Beware of This Trap | Sunday, February 21, 2021

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

Jesus, You are breathing hope in the breaking, hope in the sorrow, and hope for this moment. My hope for tomorrow is in You. There's hope.

You keep hope alive. From the moment Jesus, you are alive. Jesus, you are alive.

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

The one who...

And welcome to our Sunday morning service! It's great to see you all. It would be awesome if you could do me a favor and invite some folks to join us at live.ccchurch.com. It would be great to have more people here soaking up God's word.

God bless you all. We're going to send things off to Pastor Anthony.

Heavenly Father, we come before You today, Lord God, just thankful and grateful for who You are in our lives and for the great things You have done in our lives. We know that You are doing new things in us, Lord God. We ask that You would prepare our hearts for this time of worship and for this time in Your word, so that we could be changed and ever the same, more like Your Son. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Amen.

Alone in my sorrow and dead in my sins, Your love made a way to let mercy come in. When death was arrested, my life began. Ash was redeemed; only beauty remained. My earth and heart were given away. My morning grew quiet; my feet rose to dance. When death was arrested, You have made me new. Now life begins with You. It's Your reckless love pouring down.

On us, You have made us new. Now, life begins with You. He called me His friend when death was arrested and my life began. Oh yes, so free!

Thank You, God. Our Savior displayed on a criminal's cross; darkness rejoiced as though heaven had lost. But then Jesus came. That's when death was arrested and my life began. You have made me new. Now, life begins with You.

Thank you, Lord. Welcome again, and thanks for tuning in to Cross Connection Church. We're glad that you could be joining us today. I'm Pastor Garrett, and here at Cross Connection Church, we're all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

Part of living life in connection really is living life in connection with God through prayer. We encourage you to be praying daily, and in fact, we want to be praying with and for you. So let us know your prayer requests and needs at prayer.lifeinconnection.com. We'd love to be praying with you. As soon as you type in a prayer request on that portal, you can know that you're being prayed for by all of our prayer team and pastors on staff. We would love to be praying with you this week.

Talking about prayer, I want to encourage you all to be praying for our own mission this week. This is something we ask you to pray for on a weekly basis. An organization that we are giving to financially from Cross Connection Church is one that you are involved with and that God is blessing through the ministry of Cross Connection. This week, the ministry is Good News Club. We want to encourage you to be praying for Good News Club. They are an organization here locally that meets in public schools to share the gospel with kids.

Unfortunately, with the COVID pandemic, things are looking a little different. They are trying to conduct some of these meetings over Zoom and are working on more virtual meetings with these students to share the gospel with them. So please be praying for all the volunteers with Good News Club, and especially for the kids that they are trying to reach. It has been a weird season for them, but we trust that God is in control, and He is still doing an amazing work in the lives of these kids. So just be praying and lift up Good News Club this week, if you could.

Hey, and before we join Pastor Anthony for another song of worship, we have a couple of announcements for you guys. Men, we're doing a men's landscaping...

Cleanup day around the church is coming up on March 2nd, which is a Tuesday, from 9 o'clock to noon. We would love to see you here. We just need some help cleaning up the property, and we hope to get some good fellowship time in, maybe with some pizza too. So, hope to see you here again on March 2nd.

For the women’s ministry events, check out events.lifeinconnection. We have a couple of different events coming up that you might be interested in, and we would be blessed if you would be a part of them. Again, visit events.lifeinconnection.com; it's your point of connection for all the events we’re doing here at Cross Connection Church.

If you came prepared to give today and are ready to worship the Lord with your giving, there are a couple of different ways you can do that. During this next song that Pastor Anthony will be singing, you can go to give.lifeinconnection.com. If you have your cell phone out, you can text 84321. Alternatively, you can simply mail in your offering to the church at 1675 Seven Oaks Road in Escondido, California.

We are also here at 4 o'clock on Sunday evenings for a devotion service with worship and a message from one of the pastors. We would love to see you there, and you can bring your offering then as well.

So, with that, let’s go ahead and worship the Lord together. God bless you guys, and we’ll see you next week.

Is more grace is found is where you are. Every hour, I need You.

Oh God, teach my song to rise to You when temptation comes my way. When I cannot stand, I'll fall on You. Jesus, You're my hope and stay. So teach my song to rise to You when temptation comes my way. When I cannot stand, I'll fall on You. Oh, I need You. Every hour, oh God, how I need You.

You are my one defense, my righteousness. Oh God, how I need You! God, You are all of our righteousness, all of our goodness, and our strength. We are nothing apart from You, Father. It is true that every day of our lives we need You because You created us. You created us to live our lives with You, under Your direction every step of the way, in Your love, righteousness, and goodness.

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

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

This last week, I was thinking that, as strange as this season has been, I truly am grateful for the privilege of being able to open the Scriptures week after week, whether in person or online, to lead and teach the eternal truths found in God's Word. I think you know that I would much rather be preaching in person every Sunday morning.

Of course, we have had a great time on Sunday evenings for about the last four or five months. It has gone by pretty quickly, spending time in worship and in the Word out on the patio at the church. It has been a blessing for me, for the other leaders, and I believe for the people who have been coming. Sometimes it has been a little bit cold, but not as cold as it has been.

In Texas this last week, we had to postpone a couple of times because of the weather. However, all in all, it has been a pretty blessed time. I am grateful that we live in a place where we can continue gathering outside during the months of January and February. Gathering together on Sunday evenings has been a blessing, but it is not at all the same as what I have done for the better part of the last 20 to 21 years, which is to prepare each week to see the church gathered together on Sunday morning. I have missed that, but it has been a privilege to be able to do even just this every single week.

Regardless of the circumstances, we will always continue to do what the church has done since the very beginning. When I say what the church has done since the very beginning, I am not just talking about our church, Cross Connection Church; I am talking about the church as a whole and what it has been doing for the last two thousand years. The Book of Acts in the New Testament provides the early history of the church and records exactly what the early church did at the very beginning.

The church started as an act and move of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2. At the end of Acts chapter 2, there is a brief summary of what the church was doing at the very beginning. It says in Acts 2:42, a verse that has been important for us as a church for a very long time, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." The early church gathered together regularly for worship, prayer, and teaching. At the very beginning, it was outdoors on a patio area at the temple in Jerusalem.

So, what we've been doing outdoors on the patio is kind of like a return to what the early church did at the very beginning. I have had the privilege twice to go to Africa, to Mozambique, where our good friend Luke and his wife Kristen...

Rider, where they live and serve with Cross Connection Outreach, and several of the churches we would go to and minister at would just be outdoors, underneath a tree. That's where church would be gathered. In the early church, they gathered outdoors in a patio area at the temple in Jerusalem, and then they would gather from house to house. We are continuing to do that outdoors on the patio at the church, online through YouTube and through podcasts, and also from house to house through our connect groups.

Before we get into the Scriptures this morning, I think it is worth putting out there that this is what I believe the Lord would have us do going forward. We are going to continue to gather for worship at the church facility, just like we have for decades, and we will continue to add additional opportunities to do so in the future. What we're doing on Sunday afternoons or evenings is just one opportunity, and we will have more of those in the future.

We are also going to continue to focus on gathering together as the church from house to house, gathering in our connect groups. I was blessed this last week to gather together with my connect group, and we are going to continue to produce online content. We will continue to spend time in the Scriptures, the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship and hospitality when we gather together, have meals together, and also in communion, just like Acts 2 talks about. They broke bread together, which was both hospitality and communion. They also gathered together for prayer, and we are always committed as a church to pray. That's why we ask you every single week to send in your prayer requests, and I would encourage you to continue to do that.

On all of these points—gathering together for the apostles' doctrine, just like we're doing here, or as we gather together for prayer and for fellowship—I hope that you will continue to join us in all these things that we do as a church. This is just the expression of the church, the body of Christ. This is what the church has done for 2,000 years and will continue to do until Jesus returns. Regarding the apostles' doctrine, one of the things you can check out is that some of you have, and some of you have not.

Check out my coffee time videos, where I go through the Scriptures every single weekday morning. I'm posting videos five days a week, and you can find those at pastormiles.com/coffeetime. If you would like more information about connect groups or if you want to send us your prayer requests, make sure you go to the connection points section on the main page of our church website, lifeinconnection.com. We made it pretty easy to remember.

The Apostles' Doctrine emphasizes gathering together from house to house through connect groups and prayer. You can send in your prayer requests at our website. At the end of our time today, we will take some time to partake of communion. I invite you to get the bread and the cup for communion if you have those things available at your house. If you don't have the bread and the cup to partake of communion today, you can do so with your family at another time this week. Set aside a few minutes, and you can come back to the YouTube video and skip to the very end to watch that together. If you need me to lead you in communion, you can also just do communion with your family. Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and read beginning at verse 23. You can go through the passage with your family.

Now, with all of that, we are continuing our weekly studies together in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible; it is the last book of what is called the Pentateuch. The first five books of the Bible are the Pentateuch, and they are the books of Moses. Deuteronomy contains the message that the great lawgiver and leader of Israel, Moses, gave to the people of Israel just before they entered into the Promised Land nearly 3,400 years ago. The people of Israel were redeemed out of their slavery in Egypt, where they had been slaves for nearly 400 years. They were redeemed about 40 years prior to the giving of this message when Moses went down to Egypt. As directed by God, he told Pharaoh, "Let my people go." If you saw the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston or the animated movie The Prince of Egypt, you are familiar with this story.

That is slightly strange, actually. Maybe not just slightly, but completely strange. There is a movie with Christian Bale titled "Exodus: Gods and Kings." The basic story of the children of Israel and their exodus from Egypt under Moses might be familiar to you. Moses told Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Pharaoh said no. God said, "Bad choice."

After the ten plagues, you remember the turning of the Nile River's waters into blood, the frogs, the flies, and all the different plagues that came upon Egypt. Ultimately, the final plague resulted in the death of the firstborn from all the families of Egypt, the firstborn males, as the destroyer went through. At the end of the ten plagues, Pharaoh relented, and Israel and Egypt parted ways. Israel left Egypt, and Moses led them to Mount Sinai.

First, they had to cross the Red Sea. Ultimately, they came to Mount Sinai, where they spent basically two years. They received the law from God and built the tabernacle. After that, they journeyed from Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, and came to the border of the Promised Land, a place called Kadesh Barnea. They sent spies into the land, but the spies came back with an evil report. As a result, the children of Israel failed to enter into the Promised Land because of their faithlessness.

After that point, they wandered in the wilderness for 38 years until that entire faithless generation died. Now they are back at the border, at the Jordan River. Right on the other side of the Jordan River is the land of promise. They are at the border, blessing, preparing to enter in. Moses is preaching to the children of Israel one final time, delivering a message of the law in the same way that he had done some 38 years prior when he gave the law at Mount Sinai to their parents and grandparents. Now he is giving the law to those kids who wandered in the wilderness and saw God's faithfulness for 38 years.

Now they are preparing to come into the Promised Land. So that is the setting of this whole scenario. It is worth asking the question: Why should I care?

About something that happened to a group of people that we are not connected with in a faraway place a long time ago, there are a number of ways that I think we could answer the question: Why should we care? One of them that comes to mind is that the same God who called Israel to be His people has called you to be His child.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, in writing about this exact period of Israel's history, wrote to a group of Christians in the ancient city of Corinth 2,000 years ago. He said, "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition or our instruction, upon whom the ends of the age have come." These things were recorded for our learning. Knowing this, I think it is tragic that so few people, even within the church, ever really get to know the Old Testament.

I do believe that the events in books like Exodus, Deuteronomy, and even Leviticus are important. Israel's failures of faith and obedience were written so that we might learn to live faithfully. All these things happened to Israel as examples for us, and they were written for our instruction so that we would learn. The text before us today and the message that this text teaches is, I believe, very important.

Israel's failures of faith and their failures to obey were written so that you and I might learn to live faithfully. If we are to live in faithfulness before God, the message that we learn in this passage is critical. It is an essential principle. In Deuteronomy chapter 9, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, saying this: "When the Lord your God drives your enemies out 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 these nations before you because of their wickedness."

You are going to take possession of the land not 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 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.

Did you notice a theme? Did you notice the repeated ideas? Do not say to yourself, "The Lord gave me this land and blessed me because of my righteousness," and "The Lord is judging my enemies because of their wickedness." You are not being blessed because of your righteousness; they are being judged because of their wickedness. You are not righteous; you are stubborn, rebellious, and stiff-necked. This is a simple and essential lesson: beware of the snare of self-righteousness.

We somewhat touched on this a few weeks ago in Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 7 through 9, state that 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 He swore to your fathers. He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery and 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. God is good, and God is faithful. This is why Israel was redeemed from slavery in Egypt, and this is why you have been redeemed from slavery to sin and to death. It isn't because you are more awesome, more beautiful, more intelligent, more cool, more amazing, or more righteous than others. It is because of God's love and faithfulness, and we need to constantly be reminded of this truth. Beware of the snare of self-righteousness. It is not because you are amazing, awesome, cool, and righteous, but because of God's love.

Faithfulness is a reason to rejoice. It is something that should cause us to be grateful and stir us to worship. During this period of time, where we've primarily been worshiping from home, we still record the worship music and have it on our YouTube videos that we put out every single week. However, it isn't the same as gathering together for worship with the body of Christ.

I think there is a way in which it just isn't the same, but I hope that you are able to have private times by yourself where you can be in awe of God's love, faithfulness, and goodness towards you. I hope that it stirs your heart to be in a place of worship. We need to be brought to that place and remember God's love and faithfulness.

This is a truth that is a very important lesson for religious people to learn. If you are a church-going believer, then you are effectively religious; I am too. We might explain to someone that we don't have mere religion, saying, "I have a relationship with God and not just religion." However, we are religious as well.

There is a real danger for religiously committed people to slide into self-righteousness. Sadly, we can tend to fall into a dangerous spiral of seeing ourselves as pious, good, moral, upstanding, righteous people. We look out at the world from our churchy place and think those people are immoral, unrighteous, and bad.

This slide towards self-righteousness inspired Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke, to teach a very important lesson. In Luke chapter 18, verse 9, we read, "Also, Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." This is so important; the reason He gave this story is that He is speaking to people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. As a result of their own self-righteousness, they...

Despising other people is a real danger for those who are religious. Here’s Jesus's story from Luke, chapter 18, verse 10: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, a very religious person, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank You that I’m not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector."

The basis for why he thought he was better than the tax collector and the unjust adulterers and extortioners was verse 12: "I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I possess."

Now, the tax collector, in verse 13, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat his chest, saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

Here’s Jesus's application. Remember, the reason for Him telling this story was that He was looking at those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. He said, "I tell you that this man, the tax collector, who would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven and beat his chest, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner,' I tell you the truth, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

We don’t ever intend to be self-righteously religious, but as my friend Larry Osborne puts it, we become accidental Pharisees. That’s why I said we need to beware of the snare of self-righteousness.

Moses said the Lord was devoted to you and chose you not because you were more numerous or better than all the other people, but because the Lord loved you. He kept the oath He was faithful to, the oath that He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Because of that, He brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand and redeemed you from that place of slavery.

That’s why Moses reminded Israel in Deuteronomy, chapter 8, that you must be careful to follow God’s command and be faithful to obey and fear Him. Do not forget Him and His statutes and His judgments. In Deuteronomy, chapter 9, Moses would say...

Do not say to yourself, "The Lord gave me this land and He blessed me because of my righteousness," or "He's judging the people, the Canaanites, because of their wickedness." That's not why He was bringing them into the land; it's because of God's faithfulness and God's love.

Therefore, Deuteronomy 9, verse 7 states, "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; that was the mountain of God, and He was angry enough with you to destroy you." This refers to the time when they created the golden calf while at Mount Sinai.

You provoked the Lord at Mount Sinai right at the very beginning. Deuteronomy 9, verse 16 says, "You quickly turned from the way that the Lord had commanded you." In verse 23, it continues, "You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not believe or obey Him." In verse 24, it states, "You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you."

Israel's failures of faith and obedience were written so that you and I might learn to live faithfully. We need to be aware of the snare of self-righteousness. The important key is that the safeguard against self-righteousness is to humbly remember our failures and God's grace.

I refer back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 11: "Now all these things happened to Israel as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come." Notice this, therefore, in verse 12: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."

Like it or not, it is easy for us to look at the stories of the Old Testament, these stories about Israel and all of their failures, and to think that we are so much better than Israel. We might think, and sometimes say, "If I had seen God do all of these great miracles and these mighty things in Egypt, and if I had walked across the dry ground of the Red Sea, and if I had seen God bring water from rocks, and if I had seen Him provide manna from heaven, then I would never have turned away from Him like Israel did."

So, it's easy for us to look at the...

Stories of the Old Testament often lead us to think that we are so much better than Israel. In much the same way that Israel was in danger of looking at the unrighteousness of the Canaanites and thinking they were somehow better and more righteous than the nations that God would judge, we can fall into that same trap. If we're not careful, we can become accidental Pharisees, praying to God, "God, I thank You that I'm not like other men—like extortioners, unjust, adulterers, politicians, and tax collectors. For I fast, I pray, and I give, and I still watch church on Sunday mornings."

However, the tax collector was the one who stood afar off and would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus's response was, "I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Don't forget who you really are. You are just another sinner saved by the awesome grace of God. God, be merciful to us; we are sinners in need of great salvation. One of the important things we do to remember this, just as Jesus exhorted us to do, is to take the bread and the cup of communion. In just a few minutes, we will do this after our worship team leads us in another song.

So, when Anthony and our worship team lead us in another song, it will be a great opportunity for you to get the bread and the cup for communion, or you can do it another time this week. All of this is given for us to remember to do this in remembrance of Jesus, who is the perfect Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice who knew no sin. He became sin for us that we might receive His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, and His righteousness—not our self-righteousness.

As it says in Second Corinthians 5:21, "He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." There is no way we can stand in our own righteousness, so we need to humbly remember our failures and God's grace in Jesus Christ.

I am going to pray, and then our worship team will lead us in another song.

And we'll partake of communion together. Father God, we thank You. I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for this story of Israel and that all these things were recorded so that we would have these words as an example and instruction for us.

Lord, I pray that we would take heed when we think we stand, lest we fall. It is so easy for us to look out at other people, whether they go to church or don't go to church, and say, "Well, at least I'm better than that person." As we judge ourselves by ourselves, we are not wise. At the end of the day, our lives are not held up against the lives of other people; our lives are held up to You, Your nature, Your perfection, and Your holiness. God, none of us in any way measure up. We all are stiff-necked, stubborn, and rebellious, and Lord, we need Your grace.

Jesus, I thank You that You, who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might receive Your imparted and imputed righteousness. Lord, we thank You so much for Your grace, and I pray, God, that You would help us not to soon forget it, but to take to heart the story of Israel, to learn from it, to be transformed by it, and to be humble in our estimation of who we are.

Everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. So I pray that, Lord, You would help us to humble ourselves before Your presence. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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

So holy, so wonderful, such an awesome God. So selfless, so generous, You are. Nothing comes close to the Lord Almighty. Nothing is as sweet as Your love and mercy.

Oh my God, nothing, nothing comes close to the Lord. There’s nothing as sweet as Your love.

Jesus, the Son of God, is so selfless, so generous, and so faithful. You are my awesome God.

I hope that you have the bread and the cup to partake of communion this morning, or that you can do it at another time. You can come back to this video and partake of communion by yourself or with your family. I hope that you'll really take advantage of this opportunity. Jesus told us that He wanted us to remember His death, burial, and resurrection through communion, and it is very important that we do this.

One of the things that Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter 11, when he is talking about this, is in verse 28. He says, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat the bread and drink the cup." It is important for us to examine whether we have become just religious in our observance of these things.

We can dangerously fall into a pattern of accidental Phariseeism by getting into the rote routines and patterns of these things. Therefore, we want to make sure that we examine ourselves to see where we are at with the Lord. Are we trusting in our own self-righteousness and in what we have done, such as giving, fasting, and praying? Or are we trusting in Jesus's finished work, that His body was broken for us and His blood was shed for us to make it possible for us to be made righteous by Christ?

Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 23, "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.'" If you have bread, let's partake together and remember His body that was broken for us.

In the same manner, after they had partaken of the bread, He took the cup and said, "This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me." The book of Hebrews says that without the shedding of blood, there is no removal or remission of sins. Jesus gave His body to be broken and His blood to be shed so that we could be forgiven. So we partake to remember His blood that was shed for us.

Father God, we thank You for Your grace. The Scriptures say that You loved us so much that You gave Your only begotten Son. As we trust in You, You deal with our sin and give us everlasting life. Jesus, You demonstrated Your love towards us in that while we were still sinners, You died for us on the cross.

Lord, we remember today Your body broken for us and Your blood shed for us so that we could be made righteous, clothed in Your righteousness. You who knew no sin became sin for us, and You have given us imputed and imparted righteousness. I pray, God, that we would see ourselves through that lens and that we would see other people in this world—our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and our family members who don't yet know You. We would see them.

As not lower than us and us better than them, we would see them as in need of Your grace, compassion, and mercy. Lord, stir us to share that good news with other people. God, give us the boldness to remember You and to share that memory with others this week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He 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.

If you want to join us this afternoon or evening, you can come to the church at four o'clock for a time of worship and devotion in the Scriptures. Make sure, if you haven't partaken of communion with us this morning, to do so another time this week. If you need prayer, go to the church website and send us your prayer requests. We'd love to be in prayer with and for you.

Check out coffeetimepastormiles.com for Coffee Time. God bless you, and we'll see you next week. I'm going to be talking about His watch thing. Whoa! When I go, my voice turns yellow on this little thing. Wait, can you see me? Because I can't see; my face is right there. So this is the top of it. It's pretty! I'll go show you.