Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton, the official podcast of Cross Christian Fellowship
Route 66 in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Burton is the lead pastor.
We're glad you're here.
Well again, good morning.
This week, I'm going to start us off with a question.
Now I don't expect anybody to answer it.
I want you to keep it in the back of your mind.
And if you think you have an answer, write it down because it's something you'll be
able to refer to later on.
All right?
And question is, do you fully put your faith into God or do you treat it like a business
transaction?
Like I said, it's something to write down.
It's something to keep in the back of your mind because that's basically what we're
looking at today.
Do you fully have your faith in God or do you treat it like a business transaction?
All right?
Now in general, if you think about it, we put our trust in companies, right?
But we put that trust in companies based upon how they hold and respond to our values, right?
When companies do things that we don't like, we're very vocal about it.
Right?
We have boycotts and all sorts of stuff.
And wasn't that long ago that Budweiser and Target basically were canceled out for the
same reason?
People didn't like how they were going about a certain thing.
And they're still feeling that pain today.
Right?
Not that long ago even, what, Papa John's had a little backlash, right?
They had to push out their CEO and bring in somebody new.
The NFL to this day is still being talked about for people taking a knee, right?
How they go about their national anthem, all that kind of stuff.
You know, and that's just a few modern time hits that we've seen that people have responded
to.
Now while cancel culture itself has gone to new extremes, the heart of the concept isn't
new by far, not even close.
In fact, if you look back at the history of our country, it's based upon it.
People uprooting their families, leaving their native countries to come here to escape issues
that they had problems with, with the government and the way things were run there.
Matter of fact, even just here in the homeland, what happened in Boston?
The Boston Tea Party in 1773, right?
There's a huge boycott right there.
We filled up a harbor with tea.
A lot of other things, but the tea was the main thing, right?
So we have a long, long history of canceling things from protests to rallies to riots, all
that war.
We've experienced civil war ourselves, just like other countries have.
And one thing as a country we've learned is to let our tempers get the best of us, to
impact our faith.
But is that how we should act?
No.
So let's open our Bibles or your Bible apps to 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
So 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 11 through 13.
All right.
And Paul writes, we have spoken openly to you Corinthians.
Our heart has been opened wide.
We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.
I speak as to my children as a proper response, open your heart to us.
As a people, we withhold our love when we shouldn't.
And it's not just a cultural thing.
This is worldwide, right?
But especially as Christians, we allow suspicions and conspiracies and rumors to impact the
way we think, to impact the way we treat people, the way we isolate either ourselves or others.
Right?
Various other things influence us.
And we take that love and we stick it in our pocket and we keep it there.
What's worse is we allow our emotions and our hate, our anger and our jealousy to reign
in our lives.
It's no different when it comes to Jesus.
We pray, we pray, we pray, we pray.
That we don't get, or at least we don't see the answer that we want.
Right?
So what happens?
We turn a blind eye and we turn a blind ear or deaf ear, I should say, to the answer that
has been given.
We beg and plead with God, please answer it, please do it, but do it this way.
This is the way I want it done.
No regard to his way or his better movements, that he knows better.
It all becomes about me, me, me and we become angry and filled with hate and discontent,
especially when he answers in the way that we need, not the way we want.
Sometimes our needs, oftentimes our needs are a lot different from our wants.
Right?
And I could say, I want a new motorcycle.
Do I need a new motorcycle?
No.
Should I be upset about it?
No, I should be grateful for what I have.
Right?
You know, it's much like how people were responding to Paul when he wrote this.
You know, we become mean-spirited, we allow our hearts to harden.
We put up walls, we burn bridges.
We turn love into a weapon.
Think about it.
We use love as a weapon.
Of all the things that are out there that people want to use, you know, sex and lust
and all this other stuff that we see out there today, money.
We also use love.
It's probably one of the most painful weapons that's out there.
You know, something, we only share it with those that we deem worthy.
Right?
You know, others look to use it as a tool to manipulate people into doing their will.
Right?
Or to punish others who refuse to be controlled by them.
See a lot of relationships like this.
You know, people, they take it and they look to change the hearts and minds of others to
get them to side with them instead of looking to see the other person's side and why they
won't.
We're not always going to agree on everything.
It's not a reason to push people to the side.
Not a reason to wall people off and throw them away just because somebody's politics
aren't the same as yours.
Right?
Someone's beliefs aren't the same as yours.
It's not on us to force our beliefs on other people.
We can explain them.
We can plant the seed.
But you know what?
There's a lot of things that go and influence people.
We can't force feed them our beliefs or our faith.
They have to find theirs for themselves.
All we can do is give them the information.
What they do with it is on them.
Yet when it comes to Christ, we have people who want to pray under the guise of asking
for something.
Asking for something.
But what's the reality?
They're demanding things from Him.
Demanding.
You know, it's not asking with a grateful heart or a loving heart or an open heart.
You know, hey, I might not get what I want or, you know, things might not go my way.
But we demand from Him.
We're not asking in the way that we should.
We're being greedy and we're being selfish.
And when He doesn't give into the demands of a terrorist, and at that point we are a
domestic terrorist in the kingdom, we suddenly think of ourselves as the victim.
Oh, woe is me.
And our faith is hurt.
Our relationship is hurt.
Little Paul writes in that final verse to open our hearts.
You see, that's a thing in disappointment.
When things don't go our way.
When things don't happen the way we feel that they should or people let us down or don't
act in the way that we feel that they should.
You know, we need to keep our hearts and our minds open.
Not close them off.
There's an alarm there.
I don't know whose that is.
Okay.
There we go.
Okay.
Whatever that alarm is, it's gone now.
All right.
I don't think it was me.
Anyway, moving on.
Before I got distracted by that car alarm.
These walls are so thin here.
Anyway, you know, things don't go the way we feel they should.
People let us down.
We need to keep our hearts and our minds open.
These are the times that we need to lean into the Lord a little deeper to pray a little
bit more.
To actually close our mouths and listen to the answer that he's sending us.
Right?
Ask him.
Things are getting hard.
Things are getting tough.
What do I need to learn?
Is there something I need to learn here?
Or is there something I need to change in my life?
Do differently.
What is it that I need to change there, Lord?
Because even in doing things differently, and that's a learning point in and of itself,
right?
Because sometimes we have bad habits that we need to break and we need to learn good
habits.
So there's still a learning curve.
You know, it's like with me with eating, you know, I could probably learn a few things
there and do a little bit better myself or take some of the things that I do know and
apply them a little bit better.
I'd probably lose a little bit more weight, a little bit faster.
You know, I know I'm not alone on that one.
We all have our jelly bellies, you know.
Well, I should say all of us.
Some of us are in better shape than others.
But you know, my dog has a jelly belly just like me.
There's that whole thing about dogs taking on their owners.
You know?
But you know, we need to ask the Lord, hey, show me the way.
Guide my steps.
Teach me.
You know, instead, what happens is we let the devil win this battle.
We do.
We almost, we basically hand it to him.
We hand it to him.
Here you go.
It's on a silver platter.
Take it.
It's yours.
Enjoy.
I made it just for you.
A little cherry on top.
You know, we let him cast doubt.
We let him cast shame.
And we listen to all this nonsense.
He's whispering in our ear.
We forget who he really is and what he really wants.
We allow our ego and our pride and our prejudice to take a hold of our lives, much like the
leaders of Jesus' day, the same leaders Jesus had to confront.
And we allow these things to turn us away from God.
We willingly, blindly walk away from him and towards the enemy, willingly and blindly.
We put on our own blinders and go, here we go.
Like it's all good.
But it's not.
Turning to John chapter 8, verse 44.
So John 8, 44, the word says, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father
you want to do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no
truth in him.
And he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father
of it.
We forget who the devil is.
Devil is a fallen angel.
It's a fallen angel.
So when he speaks to us, it isn't this big, dark, red, evil dude with pitchforks, breathing
fire, any of that kind of stuff, a tail whipping about and all that kind of stuff, a big, deepy,
bassy voice.
We kind of get those images of Tim Curry in legend a lot of times.
TV's try to make it down and make them kind of pretty, which is scary because it's a much
more accurate depiction of who the devil really is, an angel.
So when he whispers to us, it's not this gravely evil, it's this sweet, gentle whisperer, it's
an angelic voice because it is the voice of an angel.
So it sounds very soothing, it sounds very welcoming, very tempting.
Hey, come on in, stay awhile, take your coat off, put your shoes over there, we're good,
right?
People wonder why the devil gets such a foothold in our lives, and it is, it's because he's
a very welcoming person.
There's a lot of things that soothe people.
You go into places, certain colors are used, bands, when they're up there, even in churches,
you go to these big mega churches, they use lighting along with the songs to manipulate
certain emotions, certain moods, right?
You go into a hospital, especially like surgery, my surgery unit.
We all wore blue scrubs, I had to get special permission to wear red on Fridays because
I always wear red on Fridays, right?
Remember everyone deployed, it's a nice acronym.
But anyway, we wore blue.
The walls were painted with a very light tint of blue in them, even though it was white,
there's just a little tint.
And why?
Because blue is a very soothed, calming color, it impacts the subconscious.
Right?
You ever been at a turn signal, or I shouldn't say turn signal, but a light?
You're sitting at a red light, and you're wondering why you have that urge to just step
on it and go?
Well, it's one of those things, our colors are a little switched around.
Because you notice the light turns green, and you're a little bit more hesitant to hit
the gas sometimes, right?
You're kind of sitting there, it's like, oh, it's green, I can go.
It's because red is very much, hey, let's go, hit it.
That's the emotion that evokes with green, it's a little bit more soothing, it's a little
closer to blue, right?
So we're a little bit more relaxed, we're willing to just kind of sit there for a little
while.
It's time to go, we're good, cool.
Hit the gas.
Home James, right?
So it's the same thing when it comes to the devil and his voice, that angelic voice enticing
us to give into our own desires.
You know, those leaders who look to trip up Jesus, our attitudes are exactly the same
whether we realize it or not.
You know, we have people who shout, Christ, yes, give it all to Jesus.
Amen, hallelujah, singing on the mountain, right?
But what are their attitudes actually conveying?
What they're actually doing, their actions?
They say otherwise, don't they?
People are unconscious to the fact that they allow this hatred, these lies, this ambition,
all these biases to run their lives instead of Christ.
They speak ill of people and wish ill.
It's like, oh, you voted for that son of a gun?
No, bye bye, just unfriend me, I hope you rot, right?
And we see this on both sides.
We all probably know at least one person who has said or posted those words, whether it
was in this election or a past one, right?
And not even just that.
Somebody goes blowing past you on the road.
I'm still thinking of my grandpa, my dad's son, grandpa Flick.
Somebody would do something silly on the road, you know, instead of yelling and cussing.
Well, he'd still raise his voice a little bit.
The, I hope you turn over and burn his two-peat-o-ombre.
I probably said that as wide as I'll get out, but that's how my, that's what my grandpa
would say every time somebody to blow past, you know, or merge lanes without turn signal
or just something stupid, right?
That was his thing.
You know, or he'd be watching a ball game because he's big in his sports, you know,
he's a hall of fame himself.
And somebody would make a bad play.
It's two-peat-o-ombre, put your brains in a jaybird's butt and it would fly backwards.
You know, things like that.
That was his way of cussing.
He was kind of cute, but he would say it every time.
But that's our attitude, isn't it?
It's our attitude.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That's right.
Cause you got blocked in.
Yeah.
Little, like heated there, huh?
It happens.
It happens to all of us.
You've been in the car when it's happened to me, somebody's done, like, ooh, moron.
Maybe some choice words come out, sometimes a little more colorful, you know, that Marina
and me comes out.
Like, forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
Those people probably didn't deserve it.
Even if they did, it wasn't my place to say it, right?
But that's how we act.
That's our attitudes.
They are the same as those leaders.
And we're often unconscious to the fact that we're doing the same thing.
And you know what it is, especially the more heated people get and the more they lean into
these types of attitudes and temperaments, it's a clear indicator of how much control
Satan has over their lives.
Satan has some control over each and every single one of us, whether we want to admit
it or not.
As much as we love Jesus, there is some part of our life where we're just sitting there
going, ah, right?
Things get under our skin.
That happens.
It's going to happen.
That's part of being human.
You know, it's control.
It's control.
I see where you're going with that, with influence, but no, it is control.
Because ultimately, what's the enemy's goal?
To pull us away from God.
You know, he doesn't care that we pray.
He doesn't care that we go to church or come together in fellowship.
What he cares about is pulling us away from God and preventing us from knowing Jesus.
And if he can control those factors, whether it's to his influence or other things, guess
what?
He's going to do it.
Because unfortunately, there are some barriers that he's going to put up that do have controlling
factors in our lives.
All right.
I was mentioning a few days ago, or not a few days ago, a few minutes ago, talking about,
you know, we just had a big political thing, didn't we?
We had Inauguration Day.
Leading up to it, and in the day since, we still see people posting horrible things on
social media, speaking horrible things at work.
You know?
Whether it's politicians in general or signaling out a specific person, such as the president.
It happens.
Acting in hate and discontent instead of looking to what the Bible tells us and doing what
the Bible tells us.
People are more willing to throw people to the side, wish harm on people.
Over just this one thing, they disregard the Bible and what the Bible has said and what
the Bible has said about how we should respond to our leaders.
Friendships ended, families divided, and it happens at every election.
And it's sad.
It's very sad.
It's heartbreaking.
All these people dividing themselves over men and women instead of looking to God.
They want to yell, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, but in their hearts, Satan, Satan, Satan.
They're looking to people to effect change in a dark world when the only person who can
truly effect any good change, any lasting change, any effective change, any lasting change
is God and God alone.
People don't like to hear that, do they?
Oh, go to God.
No.
And more and more so people are shutting themselves off from that, closing themselves off to the
word or even the mention of it.
They want to keep God out of it.
You know, they had this whole conversation, the separate separation of religion and state.
This whole this whole mindset like, oh, no, it goes over there and it just stays in its
own thing.
You know, you can't even look at our founding papers without seeing God there.
And it's for a reason.
You have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.
It doesn't just go away.
It's one of the founding principles of our nation.
Instead, people, they want to keep God out of it.
They want to keep God out of their lives is really what they're saying.
Because if they allow him in, even into this little section, then they have to deal with
themselves and where they're falling short, their own bias, their own prejudice, their
own hate, their own discontent.
They have to confront it all.
And it's very convicting.
Let's turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 4, 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verses 2 through 4.
So 2nd Timothy 4 verses 2 through 4, the word says, preach the word, be ready and even seize
in and out of season.
Corrects rebuke and encourage with great patience and teaching.
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to
their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to
hear what they want to hear.
They will turn away from hearing the truth and turn aside to myths.
And people do, people want to feel good, don't they?
They do, they want to feel good.
There's this whole, if it feels good, do it.
That is the devil straight up.
You know, they want this imaginary Jesus who loves them just as they are.
That they're perfect.
They just, they have a couple of things in their lives that they haven't gotten quite
right because of poor teaching.
So let's just tweak that a little bit and you'll be good as, I'll get out, right?
In like Flint.
You know, you're a good person just the way you are.
That's what people want to hear.
And it's garbage, isn't it?
We all need to be corrected from time to time.
It's going to happen.
If we're so great, why did Jesus have to come not only just to teach us, but ultimately
to go to the cross and die for us?
Why did he have to take on our sin if we're so good?
We're that good, wouldn't that mean that we're without sin?
Right?
Or that, you know, even if there is a little sin, it's just, it's a little thing.
So it wouldn't be anything worthy of having to go to the cross for, would it?
But that's the kind of Jesus people want.
And feel good, you don't need to change who you are.
You were born this way, nonsense.
And it is nonsense.
All that hate, all that sin.
You weren't born that way.
It's learned.
Because Dennis Leary, he made a comment years ago about his kid.
Be like, you know what?
My kid didn't learn racism.
My kid doesn't hate people because they're another color.
You know what my kid naps one thing and one thing only naps.
Anyone who's ever tried to put down a small child knows they hate naps.
And it's true.
Because all the rest of that stuff, it's learned.
It starts in the home with mom and dad or whoever the caretaker is.
You know, whether they're left alone with the TV or a babysitter who's smoking a bowl
on the side, you know, enjoying that meth or whatever.
All this stuff, it's learned.
It happens.
You know, the word, it's hard for people to hear.
They don't want to hear it.
Why?
Because it convicts them.
God's word tells us that we've made some serious missteps, that we need to change.
We've believed things that aren't true.
And we need to search for the truth.
That we need to change as a people, as a society, as a nation, as a world, as a human being
on the planet Earth.
Doesn't matter where you live.
You know, a human being, guess what?
You need Jesus.
You have things you need to change.
And it's not just diapers.
You know, but it's hard to hear that.
People don't want to hear that.
It's very hard to hear that you've made a mistake, that you're not perfect.
And it's very humbling, especially when you actually hear what's being said.
It's like, oh, wow, yeah, I did kind of fall short of the goal there, didn't I?
Huh.
So it is very humbling to realize that we've made poor choices in life.
And we need to change how we're living.
So what happens?
What happens when this occurs?
We see people packing into buildings with this feel-good message that tells them that
they're good.
You know, they get someone who will tell them the things that they want to hear.
Motivational speakers is really what these people are.
Because they're not ministers of the word.
At that point, they cease to be.
They're motivational speakers that are up there getting people pumped, getting them
excited, getting people feeling good, but at a cost.
And the cost be damned.
What's the cost, though?
What is it?
It's a person's soul.
We have thousands and thousands and thousands of people packing in to all these places for
a bogus message to make them feel good.
As leading them down a road of damnation.
It's going to cost them their soul.
And that is the cost to hear this false message of hope from a false teacher.
These are people, they're like Satan.
And we think of Satan and how he talked to Adam and Eve.
How he attacked Job.
How he tempted Christ.
What has he done from the beginning?
What does he still do?
He omits certain parts of the truth.
He withholds it, twists things, manipulates things.
He puts his own little spin on there to try to get the word to say what he wants it to
say, to get it to serve his purpose.
To cast doubt and shame.
His biggest tool, the father of lies.
And he gets this built into people.
People get programmed with it.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of good people out there who don't realize that what they're
being fed is garbage.
It's kind of like going to McDonald's.
You know, you go to McDonald's, you get those fries.
Those fries are delicious, right?
They're awesome.
And most people agree, they're probably some of the best fries you can buy out there.
But that food is anything but good for you, isn't it?
It's garbage.
We scoop it up and we eat it.
You know, people would say, oh, I want to eat garbage.
We do.
Oh, I don't like McDonald's.
You like something out there.
Don't lie.
Don't fool yourself.
Because there's going to be somebody out there, oh no, I get a salad.
They don't have salads there anymore.
Sorry.
You're not fooling anybody.
They haven't for years.
I actually heard that just the other day.
Somebody was talking about, oh, I love their salads.
They stopped doing that before COVID.
Half a decade ago.
But we get these people, these speakers up there, you know, they get their lights and
the sound and all this are looking sharp.
They're sounding good.
They're very charismatic.
And they do the same thing.
They omit things.
This can hurt people's feelings.
Oh, this is going to offend people.
Well, let's not talk about it, right?
Let's skip over books entirely from the Bible.
Full books.
There's actually a series, if you look it up, the 10 least preached books in the Bible.
A lot of people have no idea what they are.
And certain ones, they do know what they have heard of them.
They know bits and pieces of it.
But that's it.
Bits and pieces.
Because there's a lot of these people that go up there and they refuse to go through
the entire book.
They will pull a small piece out that fits the moment and call it good.
And then they wonder why people don't understand the context of what's actually being said.
And you go back and you look at things.
You're like, hey, guess what?
Let's go back a whole chapter.
Let's read up from there to here.
It's like, oh, whoa.
That's not what that meant at all.
Holy cow.
Right?
And we're talking about things like tithing and God amongst us.
There's a lot of stuff in there.
It's taken out of context.
But when you get in there, you actually read the word, word by word, chapter by chapter.
A different picture starts to emerge and you go, oh.
I'm not talking about honest mistakes.
People make mistakes.
But there are people out there that do this deliberately.
They do it all the time.
And it's eaten up by the masses.
Even songs.
You know, my wife, Brian here, you know, even Darren's heard me say, you know, it's probably
been a while since he's heard me say it.
But there are certain songs that I will not allow to be played in here because they're
not biblical.
They're theologically garbage.
But they're radio hits because they sound good.
It's still poison, though.
People are hedonistic.
They're very hedonistic.
Let's take a look at that here.
Let's, you know, let's take a look at Mark chapter 8.
Maybe.
Maybe it'll go.
There we go.
Mark chapter 8, verses 36 through 38.
So Mark 8, 36 through 38.
Jesus said, for what will a prophet man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own
soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of
him, the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the
holy angels.
Jesus is saying the same thing.
People are hedonistic.
People like to spend time looking for those things that make them feel good.
Right?
Something that's going to bring them joy, some kind of pleasure.
And it does not matter how fleeting it is.
It doesn't matter if it's for a second, 10 minutes, a year, whatever.
Hey, it makes me happy.
So it's got to be good.
Does it?
And Jesus is speaking to this world in this, these idols, because it is all temporary joy.
And the problem with it and why they become idols is because they make us take our eyes
off the Lord.
Here in a couple of weeks, we have a big sporting event coming up, don't we?
It's one of the biggest ones on TV.
I see my wife over there shaking her head with a big smile.
What is it, babe?
That's right, the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl.
Okay, now sports are good.
Games are good.
They're fun, right?
But people get so pumped over this, a game, a sport.
A bunch of guys who are definitely overpaid in my opinion, going out there and playing
a game that most of us played as kids for free.
Nothing wrong with that.
They're having a good time.
Cool.
The problem though is people take this sport and they turn it into an idol because what
we're going to see here in a couple of weeks, churches are going to be almost empty.
Why?
A little feedback there, sorry.
But why?
Well, there's a lot going on.
They have ads starting.
Oh, don't want to miss the ads.
For some people, that's the best part of the day, right?
For others, oh, you got your pregame.
You got your interviews on this channel and that channel and this other channel.
You got all the analysts over here and their predictions.
You got the casinos and all that Vegas and all that.
They're running the odds of who's going to do what and this and that.
People got to get plugged.
They can't miss any of this, can they?
Black Friday, there's another one.
Going out and getting gifts is good.
What happens?
People went shopping.
Other people went to a boxing match with a little shopping involved.
Things coming out of people's mouths that even a sailor would step back and go, oh,
I haven't heard that since my drill instructor.
Oh, my goodness, right?
But that's how people are.
They want those things that are going to bring them happiness even for a few seconds, that
worldliness thing.
These temporary things that make us take our eyes off of God and we put other things first.
Temporary things, worldly things, things that will disappear eventually.
And what happens?
They do it at the cost of their faith and the cost of their soul.
They do it at the cost of their relationship with Jesus Christ.
They give it up for whatever flavor of the week it is.
Whatever this latest fad, whatever the latest craze is.
Oh, I got to go out.
I got to get my nails done.
I got to get my hair done.
Got the guys out there.
Oh, I got to go out, get a new pair of jeans.
I'm going to go over to Walmart, get me some new shoes.
I'm going to be looking good.
I'm going to spend $300 on some cologne.
I'm supposed to have pheromones or whatever in it.
Bunch of garbage, right?
But that's how people are.
Oh, I got to go out.
Oh, I got the newest Tesla.
Check that out.
Can't afford my rent hardly, but I got a Tesla.
Yeah, I think.
Living so far out of my means.
Oh my goodness.
If it breaks down, I'm going to be out of car.
Right?
That's how people are.
You know, just because you weren't healed.
Let me tell you.
Just because you're not in perfect health or given great financial wealth.
You know, have that relationship just dropped into your lap that you want so much with that
person.
It doesn't mean that God doesn't love you.
It does not mean that God's not there.
It does not mean that God does not exist.
But you have to be honest with yourself.
Why are you turning?
Why are you wanting to walk away?
Why are you wanting to give everything up?
And it comes down to why are you asking for the things that you're asking for?
I said, we, a lot of a lot of people, we go to, we go to God and we're asking at a, from
a greedy, selfish heart.
We're demanding things from God.
Give me, give me, give me.
We're treating him like an ATM.
Because a lot of times that's the only time people actually go to God.
Because they're wants.
And none of us, not a single one of us has power or dominion over God to be able to go
to him and demand things in this way.
I don't care what the prosperity preachers say.
That's where name it and claim it falls short.
Because if it was name it and claim it, we'd all be billionaires living on a beach, sipping
on fruity drinks in perfect health with a perfect body, with a perfect family.
Right?
It's not the way it works though.
We're not little gods.
See, that's the thing in today's world, people are willing to walk away because of their
hurt.
They're willing to denounce God because their own unanswered selfish desires.
We're told to bear our crosses, not celebrate our sin.
But we've got people out there wanting a whole month to celebrate their sin, throw it in
people's face.
Except me, I was born this way.
No, you weren't.
It was learned.
I don't care if you're drunk.
I don't care if you're a junkie, a gambler, an adulterer.
And that's the thing, you look at adult movies, they have banquets for these things.
Big old movies like the Golden Globes, they go and they give each other awards for doing
deviant acts.
It's a big thing.
And they do, it's a lot of glitz and glam.
It's just like the Golden Globes and all that.
They roll out a red carpet the whole bit.
I don't care what your sin is, insert it here.
And all this stuff is getting put out there more and more so.
Porn stars make headlines.
That's just the way it is.
People want to celebrate their sin.
We're not supposed to though.
And the way we treat God is we treat him like somebody who owes us something.
We demand things of God like an entitled brat, like a kid throwing a fit, screaming and kicking
and wailing away on the floor in a store because they can't get a toy or a piece of candy.
Right?
It happens.
So many people, they've come into a fellowship or church and they've left because they didn't
feel that their requests were adequately met in the time that they gave.
You know, an ailment of some sort, an addiction, you know, or some other hardship.
They come with an attitude of, well, I came, I said the things, I did the stuff, why hasn't
it happened yet?
It's like, you said, that's all I had to do.
Why isn't it here?
It's like your God's fake.
You know, if he was real, he'd have fixed things.
And then they leave.
Most of the time never to return.
Sometimes in and out of different places.
But that's the way they look at it.
Yet we have people who want to say, once saved, always saved.
They came, they were here, they were saved.
No, they weren't saved.
And if this was you, you were not saved.
Not at that time.
If you, you know, it's, when you do this, your faith has been put into men and the people
and to doing this things that they say to do and the saying the things that they say
to do and trusting in them, not in God, not in Jesus.
Because if it's in Jesus, you'd have found a different answer.
You'd have found a joy.
You'd have found that hope inside you that, Hey, you know what?
Maybe I'm not getting this, but I'm getting this and this is even better.
Instead, your vanity and your selfishness has taken over.
And that's why when this happens, if it's happened to you, if you're honest about it,
you question who God is and if he even really exists.
Even though all the signs and the evidence are around you that he does, you still question
it.
Let me remind you, God supplies for your needs, not your wants.
Not to be crude, but as the saying goes, you can, you can want in one hand and poo in the
other and see which one feels first.
It's a little crude, but it's true because your needs are going to outweigh your wants
every time.
And unfortunately, people want to see their needs as poo until they're really hurting
and they have nothing else.
That's why people are able to find Jesus when they're at their lowest points because they
have nothing else to give.
They're much more open to finding him at that point.
Rock bottom.
Up until you get to that point, you can yell and cry all you want, but Jesus is not going
to bend your will because life is not about you.
It is about him.
And until you realize that you're never going to truly have hope and joy in your heart,
that fulfillment that's going to get you through.
Jesus didn't come and die on the cross so that you can have life like a Burger King
menu.
It's not your way right away.
It's never going to be.
It's his way, not yours.
And the false teachers.
Well, if you give some more and you pray a little bit harder, if you want it just a little
bit more, it's nonsense because it's not about you.
It's not about what you want.
It's about him.
Don't worry, guys.
I'm almost there.
We're going in the homestretch here.
A few years ago, there's a movie.
It's a real life account, Desmond Doss, during the Battle of Okinawa.
Some of you probably already know the movie I'm talking about, Hacksaw Ridge.
Even aside from the movie, though, you can go and you can look it up and there's interviews
with him.
And when he went into this battlefield, conscientious objector had a whole different meaning back
then.
He went up, he went to this battlefield without a weapon.
He was a medic.
He was there to save lives.
One of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific, when others had retreated, he stayed behind
and he kept going deeper and deeper into the battlefield trying to find soldiers.
And every time he would get one, he'd bring them back, he'd get them to safety and he'd
go back in.
And when he was going back in, he'd pray, Lord, let me just get one more.
Lord, let me get one more.
It wasn't about him.
It wasn't guide me to safety.
It wasn't, Lord, get me through this.
It was, Lord, help me get one more.
It wasn't about him.
It was about his love for his fellow man and his love of God because he valued life above
all else, because he loved as he should, as we all should.
And he kept going back in, kept going back in and is credited with saving dozens, if
not at least 100 lives by himself without a weapon running into the fire.
John 15, 13, you probably know where I'm going with this one.
Okay, if the slides wouldn't work again, I don't know.
Maybe.
There we go.
John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this and to lay down one's life for his friends.
See, it's time to stop looking to God to accept this sin you want to keep living in.
It's time to start looking to what he is really all about, which is love.
Sometimes that means tough love because the truth isn't always easy.
Sometimes it's going to hurt.
But sometimes that hurt is a good thing.
It's just like when you go into surgery.
Yes, this hurts.
This is painful.
But you know what?
Sometimes we have to cause a little bit more pain in order to fix what needs to be fixed
and to get it to heal.
Just like a surgery.
It's time to stop trying to cancel God and running away as a prodigal child.
He's ready for you to come home.
He's waiting with arms wide open.
So again, I ask you, is your faith fully in God or do you treat it like a business transaction?
Is it about you?
Is it about him?
Is it about your life or is it about his kingdom?
Are you walking away from Christ or are you leaning into him?
Are you giving into the world's culture or are you walking for the Lord?
Ask yourself these questions.
Be honest with yourself and then pray about it.
And on that note, let us pray.
Lord, we thank you for being with us.
We thank you for speaking for us, speaking to us, for convicting us of our sin.
We ask for your guidance and breaking away from it because we know you are the chain
breaker.
We ask for your guidance in making life less about us and more about pointing the way to
you and loving on other people as we should.
We ask that you forgive us for our many sins and missteps and guide us in forgiving others
of theirs as well because we know there's a lot of people out there that have hurt us.
And we still have part of that pain within us that we need to release, but we need you
to come into us to do that.
Please speak to our hearts and minds that we come to a better relationship with you
and learn how to put you before ourselves when we start to put our wants first.
Help us to remember that that gentle voice that we hear often time comes from the devil
when it's trying to entice us to do things that we know we shouldn't.
Help us to push it to the side and only hear the voice of our shepherd calling us and guiding
us home.
And all of these people said, Amen.
Thank you for joining us at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
If this message spoke to you or if you would like to help us reach more people, please
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You can learn more about our ministry or how you can support us at www.thecross66.org.
Until next time, take care and God bless.