Hear, Learn, Observe… & Live | Sunday, September 6, 2020

The weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper. When the darkness falls, it won't prevail, because the God I serve knows only how to triumph. My God will never fail.

I'm going to see a victory; I'm going to see a victory, for the battle belongs to You, Lord. I'm going to see Your victory; I'm going to see Your victory, for the battle belongs to You, Lord.

There's power in the mighty name of Jesus. Every war He wages, He will win. I'm not backing down from any giants.

For the battle belongs to You. You take what the enemy meant for evil and You turn it for goodness. You turn it for good.

Victory! For the battle belongs to You, Lord. I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory.

A victory! Good morning, Cross Connection Church at Home family, and happy Labor Day weekend to you all. With this weekend, we are now officially moving into the fall season, and hopefully, it's going to get a little bit cooler. Although yesterday and today are not a good indication of that, I hope that you are staying cool and that your air conditioning is working. I also hope we are not having any rolling blackouts to cut out the power in the midst of all this.

Once again, welcome to our morning broadcast here today on Labor Day weekend. We are praying with and for you as a church. As I’m sure we will announce, as we do every single week, we want to invite you to make sure that you send us your prayer requests. We have a prayer team that prays for every single prayer request that you send in every week. So, as we get ready to go into our broadcast in a moment, please send your prayer requests to prayer@lifeinconnection.com. We will receive those and be praying for them. If you'd like to be a part of the prayer team, you can always just let us know when you send in your prayer requests that you'd like to be added to the prayer team.

Also, before we cut over to worship, I would ask that you send a message to a friend or a group of friends. Post it on social media and invite some people to join us for worship this morning. All you have to do is send them the link live.ccchurch.com.

As we prepare our hearts now for worship and go over to Pastor Anthony and the worship team, let's pray. My heavenly Father, we thank You, God, for this great day. Lord, we are here to worship You. It says in Psalm 46 that the nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Lord, we hold on to that truth, and we know that You are with us and You are a refuge. Would You rest on us now and would You speak to us, Lord? Calm us as we lift You high, worship You, and receive Your word today. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Amen.

Let praise be a weapon; silence is the enemy. Let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety. Let it rise; we'll sing Your name in the dark, and it changes everything.

We'll sing with all we are and proclaim Your victory. Let faith be the song that overcomes the raging sea. Let faith be the song that calms the storm. Let it rise; breakthroughs are on our side forever.

God, we praise You.

This is what living looks like. This is what freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise You. We praise You. This is what living looks like. This is what freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise You. We praise You. This is what living looks like. This is what freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise You. We praise You. This is what freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise You. We break. We'll see You break down every wall. We'll watch the giants fall. It cannot survive.

Welcome! Thanks for tuning in and joining Cross Connection Church as we bring you church at home. I'm Pastor Garrett. If you are visiting for the first time today, welcome! I'm really glad that you could tune in, and you're going to be blessed by our service today.

Part of Cross Connection Church is living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. One of the ways that we can really do that well, especially living life in connection with God, is through prayer. I want to encourage you to be praying this week. I know there are lots of prayer needs and many things that can stress us out right now. We want to encourage you to be praying, and we have an option, a way for you to...

Let us know your prayer requests on our website, prayer.lifeinconnection.com, where you can simply type in your prayer request or your family members' and friends' prayer requests. We would love to pray for everyone, so check that out at prayer.lifeinconnection.com. We'd love to pray for you this week and see how God is going to answer your prayers.

For all other points of connection, check out lifeinconnection.com. You'll find many other ways to get connected. Also, visit events.lifeinconnection.com, where you can see a few different women's small gatherings happening this month. There is also going to be a marriage group meeting this month as well. Don't miss out on these opportunities for connection, fellowship, and growing closer together. We need you to register for those events if you want to be part of the women's small gatherings or the marriage group. Definitely register, as space is limited.

For our mission this week, it's going to be Restoration 225. This is an awesome organization, and to tell you more about it, we have Jeannie De Benedictus.

Good morning, Cross Connection Church. My name is Jeannie Benedictus, and before the COVID crisis began, I attended an informational meeting with Lisa Christie of Restoration 225. It's a local ministry that works in conjunction with the national ministry, Promise Serves. Together, they mobilize and equip willing churches to provide support for adoptive and foster families.

I learned, along with some of you, about the crisis in our area and in our nation, where children, through no fault of their own, find themselves sometimes going from one home to another, longing for love and stability. So many statistics truly broke my heart as I learned that willing foster families often quit within the first year because it can be really difficult, especially when they have little or no support.

I wanted to do something to help, so I volunteered and became our church advocate. My job is to invite you to join us in reaching out with the love of Jesus to foster, adoptive, and kinship placement families. You may not be aware that the ratio in San Diego County for kinship-placed children versus foster children is 19 to 1. In other words, there are currently more than 3,000 children in the foster care system, but there are more than 60,000 kinship placements.

Many grandparents, aunts, and uncles are helping to care for the children they love. Some of these families are single-parent homes, which can be stressful, to say the least. Imagine how receiving one meal a week and knowing that someone cares and prays for you would encourage them. Even with the chaos of COVID-19, we have been able to create two care communities here at Cross Connection Church. They are currently praying and bringing weekly meals to two separate families, addressing the needs that these families make us aware of. They are deeply grateful, but there are many more families we could reach if we had willing hands to help serve.

Would you please pray about joining us in serving a foster, adoptive, or kinship family in prayer and by providing one meal per month? It's not a huge commitment, but as Jesus said in Matthew 10:42, if you give even one cup of cold water to one of the least of my beloved, you will surely be rewarded. Please join us in reaching out to serve other families in our area and in changing lives by contacting the information below. If you have attended and agreed to help and be a servant to these families, would you please respond to the email I’ve sent you or call me personally? Thank you, and may the Lord Jesus richly bless you.

Well, thank you, Genie. That was an awesome summary of what Restoration 225 is. Please keep them in your prayers this week. In just a moment, Pastor Anthony is going to be back, and we will be worshiping the Lord with him. This will be a time where we set aside a song of worship, allowing us to worship the Lord with our giving. This is for those of you who call Cross Connection Church your home church.

There are a couple of different ways that you can give today. First, you can text the number 84321 on your phone. Second, you can go to our website, give.lifeinconnection.com, where you can give safely and securely. Third, you can mail in your offering to our church address at 1675 Seven Oaks Road, here in Escondido, California.

Well, God bless you guys! Let's worship the Lord together. I'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.

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.

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.

May blessings be upon you and a thousand generations, your family, your children, and their children. May their children be upon you and a thousand generations.

In the morning, we go before the Lord, rejoicing. Yes, Father, Lord, we thank You for Your blessings on us. Day after day, You speak words of life to us, and we thank You for being for us. We know that no one can be against us, so speak to us in Your Word now, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

This is our 26th Sunday gathering for church online. We are living at a moment in the history of our nation that feels chaotic. It feels chaotic because it is chaotic. I knew that it was going to be a chaotic year before this year began, and I shared at the beginning of this year that I thought this would be a year of chaos. We've now experienced 26 weeks of chaos, and it's crazy to me that at this moment, COVID-19 and the...

Shutdowns associated with it are about five headlines down on the news page. The latest chaos involves protests, riots, looting, fires, and shootings. The political rhetoric on both sides is only just beginning, and in all likelihood, it will generate more chaos as we move toward November. That doesn't even take into account the chaos that will be produced by the elections or that which will follow the elections.

I'm not saying these things to add stress to your life or to frighten you, but there's still more of 2020 ahead. It's as if we've just gone through the beginning rapids of a whitewater rafting run, and we haven't even hit the hairy stuff yet.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil," in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 and 16. We need to be circumspect; that is, we need to be aware, not ignorant. We need to be wise, not foolish. We need to be aware and wise so that we can make the most of the opportunities that God is giving us for His namesake and for the sake of His kingdom at such a time as this.

It is at times like this that we foolishly think that these evil days are unprecedented or unique, as if we're the only ones that have ever suffered chaos. We're not. That may not be very encouraging to you, but it is worth acknowledging that no trial has overtaken you except such is common to man. In the midst of such trying and tempting times, God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted, tested, or tried beyond what you are able.

If any of those words seem familiar to you, it's because they're from Paul's New Testament letter to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. They may also seem familiar to you because they're similar to a non-biblical idea that you sometimes hear Christians say: "God won't give you more than you can handle." That's not really biblical, but 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13 is somewhat.

Close. God will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able to bear, and He will give you the sustaining power and the ability to overcome or bear it. Those are good promises—maybe something to hold on to as we move through the chaos. May it be that the testing of your faith and mind will produce endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance, and even patience. On the other side of 2020, we will be more mature and more complete. That's my hope and my prayer for you and for me in the midst of all that we are enduring right now.

Well, that has nothing really to do with Deuteronomy. I'm a little bit off track, so I'll try to bring it back. We are in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, chapter four, the fifth book of the Bible. We're right at the end of the chapter, about to come into the fifth chapter. We have been talking about the statutes and judgments of God; that's what I've called this series that we're in right now—Statutes and Judgments.

Moses, the guy who is giving the message here in this passage 3,400 years ago, was, in some respects, a preacher just like me. What do I mean by that? I mean that Moses would start off on a thought and then get a little sidetracked from his thought, shift to talk about something else, and then have to bring it back a little. That's pretty much what the whole fourth chapter of Deuteronomy has been.

We began this series called Statutes and Judgments in Deuteronomy chapter 4 quite a while ago—June 28th, to be exact, 11 weeks ago. I got a little sidetracked; we haven't even gotten to the actual statutes and judgments of God, which are in Deuteronomy chapter 5. But we're almost there, and we've seen a lot along the way. I hope that you've been following along because there are some important and good truths here in this passage. I say important and good because these are the things that help us to know how to live this life in a right and godly way. Did you get that? These statutes and judgments of God help us know how to live life in a right way.

Living life in a right and godly way matters because it leads to an abundant and prosperous life. To live in an abundant and prosperous way is essential.

Before I explain this further, I need to clarify what I am not saying. Living according to the statutes and judgments of God, the law of God, will not save you from sin, but it will save you from a whole lot of pain, suffering, and brokenness in this life. Jesus is the only way to the abundant life for eternity, and ultimately, the law of God will point you toward Jesus. The last third of the Bible, the New Testament, discusses this extensively. However, the statutes and judgments of God, His law, will lead you into a prosperous and flourishing life of abundance and blessing here and now.

This concept is what we begin to see when Moses discusses God's law at the beginning of Deuteronomy chapter 4. We are supposed to be in Deuteronomy 4, verse 44, but let's rewind just a little bit to chapter 4, verse 1. There we read, "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of our fathers is giving you."

There are three words that I want you to focus on here in verse one before we move on. The first word is "listen." The phrase "Now, O Israel, listen" uses the Hebrew word "shema." We will discuss this word further in chapter 6, but for now, I want to point out that it doesn't only mean to listen; it also means to hear, regard, care for, obey, understand, and heed. All of that is encapsulated in that one word, "listen."

The second word is "observe." Moses says to listen to the words that I teach you to observe. I am not teaching you this material so that you can know 3,400-year-old texts. This is not an ancient Near Eastern literature class. I am teaching you these things just as Moses did 3,400 years ago.

So that you will apply yourself to do them, you will work this into your life. Why? Well, the third word is "live." This word means to be preserved, to live well, to prosper, to continue safely, and to flourish.

Now, let me ask you a question: Do you want to flourish and prosper in life? If you're not answering yes, then you're not really paying attention. You're either not paying attention, which means you need to remember the first word, "listen," or you're being stubborn.

Observing and obeying God's commands brings blessings. We not only see that here in Deuteronomy, but we also see it in the book that follows, Joshua. In Joshua chapter 1, beginning at verse 7, we read this: "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

You see those words, "observe to do," used twice in both verse 7 and verse 8. Those are the exact words translated as "listen" and "observe" in Deuteronomy 4:1. What is the result? If you listen, observe, and do, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Now again, I'm not talking about eternal salvation, but I am talking about temporal blessing. What happens when you don't listen, observe, and do? You get the consequences outlined in Deuteronomy 28, verses 15 through 19, and verses 20 through 22 say exactly that. We will see this later on when we get into that passage in Deuteronomy.

Let me give a little preface: It says there in Deuteronomy 28, beginning in verse 15, "But it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all His commandments..."

Statutes which I command you today will bring curses upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land which you are going to possess. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. Cursed shall you be in Portland, cursed shall you be in Chicago, Seattle, D.C., and New York City.

One of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon, wrote in Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Rejection of God's commands always results in affliction and shame, and ultimately it results in judgment. For a very long time, our nation has been progressively rejecting God's commands. We should not be surprised if we experience affliction, cursing, and shame. Those things are, in a sense, the judgment of God's inaction or neglect. If you are apathetic and indifferent toward God, don't be surprised if He is apathetic and indifferent toward you.

I know that those kinds of words don't feel good, but from what I see in the Scriptures, we are exactly where you would expect us to be in the West and in the U.S. if we neglected and rejected God and His Word. We read in Deuteronomy 4:44-45, "Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt." Then in chapter 5, verse 1, Moses called all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful."

To observe them, there are those words again: hear, learn, and be careful to observe the statutes and judgments of God. Later on, we will see in Deuteronomy, when we get to the very end of Moses's message in Deuteronomy chapter 30, he says, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess."

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. Life and blessing are yours for the choosing.

The whole of the Old Testament, after Deuteronomy, is effectively the laboratory in which these truths are tested. You read Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles; it's all the peer-reviewed research of these things being tested. All of the Old Testament prophets are basically men who came to the people of Israel to call them back to hearing and observing God's statutes and judgments as they were experiencing the affliction, shame, and curses of rejecting God's law.

So I say to you today, no, we are not Israel. No, we are not living under the Old Covenant of the law. But the blessings of obedience are as real in 2020 as they were when Moses spoke them 3,400 years ago. They are as true as they were when Isaiah rehearsed them in Jerusalem in the 8th century BC. They are as right as they were when the prophet Jeremiah preached them in the 6th century BC.

The answer for America is not a new vaccine, it's not a new president, it's not a new stimulus package, and it's not defunding the police.

Destroying capitalism may make you feel better, but it won't remove the shame, affliction, and reproach of sin. Ultimately, only God can do that through His Word and by His Son, Jesus. You could get rid of COVID-19; you could eliminate the riots. Race relations could improve, the stock market could boom, and businesses could be hiring and growing. Yet, we would still end up with shame, affliction, and reproach from sin. Without the working of God, we would still be in great trouble. We would just be back, as Pastor Mark spoke about last week, with the old normal, and we would be headed toward another time of chaos, confusion, and crisis.

When faced with chaos, confusion, and crisis, the prophets of old always had a very simple one-word message for the people of Israel: repent. This happens to be the same one-word message that John the Baptist gave at the beginning of the Gospel ministry of Jesus. Matthew 3:17 states, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It is also the same one-word message that Jesus began His ministry with in Matthew 4: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Furthermore, it is the same message that initiated the ministry of the church in Acts 2:38: "Repent."

This is the same thing I would say to you today. If you have not been seeking to walk in line with God's commands, know that we will never perfectly walk in line with them, but it ought to be our aim. When we fail to do so, we need to repent and turn to God in faith, seeking His forgiving grace and His transforming power through His mercy. That is what we need at this time in our nation and our world: the forgiving grace and transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need Him to come into our lives and transform us by the renewing of our minds so that our lives would begin to display what is His good and perfect will in this world. What is that good and perfect will? In some respects, it is seen in the statutes and judgments of God. The law of God, the statutes and judgments of God's commands, represent His will.

The nature of His character calls us through His law to live according to His nature and His character. As we get into Deuteronomy chapter 5, we will be looking at those things in the law, specifically the Ten Commandments. I want to encourage you to read through them over the next week or so and try to memorize them. In an upcoming message, I will show you a very simple way to memorize the Ten Commandments.

Why would we want to memorize the Ten Commandments? We want to learn these things so that we would hide God's word in our hearts, that we might not sin against Him. That's exactly what the Scriptures have to say: the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. It transforms us and purifies us, and that is what we, as the Church of God, need. But that's also what our nation and our world need today—the transforming power of God's word through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Father, I pray that You would do a work in our hearts and in our minds. May our hearts be open to receive Your word like the good seed that it is, going deep into our hearts. I ask that You would do a work of transformation in us to make us more like You. May the people we interact with—those who don't know You, who don't go to church, or who may have walked away from You—see our good works and begin to glorify You, our Father in heaven.

God, I pray for Your Church, our church. I ask that You would bring forth an abundance of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. All of these things honor and glorify You and represent You well in this world. Do that work in us as we take the time to study these things from the Scriptures. Lord, make us more like You, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

I would be hopeless without Your goodness; I would be desperate without Your love.

I was a slave to the darkness. If it wasn't for the cross, where would I be? Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now I'm not. With Your blood, You bought my freedom.

Now, Your mercy will be my song through the glory. Oh, hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. It is done.

It is thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now I'm not. Whoa! With your blood, you bought my freedom. Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus.

I thank you for the cross. Thank you, hallelujah! I was a prisoner, but now I'm not, and with your blood, you bought my freedom. Hallelujah for the cross.

God, we do praise you today for the cross. Jesus, we thank you that you, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we would receive your righteousness. You took all of our sin upon yourself and demonstrated your love towards us when you stretched out your arms on the cross and died for us.

Lord, we thank you and praise you for the salvation that we have through your death, burial, and resurrection.

I pray, God, that you would give us the boldness and the urgency to share the truth of the Gospel with those we are connected to in this life. Lord, there are many people in our community and throughout this world who are in desperate need of the grace and forgiveness that is only found through what you did on the cross. I pray, God, that you would stir in us again that urgency to share the good news of the Gospel with those people in our lives.

Lord, do that work in your church this week, I pray.

And now, may the Lord bless and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you, be gracious to 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.