, our community, our city, and our church, 17:14 we have the opportunity to birth Freedom today with our severing of ties with supremacy, 17:20 racism, oppression, and inequality. And so my cried today Liberty is pregnant again. 17:29 But Pastor Byrd, how can something be born? When something is old, 17:34 it reminds me of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, 17:37 when Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be born again, 17:41 but how can a man be born when a man is old? 17:45 How can a man take his old mature self all the way back to a one-celled embryo? 17:50 How can life be transformed? How can something be made new? 17:55 How can something new be seen? How can politics be transcended? 18:00 How can laws be change? How can policies be reversed? 18:04 How can practices be reformed? How can philosophies be transformed? 18:09 How can perspectives be amended? How can minds be converted? 18:13 How can supremacy be abolished? How can racism be eradicated? 18:18 How can oppression be obliterated? How can slavery be eliminated? 18:23 How can all men be equal? 18:26 How can we truly be one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all? 18:33 How can Liberty be born again? Yes, we need heart changes, 18:38 but we also need some law changes. We got to get out and vote. 18:42 I said we got to get out and vote. It is not unchristian to vote. 18:47 I wish I had a witness in this place. 18:48 We have to vote policies and we have to vote for the right people 18:52 and some people need to be voted out. We need godly people. 18:56 We need Christ-like people. We need law changes and some time to change the law, 19:03 you got to change the people. 19:04 But we also need the entire human race to join in this birthing process. 19:11 That is Black folks. That is White folks. That is Hispanic folks. 19:16 That is Asian folk. It has all folks join together to fight for 19:20 and advocate the freedom and equality of all races, speaking of races, 19:25 in all races when we thinking here about the Civil Rights Movement, 19:29 we hear a lot about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, John Lewis, 19:36 Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, and Rosa Parks, 19:42 but have you also heard of William Moore? Pastor Bruce Klunder? Andrew Goodman? 19:49 Michael Schwerner? Pastor James Reeb? Viola Liuzzo? Jonathan Daniels and Juliet Morgan? 19:56 Each of these individuals that I just named participated 19:59 and died during the Civil Rights Movement. 20:02 But what makes them stand out is that each of these individuals, 20:04 each one was white and gave their lives fighting for racial equality. 20:09 In fact, they did this in some, 20:11 in place of some black folk who felt that fighting for equal rights was not worth their 20:16 own lives. There were some black folk who did not march. 20:22 There was some White folk who stood up for us when we would not stand for ourselves. 20:28 Let me be clear some of the emails, some of the letters, some of the hate mail, 20:32 and social media posts that I have received discouraging me from protesting 20:36 and speaking up and speaking out have come from people of color. 20:41 But that does not deter me 20:43 because when I study history I realized that every black person did not agree 20:48 with Martin Luther King. 20:50 Every black person did not believe in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 20:54 Every black person did not vote for Barack Obama. 20:58 In fact, when Barack Obama ran for president two thousand eight, 21:00 blacks only constituted 13 percent of the population, 21:03 but he got fifty-three percent of the total vote, 21:05 which means that somebody in addition to black people had to vote for him. 21:09 Are you hearing what I am saying? I have learned everybody does not like you. 21:14 Everybody will not like you. Everybody will not understand you. 21:19 Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons. 21:25 Not every black person is woke. We got some fake woke out there. I wish I had time. 21:33 Every minority, listen to me good, every minority, 21:37 I do not care where you have come from. I do not care where you were born. 21:43 Every minority in the United States has either directly 21:47 or indirectly benefited from the Civil Rights struggle, and do not you forget that. 21:53 So what do we need to do? Number one. We need some law changes. Number two. 21:57 We need all hands on deck. All hands on board to deliver Liberty, 22:01 to allow Liberty be born not stillborn, but born. But the number three, 22:06 we need God in our lives. I do not understand people who call themselves followers of God, 22:12 but ca not speak up against racism. We need God in our lives. 22:16 I was working on his sermon. 22:18 I said, well, maybe I should say we need God back in our lives, 22:21 but for some people God was never in their lives. We need God in our lives. 22:27 If God can part the Red Sea, if God can make a way in the wilderness, 22:32 if God can, feel like preaching now. If God can make rivers in the desert, 22:38 we know that God can move mountains out of our way, 22:41 if the Lord can use a virgin to conceive a child then God can birth Liberty into his 22:47 people, if the Lord can open up a Red Sea then surely the Lord can open up bigoted minds, 22:53 if the Lord can heal a woman with the issue of blood then God can heal us of this 22:59 dreaded disease called racism. Liberty is pregnant again, 23:07 but what are we going to do about it? Are we going to birth it or we going to ignore it? 23:14 two hundred and fifty years ago, our country, our nation was pregnant. 23:20 Pregnant with liberty and it is pregnant now. It is pregnant with life, liberty, 23:30 and the pursuit of happiness. Liberty is pregnant 23:35 and every time a woman is about to give birth, the doctors tell her to do one thing, 23:43 they tell her to push. Liberty is pregnant again, 23:49 and it is time I can not get a witness in this place. 23:53 It is time to PUSH, Pray Until Something Happens. You got to push. 24:00 Speak up and speak out. You have got to push. I know you are tired, 24:05 but keep on marching and push. I know it hurts, but you got to stand up for the right. 24:11 Push. I know you feel like giving up but push. 24:15 I know you will think it is not going to happen but push. 24:19 I know you think you are not gonna birth it but push. 24:22 The race is not given to the swift or to the strong 24:26 but to the one that endures unto the end. So push. 24:31 Jesus has already set us free. Jesus already won the battle on Calvary 24:37 and if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. 24:42 So push because if you do not push the church will be debilitated. 24:48 The community will be devastated. The world will be disintegrated. 24:53 The race will be dominated and the globe will be annihilated. So push. 24:58 You are about to give birth. I said you are about to give birth. 25:03 We are going to keep marching because we are about to give birth. 25:05 We got to keep protesting because we are about to give birth. 25:08 Liberty is coming. Liberty got it, has its head out. 25:12 Liberty's hands and feet are coming out. Liberty's eyes are peeking out. 25:18 Nobody can hold you down. Nobody can keep you down. 25:22 Nobody can stop God from blessing you. 25:24 When they build a wall around you, knock it down. When they put a mountain before you, 25:29 speak it down. When they lay a problem in front of you, tear it down. 25:34 When they bring you prejudice, turn it into praise. When they bring you grief, 25:39 turn it into gratitude. When they bring you hurt, turn it into hope. 25:43 When they bring you trouble, turn it into thanks. When they bring you a deficit, 25:48 you better turn it into a surplus. When they laugh at you, keep on smiling. 25:52 When they slander your name, you just going to praise God's name 25:55 because this joy that I have the world did not give it and the world can not take it away. 26:03 I got the joy joy joy joy. Down in my heart and it is down in my heart to stay. 26:10 Let me tell you people can talk about me all they want. 26:12 They can take away my health but they can not take away my hope. 26:16 They can take away my job but they can not take away my joy. 26:20 They can take away my pulpit but they can not take away my praise. 26:23 They can take away my position but they can not take away my power. 26:27 They can strip me of my letters but they can not strip me of my life 26:31 because God is the joy and the strength of my life. It moves all pain, misery, 26:43 and strife, He promised to keep me never to leave me. 26:46 He has never come short of his word. I have got to fast 26:49 and pray, stay in the narrow way. Keep my life clean every day. 26:53 I want to go with him when he comes back because I have come too far 27:00 and I will never turn back. 27:07 Liberty is pregnant again. What are you going to do with it? 27:19 You just going to talk about it? Just text about it? 27:24 Just tweet about it? Liberty is pregnant again. 27:29 We do not need another stillbirth, but we need Liberty and freedom 27:35 and equality to be born for everyone. 27:40 Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's Breath of Life broadcast. 27:45 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 27:49 If you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety, 27:52 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv. 27:58 Or, call us at (256) 929-6460. 28:11 When I was eight years old, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. 28:16 When I was fifthteen, I had my first surgery. When I think about the time that I lost 28:28 during my adolescent years, I just can't seem to put it togther. Even now I'm doing 28:37 treatment for my disease. Everyone experiences loss. It's not of matter of if but when. 28:52 www.breathoflife.tv 29:00 [END] |
Revised 2020-07-09