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.
It is so good to have you with us as always.
And for those of you who are joining us for the first time, let me say welcome.
Now we're going to start taking a look at the life application of Paul's writing as
we dive into Ephesians 4.
Now we'll see how we're doing for time as we go through this.
We're most likely going to end up breaking this into two parts though as we go through
just for time's sake.
Because there really is just so much that we need to unravel and go through here.
Now to remind you, Ephesians, this is considered one of the most upbeat books, if not the most
upbeat in the Bible.
And it's because it's not looking to bash anyone over the head.
It's not looking to take corrective action.
It's not calling anybody out or calling anyone to action or anything.
Instead, it's been written to lift up and empower the church by explaining what the
church is supposed to be.
Now those are big words, right?
So far, we've been reminded of the changes we see as Christians that come from the grace
of God.
We were dead in our sins, but now we are alive in Christ.
We were and we are deserving of God's wrath, yet He has shown us mercy and given us the
gift of salvation.
We were followers of the world, the world that the devil is the prince of.
And now we follow Christ and we follow the truth, which is Him.
We've been allowed to switch sides, basically.
We've gone from being the enemy of God, having turned our back on and walked away from Him
to being adopted as His children.
We went from team anti-God to team God, right?
And in addition to that, we've been freed from slavery.
Free to sin, slavery to the devil, and made free in Christ to love, serve others, and
to live with Him in heaven.
And as Billy Mays would have said, but wait, there's more.
And you know what?
There truly is.
So let's get to our reading.
Ephesians chapter four, we're going to start here with the first couple of verses.
The Bible says, as a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of
the calling you have received, but completely humble and gentle.
Be patient, bearing with one another in love.
First off, as Christians, we are God's ambassadors.
You know, we're all that many people are ever going to see of Him.
You're all that many people are ever going to see of Him.
And people are already watching you.
Once they know you're a Christian, they're watching even more intently to see how you
live, to see how you respond to things, and to see how you treat others.
They're looking for you to take a misstep.
And this is where we all need to stop daily and ask ourselves the simple question.
If you were arrested and tried for being Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
And that should be enough to tell you all that you need to work on.
Now, this isn't asking if you're perfect.
You're not.
I'm not.
None of us are.
The only person who ever lived a perfect life on this earth is Jesus.
And none of us are Him.
Yet it's how we accept and treat others that speak for who we are and who He is.
You know, many of us as veterans have been asked, how can I thank you?
How can I thank a vet without them taking offense?
Right?
Well, it's actually quite simple because the answer to that is the same as the question
of how should we live for Christ?
And the answer is to live a life worth the sacrifice that has been made for you.
Let me say that again.
The answer is to live a life worth the sacrifice that has been made for you.
So picking back up Ephesians 4 verse 3, the Bible says, make every effort to keep the
unity of the spirit through the bond of peace, unity and peace.
This is one of the Holy Spirit's biggest missions.
And let there be no doubt about it.
He is ready and willing to lead us in how we accomplish this.
The problem is the vast majority of the time is that we don't want to follow Him.
You know, we've seen time and time again that part of the human condition is that we're
selfish.
We're more concerned about vengeance and looking good to others, you know, being in that limelight
than we are about peace.
Sure, we'll offer a little chunk of peace, you know, a piece of a knuckle sandwich, maybe
a piece of a hand upside the old forward assist, you know, a piece of boot in someone's backside,
you know, maybe even that piece you have tucked in your belt.
But peace is what we really should be looking for.
Matthew chapter 5 verse 9, the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers because they will
be called sons of God.
When you truly and fully give yourself over to the Holy Spirit, you'll find that not only
are you willing to follow His lead, but you're more than happy to pull your weight to get
the mission done.
Not only that, you're more than willing to pull whatever weight needs to be pulled in
order to get the mission done because your focus is on God at that point, not yourself.
You know, as another pastor and good friend put it, you'll find your joy.
J-O-Y, joy.
J, Jesus, O, others, Y, yourself.
That's basically saying Jesus first, others next, yourself last.
You'll find Jesus, you serve others, and then you deal with yourself.
In military leadership, we see this same principle because in the military, leadership over others
always eats last.
Your leaders always eat last.
We tend to think, oh, they have rank or whatever.
They pull their weight, kind of like in the civilian role, like, oh, look at them.
They're a fancy CEO or whatever.
They get that precedence.
They're pushed to the front of the line.
They get that VIP experience where they're treated like royalty.
However, in the military, it's quite the opposite.
The lower your rank, the faster you get pushed up to the front of that line because real
leaders want to take care of their people, just as God wants to take care of us.
Jesus wants us to be taken care of.
That's why we come first.
Funny when you think of it that way, isn't it?
Jesus first in your life, serving others, and then serving yourself.
We come to Jesus, we put others first, we see ourselves, and it's very much the opposite
of the world we live in, isn't it?
It truly is.
The world emphasizes taking care of yourself first and then others if you have time.
It's no wonder the world is so selfish, isn't it?
You're no longer part of the world.
You're a new creature in Christ.
Walk that path instead.
Picking back up in Ephesians 4, verses 4 through 6, I should say, the Bible says, there is
one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one
word, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through
all and in all.
Simply put, all Christians belong to the one Body of Christ, with Christ at the head.
And each of us has been given different abilities from God that strengthen the body when used
to serve it.
Now, this isn't a selfish act, and we shouldn't be using these gifts just for ourselves.
That's what makes it selfish.
Instead, we should be taking those gifts and using them to serve others.
That's where you find your joy.
This is the essence of it's better to give than to receive, right?
Now in these six verses that we read so far, the Bible makes it clear that we as believers
are of one body.
We are all different.
We're all serving different purposes, just like the organs in the various parts of our
physical bodies.
And just like our physical bodies, it's not something that we should focus on.
After all, we don't go around thinking to ourselves, gee, it sure would be nice if I
could play the piano with my feet.
Or it sure would be cool if I could breathe through my armpits.
No, it's silly.
We know that's silly.
We don't think about things like that.
We just go and we expect our hands to work as hands, our feet to work as feet, our backs
to work as backs, and so on.
Yet the differences are the same things that we get hung up on when we come together as
a church.
Instead, what we should be focused on is how we're united and get to know one another.
You see, that's how we learn what part of the body does what and how we can best come
together to accomplish the work God's given to all of us.
Now looking at verses seven and eight, the Bible says, but to each one of us grace has
been given as Christ apportioned it.
That is why it, or God, says, when he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave great
gifts to his people.
Notice Paul's quoting Psalm 68 verse 18 here, which describes God as a conqueror marching
and taking tribute.
He's dispersing that tribute to his people.
After all, why wouldn't he?
The victory's already been won.
The victory over Satan and his army, it's already done.
It's won.
We're just waiting for the time to see it.
In Ephesians four verses nine through 10, the Bible says, what does he ascended mean
except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions or the depths of the earth?
He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill
the whole universe.
The lower regions can be referring to a few things here.
Scholars like to debate it.
No one agrees on it.
This could be the earth itself, which is definitely lowly when compared to heaven.
It could be the grave, or it could be Hades or hell itself.
The point of the passage, however, is of more importance.
What's being said is that Jesus transcends all of it.
He beat death.
He conquered it and was resurrected so that all could come to know him and be rescued.
Amen?
Moving along back into Ephesians four verses 11 through 13 here, the Bible says, Christ
himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip
his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature.
Meaning to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Remember, God doesn't call the equipped.
He equips the called.
When we became followers of Christ, we were born a new creature.
I said this earlier.
This doesn't mean that our individuality was erased.
We're the opposite.
God doesn't want machines.
Our individuality is still very much there.
Remember what I said earlier about we all have a different role to play as the body
of Christ?
We all have differences because we're meant to do different things.
We can't do that if we're all alike.
We can't do that if we all come from the exact same mold.
I said we all have different God given abilities.
We saw it right here.
Again, it is part of that individuality.
We must harness those gifts to better serve Christ, to better serve the kingdom.
We all have them.
The problem is using them.
A lot of people, they have gifts.
They know they have gifts, but they don't want to use them for a myriad of reasons.
Maybe you're shy.
Maybe you don't know how to use your gifts to serve.
Okay, that's fine.
Maybe you don't see how your gift would benefit the church.
Okay, cool.
What you need to do is pray, have that conversation with God, and ask that he teaches you how
to apply your gifts to serve others.
Now, I know I'm not the first to say this.
Preachers have said the same thing for decades.
So why is it so important?
Because it is important.
It wouldn't have been repeated so many times if it wasn't.
Well, the answer to find that, all we need to do is look to Matthew 28 verses 16 through
20, when Jesus gave us a tremendous mission in the Great Commission.
The Bible says, then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus
had told them to go.
When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always to the very end of age.
Entirely too many people give up and quit when it comes to answering this call.
However, I'd like to point out to those who are wondering what they should be doing in
life, what's the mission in life?
This is it right here.
As a believer of Christ, this is a mission that's been handed down from generation to
generation.
It's to share the good news and introduce the world to Christ.
Now, you don't need to be a preacher to do it.
You just need to open your mouth and speak to people.
Share what he's done in your life.
It's that simple.
A lot of people, oh, I don't know what I'd say, or I don't like talking to people.
You know what?
Again, pray.
The Holy Spirit is going to lead you.
He'll guide you in using your talents to accomplish God's goals.
All right?
I'll give you an example from my own life.
There's a period of time there where I really, I had shut down.
I had shut down completely.
I'd started going to a church.
I was dealing with my PTSD at the time, and I sat up in the raptors.
I saw these stairs going up.
I saw the seats and everything.
Nobody was ever sitting up there.
The lights were always turned off.
I went and I asked, hey, is there any chance I could sit up there?
They said, yes, sure, absolutely.
We could do that.
The doors are locked.
Go talk to this person or this person.
I'll let them know, and they'll unlock the doors for you.
Okay, no problem.
I sat up there by myself for years before I came down.
At the time, those of you who know, I'm a musician.
At that time, I just barely was starting to look at the bass guitar.
The music director, he was trying to recruit people.
I had no intention of talking to him whatsoever.
I went, I sat in the raptors.
I left.
That was my thing.
That's what I wanted to do.
Well, I come down and my kid, of course, he's at the kid's service, and his pastor in passing
found out that I was a musician from my mom.
He goes and he introduces me.
He says, hey, I got someone I want you to meet.
He introduces me to the music director and says, hey, I found you a new bassist and walks
away.
I'm like, what just happened?
What in the world?
The music director, he was cool because I told him, it's like, hey, I'm learning.
I'm new.
I don't think I'm who you're looking for.
This really isn't my thing.
He says, you know what?
That's okay.
Come to rehearsal.
Just come to rehearsal.
Hang out with us and we'll see how it goes.
We'll see how it feels.
I went to rehearsal for about two weeks.
Plugged in, had a good time.
It was the first time I had any fun playing with people in years because years and years
before that, I had a band director that... He was not a good band director.
Not going to say he wasn't a good person, but he was not a good band director.
Because of him, I refused to play in front of people for over a decade.
Whereas here, I prayed and next thing I know, after going to two rehearsals, the music director
is saying, hey, why don't you come out on Wednesday and play?
I was like, okay, I'll give it a try.
We'll see.
I show up that Wednesday, we play.
Next thing I know, I'm playing on Wednesdays, I'm playing on Fridays, I'm playing twice
on Sundays.
Did that for years, absolute years for that church before I moved on and plugged back
into ministry.
That's what needed to happen is I needed to start using those talents again and I needed
the Lord, I needed the Holy Spirit to show me how and how to plug back in and to get
over myself because I was my own worst enemy for the longest time.
We like to say the devil made me do it.
No, devil didn't make you do it.
You made yourself do it.
You have a choice.
Your choice is to look to the world or to look to the Lord.
Those are your two choices.
You have to pick.
All right, enough with that rabbit trail.
I could talk more on that at a later time.
Let's get back into our reading in Ephesians 4 verses 14 through 16.
The Bible says, then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves
and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness
of people and their deceitful scheming.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature
body of Him who is the head, that is Christ.
From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds
itself up in love as each part does its work.
In the book, excuse me a second.
I had to hit the mute button.
I felt that sneeze coming.
Sorry about that.
All right.
So in the book of Acts, Timothy, really I should say 1 Timothy and in Revelations, Paul
had warned so many times about false teachers and how they can corrupt the church.
Something that we still see, something that we need to be on the watch for even today
regularly.
In fact, if anything hasn't gotten better, it's gotten worse.
Now the flip side of that coin is that we need to be childlike in faith.
You look at children and as a parent, as an adult, you tell a kid something and they believe
you.
However, we also need to test what we're hearing, test the spirits is what the Bible says, like
the Bereans did.
The Bereans, they're hearing it, but they kept going back to the scripture to verify.
And that's what we need to do.
Yes, we need to have that childlike faith, but we need to test what we're hearing.
Fun fact, the Bible is the number one selling book of all time.
More Bibles are sold each year and are stolen around the world than any other book.
So much so that it's no longer included on bestseller's lists anywhere.
And here's the thing though, almost everybody has a Bible, a physical Bible, almost.
If not, then they have an app for it these days.
The problem is, while most people have it and have access to it, they don't open it
aside for following a little bit of scripture during a service.
And even fewer actually go back and read it for themselves to ensure that what they're
being told is legit.
Here's something my fellow Gen Xers are going to remember.
Let me give you this little acronym here, this word.
G-I-G-O, GIGO, garbage in, garbage out.
If all you're hearing is weak, poor theology or outlight rights and you never go back to
see for yourself that what you're being given is the truth, well, all I can say is the road
to hell is paved with good intentions.
So don't ever take anyone's word.
Don't even take mine.
Open that book up and read it for yourself.
Look at the context.
Look who it's speaking to.
Look what it's saying.
Look at how it can be applied.
There's so much there.
And these days, more and more people, they go and they pull little pieces out and they
put it together to make it say what they want it to say.
So the context is actually lost.
What's worse is even more, just go to the internet and pull up different sermons and
stuff like that.
You can't find a sermon for anything these days.
Fewer and fewer actually preach from the Bible anymore.
How sad is that?
They grew up.
Some of these, I hate to say it because it's going to put a bad light and there's so many
good out there, but it only takes a couple to paint that bad light and I don't want it
to sound that way.
But there are those who grew up as preacher's kids and their dads and their grandfathers
had all these books put together over the years of all these sermons that they had written
and everything.
And what do they do?
They don't even bother to write their own.
They go back and they pull theirs and they might change one or two things to make it
a little bit more modern.
Like where a joke was inserted or a life story as opposed to being, hey, my dad, my mom or
whatever.
It's like, you know what?
What can I insert from my life to kind of fill this little void here and make it sound
a little bit more original?
It really is sad.
I hate to bash anybody, but that is the truth that we face today in today's world.
Looking at that last verse there builds itself up in love.
This is something that we should all take note of.
It's not a slogan or a catchphrase.
It's a reminder.
You see, as Christians, we should always strive to speak the truth in everything we say, no
matter how easy or how hard it may be.
Let's face it, sometimes it's pretty darn hard.
Especially when what we're trying to put out there and what we're trying to tell people
is not popular opinion.
The world is going to put stuff out there.
The devil is going to put stuff out there and it's going to tickle people's ears as
the Bible tells us.
It's going to give them that, oh, okay, cool, I can do this.
Good.
Unfortunately, the Bible says otherwise.
Now when it comes to telling people the truth and sharing the truth, some of us are really
good at sharing the truth.
Unfortunately, some of us forget about the loving part.
We do.
It builds itself up in love.
There's no need to sugarcoat anything.
It's not a peppermint mocha where you're mixing cocoa into the coffee with a candy cane, maybe
some whipped cream or some marshmallows.
No.
The truth will speak volumes in and of itself.
We need to remember, sometimes the truth hurts though, so we need to be sympathetic to the
person that we're speaking to.
We need to remember how we've felt, where we've been in our lives, when we've been called
out in the past for our errors.
We need to keep in mind the best practices and the best examples of how it was accomplished.
After all, love is one of the greatest commandments, right?
One of the greatest things about going to a military school and then later serving in
the military was the fact that it took away so much of the pettiness in my own life.
The Lord used it to show me what true unity was about, not race, not gender, not politics
or any other nonsense that the media likes to shove down our throats every day.
Instead, different people with different backgrounds and different skill sets and different thoughts
on life are all brought together to serve as one body.
Really, that's what the Church is on such a larger scale.
It's not focusing on the differences like I said earlier.
It's focusing on how we can best work with others to accomplish everything they set forth
for us.
That's such a great thing.
That's what the Church should be focused on.
One of the many things that the Church should be focused on is we're going to learn.
That's what love is.
That's what family is.
That's what it is to be a Christian.
That's where we are for time this week.
We'll pick up from where we're leaving off next week.
Remember you are loved.
You are blessed.
Now go and be the Church.
Love you guys.
Thank you all for joining us here today at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
Please like, subscribe, and share our podcast on any platform it is that you tune into us
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.