Beware of Stumbling Blocks | Sunday, August 2, 2020

Good morning, Cross Connection Church at home, and welcome to the front room of my home. Just like last week, I am coming to you from my house. This morning, I want to welcome you to church online and thank you for tuning in to our weekly broadcast. It has been my prayer every single week that this is an encouragement to your walk with Jesus and that God is helping you to grow in your faith as we worship together and study the Scriptures together.

It is also my prayer that God is using this to reach people who are far from Him. One of the things we've been asking you to do every single week is to send out an invite to a friend or a group of friends to invite them to come and join us for church online. The fact is, they will probably tune in if you invite them. So, would you take just a moment before we go over to Pastor Anthony and our worship team to send a text message to a friend or group of friends? Invite them to join us at live.ccchurch.com for our time of worship and our time of study this morning.

With that, let's go over to Pastor Anthony.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You again, Lord, for this day that we can come and just lavish our love on You, pouring out our praise unto You. Lord God, we know that You don't need it; You don't require it, but You love to hear our praises. We thank You for Your mercy and grace that reigns this morning in our lives. We thank You, Lord God, for how good You've been to us and how faithful You are, even when we are not faithful.

With that, Lord, You deserve all the worship from our hearts and true adoration. So we praise You. God, bless our time now, we pray, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

I searched the world; it couldn't fill me.

A man's empty praise and treasures of faith are never enough. Then you came along and put me back together. Every desire is now satisfied here in your love. Oh, there's nothing better than You. There's nothing better than You. Nothing is better than You.

I'm not afraid to show You my weakness, my failures, and flaws. Lord, You've seen them all, and You still call me friend. The God of the mountain is the God of the valley, and there's not a place Your mercy and grace won't find me again.

Oh God, there's nothing better than You. Nothing is better than You. You turn mourning to dancing.

You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who cares. You turn shame into glory; you turn bones into armies.

Oh, there's nothing better than You. There's nothing better than You, Lord. There's nothing better than You. No, it's true. Oh, there's nothing better than You, God. Nothing is better than You.

You turn bones into armies. You're the only one who cares.

Again, welcome! Thanks for tuning in today to Cross Connection Church as we bring you...

Church at home, I'm Pastor Garrett here at Cross Connection Church. We're all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. One of the ways that we encourage you to do this here at Cross Connection is through prayer. We see God answer so many prayers here, and the Scripture commands us to pray all the time.

In fact, if you've been doing the 31 Days of Prayer with us that just ended at the end of July, it was a fantastic time where we got to pray together. Andrew Murray led us into prayer, and we want to be praying with and for you this week. Let us know how we can be praying for you. You can put all your prayer requests on prayer.lifeinconnection.com, and we'll be praying with and for you this week.

For all other points of connection, check out our homepage at lifeinconnection.com, where you'll find all the other ways to get connected with us pastors and what's going on here at the church. You'll also find all the recent updates about Cross Connection Church.

For our mission this week, I'm going to be asking you to pray for Sue Refugio. Sue Refugio means "His Refuge." They are a group that operates in Peru, Paraguay, and Argentina, and they are doing a fantastic job. Their mission and vision align with James 1:27, where the Scripture commands us to care for the orphans and widows in need and do it for the glory of God. I have to say, church, they do a great job of this, and they bring a lot of glory to God in the meantime.

They provide not only education for kids but also refuge, food, and vocational training for single moms and widows. It's just a fantastic organization, and they do it all for the glory of God while sharing the gospel of Christ with many people in those three countries. So, continue to pray for Sue Refugio this week and check out their website at superfugio.org. It is truly a great organization, and we are super blessed to be partnered with them in ministry.

In just a moment, we're going to be joining Pastor Anthony in a time of worship. This will be a song where we set aside some time to worship the Lord with our giving. This is something that we, as your pastors, encourage you to do if you see Cross Connection Church as your home church. The Bible says that we are blessed when we give to the kingdom of God, and we definitely are. So, we will be setting aside this next song for a time of offering.

There are different ways that you can give and be blessed. First, you can go on our website at give.lifeinconnection.com. Second, you can text the number 84321 on your cell phone with any amount, and it will start the process. Third, you can simply mail your tithe to our church office here at 1675 Seven Oaks Road in Escondido, California.

With that, let's go ahead and join Anthony in worshiping the Lord together. God bless you all! We'll see you next week.

The Lord bless you and keep you; may His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

And give you peace. Amen. May His favor be upon you and a thousand generations, and your children, and their children, and their children. May His favor be upon you and a thousand generations, all around you and within you. He is with you. He is with you in the morning, in the evening, and you're coming and you're going.

And beside you is Heavenly Father. We are so thankful for You, Lord, that You are for us and that You are with us. God, we want to serve You every day; we want to walk in Your will. Thank You for going before us. Thank You for loving us. Let us bless You, serve You, and further Your kingdom. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Every preaching pastor has experienced.

As you get everything ready to prepare your message for Sunday, your brain hits a brick wall. It's a challenging experience. Many of you might remember back to when you were in college or university, experiencing what is commonly referred to as writer's block. It can be very frustrating. However, in more than 20 years of pastoral preaching ministry, I've learned that more often than not, when that happens, it generally means that you need to wait, think, and pray a bit about what God may want you to do differently in the moment.

We have been studying in Deuteronomy. We began our study in Deuteronomy at the beginning of 2020, and I was very much looking forward to this study through the book. I was excited because I am a student of the Old Testament. However, I had spent the previous 12 years as the pastor of Cross Connection Church, preaching almost entirely through the New Testament.

For those of you who are new to the Bible, the Bible is a book of books—66 books to be exact. It is divided into two sections: the Old Testament, which is the first 39 books of the Bible, and the New Testament, which is the last 27 books. When I became the pastor of this church in April of 2008, we were about three-quarters of the way through the Gospel of Luke, which is in the New Testament.

Those of you who have been around the Bible for a while know that the Gospel of Luke is an account of Jesus's life and ministry, written in the first century by a Greek physician and historian named Luke. Luke was also the one who wrote the follow-up account to the Gospel of Luke, chronicling the early history of the church. So, immediately after finishing our studies in the Gospel of Luke back in 2008, we went right into part two, the Book of Acts. We spent the next decade studying through the 27 books of the New Testament, with the Book of Acts as our timeline.

As I mentioned, I am a big student of the Old Testament. In fact, I have taught Old Testament books like Isaiah and Jeremiah at a local Bible college for many years. I love the Old Testament, and I believe that this collection of 39 books, written by dozens of different authors more than 2,500 years ago, is divinely inspired and applicable for our day. So, after we finished our New Testament studies at the end of 2019,

I was looking forward to 2020 as a new year, a new decade, and a new opportunity to discover with you the truths and teachings of the Old Testament together. But who could have imagined a year like this? I knew coming into 2020 that this year was going to be a challenging and fascinating year. I shared on our podcast, The Questions Podcast, at the end of 2019 that I believed this year was going to be a year of chaos. However, I did not even begin to imagine coronavirus, Antifa, BLM protests, riots, and the utter chaos that we've been witnessing and experiencing. This has been a year like no other.

It has been said, though I haven't been able to find substantiation for it, that there's an ancient Chinese curse or proverb that says, "May you live in interesting times." These are those, for sure. It's fascinating that it's considered a Chinese curse; I'll leave it at that.

2020 has been challenging, and I feel like it is worth noting that it is going to continue to be challenging. The things that I was thinking of when, at the end of 2019, I said that this would be a year of chaos haven't even really happened yet. When I said that I thought this was going to be a year of chaos, I was thinking about the fall. I was thinking about the election, and we're only just beginning to head into that season. So buckle up, friends; we're headed into some rough waters. You may not want to hear that, but I think you should be circumspect about the times that we are living in.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit."

To walk circumspectly means that we need to walk with our eyes wide open and our ears attentive. We need to keep our physical senses about us, but we, as Christians, also need to keep our spiritual senses about us. That's why Paul says to be filled with the Spirit. So, God, fill us afresh and anew with the Holy Spirit and help us as Your church. Amen. There are a lot of foolish people walking in drunkenness.

And darkness in our days, we, the people of God, need to be wise and circumspect, redeeming the times. The days are certainly evil. So, what does it mean that the days are evil? When thinking about those words, I'm reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah from 2,800 years ago. In Isaiah chapter 5, he wrote, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

When I read those words, I think of our nation at this time. We live in a time in which people call evil good and good evil. Woe to those who call riots peaceful and ministers of justice evil. Woe to those who call men women and women men. One English translation of the Bible translates the word "woe" as "destruction is certain." This should concern you. It does mean that our society is in the shape that it is at this moment.

I don't say these things to frighten you, but it should stir you to pray. We set aside the 31 days of July as a time of refocusing prayer in our church, and Pastor Mark sent out a daily prayer guide with Andrew Murray. During that time, we encouraged you to social distance from social media and maybe even the corporate news media. Many of you took up that challenge, and I've heard from a number of you who experienced a time of refreshing as you fasted from the news and focused on the Lord in prayer. I am truly grateful for that, and I hope that this has helped you to develop a new routine and a pattern in your life that might just stick.

At this point, one thing is absolutely certain: our nation is in desperate need of a move of God. One great saint used to say, "Where prayer is focused, power falls." So, on that note, I would ask you to consider several things. I know we're in the midst of unprecedented and interesting times. I know that some of you are deeply fearful in the face of all that is going on, and at the same time, I know that there are some of you who are frustrated that our church and many churches have not reopened for weekly services.

I am grateful that our church has been wonderfully supportive of myself and our leaders during this time. You have prayed with us and for us, and you have supported the church.

Financially, you have encouraged us with texts, emails, cards, and calls. I am so blessed by you, Cross Connection Church. If you are frustrated with me and our team for not reopening, you certainly haven't been pushy about it, which I think is an indication that you are mature in your faith and recognize some very important truths.

First, you seem to recognize that our church is not shut down. We are still the church; we are still the body of Christ. We are still worshipping on Sundays, studying through the Scriptures, praying for one another, and ministering to each other and to our community. We are still shining as a light in a dark world, even though we are not at 1675 Seven Oaks Road on Sunday mornings. For years, I have heard pastors say things like, "The church is not a building" and "The church is the people of God." We are being tested on that right now. We are the church wherever we are, whether we are gathered or scattered. Paul encouraged, strengthened, discipled, and pastored the church at a distance some 2,000 years ago through letters. Today, we are doing so through YouTube.

Second, you are fulfilling the exhortation of Hebrews 13, which says, "Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you."

Third, you are being a witness to your neighbors, family members, friends, co-workers, and to our community by bearing with their fears and concerns by not gathering in a large group.

Fourth, you are honoring the words of the Apostle Peter, who wrote, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to kings as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God."

Fifth, you are honoring the words of the Apostle Paul, who wrote in Romans 13, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities."

Authorities exist because there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have the praise of the same, for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath but also for conscience's sake. Because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

I am as rebellious as the next guy; just ask my mom—she's got a lot of great stories. I'm pretty libertarian in my views; I don't like to be told what to do. There have been a number of times I've thought, "Let's just reopen and go for it." Yes, I saw Pastor John MacArthur's statement on reopening from a week ago, but John MacArthur isn't my pastor; he's not the head of our church. Jesus is.

Will there be a time for Christians to exercise civil disobedience as it relates to everything happening in our nation? Maybe. I hope that it doesn't come to that. But every time I've started to feel like it's time to go for broke and exercise my liberty, I hear a still small voice saying, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." For all of the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." That's Galatians 5:13-14.

And then beware, lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak, as stated in 1 Corinthians 8:9. In addition to that still small voice of the Spirit through the Scriptures, I've had a number of conversations with individuals in our community who are not Christians and who don't go to church. They have said to me, "Thank you. Thank you for not putting us in danger by gathering."

In a large group, now listen. I'm not sure that reopening would actually put people in imminent danger. It does not appear that the fatality rate of COVID-19 is as high as we first feared. Praise God for that! However, whether it is or not, there are weaker people among us who are terrified of this virus. I think a lot of their terror is rooted in what they're reading on social media or gathering from the corporate news media. Those behind such things have perverse incentives in amplifying fear.

Be that as it may, there are people among us who are fearful. Beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. Do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. Remember, we've been studying the statutes and judgments of God in Deuteronomy, and all of the law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your frightened and fearful neighbor as yourself.

I'm sure you've noticed by this point that we're not really getting into Deuteronomy this week. As I said a few minutes ago, when I sat down to prepare my message in Deuteronomy chapter four, I hit a wall. I sensed that I should wait, think, pray, and potentially prepare something different. It's a message outside of Deuteronomy, without points. It's another pointless message, but with the time that we have remaining today, I want to share three things with you.

First, last week we experienced a couple of losses at Cross Connection, which I felt I wanted to share. A couple of our faithful members went home to heaven this last week. Ed Childers, or Chief as he was known to those who were close to him, went home to heaven last Sunday morning. Chief, Pastor Mark's dad, had been battling a number of health issues for the last couple of years, and he entered into eternity surrounded by his family. He had been declining for several months, and Pastor Mark prayed that God would mercifully take him home last Sunday morning. Shortly after praying that prayer, Chief's breathing became less labored, and he breathed his last breath in this life and his first in the presence of Jesus. On Sunday, July 26th, he was 84 years old.

Glenn Michael Rignay...

Mike has been a faithful prayer warrior, usher, and servant at Cross Connection Church for many years. He has been battling cancer for several of those years. This last Wednesday night, Mike stepped into eternity, where I believe, like Chief before him, he heard the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Mike was 73. Both of these men were tough and faithful followers of Jesus. Mike, whether he was in excruciating pain or not, would faithfully be here to serve as an usher every week that he could. He shared with me a few weeks ago that he hoped he could be back here for a worship service before his death. I think he was probably happy with the welcoming service he got in heaven. Chief would often tell me, "That was a hell of a message, Pastor." Both Mike and Chief are and will be greatly missed. Would you please be praying for their families and those close to them? We sorrow, but not as those who have no hope.

The second thing that I would like to share with you this morning has to do with baptism. Jesus, during His life and ministry, instituted two sacred ordinances for the church: sacraments. One of them, which we're going to talk about in a moment, is communion, but the other is baptism. We had planned to have a large baptism and church picnic at the end of June at Felicita Park. Of course, COVID-19 shut that down, but baptism is still very important to us.

Baptism is an act by which we declare our faith in Christ and our obedience to Him. Through baptism, we obey Christ, identify ourselves with Him, and associate with His death, burial, and resurrection through immersion in water. There are a number of you who are followers of Jesus who have not yet been baptized. If that's you and you are interested in information about baptism at Cross Connection and in being baptized, please go to the website baptism.lifeinconnection.com and let us know about your interest there.

Third, communion. In just a moment, Pastor Anthony and our worship team are going to lead us in a worship song. As he does, I want to invite you to gather the elements for communion: the bread and the cup. Hopefully, you have some bread and some grape juice. If not, I'm sure that you can find something to suffice, like tortillas.

Water may be all that you have, and I think that’s probably good. After Anthony and our worship team finish, I look forward to leading you again in the Lord's Supper. But before we do, let me pray.

Father God, we thank You for the way that You, by Your Spirit, are working in the midst of these challenging and difficult times. As I am preaching to the church from home and as they are watching our church service from home, I pray, God, that You would use this time to increase our fellowship with You. I ask that You would use this time to increase our devotion to You and our obedience to You. Help us, Lord, to learn how we are to walk with You during this time and to shine the light of Your grace to other people—maybe the people that we live with in our own home, with whom we may have been challenged in our patience and kindness during these weeks and months.

I also pray for our neighbors, those who live across the street or next door. God, use this time to help us grow more and more into the image and likeness of You. As we grow closer to You in communion, I pray that You would remind us, even as we are going to partake of communion in a few minutes, of the great work that You did, Jesus, on the cross to make it possible for us to be reconciled and brought back into relationship with You and with one another.

All of the things that separate and divide us as people in a fallen world can be restored through Your death, burial, and resurrection. With all the uproar in our nation right now, having to do with division over race, class, gender, and many other issues, I pray, God, that You would help us realize that only in You, in Christ, as part of Your body, Your church, is that middle wall of separation broken down.

We have the good news that You have given to us—the gospel that brings about reconciliation and restoration. I pray, God, that You would help us as Christians to share that boldly with people during this time. So, God, would You direct our hearts and our minds to You as Pastor Anthony leads us, and prepare our hearts to remember what You did for us in being crucified. We pray this in Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name, Amen. The darkness we were waiting in was without hope and without light. Till from heaven, You came running. There was mercy in Your eyes to fulfill the law and prophets. To a virgin came the Word from the throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt.

Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one, God of glory, majesty.

To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole creation, You did not despise the cross.

Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, praise forever.

And the morning that you rose held its breath until that stone was moved for God, for the Lamb that conquered death. The dead were restored from their tombs, and the Church of Christ was born. In His freedom, I am free for the love of Jesus. Praise the Father, praise the Son.

Acts chapter 2 says that the early church continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in the breaking of bread, in fellowship, and in prayer. Those words, "the breaking of bread," can have a couple of different meanings.

First, I think it speaks of hospitality—gathering together in homes with one another to be hospitable, to care for one another, and to share with one another. But those words also speak of the Lord's Supper, gathering together to break bread with one another. In the early church, 2,000 years ago, most of that took place in homes, just like you are at home.

Together right now, I hope that you have the elements you need to remember Jesus's body that was broken for us and His blood that was shed for us. Jesus, on the night that He was betrayed, the night before He was crucified, took bread and used it to symbolize His body. He took the cup to represent His blood that was going to be shed for His disciples.

The Apostle Paul writes about it in First Corinthians, chapter 11. There he writes, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.'"

So, if you have bread this morning, would you take it now as we partake together? Even though we are separated from one another, we do this as a memorial of Jesus's body that was broken for us so that we would be able to be reconciled to God through Him. Let's partake together.

The Scriptures say, "In the same manner, after they had eaten, He took the cup and told His disciples, 'This is the blood of the new covenant, My blood. Do this in remembrance of Me.'" His blood was shed for us on the cross to deal with our sin. As you read through the Old Testament, we will see this as we study through the book of Deuteronomy. There were sacrifices that were offered; the shedding of blood was to deal with the sin of the nation and of individual people.

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no removal or remission of sins." But Jesus, He who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might receive His righteousness. He gave us this to symbolize His blood that was shed for us. Let's partake together and remember His bloodshed for us.

Father God, we thank You for Your grace. We thank You for Your goodness and Your mercy displayed in that You sent Your only begotten Son to die for us. You demonstrated Your love for us. Father, Jesus, You demonstrate the love of God in that while we were sinners, You died for us on the cross. And Lord, we thank You for the fact that...

As we put our trust and our confidence in Your finished work on the cross, You make it possible for us to be restored to a relationship with You and to a relationship with one another. God, I pray that You would use us, Your church, to be messengers declaring that good news to others, especially during this period of time. We pray, and now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Now, let me share a story. There was a guy who had a fly fly into his ear, and it got stuck. It was buzzing in his head, and he was trying to get it out, but he couldn't. He thought he was going to go nuts and considered calling for help. He was trying different things, and finally, he got some water and squirted it in his ear. I guess that drowned the fly, and then it fell out. I was thinking, "Dude, that would drive me crazy! I don't even like them on me."