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. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Sanctuary.
It is great to have you with us. This week, we're
going to keep on going through 2 Corinthians.
However, we're actually going to reverse direction
just a little bit. and go back towards the beginning.
We're actually going to go into chapter one,
but right at the end of it. So as we're getting
started today, I'm just going to tell you, we're
going to be looking at something that the woke
movement has blown way out of proportion. And
I could sum it up in one word, offense. That's
right, offense. Now, as we get started, I want
you to take that. I want you to tuck it in the
back of your mind, write it down, whatever you
need to do. Something where you're kind of meditating
on it, you know, in the rear. And I'm going to
start off by sharing an antidote that I know
a lot of you have heard before. One day there
was a donkey and there was a tiger. And the donkey
said to the tiger, the grass is blue. The tiger
replied, no, it's not. The grass is green. And
the discussion, it got heated up. Okay, you know,
green, blue, green, blue. And the two decided,
you know what? No, this isn't working. We need
to go to arbitration. And so to do this, they
decided to go all the way to the king of the
jungle. That's right, the lion. Now, before ever
reaching the forest clearing, as soon as the
donkey saw the lion sitting on his throne, He
starts running at him and shouting, Your Highness!
Your Highness! Isn't it true that the grass is
blue? The lion, decidedly annoyed, said, Yes,
yes, yes. The grass is blue. It's true. The donkey
quickly continued on. Well, the tiger disagrees
with me and he's just absolutely annoying me.
He contradicts me at every turn. Please, please,
please punish him. The king, thought long and
hard, and then declared, the tiger is going to
be punished. And his punishment is going to be
four years of silence. The donkey at this point
is just absolutely thrilled. He's jumping for
joy, and he's going on his merry way, and he's
just repeating, the grass is blue, the grass
is blue, the grass is blue. The tiger kind of
resigned. to accepting his punishment, just kind
of shakes his head. And he asks the lion, Your
Majesty, why have you punished me? I mean, after
all, the grass is green. And the lion says to
him, Yes, in fact, the grass is green. So the
tiger asks again, Then why are you punishing
me? And the lion tells him, It doesn't have anything
to do... With the color of the grass. It could
be blue, green, purple, yellow. It doesn't matter.
The punishment. Is because it shouldn't be possible.
For a brave. And intelligent creature like you.
To waste time. Arguing with a jackass. And then
on top of that. You come to me. With that stupid
question. Really? You know. One of the worst
ways to time is arguing with a fool who doesn't
care about the truth or reality. They only care
about the victory of their beliefs and their
illusions. Hello, politics! Don't waste your
time, people. Don't waste your time on arguments
that don't make sense and aren't going to go
anywhere. You know, they just go round and round
and round and round. There are people... Who
no matter how much evidence you present, just
plain don't have the ability to understand. Others
are blinded by ego. Resentment, hate, discontent.
You know, all they want is to be right, even
if they're not. And these people would rather
die on their hill. than ever admit they're wrong.
Chill out, guys. I'm not talking about arguing
with your spouse. Let me put it out there, though.
When ignorance screams, intelligence is silent.
Make a note of that somewhere. When ignorance
screams, intelligence is silent. Your peace and
your quiet are worth more. A person of fewer
words. In Matthew chapter 7 verse 6, the word
says, Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor
cast your pearls before a swine, lest they trample
them under their feet, and turn and tear you
in pieces. And then in Proverbs 13 verse 3, The
word says, he who guards his mouth preserves
his life. But he who opens wide his lips shall
have destruction. In other words, don't get drawn
into a battle of wits with an unarmed man. This
movement and the people who support it, even
outside of the movement. Come on. This happened
long before the movement. This movement just
kind of capitalized on this as a weapon. But
the people who support this stuff and draw offense
from anything and everything, I'm telling you,
conflict abounds every time. And the worldly
people love to feed on this. It's their favorite
meal. But as a believer, it is better to be the
peacekeeper. Sometimes the greater good is just
stopping the argument. Even though in the back
of your head you're thinking, what an idiot.
What a moron. This person needs to apologize
to plant life for wasting the oxygen that it
produces. Right? We all scream that stuff in
the back of our heads from time to time. Just
admit it. I know I'm not the only one. Now, with
that said, turning to Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
So Ecclesiastes 10 verses 2 through 4. The word
says, A wise man's heart is at his right hand,
but a fool's heart is at his left. And even when
a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom.
And he shows support, excuse me, he shows everyone
that he is a fool. It is the spirit of the ruler,
excuse me, if the spirit of the ruler rises against
you, do not leave your post, for conciliation
pacifies great offenses. Sorry, guys. Had my
eyes checked. I'm waiting on my new glasses to
come. Some of the stuff is kind of blurring together
and just not quite working right for me. So I
apologize for that if my reading is a little
off lately. They are on the way. Never fear.
So I'll get back to reading good here pretty
soon. Yeah, I'm at that point. Yeah, moving along.
Rabbit trail. Basically, what the word is saying
here is let the foolish show their hand. And
trust me, they will. They'll keep running their
mouths saying things like, oh, I don't agree.
But they won't have an answer for why they won't
agree. They have no substantiation for it whatsoever.
And they'll just keep repeating the same gibberish
that's been fed to them like a mindless robot.
Oh, no, no, no, I disagree. No, no, that's not
right. No, no, well, that might be how you feel,
but that's just not the way it is. And they repeat
it over and over with no substantiation, like
I said. It's really sad. And with that said,
we're going to move... into today's scripture.
So let's go ahead and open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians
1. And our passage for today is going to be 2
Corinthians 1, 23, going through 2, verse 4.
So 2 Corinthians 1, verse 23, through 2 Corinthians
2, verse 4. And Paul writes, Moreover, I call
God as a witness against my soul, that to spare
you I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have
dominion over your faith, for by faith you stand.
But I determined this within myself, that I would
not come again to you in sorrow. For if I make
you sorrowful, then who is he that makes me glad
but the one who is made sorrowful by me? And
I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I
came, I should have sorrow over those from whom
I ought to have joy, having confidence in you
that all my joy is the joy of you all. For out
of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote
to you with many tears, not that you should be
grieved, but that you might know the love which
I have so abundantly for you. You see, the Corinthian
church, they had written to Paul. They had questions
about their faith. And initially, Paul had the
intention to return to address these issues.
However, upon further reflection and thinking
about it, he realized that the church, they hadn't
followed his original instructions. And not only
that, and this is really where it gets worse,
they continued to undermine him and thereby the
word of Christ. So he decided not to do it. He
wasn't going to go back. Instead, he wrote back,
and that in itself upset some people. However...
it did become the catalyst that created the change
that was needed in the body there. Keeping the
peace, this is what Paul is doing here. He didn't
want to go back into a heated debate and keep
going round after round of beating a dead horse.
He had already said all that needed to be said.
And the onus on that point was on them as to
whether or not they were going to listen. Now,
like Paul, we should be doing the same thing.
We need to know where our boundaries are and
stand firm on them. We need to know when to fight
and when to step back. Think of it like the rumble
in the jungle. Going into this fight, Ali was
known for his aggressive counter -strike style.
He shifted his style at this point, though, into
a mostly... defensive posture, which really put
the pressure on Foreman and caused him to gas
himself and wear himself out. Once Foreman was
worn out, he ended the fight in what, to this
very day, one of the greatest upsets, not just
in boxing history, but in sports history. And
the Fools themselves, they're going to wear themselves
out. The fools of this world, they're in there
and they're just swinging for the fences. They're
trying to get in there. They're trying to connect
and land a hit. But they're not doing a good
job and they're eventually going to wear themselves
down. They keep running their mouths and eventually
they're going to run out of words. This is why
I don't argue back with certain people on certain
things. get caught up and lured into certain
things with these people. It's very much a case
of you can lead a horse to water, but you can't
make them drink it. These people, they refuse
to drink at the very cost of their own lives.
Now, can you imagine, as a believer, refusing
the living water of Christ, yet... in heart and
in mind, that's what these people do all the
time. And it's even sadder because they don't
even realize that they're doing it. You know,
as believers, we have to stand firm and we have
to stand firm on Christ's foundation. You know,
not movements, not politics, not celebrities,
not even the media. We need to hold to teachings.
from God and God alone. What we shouldn't do
is weaponize his word and look for joy in beating
people over the head with it. Paul didn't enjoy
arguing with his friends, let alone having to
reprimand them. He did love them enough, though,
to call them out on their shenanigans. And we
need to do this. Not beat people over the head,
but we need to be gentle, we need to be firm,
and we need to be fair. Proverbs 27, verse 6,
the word says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. As
a friend, as a lover of our neighbor, and a follower
of Christ, we need to call out sin. We need to
tell those that we love, that they're falling
short and they need to repent. But let's look
at the truth. This is really hard, especially
when it comes to friends and family. However,
if we ignore what they're doing, or we don't
hold firm to the Word of God, then we, through
our own inaction, are actually encouraging them
and supporting them to keep doing what they're
doing. And they are definitely going to keep
on keeping on. You know, I have someone in my
life who I love dearly. Now, I'm not going to
put them Johnny on the spot and call out their
name because I don't want to embarrass them.
However, I have spoken to them at length about
their drinking. He's an alcoholic. He knows where
I stand on the issue. For a long time, he'd call
when he was drinking. And as soon as I heard
how he was talking, I'd heard the slurred language
and all that stuff, I'd just hang up. Plain and
simple, I would just hang up. And eventually
he learned I'm not going to tolerate him when
he's drunk. So he stopped calling me when he's
been drinking. Sometimes our silence speaks greater.
Than our words ever will. I mean I'm talking
volumes here. Actions speak louder than words.
That's why love is an action. Not just words.
And it's better to speak the truth to someone
in love. And let it sting with conviction. And
that is the Holy Spirit working within them.
Than to speak like the enemy. And allow them
to continue to stumble down that path to damnation.
So. This is one of those times where we need
to all ask ourselves, do my actions match my
words? Ask yourself that. Do your actions match
your words? Because what you do is going to speak
much greater about your love than the things
you will ever say. This is what tough love really
is. It's caring enough to show people the love
and the light of God. But letting go and walking
away, but in doing so, leaving them a lifeline
for when they're ready to ask for that help,
when they're ready to actually receive that help.
And that is the important part. We don't leave
them without means. We don't leave them without
that lifeline so that they just drown in the
corruption of the world. We had to leave that
lifeline so that when they're ready for help
and they realize that they're drowning, they
have something to grab onto and it pulls them
back towards us. And that way we can lead them
to Jesus. We can be there reminding them that
they are absolutely unconditionally loved and
that there is hope and that things can change.
That they do matter to God. That they are important
to God. Matter of fact, they are so important
that Jesus sacrificed himself for them. Not only
that, but you also need to know when self -care
is really important. Now, there's something that's
often talked about, especially by businesses,
but not always done. And if anything is done,
usually not done properly. Self -care is important
too. Because it's kind of like being on a flight.
They tell you put your oxygen mask on before
you put on the other person's. Because if you're
not taking care of yourself first, you're not
going to be able to take care of others next.
Which leaves me with another antidote for you.
For those who are listening, I really wish you
could see the picture on this, but you can look
it up online. It's actually pretty cool. Because
there's a legit... picture because this is a
in relation to an actual article that came out
decades ago um where uh dogs were set to compete
with a cheetah all right so i'm going to share
this story with you here um so uh dogs were set
to compete with the cheetah and the goal was
to find out who was faster if it was these racing
dogs or if it was this cheetah and they were
all put in their starting crates out on the starting
line And the signal was given to start the race.
Bang! Whoosh! And they're off. And everybody's
watching. And then they realize something. Something's
amiss. And everyone was kind of shocked. Because
while all these dogs took off and they're running.
They're running the race. The cheetah didn't
budge. It just laid there in its crate. So all
these people, they start going into a race corner
and they're asking, dude, what happened? What's
going on, man? And his response after seeing
the picture is, well, sometimes trying to prove
you're the best is an insult. We don't need to
adopt the tactics of the world to force them
to understand things from our point of view.
Matter of fact, we can't force Jesus on people.
nor is that what he wants. He wants people to
willingly come to him, to check their ego at
the door, humble themselves at the doormat, let
go of the world, and then grab onto the hem of
his clothing. So in caring for ourselves, we
need to learn when to bite our tongues. A little
tongue -tied there. We need to learn when to
bite our tongues. Think and save your words for
those times when it really matters. For those
times that it's absolutely going to have a real
impact. Look at the cheetah. It uses its speed.
But it uses its speed when it matters. To hunt.
Not to prove to dogs or people that it is faster
or stronger. Likewise, We should use our words
to be fishers of men, not winners of arguments.
To share the love of God, not the right to boast
before others. God's already won the battle.
We're just here to stand the line and reach out
to those who are still in the darkness. We have
already been lifted out of the pit. and shown
the way so that in turn, we can go into that
same pit and reach others and show them the way
out to reflect the light and love of Christ.
So don't waste your time trying to prove yourself
to people who refuse to listen, refuse to hear,
refuse to listen to the truth, and just don't
care. Don't sacrifice your peace of mind or your
health, mentally or physically, in a battle you
aren't meant to fight. Instead, stand your post,
stand the line. And that's our time for today,
everybody. We'll pick up on the rest of this
passage next time. I'll remind you that you are
loved and you are blessed. Now go and be the
church. Until next time, take care and God bless.