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.
Father, we thank you for bringing us together today.
We thank you for this time of fellowship, this time in your word, this time of growth
together.
We ask that you open our hearts and our minds to what you have to speak to us and help us
to apply it in our daily lives as we leave here today, in Jesus' name, amen.
All right.
It feels a little weird here, because I got like a mic in my face and everything.
I can't hardly see my notes.
I'm like trying to move stuff around here.
We'll figure it out as we go.
It'll be all right.
I love you too, man.
And my wife's over here assuring me I'm still cool.
I appreciate that.
So as my wife was saying during announcements, I'd like to thank everybody who was able to
make it out yesterday for Doug's Celebration of Life.
It was actually quite the turnout.
It was really nice.
We had a nice wake afterwards next door in the fellowship hall.
A lot of good food, a lot of good conversation.
It was quite wonderful.
The support really meant a lot to the family.
And for those of you who did not catch it, we do still have a GoFundMe set up to help
the family with funeral expenses, the medical expenses, and everything that were left over.
We're going to leave that GoFundMe up for a little bit longer.
It is on our website, and it is on our Facebook pages as well.
So there's still time.
If you'd like to help the family, support them, there is no small amount.
Even sharing it and helping us to get the word out will help the family a lot, because
they really do need the help.
So definitely pray on it, and if that's something that's on your heart, we and the family definitely
appreciate anything that you can do.
This week, it's been tough.
We've already mentioned Doug, but there's a lot of other things that have been going
on as well.
Matter of fact, I didn't even make it out of the building yesterday before I got a message
for a brother in arms who was hospitalized at the VA with a heart attack.
A little bit of a busy time.
There's a lot of other things going on out there, a lot of things, a lot of pains making
their way around.
A little suffering, right?
That heartache, that pain, and our society today, especially with advances in medicine,
it's actually quite nice, because we know a lot more than what we used to.
We're able to do a lot more than we used to, but there's still a lot of suffering and a
lot of pain.
There's three specific areas that we recognize when it comes to caring for people, and that's
really what we're going to be diving into today.
This is a little bit different than our normal sermon, because it's something, especially
in times of grief, sorrow, mourning.
Even those of us who have physical aches and pains or constant health issues, it's a good
reminder that while we have things in front of us to help us to deal with these issues,
we also have the Lord.
Jesus is with us every step of the way.
The first thing we're going to look at is the physical.
Physical needs are the most apparent, the most obvious.
You get injured, you catch a cold, you trip and your ankle's twisted.
What happens?
Hey, I need to get a band-aid.
I need to put some ointment on this.
I need to go see the doctor.
We have things in place.
Maybe depending on the severity of it, you need a brace.
You might need to have surgery.
You get casted up or sling.
There's so many things there that can be done to heal these physical ailments.
My wife will attest.
I don't go very long through the house without breaking a toe.
It's been that way since I was a kid.
I don't know what it is.
I look at a shoe on the floor and then my toe is broken.
I don't know.
It's weird.
The carpet just jumps out and bites me.
It is what it is.
I could be wearing shoes and something will still happen.
It doesn't matter.
But these things happen.
We all have something in our lives that trip us up.
We can do a lot to heal things.
I've listed out a lot already.
But unfortunately, we can't heal everything.
As much as we love to, as much as we strive to, we try to learn and try new things, we're
just not there yet.
But we're not supposed to be.
If we open our Bibles, we open up our Bible apps, whatever it is that you use, let's go
to Mark chapter one.
But we're going to go towards the end of it, not the very beginning.
So Mark one, and we're specifically looking at verses 40 through 44.
And in this one, this is just going to be one of many brief examples, one of many examples.
There's many examples in the Bible.
But specifically on this occasion, this is one time that we learn a physical healing
was needed.
And the word says, now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him and saying,
if you are willing, you can make me clean.
Then Jesus moved with compassion.
He stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I am willing, be cleansed.
As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
And he strictly warned him and sent him away at once and said to him, see that you say
nothing to anyone, but go your way.
Show yourself to the priest and offer your cleansing those things which Moses commanded
as a testimony to him.
All right, now one thing I want to clarify here, it says leprosy.
We all kind of get a little stigmatic when it comes to leprosy, right?
The term leprosy was actually used at that time to address multiple skin issues.
So it may have been leprosy directly, it may have been some other skin issue, we don't
know.
Either way, being labeled as such, we do know it was a severe issue.
It's one and enough where people, you know, it's where people have to walk down the street
shouting, I'm clean, I'm clean.
The other thing to note here is he's telling him, go see the priest as Moses commanded,
right?
So he's still adhering, you know, he's not overstepping, he's following the law, you
know, and not only that, but God's law and telling him to do so.
All right, so this was a serious skin issue, it was cured by Christ, you know, and sometimes
we all need this touch.
Now does it always happen?
No, unfortunately not.
In fact, there's many times, a lot of times really, in which God does not place that healing
touch on us.
You know, we do things, we bring these injuries on ourselves, we do things that we shouldn't
do, drugs, drinking, smoking, you know, immoral sexual acts, like sleeping around, to name
a few, so many things that we do.
And then we wonder, oh, I got this disease or I have this ailment, you know, my liver
is giving out on me.
I'm like, yeah, look what you did to it, look what you did.
If we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, so 1 Corinthians 11, verses 30 through 32, so
in 1 Corinthians 11, the word says, for this reason many are weak and sick among you and
many sleep, sleep being another word for are dead.
For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged, we
are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world.
So sometimes when these ailments come on us, it's a good thing.
We may not see it as such, but it actually is a good thing, because it's better that
we suffer now and we learn the lessons now.
You know, this God giving us another chance, in other words, saying, hey, there's things
that you need to do, there's still time to change.
So if we can take this now, we can learn to bear the burden, learn the lesson from it
and repent of what we're doing, change our ways, change the way we go about our life,
right?
Reconnect and strengthen that relationship with God.
That's the whole thing of repentance, is change, changing how we go about our life, giving
up that sin.
It's like you're a drunkard, you go to God, you learn how to give up drinking, right?
Drugs, same thing.
Gambling, porn addiction, there's so many things out there.
So not every A campaign is a curse.
We've seen this in several places throughout the Bible as well.
For time's sake, I'm not going to go into every one, because we'll be chasing a lot
of rabbit trails today, all right?
But not every A campaign is a curse.
Sometimes it's a reminder to each and every one of us that, hey, you need to stop going
back to this.
You need to change, do something different.
But we get so gung-ho when we're doing things.
We're so wrapped up, it's like, ooh, you know, this feels good at the moment, it's bringing
us that temporary joy that we shouldn't be focused on.
And we lose sight of the Lord, we lose sight of the most important thing.
We stop looking at Jesus, and we start looking inwards to our own wants instead of doing
what we're supposed to be doing.
And when that happens, when we're caught up in this, and we start going down this path,
we don't even realize it, but we're actually running away from Christ.
We've turned away from God.
That's kind of a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow.
But in his wisdom and his love for us, he had to do something that forces us to slow
down and you start paying attention to him again.
I could think of a number of years back, I had a back injury.
It slowed me down quite a bit.
You know, Brian, Dee, you probably remember seeing me up on stage, you know, sitting on
a stool and kind of struggling to even play my bass, you know.
I moved a little bit slower for quite a while.
But it was because I was doing so many things and I got so focused and I took my eye off
the ball.
And it took me some time to realize that no matter what I was doing, going to the physical
therapy and all that stuff, I needed to make some changes in my life and realign with God.
And when I made these changes and made that realignment and shifted my focus back to where
it needed to be, which is on Jesus, guess what happened?
That pain went away.
I didn't need the stool anymore.
I could stand.
I could walk.
Little things like going to the bathroom without tearing up, all healed.
And I could stand back here.
I know, I don't have to, but I'm doing it just for you, wife, just for you.
We'll do some yoga later, right?
Stretch it out.
No, just kidding.
But I can do a lot more things now, but that's where it came from.
I needed to make that shift.
But we don't think of it that way.
We're just like, oh God, take this pain.
No.
It's like, I've got a pain.
If it's your will to take it, take it.
But if not, show me what I need to learn.
So start paying attention again before it's too late.
Next, because we won't go too much on the emotional.
And really as we go through each of these, it's really more of a summary on each of these
sections because each and every one itself, we could actually spend weeks on and we're
not going to do that.
And the next one is the emotional.
We have to treat emotions.
This one's a little bit harder.
Emotional aspects in life are tough.
They really are.
They don't necessarily always stem from physical things, but often they do, but they last longer.
Sometimes they're not so easy to spot.
There's a lot of things going on out there and we're learning more and more about it.
But you look at things like even autism, or ADHD.
Just 30 years ago, how was it treated?
We'd load these people up on Ritalin, turn them into zombies, and then start mixing other
meds to try to counter things and then wonder why they're having psychotic breaks, weren't
in their right mind.
All these medicines mixing together and essentially turning into meth or something worse.
People having hallucinations.
Now we know a whole lot more about it.
We're able to treat these things differently, a lot differently.
But we're still learning.
It's not foolproof.
We're still moving forward.
There's still things out there.
Another big one, I'll focus more on this one just for time sake, PTSD.
Now this is one a lot of people like to play with and write off and joke about.
They watch some Tom and Jerry cartoon and are walking away with PTSD.
Like they're permanently scarred for life from watching a mouse and a cat.
It's a little bit of an oversimplification, but there are times where we can turn on our
news and somebody's like, oh, I went and I held a gun for the first time and I had PTSD.
Nobody should be doing this.
No, that's not PTSD.
You don't know the first thing that you're talking about.
It's not how it works.
It's not that common.
It's not that easy.
It's not that.
Things happen.
People who suffer with this ailment, they've had something extremely dramatic that has
happened in their life that has changed them, has altered their line of thinking and the
way they go about their life.
Horrible things that haunt them, whether they're awake or asleep.
They can't break away from these things, unfortunately.
So it is a big thing.
These are people that keep on guard when they walk into a crowded area or an enclosed room.
They have to sit a certain way.
They're always scanning for certain things or listening for certain things.
There's something slightly different about them and you notice it.
After knowing for a while, you may not notice it as much, but you know there's still something
there.
And when it comes to these kinds of issues, we can go and we can see professionals.
There's multiple therapies out there that could be gone through and everything to treat
these types of things.
In fact, there's one, especially coming from my generation.
Let's face it, my generation, we are the original video game generation.
We remember Atari and television, going to the arcade and quarter after quarter after
quarter, all that kind of stuff.
Kids today, they take for granted because it's everywhere now.
But a therapy that's going back almost a decade now, John Hopkins has done research as is
the VA and several other groups and they've shown that actually playing video games helps
people with their recovery and dealing and coping with PTSD.
Video games, who would have thought?
But it's because the people that are able to go and they're able to sit down and of
course everybody has a different type of game that they're drawn to.
But even though certain things may trigger certain emotions or certain memories and that
sort of thing, the difference is that they're here and they're playing.
They have something tangible in their hands and while they might be having a flashback
or some other thing that's hindering them, because let's face it, there's different things
that cause it where it makes us feel like we're right back there in it again, there's
enough there that breaks them over there like, okay, I can focus on the game.
It's providing a bit of a distraction.
I'm in a safe place.
And here, right in the brain, they're able to go in and process things and cope with
things and learn things.
And with the way games have progressed, we have the headsets and the mics, so even being
able to talk to other gamers has actually helped, has shown to help people with communication
skills and people skills and finding other people where they can go out and do things
and find healing.
And here we thought nothing good would come of games.
Right?
No, I'm not promoting it.
As much as I like to say this is a good excuse for me to go home and start playing Mario
or something, no, it's not.
I don't think my wife would forgive me for a while on that one if I did.
She's smiling because she knows it's true.
However, not everything is going to bring us the healing that we crave, the healing
that we need.
Even with all these new techniques, just like with the physical, there's those times when
we're grieving, we're mourning, we're heartbroken, we're depressed, to that point that we feel
like we're just drowning in the darkness.
We're not sure where the light is.
We're struggling.
Sorrow, loss, failures, the daily battles that just wear us down.
And we all have them.
We all have those daily battles.
That's part of our human, that's part of how life works, those trials and tribulations.
But it's at these times that we have to look to God for what we need.
We turn to Psalm 34, so join me in Psalm 34, specifically verses 17 through 20.
So Psalm 34, 17 through 20, the word says, the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and
delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
He guards all his bones, not one of them is broken.
One of God's greatest promises here is that he remains close to the brokenhearted.
He remains close.
Now in our own grief, our own sorrow, our eyes are closed tight, or even when they're
open, maybe we're so teary-eyed, we just can't see.
So we don't recognize that he's there with us, but he's there.
And sometimes he'll deliver us from things immediately.
If you think back in your life, there's probably something where you're like, oh God, help
me.
And you've got an immediate answer.
But more often than not, that's not the case.
More often than not, we have to lean into him.
We have to take his hand and let him guide us down the path.
We have to let him guide us through the storm.
See we have this instinct when things get hard, when we're going through this turmoil,
when we see the storm, what happens?
Even like, don't even think about, think of this way.
If there's a literal storm, if you were to be outside right now, it's cloudy, there's
lightning, the wind's going, there's rain, there's hail, you know, the wind's blowing
leaves in your face and garbage and stuff all over the place.
What's the natural instinct?
Fine.
Shelter.
Run.
Right?
Run.
You know, you notice it's kind of getting a little ominously quiet.
There's no animals out there.
There's no birds flying or chirping or nothing.
Why?
They've already gone for shelter.
Here's the thing.
By the time we realize it, because we don't have that sense, we're not that attuned like
animals are, it's too late at that point, other than just stepping inside of the building
or some kind of shelter or car or whatever and waiting it out.
Because we need to lean into God.
We need to let Him shepherd us.
Plain and simple.
The storm's already arrived.
Trying to run away from it is an act of futility.
You're not going to outrun the storm.
It's not going to happen.
We're not supposed to.
Instead, we need to be more like the bison.
Does anybody here know what the bison's known for when it comes to a storm?
That's right.
They turn into the storm and they start going right through it.
Not away from it.
Not to the side.
Straight into the storm.
And because they do that, they don't spend as much time in it.
They get to the other side.
Little bit nicer that way.
You know, if we would trust in God, we would lean into Him, we would take His guidance
and follow the way we're supposed to, our storms would be a whole lot shorter.
But instead we resist and we try to pull away.
Try to do it in our way.
Right?
We're kind of like the disciples.
Sitting around the ship.
The storm going over.
Oh God, we're going to die.
It's the end of the world.
What are you doing?
Crazy.
Come on.
You know, what happens?
God gets up.
Shush!
And the waves die down.
Right?
It's like you have little faith.
Right?
I'm kind of paraphrasing here.
But we have to lean into Jesus.
Jesus is our shepherd and He will guide us through and He will protect us.
All right.
Let's look at Psalm 23.
This is a fun one.
There's a song out there that's getting a lot of airplay talking about how anxiety
hates Psalm 23.
Right?
But it's true.
Yeah, I see some smiles and some nods.
I guess there's a few people here who like that song.
Let's read it together.
Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteous name for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for
you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever.
God loves you.
He will see to your needs.
He will shepherd you through those valleys and protect you.
You just need to realize He is the beacon you need to be going to and trust in Him.
He'll see you through that storm, out of that darkness and back into the light.
The most important light, His light, which brings us to the next type of healing that
we all need, which is the spiritual.
The third type of healing that we need is the spiritual.
It's the most forgotten, pushed aside, brushed under the carpet that's out there.
Why?
Because most people don't even know how to go about treating it.
It's kind of scary, isn't it?
We have a book that tells us how to treat it.
We've had it for thousands of years and it works.
But it's brushed aside because people don't know how to treat it.
Why?
Because they don't know how to look at the science with God.
In fact, a lot of scientists and a lot of researchers have gone into the fields because
they're trying to disprove that there's a God.
And ultimately, many of them find Him in the process.
But it leaves a lot of people on a stalemate.
And it's because they try to separate God and they don't know how to address spiritual
issues without Him.
People also don't recognize that there are special needs at play that can only be addressed
by being with people who have had similar lives and similar issues.
And sadly, very sadly, this is a place where the church itself fails miserably.
Fails miserably.
We're quick to quote Proverbs 27, 17, but only a part of it.
Let's look at that.
So Proverbs 27, 17.
What do we hear very often?
Iron sharpens iron.
But that's it.
It drops as if that's the whole verse.
Iron sharpens iron.
But that's not the full thing.
That's not the full verse.
And when we say just iron sharpens iron and we leave it there, especially for a new believer
who doesn't know, the context is lost.
The meaning is taken away from it.
The power of God is removed.
So we can't forget the rest of it.
We have to look at it in context.
We have to look at what God is telling us.
As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
The church has to come together and recognize that God wants everybody to come together
as the bride.
Not as individuals, not as a solo act, not just certain people who fit a cookie cutter
mold, but everybody because everybody has value and importance to him.
All of us have something unique to bring to the table, which is why the Bible gives us
the example of the right hand, the left hand and everything, right?
Because everything is, you might have things that are similar, but they're different, right?
Left hand and right hand, very similar, very different things.
Does my hand look anything like my foot?
Does your hand look anything like your foot?
No.
So we fail.
You look at battered women.
How many ministries do we see for them?
People who are trying to deal with issues like rape.
How many ministries do we see?
How often do we see churches reaching out?
Not very much, do we?
And more and more so, it's not just women that are facing these issues.
We're seeing more and more men as well, especially as we're dealing with issues like the transgender
agenda, right?
Just the other day on the news, there was a woman in an uproar because her son, who identifies
as a girl, raped another girl in a restroom at high school.
And this mom is saying her son's not at fault.
That girl is at fault.
Her son's the real victim because that girl could have done something to prevent it.
How disgusting is that?
But do we see any churches reaching out to deal with that kind of thing?
Nope.
There is a way to deal with it.
There's a way to cope with these things and support people.
And I'm going to use an example.
It's one I've already talked about today, but it's because it's one that's hit me the
most because it's something I've had to deal with, PTSD, right?
The military.
Look at how churches treat the military.
And I know I have people sitting right in front of me.
Matter of fact, in this room alone, more than half the people in this room have served.
And even out of the people in here who have not served, many of them serve people who
do serve.
So I know that there's a thorough understanding when I talk about this.
These churches, these fellowships, they're more than happy to have somebody stand up
and say, thank you for your service.
Thank you for what you've done.
Thank you for wearing that uniform.
Sit down.
Maybe here's a little button, a little token of our appreciation.
Thank you.
Sit down.
Or you, come on up.
Stand here.
Let's pray over here.
You're going to go to basic training or you're going to go to a new duty station.
Okay, let's pray.
Okay, we're done.
Go sit down.
Some of the bigger ones, they want to go a little further out.
They're like, oh, let's send care packages to our troops overseas.
Okay, cool.
That's appreciated, right?
But they don't ever have to actually talk or interact with these people.
And what happens is you have somebody who comes back, they've been injured, whether
it's physically, emotionally, and or spiritually, guaranteed, most of the, well, not most of
the time, guaranteed spiritually, especially when you're dealing with things like PTSD,
right?
It could come from an emotional issue.
It could come from a physical.
It could come from all of the above.
But what happens?
Oh, we love you.
But not that much.
And then they see him out the door as nicely as possible with the big old cheesy grin like
they're selling a used car.
We love you.
God bless.
We don't know what the heck we're going to do.
Get away.
Unclean.
Out the door you go unless you can give us money.
Bye.
It's usually what we see, isn't it?
Whether they want to admit to it or not, that's what happens.
And if you're at a place like this and you broach the subject, hey, why don't we have
this?
Why don't we have something in play?
We can help these people.
God's here.
God can help these people.
I'll volunteer.
I'll run it.
I have all this.
I've done all the work.
We can do all this.
I have done the research.
I've got this.
I've got that.
We've got this program.
We can implement this.
We're perfect because this works with the way we do things here.
And quickly you're brushed off no matter how many times you go through.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
We'll think about it.
Bye.
And why?
Even in a church, why?
Because of fear.
People don't know how to talk to these types of people.
People who are dealing with these types of conditions.
And it's not just veterans.
Like I said, it's battered people, addicts, gang members, first responders, like police
officers, EMS, firefighters.
I can even think of a few people I've known in security.
One that long ago was on the news just up the road here.
I want to say it was Louisiana.
What happened?
We had a security guard.
Had to pull a gun and shoot somebody and killed them in an effort to save them from killing
somebody else.
They were doing the right thing.
They were doing the greater good.
But they still had to pull the trigger.
That's something that's going to haunt them as long as they're on this earth.
What's there to help somebody like this?
As much as we have even politicians or mayor, oh, we have this, that, and that, the other
in place to help them.
Let's be honest.
No, we don't.
We don't.
Here's a fun group.
I was praying on this last night.
We have a ton of people who have come into this country legally.
As much as people like to focus on the illegal, we have more people who have come here legally
and are ostracized.
Here's a good group.
Our military members that go over and they find their significant others overseas.
Here's another one.
Missionaries.
Missionaries who have gone overseas and found their significant others had children and
they can't even come back to the US without their families being ostracized, treated differently.
Who wants to bring their family home to that?
Yet what do we do as a church to help them?
Nothing.
We're going to take up a special offering.
Here you go.
Thanks for coming out and sharing with us a little bit about your work.
Can't even come home and can't bring their family with them for a new home or find new
opportunities.
It's a special pain.
It's a spiritual brokenness.
And God wants the body to work together to heal.
You want to see veterans healing and all these other groups healing.
You want to see suicide numbers like 22 a day drop to zero.
You take these groups together.
You introduce them.
They become friends.
They become family.
Yes, iron sharpens iron.
So a man sharpens accountants of his friends.
My wife has seen part of this.
Veterans know what I'm speaking of.
You take a group of veterans.
This works for any group.
But you take a group of veterans.
You put them in a room together.
And what happens?
Instant connection.
Oh, you served?
Cool.
What branch?
What was your MOS?
When did you serve?
And the fact is none of it matters.
It's just kind of getting to know you.
The fact is it's just, hey, that's my brother.
That's my sister.
That's my family.
I know I have somebody I can talk to now about things I experienced, I saw, and I had to
deal with that nobody else is going to understand.
And healing starts to take place because the research shows that the bulk of issues that
not just veterans but all these other groups deal with come from three things.
Lack of camaraderie, not knowing that they have a mission in life, and not knowing how
they fit in with their community.
Guess what?
You just plug somebody back into their community with that group.
You just plug them in with the camaraderie that comes with it, those shared bonds of
hardship and learning how to deal with these things and teaching them about Christ and
things like the Great Commission because we're all called to answer the Great Commission,
are we not?
Guess what?
You have a mission.
You matter.
You have something you need to do in life.
Let's talk about how we can affect it with what we have and let's go tackle it.
Guess what?
Healing starts to occur.
We've opened the door and we've let the Lord come back in and His light starts filling
hearts and lives change.
This works for every one of these groups that's in hurt or in pain and needs to heal.
Every single one of them.
You take this a formula, you can apply it anywhere.
And churches and other groups don't recognize it and refuse to deal with these groups and
these people.
Even though it works and it comes from a biblical front.
You look at the Bible, what's it talk about?
We've fallen in our own sin, we've been broken away.
How do we need to heal?
How do we reconnect with God?
It's the same thing.
We have a mission.
We have camaraderie and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We have a community and the kingdom.
Is that not biblical?
But we ignore it.
Turn with me to Revelation 21.
As we look a little bit more at that pain.
Revelation 21 verse 4.
Word says, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying.
There shall be no more pain for the former things that passed away.
Everything happens and it can come from nowhere else but from God.
Whatever you're going through, yes it's hard.
Yes, you're going to deal with things and let's be honest, let's use the common vernacular
of the day so that everybody understands it's going to just play and suck.
It's going to bite and it's going to bite hard.
But you can find the healing that you so desperately need when you turn to Jesus and you trust in
him.
More times than not, it's not going to come quickly, our injuries, whether they're physical,
emotional or spiritual, they will take time to heal because they need to be tended to.
They need to be allowed to heal.
We need to stop picking at the scabs and ripping them off and expecting to find everything
healed underneath.
All of us here were a child at some point.
Remember mom and dad, stop picking at that scab.
God's telling us the same thing.
And the greater the injury is, the more likely it is that you're going to need special interventions
to heal.
You know, we think, oh, I've got an injury, let's just heal it.
Let's get over the pain.
Sometimes more pain has to be inflicted in order to get to that healing.
You get a broken bone, you have to have surgery, right?
Is that surgery going to tickle and make everything instantly heal up?
No.
They've got to cause more pain in order for you to heal.
They've got to reset that bone.
They've got to reset that dislocation.
They've got to stitch up that wound.
You got to go and you got to talk about the things you don't want to talk about.
Ooh, that one stings, doesn't it?
We have things that are weighing on our heart and they are hurt.
We don't just get to bottle them up.
We don't get to just push them down because eventually they're going to come back out
and it's going to come out ugly because it's going to come however it can.
So we have to address those issues.
If I have an issue with my wife and I don't say something, I just bury it deep down, eventually
what's going to happen?
That's right.
Things are going to boil over.
It's going to explode and we're going to have a fight and it's going to be ugly, isn't it
not?
It's going to be a dance fellowship.
In the military it's what we call a wall to wall counseling.
No, I jest.
No, but no, it's like that in any relationship.
Whether it's your mom, your dad, a sibling, whatever, your best friend, because let's
face it, we go through life, there is not going to be a single person that we're going
to like 100% of the time.
Somebody is going to do something like, oh, it's like, I ought to, hey, hit this wise
guy.
Right?
It happens.
But we have to treat these issues.
Sometimes you have to cause more pain in order to heal.
That's a fact.
Not always, but a lot of the time.
Spiritual healing is no different.
We have to go to Jesus.
We have to unload our burdens on Him.
So we have to deal with it.
We have to trust in Christ.
And we're getting there.
One final passage here, y'all.
I promise this is the final one.
I'm trying not to get too long-winded today.
Matthew chapter 11.
So Matthew chapter 11, we're going to want to look here at verses 28 through 30.
I love this one because it reads an awful lot like what we see on the Statue of Liberty.
So Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30.
Jesus tells us, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
We take our burdens.
We take our hurts.
We take our aches.
We take our pain, and we take it all to Jesus.
And we take it to Him in childlike faith.
And Jesus responds.
Now, childlike faith is something that's thrown out a lot and it's not really explained.
Let me break it down for you.
Think back to when you were a kid and you had something going on or a question.
You go to mom and dad, right?
Hey, what about this?
What about that?
Oh, this happened.
And you're there without a doubt in your mind.
You are 100% confident that they're going to have an answer and they're going to be
able to take care of that issue for you, right?
You know, an ear fell off of a stuffed animal.
Can you fix this?
I can't get these paints to mix together to make the color I want.
What do I do?
I need help tying my shoe.
I fell and scraped my knee.
They're going to be able to help out with that.
As a child, you have no doubt in your mind.
You get those little arguments in the schoolyard.
My dad could beat up your dad, right?
My mom cooks better than your mom.
Childlike faith.
It's no different.
That's how we need to go to Christ.
100%, that's how we need to go to Christ.
Just as we trust when we were a child unconditionally, just like we loved unconditionally, we need
to trust in Christ.
We need to love Christ the exact same way, unconditionally, and trust in Him.
And no, He is going to work things out.
Yes, we might be in a little pain right now, but it's all going to work out.
It's all going to be okay.
When we take our stuff to Him, what happens, which is I love the example that's here, is
He picks them up with us.
He doesn't say just hand them to me.
He picks up and walks with you.
It's like you're dragging this big chest, right?
And you drag it in front of Christ, what happens?
It goes the other end.
He picks up the handle and He helps you carry it.
Gets a lot easier.
All of a sudden, you can bear the weight.
You're not doing it on your own.
You're doing it with Him.
Working as a team.
When we come together as a church, as we come together as a bride, and we do the same thing
with each other, because we are supposed to lift up each other's burdens, share each other's
burdens, take on each other's burdens, help each other, love on one another, just as Christ
has done for us, guess what happens?
You no longer have to go alone, and healing starts.
We don't get to do it alone.
We're not supposed to do it alone, no matter how much we try.
We are meant to come together and do things together.
When the church comes together with Christ at the head, guess what?
Our pain is no longer unbearable.
He allows us to relax.
We find joy again.
We find peace again.
And we recognize that because of this, He is our ultimate physician, our ultimate healer.
Now, as we go into prayer, I'm going to ask everybody to sit tight, because after we get
done here, we're going to go ahead and we're going to get the communion, and everyone's
passed out, because it is Communion Sunday.
We will break away from the online for that part after I get done praying.
So as we go into this, remember as well, when you leave here today, or you turn off online,
you are loved and you are blessed.
So when you go out, go and be the church.
All right?
So let us pray.
We thank you so much for speaking to us today, being here, working in our hearts, reminding
that we need to, reminding us that, you know, even though we have all these many injuries,
these many pains that we carry both outwardly and internally, we know that you are the ultimate
and one true source of the healing we need, especially the injuries and the pains that
we deal with that come from our own sin.
We know that you paid a heavy price for each and every single one of us.
You paid it in blood.
And in doing so, we recognize that we need you now more than ever as the sin and enemy
are doing their best to run roughshod through our lives and throughout the world.
We ask you to forgive us of our sins and help us to forgive one another, help us to forgive
ourselves.
And we ask that you place your loving hands, your healing hands upon not just us, but all
of those who are broken and all of those who are hurting around the world.
Help us to heal as only you can.
And all of his people said amen and amen.
Thank you for joining us at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
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Until next time, take care and God bless.