A Faithful & Loving God | Sunday, February 7, 2021

Days may be darkest, but Your light is greater. You light our way, God. You light our way. When evil is rising, You're rising higher with power to save. You keep hope alive because Your life is stronger.

From the beginning to Jesus, You are. Because You're breathing, there's hope in the breaking, hope in the sorrow, and hope for this moment. My hope for tomorrow is found in the hope of the morning and the hope of the evening. There's hope because You're living.

In hope, because you're breathing this hope in the breaking. You keep hope alive. From the moment Jesus, You are alive. Never fails; You keep hope alive because You are alive.

The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. The Savior knelt to wash our feet; now at His feet, we bow.

Welcome to Cross Connections online.

Service Pastor Mark here. If you take a moment to share live.ccchurch.com with your friends and family, you can invite them to church with that.

Let's go back to Pastor Anthony for some more worship.

Heavenly Father, we come before You today, Lord God, just thankful and grateful for who You are in our lives and the great things You have done in our lives. We know that You're doing new things in us, Lord God, and so we just ask that You would prepare our hearts for this time of worship and prepare our hearts for this time of Your Word so that we could be changed and never the same, more like Your Son. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Amen.

Alone in my sorrow and dead in my sins, lost without hope and no place to begin, Your love made a way to let mercy come in. When death was arrested, my life began. Ash was redeemed; only beauty remained. My earthen heart was given away. My morning grew quiet; my feet rose to dance. When death was arrested, and my life began.

Oh, Your grace so free washes over

Life begins with You, at least from my chains. I'm a prisoner no more. You have made me new; now life begins with You. Thank You, God, for pouring down on us. You have made us new; now life begins with You.

Oh, our Savior displayed on a criminal's cross! Darkness rejoiced as though heaven was lost. That's when death was arrested, and my life began. You have made me new; now life begins with You. Yes, pouring down on us, You have made us new. Come join us.

When death was arrested in my life, thank you, Lord. Welcome, and thanks for joining us here at Cross Connection Church for Church at Home. If you're new at Cross Connection this morning or tuning in for the first time, hi, I'm Pastor Garrett. Here at Cross Connection Church, we are all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

Part of living life in connection is prayer. If you tune in on a weekly basis, this will probably sound repetitive to you, but we are all about prayer—living life in connection with God through prayer every single day. We want to encourage you to be praying this week. As your pastors, staff, and prayer team, we would like to be praying with and for you. Whatever is going on this week in your life, just check out prayer.lifeinconnection.com and send us your prayer requests. We would love to be praying with you and see what God does this week, so definitely send those in to us.

Also, for the high schoolers and junior hires, if you're looking for a way to get engaged and meet here at Cross Connection Church, we are meeting on the patio. High schoolers will meet on Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM, and junior highers are meeting on Sunday nights during the same time as the four o'clock service around their fire pit. So, high schoolers, Wednesdays at seven o'clock here on the patio, and junior hires, Sunday evenings at 4:00 PM here on the patio as well. Check that out, junior highs and high schoolers. Get engaged, get connected, and we would love to see you there.

Our mission this week is to encourage you to be praying for Alternatives Medical Clinic here in Escondido. We have been supporting them financially and through prayer for a very long time here at Cross Connection Church. Coming up on March 6th is this year's Walk for Life. Alternatives supports young women here in Escondido who are pregnant and looking for alternatives to abortion. It is an incredible ministry, and we ask that you pray for God to continue to have...

His hand is on their ministry and on the young girls and couples that come through their doors here in Escondido. They are still open in the midst of COVID, so please be praying with and for them.

On March 6th, they are doing their Walk for Life, which is a fundraiser for their organization. Just about every single year, I think Cross Connection Church pretty much blows it out of the water. This year is going to look a little different due to the pandemic, so check out their website at cca.org for all the information and details. I would love for you to be praying with and for them this week and to support them in their Walk for Life on March 6th.

With that, we're going to head over to Pastor Anthony, who is going to lead us in a song of worship and praise. This particular song has a time for those of you who call Cross Connection Church your home church to give to the Lord. You can do that in a couple of different ways. You can donate simply by going to our website at give.lifeinconnection.com. Second, you can text on your cell phone to 84321, and you can give right there on your phone. Third, you can mail in your tithe or offering to our church address at 1675 Seven Oaks Road here in Escondido, California.

Of course, we would love to see you here on Sunday nights on the patio at four o'clock. Tonight's message will be taught by me, so if you can bear with me, I would love to see you there. It's going to be sunny, and those of you who are real Christians will show up even though the Super Bowl is going on.

Let's go ahead and worship with Pastor Anthony now. God bless you guys, and I hope to see you tonight.

Lord, I come, I confess. Without You, I fall apart. You're the one that guides my heart. Lord, I need You.

My righteousness, sin runs deep. Your grace is more; grace is found where you are. Where you are, holiness is Christ in me.

So teach my song to rise to You when temptation comes my way. When I cannot stand, I fall on You. Jesus, You're my hope and stay. So teach my song to rise to You when temptation comes.

My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need You. God, You are all of our righteousness, all of our goodness, and our strength. We're nothing apart from You, Father, and it's true every day of our lives. We need You because You created us, and You created us to live our lives with You, God, under Your direction every step of the way in Your love, righteousness, and goodness.

So we ask, God, would You turn our eyes to You when so much in this world tries to grab our attention, steal our focus from You, and distract us? Would You capture our hearts again? Every morning, Your mercies are new, and we ask that You would capture our hearts every day of our lives. Draw us closer to You, teach us new things about You, and show us all the things that You are going to do with us.

So, God, we surrender our lives to You and ask that You would use us for Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Admittedly, the passage before me this morning is a challenging one. It is a challenging passage primarily because of our modern sensibilities. We tend to read passages like this through the lens of our 21st-century Western world. Being that this is the case, we will inevitably read into this passage things that may not be there or are not there at all in our time and culture.

One of the big objections to the Old Testament is that it seems to some, especially in passages like the one we are going to be looking at this morning, to be sanctioning genocide. Or, if it doesn't sanction or approve genocide, it seems to some as though it is commanding it.

From God, I will grant that at the first reading of this section before us, and others in the book of Deuteronomy, as well as in the books that follow it—Joshua and Judges—one could be led to believe that it is true this is endorsing genocide. I'm not convinced that it is. Furthermore, I'm convinced that those kinds of objections against the Old Testament tend to distract from the passage as a whole or from some very important aspects in the text.

It is true that God, 3,400 years ago, called His people Israel to conquer the land of Canaan, which was, prior to their conquest, held by seven different nations or tribal people groups. Deuteronomy chapter 7 gives the names of these seven nations: the Hittites, the Gurgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. If we were gathered together in the sanctuary, I would have to make the bad pastor joke and say the termites as well, and of course, you would all laugh. But I won't do that because it doesn't come across the same on TV, and I can't hear you laugh. Nobody can hear you laugh, so it's just not funny. Even though it's not funny as a joke as a whole, when we get back to the sanctuary, I can guarantee you that I'm going to use the joke again, and then you are basically obligated to laugh at my really bad jokes. So make sure that you do when I say it again.

Moses is speaking to the children of Israel here in Deuteronomy chapter 7, and we read this beginning in verse 1: "When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and He has cast out many nations before you—here they are again: the Hittites, the Gurgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show them mercy, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son."

In reading that passage, it is almost impossible for us to not get stuck on those words: "You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them." Those are heavy words, admittedly so. Those are very strong words, and they are repeated with almost more punch in Deuteronomy chapter 20 at verse 16.

But of the cities of these people, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive. You shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you.

When we read those words in 2021, in the 21st century, they seem completely culturally out of place, and culturally speaking, they are out of place. However, we have more than a countercultural problem when we read this passage. You can add to the cultural understanding problem a historical understanding problem. When you read the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges as a whole, and just read them through from beginning to end, you learn very quickly that these people—the Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, and so forth—whom Moses called Israel to utterly destroy, remained alive in the land for most of Israel's history after they conquered Canaan.

Joshua chapters 10 and 11 say that Joshua and Israel fulfilled Moses's command to utterly destroy all their enemies, but these people were not wiped out. Rather, Israel was victorious in battle against them, and they did conquer the land of Canaan, but they didn't wipe out all these people. So, how could Joshua have fulfilled Moses's command to wipe them out, to utterly destroy them, if they were not ultimately wiped out?

That's a challenging question unless it is possible that this utter annihilation, this utterly destroying kind of language, is hyperbole and not literal. Historians tell us that hyperbolic language about the comprehensive defeat of one's enemies was typical war rhetoric during this period of time, and it wasn't intended to be taken literally. We use this kind of hyperbole today as well. We use hyperbolic language when we're talking about those on the other side of the aisle or those opponents of ours.

In just the last few days, some of you may have had conversations with people where this kind of language is used. Maybe you've heard it said, or perhaps you've used it yourself. You might say something like, "Patrick Mahomes is going to destroy Tom Brady," and someone else will respond, "No way! Brady and the Bucs are going to..."

Annihilate the Chiefs, or someone will pipe up and say the Chiefs' offense is going to crush the Bucks' defense. We use words like "crush," "destroy," and "annihilate." Are any of those words really intended to be literal? Is Mahomes going to crush Tom Brady and destroy him? I don't think so. We use hyperbolic language all the time, and the point of the language is clear: it's not literal. The point of it is that you're talking about victory. We want to be victorious over those on the other side.

Again, we see another use of this hyperbole. Recently, a sitting U.S. Congresswoman accused a senator from the opposing party of trying to murder her. Was that literal language? I don't assume so, but it is used for a purpose. In reading a passage like this, I'm of the opinion that this appears to be biblical hyperbole, and it is used for a purpose.

Now, I think that I can say that because it seems, as we look at this passage, that Moses commanded Israel to utterly destroy their enemies here in chapter 7 and again in Deuteronomy chapter 20. The book of Joshua records that Israel fulfilled that command, but those peoples and nations—the Girgashites, the Jebusites, and so forth—remained after Israel's conquest. So, either the Bible contradicts itself, or this is non-literal hyperbole being used.

If I am correct, then what is the purpose of this language, and what is the point of this text? I think that one of the problems is that people get stuck on those words: "You shall conquer them, and you shall utterly destroy them," and then they miss the rest of the focus of the text or other important aspects of it.

So, the big question is: Does God endorse or command genocide? I do not see any sanction for genocide in the Bible. If God were to give such a command or a sanction, that would contradict His nature as revealed in the same scriptures. God wouldn't do that. The scriptures reveal the nature and character of God, and as He is revealed in the scriptures, He would not give a command to totally annihilate somebody. He's not into genocide.

If someone says to you that the Bible endorses ethnic cleansing or genocide, or even...

Slavery shouldn't pass the smell test for you. You should know immediately that there's more to it than that. These things don't fit with the nature of God, so He obviously doesn't endorse them.

But how do we handle this text? We just read in Deuteronomy chapter 7, "You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them." There are several things that stand out to me in this passage that help me understand what this text actually means or how we ought to read it.

First, look with me again at verse one: "When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and you cast out many nations before you—the Hittites, the Gurgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites—seven nations greater and mightier than you." Take careful note of those words: seven nations greater and mightier than you.

Israel was preparing to enter into unmapped, uncharted territory, and they were going to take possession of the land of Canaan, which was held by seven nations greater and mightier than them. These seven nations were in fortified cities and were firmly established in that land, having been there for centuries, for generations. They knew the land; the children of Israel did not know the land.

The likelihood of the children of Israel coming into a foreign territory, which they had little to no knowledge of, as a bunch of tent-dwelling shepherds and overcoming fortified and firmly established nations that were greater and mightier than they is incomprehensibly low. I'd love to see the probability breakdown of this. I can only imagine that Israel overcoming these seven nations greater and mightier than them would be like my twelve-year-old son, Ethan, signing up to fight against Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury is six foot nine!

More amazing victories have happened; I'm sure you could think of some, like Gideon with his 300 men versus the Midianites or David and Goliath, of course, or maybe Wall Street Bets versus Melvin Capital. But the probability of Israel, without a massive miracle of God, overcoming these enemies to conquer Canaan is about as close to zero as you can get.

So that's the first important thing. The second important thing to consider is found in verses two and three of Deuteronomy 7.

When the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show them mercy. You shall not make marriages with them; you shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. Notice those words: when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

That opening clause is really important. God did not say to Israel, "Go into the land and utterly destroy everyone in a mass genocide." Rather, He effectively said, "When their armies come out against you and I deliver their armies into your hands in battle, you shall engage them, take them on, fight against them, and destroy them."

Why on earth would Israel, a sojourning, tent-dwelling group of shepherds with no homeland at this point in their history, engage seven nations greater and mightier than them on the home turf of those nations? The only reason they would do that, I want to suggest to you, is that they did so because the Lord had promised to be with them, to fight for them, and to deliver their enemies into their hands.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, and when the Lord God delivers them over into your hand, then you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. The word from God is this: when I do this, I deliver them over to you. Your response will be this: you are to take and fight against them, and you'll be victorious because I am going to empower you.

So when you come into the land, you shall make no covenant with them, nor show them mercy. You shall not make marriages with them, nor shall you give your daughter to their son or take their daughter for your son. Why? What was the point of all this?

Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 4: "For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods, so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly." But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, break down their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all peoples on the face of the earth.

What is the point of all this? What is the point of this language about utterly destroying and showing no mercy and breaking down their altars? The point is this: Israel was to be a people completely separate and holy unto the Lord. All of this strong language was to emphasize this important point. Israel is to be a people completely separate and holy unto the Lord. God wanted His people to be set apart and separate for Him.

As we've seen previously back in chapter 5 and again in chapter 6, our God is a jealous God. He doesn't want to share His people with others, and that's why He commands, "You shall have no other gods before Me," and "You shall not make any images to bow down to." This is the principle of separateness, or using a big religious word, it's a principle of consecration. Alternatively, we could use a smaller biblical cousin word: it's the principle of holiness.

This principle isn't only found in the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul, when he was writing to the Christians in the ancient city of Corinth, who were surrounded by pagan immorality and all kinds of pagan worship practices, wrote this in 2 Corinthians 6: "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said: 'I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.' Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

God desired that Israel would be a people completely separate and holy unto Him. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6 states, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself."

A special treasure above all peoples on the face of the earth. Not only does this passage cause people heartburn over the perceived genocidal words, "You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them," but also because in this verse, here in verse 6, we read that God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

People in our day will read these words and say that not only does the God of the Bible endorse genocide, but He also, here in this passage, endorses ethnocentrism or ethnonationalism. Some will claim that the God of the Bible is a genocidal ethno-nationalist who only likes Israel. They argue that if you believe the Old Testament, then you will become a genocidal racist too. I am not overselling this view; many people in our culture hold this perspective. You may have had conversations with family members or co-workers who have a problem with the Old Testament because they say it is a racist book or an ethnocentric book.

That is not what we see in this passage. It is entirely possible that you and I have people in our lives who see the Bible this way. Are they right? That is an important question.

Well, again, look at the passage: verse 6 of Deuteronomy chapter 7 states, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all peoples on the face of the earth." The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the least of all the peoples. But because the Lord loves you—read that again, verse 8—"But because the Lord loves you," and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Why did God choose Israel? Was it because they were a superior people, because they were better than all the other peoples in the world? Absolutely not. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. If you read the text, the Lord did not set His love on you because you were bigger or better; actually, you were kind of nothing.

So why did He choose them? Why did He choose Israel? Israel was chosen to be a holy people because of God's love and His faithfulness to His covenant promise.

God swore an oath and a promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, the fathers of the children of Israel. Because of His love and faithfulness to His promise, He redeemed their children—the children of Israel—out of Egypt. Now, He is going to bring them into the land that He had promised to Abraham and his descendants, all the way back in Genesis chapter 12, and again in Genesis chapters 15 and 17. God had promised this land to Abraham and his descendants because Abraham had trusted in God. Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness. He followed God, and God said that He would give him that land, an inheritance, and descendants if he followed Him. That is exactly what Abraham did.

Now, fast forward 400 years or more, and you have God making good on His promise. Why? Because of God's love and faithfulness. In response to God's love and faithfulness, we read this in verse 9 of Deuteronomy 7: "Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face."

God was faithful to His covenant and remained merciful to Israel. Yes, He does and will punish those who hate Him, which is evidenced in the judgment upon the seven nations of Canaan. But God is good, merciful, gracious, and loving to those who are His. Therefore, in verse 11, we read: "You shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today to observe them."

The faithfulness and love of God were the basis of God's expectation of love and faithfulness from His people. So how does that apply to us? I mean, we are reading a passage of Scripture that is at least 3,400 years old, and it could seem to us like, what do I need this passage of Scripture for? I live in 2021. Well, in the same way that God, according to His love and faithfulness, chose Israel thousands of years ago, God has...

God has chosen you to be His own special people, a people who are set apart, holy, and separate unto Him. Now, why has God chosen you? Is it because you're smarter, taller, or better looking than all the other people in the world? Some people think that, but they would be wrong.

Why did God choose the children of Israel, as we see in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 7? It is exactly what we see in the New Testament: "For God so loved the world." He chose you because of His love, and He will remain faithful to His covenant with you and me in Christ because of His love. Therefore, He desires for us to love Him and remain faithful to Him.

Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant mercy for a thousand generations. He calls us to be faithful to Him, as stated in verse 11: "Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today to observe them."

It is really important that we understand the logical progression of what is happening here. We do not keep His commandments so that He loves us, but because He loves us, saves us, and redeems us. Just like He redeemed Israel out of Egypt thousands of years ago, He redeems us out of sin and death from a broken and fallen world because He has loved us and been faithful to us. Therefore, we should be faithful to Him and keep His commandments.

Jesus said in the Scriptures, "If you love me, keep my commandments." He didn't say, "If you keep my commandments, then I will love you." He said, "If you love me, keep my commandments."

And why would we love God? John, in 1st John, tells us that we love God because He first loved us. He demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The love of God and the faithfulness of God to His covenant for us who are in Christ is the compelling factor that should stir us to want to be faithful to Him.

The faithfulness and love of God are the basis for God's expectation of our love and faithfulness to Him.

Father, I pray that You would cause these things in this challenging Scripture to be in our hearts and in our minds this week. Lord, I pray that those who are hearing this message would think about these things and meditate upon them, not just today, but throughout the week.

Week, we pray that you would continue to do a work in our hearts and in our minds. Lord, draw us into a deeper level of commitment and devotion to You as we begin to grasp more fully Your love and faithfulness to us. Lord, we love You because You first loved us, and You have demonstrated and shown that love to us in the most wonderful and awesome way.

God, I pray that You would help us to think about this and that Your love would continue to transform us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

You call the sun to rise, and You lay it down to rest. You hold this heart of mine, and You hold my every breath. Such an awesome God, so mighty, so holy, so wonderful. Such an awesome God, so selfless, so generous, and so faithful You are.

Nothing comes close to the Lord Almighty. Nothing is as sweet as Your love and mercy. Nothing comes close to the Lord. Oh my God, mercy!

There’s nothing as sweet as love. Jesus, the Son of God, hung on the cross to die. Nothing could hold You down. You are wonderful. You are so holy.

You're so wonderful. You are not some god, but so selfless, so generous, and so faithful. You are my awesome God, Father God. We thank You for Your Word, and we pray that when we come to challenging passages like this in Deuteronomy chapter 7, You would give us wisdom and understanding by Your Spirit. Help us to see how these things in Your Word align with Your nature and reveal something more—more awesome, more great—about who You are and what You've done for us.

So God, cause Your Word to be deep in our hearts and in our minds this week. Continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds so that we would be able to show, in a very dark world and in a very difficult time, Your love and Your grace to others. As we shine brightly, may they see our good works and glorify You, our Father in heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen.

And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. God bless you.

Good morning, Cross Connection! It's Pastor Mark. I have no idea what I'm going to say right now, but welcome to online service. If you could take a moment to text or go online to live.ccchurch.com, you can send that out by texting live at live.ccchurch.com. Have them tune in to the service.

Welcome to Cross Connection online!

With that, we'll ask, "Okay, yeah, great." All right, we'll try it again. Exactly like, "Yeah, welcome to live.ccchurch.com." Yeah, all right, let's try this again.