Back to the Book… | Sunday, February 6, 2022

Welcome to Cross Connection Church Online. We're so grateful that you're joining us today. Before we get started, we want to let you know that if you're interested in any information about Cross Connection Church, you can check out our website at LifeInConnection.com.

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Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? King of Glory, King above all kings. Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder and leaves us breathless in awe and wonder? King of Glory, King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life so that I would be set free. Jesus, I say, for all that you've done for me.

Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? King of Glory, the King of Glory. Who rules the nations with truth and justice? Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The King of Glory, the King above all kings.

This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life so that I would be set free. Jesus, I say, for all that you've done for me.

Well, it has been a long time since we were back in the book of Deuteronomy on Sunday mornings. I've had a number of people ask me over the last many months when we are going to get back to the book of Deuteronomy. That's because I began a series of teachings in the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible, back at the end of January 2020, which is almost exactly two years ago to the day.

But after all that has transpired over the last 24 months, that seems like eons ago. It seems like a decade has passed in two years. Back when we began our study of the book of Deuteronomy, I called that series we started in early 2020 "Bordering Blessing." That's because the people of Israel, the children of Israel, when the events surrounding the book of Deuteronomy happened, were on the border of the promised land of blessing.

Moses, the leader of the nation of Israel at that time, was preparing the people to enter into the promised land and come into all that God had promised for them to have. He was preparing for his departure and his death, so he was readying the people for a new leader. When we began our study in the book of Deuteronomy, I felt like we, as a church here at Cross Connection Church, were also on the brink of something significant.

We also were, in a sense, bordering what I thought was a period of blessing. Now, looking back over the last couple of years, the last 24 months, it feels like we actually left the border of blessing. Instead of entering the promised land, we headed back out into the wilderness. For those of you who know the story of Israel through the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you understand that they spent some 38 years in the wilderness before they came to the border of blessing at the time of Deuteronomy.

It feels like, though we as a church were about to step into what I assumed, and I think several of our leaders here at this church assumed, would be a time of fruit, growth, and blessing, we instead stepped back into a period of wilderness wandering for a little while. The last two years have been challenging. Though in some ways it is hard to complain about all the things that have happened, the fact is we are still here, and God is still on the throne. The world has not come to an end quite yet, even though some people feel like it is on the verge of ending. We are all still here, and praise God, I believe He has work for us to do yet.

Back two years ago, when we started the series in the book of Deuteronomy, the church had been in a period of growth. We were experiencing growth, and our leadership team was considering adding a fourth service to our Sunday morning services. At that point in time, we had three Sunday morning services here at the church, and things seemed to be moving in a very positive direction—a fruitful season. However, fruitful seasons often follow times of pruning, and we, in some respects, have spent a couple of years feeling like we have been pruned as a ministry and as a church.

This is not just our experience here at Cross Connection Church. I interact with many other pastors in different places, and they feel the same way. Seven weeks after we began our study in Deuteronomy at the end of January 2020, our world— not just our area here in Southern California, but the entire world—was turned upside down by COVID. Two years later, there are still some things that feel rather chaotic and a little bit inverted.

Two weeks to slow the spread has turned into 24 months, so a couple of years have passed with all of that. The only thing that I think we can be completely certain about is that God is on the throne and that He was not surprised by the things we are going through. I believe we can be certain that He is working. Though we cannot always see all of the details, we can trust, according to what we are taught in the Scriptures, that God is working all things together for good. Somehow and in some way, God is working all things together for the good.

Here in our service on Sunday morning, this last week in the sanctuary, our worship team sang a song just before I began teaching that actually referenced that passage of Scripture from Romans 8, verse 28, where Paul says, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." I hope that you are a person who is in a relationship with God. You love God, and you have been called according to His purposes. Then you can trust that God is working. He is working in and through your life, and I believe He is going to continue to work in and through your life. He is going to complete the work that He started in you until the day of Christ Jesus, until we come into His presence.

One of the challenging things when things are shaken up and turned upside down, when we are in the midst of what we would probably call trials, as the Scriptures would call them, is that we can't exactly see what God is doing. We walk by faith and not by sight. Not only can we not see what God is doing, but we can't see how He is doing it or sometimes why He is doing it. Sometimes you might find yourself in a place where you're saying, "God, why are You doing what You're doing? Why is this happening this way?" We don't always have the answer to the why questions or the what and how questions because we do walk by faith and not by sight.

In the midst of those circumstances, when we are walking by faith and not by sight, we are tempted to try to work things out on our own. Now, maybe you don't struggle with that temptation; I certainly do. I'm one of those people who is kind of like a problem solver that wants to go in and try to fix things when they seem to be a little bit out of order and not going the way I want them to. I think that the proper thing to do, though, when things are uncertain and unclear, is to stop and to wait upon the Lord. But waiting upon the Lord is not always easy.

I am not the most patient person. I don't like to confess that, but it is a reality. Maybe you struggle with being a little impatient as well. I don't like to wait. Uncertain and unclear trials are a challenge. However, when you look at the Scriptures, they reveal that trials are an opportunity for our personal growth. I believe they also present an opportunity for the growth of the body of Christ in the Church.

The Apostle James, in the New Testament letter, the Book of James, refers to these trials—these times of uncertainty and lack of clarity—as the testing of our faith. He explains in James 1 that the testing of our faith produces good things in our lives. One of the things it can build in our lives is patience. I won't say that it's automatic, but patience ultimately leads to maturity. Patience will have its perfect work in you, making you complete or mature, lacking nothing.

An important truth to learn as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, is that uncertain and unclear times of trial are often opportunities for our growth in Christlikeness. God is trying to develop character in me and in you. He is working to grow us more and more into the image of His children. This growth happens when we can wait patiently upon the Lord, trusting in Him through the midst of those challenges. Patient waiting has a perfecting effect in my life.

The prophet Isaiah observed this in Isaiah chapter 40. He writes in Isaiah 40:31 that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. Those are really good words from the prophet Isaiah, and I think it is very possible that someone watching this morning needs to be reminded of that truth today. Waiting on the Lord is difficult, but it is also fruitful.

King David, in Psalm 27:14, encourages us to wait for the Lord. COVID has tested our faith and our patience. It certainly has tested my faith and my patience. Additionally, not finishing the Book of Deuteronomy has been a test of patience for me as well.

For some of the people in our church who have really wanted me to get back to the book, we are now going to return to the book of Deuteronomy. This is a book that we started just prior to COVID. We would stop and start throughout COVID, coming back to Deuteronomy and then deviating from it because there were some lessons that God wanted to teach us outside of this book. However, I believe that now God has some things He wants to speak to us.

My goal in coming back to the book of Deuteronomy is to really zero in on those things that I think God wants to communicate to us now as a church, for such a time as this, considering the things we are going through. In returning to the book, we do need to do a bit of a review because we left Deuteronomy in February of last year, and at that time, we were in chapter nine. Since we have been out of the book for a year, I need to remind you that, in some ways, this book serves as a book of review.

Deuteronomy is also, as I mentioned during our previous discussions, a primer for understanding the work of God throughout the rest of the Old Testament. It is a book of review in that Moses is reviewing the law of God and reminding the people of God about His workings in and through them during the period leading up to this point, where they are now at the border of the promised land. They are getting ready to enter and conquer the promised land.

Moreover, Deuteronomy serves as a primer for the rest of the Old Testament. Israel's history in the promised land and God's ministry to them through the prophets is centered around everything that God says in this book. In other words, what happens with Israel and God's dealings with them after they enter the land is premised on everything outlined in Deuteronomy.

This means that God's dealings with Israel in the historical books of the Old Testament—books like Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and so on—along with His work through the prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Obadiah, are all determined by the covenant detailed in this book. In many ways, a prophet in Old Testament times, such as Isaiah or Jeremiah, could look at the events happening in society in Israel during his day.

And then he could look at the book of Deuteronomy. As he was looking through the lens of what God spoke in the book of Deuteronomy, he could speak to the children of Israel authoritatively about what God was going to do. Many times, an accurate prediction from the prophet in the Old Testament is just the result of being able to understand conditional outlines: if this, then that. So, if you're doing A, B, and C, then you're going to get D, E, and F. This is exactly what's outlined in the book of Deuteronomy. We will see this when we get to Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Coming back to chapter 9, we read this in Deuteronomy 9, verse 1: "Hear, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today and go in to dispossess the nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?' Therefore, understand today that the Lord your God is he who goes before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you."

That's kind of a big leap to jump right back into the story, and I think it requires that we answer the question: how did Israel get to this point? Or perhaps, how did we get to this point with Israel? To answer that question, we need a contextual refresher to see what exactly is happening in this passage.

The children of Israel are on the border of the promised land. They are about to enter into and take possession of the land that God had promised to their father Abraham all the way back in Genesis chapter 12. If you followed along with my message last week, I referenced the call of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. After Abraham followed God when God called him, we read this in Genesis chapter 12, beginning at verse 4: "So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran. They departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Morah. The Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants, I will give this land.'"

And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. The promised land was promised to Abraham and his descendants by God here in this passage in Genesis chapter 12, verse 7.

At the end of Genesis, the descendants of Abraham, or the children of Israel, leave the land of Canaan. They leave the promised land and go down to Egypt, where they stayed for more than 400 years. When we pick back up with the children of Israel in the book of Exodus, they are no longer just a large family in Egypt; they have become a sizable nation. There are at least 200,000, maybe more, people gathered there among the children of Israel in Egypt after 400 years in that area. They are in bondage as slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh.

In their bondage, they cried out to the Lord God for deliverance, and God heard their cry. As God hears their cry, He appears to Moses in Exodus chapter 3. We read in Exodus chapter 3, verse 6, "Moreover, He said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'" Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

The Lord said, "I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you, Moses, to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

The story of Exodus, at least the first third of the story, is about God's deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Moses was to bring Israel out of Egypt to the mountain of God in Sinai, and that's exactly what he did. There in Sinai, God established His covenant with Israel, and Israel built a tabernacle before the Lord so God could dwell in the midst of His people.

After spending two years in that area receiving the law from God and building the tabernacle, Israel set out from Sinai to go to the promised land. This is really the story of the whole of Exodus and Leviticus.

And then they come to the border of the promised land for the first time, and it's recorded in Numbers chapter 13. They don't enter into the promised land the first time. Why don't they enter into the promised land? The story of Israel in the books of Exodus and Numbers is a story of a stubborn, rebellious, and unbelieving people—a sinful people. These stories, though they are 3,400 years old, are important to us because we are often also stubborn, rebellious, and unbelieving. We are a sinful people as well.

That's why in the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, "Now all these things happened to them, to Israel, as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."

So, Moses, just prior to Israel's entry into the land that God had promised to Abraham some 400 years prior, reminds Israel of all the things in their history. He reviews their history to prepare them to come into the promised land. As we return to this text in Deuteronomy, I want to remind you of some important things we learned from this passage a year ago when we studied Deuteronomy chapter 9. As we prepare to step back into Deuteronomy over the next few months, look at Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 3.

There we read, "But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire, and he will devastate and subdue them, your enemies, before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you. When the Lord your God drives them out from before you, do not say to yourself, 'The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.' Instead, the Lord will drive out those nations before you because of their wickedness. You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness in order to keep the promise that he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people."

I hope you see the theme as I was reading through that section of Scripture. There is a repetition of a theme in that passage. We studied this a year ago in February of 2021.

It is important for us to return to these truths over and over again, especially those found in this passage. Israel was not delivered from Egypt or blessed with the promised land because of their righteousness. You have not been saved from bondage to sin and death because of your goodness. Just like the children of Israel, we are a stiff-necked, stubborn, rebellious, and often unbelieving people, and we frequently fall into sin.

Do not think that the blessings and privileges God has given you are the result of your righteousness or worthiness. As I shared a year ago when we were in this passage, beware of the snare of self-righteousness. The fastest path to a fall is self-righteousness. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." In his letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote in Galatians 6:3, "Therefore, if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

To the Ephesians, Paul said, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." We have not received the riches of blessing and grace because we are worthy or deserving. These gifts are given to us because God is good and gracious. Israel was delivered because of God's goodness and grace. I was delivered from sin, and you were rescued from sin—not because we deserve it, but because God is loving and merciful. God rescues us in spite of ourselves and because of His grace. He rescued you in spite of yourself and because of His grace.

Prior to this section in Deuteronomy chapter 9, Moses emphasized this same point to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 7. Look at Deuteronomy 7:7: "The Lord was devoted to you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your fathers. He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of your slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." Know that Yahweh, your God, is God, the faithful God.

Who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Because God was faithful to his promise and because of his love, he rescued Israel, and for the same reason, he has delivered you and he’s delivered me.

Remember, the fastest path to a fall is self-righteousness. Look at what Moses goes on to tell Israel in the rest of this passage in Deuteronomy chapter 9, beginning at verse 7. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place. You provoked the Lord at Horeb, and he was angry enough to destroy you.

Then down in verse 16, you quickly turned from the way the Lord had commanded you. In verse 23, you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and did not believe or obey him. You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you.

I'm really not sure I can say it any better than I did a year ago, so I'm just going to return to a point that I made on this exact passage a year ago. The safeguard against self-righteousness is to humbly remember my failures and God's grace. Let me say that again: the safeguard against self-righteousness is to humbly remember my failures and God's grace. This is a potent and important lesson that each of us needs to be reminded of frequently. Our confidence is never in ourselves.

Some of Christ's harshest words were reserved for the self-righteous of his day. One of the most self-righteous figures around the time of Christ, before his conversion, was the Apostle Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus before he became the Apostle Paul. He writes about his foolish self-righteousness in Ephesians chapter 3, where he says, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation, for we are the circumcision who worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so, because I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Paul, before he came to Christ, had this bloated, self-important view. He believed that he was perfect according to his keeping of the law.

And it wasn't until Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, came to the recognition that he was the chief of sinners that he could receive all of God's grace. After that, he became the Apostle of grace, the one who wanted to share God's grace with everybody all the time. He says this in 1 Timothy chapter 1: "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."

It was only after Paul saw his true self, saw who he truly was, that he could see clearly enough to understand that the flesh profits nothing. Immediately after speaking about his confidence in the flesh in Philippians chapter 3, he mentions that there are some people who think they can have confidence in their flesh, but he had even more. After discussing his perfect pedigree and how he lived according to the law, he says in verse 7: "But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."

Paul came to understand that it was not because of all the good things he had done or the good person that he was that he received God's grace, mercy, call, and blessing. As a reminder to Israel that they had always been, in the past, a stiff-necked, stubborn, and rebellious people with a sinful nature, Moses writes this in Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 7: "Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place. You provoked the Lord at Horeb, and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. When I went up to the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant of the Lord that he had made, I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread nor drink water. On the day of the assembly of the Lord, he gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by God's finger. The exact words were on them, which the Lord spoke to you from the fire of the mountain."

The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, at the end of the 40 days and 40 nights. The Lord said to me, "Get up and go down immediately from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them. They have made a cast image for themselves."

God rescued Israel out of Egypt. He saved them with mighty miracles that they could see. They could see God's power. He brought them across the Red Sea on dry ground. He fed them with miraculous manna while they were in the wilderness. He gave them water to drink out of rocks. Then, within a matter of months, they were dancing around a golden idol, saying, "This is the God that brought us out of Egypt."

Now, Moses doesn't speak these things to them to demoralize or belittle them. He does so that they would have an honest assessment of their nature. As Deuteronomy 9 continues, Moses reminds the children of Israel of their unwillingness to enter the promised land 38 years before, as recorded in Numbers. He reminds them of their stubborn unbelief. He says in verse 23, "When the Lord sent you to Kadesh Barnea, He said, 'Go up and possess the land I have given you.' And you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not believe or obey Him. You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you."

Again, Moses is not bringing these things up to belittle or demoralize Israel. He's not trying to make them have a horribly low view of themselves, but he wants them to have a high view of God's greatness, love, and mercy. God's grace is all the more glorious against the backdrop of our sinful failings. Moses said, "You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you." Yet, even in their rebellion, even in their stubbornness, God loved them, and He loves you as well.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says, "But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, has made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you were saved. And He raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ."

You see, the awesome thing that we find when we read through the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, whether it's in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 7 or chapter 9, or it's in the book of Ephesians, is the consistent message of God's love and grace toward His people.

God doesn't love me because I'm lovable. He loves me because He is love. That's exactly what He does. He didn't save me because I'm good or worthy, or because there was something really great about me that enticed Him to want to have me in His family. He delivered me, and He saves you because He is great.

I have found that the book of Deuteronomy and the story of God's dealings with Israel in the whole of the Old Testament are beautiful reminders of these great truths: that God is love and He is gracious. As we go through the book of Deuteronomy, I think we will see God's love and His grace unfolding through these themes. I hope that it becomes more and more of a reality to you as we explore these passages.

Father God, I pray that You would open our hearts to Your word and that You would speak to us by Your Spirit. Continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds as we consider the way that You worked in and through the children of Israel for the purpose of bringing them into the promised land. Ultimately, You would be able to bring through them the great promise given to us in the Scriptures: the promise of salvation that is only found in You. So God, open our hearts to Your word, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.

You would bear my cross. You would lay down Your life that I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for.

All that you've done for me. Thanks for joining us for our online service today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our on-campus service here at Cross Connection Church, at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. every Sunday. Also, if you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, make sure you check it out at LifeInConnection.com.

Hey, Cross Connection, it's Pastor Garrett here. I'm so glad that you could join us for church this morning. We're glad that you're here, and we want to welcome you to Cross Connection Church. This week, I have a couple of announcements for you. The first being, we want you to start the year off being plugged in here at Cross Connection Church. The best way for you to do that is through our Connect Groups.

Connect Groups are just a group meeting in one of your homes, eating dinner together, and having a great time. Some Connect Groups have young kids and families, while others consist of younger adults, older adults, or a mix of both. Some are on one side of town, and some are on the other side. Check them out! Seriously, you're going to have such a great time at a Connect Group. We'd love for you to get plugged in.

Of course, if you would like to open up your home and you're already part of a Connect Group, but you're thinking, "I have a nice home where we can meet and some space to invite people from church over," ask one of the pastors. We would love to get you plugged in as a new Connect Group leader. So don't wait! Again, we've been announcing this for a couple of weeks. If you've been thinking about joining a Connect Group, just do it. You won't be disappointed. We really do want you in our Connect Groups because it is a fantastic time of fellowship, spending time with each other in prayer, community, and over some delicious food.

So check that out at connect.lifeandconnection.com.

Next, for all you parents of high school and junior high students, just a quick save the date. Our summer camp on Catalina Island is going to be from June 22nd through the 25th. That's a Wednesday through a Saturday. I just want you guys to mark that on your calendars for your students so we can get that planned.

Sign-ups will be live shortly, so keep an eye out for that. We will be doing some fundraisers here over the next few weeks and months to raise money for our students to get to camp. It's going to be a fantastic time, and I'm really looking forward to it. For more information, visit www.connectlife.org.