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. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank
you for this day. It's a day you've made, and
we'll find a joy in it. Joy in all you have to
speak to us. Joy in each other. and joy in everything
you've placed before us in our paths in this
world. Allow us to hear your word with open ears,
open hearts, and open minds, and show us how
to apply everything that you have to teach us
to our lives. In Jesus' name. Well, again, everybody,
good morning, and welcome to Cross 66. Great
to have you with us, and welcome to those who
are joining us online. Today, as we get started,
I'm going to share a story with you. Some of
you may have heard this before. It's a little
bit long, so I'm going to be kind of looking
down here at my notes because I want to make
sure I don't miss anything on this. It's an old
story of a king and his clown or jester. We all
know the court jester. This jester sometimes
said some very foolish things. One day, The gesture
had said something so foolish that the king handed
him a staff and said to him, take this and keep
it until you find a bigger fool than yourself.
Some years later, the king was laying on his
deathbed and his courtiers were called. His family,
his servants were also standing around him at
his bedside. And the king addressing them said,
I'm about to leave you. I'm going on a very long
journey, and I shall not return again to this
place. So I have called you all here to say I
love you and to say goodbye. Then his gesture,
his gesture stepped forward, addressing the king,
saying, Your Majesty, may I ask a question? When
you have journeyed abroad, visiting your people
or paying diplomatic visits to other courts,
Your heralds and servants have always gone before
you, making preparations and getting things ready
for you. May I ask what preparations your majesty
has made for this long journey that he's about
to take? Alas, replied the king, I've made no
preparations. There's no preparations I can make.
Then the jester said, Take the staff with you.
For now I have found a bigger fool than myself.
Yeah. It's kind of fun, huh? So now that I shared
that story, I have a question to ask. Who in
here likes to be called stupid? Anybody? I didn't
think so. Nobody likes to be called stupid. It's
not a word that people generally like, is it?
We don't consider it a very nice word. People
don't like to be called stupid. They don't like
hearing the word stupid. Unless, of course, they're
the one who's using it. Like, oh, what is up
with this moron? Right? We've all been there.
Some of us probably sometime this week, right?
There you go. Just driving over here. I understand.
Here's the thing, though. It's been said that
if a man wants to make a fool of himself, he'll
always have plenty of help. Not that we need
a whole lot of help, do we? Some of us do a pretty
good job of that on our own. Anybody in here
ever spent time in a bar? You know exactly what
I'm talking about. Amongst other places. But
when it comes to the word stupid, the Bible has
another word for it. Fool. The Bible uses the
word fool. and other various versions thereof.
But fool is the most common one. In fact, there
is a book in the Bible, we're going to be looking
at it today, Proverbs, that has quite a bit to
say about fools. Quite a bit. In fact, the word
fool and its variance appear 79 times in this
book alone. Now, there's contrast to this, of
course. What is contrast to the word fool? Close,
yes. That's right there with it, wise. So yes,
wisdom, absolutely. Jeopardy, that'd probably
be close enough. Absolutely. So being that fool,
and this variance appears 79 times in the book
of Proverbs, wise and wisdom appear 111 times.
So if we break it down and we do some Bible math
here. That means 25 % of the book of Proverbs
is directly speaking about foolishness and wisdom.
25%. That's a lot. This isn't one of the smallest
books in the Bible either. However, if we step
back and we look at it in its entirety, 100 %
of this book is talking about wisdom or the lack
of it. 100%. In fact, Proverbs defines foolishness
as the lack of wisdom. With this in mind, God
foretells us how we can be fools, how we are
fools, and how we can be wise and have wisdom
in our lives. With that said, if you haven't
already opened up to the book of Proverbs, go
ahead and go to it and got the verse right there.
We're going to be looking at the foundation.
of this entire book right here. So we're going
to specifically be going to Proverbs 1, and just
to get you ready, verse 7. And we're going to
be looking at the, like I said, we're going to
be looking at the foundation of this entire book.
And I say that this verse is the foundation because
it truly sets the stage for what all we're taught
here, right? For everything that falls into it.
It's basically, this is something that we can
use as a measuring stick of sorts or a litmus
test, you know, however you want to. You know,
look at it to test just how wise or how foolish
we're being in our lives. Right? So, and not
only that, I say test because if we actually
test it and we take a look at what we're doing
versus what the word is telling us, we know what
corrective action we need to take so that we
can start living a wiser life and stop acting
the fool. Of course, If we continue to act a
fool and we don't learn that there's folly in
what we're doing, well, we're going to be a jester.
Plain and simple. Sometimes we laugh with them.
Most of the time we laugh at them. Right? So
Proverbs 1, verse 7, where it says, The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and instruction. If we're
looking to be knowledgeable and we're looking
to have wisdom, this verse gives us our starting
line, right? Now, I do want to point out, there
is a difference between being knowledgeable and
being wise. There is a very big line between
the two. Because you can have a PhD and still
be ignorant. I'll tell you what, I've worked
with engineers and I have worked with doctors.
And as smart as some of them are, they can also
be some of the biggest idiots I know. Right?
And they will all agree with me, just not necessarily
about themselves, but about their colleagues.
It happens, right? It is the truth. We all know
people like that. As Benjamin Franklin once said,
the learned fool writes his nonsense in better
language than the unlearned, but it's still nonsense.
Likewise, you could come from the street and
you could have the very word that everybody needs
to hear. Hmm. How's that little morsel taste,
right? So what we're going to look at here is
right here, as we go partway into it, we see
the word beginning in this verse, right? The
beginning of knowledge. And some translations,
It's not translated as beginning. It's translated
as foundation. And foundation, quite honestly,
is probably the better translation for this verse.
Fortunately, not enough use it. That's okay,
though, because we can still see what we need
to see here, right? See, the word foundation,
it falls to the point right here that breaks
this verse into two parts. We're going to take
a look at this. Foundation means the most important,
the starting point, the capstone, the right place
to begin, the essence, the beginning. So what
we see in this verse, we'll break it down a little
bit more, because what comes before foundation
is the essence of what's being said. It's the
essence of the word, right? It's where things
begin. Whereas what comes after, It's really
the most important part. It contains the essence,
but it also has the meat. So when we're looking
at this, what comes after foundation? What comes
after beginning? What's the first thing that
pops out to everybody? Knowledge. Knowledge is
the first thing, right? Right there. And when
we look at knowledge, we tend to think of it
like dragnet, right? I think most of us in here
probably know Dragnet. I think there's one person
who might not. It's just like, all we want are
the facts, man. Don't think of it as just the
facts, man, because that sentence was never actually
uttered once in that show. That actually came
from a parody of the show and stuck. There's
some nerd knowledge for you. I am a nerd. It's
true. Yet knowledge is more. than just gathering
the facts. The facts lead to wisdom, they lead
to knowledge, but it's much, much more than that.
So let's break down the word knowledge within
the biblical context of its meaning here. It
means perception, discernment, awareness, and
understanding. There's a big one right there,
understanding. Because you can have knowledge
and still not understand something. It's when
you call out a troubleshooter. A nail, right?
He'll go out there and he'll apply it all. He'll
fix you up. So it looks a lot like the end of
the verse here when you think about it, though.
Because what do we see here at the end? Wisdom
and instruction. Wisdom and instruction. But
this is another place where some translations
are a little bit different. Some of them say
wisdom and discipline. Discipline fits in there
real nicely, doesn't it? Because in order to
gain the wisdom, you have to follow the instruction
and you have to look at how it applies to things.
You have to look at how the pieces come together,
right? It's not just taking the facts and be
like, oh, okay, I know this. We all know the
know -it -all. Who likes the know -it -all? Nobody.
Every single one of us, when we hear that know
-it -all, like, Go sit in your corner and leave
me alone. Right? Don't bother somebody else.
So, discipline. Because in order to gain knowledge,
we have to be disciplined in gathering knowledge
and how we apply it. Knowledge applies to our
lives, our everyday lives. Everything that we're
going about. It's how we view life. It's how
we understand life. How we react to things. How
we live life. If you want a good life and you
want to live it with purpose, you want to live
it to its full potential, then you need to have
what the Bible says is the essence, the starting
point. God's word needs to be the bedrock of
your life. Not just the important part to start
your day with. It's not cereal. It's not breakfast.
It has to be a part of what leads you through
your entire day, every single day. And that's
where all this comes in. Because it takes the
essence, it gathers it up, and it pulls it together,
and it puts it in front of you so you can apply
it. There's another important word in this verse
though. Love this one. People don't like to see
this word sometimes. They think it negates everything
that comes before it. Sometimes that is true,
but not always. And in this case, it's not one
of those always points. The next word that we
see here that's really important is But fools
despise wisdom and instruction. Whenever you
see this word used in the Bible, it's not negating
things. What it's doing is it's letting you know
is you're about to see a contrast, which is what
we see here. Fear the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge. However, fools, right? It's going
from the wise to the foolish. It is a contrast.
So whenever you're reading the Bible, whenever
you're doing your studies and you see the word
but, keep that in the back of your mind. It'll
pull things into a different perspective for
you than what you had before. It'll start making
more sense. So the person, in other words, that
we see in the first part is not going to be the
same as a person we see in the second part and
vice versa, right? It's two different things.
It's two different actions. Think back to how
we started today. What's the contrast to a man
of wisdom? What's in contrast to a person who
knows how to live and fully go through life to
the utmost? The fool, right? The jester, the
fool, the clown. It's like the old highway safety
commercial PSAs. Remember the crash test dummies,
Larry and Vince? You can learn a lot from a dummy.
Buckle your seatbelt. They were tragic, but hilarious.
They were absolutely hilarious. And people are
like, oh man, really? Seriously? Are they calling
people stupid? I'll tell you what, when you go
back and look at the statistics, when they ran
those commercials, there was a 15 to 16 % increase
in people actually buckling their seatbelts.
The commercials worked better than anything up
to that point in anything since. So is it really
stupid if it works? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I
love those commercials. They were comical, but
they were serious. The Latin word, though, before
I go off on any more rabbit trails, the Latin
word for a fool or foolish is insanum. It's where
we get the word insane from. Right? A fool is
someone who is arrogant. and or self -willed.
Sometimes they're not arrogant, but they're self
-willed. They're selfish. And a person who doesn't
have the essence of life will live life as a
fool. In other words, the person who doesn't
have the fear of the Lord is going to live life
as a fool. People need to have the word. They
need to know God or else they're going to live
a life of ignorance and selfishness. And sadly,
this is not a place where we can say ignorance
is bliss. Because we're all held accountable.
There's enough of God's essence in everything,
as the word tells us, that we can discern right
from wrong. And there's enough resources out
there, especially here where we live in the U
.S. to actually come to know Jesus. So nobody's
without excuse here. Now, fortunately, there
are a lot of fools on the highway to hell and
walking down that road of damnation, which begs
the question, what is the difference between
someone who has the right foundation and a person
who's a fool? I'll give you a clue. We see it
at the beginning of that verse. Fear. Now, when
we look at this, we have to keep in mind, fear
does not mean to be scared. This is not meant
to be some boogeyman. It means to be in awe of
God, to be obedient to him, to respect him and
his position. that's something we don't see nearly
enough today, is it? That's something that's
kind of dwindled. The word told us that would
happen. But respect. Think of it this way. When
all of us were growing up, we all had our parents
or our parental figures, right? Because let's
face it, some people are adopted or whatever
circumstances being what they are. Right? Like,
my parents were foster parents. We had Adam in
the house. And Lord knows, probably had the rest
of my friends too at any given time. But still,
you know, It happens. So we can't negate that.
So you had your parents, you had your parental
figures, people you were close to, your grandparents,
right, or an uncle or an aunt, whatever. You
looked up to them. You trusted them unquestionably.
If they said something like, hey, this needs
to happen, it wasn't a question of, unless you're
a teenager, of course, you're hormonal. It's
like, really? Do I have to wash dishes? Why can't
we just use paper plates? Right? As adults, sometimes
we still think that. My wife's pointing at me
for a reason because there are times when we'll
make something and I'm like, you know what, I'm
going to have paper because I don't want to clean
those dishes. Really, on those nights, I'll be
honest, it's because I'm feeling lazy. There's
enough dishes and pots and pans to do all the
rest. But still, there's no question. And when
you messed up, you knew punishment was coming.
There is no question whether or not punishment
was coming. Matter of fact, you knew you deserved
it. You probably deserved more than what you
got. Right? Not always, sir. There are those
abusive parents that go just a step too far,
but for the most part. Most of us got off a little
bit lighter than we probably should have. Now,
some of us were stupid and we continued to buy
our mom's wooden utensils for the kitchen every
Mother's Day, which she would proceed to bust
over us throughout the rest of the year. And
if she ran out of that, then whatever else was
in hand, whether it was a fly swatter or flinging
her clog off of her foot at you, whatever, things
happen, right? I know I'm not alone on that.
She might be turning red, but I know I'm not
alone, right? Someone in here has had a chancla
thrown at him at one point or another. It happens.
You earned it. As adults, we own that. We earned
it. We've all been the clown. But what was worse
than the punishment, though? There was always
something that was worse than the punishment,
especially when it was the person that you held
in the most esteem, right? The disappointment,
that's right, the shame. The fact that you let
them down. The beating was nothing. Going to
your room was nothing, and the extra chores or
whatever was nothing. Letting them down had the
most profound impact. I'll use my grandpa flip
for an example. Here's a man, he never raised
his voice, not once. He never raised a hand,
not once. No twitch, no belt, none of that. We
just talked to you, calmly. And the look on his
face. Look at his eyes and him telling you that
he was disappointed in you was enough to make
you feel like you were reduced to nothing. Absolutely
nothing. And he would just say, I'm very disappointed.
That was all it took. That was worse than a beating.
Honestly, I'd rather he took a belt and just
whooped me. But he never did. Not once. The only
time you ever heard him raise his voice is when
he was getting excited watching a ball game.
Or somebody cut him off or did something stupid
in traffic. I can still hear him. Put your brains
in a jaybird's butt, it would fly backwards.
And he'd be watching his cubbies. What are you
doing? Do something, even if it's wrong! You
know? Or the Bulls. Those were his two teams.
Those were the only two things he cared about
when it came to sports, was the cubbies and the
Bulls. Everything else, whatever. Like he played
tennis, he'd watch it, but he didn't get that
into it. He didn't care who actually won. He
just enjoyed it. But that was it. You disappointed
them and that was enough. And that is the reaction
that we should all have. That childlike reaction
is what we should be having when it comes to
our response to God. Plain and simple. That's
what healthy biblical fear is. Turning to 2 Timothy
1, verse 7. 2 Timothy 1, 7, the word says, For
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of
power and of love and of sound mind. So fear
is not meant to be some kind of a boogeyman.
That's the world. What the enemy wants you to
think of it as, that's what Satan and his ministers
have twisted to mean, to become, right? They
want us to be scared. God doesn't want us to
be scared. Instead, when we look at here, what
we should be thinking of is that reverence of
God. That's really what it is. Like, hey, I know
I'm going to mess up. I know I'm going to deserve
punishment. That's okay. I deserve it. I own
that. I don't want to disappoint God. That's
the hard part. That's the worst part. That's
why when it comes to accepting that forgiveness,
right, that grace and that mercy that we have
because of Jesus Christ, forgiveness is already
there. Who's still holding it? We are. That chain's
been broken and we're still picking it up and
dragging it behind us like we still own it. Because
we feel this big and we shouldn't. Because God
hasn't given us a spirit of fear. He's given
us a spirit of power and love and a sound mind.
So if you want to know how to live a life fully
and with purpose, it starts with a healthy, fear
of God, a healthy reverence of God. You see,
when we have awe and reverence and obedience,
respect, and we submit ourselves to him and his
word and his ways, well, we have some wonderful
outcomes. These outcomes, matter of fact, we
can look at them as blessings or rewards, right?
Because what happens? We gain an understanding
that God is great and there's no other. That
God is holy and worthy, that God is more important
than our own will. The will of God is more important
than our own will. God deserves all that we have
and all that we are, all that we're going to
be, right? All of us need to think of it and
remind ourselves, the best that I was, the best
I am, and the best I ever will be is because
of God. Plain and simple, it's because of God.
God is greater than any other being ever, period.
No one and nothing will ever match him. Bar none.
So when you fear the Lord, when you fear God,
your life isn't wasted on foolish things, on
foolish pursuits. Instead, you become... and
that focuses on those eternal things, the things
that matter, the things of real substance that
have true meaning. That feels pretty good. People
will start to look at you differently. Why? Because
you start to live differently. You don't sweat
so much of the petty stuff anymore. Let's face
it, we're human. There's still going to be some
petty, minutial stuff that's going to stress
us out. But some of the other stuff that... We
used to freak out about, not such a big deal
anymore. Like, wow, really? In the scheme of
things? I'm only here for a little while. And
once we understand this and we apply this to
our lives as a follower of Jesus Christ, we instantly
start living differently than those who are in
the world. Of all the things in the Bible, we
were only told to fear. One thing. And nothing
else. And that is to fear the Lord. If we turn
to Luke 12, verses 4 through 5. Luke 12, verses
4 through 5. So in Luke 12, verses 4 through
5, Jesus said, And I say to you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body.
and after that have no more that they can do.
But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear
him who, after he has killed, has the power to
cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear him.
Fear God. If we turn to Philippians 1, verse
21, simplified. I'll paraphrase if you will.
So Philippians 1 verse 21, the word says, for
to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So
the only one who we should fear is God. And again,
that's the person we should have our most reverence
to. That's what it really means. God's in our
corner. God has your back. So why should we fear
God? Why should you ever be fearful of the Lord?
And I promise you, we're heading for home here.
We're almost done today. The reason why the word
fear is used here is because whatever you fear,
whoever you fear is what controls you and controls
how you live your life. That is the controlling
factor in every single person's life is what
do we fear the most? Do we fear God? Do we fear
the world? Do we value God's idea of us and what
he thinks of us and what he plans for us? Or
do we fear living up to the world's expectations,
being the cool kid with the most stuff and all
the clothes and the bling and all, you know,
the prestige and the money, right? What do we
fear more? Because if you're afraid of being
hit, let's put it this way. If you're afraid
of being hit, right? So let's see. Who wants
to be punched? Nobody wants to be punched, right?
However, if you're afraid of being hit, you're
going to do everything in your power to keep
from being hit. Plain and simple. You're going
to duck. You're going to weave. You're going
to bob, right? You're going to step. You're going
to counter. You're going to do all this stuff
to keep from being hit. If you're afraid of the
dark, make sure there's something lighting the
room, right? Or lighting the hallway. A little
nightlight, right? If you have kids, you're probably
going to have one because you don't want to step
on a Lego. But let's face it, we live in the
Mexico. Our dogs bring in go -aheads, and that's
just as bad. Right? Or in some cases, cats, right?
If you have outdoors. If you're afraid of bugs,
what do you do? You spray. Right? You go out,
you get some bug spray, or you call pest control,
you start taking care of business. The point
is, your fear controls you, so you take actions
to deal with that fear. So if the only thing
that you truly fear is God, then guess what?
You'll do whatever you need to do to ensure That
you don't let him down. You will do everything
within the best of your ability and you will
do it for him. Not out of compulsion, but because
you want to do the right thing. You want to do
what he's told you to do. You're the Lord. And
at that point, there is no chain that the enemy
can put on you. To hold you down. To hold you
back. Or to keep you from God. Those chains are
broken. And the nice thing is, is when you fear
God, and you know he has your back, and he's
in your corner, and he's cheering you on, you're
no longer afraid to step out. You're no longer
afraid to talk to people about him. Not even
a little. You're not afraid to take chances.
And that's a big thing because that takes you
out of your comfort zone. And the only way for
real change to happen is to get out of your comfort
zone. Plain and simple. When you become a person
without boundaries, you become a dangerous person
to the enemy. Because you can no longer be contained
by the world or the ways of it. You belong to
Jesus. and you now live and move in the freedom
he has granted you so that you can go out and
share the word and share the gospel. You need
to recognize that fear, as we've known it, is
a product of the world that the enemy uses to
control people, to turn us away from God. God
doesn't use fear. God uses love. He doesn't raise
his hand. He speaks to you gently. While you
have that little voice in the back of your head
like, man, should you have done that? Isn't the
right thing you do to fix it? Right? Fiction.
Is he using a heavy hand? No. Is he using a heavy
voice? Yes, but no. That little voice, I'm disappointed
in you. Those couple words carry a lot of weight.
They'll slow you down. Fear is a product of punishment.
Fear is a chain that binds the fool. Freedom
is a product of love. And God loves you. So you
have nothing to fear because God is bigger than
any of yours. So if you're going to fear something,
you fear the Lord, you become something greater
and someone greater than who you were. You become
a warrior. You become a spiritual warrior. You
become a soldier of Jesus Christ. And that is
a soldier that the enemy can't keep at bay, no
matter how hard he may try. So think about your
fears and then go to God to overcome them. And
take them out of your life. As greater is he
who is in you than he that... Let's pray. Father,
we thank you for reminding us not to play the
fool. We thank you for reminding us not to give
in to the world's folly. That if we keep you
at the forefront of our lives, not just in the
mornings, but daily and throughout the entire
day, every day, Not only will we find wisdom,
but we'll find knowledge and how it applies,
how to use it properly. And in doing so, we become
better people because of you and through you.
We become better people to serve your purposes
and your kingdom. So we ask that you continue
to guide us. We ask that you continue to mold
us as you've promised never to leave us and never
to forsake us. Allow us to hear you. Not just
listen, but to actually hear what you're telling
us and follow you and your lead and all that
we do and everywhere that we go, everyone we
come in contact. As people said, amen and amen.
Remember, as you leave here, you are loved and
you are blessed. So go and be the church. Until
next time, take care and God bless.