We've all been hurt.
We all carry scars.
We can all overcome these things and be healed through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let's build that relationship together right here.
Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the sanctuary.
So good to have you with us.
For those of you who are joining us for the first time, let me just say welcome.
This week marks two really big events as far as what we consider holidays here in the country
and how we honor our military members.
The first of course being the Marine Corps birthday and the second being Veterans Day.
So to my fellow Marines, let me just say happy birthday and to my fellow veterans, thank
you all for walking the walk.
Now with that said, this week's message is going to be different.
I started out with one thing and then something totally different came out as I was writing.
Just really it goes to show that you never know how the Holy Spirit is going to work
and how He's going to move you.
So this week I would like to start out our message with a prayer.
In this prayer it was actually written by Marine veteran Dick Wilson and it's aptly
titled A Marine Prayer and it goes like this.
Almighty God, Father of the fatherless, now take me home.
I was what others could not be.
I went where others feared to go and did what others failed to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing, but gave hope, security and freedom to all.
I have seen the face of terror, felt the stinging cold of fear and experienced the warm comfort
of your love and protection through it all.
I have enjoyed the sweet taste of life, comrades, love of country, your guiding hand and word.
I have cried, failed, pained, loved and hoped.
I have lived times others would say were best forgotten, but what we are in life echoes
into eternity.
I humbly offer that with your guidance I have done my duty and lived with the grateful pride
of what I am, a United States Marine.
Deep sea and sod for now hold our bodies, but you, O Lord, guard our souls until that
final day when all stand before you guilty and for those who believe receive the gift
of forgiveness and eternal life.
Almighty God, Father of love, through the precious blood of your Son Jesus Christ, I
pray you now take me home for you have proven to be always faithful.
Semper Fidelis.
It's a wonderful prayer, isn't it?
Now of course it calls out to being a Marine.
However, it's very safe to say that it calls out to the hearts of everyone who has raised
their hand, taken that oath of service, put on a uniform and then stood their post to
do their part for the mission our country has asked for them.
Our country, who during times of strife and times of peace alike, has always asked the
question, who will stand the watch?
This is important to note because it parallels Isaiah chapter 6 verse 8 in which the Bible
says, Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
And I said, Here am I, send me.
That right there, that's the heart of a volunteer, the heart of someone willing to stand up for
what is right.
To do what's been asked by their people and to respond by the calling of God placed upon
their hearts.
More importantly, whether they realize it or not, living out the action of what it means
to obey that commandment that says to love your neighbor.
Now let's face it.
The warrior's path, the warrior's life is not easy.
Suffice to say it's anything but.
Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 4.
The Bible tells us, No man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that
he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Simply put, soldiers don't have the time to get wrapped up in the day to day nonsense
that civilians place such high value on.
Often, way more than what it's worth.
Instead, even though he may miss being able to get wrapped up in that stuff from time
to time, the soldier stays focused on their duties and what it means to be a soldier,
to be a warrior.
Now please keep in mind, when I use that term soldier, I'm using it very generically to
refer to all of our warriors, all of our servicemen and women, whether they're Marines, sailors,
airmen, soldiers, guardsmen, etc.
This is all inclusive.
Now from the perspective of a veteran myself and everything, and you'll see this in a lot
of things that you read, a lot of biographies as well, when you leave civilian life, when
a person leaves civilian life, you do go through a indoctrination to become a warrior because
nobody can survive without it.
That training, you learn certain skills but your mindset is changed as well.
The way you think about things, the way you approach things, the way you do things.
Life as you knew it truly does cease to exist.
The thing that isn't talked about is the fact that when you come home, you'll never be able
to fully revert back to who you were before.
This is because the warrior's path, the warrior's way is ingrained into you so deeply that it
can't be fully uprooted.
Now this is not a bad thing.
This is where people like to talk about, well they flip the switch but they don't tell you
how to turn it off.
That's not true.
There is so much here.
Because there's so much we can learn from those past experiences of those who served.
The problem is that many veterans, they start to buy into this phenomenon that's called
illusory truth effect.
Some of you may have heard me speak about this before.
I'll explain what that is.
Illusory truth effect is when, this is what occurs when you hear something over and over
or say something or do something over and over.
I shouldn't say do but when you hear or say something over and over to that point where
you actually start to believe it.
In the military we're conditioned to plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Part of that is hearing what could happen, what might happen and how to respond should
that something happen.
These things are repeated so often and so much that the wording starts to change.
It's like that experiment when you have a bunch of people sitting in line next to each
other and you whisper, you say something real quietly to that first person like, hey you
might choke if you eat too fast.
That person says it to the person next to them who repeats it to the person next to
them and so on and so forth.
By the time it makes it all the way down to that last person it's changed and it's being
repeated as if you even look at that cotton candy you're going to die.
Soldiers are already set up to be in those dark places that are so hard to escape and
it's an issue that doesn't get fixed.
Then something does happen because let's face it that's why we're there, that's why we're
in service.
Look at the last two decades.
We ourselves have been at war in more than a couple of countries here.
We had the Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and that of course entailed
Afghanistan, Iraq and then all the other countries that were wrapped up in that such as the Philippines
for example and several other places where there were different operations and different
things that coincided.
So you take those people who are already on edge and then you put them into an environment
where that maybe becomes reality.
Where the evil of the world, the devil, the devil's world, it becomes that world around
them, it becomes their new reality.
They're wrapped up in that storm and they can't escape it.
They've been volunteering, they're pushed into it for a reason.
So they're bunkered down with their new family, that service member that's next to them that
they're working with to try to survive and to accomplish the mission.
That's when you see unconditional love come forward again.
It's that love that Jesus speaks of in John 15 verse 13 when he says, there's no greater
love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.
No greater love.
What is that?
What is he talking about here?
Well, it's the opposite of the world's love.
The love that the world gives is very conditional.
You have to earn it and you have to keep on earning it every single day, every single minute
and if you make one mistake, if you have even just the slightest misstep, it's taken away
and you're shoved all the way back to scratch, back to square one and you're having to work
to try to earn it back.
And that's if, if you're even able to.
You might not ever be able to earn it back again.
Put that in there with trust, however, the love that we're talking about here, the love
that Jesus was talking about, like I said before, this is the polar opposite.
This is up there, this is that agape type love where that warrior that's next to you,
they become your family.
At that moment in time when you're wrapped up in that storm, they are your family and
regardless of any issues that you had in the rear when you were back in that safe area,
on base, your staging areas and all that stuff, doing your training and everything, when it's
go time and you're actually out there and you're working, you're doing the job, you
love them unconditionally.
A warrior, a soldier will do absolutely anything to protect that person next to them, even
if it's at the cost of their own life.
And as hard as this may be for some people to hear or even to wrap their mind around,
it is very easy because at that point to that warrior, their point of view has changed.
Their life is, to them, is absolutely meaningless if it means somebody else needs to die.
That soldier, that warrior, they will gladly make the sacrifice themselves.
They will sacrifice their own life to save another person, to ensure that that soldier
next to them gets to go home.
Or say they make it all the way through and they'll volunteer for another tour.
They'll stay.
Even though this lowers their odds of survival, they'll stay if it means that someone else
doesn't have to go into that horror show, doesn't have to witness the things that they've
witnessed, doesn't have to do the things that they've done, doesn't have to die.
So, this is the meaning in Luke 14 verse 33 when Jesus said, so likewise, whoever of you
does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.
So, you have to be willing to give up everything for Jesus.
Just like you have to be willing to give up everything to love your neighbor.
This all goes into no greater love.
This is also what Jesus was talking about in Luke 18 verse 22 when the Bible says, so
when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, you still lack one thing.
Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven
and come, follow me.
Not only possessions, but your own life.
Luke 9 verse 23, the Bible says, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
And Luke 14 verse 27, the Bible says, and whoever does not carry the cross and follow
me cannot be my disciple.
You see, a lot of people, they look at veterans with this horrible stereotype that they're
just these dark, mean, hardened, broken people.
The reality is they're really not.
They've known better than most what absolute evil is.
And by that, they also know what absolute and pure love is, what sacrifice is truly
about.
You want to see veterans truly come alive?
Put them in a room together.
It does not matter what branch they come from, when they served, where they served, what
their social classes, their race, their gender, all that nonsense goes out the window.
You'll hear a vernacular coming out of their mouths that is foreign, but still understandable.
And jokes and things, I'm telling you, that would make John Wayne blush.
Why?
Because of four letters.
L-O-V-E.
Love.
So, much like Memorial Day, Veterans Day means a lot of different things to a lot of people,
and a lot of veterans at that.
And those that have seen a struggle to find that switch to return to a sense of normalcy,
it's also a struggle.
But at the end of it all, the greatest commandment, one of the two greatest commandments, the
second, is love.
For all who have wondered how to think a veteran, the answer is a lot easier to say, but a lot
harder to do.
And it's simply this.
Live a life worth their sacrifice.
Much like living for Jesus, you'll find it can be a daily struggle.
But if you keep your eyes on Jesus, trust in Jesus, and let Jesus be your guide, you
will find it can be a lot easier to do.
Remember, that's what true love is.
It's the same as being a disciple of Jesus.
You have to be willing to give up everything, even your own life, to follow Him.
That's what love is.
And that's what it is to be a veteran.
That's what it is to join the service.
That is what's truly ingrained in you.
Remember you're loved.
You are blessed.
So go and be a blessing.
Go and be the church.
Thank you all for joining us here today at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
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on.
If you do have any questions, any prayer requests, or would like to know more about our ministry,
you can find us on our website at BeTheLightSanctuary.org or on Facebook at BeTheLightSanctuary.
You can also find how to contact us there, whether it's direct message or email.
We look forward to hearing from you all.
God bless.