And the word is… | Sunday, January 29, 2023

Welcome to Cross Connection Church online! We are so grateful that you're joining us for service today. I'm Pastor Garrett, and we want to let you know that if you want to find out any information about Cross Connection Church and what we're doing, please check out our website at lifeinconnection.com. That's our website where you're going to find out more about us, what we're doing, and how you can be connected.

With the broadcast being online and you being at home, we would like to connect with you. One of the ways we can do that is by encouraging our audience to take a video of yourself and whoever you're watching with. Let us know who you are, where you're watching from, and send that video to our text line at 760-814-1223. Again, just let us know where you're watching from, who you're watching with, and how you are enjoying the Cross Connection Church broadcast from home. You are part of our church, and we want to know where you're at and be encouraged by you.

Please stick around to the end of our broadcast today. We'll be announcing some of our current events at Cross Connection Church and letting you know how you can be involved. Of course, if you came prepared to give today, you can do so online from home at give.lifeinconnection.com.

Now, let's go ahead and jump into the broadcast. I was lost, but He brought me in. Oh, His love for me! While I was asleep, Jesus died for me. Yes, He died for me.

Yes, I am. Today, I'm going to give a New Year's message, even though I know it's already the fifth Sunday of the new year. I wasn't here for the first few Sundays of the year, so today I'm going to share a New Year's message. This is something I have been doing here at Cross Connection Church for many years—starting off the New Year by sharing a little bit about where we're going or some of the things that I think God has impressed upon my heart for myself and for our church.

As I mentioned, I wasn't here for the first few weeks of the year, so that's where we are on this fifth Sunday of 2023. Before I dive in, let me start with a bit of personal history. Twenty-five days ago, on January 4th, I celebrated my 24th year in full-time vocational ministry here at this very same church. It feels kind of weird to even say 24 years. Twenty-four years here at this church, serving in full-time pastoral ministry, is a little surreal to think about. Time goes by incredibly fast.

I began here on January 4th, 1999, when I was 19 years old. At that time, I came on as a non-paid ministry intern. My job was basically to fill in the gaps and do whatever needed to be done. One of my primary responsibilities was to ensure that all the computers worked here at the church—the printers, the network, and any of the tech things that needed to keep functioning. Back in the late 90s, we were still at the very beginning of the internet. We didn't have online video like this; we had something called RealVideo.

This is terrible in comparison; this is like HD and perfect quality. At that time, in 1999, I had already built the church's website, so I had to maintain that and take care of all those sorts of things. The church at that time was called Calvary Chapel of Escondido. I also answered phones, cleaned rooms and bathrooms, took out the trash, painted curbs, or whatever needed to be done here at the church. That was basically my role and responsibility at that time.

A little more than a month after I began serving here as an intern, I was asked to take responsibility for teaching the middle schoolers in the youth group. On February 14th, Valentine's Day 1999, I began teaching the Bible for the very first time. I went through the Book of Galatians in the New Testament, and ever since that time, I have been teaching or preaching the Scriptures every single week, multiple times a week, for 24 years. I helped lead the youth ministry here at Calvary Chapel Escondido from 1999, when I started in February teaching, until the middle to the end of 2002.

At the end of 2002, I was asked to lead our Adult Services here at the church on Sunday nights. Twenty years ago, in January 2003, I began teaching through the Book of Joshua here on Saturday nights at the church. This is kind of interesting—a little bit of a coincidence—because in just a few weeks, we are going to begin going through the Book of Joshua here on Sunday morning. So, from 2003 to 2023, I am back in the same book.

Back in August of 2002, as I was wrapping up my time teaching within the youth ministry here at the church, I began to have this strong sense that someday I would be the pastor of this church. Ultimately, it was six years until that would come to pass. I started to have that sense in August of 2002, and it wasn't until 2008 that I ultimately became the pastor of the church. During the course of those six years, there were all kinds of different twists and turns. I moved to Europe for a year and taught at a small International Bible College in Ziegen, Germany.

I moved back to the States and worked at a coffee shop that our church ran down on Grand Avenue. At the time, it was called His Place. In fact, I met my wife while I was working there. The pay may not have been the best, but the benefits turned out to be pretty spectacular. Not only did I meet my wife there, but Pastor Nick, who is on our staff here and handles all of our media creation, also met his wife while working at His Place. She was working there as well. So, while the pay may not have been great, the benefits were spectacular.

During that time, after I came back from Germany and was working to pay the bills at the coffee shop, I was teaching here at the church. I also began teaching at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Marietta. In April of 2008, I began serving as the senior pastor here at this church. This year will mark 15 years that I have served as the pastor of this church. It will also be the 10th anniversary since Pastor Mark came on as our executive pastor.

Now, before I became the pastor of this church, I know I’m giving a lot of different dates and times, but there is a point to this. I became the pastor of this church in April of 2008. About half a year before that, in September of 2007, most of our core pastoral leaders and I attended a Christian leadership conference in the Palm Desert, Palm Springs area. While we were there, we had a meeting in a little living room space at the house we were in, with just the leaders of our church. My pastor, who was the former pastor of this church, Pat Kinney, was leading this meeting.

We were looking forward to the new year, 2008, and had no idea that we were going to make a transition in leadership. During this meeting, there were probably about eight guys in the room. My pastor asked me, "Miles, why don’t you share some of the things that you have on your heart for the church?" I shared with that group that I believed God wanted us to make a shift as a church and as a ministry team. I expressed to that group of leaders that the message we have from the Scriptures is a message that does not change and has not changed.

The message that the church has been speaking and sharing for millennia will not change at all. However, I believed at that time that our methods as a church, as a team, and as a ministry needed to change in order to reach our community and culture in a better way. I shared this in September of 2007. Fast forward half a year, and I would take over the church. Right before I became the pastor in March of 2008, I had been invited to go back to Germany for a month to teach through the Book of Romans, and my wife was going to go with me as well.

We were set to stay in Germany for a month. I remember it very clearly: on Saturday, March 1st, 2008, my wife and I were sitting at one of the gates in the airport in San Diego, waiting to board a plane to Germany. I was going to be gone for a month when I received a call from one of our board members, Mark Searle, who is still on our board today. He shared with me that after several weeks of discussion, meetings, and prayer among the leadership of the church, the former pastor, Pat Kinney, would be handing the church off to me on April 20th, 2008.

This was March 1st, so I had about six or seven weeks to get ready. What this meant was that I would be in Germany for a month, which provided a perfect opportunity to be away from everything going on here every single day. I believe it was very providential that God had set this up. I was going to Germany for a month and then would come back with a few weeks to prepare for taking over the leadership of the church.

This gave me a month of quality time with my wife, and at that time, my good friend David Guzik was running the Bible school in Germany. I had ample opportunity to interact with him, talk with him, and ask him questions about taking over the church. It was a chance to begin planning and preparing for what I would do when I took over.

Interestingly, just a couple of weeks before Andrea and I went to Germany in March of 2008, we found out that she was pregnant with our first child, Ethan. Thus, 2008 became a year of significant changes for us.

A year after I became the pastor of the church, my wife and I became parents, and we bought our first home. All kinds of crazy things were going on. During that month, March of 2008, as I knew that I was six to eight weeks away from taking over the leadership of this church, I sat down quite a few nights while I was in Germany and mapped out a plan—a vision, really—for what I believed God wanted us as a church to become.

I didn't have a word for it then when I was writing or typing those things out, but what we were going to endeavor to do when I became the pastor of this church was what is now called church revitalization. There are hundreds of churches throughout the U.S. currently in the process of revitalization or in desperate need of it. Back in 2008, that terminology wasn't really around. There wasn't a lot of talk about the idea of church revitalization; there was a lot of talk about church planting, but not much about church replants, church refreshes, or revitalization.

Fast forward to 2023, and there are tons of books on the topic. There are even courses and conferences you can attend on how to revitalize, refresh, or replant a church. Seminaries offer courses on the subject, and many people are preparing to help churches revitalize and reach out to their communities. This is exactly what I discussed with our leadership in September of 2007 when we were away at that pastor's conference. We needed to come up with a better way to reach our culture and community.

I'm sure you've noticed, especially if you live here in Southern California where this church is located. On the coasts of America, we live in a very post-Christian culture and society. Reaching people in this culture is a little different than being in the Bible Belt or the Midwest. As we were getting ready in 2007 and 2008 for what would ultimately be a church revitalization, I not only lacked a word for what I was about to do when I became the pastor, but I also had no idea how long that process would take. I had no clue that that endeavor would...

It really took about ten years; it was a ten-year process from 2008 to 2018. During that time, we carried the church through a complete revitalization, restoration, replant, or refresh—whatever you want to call it. I don't care what you call it; it was a lot of work.

As we went through that period from 2008 to 2018, it was a complete transformation. We changed our vision, we changed the name, and we did a lot of remodeling here at the church. We added some new staff members, reoriented how we do ministry, and discontinued some ministries while introducing new ones. All of that took place from 2008 to 2018, culminating in the change of the church's name from Calvary Chapel Escondido to Cross Connection Church.

Then, in 2019, I felt a real sense that we had moved beyond all of that refresh and restoration process. All of that was behind us. Moving from 2019 into 2020, I personally had a fair amount of anticipation for 2020 being a really good year for us as a ministry, reaching our community. We were in a time of growth, seeing a lot of new people come to the church, and there was an expectation among me, our staff, and our board that 2020 was going to be a great year for growth.

However, at the end of 2019, coming into 2020, I shared with the congregation that I was also concerned that 2020 would be a year of chaos. My primary concern stemmed from the chaotic political season ahead of us with the presidential election. Ultimately, it did turn out to be pretty chaotic. When I expressed my thoughts that 2020 would be a year of chaos, it far exceeded my expectations and my appetite for chaos.

Interestingly, on Sunday, March 8, 2020, I went back and looked at our videos and my notes from that time. I gave a message that was somewhat similar to...

This sharing was about the new things that God was going to be doing for our church. I shared a little bit of personal history about some of the challenges we had faced as a church in the previous years leading up to that moment. I also shared a message about some new initiatives we were planning for 2020, or at least I thought we were going to be doing in 2020. Remember, this was March 8th of 2020.

I discussed some of these new things that I believed we would be implementing in the new year. We were in Deuteronomy chapter one, having gone through the book of Deuteronomy for the last couple of years at the church. We were about to get into something new shortly, but we had just started Deuteronomy back in March of 2020. In Deuteronomy chapter one, we read in verse 19: "So we departed from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea, and I said to you, 'You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord God is giving us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of our fathers has spoken to you. Do not fear or be discouraged.'"

Moses is recounting to the children of Israel their journey to the promised land. He talks about going up and possessing the land that God has given to them, urging them not to fear or be discouraged. I shared on that passage on March 8th, 2020, emphasizing that the church was growing. I mentioned that we were going to be moving into some new things, going out to possess it just like the children of Israel were preparing to enter the promised land. We were going to take hold of these new things that God was doing.

Part of what we planned to do, as I shared on March 8, 2020, was to add a fourth Sunday morning service here at the church. At that time, we had three Sunday morning services, and we were going to add a fourth. This was on March 8th, 2020. The next day, March 9th, 2020, I took a screenshot of a headline from the San Diego Union Tribune. The headline read: "San Diego County gets its first case of coronavirus."

I saved that screenshot because my friend Dr. Nick Ifuntitis is in that picture. On March 10, 2020, I was at a meeting with dozens of other Calvary Chapel pastors here in San Diego County at Horizon Church in North County, over in Rancho Santa Fe. There were discussions among the various pastors gathered at that meeting about what was going to happen as a result of this whole coronavirus situation. A lot of people were wondering what this was; we were just starting to hear about it. We really hadn't even heard much about COVID-19; it was just referred to as coronavirus at that moment.

That afternoon, we had a staff meeting here at the church, and we decided that for the coming Sunday, we would live stream our service. We thought that some people would opt to stay home. Just a few days after that, the headline online was "Trump to declare National Emergency." On TV, there were announcements to stay at home if you were ill. I have all these pictures; I snapped a picture of the news coming out. There was a live newscast about staying home if you felt ill or sick. As a result of that, we live streamed our Sunday service.

Remember, the previous week I had said we were going to add a fourth service because the church was growing. One week later, on March 15th, I stood up, and half of our church was not there. The following Sunday, on March 22nd, we went entirely to online services. I remember driving here to the service that morning, and there was a big sign that said "COVID-19: Less is More. Avoid Gatherings" as I was on my way to the church.

Crazy things were happening at the beginning of 2022. Now, at this point, I will forgive you if you're wondering where I am going with this. You might be asking, "Miles, what does this have to do with anything related to 2023?" I promise you that as this plays out, it will become a little bit more clear. In March of 2020, we were all collectively thrown into a chaotic situation, and we found ourselves in what you might call unmapped territory. We were in a place we had never been before, and no one really knew how to navigate this whole thing.

Through being thrown into unmapped territory, we have all experienced the typical sort of things that follow when you find yourself off your path. You were on a journey with a goal, an aim, a mission, a plan. In March 2020, my plan was to grow and add services, but then everything changed. I don't know what your plans were in 2020, but you likely had ideas about what was going to happen in that new year, and then everything got sidelined.

Imagine, if you will, that you are on a mountain trail high up on the hillside, trying to reach a destination by the end of the day. You are making good progress and feeling happy about your forward momentum. Suddenly, you set your foot down, and the trail gives way beneath you. Before you even realize what is happening, you are sliding and tumbling down the hillside. Everything you thought you were doing just moments before has changed dramatically. You are no longer on the path; you are sliding down the hill, trying to keep yourself from getting hurt.

When you finally come to a stop, you find yourself far away from where you were just moments before. You are scraped up, maybe your leg hurts a little, and you are somewhat in shock, with adrenaline pumping through your veins. You assess the damage and realize you are not seriously injured, but you are in a difficult and unexpected situation in unmapped territory. You are not where you anticipated being, and anxiety fills your heart. You start to ask yourself, "Now what do I do?"

At that point, if you can imagine that scenario, a number of expected thoughts begin to go through your mind. You start to wonder how you got there. Perhaps you took that step a little too quickly or casually. You think you should have been more aware or careful of your surroundings. You realize you could have been a little more cautious.

I shouldn't have been so quick to make that move, whatever it was. You start to assess all the things you could have or should have done differently. Then, you move from trying to figure out what went wrong in that moment that led up to that fall, or whatever it may be. You begin to try and figure out how to get back up to where you were. You spend all kinds of time, energy, and resources trying to return to that place, but you find that you just can't get back to where you were. You're stuck in a totally difficult situation. This is what many, if not all of us, have been going through post-2020.

During the last three quarters of 2020, after the whole COVID-19 situation first started, we were really in a time of trying to assess what was going on. We were playing dodgeball with all kinds of things that were constantly flying at us. It wasn't only the coronavirus that we were dealing with; we were also facing the responses to COVID-19. We dealt with shutdowns, social distancing, and distance learning for our kids. My wife and I have four kids, so they suddenly became homeschooled. My wife worked in the ICU during that time, so she was gone quite a bit. We were all trying to navigate remote work and Zoom meetings. You remember all those Zoom meetings and masks.

Additionally, we had some crazy events in May and June of 2020, including police violence, racial tensions, protests, and riots. Then, we experienced the political insanity of the fall of 2020 and the post-election chaos that followed. Throughout all of that, 2020 was a time of assessing the damage, wondering where we were and what was going on.

As we entered 2021, I think there was a little bit of hope for some change and movement forward. However, that didn't really materialize in the way that many of us anticipated. 2021 became a time of trying to figure out how to get back to where we were pre-COVID. We wanted to return to 2019, which was a pretty good year for a lot of people, myself included. The question became: how do we get back to the path we were on before tumbling down the hill?

A lot of what happened in 2021 made it increasingly clear that we weren't getting back to the path we were on. Then came 2022, which was really a time of assessing.

How did we get into all of this mess? We need to make sure that we don't do something like this again in the future. There was a lot of consternation about all the things that we did wrong in 2020—the wrong steps we took, the wrong turns we made. There was a lot of that going on in 2022. Behind all of the evaluation of the wrong steps and wrong turns, there was a hopeful thought that maybe we could get back to 2019. Perhaps we could return to normal, or the term that I hate and maybe you do as well: the "new normal."

Really, I think that's where we have been for the last two or three quarters of 2020, all through 2021, and all through 2022. I know that's where I have been myself, but I also know, talking with a number of people, that a lot of people have been in the same place over the last few years. It has been a challenging thing, trying to figure out how to get back to where we were.

So now, it's 2023, and I have been thinking a lot about this for the last several months. I have been praying for answers to the question: "Now what?" In 2023, I have been reading through the Scriptures, as I do every single morning. I spend some time in the Scriptures or try to, and oftentimes I will take out my journal to write down thoughts and pray. Since early November, I have been really thinking about how 2023 is coming. We have already been through all the craziness of 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Back in November, I found myself reflecting on my situation. I felt like I was sitting down in a gully, if you will. You're on that high mountain trail, you fall down, you take a wrong step, and now you're down in this gully. I had been down there for too long, trying to figure out how to get back up there or what I could or should have done differently. It was at the beginning of November that I made a decision. I may not know exactly what it is that I ought to be doing, but I need to start thinking differently about how I move forward personally.

While I was in the Philippines teaching at a pastor's conference back in November of last year with my friend Lance, I made a decision that when I get back to the States, I am going to start getting up a little bit earlier.

I spent some focused time in the scriptures with my journal and got back into a routine of running. I started doing that on November 7th. I remember it very clearly because I looked at my journal the other day to see when it was. I began getting up earlier in the morning, spending time just thinking and praying, "Lord, what do you want to speak to me?" I wrote those things down in my journal and then went on a run. I kept doing that every single day for quite a few months—November, December, and coming into January.

I know very clearly because I wrote it down on January 4th of this year, just a few weeks ago. I was running on my treadmill when a word came to me, the word that I want to share with you. If you've been around Cross Connection for a while, you know that there have been a number of years where I've shared a word, thought, or phrase with you at the beginning of the year about where we are going as a church. I do have a word that I think the Lord has given to me for myself personally, but I also think it is for our church.

Before I share with you what that word is, I want to share some stories about three different individuals. The first one is a friend of mine who is a chiropractor. I've known him for about 20 years. He is a Christian and a great guy. He has been working here in North County for probably 30 years, building his practice. I have helped him over the years with web development and other things.

When 2020 came, like with so many business owners, it basically killed his chiropractic practice. For the last three years, he has gone through that whole unmapped territory process that I was talking about, trying to figure out what he could have done differently and what he should do differently. He has been reflecting on how he can get back to 2019, when things were pretty good. He has gone through all of those thoughts: maybe I could have done this, maybe I should have done that, or if I just did this, then that would have happened.

A few months ago, he reached out to me. In fact, I know the exact day because I went back and looked at my text messages. It was the second day after I came back from the Philippines, after I had started getting up early in the morning, reading through the scriptures, and running. He sent me a text and said that he would be closing his practice.

At the end of that month, one individual I know spent all these years building his business, developing a clientele, and establishing a practice. He said, "I've tried to weather the storm of 2020, 2021, and 2022, but I had to close my practice."

The second individual is another friend of mine who runs a martial arts studio in this area. In fact, I trained at his studio years ago, and my youngest son, Elliot, has been attending his classes. He has been building a martial arts business and training students for more than 30 years. However, when 2020 came, like so many other businesses, his was severely impacted. He spent most of his savings trying to keep his business afloat and to pay his staff during the chaos of 2020.

Through all of that, he went through the same process of questioning himself: What if I had done this? Maybe I could have done that? Should I have done something differently? If only I had done something else, then maybe we could get back to where we were in 2019. These are the same thoughts we all experience.

Before I tell you about the third individual, let me connect these two stories. The head of the martial arts studio sent out a text to all the students in December, and since my youngest is a student there, I attended the parent meeting. He said, "Listen, in the New Year, we're going to move our studio to a smaller place because we just can't afford to run it anymore." His student numbers had significantly decreased since 2019, and 2020 had devastated his business.

On January 3rd, I received a text from my chiropractor friend. Instead of closing his practice, he decided to move to a different, smaller location in an effort to keep it going. We have these two individuals: the chaos of COVID-19 destroyed their businesses to the point where they had to make a choice—either close or make a shift.

I got that text from my chiropractor friend on January 3rd, and then on January 4th, while I was running on the treadmill, a word popped into my mind. At the beginning of 2020, I had shared that the word I thought had come to me for that year was "chaos," and that was the unfortunate reality we faced.

The word that I had for 2020, 2021, and 2022 didn't really feel like the chaos went away. As I was thinking about my two friends, the word that came to me was "pivot." The word for this year, 2023, I think that the Lord has given to me, and I believe it's for our church, is the word "pivot."

Now, when I say "pivot," there are things that pop into your mind. If you are a lady between the ages of 35 and 45, when I say the word "pivot," all you can think of is Ross on Friends standing in the hallway with a couch, yelling. That's what you're thinking if you're in that age category. If you're a guy, though, you're probably thinking about basketball. When you're playing basketball, you're dribbling the ball. If you take the ball and stop, you cannot bounce the ball again, or else you get called for double dribbling. You cannot walk because you get called for traveling, but you can pivot on one foot.

So, you're moving with the ball, moving towards the goal, towards the basket. If someone gets in your way, you grab the ball, and you're kind of stuck at that moment. You can't walk, you can't dribble again; you can only pivot to get away from that obstacle and try to open up something new. Those are the things that may come to your mind.

Let me explain to you what I am thinking when I think of the word "pivot." I'm thinking of the third individual I told you I was going to share stories about. The first one was my friend who had a chiropractic practice. The second one was my friend who has a martial arts studio. The third one is someone that, if you've been around church for any length of time, you know who this person is. You've been introduced to him before. His name is Paul.

Paul, in the New Testament book of Acts, follows a lot of his life and ministry. In Acts chapter 16, Paul is on a mission during his second missionary journey to bring the gospel to people who had never heard it before. He has just spent a period of time in Acts chapter 16 in a region of the world that at that time was called Galatia. It was in Galatia, during his first missionary journey, that he, along with another individual by the name of Barnabas, planted a number of churches in the capital or main cities of Galatia. Now, in Paul's second missionary journey, you can read about his first missionary journey in Acts chapter 13, but in Acts chapter 16...

Paul is back in Galatia, ministering to the churches that he had planted in that area. He has with him a guy named Silas, and while they are in Galatia, they pick up another young man by the name of Timothy, who had become a Christian under Paul's ministry during Paul's first missionary journey. So, it's Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

In Acts chapter 16, they are leaving Galatia and heading out on this mission because it was Paul's aim to take the gospel and preach it to people who had never heard it before. They are heading Northwest, and I want to read to you from Acts chapter 16, beginning at verse 6. We read this: "Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mycia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them."

There is a lot in those two verses, Acts chapter 16, verses 6 and 7. There is a whole bunch in those 40 or so words, and yet there is also a lot that those words do not say. Paul, Silas, and Timothy are, if you can imagine geography, in what is modern-day Turkey. If you visualize the Mediterranean Sea, you have Italy in the middle, and if you keep moving east from there, you will hit Israel. If you move a little bit north from there, you will find yourself in Turkey.

They are moving from about South Central Turkey and going Northwest. It's hard for me to do this because it's backwards for me, but for you, they are going Northwest. They have come out of Galatia and are heading towards an area called Mycia. As they continue on their journey, if they turn to the left, they could go down into Asia. The capital city of Asia Minor is the city of Ephesus. However, the text states that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

What does it mean that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit? We do not know. Perhaps there were some dangers that they heard about going in that direction.

Maybe the weather wasn't great going down in that direction. Perhaps they had some sense within themselves that God was saying no; they were not going to go down into the area of Asia Minor. So, they continued on their journey, leaving Galatia behind them and heading kind of northwest. They thought, "All right, we're going to turn left and go into Asia Minor," but the door closed. The Spirit did not allow them to go into Asia Minor, so they couldn't go there.

Eventually, Paul is going to go there, but at this moment, they can't go to the left, and they can't go backward because that's where they came from. They decided to continue on their way. As they moved forward, they considered going northeast toward Bithynia, which is in what we know today as northern Turkey, where Istanbul is located. However, the text says they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.

This creates an interesting scenario. Paul is on a mission, accompanied by Silas and Timothy. They are following the Apostle who had seen the Risen Lord in a vision on the road to Damascus years before. Paul is determined to preach the gospel, and Silas and Timothy are with him. They attempted to go to Asia Minor, but the door closed. They tried to go to the right toward Bithynia, but again, the door closed. They couldn't go backward, left, or right, so what do they do? They just continue moving forward.

The Spirit did not permit them to go left or right, so they had to pivot and shift. As we read in verse 8, passing by Mycenae, they came to Troas. In the night, a vision appeared to Paul: a man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with them, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After he had seen the vision, immediately, they concluded that the Lord had called them to preach the gospel to the people of Macedonia.

This is a significant pivot. They couldn't go back to Galatia, they couldn't go left into Asia Minor because the Lord closed that door, and they couldn't go right to Bithynia for the same reason. They had moved all the way forward until they came to a body of water.

At the edge of the Aegean Sea, Troas is a coastal city. They can't go to Asia Minor, they can't go to Bithynia, and they can't go back to Galatia. They are kind of hemmed in and stuck in this area. Then God gives a vision of a man from Macedonia, which is across the Aegean Sea. This man from Macedonia is saying, "Come help us." So they pivot; they shift. That's where they are. They are at this place where they can't go left, can't go right, and can't go backward. They are stuck at the edge of this coastal city, Troas, and God gives a vision. Now it's time to move. They pivot, and they have to shift.

I think that God has a similar message for us. It is a time of pivot. This is what I see with my friend who has a chiropractic practice. There was hope for several years during all the turmoil that maybe they could get back to where they were in 2019. However, things have changed dramatically. The same goes for my friend with the martial arts studio. They thought maybe they could return to the success of 2019 when everything was growing. But no, they can't get back to 2019. So now they have to make a shift, downsizing and moving in a different direction than where they were.

The same thing happened for the church at the beginning of 2020. Things were moving in a positive direction, and then suddenly, everything changed. Throughout the last few years, there was a hope that things would return to the way they were, but they are not coming back. Things have changed dramatically, and there are very few options. You can sit there and stew, feeling bummed and thinking everything is terrible, or you can shift.

For Paul, this is exactly what we see. He wanted to go to Ephesus, but the door was closed. He wanted to go to Bithynia, but that door was also closed. So what are you going to do? You wait for the Lord to open a door and then move in that direction. I believe God has been saying to me that it is time for a pivot. He may be saying the same thing to you. You might ask, "Is that all you got for me? The word 'pivot'?" Well, not exactly.

What do you do when you are in unmapped territory? You find yourself in a situation you didn't plan for. You can't go back to where you were, so you have to adjust. You have to shift. You have to pivot. You need to reinvest yourself in what you were focused on beforehand and get moving forward. As you do, I think there are five very important things to keep in mind as you begin this process.

Critical essential things can be summarized into five key components: purpose, mission, vision, values, and strategy. If I rewind the clock all the way back to September of 2007, I remember sitting with a group of pastors, contemplating where we were headed in the New Year, not knowing that I would end up taking over the church in 2008. It all comes back to purpose, mission, vision, values, and strategy.

I often discuss these elements when teaching church planting or ministering to pastors in various other areas. Paul, when he found himself in difficult situations, encountered these concepts frequently. It’s like hitting a brick wall; you can’t go left, right, or backward. In those moments, you have to pivot. Imagine dribbling toward the basket, focused on your goal, and suddenly someone steps in front of you, blocking your way. You must stop and pivot. The way to pivot in that moment is to keep purpose, vision, values, and strategy in mind.

Paul knew exactly what his purpose and calling were. He was sent by Christ Jesus to be a messenger of the gospel for the Gentiles. That was his purpose. His mission was straightforward: to fulfill that purpose by preaching the gospel to all people. The mission is always the same: to fulfill the purpose.

Paul had a clear vision in his mind of fulfilling that mission and purpose wherever he went. Whether it was Galatia, Asia, Bithynia, Macedonia, Greece, or Rome, he was determined to fulfill that mission and purpose. He also understood his values, which can be found throughout his letters. Paul wrote 13 letters in the New Testament, and one of his important values is expressed in his letter to the Romans. In Romans chapter 15, verse 20, he states, "And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another's foundation."

Paul had the purpose to preach the gospel to people who had never heard it before. He had a mission to fulfill that purpose and a vision to carry it out in Galatia, Asia Minor, Rome, or Macedonia. That was his vision: to do just that.

He has a value system, and one of the values is right there in Romans chapter 15, verse 20: "I'm going to go where the gospel has never been preached before." His strategy is evident throughout the Book of Acts and in other places as well. He decided to preach to the Jew first in the synagogue and then to the Gentiles. He was determined to go wherever he possibly could. He knew his purpose, mission, vision, values, and strategy.

Now, here we are in 2023. We have been through the chaos of 2020, 2021, and 2022, and many people are trying to get back to where we were in 2019. However, we are never going back there; things are different. There is no going back to 2019. I believe that 2023 is a year where people will begin to realize, like my friend who has the martial arts studio and my friend who has the chiropractic practice, that we are not going back. It is time to adjust, shift, and pivot. This situation has blocked my way, but the goal is still there. I need to regroup and reorganize.

In doing that, you have to answer some pretty important questions. What is it that guides you when you make that shift? There are essential things to consider. First is purpose: What is it that God has called you to do? You need to sit down and take some time, as I have been doing every single morning, to reflect on what God has called you to do. I have a very clear calling from the Lord to use my gifts, talents, abilities, assets, energy, and time—all of those things—to fulfill the mission He has given me, which is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and to build up the body of Christ, as stated in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11.

God spoke to me about this back in January of 1999 when I was asked if I would teach the junior hires here at Calvary Chapel of Escondido, Cross-Connection Church. When I prayed, God said, "This is what I've called you to: to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and to build up the body of Christ."

What has God called you to do with your energy, assets, time, talents, and treasure? He has called you to do something. Maybe He has called you to be a nurse in the nursing field, a doctor, an architect, or a teacher. Perhaps He has called you to be a firefighter or a police officer, or maybe He has called you to be a stay-at-home mom or a stay-at-home dad. I don't know what it is that He has called you to do, but what is the purpose He has given you for your life? Your mission is to fulfill that purpose, and your vision is of you fulfilling that purpose. The values that you have come from the Scriptures. Sometimes we have to go...

Back and regroup. What are the values that I have? They're found here in the Scriptures. The strategy is just how I am going to put those things together. You see, the purpose, the mission, the vision—that's the North Star. That’s what you are guiding yourself by. Sometimes something stands in your way, or you fall down the hill, or whatever it may be. But you have to reorient back towards that purpose, mission, and vision. I'm heading in that direction, and you've got to pivot.

You need to make sure you have that value set in place because the values are going to be the curbs, if you will, on either side that keep you oriented in the right direction. From that, you can build a strategy. My word for you is the word that I think God put on my mind as I was running on the treadmill on January 4th. I was thinking about my friend who is a chiropractor, my friend who runs a martial arts studio, and someone who has become my friend over the years—the Apostle Paul.

Things stand in our way from time to time. The easiest thing to do is to sit down, pout, and be upset, getting angry and depressed. That’s easy. The harder thing is to pivot and say, "All right, it's time to move forward." This is perfectly aligned with where we are going in our studies of the Scriptures this year because we will be preparing to go into the Old Testament book of Joshua, which I think carries exactly the message we need for such a time as this.

In closing, you may ask, "What is this word pivot? What exactly does that mean for Cross-Connection Church?" I have to say I'm not 100% sure. I just know that we are not going back to 2019. You can't continue to sit in the valley crying. Post-2020, it's time to move forward into what God has called us to do as a church and what He has called you to do. What does He want you to do with your time, talents, treasure, energy, and all the abilities that you have for His namesake and for His kingdom?

You can't sit there crying about things and how they didn't quite go the way you thought they would. It's time to pivot, adjust, and start moving towards the goal. I press towards the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That’s what Paul says in Philippians chapter three, one of my favorite passages of Scripture: I press towards the goal. Sometimes, you’ve got to.

Pivot so that you can move in a new direction towards that same goal. God, I pray that you'd help us to be able to do that here in 2023. Give us a vision for any time that we find ourselves in unmapped territory, where we aren't exactly where we thought we were going to be. We just need to reorient so that we can see and gain a vision of where we're going. Now we need to move in that direction. Here's the strategy for it. Lord, help us to do that as you enable us by your Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for joining us for our broadcast today. That was an excellent message, and I pray that it really impacted you. We heard from the Holy Spirit. Again, if you'd like to find out more about Cross-Connection Church, please visit our website at lifeinconnection.com. We would like to invite you to our in-person services at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. here in Escondido, California. So if you're around, you can make it to one of those services.

I would love for you to be here live in person at 8:30 and 10:30. God bless you guys, and have a great week!

Good morning, Cross Connection. It's Pastor Garrett, and I've got a couple of announcements for you. First, this whole month of January, we have been highlighting different areas here at Cross Connection Church where you can be plugged in to serve. We've given you a couple of them, but others include our Usher team, our greeting team, and even our security team outside, keeping us safe.

If you're looking for ways to get plugged in and really live life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ, head over to lifeinconnection.com/serve and get involved. What are you waiting for?

It's also that time of year again—the time when we have to pay our taxes. If you are looking for your 2022 giving statement from Cross Connection Church, we did email all of those out. You can find them in your email, and it will say "Your 2022 Giving Statement." Make sure to look for that. If you don't see it in your inbox, please check your spam or junk folder, as that does happen. I'm a pastor here, and it's happened to me before, so check that out. We did send all those out, and if you need to, just stop by the Connect 5 or our office after the service.

Last but not least, if you're a parent of a junior high or high school student, it would be awesome if you could meet us after the second service at 12 o'clock in the youth room. Pastor Nick and I are going to go over some plans we have for 2023 with your kids and share some of the things that God has been doing in the youth group. We will provide handouts and update you on everything that's going on.

So again, at 12 o'clock, it will be about a 10 to 15-minute meeting, so I promise you won't miss lunch. I hope to see you there!