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. All right, now we got that set, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you
for another chance to grow in our relationship
with you. We ask that you continue to pour into
us and help us to understand the world around
us and how to apply your teachings to our daily
lives as we leave here. Please grow us and mold
us to your will and your character. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen and amen. All right. Well,
again, everybody, good morning. Welcome to The
Cross 66. It's great to see everybody here. We're
down a few people, so I will ask on your prayer
list, keep Dale. His surgery went well this last
week. He's at home recovering. So we won't see
him or Dusty for a little while while he's recovering.
But let's keep praying over them. That would
definitely be a good thing. He can use all the
prayer he can get. All right. And then, of course,
we have a few visitors here today. Because we
got lots of family here for Timmy. For those
of you who don't know, because she hasn't been
here before, we've got my oldest daughter and
my grandbaby back there sitting in the back with
BJ. So that's exciting, too. So she actually
just moved back to town. That's why she hasn't
been here. She hasn't lived here. So that's exciting.
This week, we're going to continue our series
on the Upside Down. It's a bit of a nod to pop
culture, I know. Especially for those who are
just joining us, what we've been doing, we've
been doing a series, we've been going through
the Beatitudes. So just kind of a recap on the
Beatitudes. When we open up to them, which is
how Matthew chapter 5 starts, it's Jesus and
he's beginning his sermon on the mount. And when
he's going through the Beatitudes, he's doing
it for a couple of reasons. Like Darren and I
were just talking a few minutes ago, it's shock
and awe. He's grabbing people's attention. Anyone
who's taking his speech class, you're always
told, hey, get an attention getter. Right? It's
important. You want all eyes on you when you're
talking. Not only that, but Jesus is challenging
the way that we as believers view the world.
Because when you go through the Beatitudes and
you look at them, they are exactly the opposite
of the way we think they should be in the proper
kingdom. But we have to remember, we actually
live in an upside -down kingdom. Right? The right
side up being God's kingdom. All right. So let's
go ahead. Let's open our Bibles, Bible app, whatever
it is that you're using to Matthew chapter five.
We're going to go through verses one through
six. So Matthew chapter five, verses one through
six. We're not going to get through all the Beatitudes
today. Don't worry. We're going to just kind
of recap the ones that we've already gone through
a little bit and keep adding to it as we go through
this series. The word says, and seeing the multitudes,
he went up on a mountain. And when he was seated,
his disciples came to him. Then he opened his
mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be
comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall
inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be filled. So just a quick recap. Of course,
the poor in spirit. Those hard times that we
go through that remind us that we can't do it
on our own. We have to lean into the Lord. Right?
Those who mourn. We all go through depression.
We all go through grief. We all lose people.
We have those sad moments. Again, these are times
that we need to turn to God. He is the one who
can fill those voids that are in us where we're
hurting. Right? And then blessed are the meek.
This is not weakness. It is exactly the opposite.
This is when you have the strength to absolutely
demolish somebody, but you choose not to. Right?
You choose kindness instead. All right, which
brings us to what we're looking at today. Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Has anybody in here
ever been hangry? Everybody, right? I should
see hands all across the room. Yeah, exactly.
He's waving. I think he's about to put a foot
up in the air over here. We've all been hangry.
Right? It's like the candy bar commercials. You're
not yourself when you're hungry, right? They
turn into Joe Pesci or the Hulk or something.
Right? It happens. It happens to all of us. I
can't count the number of times my wife is like,
hey, when's the last time you ate something?
See, she's already agreeing with me over here.
When you're diabetic, it's more so because your
sugars start to drop. You don't even necessarily
realize it. You start getting kind of cranky.
It's like, hey, when did you eat? Okay, I should
probably eat something. It happens. Underlying
health conditions can have that impact on people
as well. You don't even necessarily recognize
it when it's happening to you. But there's other
times when it's a little different. Because we
don't just hunger physically. We hunger spiritually.
Whether we recognize it or not, we hunger spiritually.
We have a void inside of us, and it's thirsting.
It's hungry. It's reaching for the word of God.
It's reaching for that heavenly manna to come
down and to fill us. And the thing is, it's the
more of the world. and the worldly things that
we take in, the hungrier we become. The more
wrapped up we get in addictions, the hungrier
we become. The more hung up we get into relying
on man to take care of our problems in the world
instead of going to God, the hungrier we get.
The angrier we get. The more hostile we get.
You look at politics, especially right now, politics
are a boiling point. I don't care what side you're
on. Whether you're on the right, whether you're
on the left, everyone is angry right now. And
everyone's trying to justify it. All this hate
and discontent, none of it is justifiable though.
Because none of the way people are acting is
within the character or the will of God. It is
not what he has told us and it's not what he
has taught us. Not even close. Spiritually, we're
hungry though. The word has told us the closer
and closer we get to Jesus coming back, the more
the world is going to reject the word. The more
the world is going to wrap itself up and get
tied into all these other things. These idols.
And that's what they are. They're idols. Because
it's putting all this other stuff before God.
the more you think of the physicals. And you're
out, say you're in the middle of summer, it's
hot. Maybe you're doing some yard work. Or maybe
you're not even the summer, right? Exercising.
You don't have water with you, and the more you
exercise, the more you're out, the more you're
in the heat, what happens? You become thirstier
and thirstier and thirstier, right? It's no different
spiritually. The more we're in the world, the
more that we're not going to Jesus, the hungrier
we're going to get. And think of this. You have
an early dinner. You wake up in the middle of
the night for some reason. In my case, it's usually
to let the dog out, right? Happens. I know I'm
not alone on that. But you wake up in the middle
of the night and you're hungry. How many of us
are going to throw on a coat, jump in the car,
and go down to McDonald's? None of us, right?
Forget it. It's too cold. It's too far away.
I'm in my jammies. I'm comfortable. I'm not leaving
the house. Where do we go? The kitchen. We go
to the fridge, right? Unfortunately, my wife
sleeps a little harder than me, so I can't nudge
her and say, go make me a sandwich. No, I wouldn't
do that anyway. She'd be like, go make your own
sandwich. Like, why are you waking me up? Go
away. Right? But that's how it is. You wake up,
you go to the source, you go to where you know
there's food, fresh food. Maybe there's some
stew that's left over, right? It's like, oh,
we just had meatloaf. That was great. I'm going
to get me a little slice of that, throw on some
bread and have a meatloaf sandwich. We should
always be going to the source that's going to
take care of our thirst, should be taking care
of our hunger. Spiritually, we should be going
to Jesus. We should be stopping and we should
be praying. When we're hurt, when we're angry.
Even in the good times. In good times, it's easy.
Right? You watch a football game. What happens?
They score, they do a little dance, and then
you'll see somebody on the side. Right? Every
time. That's been kind of cool lately. The trend
has been after a lot of the games, especially
back east and the south. What do you see after
the game? You see a bunch of the guys come to
center field and they're praying together. As
far as I'm concerned, that's the best part of
the game right there. It's right there. It's
like they're showing, hey, it's not just about
the game. It's not just the sportsmanship. It's
like, you know what? Let's thank God. Everybody
came together. We had a good time. Hopefully
nobody got hurt. And if they did, not that bad.
If somebody did get hurt, let's pray over them.
They do a lot. That little time that's there,
it's not just shaking hands anymore. It's beautiful.
But that's how we should all be. We should all
be going to Jesus and getting fed spiritually.
And the issue is we're starving at this point.
The world is starving. It's getting hungrier
and hungrier. It turns a little Tasmanian devil.
Right? It's angry. You know, what happens when
we're really hungry and somebody puts food down
in front of us? We devour it, don't we? We absolutely
annihilate it. Right? You get someone who's starving,
you put a cake out there, no utensils, no plates
or anything. What are they going to do? They're
going to go caveman style, right? They're just
going to dig in and try and tear that thing up.
That's how we should all be spiritually. Scarfing
it down in no time. Our souls are starving. We're
not putting enough into ourselves. We need to
be more like Gideon's 300 men. I don't remember
Gideon and his 300 men. God's like, you know,
he started off with thousands. Like, no, you're
going to do this. Start just cutting them out,
right? Cutting it down to 300. And they got down
there. What are they doing? They're slurping
the water up like dogs, right? They're thirsty.
They're hungry. They're hangry. You know what?
I'm not going to look up. God's got my back one
way or the other. We're getting through this
face first like they're bobbing for apples. I
don't even know if they do that anymore. I don't
think they do. I know I'm speaking to the older
group here on that one. Young ones, this is a
thing back in the day, they'd get a big barrel,
they'd float up with water and apples, and you'd
stick your face in there and try to bite it and
pull it out. And you had a little snack for later.
That was a lot of fun. You'd get a friend in
there, maybe a little brother you were annoyed
with, and you'd hold their head under a little
longer. Apple baptism. That happened. But it
sounds harsh. You know, it really does. You know,
Gideon 300, they're in there just slurping up
this water, getting their spiritual strength.
They're going straight to the source, though,
because they're depending on God. And as harsh
as it sounds, it's really not, because here in
the upside -down kingdom, Jesus wants us to be
hungry. He doesn't want us to be starving, but
he wants us to be hungry. He wants us to know,
hey, I need to go to the source. I need to go
to my source. I need to go to Jesus. Right? I
need to go. I'm thirsty. I need to go to Jesus.
We should be hungry, not starving. We should
be thirsty, not dehydrated. Hungry nonetheless.
Hungry and thirsty for God's righteousness, for
a relationship with God, for an understanding
of him and his word, and to recognize that if
we want to eat and we want to eat well, we need
to trust our good shepherd because he's going
to take us to the best. places to be fed. He's
going to feed us the best food spiritually. Of
course, when we get to heaven, however it is
we're eating there, right? We already know we
got a place at the table. He's not going to take
us to those places with bad food. He's not going
to take us to those places that the food's just
going to kill us. There's no spiritual McDonald's,
no spiritual Burger King or Wendy's or Pizza
Hut or any of that kind of stuff. None of this
spiritual food, none of this manna is like a
Chinese food that's going to leave you hungry
in 30 minutes. None of it. Instead, he's taken
us to the best homemade premium food that you're
going to ever find. The most filling. drink you're
ever going to have. When you wake up in the middle
of the night and you decide you want something,
you're not going to the Waffle House. You're
going to the kitchen. You're going to the source.
Spiritually, what Jesus wants us to fill ourselves
with are those things that take care of our soul,
that nurture our soul. Right? And these are the
same things that develop our character and mold
our character so that we become more Christ -like.
And we do this in a number of ways. One, we come
here, right? We come to service. We listen to
services on the radio. Maybe we see them on the
TV or the interwebs, right? But services, because
this is one of the places that we learn. By reading
our Bible. Too many homes have dusty Bibles.
Bibles sitting on bookshelves, not ever being
touched, even opened. We should be reading our
Bibles every day. These days it's really convenient.
We all have cell phones and tablets and stuff
we carry around with us and we have free apps.
Heck, we're on one now. Nobody's with an excuse.
The word is there with us every step of the way,
every single day. We are connected. And then
also, who wants to take a jab at the third way?
The third way we find our nourishment. Prayer.
There you go. Amen. That's it. Prayer. We should
be praying every single day throughout the day,
right? The word says, pray without ceasing. The
good, the bad, everything in between, right?
Your needs, your wants, your sins, your failures,
your goals, your aspirations, all of it. We should
be throwing it all up to him. We should be leaving
it at his feet. We forget though, don't we? It's
something that we should always be doing. We
should be looking for a nice prayer sandwich.
I was talking to my wife about this a couple
weeks ago. Anybody familiar with a prayer sandwich?
And I'm not talking about the way they used to
teach it in Sunday school. My in -laws are really
good about this, especially come mealtime. You
pray. Then you have, well, let's use a meal for
an example. You pray, you have your meal, you
pray again. Thank you, Lord. Dig in. Thank you,
Lord. Praying. Gratitude. Gratefulness. It's
a prayer sandwich. You're praying before, you're
praying after. The Lord's involved every step
of the way. It's not just like, hey, God, thank
you, and then I'm going to forget about you until
the next time I want to say something. It's usually
how it goes, right? That's the way it should
be, though. We should be having a prayer sandwich
constantly. Prayer is the bread. We love bread.
Even if you're gluten -free, you love bread.
There's some good breads out there. Right? I
think most of us, if not all of us, have been
out on the reservations a few times, right? Got
some good bread out there. Right? Probably the
best bread right there, huh? Yep. I've seen some
heads nod. Yeah, fried bread, absolutely. We
should be thinking where prayer is the bread
though. Pray with everything. Prayer goes with
everything. It's not fashion where only certain
things go with certain things. They have a little
thing. Your shoes have to match your belt. If
you're wearing black shoes, you need a black
belt. You can't be wearing brown. No white shoes
after, was it Labor Day? Is that it? Yeah. Come
on, give me a break. Prayer goes with everything
though. I don't care what you're wearing, what
you're eating, or anything else. Pray. And throughout
the Bible, we constantly see references to food
and drink. The favorite of many is found in Psalm.
Psalm 34, verse 8. In Psalm 34, 8, the word says,
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed
is the man who trusts in him. Which really caters
well to what we're talking about, wouldn't you
say? It's saying, trust in Jesus. He's never
going to do you wrong. Never. He keeps his promises.
He's there when he says he'll be there. He doesn't
leave you. He doesn't forsake you. He's always
there. It's also an invitation to those who don't
know him. Saying, come on in. Check out Jesus.
I guarantee you're going to like him. I guarantee
it. 100%. You don't have to worry about getting
your money back. You're going to like it. 100%.
Right? He's like, come on and check them out.
You know, if you think of the suit commercials,
right? He's like, come in and give us a try.
I guarantee you're going to like what you buy.
Right? Turn to Isaiah 55 .1. Isaiah 55 .1. The
word says, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to
the waters. And you who have no money, come buy
and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Sounds good, right?
Everybody's favorite price is what? Free. Wow,
no hesitation on that. It's like, yes, I love
free, right? Well, this is what it is. God's
inviting us to come and sit at the table and
feast with him. Don't worry about it. Don't even
bring anything. It's all going to be here. The
top of the top shelf, the best of the best. It's
all going to be here. Anything you could dream
of, it's there. It's already taken care of. It's
already been paid for. That's that price that
everybody loves is free. But in the words, Of
the late Billy Mays. Well, wait, there's more.
Love those infomercials back in the day, right?
America's favorite pitch man. You see right here
in a few verses, we see what we need to do in
order to get this spiritual nourishment while
we're in the upside down kingdom. And it's not
much. Step one. We just read this. Step one.
Why do you spend money for not as bread and your
wages for what? Excuse me. 55 to skip to the
next verse. I'll bring it up. Why do you spend
money for what is not bread and your wages for
what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me
and eat what is good and let your soul delight
itself in abundance. So that's step one. We come
to God. We come to God. Step two, we listen to
God. And then the next one, we'll skip forward
just a few more verses to Isaiah 55, 6. Seek
the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him
while he is near. Step three is we seek him and
we call on him as we need him. We call him. We
need him for everything. God should be first
and foremost at the front of all that we do every
single day. We don't have to do anything for
our salvation. Our salvation is taken care of
the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior. We accept him in our hearts. Right?
That's a free gift to every believer the moment
you become a believer, no matter what. That part's
there. To get spiritual nourishment, though,
we have to get up and we have to go to the kitchen.
We have to do a little footwork. We don't have
to do a whole heck of a lot, though. You saw
right here, three little steps. That's all. We
have to come to God. We have to listen to God.
And we need to seek and call on God. That's it.
Those three things right there in verse 1, 2,
and 6. In doing these things, we can ensure that
we will not starve spiritually. We will be filled
spiritually. We will have what we need. We will
not be gluttons. This is not one of those places
where they like to take things out of context.
Oh, your cup will be overfilling. We don't get
to fill ourselves up like that, right? There's
only so much space in there. And God doesn't
want us to become gluttons where we start taking
things. for granted or start taking advantage,
looking at God like he's an ATM. He's not. He
will provide for your needs. He'll take care
of what you need, but he's not going to turn
you into a pig while he's at it. He doesn't want
you to take things for granted. I'll put that
up on the board for those who are taking notes.
And I promise we're heading home here, folks.
I know a lot of us are waiting on cake. Let's
turn to John 6, verses 8 through 12. John 6,
8 through 12. The word tells us, one of his disciples,
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There
is a lad here who has five barley loaves and
two small fish, but what are they among so many?
Then Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now
there was much grass in the place, so the men
sat down in number about five thousand. And Jesus
took the loaves, and when he had given thanks,
he distributed them to the disciples, and the
disciples to those sitting down. And likewise
of the fish, as much as they wanted. So they
were filled and said to his disciples, he said
to his disciples, gather up the fragments that
remain so that nothing is lost. We see a miracle
here. Here is a young boy who's willing to share
his lunch. Anyone that's ever had a teenager
in the house knows that's a miracle in itself.
And Jesus uses this moment to show that everything
that we need comes from the Father above. He
took a few loaves and a few fish, and he fed
thousands. That's a big miracle, right? That's
what people like to come back to. And when people
came to Jesus asking for more, it was provided,
right? There was a cutoff point. They're like,
you know what, let's use this as a teaching moment.
You're hungry, let's feed you. Let's make sure
everybody has enough. No one but God could have
done that. You see, what people miss here is
that Jesus was showing them that while physical
food is good, and it is, spiritual food is more
important. We need to recognize the fact that
we need to go. to him so that we don't become
hangry. So that we don't become like the worldly.
We need to go to him. Let's skip a couple verses
ahead to verse 35. Same chapter, so John 6, verse
35. This is our last scripture of the day, I
promise. John 6, 35, John writes, And Jesus said
to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes
to me shall never hunger, and he who believes
in me shall never thirst. He is the bread and
the water that we desire. Plain and simple. That's
why nothing else ever fills that emptiness that's
within us, especially when we're hurt, when we're
depressed, when we're angry, and we're looking
for something. We're grasping desperately for
something to take care of that hurt. Unfortunately,
Advil only does so much. We have to go to Jesus.
Plain and simple. We have to go to him. We have
to have a relationship with him. The only way
we can sustain ourselves and nourish ourselves
spiritually is through Jesus Christ. And Jesus
is there every step of the way. He's waiting
for us. He's knocking at the door. He wants that
relationship with us. He wants us to go to him
with everything, the good, the bad. What do we
do with family? We go to them with the good and
the bad. Jesus wants us as family. He wants us
to join him in the kingdom, in the right side
up, right? So we need to be going to him, listening
to him, calling out to him in all that we do.
I want you to notice one last thing here. When
it was all said and done, and people were leaving
or settling in, what did Jesus do? He told his
disciples to go and gather up what remains so
nothing goes to waste. Waste not, want not, right?
People miss this part. He told them to go and
gather it up. In other words, he's saying, eat
all you want. Right? Absolutely. Take all you
want, but eat all you take. Don't let anything
go to waste. We are called to be good stewards
to everything that lands on our plate. And in
life, a lot falls on our plate, doesn't it? A
lot of responsibilities. Not just food. Finances,
the places that we live, the places that we work,
the work we're called to do, right? The relationships
we foster. There's a big one right there. It's
really hard when you don't like somebody, but
the word calls us to love everybody. It doesn't
say you have to like everybody. And that's where
everybody's gone wrong with politics now. If
you don't agree with somebody, then it's a personal
attack on them and they lose their ever -loving
mind. Right? But here's the thing. When it comes
to those who are in authority, when it comes
to our leaders, right, the word tells us something
very specific. It doesn't say cheer for them
when it's the guy you voted for or the guy in
your party. It says to pray for those in authority.
Never says you have to like them. It says to
pray for them. I don't care what party you're
a part of. Pray for them. Pray for them. Because
everybody needs prayer. And the word tells us
that God can use anything and everything. That
which you meant for bad, my father meant for
good, right? So good, the bad, the ugly, it can
all be used for the good of the kingdom. So pray
for them. Don't bash them. Nowhere in the Bible
does it say to bash people. Because what happens
is it leads us to be more hungry, more thirsty
in our lives. It leads us into more of the worldly.
And we start falling astray. As a citizen of
the right side up, as a citizen of heaven, we
should all be hungry and we should all be thirsty.
for the things of God. And the only way to quench
that is by partaking of our daily bread, which
is the word of God. And on that note, let us
pray. Father, we thank you for being with us.
Not only when we're hangry, but when we need
you to shepherd us from one place to another.
We thank you for your beatitudes and how they
speak to us and how they challenge the way that
we look at the world. We ask you to help us not
only to understand your kingdom, but the world
that we live in, for knowledge and understanding
of the things that we need to do and the places
that we need to go to and how to interact with
the people that cross our paths. Please continue
to instruct us, to feed us, and to guide us every
step of the way, every single day. Let us recognize
that we need the bread of life. and the water
that quenches all thirst in Jesus. And all of
his people said, Amen and 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 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.