Rejoicing & Content | Sunday, August 9, 2020

Good morning, Cross-Connection Church, and welcome again to Church at Home from my home office. We are so glad that you are joining us this morning for a time of worship and study through the Scriptures. Just like we have been doing, I want to encourage you to send out a message to a friend or a group of friends to invite them to join us this morning. You can text them, email them, or share the link live.ccchurch.com on social media so that they can participate with us.

With that, let's join Pastor Anthony and the worship team for worship.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day, Lord, for another day given to us by You. With our very breath, we are going to speak Your name and praise You. That's why we are created, God. We thank You for Your Word. In Genesis 18:14, it says, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" And God, we know that the answer is, "No, there is nothing too hard."

Lord, You want to speak that to us right now, to everyone who is listening and everyone who is here: You are for us. You love us, You care for us, and You will bring us through every trial. You are faithful, so just hold on to those truths.

With that, we are going to turn around and sing to You, praise You, and thank You for what You have already done in our lives, for what You are about to do, and for who You are. We praise You and worship You this morning in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

Let's worship. Praises rising, eyes are turning to You. Return to You. Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for You.

We long for You. When we see You, we find strength to face the day. In Your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away.

Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. Hear the sound of hearts returning to You. Return to You. In Your kingdom, broken lives are made new. You make us new.

When we see You, we find the strength to face the day. In Your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away.

Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. Hosanna, Hosanna. Come have Your way among us. We welcome You here, Lord Jesus.

We find the strength to face the day, even the hardest day. In Your presence, all our fears are washed away. Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. Hosanna, Hosanna. Come have Your way among us. We welcome You here, Lord Jesus.

Welcome! Thanks for tuning in today to Cross Connection as we bring you church at home. I'm Pastor Garrett, and I'm glad that you could be with us today. Here at Cross Connection Church, we're all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

One of the biggest ways that we step into life in connection with God is through prayer. Every single one of us can do that, and I encourage you and strongly recommend that you do throughout the week. Praying is so simple; it's just us talking to God and hearing from Him. Honestly, God answers so many prayers here at Cross Connection Church. If you have specific prayer requests or anything going on this week, we would love to be praying for you. We’d love to know what's going on. You can simply give us your prayer requests at prayer.lifeinconnection.com.

For all other points of connection, check out our main homepage, lifeinconnection.com. You'll see updates there and all other points of connection.

This week's On Mission, we're asking you to pray for the kids who went to the Kids Party Club. This was our summer VBS that was hosted virtually with the Pilgrims. Just be praying for those kids. They all had an interaction with the gospel message. Pray that it soaks in, that it ministered to them, and that they would make a lifelong decision to follow Christ.

We have a quick video from the Pilgrims just to show what happened at this year's Vacation Bible School (VBS), so check it out.

Hello there! I'm Ken Pilvin, and this is my wife, Teresa. We are coming to you from the outermost part of Fallbrook, and we are part of the ministry Kids Party Club. Kids Party Club is basically a Vacation Bible School that we run in our neighborhood. At Vacation Bible School, as you probably know, we do Bible stories, worship songs, crafts, games, and snacks, all centered around a Bible story and a Bible point for the day, leading up to the gospel message. We have so much fun doing that.

Over 20 years ago, God laid on our hearts that there were many kids and families in our neighborhood who don't have a church they're connected with, and that we had an opportunity to reach out to those kids. Normally, we do it in June every year, but this year we quickly realized that, with the pandemic, things were going to be quite a bit different. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to do it. However, we decided to go ahead and try it virtually, which was certainly a stretch for us, but it was a lot of fun. We recorded it all in our living room and had a good time doing it.

We also had the opportunity to have families come pick up their materials one by one, which allowed us to share with them and talk with them more than we normally would. We got to invite them to our connect group, which we're looking forward to getting back together with. There were a lot of good things that came from it that would not have happened if it were in person, so it was very fun.

One of the great things that happened when we went online this year was that we were able to broaden the area we reached. It went beyond our neighborhood, and we actually had kids sign up from Escondido all the way up to Corona, allowing us to reach many families. That was exciting! Another good thing is that, because it's on YouTube, it is there and ready to watch and re-watch. These kids can watch it again and again, sing these worship songs, watch these Bible stories, and hear the truth over and over again.

With that said, if you know anyone who would like to take a look, or if you have children in your sphere of influence, such as grandkids, and you would like to view what we did for VBS for Kids Party Club, you can email me at tpilben27@gmail.com, and I will send you the link.

As far as praying for us, we'd love for you to pray for us. Certainly pray for the pandemic to end so that we can meet in person next summer. Also, pray for the kids who were involved this year, that they have an opportunity to watch it more often than they normally would. Just pray that the Lord would work in their hearts and that they would be drawn. We thank you so much. God bless you all. We appreciate you greatly. Thank you.

In just a moment, we're going to be joining Pastor Anthony and the worship team for another song of worship. This will be a time where we set aside some moments to worship the Lord with our giving. I encourage all of you who call Cross Connection Church your home church to participate. If you're tuning in for the first time, don't feel pressured to give. This is for the family, and it is a way that we can further worship the Lord with what He has given us.

There are a couple of different ways that you can give today. First, you can go to give.lifeinconnection.com. Second, you can text 84321 on your cell phones. Third, you can mail in your tithe this week to 1675 7 Oaks Road, or you can always drop it by the church office. If we're not here, you can put it in the door.

We'd love to worship the Lord with you. Let's go ahead and join Pastor Anthony. We'll catch you next week.

You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope. You restore every heart that is broken. Great are You, Lord. It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. We praise You only. Great are You, Lord.

You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope. You restore every heart that is broken. Great are You, Lord.

It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to You only.

Great are You, Lord. And all the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing. Great are You, Lord.

And all the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing. Great are You, Lord.

And all the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing.

Great are You, Lord. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry; these bones will sing. Great are You, Lord.

It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to You only. Great are You, Lord. Oh, He's so great.

I tell You, God, that You are great. Great are You, Lord. Yes, Lord God, we know that You are great and greatly to be praised. And that's what we do; we praise You, for You are good, and Your mercies endure forever.

So, Lord, bless Your word now. In Jesus' name we pray.

I've been really trying to find a sweet spot in this new format of preaching over the last five months. I've been preaching to groups of gathered people for more than 20 years, and over that length of time, I have obviously developed a pattern, an algorithm, if you will. However, with our new format of online video, with no immediate crowd response or feedback, I've been experimenting to try and figure it out. I hope and pray that this has been landing correctly. I think it is. I've been receiving a little bit of positive feedback from some of you, and we've been making some minor tweaks and adjustments along the way, as you can see.

I do want to share with you some of the things that I've been thinking about as we move forward as a church. I feel that it is necessary to give you something of a state-of-the-church address, maybe call it a mid-year update. I will also share something from the Scriptures.

I'm convinced that church at home, due to the COVID-19 shutdown, has really only accelerated trends that were already happening in business, culture, society, and church. How far forward it has sent us remains to be seen, but let me explain what I mean a little bit.

One of the things that my wife is a bit bummed about, and maybe you can relate, is that Nordstrom, which is unfortunate for me because it is only about 10 minutes from my house, has closed. The Nordstrom sign is gone, Nordstrom coffee is gone, the building is dark, and it isn't coming back.

But here's the fascinating thing. When you look at business statistics, it's very likely that if there had been no COVID-19 in 2020 and we had jumped forward to 2030, the 16 stores that Nordstrom is currently closing would probably be closed. Nordstrom has already been on a path of downsizing their retail footprint in favor of online retail. COVID-19 just fast-tracked the execution.

One of the things that my wife and I, and probably you as well, are happy about is that Amazon is delivering a lot faster than they were. In fact, if you drive by the old Nordstrom building or the mall in general, you'll see dozens of Amazon Prime vans staged in the mall parking lot. What's that all about? Well, prior to COVID-19, Amazon had been purchasing distressed real estate space at old vacated malls to pre-position their logistics and warehousing closer to residents who purchase their products. This makes it cheaper, easier, and quicker to get you an order within 24 hours or even on the same day. This was Amazon's plan for the next five to ten years, but COVID-19 fast-tracked the plan.

This is happening throughout society right now in every sphere and industry. We're watching adaptations and changes at a rapid pace. This is true in education, government, retail, healthcare, travel, and communication. What am I bringing this up for? Because it's happening in churches too. I'll explain what that means in a moment.

Some of the changes that are happening right now, we don't like. We don't really like change anyway, especially fast changes. They are unsettling. In fact, it promotes a sort of future shock when changes happen rapidly. If these changes happen slowly over a ten-year period, we would hardly recognize them until we looked back and said, "Do you remember when you used to get your coffee at Nordstrom?" And, oh yeah, I remember that. That was so crazy that you actually had to drive to get your coffee over there. I love that it just gets delivered to my house each morning by Uber. It's so much easier.

What does this have to do with church? Right now, a lot of churches and pastors are working very hard to get back to normal church. There is something about that that sounds really pleasing to me as well. I like a lot of things about church as it was B.C., before COVID. But here's one of the things that a lot of pastors, churches, and leaders are forgetting about church B.C. We were watching a trend that was concerning. Since 2008, which happens to be the year that I became the pastor of Cross Connection Church, there has been a clear trend in American Christianity. There are a lot of ideas about why this trend has been happening, and maybe all of them or none of them are the cause.

But the trend is clear. Faithful members of churches are attending church less regularly. That may not sound very nice, but it is true, and you know it. Let me say, if I weren't a pastor of a church and were just a husband and a father of four, working 40 to 60 hours a week, often six days a week, I might be less faithful in my church attendance too.

Let me be clear: I'm not saying that I like this trend. There are many trends in society that I don't like, but whether I like them or not doesn't change the reality or the direction of the trend. For a number of you watching who are baby boomers, this is the point where some of you may get upset with me because I made it generational. For those of you who are 55 years or older and probably started growing a family and attending church in the 1980s, you look at these younger Generation Xers and millennials who are attending church less regularly and think, "I used to go to church two to three times a week. Where's your commitment?"

The trend from 2008 until about 2019-2020 was a shift from people attending church two to three times a week to two to three times a month. Most of the people who attend Cross Connection Church, and really every church, from 2008 to 2019, who are 18 to 45 years old, came to church about three out of five Sundays. That's about 60% of the Sundays.

Again, if you're a baby boomer, you've been headed toward retirement or are already retired during this time, and you were accustomed to attending church on Sunday mornings, maybe Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, or even a men's or women's study on Tuesday or Thursday. This shift doesn't make a lot of sense to you at all.

However, after the economic downturn of 2008, many people in America experienced a shift in their lives and work. As a result of this economic downturn and the changes in the economy and work, many Americans saw an increase in their work expectations after 2008. The idea of an eight-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek has changed in America. This has been cited in a lot of research. Over the last ten plus years, many working Americans now work 45, 55, or even 60 plus hours a week. Additionally, with the advent of the smartphone in 2007, most workers are now expected to be available and marginally on call when they are home.

I know a number of individuals in our church who work six days a week. If you have kids who play sports, then the demands upon your time are excessive. Now, I'm not at all saying that this is necessarily a good thing, but it is reality, and it has drastically affected the way that people interact with the church. However, that doesn't mean that they are not committed followers of Jesus or committed to their church. Many of the people I’m describing are super committed to our church, but the demands on their time make it impossible for them to be at church every Sunday, let alone three or four times a week as many did in the 1990s.

You remember the last century? That was the trend leading up to 2020. On an average Sunday at Cross Connection at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, we would have about 570 people, including adults, youth, and kids. However, because of the new attendance patterns, our church, if everyone showed up, was really more like 900 people. The trend in the last five years has been shifting again, meaning that the average person or family wasn't going to church three out of five Sundays. They were attending church two or fewer times out of four Sundays. That's less than half the time.

If you are a dual-income family and you work six days a week, then Sunday becomes the only day off. It is also the only day for birthday parties and taking care of the house, and sometimes for sports. Even if you do attend every week, if you have multiple kids, there are going to be weeks where one of them has a cold or a couple of them have a fever, making it impossible to bring the kids to children's ministry.

Why am I sharing all of this? I'm sharing this to identify a trend and to explain what we are doing and why we are doing it as a church. I've been watching this trend for a long time, and COVID-19 has fast-tracked every trend by as much as ten years. Over the last fifteen years, churches have been forced to rethink what they are doing in a big way. Most churches are unwilling and unable to do so. We don't like change, and so we will not change until the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change. For a lot of churches, they choose to stay the same and die rather than embrace change. I know this is true because I've witnessed it many times. I've watched a lot of churches close their doors in the last twelve years.

Many of them have a desire to fight against cultural trends and are unwilling to minister to the culture where it is at. Calvary Chapel of Escondido chose to change in a big way. We changed from Calvary Chapel of Escondido to Cross Connection Church, and it wasn't just a name change. It was a massive shift of our church from offering services and opportunities to gather nearly every day or night of the week to church on Sundays and small groups at home throughout the week. This has been a significant shift, and it was all in anticipation of a trend that I was foreseeing.

When I became the pastor of this church in 2008, the church had experienced a steep decline in the previous five years. It was on a trend line toward dying. But that has changed because we changed. We changed how we seek to minister to the community that God has called us to. In 2020, we experienced a rapid shift in trends due to the coronavirus. Every single one of us is feeling the pressures of these changes, and it is challenging and difficult. My family, like many of yours, is trying to figure out what that means for us in the schooling of our four kids in just a few weeks. Every church is trying to reason through this as well.

What has changed in this fast forward with churches due to COVID-19? Every American church has become a video multi-site church in the last 20 weeks. All of you have become accustomed to engaging with the church in this format. So what does that mean? It means that even when we come back to gathering on Sunday mornings, more of you will decide to stay home and watch online from time to time. Maybe you will do it just two or three times a year, or perhaps you'll do it once or twice a month. The fact is, even when I begin preaching again on Sunday from the pub table at 1675 Seven Oaks Road, some of you are going to watch at home from time to time.

So what does that mean for us going forward? As I mentioned over the last couple of months, we're investing in new equipment to make it possible for us to focus our online venue a little bit more. When we get back to church at the church facility, we'll probably continue to record separately online as well. We won't just live stream our Sunday mornings; we'll produce a specific online service. Why are we doing this?

Because the marketplace of the world in the 21st century is entirely online, we must adapt. Two thousand years ago, the early church grew as Paul and the other apostles ministered and preached in the marketplaces of Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, and Crete. If the church in our day is going to continue to grow and reach the culture, it will happen at our church facility, but it will also happen on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the Google Play Store.

That is what we are doing. However, church is not just about preaching and teaching. The early church continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, as stated in the Book of Acts, but they also continued in fellowship, the breaking of bread—which includes both communion and hospitality—and in prayers. I want to continue to challenge and encourage you to help us grow, not only in our teaching and preaching online but also in our opportunities for fellowship, hospitality, prayer, discipleship, and all the other purposes for which the church exists.

If you want to be plugged into all the other things we are doing beyond online church at home, we want to help you grow in your faith and practice as a follower of Jesus. We want to help you become more of a prayer warrior, which is why Pastor Mark led us in 31 Days of Prayer in July. You can also join the prayer team by going to prayerteam.lifeinconnection.com. Additionally, you can begin or host a small group by visiting athome.lifeinconnection.com. All of this is available on our main website, so check the front page to see the points of connection.

If you are feeling disconnected from church, I totally understand that. This is not an ideal situation, but it is life in August of 2020. Baseball is weird, and the NBA and NFL are trying to figure out what they are going to do. Many of you are working from home, which is a change. Your child's education, like mine, is up in the air. This feels absolutely absurd.

But is God working in the midst of this? Yes, He truly is. Don't despair. God is on the move, and one day we will look back on this and say, "Remember all that craziness in 2020? God had a plan."

We are trying to adapt to what is going on. We're trying to figure out how best to fulfill the mission that God has given us in this new mission field. I don't think any church has completely figured it out. I'm happy with what we've been able to do in the last few months, but we're not there yet. I beg you to bear with us. Pray for us. Connect with me or the other leaders of our church if you want to ask questions or if you don't understand something. The phone number that we post on the screen goes directly to us. You can text us, and we see it immediately. Primarily, it's for the questions podcast, but we still see it. It's not a comment or a gripe line, but we do see and respond as we can.

With all of that, I want to close our time this morning with something from the Scriptures. Next week, we will get back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4. I encourage you to read ahead in verses 32 through 40. As we close our time this morning, if you have a Bible handy, open or click to Philippians chapter 4. I want to read from Philippians chapter 4, beginning at verse 2 through verse 13.

There, Paul says, "I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. And the God of peace be with you.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased. I know how to abound.

Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So, three quick things before we close today. First, Paul, in this passage of Philippians, is closing his letter with an exhortation to two prominent ladies in the Philippian church who appear to have been at odds with one another. I know it's hard to believe that would ever happen in a church, but apparently, the Philippians were like your old church. I once heard one preacher refer to these two as odious, which means unpleasant, and soon touchy. So, odious and soon touchy were having a disagreement, and Paul challenges them to get over it and to be like-minded.

There are some of you who are upset with someone else in the church. Maybe you're upset with me because we're not meeting. Notice that Paul says in verse 5, "Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." Listen, if you knew that you were going to see Jesus today, would your beef with that other person really matter? Let your gentle, kind, courteousness be known to all people. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. That's the first thing: let your graciousness shine so that all can see it.

Secondly, Paul writes, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice." Always means always. We don't rejoice only when things are going good; we rejoice at all times. Why? Because we have the proper eternal perspective that says the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). And in the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world, said Jesus in John 16. A proper eternal perspective will promote present rejoicing.

Thirdly, Paul writes, "I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound."

Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You and most every other person you know are facing challenges right now. When we are faced with challenges, our inclination is to whine, murmur, complain, and pout. Stop being a pout-pout fish. By Christ's strength, we can and should learn contentment.

Years ago, I was going through a challenging time, and a friend of mine reminded me that there isn't a lot of fruitfulness and growth on high mountaintops. The growth and fruitfulness are found in the valleys, and she was right. We may not like the valleys of life, but even in what the Bible calls the Valley of Baca in Psalm 84, which means bitterness, weeping, or lamentation, we can find springs and pools of refreshing water. Always, between Egypt and the Promised Land, or between Babylon and the Promised Land, is a harsh wilderness. You may be in the wilderness now, but an eternal perspective and the strength of the Lord can bring rejoicing and contentment.

That has been my prayer for you, our church. I would ask that you pray for me, for Pastor Mark, Pastor Nick, Pastor Jason, Pastor Anthony, Pastor Garrett, and all of our leaders, our elders, our staff, and our people who serve in all the different areas, many of you who serve as ushers and greeters in hospitality. In this time, be praying for all of us that we would also have that eternal perspective. I think God really stirred Pastor Mark to share on this months ago, and that we would not only have an eternal perspective but also be strengthened in the Lord.

That passage, which so many people look back on as a verse that encourages them, states that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. However, we need to look at the context because a lot of people take that verse out of context. In fact, I saw a T-shirt not too long ago that said, "I can do all things through a verse taken out of context." So, obviously, it was referring to this verse and this passage. We do take this verse out of context a lot, but we need to understand what it means. It means that we can go through difficult times and still rejoice. We can still bear with people when we are upset or bothered by them, and we need to do that by the strength that the Lord gives so that we can grow.

This has been a challenging time, and there have been moments over the last five months when I've felt really discouraged by the things happening in our culture, by what I see in our own community, and by the challenges we're facing with my kids' education, among other things. This has compelled me to go before the Lord and confess a number of wrong things in my own heart, including frustrations and anger about various issues. Scripture says to be angry, but sin not; do not let the sun go down on your wrath. There are times when we must go to the Lord, confess, and say, "God, forgive me."

God wants to transform us through these experiences. My hope is that as we emerge from this challenging period, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, and enter a new season as a church and as individuals who make up the body of Christ, we would find ourselves becoming a little more, or perhaps a lot more, like Jesus in the way we respond and interact with others. I pray that we would see the development of more of the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control—produced in our lives.

Additionally, as I've encouraged you before, understand that God is using this challenging time not only to refine you and me, making us more like Jesus, but also to draw people to Himself. My prayer has been that God would use this situation to bring about a revival in our day. Ultimately, I believe the most important answer for our nation right now is Jesus Christ and the Gospel. It is not new or better politicians we need, but new or better people transformed by the grace and power of God through the Gospel and the Word of God.

The reality is that the church has the answer this culture needs. I pray that God would use us to share that message with those around us more effectively. On that point, would you pray with me for that?

Father, I do thank You for this unusual situation where I find myself sitting in my office at home, a place I have spent a lot of time over the last four or five months, and being able to share with the church. I don't think I've preached a message sitting down in probably twenty years. This is strange, this is weird, this is out of the box. But I pray, God, that You would use the work that is going on here at Cross Connection Church.

The work that is going through the church body of Cross Connection is significant. I pray that you would use it to draw people to Yourself. God, continue to use Your Word by Your Holy Spirit to make us more like You.

We ask that we, and those we interact with on a regular basis—our family, coworkers, and neighbors—would see Your transforming grace at work in our lives. God, work in us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

I know that You've even gone to win my heart. You come back with the hand of my enemy, and You call it my victory. You go before I know that You've even gone to win my heart. Your love becomes my greatest defense and leads me from the dry wilderness.

And all I did was pray. All I did was worship. All I did was bow down. All I did was taste. Hallelujah, You have saved me. So much better Your way. Hallelujah, great Defender.

So much better this way. Before I do, when my heart can't sleep to find Your truth, mercy is the shade I'm living in. You restore my faith and my hope again. All I did was praise. All I did was worship. All I did was bow down. All I did was taste.

Hallelujah, You have saved me. So much better Your way. Hallelujah, great Defender. So much better this way. Oh, better Your way.

When I thought I lost me, You knew where I left me. You reintroduced me to Your love. You picked up all my pieces and put me back together. You are the

You picked up all my pieces and put me back together. You are the defender of my heart. When I thought I lost myself, you knew where I left me. You reintroduced me to your love.

You picked up all my pieces and put me back together. You are the defender of my heart. Hallelujah, you have saved me! So much better in your way. Hallelujah, great defender! So much better this way.

Hallelujah, you have saved me! So much better in your way. Hallelujah, great defender! So much better this way. Oh, better your way.

And all I did was pray. And all I did was worship. And all I did was bow down. And all I did was stay. And all I did was pray.

And all I did was worship. And all I did was stay. And all I did was bow down. And all I did was stay. And all I did was pray. And all I did was stay.

Well, that was easy.