Life in Connection 2.0 | Sunday, April 11, 2021

Oh hey, it's Pastor Mark. Welcome to Cross Connections online service. If you have a moment, why don't you invite a friend? You can get it at the address below. With that, we'll pass it off to Pastor Anthony for some more worship.

Let's pray. Oh God, we thank you for today. We are so encouraged, Lord God, that you are for us. We can believe your word. We can believe your truth, Lord God. We agree with the word that says your love is better than life. God, we thank you for the victory that we have in your Son, Jesus. Would you do a work in us, Lord? Would you sing songs over us, songs of peace and songs of deliverance? Would you sing over your congregation, Lord, as we minister to you? I bless your name in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's worship. I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me. A man's empty praise and treasures of faith were never enough. Then you came along, put me back together, and every desire is now satisfied here in your love. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing, nothing is better than you. I'm not afraid to show you my weakness, my...

Failures and flaws. Lord, you've seen them all. You still call me friend because the God of the mountain is the God of the valley. There's not a place Your mercy and grace won't find me again.

Oh, there's nothing better than You. Oh, there's nothing better than You. Oh, there's nothing, nothing is better than You. Oh, I know it's true. You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can.

You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can.

Nothing is better than You. Yes, Lord. Oh, there's nothing better than You. Oh, there's nothing better than You. Oh, there's nothing; nothing is better than You. Oh, God. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can.

Welcome, and thanks for tuning into Cross Connection Church today. We're so glad that we get to bring you Church at Home. 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 the way you can be living life in connection right now, at home, is through prayer. We want to be praying with and for you this week, right now, today, whenever you need it. You can go to prayer.lifeinconnection.com. I know there's a lot of stuff going on in our world and our country right now, a lot of things to be praying for. If there's something specific right now, God loves our specific prayers.

Here at Cross Connection Church, we believe that God hears every prayer, and He answers them too. So, whatever you have going on, we would love to be praying with and for you. When you send it in to prayer.lifeinconnection.com, it goes to our pastors and our prayer team, and we get to pray with and for you right then and there. So, again, don't hesitate. It is such an important part of what we do here at Cross Connection Church.

It's such an important part of being a believer in Jesus Christ—talking with Him, praying to Him. He is such a faithful, gracious, and amazing God that we serve. We would definitely love to be praying with and for you this week.

Speaking of prayer, we would ask you to be praying for Dave Eubanks with the Free Burma Rangers. They are serving in Burma in an incredibly difficult place to...

Serving the Lord in a dangerous place is challenging right now. The Burmese Army has essentially broken their treaties, dropping bombs and conducting ground assaults. Dave Eubanks and the Free Burma Rangers are helping what they call IDPs, or internally displaced people groups. They are not only providing medical aid to these individuals but, most importantly, they are sharing the good news and the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone in Burma.

They are doing this under incredibly difficult circumstances. Please pray for Dave's safety, for his team's safety, and for the situation in Burma. The believers there are facing heavier persecution, which is hard for us to comprehend. Again, Dave Eubanks and the Free Burma Rangers could use your prayers and support during this time.

Now, we will be joining Pastor Anthony, who will lead us in a song of worship. This is a time we set aside for those of you who call Cross Connection Church your home to worship the Lord with your giving. There are a couple of easy ways to do that. First, you can go to give.lifeandconnection.com online, which is a very simple way to give. Second, you can text the number 84321 on your cell phone and send any amount; it will guide you through the process. Third, you can send your tithe or offering letter to our church address: 1675 Seven Oaks Road, Escondido, California.

With that, let's go ahead and worship with Pastor Anthony. God bless you all. Have a great week, and let’s worship our great God together. All the realms I am held through the fire; you're my shield. Your protection never fails; no power can separate.

I am safe. You are bigger than all my fears. God of love, God my love, You are bigger than all my dreams. God my hope, God my peace, whatever will come my way, through each day, I will say, "God, I trust You. I trust You."

You're the treasure I desire. I surrender my whole life for Your glory, my great reward. I am Yours; use me, Lord. You are bigger than all my fears. God of love, God my love, You are bigger than all my dreams. God my hope, God my peace, whatever will come my way, through each day, I will say, "God, I trust You. I trust You."

You are the God who always sees us, even in barren, desperate seasons. No matter what the circumstance, You are the rock on which I stand. You are the God who always sees us, even in barren, desperate seasons. No matter what the circumstance, You are the rock on which I stand.

You are bigger than all my fears. God of love, God my love, You are bigger than all my dreams. God my hope, God my peace, whatever will come my way, through each day, I will say, "God, I trust You. I trust You." You are bigger than all my fears. God of love, God my love, You are bigger than all my dreams.

God, my hope. God, my peace. Whatever will come my way, through each day, I will say, "God, I trust you." I trust you, Lord. Thank you so much that through all of these uncertain times, we can trust you. Even when we don't understand what's going on around us, Lord, we know that you go before us. We know that you see all, and your plans are good. You have everything in your control, Lord, and we are so thankful for you, our Father. We love you so much. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.

After more than a year of closures and shutdowns, I think that it's safe to say that each of us has learned a number of things about our government, our culture, the media, our local communities, and probably about our families and ourselves as well. I'm sure you've noticed that life can sometimes just go about on cruise control or autopilot. We all get into routines and patterns that just kind of repeat from one week to the next. Our lives are rather algorithmic; we live according to a basic conditional "if this, then that" routine.

If it's Monday morning, then this. If it's Tuesday afternoon, then that. It is not until we hit some bump in the road, like a health issue, a job loss, a car accident, or COVID, that we find ourselves bounced out of our routine lanes. All of a sudden, we are, especially from a psychological standpoint, dysregulated—emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, or behaviorally out of sync. You will inevitably be triggered. We have a reflexive reaction or a shock when those kinds of things happen, and you are then triggered to try to reorient back to something that is more normal. This is actually called the orienting reflex.

Over the last year, everyone you know has been shocked out of their normal routines, and everyone has been trying to orient back to something more steady, something more normal. This happens to individuals on a micro level every single day, but it is rare that entire populations are subjected to the same triggering event at once.

What I mean is that individuals experience triggering events in life all the time. Several years ago, one of my very good friends, and some of you watching this knew him also, had a bad stomach ache over a weekend. By Monday afternoon, his world was utterly turned upside down when he received the terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. That's one of these individual experiences that comes in and shakes a person.

Two years ago this month, my youth pastor, Pastor Tony, who still faithfully attends Cross Connection Church, was seriously injured in a mountain bike accident. Everything changed for him and his family instantly on a Tuesday afternoon in April of 1999. So, people individually or as families go through these kinds of triggering events from time to time. They happen all the time in people's lives.

Large populations are affected together by dysregulating events, things like terrorist attacks, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods, and so forth. The upside of those kinds of large-scale events is that they generally are very short-term triggering events, and life orients back to a moderate level of normalcy relatively quickly.

However, what many throughout the world have experienced over the last year has been a sustained event. This sustained bump in the road has been very challenging, and throughout all of it, all of us have been trying to navigate back to some sense of normalcy. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing the words "the new normal." I'm even more tired of hearing myself occasionally say them. Unfortunately, through all that has happened in the last year, that is directly connected to this dysregulating event of COVID.

There have been a lot of major life-affecting and culture-altering events that we've experienced as well. Of course, there were things that were connected directly to COVID, such as shutdowns and closures. Those were the biggest and most impactful, but then there were other things that were unrelated to it, like the death of George Floyd and the protests and chaos that followed it. The insanity of a chaotic political season has also been a significant factor.

Have you been able to have a conversation with anyone in the last year that hasn't been mostly dominated by these topics? The fact that these things come up in nearly every conversation at one point or another is an indication that they weigh heavy on our minds. Not only do they weigh heavy on our minds, but they also wear us out. Stress affects us in a very big way. It affects our sleep, our emotions, and even our kids. We see the effects of this prolonged stress, this cumulative stress, on our entire society.

Mental health issues have skyrocketed. In 2020, I was recently interviewing a licensed clinical social worker, and she told me that her practice has been bombarded. I certainly don't need to go into all of the particulars, but all sorts of negative effects of the degraded mental health of our society have happened in 2020. We've seen a horrible increase in many different things related to mental health disorders and problems.

In some respects, I think we kind of miss the boring routine. However, one of the other things that I have noticed in myself, as well as in interacting with others—whether they are outside or inside the church—is that a lot of people have been brought to a place of realizing that their old normal, their old routines, may not have actually been the best. They were comfortable for us, but maybe not entirely healthy. They were routine and consistent, but perhaps not totally sustainable.

Population-affecting and world-altering events, like what we have all experienced over the last year, really do provide us an opportunity to reevaluate what we are doing and how we are doing it. I've definitely been doing a lot of reevaluating for myself, and I've realized in doing so that I actually...

Like change about as much as the next guy, which is to say that I don't like change very much. However, I've also been thinking about how everything that we have experienced as a church affects, alters, and changes us as a church. I had a remarkably routine life until 13 months ago—a life I had grown pretty comfortable and used to. All of that has radically changed, and I'll be the first to admit that I've internally wrestled with those radical changes a lot over the last year.

But the internal wrestling is kind of pointless because we actually can't not change in light of everything that has happened. We can't just go back to life as it used to be because that life no longer really exists. It's like, and maybe some of you have had this experience in the past, when you were dating someone for a very long period of time, and then they break up with you and say, "But I really hope that we can maintain our friendship." But you know, you just can't. It doesn't work that way. You can't go back to the way things were after these major events happened.

So, I've been wrestling with how all of this affects the church—the larger corporate church and then the smaller body of Christ, our local church as well. What I want to do today, and for the next probably two and maybe three weeks, is to share with you some of the things that I think are important for us both as a local church and as members of the larger church, the big C church, if you will, around the world going forward. What does church look like in a post-COVID world?

First, can I just say, praise God that we are approaching, I think, a time where we will be in a post-COVID world? I think we're all looking forward to a post-COVID world—a world hopefully without masks, hopefully much more reopened, where you can go back to movie theaters, concerts, dining inside, and church inside, and all that sort of stuff. Although I do hate to break it to you, I do think that ten years from now, you're still going to be seeing people who wear masks, especially during the winter season. But there will be a post-COVID time.

Also, praise God, in a lot of ways, church still looks quite the same in a post-COVID world because, at a very fundamental level, church has remained.

Somewhat consistent for two thousand years, the church has remained stable despite the cultural changes around it. Through many cultural shifts, there are still numerous aspects that remain the same for the church, and it will continue to be that way. However, there are some things that are going to change.

What COVID has done, as I've said before, is accelerate global, cultural, and church trends. It has also stripped away a lot of unnecessary structures within society and the church. In other words, COVID has caused a return to the basics for many different things.

I want to talk a little bit about the basics of the church as a whole, the big C Church, as well as the basics of our church, Cross Connection Church. My hope is that this will provide you with some information about what you are a part of as a member of the church, and also what you are a part of as a member of our church. Hopefully, it will help you to plug in a bit more as a member of this church.

With that as a long introduction, I want to ask you some questions. Did you know that the church is not just an organization? Although it is an organization, it is not just an institution. Did you know that the church is an entity? It is a living body with a God-ordained purpose.

What is that God-ordained purpose? If you ask 20 different pastors what the purpose of the church is, you will probably get 20 different answers. However, each of those answers will have a lot of overlap. They might say things like the purpose of the church is to preach the gospel, or the purpose of the church is discipleship, worship, fellowship, ministry, missions, or social justice. I know that one makes some people really uncomfortable.

Many pastors, when they are doing their academic work, if they received a theological education before becoming a pastor, will at some point write a paper on the purpose of the church. Some pastors pursuing graduate studies will even write their thesis on the purpose of the church.

One well-known pastor even wrote a book about 25 years ago called The Purpose Driven Church. Pastor Rick Warren, in his book, writes what a lot of pastors see as a good summation of the purpose of the church. He says that the church exists to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism.

So, those five things are what he says is the God-ordained purpose of the church: fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry, and evangelism. All of those things are good, and all of them are important. I think that you could make a solid Biblical case that each of them are the purposes for which God has called His church into being. It is from those things that every church establishes its mission and its vision.

Some of you are in business and part of big corporations where you're on the executive team that discusses mission, vision, and values. Organizations and institutions have mission statements, vision statements, and value statements, and they have a purpose for which they exist. The church has a God-ordained purpose, and it also has a mission and a vision, which local churches have as well.

The church has a God-ordained purpose, which is given to us expressly in the Scriptures. It encompasses things like fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry, and evangelism. The mission of the church is to fulfill that God-ordained purpose. Let me say that again: the mission of the church is to fulfill the God-ordained purpose.

A church's vision is how it and its leadership envision or see itself fulfilling that mission to fulfill that purpose. At Cross Connection Church, we have said for many years that our vision, mission, and purpose are summed up in this way: Cross Connection Church exists to live life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We want to experience, express, and extend life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus.

Believe that life, true and abundant life, is ultimately found through Jesus. Jesus taught in John chapter 10, verse 10, "The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. But I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly." Just a few chapters later, Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." In John chapter 11, He reveals that He is the resurrection and the life. The Gospel of John opens by telling us that in Jesus was life, and that life is the light of men.

For some of you, this is review. You've heard this dozens, if not hundreds, of times. But sometimes it's good to be reminded of these things. Important things need to be restated over and over again. Look both ways before you cross the street. Brush your teeth every morning and night. Chew with your mouth closed. Don't talk with your mouth full. Don't hit your sister. Important things need to be reiterated.

Garrett says it every week in our announcements: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. I say it frequently in my messages. Our name, Cross Connection Church, reaffirms what our mission, vision, and purpose are. Our website is LifeInConnection.com, and we use the hashtag LifeInConnection in our social media. This is an important thing that we drill into you constantly.

If you attend Cross Connection Church, if it is your church, then we want you to know that life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus is our mission. It is our vision. More than just knowing it intellectually, we want you to know it experientially. We want you to discover in your life what it means to live life in connection, first with God, and then with one another within the body of Christ, the church, and then with the world through missions and outreach.

I'm convinced that this is really important. As we move into a new season as a church, I want to emphasize the importance of this by talking a bit about it over the next few weeks. I want to share with you how I hope this will be a part of our lives as those who are a part of this church. What does it mean to have life through Jesus? What does it look like?

To live a life in connection with God, how does that practically play out in our daily lives? How can we actually come in contact with the God of the Universe, the God who made everything, to have those transcendent encounters with Him in daily life? I want to learn what that looks like more and more.

How do we live this life in connection and fellowship with one another? What does it look like to actually be the body of Christ and to fulfill the "one another" commands of Scripture? What is our responsibility in bringing this life through Jesus, this good news that comes through the Gospel? How do we share this life through Jesus and connection with God and one another with those in the world who don't yet know this life? Those who live next door to us, those we work with, those we go to school with, and those our kids play soccer with—how do we bring that message to these people?

All of this is especially important because you and I were created to live life in connection with God and one another. That was the way God originally made us. We will look at that even next week in the book of Genesis briefly. You and I do not fully live until we have this life through Jesus. This life through Jesus and in connection with God and one another is the abundant life spoken about in John 10:10, where Jesus gives one of His purpose statements: "I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly."

However, this abundant life is not only a life here in this world; it extends into eternity. It culminates and climaxes in eternity. This life in connection fulfills the purpose for which you and the church were made by God. Fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry, and evangelism—all of these things are part of this mission and purpose.

As we return to the basic rhythms of church and social life, hopefully, we will reach that post-COVID life in the not-too-distant future. As we do, it is my hope that we can more fully experience these things. I hope that we can discover what it looks like to actually experience connection with God. I hope that we can build new routines of connection with one another, whether it's gathering corporately at the church.

Or gathering as small groups in homes, gathering as service teams at church, or in the community, or gathering within businesses, or even on mission trips in other countries. And of course, this new rhythm of connecting and gathering with one another online.

One of the things that I've shared several times over the last few weeks is that CrossConnection Church is now focused on developing connection—life in connection—on campus, online, and in homes. This is something that you'll hear a lot more about going forward. On campus, online, and in homes. When I say that, I think that it's really a return to the basics of the church. The church 2,000 years ago gathered corporately wherever they could. Before they had buildings, it was in public and open spaces and in homes.

They used the technology of their day to share the Scriptures at a distance. They didn't have YouTube, the internet, podcasts, or social media. The technology of their day was letters carried by letter carriers. Paul would write letters and send them to the churches to encourage, strengthen, and teach them at a distance, just in the same way that we're using technology in our day to do that. So that was the technology of Paul's day: letters. Thank God that he did write those letters because we have them to read and study through today to be encouraged as well.

The technology of our day includes things like YouTube and podcasts. I am praying about and working toward this life and connection on campus, online, and in homes. I hope that you will help us make this more of a reality because you're a part of that. If you are a part of CrossConnection Church, then you are a part of extending this life and connection with God, one another, and the world—on campus, online, and in homes. This is where we are headed, and this is what I hope to expand upon in the next couple of weeks.

As I close today, I want to read a portion of Scripture that has been one of the key passages I turn to every time I talk about this life and connection. In Ephesians chapter 2, beginning at verse 14, it expresses this whole thing very well. There we read these words: "For He himself, Jesus, is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down..."

The middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, creates in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. He reconciles them both to God in one body through the cross. This is life and connection with God, with one another, and the world through Jesus, through the cross.

He brings them together in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near, for through Him we both had access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers, no longer foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. In Him, the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also, being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Interestingly, the verses that follow those in Ephesians Chapter 2, in Ephesians Chapter 3, are like a huge parenthetical break. Then Paul returns to his thought and writes this in Ephesians Chapter 4. After he says that in Jesus we are all built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, he says, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, I beg you, that you would walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. Life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. This is what you and I, and our church, were made for.

Father God, I pray that You would continue to unite us together as one body, as we have one hope, and we've been baptized into one church.

And you are our Father. You are above all, and through all, and in us all. We pray, God, that you would work in and through us, your church. Join us together in a really powerful way, and help us begin to learn more fully and experientially what it is to be in connection with you through prayer, through study in the Scriptures, through worship together, and through serving together.

Teach us all the different ways that you desire for us to connect with you. Help us learn what it is to connect with you, but also to connect with one another. We want to live out the "one another" commands of Scripture: to love one another, to pray for one another, to bless one another, and to care for one another. Lord, teach us what it looks like to fulfill the "one another" commands of Scripture and to extend that to this world.

We pray that we would go into all the world, especially the world right here in our own community in North San Diego County. Help us share the good news of your grace, the good news of salvation, the good news that brings us near and reconciles us, who were once at war with you, enemies of yours. Lord, help us to share that good news of reconciliation with the people we live next door to, family members who don't know you, friends, coworkers, and neighbors who don't know you.

We pray that you would help us to be a light, sharing the glory of your grace and truth with others. God, help us to learn in this new season that we're coming into what it is to live life in connection with you and with one another, and to extend that to the world through your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to know what that looks like and to fulfill that more effectively, whether it's on campus, gathered together, in homes, or online. However you want to use us, Lord, help us to do that, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

In the darkness, we were waiting, without hope, 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 a 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, praise forever to the King of kings.

To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole creation, You did not despise the cross. For even in Your suffering, You sought to the other side, knowing this was our salvation. Jesus, for our sake, You died. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings.

And the morning that You rose, all of heaven held its breath until that stone was moved for good, for the Lamb had conquered death. And the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe for the souls of all who come to the Father are restored. The church of Christ was born, and then the Spirit lit the flame. Now this gospel truth of old.

Shall not kneel, shall not faint. By His blood, in His name, in His freedom I am free. For the love of Jesus Christ, who has resurrected me, praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings.

Father God, would you pour out your Spirit upon your church this week and bless them? Cause them to be a bright light shining to those who are in darkness, to those who are in need of your grace, your love, and your truth. Lord, work in your church that we would be a conduit of your love and grace to others. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

And 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. God bless you.

Hey, Cross Connection! We are just past Easter. We've begged you, pleaded with you, and maybe even got a bit threatening about inviting someone to church. The nice thing is Easter is over, so you can take a break. Don't even worry about inviting people to church anymore. I'm kidding, of course! We're kidding. Invite someone to church, guys, come on, please! Keep inviting people to church. Invite somebody to church. Don't get caught not inviting somebody to church.

Put your hands back on the hood. If somebody could invite a lawyer, we would appreciate it.

Hey, it's still important to keep inviting people to church. Invite someone to church. People need Jesus. Just go on the freeway; you can tell people need Jesus.

Invite somebody to church, online or in person. Invite somebody to church at www.crossconnection.com.