Becoming Dependable | Sunday, April 26, 2020

Worship our King. Bow at His feet. He has done great things. One Savior has done wonders.

Oh, Hero, You conquered. You break every chain. We can sit in Your freedom, oh Jesus.

Every storm, forever. You are above it all.

The unshakable you have done really. Oh yes, you have. You conquer the grave, you free the captives, and break every chain. Oh Jesus, I save you. We praise you, God, and worship you.

On the day that death surrendered to the mighty cross of Jesus Christ, the earth would shake.

Hello, Cross Connection Church at Home family! We are so blessed to be able to gather together in this virtual environment, especially as we realize that wherever two or more are gathered in Christ's name, there He is in the midst of them.

I think it's even possible and true that when we're gathered together online, we are witnessing God do an amazing thing through the power of technology in the midst of this unprecedented time at Cross Connection Church and with churches throughout the United States and around the world. God is drawing people to Himself with online video churches. For the last eight weeks, virtually every church has become a video multi-site church, and it really is amazing.

As I said last week, I want to welcome those of you who are joining us for the first time in places other than North San Diego County, where our church facility is located. I'm Pastor Miles, and I'm the lead pastor of this church. I am blessed to be able to come into your living room this morning. If you are joining us for the first time, please let us know that you visited and watched this morning by going to the website new.lifeinconnection.com and filling out the form.

Also, before we ask God to meet us in worship, I would ask you to take just a second and send a text message to a friend or a group of friends, inviting them to join us for church at home. Just send them the shortened web address liveccchurch.com so that they can join us. This is a really simple way that you can be faithful to the commission that Jesus gave us two thousand years ago to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Now, I think that we have a really great program planned today. We are blessed to have some guest worship leaders to lead us in worship, and I believe that God wants to meet us and minister to us as we minister to Him in worship.

So, would you bow in prayer with me as we invite Him to meet us? Father, thank You for the honor that it is to come into Your presence with thanksgiving and into Your courts with praise. I pray that even though we are not gathered together in one place, as we are scattered throughout North County San Diego, throughout the state of California, and really throughout the world, You would meet us and be honored through our worship. Guide our time together this morning. We ask this in Your name, Jesus. Amen.

This place, I worship You. I worship You. You are here, working in these rooms. A worshipper, I worship You.

Miracle-worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are. We make a miracle-worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are.

Even when I don't see you working, you are working. He never stopped; he never stopped working. Another star can never stop working. Even when I see you working, even when I don't feel it, you are working. He never stopped; he never stopped working. He never stopped and never stopped.

Welcome and thanks for joining us for church online. I'm Pastor Garrett, and I want to welcome you to Cross Connection Church. I know there are many of you who are new and joining us this morning. I want to encourage you to connect with us; you can do that simply at newlifeinconnection.com.

Perhaps you're like me, and being at home instead of at church with the family of God has just been really weird the last couple of weeks. Especially as the pandemic stretches out, it's been difficult not spending time with people. We're starting to realize more and more that our vision for life in connection is so true: God created us for connection. We would love to connect with you this week through phone calls, emails, and virtually, of course, through the services. We really do miss you all, so go ahead and visit our website. On the homepage, you'll find all the different ways you can connect with us during this pandemic until we can meet again in person.

Our mission this week is the Free Burma Rangers. The Free Burma Rangers are doing an amazing ministry and work of the Lord, not only in Burma but all around the Middle East, liberating people who are internally displaced. This is just an incredible ministry that God has given them. It is not a risk-free ministry; they are in the thick of it, and we are asking for you to be praying for them. In fact, we do have a short video update from the Free Burma Rangers, so go ahead and tune in.

This is Debut Bank from the Free Burma Rangers. Here in Thailand, we work in Burma, Iraq, Syria, Kurdistan, and Sudan. My thought is, I've been praying about this virus. God is bigger than the virus, and that's number one. Number two, we don't want anybody to die. Number three, God will show us each way how to respond. We have teams in Burma right now helping people who are under direct attack by the rebel army. That has not stopped; our teams haven't stopped. We have teams in Kurdistan, Iraq, running an ambulance service.

Wherever you find yourself, ask God, "What can I do?" He is bigger, and He has a way for us to go forward. God is going to answer that for you. We all have different ways; every day is a new day. Jesus is our Lord, and I want to pray.

Father, thank You for Your help. Please stop this virus and ask that each of us responds the way You want us to, in harmony, in love. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's remember to keep the Free Burma Rangers in our prayers.

Burma Rangers are in our prayers this week. In just a moment, Pastor Anthony is going to lead us in a song of worship. This is a time set aside for us, the family of God, to worship the Lord with our giving.

If you came prepared to give today, you can do so in a couple of different ways. First, you can text 84321 on your phone, and there will be instructions to follow. Second, you can give online at giftlifeinconnection.com, or you can simply mail your offering to our church address: 1675 Sevenoaks Road, Escondido, California.

Thank you, everyone, and God bless you. Have a great week in Christ.

How hard I clamor if the mountains were where You hide. How far is it if You graze the other side? Oh, how far my chase rebels from only sings to wither against the rushing. Christ is sent from the source of all.

I will praise You, praise You, and Your Son. I will praise You in the valleys. Let's go within the show.

There is no favor when the night leads me straight. In the highlands, an article of shame follows me. Don't you see? You can't extend where your feet rest on the roads to where you swing the same. You come just a shot, tres masters through.

My summer suit is cool. Please come. The textures are great.

I'm crazy about the mountains and the summit. Some people say no, but let's go within the shadow.

God, we trust. You are the same today as You were yesterday and as You will be tomorrow, regardless of the weather we're going to face.

Through a hard time, whether the pressure of the times or just the pressure of our personal lives is weighing down on us, God, we know that You're still the same. You're still good, You're still faithful, and You're no less God when we're wandering through the shadows and through the valley. We put our hope and our trust in You this morning, and we ask that as we dive into Your Word, would You speak to us? Would You shape us and mold us by the power of Your Spirit and by the power of Your Word? We ask all these things in Jesus' name.

Once again, I want to welcome you to Cross Connection Church at home. We are blessed by all that God is doing through the technology that enables us to be at home with you right now. Myself and the other leaders here at the church are praying for you during this time. As we have said every week during our announcements, I want to reiterate just how important prayer is during this time. I encourage you to be praying for us and allow us to be praying for you.

Please, if you have a prayer request, go to the website prayerlifeinconnection.com and send us your prayer requests. Just two days ago, a family in our church shared with us a miraculous way in which God answers our prayers. One of the family members had gone in for surgery to remove a number of tumors, and we had been praying for him and for his family. On Friday, when the surgeon went in to remove the tumors, there were no tumors to be found. Truly, God hears and answers our prayers.

A lot of people are facing challenging circumstances right now, and I believe that God desires that we would bring our requests to Him in prayer and that we would pray for one another. So please let us know how we can be praying for you at this time.

Secondly, thank you all for the way that you gave last week, both to our general fund and also to our benevolence fund. We're truly encouraged by your willingness to give sacrificially. I know that we just had a time of giving for our tithes and our offerings for our general fund, but if you are wondering how you can give to our benevolence fund to help those who might be in need as a result of coronavirus, you can do so by going to the website heart.lifeinconnection.com.

Calm in the midst of all that we are currently experiencing as a culture, I believe that we are learning new and valuable lessons. These lessons are about ourselves, our families, the companies we are a part of, the organizations we are connected to, and the communities we live in. In many ways, the coronavirus and our global reaction and response to it have been enlightening.

One of the things that has become clear to me through all of this is that I have had a genuine privilege in my vocation as a pastor for the last twenty-plus years. I have been conditioned to search for and research information according to an interpretive method. That's really what pastors do on a regular basis. You may not realize this, but the applied theologians who occupy the pastorate in our nation are well-suited to look at data and information with an unbiased and critical eye. Of course, not all pastors do that; sadly, there are many who do not. However, the ones that I am privileged to work with, whether here at Cross-Connection Church, at Enduring Word, or at Blue Letter Bible, are objective and critical when it comes to interpreting and applying information—not just biblical information.

I have been surrounded by mentors and peers for the last twenty years who are wise, understanding, and knowledgeable, and I am grateful for all of that. Those individuals are like the Jewish men of the tribe of Issachar in the Old Testament book of First Chronicles, Chapter 12. They understood the times and knew what their nation, Israel, ought to do.

In thinking about this and talking to a number of people within our church this last week, I realized that once upon a time, journalists were taught to be objective and critical as well. I think you would probably agree that a lot of what has been happening in our culture right now has exposed that there are many people offering commentary in this moment who are no longer as objective and unbiased as one might hope. Thankfully, some are, but far too few are. This is truly unfortunate, especially when many people in our nation and in the world get the bulk of their information about what is happening through the filtered information of headline news.

This is a challenging time, and I believe that it is incumbent upon all of us, especially those who act as though God exists—Christians—to be the kind of people that can be relied upon for knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and faith. I am speaking primarily to followers of God and members of Cross Connection Church, but even if you are a not-yet follower of God, we need to work to become the kind of people that can be depended upon in times of chaos and crisis. We need to be the kind of people that can speak order out of chaos.

Now, how do you do that, you might ask? Well, first, you become dependent upon God yourself, and then you work to become Christ-like. God is the Logos that spoke into the dark, pre-cosmogonic chaos of Genesis chapter 1 and said, "Let there be light." With His word, He ordered the chaos.

You may say, "Well, I'm not sure that that's even possible—to speak order out of chaos." Really, I see it happen routinely. I see it happen when a person's life gets turned upside down and is disintegrated by a terminal diagnosis, divorce, or the death of a loved one, or the destruction of their livelihood. Who do people reach out to when that happens? More often than not, they call the church; they call a pastor. Why? Well, because pastors hopefully have spent enough time with the One who brings order out of chaos, so they can speak that same kind of life-giving Logos into the chaos of that disintegrated and disordered life.

For a lot of people, coronavirus is just the latest chaotic happening that has revealed how totally disintegrated and disordered their lives already are. In more than 20 years of pastoral ministry, I can't even begin to count the number of lives that I have watched be reassembled, reintegrated, reconstituted, and transformed by the simple, clear working of God's Word. For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any...

The two-edged sword pierces even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We need to work to become the kind of Christ-like people that can be depended upon during times of chaos and crisis. You may not be that yet, but you could be. Your life might be a mess, but by the grace of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the working of His living and powerful Word, God can transform you and me to extract habitable order out of our chaos, just as He did in Genesis chapter 1. He can accomplish this by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and perfect, acceptable will of God.

This is exactly what God set out to do in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament of the Bible, God brought order out of chaos in Genesis 1 and 2. Then, man disordered and disintegrated all that God had accomplished in the third chapter of the Bible through his disobedience, rebellion, and sin. The story that continues in Genesis, onward through Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament, is God's story of reordering chaos that was brought about by our sin.

The passage we are in this morning, in Deuteronomy chapter 1, is just the continuation of all that God is intending to do in this world to bring about order out of chaos—the chaos that we have had a hand in creating. Before this home church experiment started eight weeks ago, we began a study in the book of Deuteronomy. In the passage we are in, Moses has been speaking to the people of Israel and reminding them of their history that led to the current situation they were in. The historic details Moses was recounting were important, as they would be helpful in making the people of Israel wise for the challenges that lay before them.

They were before them as they were preparing to enter into the Promised Land that had been promised to them nearly five hundred years earlier. They were about to do what those who had come before them had failed to do. Their parents and grandparents had failed to move into the land thirty-eight years prior to where we find Israel in Deuteronomy chapter one. They failed to do so because they had knowledge of what was before them, according to promised land experts, but they failed to mix that knowledge with understanding, wisdom, and faith.

The most strikingly insane part of the Exodus generation story is that the previous generation chose not to rely upon God. Instead, they witnessed the death of every one of them outside of the Promised Land rather than trusting in God and seeing some of them die inside the Promised Land as they battled to take possession of it by faith. Instead of walking in wisdom, understanding, and faith, they wandered and died in the wilderness for nearly forty years. Clearly, the decisions we make today, governed by fear, may have long-lasting and devastating effects for decades.

Before Deuteronomy chapter one, the people of Israel, led by their fears, chose to retreat when faced with the potential of hardship. We read in Deuteronomy chapter one, beginning in verse thirty-four, that the Lord heard the sound of their words, informed by fear, self-reliance, and unbelief. He was angry and took an oath, saying, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good of the land which I swore to give to your fathers. As for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." Because of their lack of trust and reliance upon God, Israel failed to inherit the Promised Land and went right back toward the life of bondage from which they had been redeemed.

What was their response to God when He declared that not one of them would see the good of the land which He promised to give to their fathers? Deuteronomy chapter one, verses forty-one through forty-six says, "Then you answered and said to me, 'We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up.'"

And fight just as the Lord God commanded us. When every one of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain. The Lord said to me, "Tell them, do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be defeated before your enemies." So I spoke to you, yet you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the mountain. The Amorites came out against you and chased you like bees, driving you back from Hormah.

Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.

This is one of those really strange passages in the Old Testament that makes a lot of people scratch their heads in confusion when they first read it. It is strange because they ask, "Didn't God want them to go up into the Promised Land?" Then, seconds later, when they went up, He was upset with them for trying to enter the Promised Land. What on earth is going on?

If you're confused about this and the way that God is revealed to us in the Old Testament, I understand your confusion. It can be perplexing until you set this situation in its place within the larger narrative. God is a God of order. In Genesis 1, we see God bringing order out of chaos. However, in Genesis chapter 3, humanity, through their disobedience and rebellion, reintroduced chaos into God's order through their sin.

The whole remaining story of the Old Testament and the arc of the story through the New Testament is all about God, the God of order, working to bring about order again through redemption. Israel and the Promised Land were central to this entire redemptive story and plan of God. However, this redemptive plan of God could not be accomplished by man's independence and self-reliance. That is what caused the problem in the first place. The land was promised to Israel by God, and the Promised Land was going to be possessed only as a result of Israel's dependence or enlightened reliance upon God.

Self-reliance. They said we can't go up into the land because there are fortified cities and giants in the land. There is no dependence upon God. Then, when God responded to their unbelief, they renewed their self-reliance, saying, "We've got our weapons of war. We're going up into the land whether God is with us or not." But God said, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be defeated before your enemies."

Moses reminds Israel, 38 years later, that their parents and grandparents would not listen but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord. They presumptuously went up into the mountain, proudly, arrogantly, insolently, and rebelliously. Israel sought to fulfill God's plan, but none of those words go together with God's work and plan. One person once observed that nothing good can come when the will is wrong.

Why, four decades later, was Moses reminding them of this? And why are we, 3,400 years later, reading about it? Because they were about to move up into the promised land that their parents and grandparents had failed to possess. They would possess it only by total reliance and dependence upon God. As we move forward in all that God has for us, we will only be successful if we are dependent upon God as well.

God's aim is to make you the kind of person that can be depended upon at a time of chaos and crisis. But that is only possible as you become a person who depends upon Him to make you the kind of person He wants you to be. Only by your dependence upon God can He make you the dependable person you desire to be. I think that every one of us desires to be that kind of person—the kind of person who is reliable and dependable when everything is chaotic.

However, times like these reveal just how lacking we are in and of ourselves. When confronted with challenges, we see our littleness in light of the difficulties we face. That's actually not a bad thing because it is in that place, a place of humility, that we most often meet God. The Scriptures teach that God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. This is a great truth.

This is your opportunity, whether you have already affirmed your trust and reliance upon God or not, to do so again or for the first time. Quoting the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Joel, the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament book of Romans, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between ethnic groups of Jews or Greeks. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

This is your opportunity to call upon the name of the Lord and to receive His grace, forgiveness, and salvation. Then, you will see Him transform you as you depend upon Him to become the kind of person who others can depend upon in chaos and crisis.

I want to invite you today, if you've never put your trust and faith in Jesus, to do just that. Take a moment to pause and pray in the midst of everything that is going on, which may be bombarding you, distracting you, and making you fearful. Acknowledge your own sin and ask Jesus to come into your life, to forgive you of your sin, and to give you His grace and salvation, just as the Scriptures say in that passage I quoted from Romans chapter 10. If you call upon the Lord, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes, and with the mouth one makes confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. He will come in, redeem, transform, and save you.

I also want to speak this morning to those of you who have done that before, but maybe it has been many years since you found yourself in a church. Even though we are not in a church building right now, you are in a place where God wants to minister to you. He is calling you to turn to Him, to repent, and to confess Him once again as Lord. So, whether this is the first time you have ever done that or maybe you did this many years ago, I want to invite you this morning to put your trust and faith in Jesus by simply praying a prayer of faith, acknowledging your own sinfulness, and asking Him to come into your life.

Your life is important, and I want to leave you in that prayer right now. If you'd like to do that at home, all you have to do is simply call out to the Lord. Prayer is just talking to God, and because He is omniscient, all-knowing, and omnipresent, He hears and knows what you're praying. So, wherever you are—whether you're sitting on the couch at home or watching this on a cell phone or a tablet—you can just bow in prayer and pray with me now.

This is a very simple prayer: Dear Jesus, I recognize that I need You. I acknowledge that I'm sinful and have broken Your commandments. I pray that You would forgive me of my sin, that You would come into my life, transform me by Your Spirit, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Listen, if you prayed that prayer today, I very much want to know about it. We at Cross-Connection Church would love to rejoice with you and potentially send you a Bible if you need one. If you did pray that prayer, you can send us a message by going to the website commit.lifeinconnection.com. Just fill out the form that is there. I promise we're not going to spam you a whole bunch, but we would love to connect you with the church if you're not already connected, or we would love to send you a Bible if you don't have one. So please go ahead and reach out to us in that way.

For the rest of you, we want you to know that we are praying with and for you. Once again, I want to emphasize this point that I made during our announcements at the beginning of this message. We want to be praying with you, and we want to know what your prayer requests are. If you need prayer, please reach out to us so that we can lift you up to the Lord and intercede on your behalf. Go to the website prayer.lifeinconnection.com and follow along with us. Reach out to us so we can pray with you.

In the spirit of that, let me close in prayer now. Father God, thank You so much for the work that You are doing in spite of our littleness. Lord, You are able to do great things. You're able to do, just as the Scriptures say, exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. I pray, God, that You would work through what is happening with Cross-Connection Church, the other churches in our area, and the churches around the world as we are...

Seeking to reach into this world through technology right now, I ask God that You just draw people to Yourself and that You would do a work that would absolutely blow our minds. God, thank You for how You continue to bless and provide for Your church and to work through Your church. Would You pour out a blessing upon Your people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I will not be shaken by brokenness and pain. I will not be shaken. The captive is set free from the lies.

Father, the Scriptures say that You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. As we stand in Your love, we experience Your grace and Your power by Your Holy Spirit.

I pray for Your church, scattered throughout the county and the world, that You would give them a strong sense of Your presence.

We would sense your abiding love and that we would stand in that love and not in fear, because you have not given us a spirit of fear. We praise you for that truth today.

Now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace.

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.