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.
Again, good morning. Welcome to the sanctuary. Welcome everybody who's joining us online and those of you who are listening and following on the podcast.
To start today, let's take a quick little walk down memory lane for some of us.
I want everybody to think back to when you were in school.
I want you to think about Letterman jackets.
Everybody remember the Letterman jacket?
Think of all that it entails.
And how people reacted to them.
All the jocks had them, club members had them, the cheerleaders.
Coming into today, even like our kid, eSports and all that kind of stuff, it's a big thing.
In fact, if you had one, it's probably something you took a lot of pride in.
Not all of us had one. I myself didn't. I graduated from a military school.
We had something entirely different.
But I know before I went there, when I was still in public school, it was a big deal.
Even seeing somebody who had a Letterman, it was pretty typical.
Their girlfriend was probably going to take it and wear it.
That's kind of a big thing. Like, oh, I'm his girl. He's my guy.
It was a big deal. You got your letter, you got your pins, you decorate it.
Maybe if you were an athlete, you would have a number or something on there.
If you won a championship, maybe you'd have something special, calling attention to that.
But your jacket, it told a story about you.
It told a story about the accomplishments that you had been blessed with.
Let's face it, we've all been blessed with certain accomplishments in our life, right?
Matter of fact, not that long ago, my son, he was getting ready to graduate.
My wife and I, we sat down, we were asking him, hey, would you be interested in a class ring?
He said, no. I'd rather have a Letterman.
It surprised me, it kind of took me back, because I was like, whoa.
It had been a long time since I'd even thought about it and how much of a big deal that this was.
I graduated from a military school. For us, our class rings were a big thing.
We actually had a dinner for it when you actually got it.
You had a certain way that you were allowed to wear it.
Then when you graduated, you take it off, you turn around, because it had to do with the direction that the school shield was facing and all that.
Then it's noted, it's a big thing, it's like, hey, you're a graduate from now on.
This is how you're going to wear that ring whenever you do wear it.
For us, that was our big thing.
I never really thought of the jacket, because we didn't have tassels or any of that stuff.
They'd go, whoop, and you'd swap it over to the other side.
None of that.
As adults, we still see Lettermans of a sort, don't we?
You look at the military, you look at first responders, they wear their dress uniforms,
and they've got their ribbons and their medals and their stripes and their slashes, all this stuff, all this decor.
Even outside of that, people still wear uniforms that tell a tale of who they are and what they do.
Typically, you can kind of tell what kind of a job somebody has, whether they wear overalls or a coat and tie.
Just because they're not wearing an actual Letterman doesn't mean things haven't changed.
When you're looking at people and you're looking at all the stuff that they're wearing, it tells a tale.
Especially for veterans or people who have worked in first response.
It's so much so.
Anybody who's been around a veteran, you've probably seen the memes, even if you had it, spent time.
A movie comes on and they're wearing the wrong uniform, or their wet ribbons are out of order,
or they're on the wrong medal, or they're on the wrong side, or flip-flopped upside down, whatever.
You're going to hear about it. We kind of make it a big deal.
We're out there like, ooh, stolen valor!
You're like, who's on the set with this guy? These guys are morons. What are they thinking? No!
It's the same across the board.
You work in healthcare and you watch any of the current medical programs,
and they've got the cannula that normally runs oxygen taped up to their arm like an IV or something.
You're like, what?
Silly things like that. It's the same thing.
We all have something where we watch and we're like, no, you couldn't talk like that in a classroom?
Uh-uh. I don't think so.
So as Christians, we have a letter of our own.
And today we're going to be looking at the different types of letters.
So let's open up our Bibles, our Bible apps, whatever it is that you use, where you can even just look at the screen.
And we're going to start in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 right at the beginning.
So 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 1.
And the word says, do we begin again to commend ourselves?
Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?
See, this chapter starts off with Paul directly speaking to stolen valor.
Because at this time, there were lots of false teachers that walked around with forged documents trying to build themselves up, give them prestige.
It's kind of like somebody who went to one of these diploma mills and has a fake diploma.
And they're trying to pass themselves off as a doctor or something.
That's what these guys were doing.
They had these written forgeries trying to make themselves look legit.
And back then, writing was kind of a big deal because not even everybody knew how to write,
let alone have the materials to write on and be able to carry them with them like we do today.
It was a big thing.
There's scam artists going around trying to be in positions of authority.
We see the same kind of thing today.
It hasn't changed.
We still see people like this.
And because of that, we know it's very important that we ensure that we're paying attention,
that we're looking at what these people are trying to pass off and listen to what they're saying and find out who they really are, what they actually believe in.
You know, it's not that long ago.
I was on Facebook.
There's a prayer group that I follow regularly.
And there's this guy.
He popped in.
He got really upset.
He had been going to a new church for a little over a month.
And he was upset because the pastor would not let him come up into the pulpit and preach.
He wanted to come up and just preach on a Sunday.
And the pastor said, no, not going to happen.
And when he went into it, he started, oh, I volunteer for this.
I worked the door.
I've worked the coffee bar.
I've done this.
I've done that.
You know, I volunteer for the prayer team and all this.
And he listed out all this stuff.
But when asked simple questions like, well, why did you leave your previous church?
You're this plugged in.
Why did you leave?
What was wrong there?
You know, he dodged the question.
He wouldn't answer it.
When he was asked about his biblical education, not even whether or not he went to college, just, you know, what's your background?
How did you learn about the Bible and the word?
You know, because people, it's important.
You need to know that people know what they're talking about.
So even with this, he would go into a rant about how he didn't need college or need to go to a school to know about the word.
You know, in fact, he went in and he would say things and he'd get real nasty about it and do everything he could basically to demonstrate why he shouldn't be trusted in a pulpit, why he shouldn't be trusted to lead a congregation.
He went so far as saying, you know, hey, I went to I went online and I got ordained online in this website and everybody needs to recognize it.
I'm a pastor.
It's like, really?
I mean, you can ordained online.
Sure, you can go and marry people with that, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're qualified to stand in a pulpit.
I mean, I could go and go online and get registered as a Jedi Knight.
Does that mean I'm going to be a Jedi Knight?
I'm going to be able to take on the Galactic Empire or anything like that?
No.
And if I believe I can, well, guess what?
I believe in an act of fiction and it's no different.
It's no different.
You know, so he demonstrated why he shouldn't be allowed to.
His his letter and his heart spoke to the need for attention that speak for authority and validation and power.
So, you know, you need to ask, how do you approach the things in your life?
What does the letter in your heart speak to?
Is it a scarlet letter that you wear in shame?
Or is it a letter covered in the blood of Jesus that points the way to the kingdom?
You don't have to spend a whole lot of time with somebody to get an idea of what they're really about.
You spend a few minutes, you can start figuring out real quick whether they're they're full of baloney or not.
Right?
Something's not right.
When you talk to somebody like, actually, this guy's pretty knowledgeable.
OK, cool.
Let's have a conversation.
We can chat for a minute.
But it doesn't take long, does it?
Let's turn to Luke, Chapter six, verse forty five.
So, Luke six, verse forty five.
Jesus says, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
What Jesus is talking about here is that what we say and what we do will eventually show who we really are.
What we believe, what our motivations are, what our actual goals are, the things that are really important to us.
And you can go out of your way to make sure that you're setting a good first impression.
Right?
It's always a big thing.
First impression.
It's important.
You're going into a meeting.
You're meeting somebody for the first time, a job interview.
People talk about that first impression all the time.
And you can go out of your way to set this impression.
But the impression that you're setting, is it the real you?
Or is it just who you want people to believe is you?
There is a difference.
There is a big difference.
You know, my wife and I, we courted for a long time.
We had those walls up.
We were kind of on guard.
It's like, am I meeting you or am I meeting your representative?
Right?
Part of a while.
Eventually we found each other.
And now she's stuck with me.
Ha ha ha ha.
Life sentence.
I love you, babe.
But it's true.
You go through things and you do.
You have to get to know each other.
We were both on guard.
We were looking to figure out, is this the real person that I'm seeing?
Is this the real person I'm talking to?
Or is this the other person's representative?
Like a scene at, basically, Cyrano-Draburziak, right?
Kids out there, if you don't know who that is, do an online search.
You're missing out on some great literature.
And some good movies.
But the fact of the matter, the truth, is that at some point you're either going to drown in the garbage if you're not being authentic,
or you're going to push all the garbage out of the side and you're going to have to tell the truth.
That truth is going to come out one way or another.
And your heart will reveal itself no matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter how you try to present yourself.
And if you're not authentic, you're not being truthful, you're not showing your real self, guess what?
That first impression is going to mean nothing more than just another lie.
You're going to be pushing people away.
You're going to be burning bridges.
You know, and our lies, they take us away from God.
They really do.
So let's go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.
So 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 2 through 3.
The word says, You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.
Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with the ink,
but by the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh.
That is of the heart.
Much like those letterman jackets, uniforms, what we see and what we do will reveal our true selves.
It will tell the story of who we really are.
And it's easy to see what's important to most people.
It really is.
If they're big into politics, you're going to hear it.
Boy, you're going to hear it whether you're ready for it or not.
Whether it's about politicians or certain laws are being enacted or certain things that these people have done.
You're going to hear about it.
Every conversation is probably going to find its way that way eventually.
They're big into sports.
Come on, it's Super Bowl Sunday, people.
This is one of the days where there's fewest people in the church.
Look around.
You can see that clear as day.
You walk in any church right now, numbers are down.
People are getting ready for the game.
They're getting food ready.
They're turning on those TVs.
They're watching the interviews.
They're getting ready for the pregame.
They're getting excited, waiting for those ads.
Ooh, right?
You have those friends that are into it.
Boy, they're going to get into it.
They're going to tell you about it.
I got a coworker.
He's so into football.
Every day you're going to see him.
You know he's going to be wearing Denver Bronco gear.
He's going to have a hat, a shirt, his jacket, the background on his cell phone.
He's going to tell you about how he's the commissioner for his fantasy football league.
He's going to talk about how the video games have changed over the years and how they've gotten more realistic.
It goes on.
Football, football, football, football.
A lot of us know people like this.
It's safe to say a lot of us in this room probably have plans for the big game as well as soon as we leave here today.
That's just the way it is.
Us, not so much.
I'll be honest.
We all turn into walking billboards for the things that we love.
Our social media pages talk to the things that are important to us, the things that we love.
But how often is it that you come across somebody who wants to talk about Jesus with the same passion?
Someone might be wearing a little cross or something.
But how often is it that you come across somebody who wants to have that conversation?
Not too often.
It's pretty rare.
It's very sad.
People showed the same excitement and the same passion for Christ as they do for football.
How much better would this world be?
People know that.
They know what's important to you.
They see it.
They hear it.
Even when you aren't talking about it, when you're not trying to draw attention to it or have a conversation about it, we all wear those letters that show what's important, what's embedded in our hearts.
Our lives are writing a letter to God about the things that are really important to us, what we truly love.
Right?
That's that second letter, those handwritten letters.
You know, instead of us using just a single letter on a letterman jacket, the whole thing is penned from our hearts.
All those sinful thoughts and the unsinful thoughts.
Speaking of another type of letter, how about those letters that are posted up?
Basically, you know, showing people just how important they are, how important these things are in their life.
You know, I have a bachelor's degree.
I have a master's degree.
I've got a Ph.D.
I have this certification and that certification.
I've got an ASN, a BSN, an ENTB, an ENTI, ENTP, whatever.
The letters go on and on.
You know, JD.
I could probably go through the alphabet, spend hours going through all the different types of letters people put at the end of their names.
You know, the guys that get pumped up, you will call me doctor.
You will call me chef.
You will call me your royal pain in the, okay, I'll stop there.
Maybe I don't go that far, but you're thinking it when these people are talking to you, aren't you?
You get around some of these people and all of us had it.
Whatever that title is, we all get around those people that throw it out there every chance you get.
I work with somebody, they go out of their way every chance they get to talk about how they earn their bachelor's while being a single parent.
I said, welcome to the club.
You're not alone.
A lot of people have done that.
Oh, but I had to work full time.
Congrats.
So did I.
That doesn't make you special.
Now, I'm not saying that they didn't have an achievement.
They were blessed with an achievement.
Absolutely.
But you know what?
That's not their identity.
You took take away these letters.
You take away these documents.
You take away these jackets.
You take away the jobs.
Who are you?
I'm the captain of a ship.
Okay, take away the ship.
Who are you?
I'm a captain without a ship.
Okay, take away the captain part.
Who are you?
I'm a dad.
Okay, take away the child.
You never had a child.
Who are you?
It starts getting real thin, doesn't it?
For each and every one of us as a believer, the answer should actually be easy.
I'm a child of God.
But that's not how we identify ourselves out in public, is it?
Who are you?
I'm a bus driver.
I'm a nurse tech.
I'm a nurse.
I'm a teacher.
I'm a driver.
I'm a comedian.
I'm retired.
We all have something we identify as, but do we ever say I'm a child of God?
Not nearly as much as we should, huh?
That one letter isn't really a letter.
We could say it's a T, but it's the cross.
And that's where we should be pointing people.
You know, when I worked in healthcare, there was a patient, they came in.
They're telling the nurse, you know, hey, you know, I've got this going on.
This is what I'm feeling.
You know, I'm asking, okay, what meds are you on?
And they're going through the laundry list.
And they talk about a specific medication that they're on.
It's what we refer to as a contraindicator.
Basically, if they're on this medicine, you don't mix it with this medicine because bad things will happen like death very, very quickly.
And the nurse is like, okay, we're going to give them this.
You can't give them that.
No, we need to give them that because it's like, no, you can't because they're taking this medication.
And her big thing was I'm a nurse.
I have a BSN.
I'm more important than you.
I know better than you.
Get out of my way.
There was a doctor in the next bay who was listening, came in real quick, kicked her out.
Patient lift.
Afterwards, that nurse got her dress down.
It was one of those things you wanted to sit back with a box of popcorn, not that you want to laugh at the folly of others, but it's one of those like you're going to learn today.
That doctor said she should be ashamed, one, that she's not listening to a team member, but two, that she's not catching something that she should have learned in her first semester of nursing school.
Man, how embarrassing is that?
But the tech caught it.
It happens.
We get caught up in things.
We get built up.
That ego takes over.
Oh, I got this.
I'm so good.
Let me tell you, education does not make you better than other people around you.
Education, when applied properly, should make you a better person in the sense that you are going to be a better servant, that you are better equipped to serve other people.
And what is service to other people?
Love.
You are better equipped to love other people.
What are we commanded to do?
Love your neighbor as you love yourself, right?
That's the way it should take you.
When you get a document, when you get that letter on your chest, right, you get those letters at the end of your name, this should be something that's humbling, something that every time you come across it, every time you look at it, every time you write it,
reminds you that you have a duty to serve others, not something that you allow to inflate your ego and your pride.
And just because you've learned a lot in one area does not mean that you know everything about everything.
It doesn't happen that way.
You know, it would be like, sorry, I'm going to pick on your first second wife just because you're there.
She's a teacher.
She knows a lot.
She's a real smart lady, right?
She could teach some kids.
But it would be like her being a teacher and all of a sudden saying, oh, hey, I know how to build a space shuttle from scratch.
She doesn't do that.
Thank God.
But it's no different, right?
You get these guys that suddenly they think they're MacGyver or something and they want to they know something about everything.
They're a walking encyclopedia.
No, I'm not saying this.
She's going to beat me later.
No, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, with her new rocket.
That's right.
You guys remember the honeymooners to the moon.
But people they do they get these things.
They start learning things and all of a sudden, you know, they think that they're a specialist.
You look at think back to covid.
You know, somebody puts something up on Facebook and everybody just takes it like, oh, we have these medicines.
We put it together.
Nobody's going to get covid.
It gets an instant cure.
It's like, no, you put that stuff together.
You're going to kill somebody.
You're not a pharmacist.
Leave it to the pharmacist, not the government and not the morons on Facebook.
Not to be mean, but some of it, let's say, let's face it.
People post a lot of stupid stuff on their social media that has no business being there, let alone coming out of their mouth or out of their hand.
You know, there's times.
We need to remember, though.
When it's not necessarily that book education that people have, because people have other types of education, other types of life experiences that have prepared them better for certain things as well that have given them insight to doing things in different ways as well.
A lot of jobs were the bulk of what you learn is actually on the job training.
You look at law enforcement.
Yeah, a lot of these guys, they go to school, they have a degree.
A lot of these guys don't most places, it's not even a requirement.
What do they do?
They go to an academy.
They learn the basics.
They get out in the field and they go out with the field training officer and they start learning about, OK, this is how we apply this.
This is how it applies in real life.
It's a big thing.
You learn how to drive a bus or a truck.
Same thing.
You go to driving school to get your CDL.
This is how you do it.
This is how you do it without killing yourself for other people.
If you do this, you're going to fail.
You're not going to have a job anymore.
Right?
Everybody has some kind of training.
So thinking that just because we have a piece of paper or a letter puts us higher than them, no, it doesn't.
It just means that we're called to serve differently.
Let's turn to Acts chapter four, verse 13.
Acts 413.
So Acts 413, the word says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled.
And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
Let me tell you, God does not call the qualified.
He qualifies the called.
You've probably heard that before.
Life isn't about the wearing letters or having letters that adorn our walls or get added to the end of our names, you know, put on doors and badges and plaques or business cards.
None of that stuff.
It's about Jesus taking the things that we're blessed with and serving the kingdom.
It's about the love letter that Jesus has written to each and every one of you.
That's the most important letter, a letter written in blood, a letter that took ownership of all the sin for everyone who comes to him.
Becoming a follower of Christ, it changes you and people see that change.
It's apparent the way you talk, the way you act, the way you treat people, the way you go about life, it all changes.
Your priorities change.
There's a shift in that paradigm.
And it all speaks to your love and your relationship with Christ.
The council that Peter and John were in front of, they recognize this.
They knew coming in, these guys aren't these guys don't have that education.
They're not trained up.
But after their time with Jesus, they saw a much different picture like, whoa, there's something different about these guys and it blew them away.
It was a huge impact.
They saw how much they changed in that time with Jesus.
Because Jesus changes lives.
He changes lives dramatically.
And the greatest testimony that any of us is ever going to have is going to be that testimony that is seen by those people who saw us before we came to Christ and are seeing us after.
You can hold up the Bible and you can thump it all you want, wave it in their face.
But the biggest thing they're going to see in the greatest testimony is in you.
And for a lot of people, that is the only Bible they will ever truly see.
The only Bible that they will ever get to read is you.
Turning back to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 now.
And in Corinthians chapter 3 verses 4 through 6.
So verses 4 through 6, Paul writes, And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant,
of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
I love this because Paul, he's not he's not taking a second to try to bask in the limelight.
He's not taking a second to boast.
Instead, he's turning around and he's pointing to God.
He's giving praise to God, as we all should.
He's saying that without God, he's nothing.
Everything he's done doesn't amount to anything without Christ in his life, that it's all ash, it's all going to blow away.
It's going to mean nothing without him.
His the letter from his heart.
It was a love letter proclaiming the love of Christ and pointing the way to him.
To our Lord, who's always there, our Lord, who's never failing us, our Lord, who keeps his promises and is knocking at the door.
Asking everybody to let him in.
Not forcing his way, but knocking and waiting patiently.
Calling out the fact that while our letters of sin bring death and destruction, the love letter of the spirit brings eternal life.
This is how our love should be.
I've said it before, love, love is an action.
It's not just empty words.
It's not just a hollow, empty feeling that's going to be fleeting.
It is sacrifice.
Our love should be like that of Christ, a love in which we sacrifice ourselves in order to point the way to God in the kingdom.
So I ask you to take a look at the letter that's in your heart.
Who does it represent?
What does it represent?
Is it something that points to the worldly, something that's going to fade away?
Or does it point to Jesus who died for your sin and your inequity?
Does a letter of your heart write and speak of love, of self, love of the world, or the love of Christ?
We all need to check the narratives of our life because those letters that you bear in your heart will be read and you will have to answer for those letters.
The letters of your life and the letters of your loves.
If it's letters to sin, I encourage you to burn them and replace them with the love of Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank you for speaking to us today.
We thank you for your love and sacrifice for each and every one of us.
We ask that you help us to examine our lives and change the things that we need to in order to point the way to you as we should.
We ask that you guide us in applying your word to our daily lives.
That the love letters we write reflect your love in a dark world.
As we know your love brings hope to all.
Please forgive us of our various sins and we have many.
We hear you knocking at the doors of our hearts.
As we open them, we encourage you to come in and to help us and guide us as only your love can.
And all of these people said, Amen and Amen.
Remember when you leave here today, you are loved and you are blessed.
So go and be the church.
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 like, review and share our podcast.
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.