On a Reconnection Mission | Sunday, April 25, 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, with power to save. You keep hope alive because Your life is stronger.

Jesus, You are the reason for hope. Because You're breathing, there's hope in the breaking, hope in the sorrow, and hope for this moment. My hope for tomorrow is found in You. There's hope in the morning, there's hope in the evening, and there's hope because You're living in us.

Hope, cause you're breathing in this hope in the breaking. You keep hope 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.

Hey, Cross Connection! Welcome to our online service. We're so glad to have you here. It would be awesome if you could take a minute to invite a friend. Send a text, send an email, or yell across the room—whatever it takes! We'd love to have you invite somebody. God bless you, and thanks for being here. Now, let's get into worship.

All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord, for this day. We are so excited to come into Your house and praise You, Lord God. We want to give You our worship and our thankfulness. So, Lord, we ask that You will draw near to us as we draw near to You. We thank You for the cross. We thank You, Lord God, for this new life in You. We love You, God. In Jesus' mighty name, amen.

When darkness tries to roll over my bones, and sorrows come to steal the joy I own, when brokenness and pain are all I know, I won't be shaken. I won't be shaken. My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in Your love. My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in Your love.

She no longer has a place to hide. I am not a captive to the lies. I'm not afraid to leave.

My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in Your love. My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in Your love. My fear doesn't stand a chance when I'm standing in Your love.

Welcome and thanks for tuning in to Cross Connection Church. We're so glad that we get to bring you church at home 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 the way we live life in connection, in a way that you can be engaged from your house today, is through prayer. If you have any prayer needs or anything going on right now in your life, we would love to know about that so we can be praying with and for you today. Right now, you can go to prayer.lifeinconnection.com on our website, where you can submit your prayer requests at any time of the day. Know that our pastors and prayer team are faithfully praying with and for you. Let's see what God does this week! Don't be shy; we would love to be praying with and for you. We see God answer so many prayers here at Cross Connection Church, so whatever your needs are, let us know. Again, we love you guys, and we want to be praying with and for you, whether you're here on campus or especially if you're at home.

Speaking of prayer, we are on mission this week. We want to ask you to be praying for our missionaries in Northeast China. I can't say their names because it is a sensitive area for ministry, and we want to keep it more anonymous. However, we want to ask you to pray for the missionaries in Northeast China. They are running a school out there and faithfully ministering the gospel to unreached people groups. Please pray for their protection, their families' protection, and the students' protection, especially right now, as it is a dangerous place to be ministering the gospel. They are doing the Lord's work out there, and they are seeing God be faithful to them, with His message getting out. So, praise God for that, but let's be praying for them this week.

If you came prepared to give today online, there are a couple of different ways that you can do that. We are going to be rolling into a song with Pastor Anthony here in just a moment, so this is a time where we encourage you, if you call Cross Connection Church your home church, to worship the Lord with your giving. First, you can go online to our website at give.lifeinconnection.com, which is a simple and easy portal to give. Second, you can text the number 84321 on your cell phone with any amount, and it will walk you through the process.

Through the steps to give, you can do it right there on your phone. Third, you can simply mail in your tithe to our church address: 1675 Seven Oaks Road, Escondido, California.

With that, we're going to be jumping back into worship with Pastor Anthony. God bless you guys, and have a great week in Christ.

Found in Your name, the power to save. With only Your whisper, mountains shake. Jesus, You made a way. Unlock these chains; here in Your presence, strongholds break. Freed by the love You gave, we give You the highest praise. All You deserve it all.

The Father laid down His Son.

From darkness to life, death is lost to life. Heaven and earth will join together.

You deserve it all; you deserve it all. With every breath that's in my lungs, my heart will cry, "To You belongs the glory." Through every loss or victory, my soul will rise to only bring You glory. My heart cries out to You, Lord. My soul will rise to give You the highest praise.

You deserve it all. You deserve it all. We give you the highest praise. You deserve it all, God. You deserve all the glory. Through every loss and victory, my soul will rise to only bring you glory. Yes, Lord, we just thank you so much that You, God, are worthy of all of our praise. You truly do deserve every breath that's in our lungs and every cry that's in our heart. Lord, we lift it to You and ask that You would be the King of our hearts. We ask that You would be present, that ever-present help in our time of need.

So, Lord, we thank You. We love You, and we pray this in Your name. Amen.

Well, I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger last time. Hopefully, it was more of a hook to get you to hang with us for this message this week. In my talk last time, I shared with you that we human beings are born believers. We know this is true because every human culture throughout all of known human history has defaulted to religious expression in one form or another, and they still do today.

Every culture that you study today has religious rituals and forms that they fall into; everybody does it. We also know that this is true because all of us are, by nature, religiously oriented. Modern social science validates this. Cognitive anthropologists and clinical psychologists have been able to see through their research and experimentation that this is a reality.

We are not, as many modern atheistic naturalists try to purport, merely socialized into belief or socialized into religion. Despite what modern atheists have hoped, post-Enlightenment rationality and reason have not led to an increase in irreligious societies; the opposite has been true. Yes, there are people in modern Western culture who claim to be, as I talked about last time, spiritual but not religious, or who say that they are religiously unaffiliated. However, they are nonetheless religiously non-religious and are still groping for transcendence, just as the Scriptures say.

Not only are people seeking to connect with something bigger than themselves and trying to connect with the divine, but they are also trying to connect with everlasting life, with eternal life. Billions of dollars are currently being spent by some of the most well-funded private equity firms on human life extension projects. There are literally tens of billions of dollars being invested in this area. Some of the greatest minds in technology, pharmacology, biology, nanotechnology, genetics, gene editing, cybernetics, cryogenics, and many other STEM fields are working on the cure or reversal of aging.

If they can't cure or reverse aging, then they want to upload your consciousness into the cloud and make it possible for you to live forever in some sort of digital format. Who knows how that will work out? But there is a significant amount of money and research being put into this. If this sounds like science fiction, it is, but it isn't. Larry Ellison, the...

The founder of Oracle, Elon Musk, who helped found PayPal and then founded SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink, along with Peter Thiel, who was also part of the PayPal founding, and Larry Page, one of the key figures at Google, are just some of the notable billionaires investing in life extension and trying to cure aging. Why is this? It’s clear that we want to live forever. Human beings are born with this desire to live forever, and they are born with a desire to connect with the divine. We are born believers; it has always been this way, and it will always be this way. You cannot escape nature. To quote Lady Gaga, "You're born this way." This is how it is.

I shared about this last week, and I went on to explain that we were created by God to live life in connection with Him. God made us in His image; in the image of God, He made us male and female. He made us to experience perfect communion, community, and connection with Him and with one another, which we'll probably talk about next time.

In the New Testament book of Romans, chapter 5, Paul says in verse 12, "Therefore, just as through one man's sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned." Our disobedience brought evil, brokenness, division, suffering, and death into the world. We are born desiring connection with that which we cannot have because of the effects of indwelling sin, which Christians for centuries have called original sin.

Now, I know that there are differing opinions on the doctrine of original sin. Are we born innately fallen or evil, or do we become fallen or evil by our active participation in sin? Personally, I think it's kind of a moot point. I have my own opinions about original sin, but it’s moot because all of us will inevitably sin. If you think that children are born innately good, then you have probably never had any children or spent a lot of time with small children. We are born desiring a connection with God, but we...

We are born separated from God, and all of our religious expressions, even the non-sacred or non-religious expressions of 21st-century Americans, are cheap and ineffective substitutes for true communion and connection with Him. They never fully cure, remedy, repair, or resolve the problem of sin. They don't take away the stain of sin, nor do they remove the guilt and shame associated with it. Ultimately, they do not bring us back into harmony with God and one another.

So, we have this huge problem. That's where I left you last time, kind of with a little bit of a hook at the end. It may not have exactly been nice of me to do so, but I guess it's part of my fallen nature. I apologize or not, but my whole point in this is to bring us to a place where we recognize that we have a longing within us. We have a desire to connect with that which is divine, to transcend this world and connect with God. However, we are separated from Him, and we want to be brought back into that connection.

How can we repair the breach? That's where I left everything last time. How can we be brought back to God and reconciled to Him? If suffering, separation, and death are the results of sinful disobedience, how can we reverse it? Well, I hate to break it to you, but we can't. Not by our own efforts, not by our own good works, and not even by our religious rituals or our non-religious, non-sacred practices.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as Paul says in Romans 3:23. It is by the deeds of the law that our sin is revealed; no flesh will be justified. We cannot be made right with God by our own good actions. We cannot fix the problem of sin by our own efforts, though humanity has been trying to do that for millennia. Ever since we were sent out of the Garden of Eden, we have been trying to create ways to get back to God. This is the essence of religious endeavor. Even in a culture where people claim to be spiritual but not religious, or where they are not religiously affiliated, they are still involved in various activities to try to reconnect with the divine or to experience something greater.

Eternal life is a desperate situation, and we are all trying to get back to that. But if we can't get back to it, what then? Are we simply hopeless? In one respect, yes. If you joined us a couple of weeks ago when I started this series on life and connection, I began in Ephesians chapter 2. I read from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 14 through the end of the passage.

Just before that, in Ephesians chapter 2, beginning at verse 11, the Apostle Paul says these words: "Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh." Gentile speaks of those who are separated from God; they weren't a part of the Jewish people who were in relationship with God as His people. Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, who were called the uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands.

At that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants and promises, having no hope and without God in the world. Let me read that again: having no hope and without God in the world. Hopelessness is a part of this story, but it's not the whole story. It is a reality; it's the bad news that we all need to reckon with.

Today, I want to focus on how this hopeless story gets turned around. But first, remember this: we are hopeless without God. We are dreadfully hopeless without God's intervention. Here's the small beginning light of hope that comes to us also in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 begins like this: "You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience."

Among whom also we all once conducted

Those two final words are our hope, and in many ways, the life in connection story hinges on those two words: "but God." However, the story actually began much earlier in the Bible than in Ephesians chapter two. It began much earlier than the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It began before the prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, predicted the coming of the one who would bring us this hope. It came before the psalmist King David prophesied that God would show us the path of life in Psalm 16, verse 11.

The beginning of this light of hope was given by God immediately after the fall in Genesis chapter three. If you heard my talk last week, then you know that we ended in Genesis chapter three, reading verses one through seven. Right after the point of Adam and Eve's failure to obey God's command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they heard the sound of God walking in the garden, and they hid from Him. They were connected with God before they sinned, but they were ashamed of their vulnerability and their nakedness after their eyes were opened. After they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as a result of their sin, they hid themselves in guilt and shame.

In Genesis chapter three, verse nine, all the way back at the beginning of the Bible, we read this: "Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?'" That is disconnection. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, contrary to God's command, and their eyes were opened. They saw that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together. They heard God in the garden, they hid, and then God came looking for them, asking, "Adam, where are you?" They were now disconnected from God.

Then in verse ten, we read, "So he said," and Adam replied, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." This is further proof of guilt, shame, separation, and disconnection. In verses eleven and twelve, we read, "And He said, 'Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?'"

The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Well, there you have it, Adam. That will definitely cause some division between the man and his wife when you throw your wife under the bus and put all the blame on her. But he doesn't only blame her; he blames God as well. It was the woman that You gave me; she's the one that did it. Adam is continually swinging at strikes here.

As all of this unfolds in Genesis 3, God begins to speak to Adam and Eve about the resulting curse of their sin and disobedience. He first addresses His attention to the serpent that deceived Eve. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 14, God speaks to the serpent, saying, "Because you have done this, serpent, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He, the seed of the woman, shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

This is poetic language spoken from God to the serpent, the one that had deceived Eve. The interpretation of this poetic language is quite simple. The serpent, personifying Satan, deceived Eve by twisting the word and command of God, and she and Adam ate from the tree that God had forbidden them to eat. Therefore, God says, "Here's what's going to happen, serpent: there will be enmity between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed. But one that is born of the woman, a male, will bruise or crush your head, while you will bruise his heel."

There will be a male child born of a woman at some future point, and he will deliver a death blow to Satan, though he will be superficially wounded himself in the process. I'm sure you can understand that a crushing blow to one's heel is much less of an issue than a crushing blow to one's head.

Our hope is built upon the promise of deliverance from God the Father. This hope is what we were looking at all the way back in Ephesians chapter 2, where we read that we were dead in trespasses and sins. But God—there is our hope. We read about hope in the Gospels and from the prophets, but here, all the way in Genesis chapter 3, we are given the first glimpse of hope. Our hope is built upon the promise of deliverance from God the Father, and this came immediately after the fall.

For those of you who are theology enthusiasts, in verse 15, this passage is referred to by theologians as the proto-evangelion. This term comes from the Greek word "protos," which means "first," and "euangelion," which means "gospel." Thus, this is the first mention of the good news of hope for hopeless humans like us in the Scriptures. Life in connection with God was broken by sin, as stated in Genesis chapter 3. But God has promised deliverance, salvation, and reconciliation.

For that to happen, first, there needs to be a rescue mission. As I mentioned earlier, we cannot reach up to God; we cannot build our way up to Him. So how is this going to be reversed? If you were here a few weeks ago on Palm Sunday, I gave a message from Luke chapter 19 about a tax collector named Zacchaeus. In the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus called for him and dined with him. As He did this, the multitudes challenged Jesus for associating with Zacchaeus, whom they saw as a worse sinner than any of them. Tax collectors were synonymous with adulterers and extortioners in the time of Jesus, and the multitudes hated them.

When they saw Jesus going to be the guest of a man who was a sinner, they expressed their disapproval. In response to the multitudes, Jesus explained His actions in this way. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 19, verse 9, He said to Zacchaeus, "Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham." In verse 10, He added, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost."

Jesus came to the earth on a mission to rescue lost, sinful, and hopeless humans, and it is Christ's joy to do so. It is not as if God is up in heaven doing a divine facepalm over our lost condition and then frustrated that He has to try to sort out the mess that we have made. That is not the picture that the Scriptures give us of God.

In fact, as we prepare to close our time today, I want to pull back a few chapters from Luke chapter 19, where Jesus met Zacchaeus, to Luke chapter 15, where Jesus gave three stories that reveal the heart of God as it relates to seeking out lost things like you and me. Remember, this is quite a bit before Jesus met Zacchaeus, the tax collector.

In Luke's Gospel, chapter 15, we read that all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. The Pharisees, the most religious people in Israel, and the scribes complained, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So, He spoke this parable to them.

This is an amazing thing: sinful people, the really lost people—or maybe I should say the people who knew their lostness—drew near to Jesus. There was something about Jesus that attracted broken, lost, and sinful people to Him. Hopefully, there is something about His people, Christians, that does the same. Unfortunately, that hasn't been our experience in American culture for a while, and that might tell us something about how we as Christians are perceived. It might tell us something about how we might need to change.

So, something to think about is that Jesus was attractive to sinful people; they wanted to be around Him. He was repulsed by the most religious people. The really religious people complained that Jesus interacted with sinners, just like Zacchaeus. Several chapters later, in Luke chapter 19, the people said, "How could He possibly go to be the guest of a man who is a sinner?"

So, Jesus told them a little story—three stories, in fact. I am just going to read through the first two of these three stories.

Let's spend a little bit more time on the third story. These may be familiar stories to you, especially the third one. They are the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, or the prodigal son.

Before I read these stories, keep in mind the context. Jesus is telling these stories to very religious people who were angry that He was spending time with lost people. With that in mind, we read this in Luke chapter 15, verse 1:

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness to go after the one which was lost until he finds it? And when he has found his lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' I say to you that likewise, in the same manner, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost.' Likewise, in the same manner, I say to you that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Jesus came from heaven to earth on a mission to find and rescue lost, sinful, and hopeless humans—those who were disconnected from God. Jesus came on this mission to bring them back into connection because that's what we were created for. We were created to be in perfect communion and connection with God, and we are separated by sin. We can't make our way back to God, even though we long for it.

So, Jesus comes to the earth to seek and to save that which is lost, to restore us back to connection with God. Those are the first two stories that Jesus shares.

Now, for the final story, the story of the lost son, the prodigal son, which is a favorite of many. We read this in Luke chapter 15, beginning at verse 11. Then He said, "A certain man had two sons."

The younger of the two sons said to his father, "Father, give me my portion of goods that falls to me. Give me my inheritance." So he divided to them his livelihood. Not many days after, the younger son gathered together all that he had, journeyed to a far country, and there he wasted his possessions on prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed swine. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

When he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger!" So he said, "I will arise and go to my father and say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'"

He arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this, my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry.

This is considered by many to be one of Jesus's greatest stories, and there are many lost sons and daughters who can identify with this story. Some of you who are paying attention, however, recognize that the story keeps going. The father in the story had two sons, and storytellers know that you never add a character to a plotline for no reason.

We read this about the second son in Luke chapter 15, beginning at verse 25. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked, "What do these things mean?" The servant said to him, "Your brother has come."

Because he has received him safely and soundly, your father has killed the fatted calf. But the other son was angry and would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. He answered and said to his father, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you. I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might be merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him."

He said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

Remember the context for Jesus telling these three stories. Jesus is telling these stories to very religious people who were angry that He was spending time with lost people. Jesus came from heaven to earth on a mission to find and rescue lost, sinful, and hopeless humans. Sometimes, the really religious people forget this, and they get angry when lost people show up or when they bump into lost people. Jesus is on a mission to reconcile people to Himself; that was His purpose.

We saw it in Luke chapter 19, verse 10: "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." He has a vision, and Jesus tells us of it. You can read it in Revelation 5 and Revelation 7. Jesus gives us a vision of multitudes of lost people reconciled to Himself, and He calls us to live life in connection with God, one another, and the world. We are called to the same mission with Christ. That's why this is our mission and vision at Cross Connection Church: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus.

Father God, I pray that you would cause this mission, this purpose, this vision to be in our hearts. Lord, stir us to want to follow you in this, to imitate you in this, and to be those who are reaching out to the lost people of this world. In reality, even the very religious people are often very lost. We live in a culture right now where people are constantly trying to better themselves. They are trying to better themselves through...

Diet, exercise, meditation, and all kinds of different things—none of those things are going to satisfy ultimately. None of those things are going to overcome the stain, the shame, and the guilt of sin. None of those things are going to restore us back to You.

Lord, we're surrounded by a lot of people who are in desperate need of Your good news. I pray that You would cause us, Your people, Your church, to be in some way more attractive to lost people, that they would be drawn to us and want to know about the love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control—all of these things, the fruit of the Spirit. They would want that in their lives. God, do a work in us.

In the same way that You came to this earth on a mission to seek and to save that which is lost, to find lost and hopeless people, God, help us to be compelled to join You on that mission. Help us to live life in connection with You, to live life in connection with one another, and to extend that to people in this world. This life, this abundant life, comes only through You. Every person we come in contact with desires it; they long for it.

So, God, I pray that You would stir us to be able to share this good news, this gospel, with others. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I would be hopeless without Your goodness. I would be desperate without Your love, a slave to the darkness if it wasn't for the cross. You have won me with Your kindness, chased me down when I was lost. Where would I be if it wasn't for You?

The cross, hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now I'm not. With Your blood, You find my freedom. Hallelujah for the cross!

Now Your mercy will be my song, and all the glory—oh, the power of the cross! Oh, hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now I'm not.

Hallelujah! The power of sin is overcome. It is! The power of sin is overcome. It is! Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now...

I'm not, and with Your blood, You find my freedom. Oh, thank You, Jesus! I was a prisoner, but now I'm not. With Your blood, You buy my freedom. Hallelujah for the cross!

God, we thank You for the opportunity we've had today to worship You through song and also in the study of Your Word. As I often pray, I pray that Your Word would go deep into our hearts and transform us. Lord, You want to transform us by the renewing of our minds so that we would be able to display in our lives on a daily basis what is Your good and perfect will in this world.

So, Lord, we pray that Your Word would have its way in us. It would convince, it would rebuke if necessary, it would exhort us, and it would equip us for every good work. Lord, may we shine brightly in those good works in this world, that people would see our good works and glorify You, our Father in heaven. We ask this today in Jesus' name. Pour out Your Spirit on Your church, we pray.

Thank you, Lord. 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.

Did I get you?