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.
Okay, there we go. Well, morning church. Welcome to everybody in the sanctuary. Welcome to everybody watching online or listening.
You know, it's great to have you all with us. Right? A lot of choices out there. A lot of places you go, you all choose here. Right? It's appreciated.
I love this place because we all come together, our highs and our lows. This week is kind of a low for me. I was down sick.
That's why I tried to keep my distance, not trying to be rude. But I'm at the tail end, but just in case, kind of want to keep that distance from you all because I don't want to pass anything on.
You know, it's part of why we didn't have Tessa here with us today. She's at home right now dealing with illness.
So, you know, keep her in prayer, you know, as we were praying before service and everything.
So, you know, it's something to keep in mind. You know, the video that we were just watching, you know, things change.
We have a lot of highs. We have a lot of lows in our lives. Right? And it is the sum because we don't get to really know those really good, joyful things,
those things that really make us happy without those lows. Right? We need those lows so that we could truly appreciate the highs.
You know, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed. There's been a little bit of change in the air. Right?
The temperatures come down. We're not seeing those days where we're constantly in the 100 degrees anymore.
You know, some low 90s, but more and more of those 80s. You know, a little bit more rain.
I know you're probably inside all the time, so you miss it. Right?
I know I spent a lot of time outside. Brian does. I'm sure you guys with your job, you had doors, bay doors and stuff open all the time. Right?
With class. So, so. Yeah. You know, but, you know, it is starting to cool down. We're starting to see rain.
Balloon Fiesta is going to be coming up on us. So we're going to start seeing winds come in, more rains coming in.
Hopefully not raining out the Balloon Fiesta. Right? That's always one of those things where we have to kind of wait and see what direction it goes.
You know, football season started. Right? Some football fans in here, I'm sure. I know at least a couple in here.
You know, football's nice until, you know, it holds things down until hockey season starts here in a couple weeks and we have a real sport. You know?
Just kidding. Oh, yeah. No, I know. He talked to me about that too.
He was asking for an earlier service time so he could watch his Cowboys. And I told him, put Jesus first.
That's what family's for. That's part of why I love this place. You know, a lot of things are changing.
Pumpkin spice season started early. So, you know, we have all the women in the line at Starbucks waiting to get their fill. Right?
A lot of teachers out there waiting to get theirs. I know I see a lot of people at the transportation as well.
You know, because you walk in a dispatch and it just reeks of pumpkin spice and a couple of us are like, oh, I'm over it.
We're over it before it started. You know? You know, things are changing. Right? The seasons are changing.
Chapters are changing. Things are starting. You know, one thing is ending. Another thing is starting anew. Right?
Kind of like a book series. You get a chapter. It comes to an end. A new one starts.
And that's really how life is. Right? That's how all these things are. They're all seasons.
We don't play football year-round. We don't get to watch hockey year-round, unfortunately.
Thankfully, it's not pumpkin spice season year-round. Right? Just teasing those of you who like it.
You know, I've been known to have my share once in a while. I'm more of a pumpkin pie guy. Right?
But even that, I don't want it year-round. I like to have my apple. I like to have my cherry. Things need to change.
You know, and the past, you know, I'd say the past few weeks, even like really kind of going into the last couple months now,
we've been talking about change here, you know, within the fellowship. Right? Transition.
You know, we are going through a time of change here where one chapter is coming towards a close and another one starting to open.
And we're starting to see that come more and more into fruition, you know, as Pastor Mark's been called, you know, to minister differently.
Right? And it's not, you know, when it comes to change, it's not something anybody takes lightly.
It's something, you know, we take prayerfully because we need to talk to God. We need to have God involved in it.
We need to keep him at the forefront of everything that's going on in our lives. Right?
As we saw with Pastor Mark when he came up and, you know, he explained to us what was happening, it was very heavy on him.
It is, you know, it's a very emotional thing for him. So it's not something that he took lightly.
It's not something the Board of Trustees have taken lightly because they have changed before them as well. Right?
It's not something I've taken lightly. You know, when I came back here, you know,
seeing myself up here in this capacity was really not what I had envisioned at the time.
It's funny because, you know, our paths change. They diverge. Sometimes we're blessed with the unexpected.
And it's a good thing. You know, a familiar face from an old church. It's not something I expected.
You know, just like when I came back and Clint was still with us and seeing him with us. Right?
It brought a smile to my face. It made me feel good. You know, old friends.
I could say old friends because they were at my wedding.
We put them to work. They helped set things up and break things down.
So, you know, while it was work for us, it was work for them as well.
So there is a lot of change going on. Right? And seasons. Our highs, our lows.
They help us to appreciate things. And none of us get to see everything exactly the same way.
We all see it from different points of view, just like the boys in this video we just watched a little bit ago. Right?
So, this is the first point. It's a time of change. Change is going to happen.
We can't stop it. But we can work with it. We have to work with it.
So at this point, I'm going to go ahead, as we get ready to go, I'm going to invite everybody,
go ahead and open up your Bibles or your apps to Ecclesiastes, specifically chapter three.
As we get started, and as you all are doing that, so Ecclesiastes chapter three might kind of give a little bit of a run down of the book as a whole.
It's written by King Solomon near the end of his life, his wanting days, when he's kind of looking back, lessons learned.
And he's reflecting on those younger days and those lessons that he's learned in his life.
This was done about 935 B.C. And when he wrote this, it wasn't just to the subjects of his kingdom,
but for future generations as well, for all of us. That's what was in mind. It wasn't just to a specific people.
You know, it was very much for generations to come.
You know, he took the lessons that he learned, the blessings bestowed on him by God, the very wisdom that he was blessed with.
And he put it to work. You know, to some people, this book itself, it can seem very dark, very dreary, very kind of humdrum, right?
But that wasn't his intention. It wasn't his intention for it to be a downer.
It was more so, you know, especially those of us who have kids, this is easy to relate to, or those of you who have trained people.
It was more so, you know what, hey, I've gone through this. I've seen this. This is what I've seen in my life.
This is what I've experienced. And I would like for you to learn from my mistakes and my triumphs so that you don't have to deal with it yourself,
so that you can go forward and you can take these lessons learned and apply them to a better future, a better tomorrow.
In the military, there's very much, you know, this whole piece that's instilled. Leave things better than how you received it.
You know, Marine Corps, we're really good at that because we get a whole lot of hand-me-downs from other branches.
You know, we're sitting there busting rust off of things and kicking things, trying to get it back in the working order, you know,
scrubbing out mud that's been caked in there from probably Vietnam, who knows?
That's just life. That's how it works, right?
But that's the whole point. Lessons learned. That's where we get a lot of the things that we're at today.
That's why we go to school, because things have already been learned. We have a history. We have a working order.
Trial and error. You know, it's really the point of history is so that we can learn and hopefully not repeat those same mistakes.
Sadly, all of us in our own life have to learn things the hard way. I know I've learned my fair share.
I'm sure everybody in this room has, right? And as a society, as a culture, we have to go through things over and over again sometimes as well.
You don't have to look too far to see it. Turn on the TV. Look at the news, right? Look at the talk shows and the stuff that they talk about.
The biblical and the unbiblical. History repeats, and it's not unique to just us here in the U.S.
Worldwide themes, worldwide circumstances, stuff that other cultures have dealt with, right?
Like you go back to even look at our Civil War. You look at all the civil wars that are going on in other countries as we speak, right?
You look at the battles being fought in places like Africa, the stuff going on in the Middle East, right?
The confrontations that are being dealt with internally and externally with Russia.
So there's a lot to be picked up from history.
You know, and the point here, especially when we're looking at this book that King Solomon has, is the point is God has a plan.
And it's a plan for everyone, and everyone has to experience seasons.
You know, they work for us as we complete things, as we go through life. You know, and the obstacles that we face, they're being used by God for us to discover our own blessings, our own giftings,
to challenge us and to bring out a better person so that we're better tomorrow than we were today, right?
And so our families are better tomorrow than they were today.
And it all comes from trusting in him. So from here, we're going to go ahead, we're going to dive into the Word.
We're going to start off with Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8.
Okay, so Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 through 8. I'm excited. I get to use my new Bible up here today.
I'm excited to give you a new Bible. I'm excited to tell you that I can do everything there is a season, time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted,
break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to
refrain from embracing. Bless you. A time to gain and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
throw away. A time to tear and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time
to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time for peace. So I kind of forgot to get my slide
there but there it is. A time for peace. You know, time to change. Timing is important. We look at
all these times right here. There's a lot of times, right? A lot of seasons, a lot of chapters, things
that we all go through in life. And if these words sound familiar and they probably do, right,
it's because back in, I believe it was 1959, it didn't really become more famous until the early
mid-60s. Pete Seeger actually took these exact verses, added about six words to it for kind of
like a course, and published it with the birds. Turn, turn, turn, right? Almost verbatim. He
rearranged a couple of the words so it flowed a little differently for the way we speak. But
that's a song that to this very day has been used in countless shows and movies on the radio,
has been covered by group after group after group. Matter of fact, just the other day I was going
down the road and I was channel surfing and I heard a version of it from Wilson Phillips who
I don't think anybody's even thought of or heard of since the 80s, right? And it's like, what is it?
It's like, is that who, what's? It's like, I had to stop on the radio station for a second, right?
The word at work in our lives, it's still going through, right? It speaks for itself. This is one
of those times where it's loud and clear that it's speaking for itself. You know, when we go through
each of these verses, you know, they all take, they all have an appropriate time and an appropriate
place in our lives. And it's something that every man, woman, and child is going to have to deal
with at some point in their life, right? It's just the way it is. Not trying to coin another song
there. But, you know, the fact is, when a lot of these seasons come, it's not out of convenience.
Matter of fact, especially some of those hard times come at a time that is very inconvenient.
You know, there's certain things that we have to deal with. There's never going to be a convenient
time in our lives, right? You know, Pastor Mark, he's dealing with the death of his mom, right?
Wasn't that long ago, our brother Brian over here dealing with the passing of his father, everybody
in this room, Doug, left to take care of family. He's no longer with us, right? Everybody in here
has dealt with these things at one point or another. And when has death ever been convenient for a
single person? Anybody? No, I didn't think so. Because it's not meant to be. It's not supposed to
be. But the timing of it is still important in our lives, right? It's not because of our timing. If
we waited for everything to be convenient for us in our time, it never would be. It's not because
of our time, it never would be. We would never get to it. We would never experience the things
that we're supposed to. Because it's not from our timing. It's His timing. God's perfect timing.
When we go to the book of Isaiah, chapter 49, verses 8 through 9. So Isaiah 49, verses 8 through 9,
the word says this. This is what the Lord says. This says, Lord, in an acceptable time I have heard
you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve you and give you as a covenant
to the people to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages that you may say
to the prisoners, go forth to those who are in darkness. Show yourselves. Or if you're reading
the NIV version, instead of show yourselves, it might say, be free, right? Here, when we're looking
at Isaiah, Paul's talking about God's perfect timing. Things are going to happen. Ugly things,
bad things, unfathomable things, right? It's going to happen. History is littered with atrocities.
It's still having atrocities added to it. You know, matter of fact, just this last week,
just a few days ago, we had an anniversary, right? 9-11. Certainly wasn't convenient to anybody.
The single worst attack of a generation, right? With an implication for generations to come.
And when you think about it, every generation has had something. And if we think about,
just here in the U.S., right? JFK, for example. Another good example, right? Dr. Martin Luther King.
The Challenger explosion, right? These are things that just come to mind just standing here. I don't
have to think too hard. Pearl Harbor. Tet, right? Those of you who are versed in Vietnam history
and everything, the Tet Offensive was huge. There's a lot of things that go out there, a lot of pain,
a lot of hardship. These are things, lessons learned for millions. Like I said, there's a lot
of implication. Things that happen in our lives that impact us in some way.
I can think of exactly where I was on 9-11. I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, with the base locked
down in the middle of a typhoon Nari. And I get a call from one of my sergeants saying, hey, I'm on
my way in. I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? You're confined to quarters. You live on
base. You're not coming in. He's like, trust me, I'm on my way in. Go back to the interpreter's
office, turn on the news, you'll see what I'm talking about. This is a brother Marine who had
no sense of humor. So I knew he wasn't pulling my leg. He wasn't the type. And I went back, told
our interpreter to turn on the news, and sure enough, just in time to see the second tower get
hit, I thought he was watching an action movie. I had to tell him, hey, turn off your movie, turn
on the news. He's like, no, that's it. That's AFN right there. And I'm like, what's going on?
AFN right there. And it stuck, just like it stuck for everybody who was alive at that time and of
age, right? And the way it impacted my life, here I am. I'm a Marine. When I initially enlisted,
we weren't at war. We weren't looking at war. Right? Instead of being there serving my time,
it turned into a career overseas. You know, my goal, since I was a kid up to that point,
I knew I wanted to be in the military. It was a matter of choosing what branch. You know,
I'm growing up through the years. Each season of my life, what branch it was changed. There's a
juggling act. And eventually I landed on the Marine Corps, and that's where I went. You know,
and my goal at that time was to stay as a career serviceman. I was going to be in the Marine Corps.
That was going to be my life. That was my calling. Little did I know that a few years later,
the Lord was going to set me on a different path. First I had to play without a chaplain.
While we were overseas, we took our little New Testaments that we received before we went over
from, I can't even think of the name of the group now, the Gideons. There we go. From the Gideons.
And we had our own little service right there in the field trying to deal with the,
and cope with the things that we were seeing and the things that we were doing.
And not that long after that, I get a career ending injury. I'm med-sept and sent home.
Times change. Things stick though, right? It was never my intention to get hurt.
But that was what my path had in store for me.
You know, it certainly never crossed my mind that I'd be in the ministry.
Even after that, it wasn't until after I came home and came back to Albuquerque
that I truly started to get enrolled in it more and more every year. Getting pulled in.
Being told, no, this is your call. Answer it. And I was very resistant for a time.
You could say I was reluctant. It would probably be the best word for it.
When our time comes though, when it comes to a screeching halt,
it hurts. And we have to be ready for it. Sometimes though, we're blessed. Sometimes we
actually get time for a handoff, right? We get to have things explained. We get help along the way.
Those are always the easiest times, right? Those are the best transitions.
But there's things that are going to happen to us in life that we're never going to fully grasp
until we're standing face to face with Jesus. And that's the way it's meant to be.
We're not always going to like the answers that we get. Sometimes, matter of fact, when we get them,
it's going to be yes, no, wait. Sometimes the yes is hard. Sometimes the no is hard. Wait is almost
always hard. Who likes to wait? Right? It's like telling a little kid to go take a nap. I don't
want to know. Right? Trying to put a baby down for a while. That's always fun. It's a fight.
You know? But everything that we do, again, it ultimately comes down to his will, not ours.
His time, not ours. And when we get the work and we have these things going on, whether it's
something that we're looking forward to or we're expecting or not, we need to remember that it is
a blessing. It is a gift from above. It is from the Lord. Right? And we have a responsibility
not to take that limelight for ourselves, but to take it and do the work that's presented with it
gratefully that we actually have the work and use that time to point the light and to point the
direction towards the one who belongs to God, right? To Jesus. You know? Because the glory is
his. It's not ours. It's his. And that's where our responsibility comes to. It's where it lies on,
depends on. So with our seasons, we have our time of change. We have the timing that's important,
those life altering events. Right? But then we have that time of work. When we turn back to
Ecclesiastes chapter three, we look at verses nine through 15, the word says this,
what profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task
with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also, he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does
from beginning to end. Know that nothing is better for them to rejoice and to do good in their lives.
And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is
it is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does,
it shall be forever. Nothing could be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it,
that men should fear before him. That which has already been and what is to be has already been.
And God requires an account of what is past. You know, work,
could be a four-letter word sometimes, right? We don't like four-letter words, right? Exactly,
cuss word. Exactly. It's like, what did you say? You want what? Come on now. I'm much rather to have
a job. Three-letter words, kind of happy, you know, it's short, it's fast, it's done quickly,
right? But it can be. It could be a four-letter word sometimes in our life, unfortunately. And
really, you know, that's the point that King Solomon is saying here. Do you have an attitude
of gratitude, right? I know we've all heard this phrase before, an attitude of gratitude.
You know, it's the way that we look at things. It's our outlook, right? Sometimes we get up,
you know, and we have to ask, do I have a purpose? And sometimes those answers come based on our own
attitude, what we see because of what we make out of it. You know, those days when you get up,
you're like, oh man, I'm not ready for this, right? Something happens at work, you're like,
oh, I'm too old for this. Say, uh-uh, forget about it. You know, you get up, you wander in the
kitchen, grab that cup of coffee, and you're debating with yourself, I'm going to call in
today. I don't think I could deal with this. It's like I've been out of bed for all the five
minutes and I'm already over it, right? We've all been there. It's just life. It's the attitude.
You know, some people call it waking up on the wrong side of the bed, you know, or, you know,
we also have those days when we wake up, we're pumped, we're jazzed, we can't wait to see what's
coming. Like, yes, it's going to be an awesome day. We got good things already planned happening
at work. The weather's supposed to be awesome, right? I get to ride my motorcycle a day and I
have to worry about rain and hail, you know? I get to go and have lunch outside and I have to
worry about getting dumped on by the wind, you know? Little things in life that we enjoy, you
know? It's like, oh, I get to work with my work buddy today. I get to work with my best friend.
That's something everybody always enjoys, right? Getting to go and hang out with the people that
we love. You know, I know my wife, she loves spending time with Becca here. She does. She
gets excited if something happens, they don't miss you, they don't get to see you. They get
to connect and they miss each other. Guaranteed, I'm going to hear about it. She's going to come
home a little bummed. Hope everything's okay, right? It happens. You know, but, you know,
it's very much those questions. Do I have a purpose? What is it? Am I doing the best of my
ability? And like I said, the answers, they come with our attitudes. You know, we become dissatisfied
and we lose sight of things based in part because of how we're feeling inside. Our attitude on
things, right? The things that we cast outwardly, not the things that God had intended, but we and
our humanness and our brokenness, right? We cast a vision that was never meant to be and we get
stuck in it like a picture. You know, when we lose sight, we lose sight of the purpose that God has
intended for us there. You know, as we see in this passage, God's blessed us with work. We're
supposed to work. We have a life of labor, you know, that labor of love, as you call it, you know,
the fruit of the labor, that's the blessing, that's the gift from Him. It's not so much the work,
itself, but the afterproducts, right? You got out, you stretched a barbed wire fence, you've
roofed a house, you've painted walls, you know, you built something, you fixed something, you know,
an engine or a radio, a computer, something, right? And afterwards everything's, it's working.
It looks nice and you get to step back and be like, wow, I had a hand in that. Praise Jesus, right?
You know, I can't think of a single mechanic shop that you walk into and you don't hear somebody in
the background yelling and cussing because they hit their hand on something, you know, or they
can't get something to move. But then afterwards you're like, it's working, it's running. Let's
hope the next car is just an oil change, right? Probably what it sounds like a little bit over
Pastor Mark's house sometimes with their travel issues, right? I mean, I'm not sure if you've
got travel issues right now. It's like, oh man, what's coming next, right? Just having to remember
to lift that chin up and smile and be like, okay Lord, I know you got this. I know there's a reason
for it, right? And when the blessing comes through, it's always a good thing, right? It's like, as
tough as it is, transportation's still working out. It's a good thing. You know, it's that sense of
satisfaction at the end of the day, the end of the project, you know, we need to remember that our
work is one of the many ways that we serve God. What we're doing, it is a calling, whether we
realize or not, and it is part of our service to God. He has put us in this line of work for one
reason or another. It's not always going to be the work that you want. It's not always going to be
the work that you expect. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes you get paired up with somebody
and you're just like, oh Lord, please open my eyes, right? Especially those hard times. You know,
in the good times, it's easy to remember this, but in those hard times, we need to remember the Lord's
working through us, right? He's working on our character, but he's also put us there to shine
light for somebody else because if we're dealing with something and it's a hard time for us,
odds are it's a hard time for the person that we're standing in front of as well or the person that
we're talking to. Might even be somebody on the other end of the phone, right? When it comes to
my line of work outside of the fellowship, sometimes I'm kind of seen as a gloomy guy,
and it's not that I intend to be. That's not how I purpose to be, but it's because of
how people hear what I'm saying because unfortunately I come from a background of
first response. I've worked in law enforcement. I've worked in healthcare, right? I've been around
the world with security. You know, when it comes to the criminal justice system, I've worked pretty
much every area outside of, you know, corrections and being a lawyer, which I wouldn't wish on
anybody unless it's their calling, right? Healthcare too. I've worked in hospice. I've worked in
surgery. I've been there and I've held people's hands as they've passed on to be with the Lord.
So when I'm there and I'm talking about things, especially in my current role,
working in dispatch, when I'm talking to my people, it's not, you know, I have to relate to them.
It's not a matter of if something is going to happen. It's when something's going to happen.
Because I work dispatch with transportation within the schools. You look at everything
that's going on with the schools. That's why schools have their own security teams and their
own law enforcement now, their own dispatch now. You know, nurses are actually being trained up
even to a higher level now than what even they used to be.
Because it's not if something's going to happen, it's when something's going to happen.
Just a few days ago here in this country, what Georgia, I think it was, we had a shooting,
right? Again, again, another one. It's like year after year now. It's happening so much
more often, so much more frequently. So stressing that, to stress the importance of the training
that we do and the reason why we do things and we have a certain structure for things and we report
things a certain way, it comes across very gloomy. Because that's the line of work that I'm in,
right? So it's very hard for some people to hear because it's not what they want to hear.
They want everything to be candy-coated. I work in a wonderful place in a perfect world.
No, Careberry, you don't. I'm sorry. It's not the way it works. It's not supposed to work that way.
Our reality is much different.
You know, like I said, I don't look forward to bad things happening. It's not what I want.
But what I do want is for when things happen, I want everybody that I work with, everybody that
I come in touch with there at work, to be ready, to be ready for it, to be able to respond, right?
For a number of reasons. It improves the outcome. The chances of people's safety and people not
being hurt or at least not hurt as badly go up tenfold. The appropriate people being called to
respond. People are likely to freeze up. They're going to call who they need to call, right? Just
like in the military, we hated going out and having to do certain training. It's like, oh,
man, we're doing this again? Seriously? But then when we deployed, what happened?
We're ready to work. And it doesn't matter what area you're in. When it came time
for brass tacks, you were ready to go. And it's no different in law enforcement. It's no different
in EMS. It's no different for cooks, right? It's no different for communications operators,
and linemen, engineers, even the guys who go out and make potable water for people to drink.
There's a lot of training, but when it comes time, they're ready to respond. And it doesn't
matter if they're going to war or if they're responding to an earthquake or hurricane,
a tornado, a traffic accident, or somebody passed out out here on one of the bus benches in town.
Everybody goes through this training so that when things happen, they're prepared for the best
possible outcome. And so that Jesus' light can shine through in that time of darkness for others,
the time when it matters the absolute most for people to see Him and to know, hey,
it's going to be okay. You know, the problem when it comes to this,
you know, is that it's our human, our humanist. God has set eternity into human heart, right?
That's what it says here.
And what it means is that we're always going to be looking for that next best thing.
We're looking for perfection, which is why when we get things, it might be great for a little
while, but then we're looking for the next thing. Pretty much everybody in here has a cell phone,
right? Is there anybody who doesn't know? I didn't think so. And what happens is that
we get that cell phone, right? Ooh, this is great. It's got all the bells and whistles. I can do this.
And then after a while, we start finding the flaws. Oh, this isn't what I signed up for.
Oh, but next year, they got the upgrade coming. That's going to take care of all these old problems.
I'm just going to trade it in. I'm going to upgrade. I'm going to get that next phone.
It's going to be great. And we do that. And what happens?
We start the cycle over again, right? We get a car. We're pumped. Ooh, I got a new car.
Check out my ride. This thing's pimping, right? I'm going to cruise slow downtown. Everybody's
going to see it. I'm going to blast the music, get their attention, right? And then before long,
oh, speakers aren't so good. It doesn't get good mileage. It doesn't get good
speed. Speakers aren't so good. It doesn't get good mileage. I had to go and somebody
back. Yeah, a little blemish. Things aren't quite what they are. It starts to age.
You're cruising on the highway and a rock gets thrown up and chips the paint. It's like, oh, man.
Especially if you think of older cars and the way the paint would fade and peel. We don't see that
as much today, but we still see some, right? Same thing. There's always something that's like,
I'm ready for an upgrade. We get those pictures in our heads. Ooh, I want a 69 Camaro. Super sport.
And then you get it. You find out how bad the mileage is, right? All the work you've got to
put into it to keep it running. You're like, I got a Camaro, not a Ford. What's going on?
It's the same thing. It goes on and on. And we take these things and we have this hole, like I said,
because we're looking for perfection. We have these holes in our lives, these holes inside,
and we start looking to other things. Drugs, alcohol, clubbing, relationships, sex, work.
Yes, work. Workaholics, that's actually a thing. People will go and they will spend more time
focused on work. They will take it home with them. They will go to work. They will go to work.
They will take it home with them. They will take it everywhere with them. They're focused on nothing
but trying to get ahead, thinking that's going to fulfill that gap that they have inside, right?
It's another addiction. Gambling, right? All this other stuff. Video games.
You know, I know people, I play my bass. I love my bass. My wife plays her guitar. She loves it.
I know people, that's their addiction. Oh, I got this. I've got this mastered. I've got to
get another instrument. I have to, right? That's their addiction. They're trying to fill a gap.
They're trying to fill that loss. And the problem here is only the Holy Spirit can fill that.
Only Jesus can fill that. He is the only one. That place that's there, it is a place for God to come
and dwell within us. And we need to invite Him into it. You know, you can apply this to just about
anything. You know, and it's temptations. It's temptations that all of us have to deal with.
You know, and you see it's because we're created in God's image.
We have a spiritual thirst for those perfect things, right? Those treasures that are stored
up in heaven. Things that we can't even fathom. We just have a little glimpse of it, right?
And not only that, but you look at the things that influence in the way we place value on things,
right? Different products, different, I hate to say this, different people.
You don't have to go far. You step out these doors. You can go next door. Unfortunately,
and even in this room, a lot of us, you know, we have our own biases that we have to deal with,
right? We have our own prejudices that we have to deal with. We have to turn to God to deal with
these things and help us to change these things in our lives. That's just the way it is. That's our
humanness. That's our brokenness. You know, there's nothing more valuable and nothing,
absolutely nothing that can truly satisfy us and will fulfill our lives like Jesus.
Nothing. There's nothing of more value. And God's given us just an extremely small glimpse,
if you can even call it that, a sliver, a splinter of his eternal perfection, his perfect creation,
right? And because that is rooted so deeply in us, going all the way back to the beginning of man,
nothing but God will ever fully satisfy, which makes it all the more horrifying for those who
will turn and walk away from him because they will never know what it is to be filled.
They will just know the pain and the anguish. And in fact, if we turn to Psalm 34 verse 8,
Psalm 34 verse 8 says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him.
Blessed is the man who trusts in him. You know, it's that invitation. He says, Hey, try this.
You're going to like it. Hey, I want you to come in. I want you to meet Jesus. You're going to
absolutely love him. This is going to be great. Right? And when you do, and you start getting that
little taste, right? You taste, you know that he's good. And it becomes the beginning of a
tremendous relationship, a relationship that continues to build and build and build as long
as we're here on earth. Right? A relationship that won't be fully realized until we stand before him.
And it's not supposed to be until we are there with him in heaven. You know, and that should get us
excited. That should get us pumped about eternity. That should get us really happy to look forward
to what's in store for us in heaven. However, we also need to remember. It's not in our time to get
there. It's in his, he has worked for us here. We cannot be in a rush to get there. We need to take
time to see the things, take them in and learn the lessons that we have here and pass them on to the
next generation. You know, let's go back here just to a, to Ecclesiastes three verses 14 and 15,
right? That's really important. Let's read it again. So verses 14 and 15, I know that whatever
God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.
God does it that men should fear before him that which is has already been and what is to be has
already been. And God requires an account of the past. Another way of saying that, that last part
there is God is going to seek an account of everything that you've pursued. It's not just
the things that you've done and completed, but the things that you've attempted, the things that
you've pursued, right? Let's face it. Some of the things that we've started to do weren't so great.
No, we stopped, but you know what? That sin was already in your heart. That action was already
put into play. You're going to have to answer for it, whether you do it covered by the blood of the
lamb or you do it looking at the gates of hell. The choice is on you, but you need to remember,
we have to answer for that. The good things that we do in life, just the same, right?
You had the opportunity to shine light. Did you shine the light? Yes. Good. Okay. Great.
But we still have to offer that account of what happened and why.
You know, we have to be ready, just like in life, to give an account for our actions and
our belief, right? Our faith. We need to remember that God's our eternal creator and that we need
to be ready to explain ourselves at any given time. Not excuses. Never excuses. Right? We all
have them. They're not going to fly in the kingdom. The facts. So when we go to court,
right, and you swear an oath, you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, not the
rest of the stuff, but the facts, right? If you could drag it, the facts and just the facts,
right? Same thing. Those facts. The good, the bad, the ugly. You know, it's not saying,
and when it says fear here, it's not saying that we need to be scared of God.
A different way of looking at that is when we see fear, we should look at it as revere. We should
revere God, right? Love Him, honor Him, exalt Him, right? Give Him His due, right? Give Him praise.
We need to be in awe of Him.
But here's the thing. We need to be able to speak to Him as well.
If you mess up, right? So you're going to mess up before me, and here's one of your parents coming
up. I said, hey, you know what? Here's your choice. You can tell Mom what you did, or I could tell Mom
what you did. What way do you think is going to be the better way to do it?
What way do you think is going to be the better way to do it? Even as an adult,
just the image of having to do that makes us all feel like a little kid again, right?
And probably because at some point we've had somebody tell us that, right? It's like,
you want to tell them or should I? I've had students I've done this same thing with.
Matter of fact, just the other day I was dealing with a student with a foul mouth.
Here comes Mom. You want to tell your Mom what you said or shall I? I think it would be a lot
better if you did it right away. Excuse me? What? He did the right thing. He told Mom.
Paid the piper, of course, but you know, when it comes to God, it's no different.
Matter of fact, if anything, it's worse because we cannot hide a single thing from Him.
He knew us before we were in the womb, right? He knows every part of us, the way we think,
the way we feel, the way we talk, everything. Those things are vocalized and the things that are not.
So again, when it comes to standing before Him, is He going to see me in my sin or is
He going to see me covered in the blood? So in this season we've got our time of change,
our timing. It says time of the word. It should say time of work. That's my mistake.
Helps if you proofread your stuff, right? Time for full sin. So going back a little bit
to when Pastor Martin was talking about the time of the word, the time of the word,
so going back a little bit to when Pastor Mark was talking to us last week, right? He's talking
about Isaiah chapter 6. I want to go back to that just briefly, specifically to a verse he brought
up. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 8. I love this verse. I really do. Matter of fact, a buddy of mine,
his ministry out in the Phoenix area is actually based off of this. Isaiah 6 8, send me. Right?
So looking at Isaiah 6 8, the word says, also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I
send and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me. Chapters in our lives, I'm sorry,
seasons in our lives change. Chapters and a new one start. The chapters change, right? However
you look at it, same thing, seasons, chapters, so on and so forth. You might even have another term
for it, but it's all the same. And in response to God's question, who will go for us? The appropriate
response for all of us is exactly the same thing. Send me. I'm right here. Send me. Prepare it or
not. Because we know when God's asking for someone to step up and to step into a void, he's doing it
for a reason and the person who answers that call, they're doing the right thing, whether they know
what they're getting into or not. You know, the question itself, it actually takes me back to
when I was in seminary years ago. One of the pastors I was interning with, Pastor Jonathan,
Brian knows him, Cindy's brother, used to be our keyboardist years ago. He pastored, I digress,
he pastors a church out in the Phoenix area now, but when I started my internship, he asked a
question. Before we even got started with anything, day one, I go and I sit down in his office,
he says, I need to ask you something. What if the Lord wants to send you someplace that's not here?
He's like, I'll go. He's like, no, no, no. Let me clarify. What if the Lord wants to send you
someplace out of states, possibly out of country, a less than desirable place at that matter?
He didn't know my background coming from the military. He's like, I'll go. He's like,
you sound very sure about that. And it's like, well, I know what I feel in my heart right now.
I know my experience. I know my background. It's like when the Lord calls us to go somewhere,
it's not on us to say why, or what do you mean, or can you send somebody else? What if the Lord
says, you need to go somewhere? He's putting it on you for a reason. He's putting it on your heart
for a reason. So if he tells me, hey, I don't want you anymore. I want you to go somewhere else,
and this is where it's going to be for however long it is, then I'm ready to do that. I got to
that point in my life where I was ready to hand everything over and whatever the Lord asked of me,
I was ready to do. And in doing that, and in saying that, and in the course of this conversation,
new doors opened. New people entered. New opportunities came.
And I was sent to plenty of places. I was ministering to patients when I was in hospice,
traveling to other states to preach, doing vocations, being asked to step into other roles
where ministry was needed, places I never expected to be. I tell you, going in a hospice,
that terrified me. I knew what the outcome was for most of those patients. I knew exactly what
that outcome was. It was not something I was looking forward to. I was looking forward to
going in there and filling that role and doing what the Lord called me to do at that time,
at that season of my life, was also one of the biggest blessings of my life.
I'd worked a lot with the dead and with dying people, and it wasn't until I got to that point
that I was able to see more of the picture and why God had put me in those other places in my past.
It was to take me in a prepared position to do what I was doing. I was able to see more
prepared me for what I was going to see and what I was going to deal with there. The brokenness
and the pain of not just the patients, but their families and their friends and the people that
needed to be ministered to. And it wasn't until I saw that and it's like, oh, I see what you're
talking about, Lord. I see the picture and it came together for me. And when it comes to our
experiences and the things that we do, no matter how long or how short of a chapter it is in our
lives, we're all going to have that moment at some point too, and it's like, aha, and the light goes
off. And it goes all the way back to that time of work, right? It's that final product where it's
like, oh, I see, Lord. Thank you. You know, I mentioned earlier, you know, and all of you know,
you know, I spent a lot of time overseas. When I first enlisted, we weren't at war yet.
So when I enlisted, at that time, it's like, hey, I want to go overseas. I volunteered to go
overseas. I wanted to end my contract to go overseas. I did anything and everything so I
could go and see places that I would likely never get to see again. Really, taking a vacation
on Uncle Sam's dime, right? It's really what I had in mind. I was going to go and I was going to see
beaches, and I'm going to go scuba diving, and I'm going to go climb mountains and see waterfalls
and all this cool stuff. And I did. I did. I saw a lot. To this day, my favorite place to go scuba
diving is the nice warm waters in the East China Sea, just off of the coast of Okinawa. No two dives
were ever the same. Those waters never dropped below 60. Wonderful. I have pictures from all
sorts of stuff. A lot of pictures have been lost, but that was what I was looking forward to.
And then what happened? The season changed. 9-11 happened.
And the calling in my heart, the goal that was there for me changed, just like it changed
for thousands of people, regardless of their vocation. Some people went back and they
reenlisted. Some people stopped what they were doing and they went into emergency response, right?
Some people stopped what they were doing and they went into other vocations like education.
They found things changed for them overnight. And even in my line of thinking, instead of
being like, hey, I'm going to go and I want to see this place. I'm going to catch a flight or a hop
or whatever or a boat and go check out all this stuff, my line of thinking changed. Send me.
Here I am. I'm already trained. I'm already halfway around the world. I'm just hours from
where you need me to go. Send me. These guys are still at home. These guys still have families.
I'm over here a bachelor with no kids. Send me.
I've already worked in law enforcement. I've seen the assaults. I've seen the rapes. I've seen the
brutality that humans have to offer one another. And that's all that we're going to be seeing over
here. Send me so that they don't have to see it.
Send me so that they don't have to see it. I'm here. Use me now.
Let me go to war so that they know peace. Send me. That's how my mindset changed.
How my calling changed. How the calling of thousands of other people who took an oath changed.
How people were called to service when they graduated for years after that happened.
It went from selfish to selfless. And when God's saying, who am I going to send? That's what He's
looking for. Someone to drop the selfish and embrace the selfless. To go into the change
in the Marine Corps, what we say, adapt and overcome. But to do the things that need to be done.
The good, the bad, and the ugly. Because we already know God can use everything, the good and the bad
and the ugly to bring forth the greatness of His kingdom, to shine light for others to see.
And He can use you to do it no matter where you are in your life today, even here in little Albuquerque.
You could have the one thing that comes in front of you this week, the smallest act that has an
impact on somebody and generations to come. Because you answered the call of send me.
When it comes to our church, when it comes to our fellowship,
we need to embrace our seasons. We need to embrace the change.
The transitions that we're going through. They can be hard, they can be confusing, right?
They're uncertain times. Because what you've known is changing into something that you don't,
or you know, you might know a little bit. But there's still an unknown factor here, right?
It's a transition, it's a season, it's a change. And we need to be willing to step up and say,
send me, let me be the one who supports this. Let me be the one who empowers this through you,
through your love and through your light. You know, it's nice to go back, it's not a decision that
anybody's made lightly. It's a decision that still carries weight with it. Right? But it's one that
we're still holding. And when we go through these transitions, and we see these things throughout
different functions of our lives, and I use myself for a lot of examples today, right?
Just to demonstrate the things that I've had to go through all this time,
everybody in here has had to go through different changes. But when we go through things, we need to
remember, we need to turn to God, we need to rely on God, we need to have him guide our footsteps
and our words as we go through these transitions to remind him, just like, hey, you know,
can you clear up this confusion for me? Can you help me with the transparency?
You know, I had this weight in my heart, can you lift it for me? Lord, you know, we need to speak
to him. We need to lean on him as we go through this change, this phase, right? And we need to
remember that everything that's going on, it's by his will, it's by his design, it's in his time,
and by his will that it all happens. And when he gives us things,
we need to take those blessings, no matter what they are, and make sure that they're
being implemented in the right place and in the right way. Right? It's like the last,
you know, few weeks, especially we've been having issues with our soundboard.
Things haven't been coming out, even just here in the building, right?
And what happened? We've been blessed with a new one that we need to install now.
It's a change, something getting ready to come up, something getting ready to happen.
It's a good thing, like when your computer starts to act up, right? It starts doing funky things.
But it's not always about upgrading things. It's about taking what we have, taking our blessings,
and taking our gifts, and using them to serve the Lord. Leaning on him as we cope with things
that are changing in our lives and the world around us. We need to remember that he holds
our future, and God wants us to have a great future with him in the kingdom. He wants the best
for us. And so we need to trust in him for everything that happens and everything that we deal with.
You know, when I say full send, it's meaning that we're fully committed to the things of God,
that we're fully committed to the things he has us doing. We're not sandbagging on anything, right?
We're going at it wholeheartedly. We're giving our best, and we're doing the best that we can.
That's what full send is. It's that full commitment, that full payload of whatever it is that you have
that needs to get delivered. And as Christians, as tempting as it is to stay in one place and just do
the same things, we have to be wary of that. We have to be aware of that. We have to be aware of
that. And just do the same things. We have to be wary of that. Because that's when we start to get
legalistic about things. And it becomes more about, oh, you have to do this, you have to say that,
and it has to be in this perfect order. And what happens is we end up pushing out the Holy Spirit.
We don't give him the room to move and to work that he deserves, right? That place in our lives
that we should be in, and not all this other stuff. And we become idols in our own lives,
and we start worshiping other false gods in his place. And it's not something that we can take lightly.
We have to adapt, we have to overcome the world through the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will
calm anything that gets in our way. With changing seasons, with changing chapters, anytime that
there's change, it's an opportunity to start fresh, to start anew, right? Every season brings
something distinct with it. Just like the video that we watched before, you had the four brothers
that all saw different things in different seasons, right? New things. Things that are great,
things that when it pulled together, pulled the whole picture together and showed something
absolutely wonderful. But we can't just go off of the sliver. We have to give it that opportunity,
and we have to rely on God. Let him open the eyes of our heart for us to truly see what he
wants us to see, and not just see what the enemy puts in front of us. Let us pray.
Lord, we see things changing all around us. It causes uneasiness, it causes uncertainty.
We recognize that these things are hard, much like a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly.
There's a lot at work, and it's happening all around us. Yet we know that you have our best
interest in mind. We ask that you ease the burdens of our hearts and our minds as we look to make
sense of everything and the ways that we know how and through you. We ask that you help us to remain
steadfast in you and not caught up in the things that we shouldn't be. And when you ask us to move
forward, to do the things that aren't always the easiest to do in life, that we're ready to get out
of our own way and say, send me, that you could continue to speak to us gently, that gentle reminder
that when we stand in the void, you're still there with us. You've never leave us, you've never left
us, you never will. And that you're cheering us on and the work that you have set for us to bring
for greatness and to shine a light on your kingdom, in your will and in your time.
And as we leave here today, please continue to work on us and remind us, as only you can,
that each and every one of us is loved by you and is blessed by you
and help us to work diligently as we go forward to be the church.
And all as people said, amen and amen. All right. Thank you everybody.
See you next time. God bless.