Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton,
the official podcast of Cross -Christian Fellowship,
Route 66, in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico,
where Burton is the lead pastor. We're glad you're
here. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank
you for this time together, not only with one
another, but with you and your word. We ask that
you help us not just to listen to it, but to
hear what you have to speak to us today. Show
us how to apply it to our lives and our understanding
and use it to mold our character in Jesus' name.
Amen. All right. Well, again, good morning, everybody.
Welcome to Cross 66. Welcome to our sanctuary.
Last week, we started a series. We're looking
at the various aspects of the kingship of Jesus
as we work our way to Easter. And so this week,
we're definitely going to continue that. Okay.
Why is my slide switched back over? There we
go. Aha! It doesn't look as nice as it did on
my laptop when I was doing the PowerPoint. That's
okay. All right. But we're going to continue
to look at the kingship of Jesus. Today, specifically,
because I know this is something that we hammer
in a lot. We talk about the suffering service.
I'm going to try not to hammer it too much and
draw this out too long because I know we have
stuff going on after service today. But we're
going to be looking a little bit at the suffering
of Jesus, why it was needed, and the fact that
because of his suffering, it actually brought
about new life. Now, suffering to bring about
new life is not a new concept. It's actually
far from it. We see it in nature all the time.
Sometimes we don't necessarily realize it, though.
We see things and we're like, man, that is tragic,
horrible, sad, right? But we do. We see it in
nature all the time. You look at forests all
the time. Every year, especially here in our
area and next door in Arizona, we see a lot of
forest fires, don't we? A lot of forest fires.
We're big on seeing our hot shots out here. It
wasn't that long ago, as a matter of fact, they
filmed a movie about the story out by Prescott.
It's called Only the Brave. And they did a really
good job of trying to tell the story of those
hotshots that were out there. And there was a
big blaze that started. Only one person survived
that. The entire rest of the hotshot team perished
in a fire. And it told that story. And we see
that kind of stuff like, man, that's tragic.
This is horrible. Yeah, loss of life is horrible.
We don't like seeing that kind of stuff. But
even outside of that, we look at our own Gila
Forest down south, right? Or even up north, we
have fires. And we're like, man, that's nasty.
That poor forest and all those animals that are
displaced, right? All the smoke in the air. You're
like me. You have respiratory issues. You're
wheezing, right? We see a lot of bad there. There's
also a lot of good that comes of it. These kinds
of things are actually needed in nature, whether
it starts by lightning, you know, or something
else. You know, there are natural ways that actually
start these fires. And it's good because the
process in and of itself, it brings balance to
the ecosystem. It burns away all this decaying
stuff that's on the ground and puts it back into
the soil and revitalizes the soil. We don't think
of that, though. We just think of the burn scar
that's left over. You know, it promotes, when
these things happen, it promotes biodiversity.
So as new life starts to grow, new plant life
starts to come in, also wildlife starts to come
back in. You have all this area that's now...
cleared out that wasn't clear before. It had
all this debris and this dead stuff on it. And
now when flowers and trees and all this other
stuff start to bloom, all these seeds are able
to come in and they're able to start growing
and planting new life. You know, animals come
in with all this other stuff on them, like bees,
right? They carry various things in there. So
it promotes a lot of really good stuff. And while
it takes a while when it grows back, it's beautiful.
It's absolutely beautiful. So while there is
tragedy, something beautiful still comes of it,
right? The word tells us that the Lord will take
those things that we see as meant for bad and
use them for good. And this is one of those areas.
You know, as a matter of fact, let's take a look
at women real quick. We're having a baby shower,
right? Women go through a lot when they're pregnant.
Their insides are rearranged. They go through
a lot of pains. Anyone who's spent any time around
a pregnant woman knows this to be true. Not just
the emotions, but the physical pains that you
just can't do because there's swelling and cramps
and all sorts of other stuff going on. Sometimes
it could be massaged out. Sometimes it can't.
The appetite, it comes, it goes, on top of the
sickness that comes and goes with it, right?
Like, man, there's a lot of stuff going on in
there. And then you get to the birth process,
which in and of itself is not an easy process.
It's not like, and there's the baby, right? These
days, thank the Lord, we have things called epidurals,
but even then, they just kind of bring it down
a little bit. Not everybody can get those. Not
everybody's willing to get those. Birth is a
painful process. And then there's the healing
that comes afterwards. That's even on what we
would consider a good birth, let alone those
that have, Complications. There are those births,
unfortunately, where whose mom is for the baby
to be born. Or sometimes something else happens
and we lose the baby. A mom gets to go on. In
my case, my mom had several miscarriages before
I was born, not to pick on mom over here, but
it was at the point where she was told, you won't
be able to have kids. Boy, the doctors were wrong
on that because she had two of us. You know,
the one up here, that's pretty okay. And then
there's no, just kidding. He's not even here
to defend himself. Tragic case in itself. But
there's a lot that goes on there, right? I think
we can all agree on this stuff. There's a lot
of tragedy, you know, and they say, you know,
there's a lot of sayings out there when it comes
to these things, you know, so nothing worth having
comes easily, right? We've all heard that. How
about when people say the results of something
are a labor of love? A lot of work. A lot of
painstaking work, right? Blood, sweat, and tears.
How about, let's see here. Well, let's just talk
about that for a second. The blood, sweat, and
tears. Something comes hard, right? That labor
of love. A lot of sleepless nights. A lot of
worry, right? A lot of stress. In fact, if anybody's
ever stretched barbed wire, you get blood, sweat,
and tears, and that's before you're even thinking
about what you're doing. That's a painful job.
Roofing? Any kind of carpentry work? Anybody
ever been out there stretching carpet, and you
have the tool, and you're sitting, and you're
slamming your knee into it, trying to stretch
in that carpet so it gets on the tack board?
Ooh, that's a fun one. How about trying to scrape
up a tile that's been laying down for over 50
years? You're going to feel all that through
your whole body by the end of the day. You know,
Marvin over here, he's been over at my mom's
doing yard work. I know that's been painstaking
right there. Some of that stuff's been there
for a minute. It's not looking good over there.
I was over there the other day, brother. It looks
wonderful. So, you know, there's a lot that goes
into it. That's one of those things when I was
younger, I worked for a construction and maintenance
company. We literally did everything from the
city line in. The plumbing, the electrical, all
of it. Demolition, you name it. And I can't tell
you how many times you'd be out there, and I'll
be honest, you're cussing at the work. They're
sitting there like, that wall needs to go down,
and you're like, good, because I want to punch
a hole in something. I had a good employer, Barry.
He'd see me come in, a typical high schooler.
I got the angst in me. He's like, you know what?
I want you to go pick up that sledge, and I want
you to make that disappear. Oh, boy. I was happy.
But it was painstaking work. But here's the thing.
At the end of it, when we were said and done
and you're able to step back, you're like, ooh,
it's awesome. It's exciting. My wife can attest.
We'll go down to Silver City and we'll be driving
around and be like, I worked on that house. I
worked on that house. I worked on that house.
Like a little tourist guide. She's like, oh,
man, please shut up. Just stop. Every time we
come down here, you have to do this? But that's
the thing. We get to step back and be like, you
know what? It was all worth it. But again, well,
you know what? We all mean something to God.
You mean something to Jesus. And when we look
at the cross, when he looks at the cross, he
says, you know what? It was worth it. I would
do it again. Why? Because you are a labor of
love. He loves you, and it's all worth it. And
on that note, let's open up our Bibles and our
Bible apps to Isaiah 53. This is going to be
the heart of our message today. Matter of fact,
we're going to spend a whole lot of time on just
these few little verses. So Isaiah 53, verses
4 through 6. Matter of fact, if you have the
notes in the Bible app, you'll see that we don't
have a whole lot of Scripture that we're looking
at today. That's how much time we're spending
on it. So Isaiah 53, verses 4 through 6. The
Word says, Surely he has borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our
inequities. The chastisement for our peace was
upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed.
All. We like sheep have gone astray. We have
turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord
has laid on him the inequity of us all. We could
spend a whole lot of time on here. As a matter
of fact, I could probably do a series on just
these few verses alone. I'm not going to. But
you'll see there's going to be a few things I'm
going to kind of skip over just for time's sake
today. Frederick Nietzsche said, That which does
not kill us makes us stronger. The Marine Corps
changes to that that does not kill you is a Marine.
Some of us have seen the meme, that that doesn't
kill you will make you stronger. Except for bears,
bears will kill you. Right? How about the old
proverb, no pain, no gain? I'm going to go back
to my beloved Marine Corps again. Pain is weakness
leaving the body. Kate Sherwood once wrote, the
pain of sorrow is terrible and hard to bear,
but the joy of love makes it worth. Blessings
can absolutely come from tragedy. God will use
tragedy to guide us back to him. It's those points
when we hit rock bottom. That we truly open ourselves
up to him. That's when he can do his work the
easiest. That's what he wants. He wants us to
go to him. Because that's part of having a relationship.
Like, hey, dad, I've got a problem. Can you help
me out with this? I tell you, as a father, it
makes you pretty happy when your kiddo comes
to you and you're like, yeah, dad, where's my
duct tape? Thankfully, Jesus doesn't use duct
tape. Billy Graham once shared a story about
a lone survivor of a shipwreck who was marooned
on an inhabited island. Some of y 'all may have
heard this before. So this guy, the shipwrecked,
he's the only person there. He washes up on shore
this uninhabited island. And so he starts making
provisions and doing things like he builds a
shelter. Other stuff that was on the ship that
washed up, he's collecting it. He's pulling it
in. Stuff that he can use, right? And he's storing
it in his hut. And as the days go by, you know,
he does take the time and he goes out and he
looks for food, right? Kind of sounds like Gilligan's
Island or what was that movie with Tom Hanks
with the volleyball, right? Castaway, there you
go, right? But he's collecting stuff. He's going
out and he's looking for food. Right? He's looking
for ways to pass the time. And when he does have
a little bit of free time and the vision's good
and the weather's good, he's out there and he's
looking on the horizon for a ship to come by
that he could signal for help. Well, one day
he goes out and he's looking for food and other
stuff that he can use to build fires and all
that. And when he comes back to his hut, it's
on fire. Everything that's in it goes up with
it. There's nothing he could do. He couldn't
save it. This guy's thinking, man, Just lost
it all. Now I don't have any shelter. I don't
have a safe place to sleep anymore to protect
me from the wildlife. All the stuff I was using
to, you know, take care of myself until help
arrived is gone. And we could all agree, we're
on that island. It's pretty tragic, right? Pretty
sad. All of us, our hearts would just drop, right?
Like, oh. Well. To say his anxiety went up is
to put it mildly. We have to ask ourselves, how
could something this tragic bring any kind of
comfort? What kind of comfort would there be?
And the easy thing is to say, oh, I turned to
the Lord, but let's be honest, when tragedy strikes,
yeah, we could turn to the Lord, but we're still
worried. We still have some stress on us, don't
we? sometimes we actually forget to even turn
to the Lord. And if you're out there for days
and days on end, it's not like you're going to
spend every waking moment in prayer. That feeling
of hopelessness is just going to continue to
build. However, while yes, this is tragic, this
is heartbreaking, a short time later, a ship
shows up. And they come pulling right up. This
guy's like, whoa, talk about timing. Look at
this. This ship is here. And they come up and
they scuttle their little boat to go and pick
him up and everything. And he gets on board and
he's talking to the captain. He's like, how did
you guys even know I was here? He's like, oh,
we saw the smoke from your fire in the distance
and we came as fast as we could. Wow, blessing
from tragedy. And there it is. God worked a blessing.
What he saw as disaster was something worked
for his good. Shipwrecked, this man fell to his
knees. He's able to thank God he survived. Then
he's able to come back again and thank God he
was picked back up and he gets to go home. While
we're looking at this same verse, I'm just going
to shrink it down a little bit from verses four
through five, right? For us at this point in
our lives, there's Jesus. In Old Testament times,
The idea of a Messiah coming in and taking on
the punishment for his people's sins. And not
only that, but dying for his people was very
much a foreign concept. This is why people didn't
truly understand what Jesus was saying, what
scripture was pointing the way towards. It wasn't
their idea of what a king would do. In fact,
the idea that a king would die for his people,
or the sins thereof, the only concept was there
was a captured king or a conquered king and a
conquered kingdom. And the conquerors were putting
that king to death. Typically, that's how we
think today, isn't it? So the idea that, hey,
here's the Messiah and he's going to take that
punishment for us and he's going to die for us.
No, it wasn't there. You know, they had the sacrificial
system up until that point, absolutely. You know,
they were taking their livestock and, you know,
everything and, you know, sacrificing their sheep
and paying their taxes. Like, oh, this sheep
isn't good enough. So it's like, okay, well,
let me buy one that is. You know, there was a
lot of work that went into it. It's a very legalistic
system, right? So the system was pointing to
what was going to happen. However, killing the
lamb as a symbol was one thing. Killing God's
chosen servant who was being sent for his people
and to right the wrongs, that's a whole different
animal. Why would you even want to kill this
guy? Yeah. But that's the thinking at that point.
We have hindsight. So we get to see the blessing
from the tragedy. But they didn't. The mentality
at that time is, why would this happen? Why would
you want to know that? That can't be right. We're
misunderstanding something here. That's not what's
going to happen, right? That's how they looked
at it. The concept just didn't register. However,
at this point, we have to remember the book of
Isaiah, this is still Old Testament times. This
is still Old Testament. And what God was doing
is he is pulling back the curtain. And unlike
the Wizard of Oz was like, don't mind the man
behind the curtain. He's pulling the curtain
back on purpose and giving them a glimpse of
the future for their people, not just their people,
but for all mankind. This is exciting. For us,
we get to look back to the future like, man,
isn't that cool? Guess what? It happened in real
life. I pulled back the curtain and gave a glimpse
behind the curtain of what was going to come.
The people of Isaiah's day were getting to get
that glimpse of the beyond and see that not only
was the Messiah going to come, but he was going
to suffer for them. He was going to suffer greatly.
However, because of it, there was going to be
great blessing. Because of his torture, his torment,
his suffering, his death. And of course, later
on is resurrection. Forgiveness would be able
to be had for all of us, for all time, all men,
for all time. When I say men, I mean mankind,
all right? I'm not discluding the women. Sometimes
people get upset about that, right? I'm just
talking generalized. But all people for all time
would be able to have forgiveness and be reunited
with the Father. When we're looking at the back
half of this, verses five through six, talking
very much about the same thing. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He took it upon himself.
Isaiah mentioned the Lord's righteous servant
would carry our sins several times. Matter of
fact, when you're looking at the book of Isaiah
and you're looking at this, he says it five times.
Five times. Little emphasis there, isn't there?
You know, typically when a teacher is emphasizing
something, it means it's probably important.
We should take note of it. So with this emphasis,
we have to ask, why was this necessary? Why was
this needed? Well, let's go all the way back
to Genesis. Don't worry, we're not going to flip
back to look at the scripture. I'm going to paraphrase,
of course. What happened with Moses? Moses went
to see the Lord, right? But was he able to look
on him face to face? No. He said, my hand will
cover you and I will pass you and then afterwards
you will be able to see my back. Right? He could
not look on the face of God. Same reason. The
exact same reason. Because God is perfect and
holy and we are marked, we are blemished, we're
covered in sin. Sin cannot exist in the same
place as that perfection. It would be utterly
destroyed. If we were to look on his face, we
would be utterly destroyed. So he was already
protecting us. And that's what was happening
here. That's why that suffering needed to happen.
It was God reaching out again and covering us
as he passed by. But then not only that, he was
taking it to the next extent, right? That nth
degree. Because in our current state, we cannot
go before him marked in sin. So Jesus, our suffering
servant, our Messiah, son of God, lived a perfect
and sinless life, set the ultimate example, went
through the scripture, put it in a proper context,
taught us exactly the way things were meant to
be. What was truly meant by the word and by scripture,
right? Totally perfect. He was perfect. He was
sinless. He's the lamb of God. And he took our
sin voluntarily. He came and he took our sin
upon himself so that his blood would cover and
wash away that mark of sin, that smudge that
was upon us that would prevent us from re from
entering into the presence of God. And because
of that sacrifice, We're able to reenter in the
presence of God. We're able to have that connection
with him, that relationship with him. We're adopted
back into the family as his children, so we're
able to go back in the room. Hi, Dad! Right?
That's exciting. Jesus placed himself on a sacrificial
altar. And experienced the death that we all
deserve. The torment and the agony that we all
deserve. The ultimate separation from the Father
that we all deserve. And shed his blood. So that
we could be reunited. To pave the way for us
to go back into the presence of the Father. And
then, of course, we'd be remiss, especially at
this time of year, if we didn't point out the
fact that on the third day, he rose again. He
rose again. The ultimate display of his power,
and also to show that what he said was true,
that he was the truth, that everything that he
said would happen, would happen, including this,
that death could not stop him. that he would
come again. And to give us that hope so that
when he promised that he would come again after
he ascended to heaven to collect his bride, to
collect all of those of us who follow and believe
in him, we have that hope knowing that we are
now cleansed of that sin because of his blood
and able to go with him. And that's a beautiful
gift. Beautiful gift. It shows that his promise
is eternal. Because he is part of the triune.
He's part of the Godhead. God does not lie. Jesus
did not lie. We can trust him. Resurrected life
is real. And it's on the horizon for all of us
who accept him once we get to that point in our
path. But we have to remember, verse 6 says,
We've all gone astray. We've all turned to our
own devices, right? We live in that happy, joy,
joy world that says, if it feels good, do it.
Man, is that a lie from hell? That is a lie from
the enemy. As much as we'd like to believe it,
it sounds good. And it does. It sounds good,
doesn't it? If it feels good, do it. Party on,
Wayne. Party on, guys. No. Isaiah. We have to
recognize what he's talking about here because
it applies to us as well. He was talking about
how the people of Israel had strayed from God.
Well, yes, they had their legalistic systems.
That's exactly what it was. God was no longer
really a part of it. It's like, let's do this
just to make sure we stay on God's good side.
It's not the way it's supposed to be. But nothing's
changed here. Just like the people of Israel
had strayed, we still stray away from him today.
While doing this, while he was saying this, he
was comparing people to sheep. We're all sheep.
We all stray from God. But luckily, fortunately,
I shouldn't even say luckily because there is
no luck when you have Jesus. Praise the Lord.
He sent us a Messiah. He sent us Jesus. He sent
us the good shepherd to pull the flock back together.
He came to bring us back into the fold, to provide
that way for us to bring us back into the fold,
providing us that way to get home. It's not enough
that we're just out there and astray. We have
to recognize that we left and we turned our backs
on God and walked out as prodigal children. And
not only that, but we're gone. So far that we've
become lost. We don't have a way home. We don't
know our way home except through Jesus. Jesus
is the one who came to show us, hey, it's not
too late. You haven't gone too far. I love you.
And you can come home. Let me show you the way.
I am the way, the light, right? And the life,
right? I am the way. God provided a way. We have
to recognize. All of our sins are our ways of
turning. We've all turned away. We've all looked
at things in our own way. Not that we knew better
when really we didn't. And sometimes in life,
we realize, okay, I don't know better. But later
on, we come back and we do it all over again
with something else. And later on, we learn,
okay, I didn't know what I thought I did. I was
foolish. Children, right? Here's the thing, though.
God had had enough. He said, enough is enough.
I've given you the scripture. I've given you
warning. I've given you examples. Let's make
it blatantly clear. I'm going to take care of
sin once and for all because I'm sick and tired
of it. The cure was being administered, is being
administered for all mankind for all time through
Jesus. We are all sheep. We've all strayed. I'm
emphasizing that for a reason. We forget. Start
thinking, oh, I've gone back to church. I've
given my life back to Christ. Guess what? You
can still stray. People turn and walk from the
church all the time. Don't give it up. Still
come back. And we all know people like this.
Like, oh, yeah, I used to go to church, but my
drinking's out of hand. You know, I got to do
this. I got to get right before I can go back.
It's like, no. Come to church. This is how you
get right. It's how you find the cure. It's how
you get back on the path and how you rebuild
that relationship with Jesus. Because it's far
worse the fact that you actually know Jesus.
You know what he's about. You know what his life
was. You know what he did for you. And then you
turned and walked away still. I'm back in. We
can fix this. But this is the place. This is
the hospital. This is where the work is done.
Because it starts inside. It starts in your heart.
You have addiction because you push Jesus out.
You push the Holy Spirit out. You're not going
to conquer that addiction until you let Jesus
back in. You might conquer it for a little while,
but you know what? That's just one battle because
it's going to come back and it's going to win
the next battle. It might be tomorrow. It might
be years from now, but that's the way it works.
So that shepherd came. All that sin, all the
wrongs that we have done, all the mean, ugly
things that we did, the horrible thoughts that
we've had. Let's face it, even as believers,
we have some ugly thoughts sometimes, don't we?
They come in a number of ways. Well, the good
news is all of that was placed on Jesus. It's
all placed on Jesus. Tragedy. He was beaten for
us by his stripes. He was tortured for us. All
you have to do is say the words. beaten, tortured,
humiliated. I mean, he had to drag the tool,
carry the tool of his own death down the road
while people laughed, mocked, and spit on him.
Perfect sacrifice and a perfect atonement for
all sin for all time. And all of this had been
foreshadowed all the way back in Genesis. When
Abraham was told to take his only son, Isaac,
and sacrifice him. Lord said, take it. Provide
your lamb. Take him. And in an act of obedience,
he took his son. And his son was old enough.
It's not like he was like a little, little child.
His son was old enough. He understood what was
happening. He knew what the plan was with his
father. But he too was obedient and went with
him. And of course, at the last moment, we know
there's a happy ending because the Lord provided
a lamb for them to sacrifice when he got there
in the form of a ram, right? But still, the obedience
was needed. Fast forward to today, people are
still told, make a sacrifice, make a sacrifice.
Throughout the book of Luke, We see Jesus' journey
towards the cross. We don't have time to read
it all today. We're not going to. Go through
and read it. I encourage you to. But we see his
journey. And not only does Luke show his journey
to the cross, but his pain and his suffering
for you and for me. Saul. All the way up and
through his death. The essentials that were needed
to take care of the death and decay that was
around us and revitalize so that new life could
be born. That's why we say when you come to Christ,
you're born anew. The book tells you you're a
new creation in Christ. There are no shortcuts
to be had. Couldn't cut through. There were no...
The word. There's nothing to be used in lieu
of. It had to be this. It couldn't be anything
else, right? It's kind of like when you're cooking.
You're like, you know what? Thought I had sugar,
but I don't. Let me come over here and use some
sweet and low. Sure, it's a sweeter, isn't it?
It ain't the same, is it? The end result can
be pretty disgusting. Why there could be no other
thing that was used in place of Jesus. Jesus
had to be the tool. He had to be the perfect
sacrifice. We'll go into our final scripture
because we're headed for home here. John chapter
10, verses 11 through 16. John 10, verses 11
through 16. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep,
but a hireling who is not the shepherd, one who
does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming
and he leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf
catches the sheep, scatters them. The hireling
flees because he is a hireling and does not care.
About the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know
my sheep. And I am known by my sheep. As the
father knows me. Even so. I know the father.
And I lay my life. For the sheep. And other sheep.
I have. Which are not of this fold. Them also.
I must bring and they will hear my voice and
there will be one flock and one shepherd. It
was not just the Israelites. It was not just
the Jews. It was all. He said it right here.
It's not going to be just them. It's going to
be all of them. They're going to hear me and
they're going to come. I'm doing this for all
of you because this guy doesn't love you. I do.
When it gets thick, when it gets hard, that dude's
going to run. I'm going to lay my life down.
I'm going to make sure that you survive and that
you're able to make it back in the fold. He's
going to go and he's going to fight the wolf.
He's going to fight Satan and his ministers of
darkness. That's the truth of it. We say suffering.
I say warrior. A suffering servant. He was a
servant. Yeah, all good leaders are servants.
That's the example he set. But he went through
pain. He went through darkness. He wasn't just
a suffering servant. He was a warrior king. He
knew what was best. He knew it was right. He
didn't just say it. He didn't just talk the talk.
He walked the walk. He did it. And he sacrificed.
He poured out his blood for his flock. What a
shepherd should do. You sacrifice. And all of
us in here are ministers at certain points in
our life, at different aspects of our life. At
home, with your children, at work. Dale and I
just had this conversation itself. Like what,
I'm a minister? Yeah, when you go to work, you're
there for a reason. The Lord has put you where
he needs you. There is somebody there that you
can connect with, that you can speak to, that
you can get through to, and you can share the
word with. Someone who desperately needs to hear
the gospel. Or maybe they know the gospel, but
they need an ear, they need a shoulder. They
need that connection. That's why it's important
that we come to church because iron sharpens
iron, right? And we need to be there for one
another. People are like, oh, I can just watch
it from home. No, if you physically can't make
it, that's one thing. That's why we're able to
go online. Other churches go on TV or on the
radio or whatever. But you have to be able to
connect with other people because you know what?
You can't do it alone. You're not meant to do
it alone. The flock comes together. That's why
we're compared to sheep. The flock comes together.
There's safety in those numbers. There's a lot
of good that's done in those numbers. We're able
to help each other in those numbers. And let
the shepherd do his work. Let the Holy Spirit
do his work inside you, transforming you from
the inside out. And you're able to go out and
introduce somebody else to Jesus. And guess what?
They too get changed from the inside out. That's
our work. Not that we have to do, that we get
to do. My wife lovingly says all the time too,
it's a good thing to remember when we're frustrated.
Not I have to do this, I get to do this. Let's
face it, sometimes there's days we wake up and
it's like, man, I got to go to work. No, no,
no, I get to go to work. That's what I talk to
about fake of the funk because sometimes you
got to, there's a little self -talk there, right?
You got to work yourself up. It's like, man,
I got to go and I got to deal with all those
yelling, screaming kids. Ah, right? I'll tell
you one thing. I've worked in security. I've
worked in law enforcement. Of course, Marine
Corps. I've worked some tough jobs. There's other
people in here who have as well. There's nothing
like being able to count how many times you've
gotten a concussion within a month. Right? You
get to compare bruises with your friends, your
coworkers. Sometimes you wake up and you're like,
because of something like that, it's like, yeah,
I don't feel like getting hit today. I don't
want to go to work. Like, man, I got to go do
this again. I got to go deal with domestic violence
cases. Oh, man. No. I got to go to work and I'm
going to hear my kid talking about the horrible
things that are happening at home and I can only
do so much about it. Hmm. That's hard. That's
a hardship. Sometimes it's hard to hear these
things. But you know what? It's not you have
to. It's you get to. You ask the question, why?
Why, Lord? Why do I have to? Why has it got to
be me? Why not you? I suffered. I was tortured.
I was beaten and I was killed for you. I did
this for you. Now you see the light. Guess what?
You take the light into the darkness for somebody
else. You reach into that darkness and you give
someone a hand up. Introduce us. Relationship.
So that they too can know light, so that they
can know love, so they can have hope. I mentioned
briefly earlier, we have the privilege of hindsight,
right? I don't know the phrase, hindsight's 2020,
right? We have hindsight because we have the
word. We have the Old Testament and the new.
So we're able to see and identify and discern.
who Jesus was and what he did. Not only that,
but as different groups go out, anthropologists
and so on, they're able to dig things up on all
these sites and find stuff all around the world
that show, hey, the Bible is real. What the Bible
said is true. And we found this exactly where
the Bible said it would be. Not only do we have
these groups that go out and do that, and I will
tell you, a lot of them themselves. aren't believers
until they get out there and they start doing
this. Like, whoa, the Bible was bought on. That's
what actually leads them to following Christ.
But when you go back to the old writings from
back at that time, all the different pagan tribes
and pagan groups and non -believers, Romans themselves.
And you can look at the writing and you can see
exactly what happened in historical context.
And here's someone who didn't believe, who was
just like, yeah, no, that guy needed to die.
And laughed like, oh yeah, the king of the Jews
or whatever. He called himself this and he called
himself that. And even in the writings of them
and these pagan groups, they talk about how the
sky fell dark and the earth trembled, right?
All these different things. And it all lines
up with the word. It all lines up with the Bible.
Further evidence of what happened. So that hindsight,
the promised Messiah who came, lived a perfect,
sinless life, died for our sins. Which makes
the next thing I'm going to share with you, and
I said it briefly earlier, just that much sadder.
Because the fact that we have this privilege,
we're able to see it, we're able to go through
all these old texts, these old scrolls that have
been... translated and converted over for us
and for a way for us to learn from them, right?
We have all this stuff to prove that Jesus did
indeed come and live and died and was resurrected
from the grave. All these hundreds of people
saw him. We have all this evidence before us.
We can see the truth. We've been introduced to
the truth. It's right in front of us. Black and
white. The testimony of all those around us.
And yet still we reject him. Say we, I'm talking
about people, of course. People will still reject
him. Something tragic will happen and that will
be enough for them to turn their back and walk.
When I was in high school, my best friend killed
himself. I went to his funeral service. It was
years. before I set foot in a church of any kind
ever again. Matter of fact, I was overseas the
first time I set foot back in church. Little
did I know that was going to be my path to where
I am now. Thank God it was. But you know what?
That's how tragedy affects people. Like people
ask, why could a loving God? We don't see the
forest for the trees. Our sin, our unbelief is
even greater than the Israelites that we just
read about because they could not see him. They
could not understand. They could not wrap their
minds around what was being taught. But we can.
That's why our sin is greater. Through Jesus'
sacrifice, the tragedy he went through, We are
all able to have new life. We've all been promised
new life. We see those changes in one another
as our relationship with him deepens and grows.
We're able to have salvation. We have hope. We
have a hope that so many people didn't realize
was even there for a long time because they didn't
understand what the sacrifice truly was. We're
able to reconnect to the Father. Not only that,
we're able to go directly to the Father. That
veil was torn. We have a relationship. We get
to speak directly to him. We don't need a middleman.
So you have to ask yourself, do you trust in
our good shepherd? Do you trust in Jesus? Or
are you still a wandering sheep? Are you still
a wandering sheep? That smart aleck out there,
oh, black sheep. I've always been a black sheep.
I don't care if you're red, white, or blue, green,
yellow, purple, a sheep. Have you come back into
the folder? Are you still out there wandering
lost? The shepherd, the good shepherd, Jesus,
sees you. He's come for you. He has made a way
for you. He has shown the way for you. He sees
your value. You have worth. You have worth. He
sees your pain. He sees your struggles. But you
know what else he sees? He sees your strength,
your beauty. And he's come so you can rejoin
the fold. It's part of his flock. He suffered
and endured pain for you because he loves you.
You are his labor of love. It's not too late.
You have not gone too far. You just have to listen
to his voice and accept him as your Lord and
Savior and surrender yourself to him. It's not
that much. It's not that hard. But now's the
time. And on that note, let us pray. Heavenly
Father, we thank you for sending your son, Jesus,
to suffer on our behalf, to die on our behalf,
to endure your and absolute... or on our behalf
to come and make a way for us to be reunited
with you. Please forgive us of our many sins
for turning our back for not just always walking,
but running away and closing our ears when really
we should have been listening. Help us to recognize
the fact that Jesus suffered so that we don't
need to. We don't have to be so hard on ourselves.
The debt has been paid. in full and given. You've
already taken care of the tab for us. So allow
us to recognize it for what it is and be grateful
and be able to speak to the testimony that you've
given each and every one of us as you've walked
us back into the fold and welcomed us with arms
wide open, just like the father of the prodigal
son. We thank you for your love. We thank you
for your mercy. We thank you for your grace.
Help us to be that beacon of hope that you're
able to work through to reach others in this
world. Not just to let the light shine upon us,
but to be a reflection that points the way to
you and your kingdom. And all of his people said,
amen and amen. Remember, when you leave here,
you are loved and you are blessed. So go and
be the church. Until next time, take care and
God bless.