The Basis of Obedience | Sunday, October 4, 2020

I won't forget the wonder of how You brought deliverance, the exodus of my heart. You found me, You freed me, and held back the waters for my release. Oh yeah, You're the God who fights for me, Lord.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! You are the one who fights for me.

Now I will not forget. You took me by forever. Hallelujah! You're the God who fights for me, Lord of Harry, victory! Hallelujah! You will lead me through the deep. Hallelujah!

Good morning and happy October to all of you.

As you join with us this morning for church online, we're so glad that you are here. We invite you, before we join our worship team for a time of worship, to send an invite to a friend or a group of friends, inviting them to join us for service today. Just send them a text message or post it on social media using the link live.ccchurch.com, so that we can gather together virtually to worship the Lord and study through the Scriptures.

With that, let's go over to our worship team.

Father, we thank You that You've chosen us, that we're Your royal priests. You know us and You've called us by name. Lord, we're humbled and privileged to know that we're Your sons and Your daughters. As we worship You in music, be high and lifted up. It's in Your name we pray. Amen.

I was buried beneath my shame. Who could carry that kind of weight? It was my tomb. I was breathing but not alive. All my failures I tried to hide. It wasn't my tomb until I met darkness.

Is now your mercy has saved my soul. Now your freedom is. I needed rescue; my sin was heavy, but chains break at the weight of your glory. I need a shelter. I was an orphan, but you called me a citizen. When I was broken, you were.

Welcome to Cross Connection and to Church at Home. I'm Pastor Mark, but you can also call me Grandpa. That's why Garrett is not here this morning; they just delivered a very happy, healthy baby girl named Rosemary Hatch. You can see a shot of the happy couple here along with my granddaughter, so that's grandchild number two for me.

I want to go over a couple of things. First, prayer is super important to us here at Cross Connection because we know that God answers prayer. Amen? I hear an amen out there! When you send your prayer requests in, we will pray for them both on Wednesday with our prayer team, face to face, and also through our live prayer chain. We have a dedicated virtual prayer team that prays for each one of those requests, and about 10 percent of our church is involved in this ministry. If you need prayer, please send it in to prayer@lifeandconnection.com.

Additionally, if you'd like to join either our live prayer team or our virtual prayer chain, please send your information to that address, and we'll get you all signed up.

The big announcement this week is that there is a need for host homes to open up more connect groups, as well as for our watch parties. This is how we can go to church during this time when we can't be in our big church sanctuary. I believe the Lord is guiding us through this time and giving us this opportunity as a means of evangelism and to get to know our neighbors better, as well as to connect with those in the church a little more.

It's really quite simple to be a host. All you have to do is go to our website at home.lifeinconnection.com, and you can sign up there. It's great because you can determine how you want the group to go in your house. Some groups have masks, some do not, and they meet on different days. You can choose the day that works best for you.

You can choose the time and date that works for you to meet. Perhaps you have a house that's great for kids, but maybe your house doesn't work for kids. You can make that choice. Please get on the website to see how you can open your home. For us pastors, we've been doing this for a little while, and it's been a tremendous blessing. It's one of the ways we give back to the Lord, expressing our gratitude for having homes to meet in. It would be a true blessing to the church, and I believe it will enrich your life and encourage those around you. I would love to see you open up your home to be a host, whether for a watch party or a connect group.

Now, this week is On Mission. For those of you who don't know what On Mission is, it is part of our mission as a church—a ministry that we support not only financially but also prayerfully. This is one of my favorite things because it's that time of year again, and it's called Operation Christmas Child.

Operation Christmas Child involves filling shoe boxes with needed items. There is a list that tells you what to include based on age and whether it's for a boy or girl. You fill these boxes up, pray over them, and then the organization takes them all over the world to children in need. These children don't just receive a box; they also receive the Gospel message that goes along with it. It is a powerful ministry and a way for you and your family to impact others on the other side of the world.

Here are some details: check out this video. Operation Christmas Child starts in your own living room when a person packs the shoe box and prays for the child who will receive it. Father, thank you so much for the privilege you've given us to pack these boxes. When we pray, God takes your gift, your box, and begins to navigate it around the world until it ends up in the hands of a child. Those prayers you prayed for that child are answered, and every year we see millions of children put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, are you excited to come pick up your box? You can come pick up these reusable plastic boxes that the church will be distributing on October 11th at the church property from 2 to 4 PM.

On Sunday, we will be able to come and pick up that box and fill it with the items needed. We need you to drop that box off on November 8th at the church parking lot between 2 and 4 PM. It is very important that you bring it back on November 8th during that time because the truck is leaving afterward to go all the way up to Los Angeles for sorting. I believe this is a ministry that you will really get behind, and I think your kids will enjoy it, especially if you have a family. It’s wonderful to know that your prayers and wishes are going to the other side of the world.

Now, in just a minute, Pastor Eli is going to lead us again in worship. But before that, now is the time that we can give back what God has given us. I am so thankful that we are a giving church, engaged not just in what’s going on here but also in our community and around the world.

The way we can give back is by texting the word "give" to 84321. You can also give at give.lifeandconnection.com, or you can simply drop it off at the church office or mail it to the church office at 1675 Seven Oaks Road, Escondido, CA 92026. Thank you so much for your faithful giving and your support of the ministries.

Sing how great the chasm. How great the chasm that lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke Your name into the night. Then, through the darkness, Your loving kindness tore through the shadows of...

My soul, the work is finished; the end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope! Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The King of Kings stepped down from glory to bear my sin and shame. The cross has spoken: I am forgiven.

Beautiful Savior, I'm Yours forever. Jesus Christ, You have broken every chain. This salvation is in Your name, Jesus Christ. That sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Silence the roaring lion; He declared the grave has no claim on me.

Then came the morning that sealed the promise.

Your very body begins to respond to Jesus. You have broken everything, Jesus. You have broken every chain in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, that's right; we serve a God who is very much alive and well.

You have paid our debt. You gave Your life to pay for our sins so that we would have victory and a place in eternity with You there in heaven.

So, Father, we keep our eyes fixed on You. You are the author and the finisher of our faith and love. We love You with our whole hearts. Continue to minister to us, continue to speak to us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Make us Your hands and Your feet; use us to do Your good work.

Holy name, we pray. Amen.

This last week, in one of the Coffee Time episodes, I shared about the importance of men taking responsibility in life. I think you'd probably agree that we need boys to grow up to be men who take responsibility. One of the evidences of a guy growing up, becoming a man, and taking responsibility is that he begins to check off four or five of the boxes of adulthood: finishing an education, which doesn't have to be an academic education; it could be an apprenticeship or a trade program; getting a job; getting married; starting a family; and hopefully buying a home. The last one may prove to be more difficult for many in our day, but I'm sure you understand the essence of what I'm saying.

The Apostle Paul said it like this: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." One of the greatest evidences of a boy becoming a man and putting away childish things is when he becomes a father and takes responsibility for being a dad.

As an aside, I just have to say that Pastor Garrett became a dad this last week. His wife, Grace, delivered a healthy baby girl last Monday, and fatherhood looks pretty good on him. So, congratulations to Garrett and Grace! Congratulations also to another one of our leaders, Christian, and his wife, Sierra; they had baby number three on Wednesday.

But I digress. When you become a dad and you are now responsible for leading your sons and daughters, you have to begin to establish for your kids and family what your rules and values are. This is an incredibly important time for a family, and it can be a real challenge, especially if you didn't have the best example in your own upbringing.

One of the other things that becomes blatantly clear to you at the time that you and your spouse are establishing such rules and values is the success or failure of those around you at doing the same. I think every parent can identify with what I am saying. Right around the same time that you become a parent, and especially in the year or so after you have your first child, you begin to pay particular attention to the parenting strategies, or lack thereof, of others around you.

Intuitively, we tend to grade or rank order the strengths or weaknesses of the parenting approaches of others. It's almost impossible not to do so. People can become pretty passionate about their parenting methods, so you learn rather quickly that if you want to maintain friendships with other parents, you just won't really give your input or thoughts about the weaknesses of their approaches. But in your mind, you do judge a little, if we're honest.

In a very short period of time, less than two years or so, you can begin to see whether or not a couple's approach to parenting is going to be, shall we say, productive or not. As we often say around Cross Connection, wisdom is justified by her children. In other words, outcomes are important.

However, here's one of the unspoken rules of parenting for a lot of parents: I will parent my kids, and you need to parent yours. I'm not going to take it upon myself to parent your kids; they're not my kids. I get it. For those of you who are among my parents' generation, you might think that this is a weakness of my generation. You remember growing up in a time when the neighbor would have no problem parenting you. They would not have hesitated to correct the behavior of a kid that wasn't their own.

But understand, we no longer have a mostly cohesive core code of ethics and morality in our culture. Everything is relative and subjective in 21st-century America. When you were growing up, if you remember being parented by someone who wasn't your parent, you were living in a time where there was more of a unified morality. That's not the case anymore.

So, the unwritten rule of 21st-century parenting in the United States is: parent your kids. This becomes really clear around the time that your kids are between the ages of seven and twelve, which happens to be the ages of my four kids. At that point, your kids begin to say things to you like, "But so-and-so gets to do this; how come I don't?" or "But so-and-so gets to watch this; how come I don't?" Every parent knows the answer: because so-and-so is not my kid; you are.

What does any of this have to do with Deuteronomy? Well...

Way more so than you might think, because the basis of obedience is relationship. This morning, we're in Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning at verse 6, where we read: "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and who keep my commandments."

In our study here in Deuteronomy, we have finally come to the actual statutes and judgments of God. I've been teasing you with this for months, but we are finally here. This last week, I had a small group in my home for a watch party on Sunday. As the message started—yes, I watch the messages on Sunday just like you do—and yes, it does feel strange, but does anything in 2020 really feel normal?

As the message was starting in my home, it became clear to those present that I was not going to be talking about the commandments in Deuteronomy. Someone turned to me and said, "You mean you're not going to talk about the commandments?" But now we are. See, Wendy, I told you.

As we now begin to talk about the actual statutes and judgments of God, or what are commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments, it is important to see deeply in our minds that the basis of obedience is relationship. Why do I want to drive home that point? Because there are certainly people who regard these statutes and judgments as unimportant. There are people who see these as nothing more than an example of a 3,400-year-old moral code that has no relevance for life in 2020. If they are irrelevant in your mind, then it is likely that you have no relationship with God.

God is speaking these statutes and judgments to His people. If we rewind 40 years prior to what is happening here in Deuteronomy chapter 5, to the point that God was initially calling upon the children of Israel to be His people, we read this in Exodus chapter 6, beginning at verse 2.

And God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name Lord, I was not known to them. I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan and the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers. I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians have kept in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, 'I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to you, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage. I am the Lord.'"

Now, fast forward 40 years. Just as God promised to deliver Israel from their bondage in Egypt and to bring them into their own promised land, He has done it. He has done what He said He was going to do. He is no longer just the Lord, as He called Himself in Exodus 6:2. He is no longer just God Almighty, as He revealed in Exodus 6:3. He is their God. He is the Lord that brought them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. He is the Lord that rescued them from their 400 years of bondage. He is the Redeemer that revealed His power by judging the Egyptians and rescuing Israel. He is their God, and they are His people.

On the basis of all of that, He says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." God's prior relationship makes His present commands relevant. If you remove verse 6 from the equation, the command in verse 7 is irrelevant. "You shall have no other gods before me." Why not? Who are you? Why should I listen to anything you have to say? Silence. It doesn't fit; it doesn't connect. If I come to one of your kids and I command them to do something and they're not my kid, then I should have every expectation that they're going to look at me and say...

Who are you? You're not my dad. The command lacks power without relationship; the relationship is everything. It provides the basis for the law and the expectation of obedience to it. God spoke to those that He had redeemed and said, "I've saved you. I rescued you from bondage, and I'm going to give you a blessing in the promised land. Therefore, because of who I am and what I have done, you shall have no other gods before me." You shouldn't have divided loyalties.

He didn't say that to the general population in the land of Canaan; He said it to His own people. Now, that's not to say that God won't judge all people according to His law, but that's another study for another time. At this point, all we should say is that God's prior relationship in redeeming and rescuing Israel provided the basis for the relevance of His command to them and His expectation of their obedience.

These statutes and judgments are relevant only for those living in relationship with the God who gave them. You may find these things to be unimportant or irrelevant, but that doesn't really mean that they are unimportant or irrelevant. It might just mean that you don't know God as Redeemer and Rescuer, or as Father.

To put it another way, as the New Testament book of Hebrews states, "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." To get the full sense of the word "illegitimate," you should go and read it in the Old King James Version. I won't do that because this is a family show.

As it relates to God's law, relationship is everything. God rescued Israel from Egypt because He is loving, gracious, merciful, and faithful to His covenants. Later in Deuteronomy chapter 7, we will read, "But because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt." He rescued them before He gave them His law.

I will be your God, and you will be my people. You will enjoy my blessing in the promised land if you remain in relationship with me. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands for those that love me and keep my commandments.

God says you shall have no other gods before me because I saved you, and you shall not make any idols because nothing else compares to me. I alone am merciful, and I have an abundance of mercy for those that love me and keep my commandments. The statutes and judgments of God's law, the commandments written herein, may seem to you to be irrelevant. Many non-Christians will say that these are just the moral code of an ancient people in a place far away, and some Christians will think of them as equally irrelevant, saying, "I'm a Christian, a New Testament believer; these things have nothing to do with me."

However, such views fail to recognize that the God who, according to His grace and mercy, redeemed and rescued Israel from their bondage in Egypt 3,400 years ago is the same God who redeems and rescues us from our bondage to sin and death through Jesus's gracious and merciful act upon the cross. God calls us out of bondage and out of sin to live in relationship with Him, a relationship that is animated by obedience to Him and His statutes and judgments.

While it is His grace that saves us and not our obedience to the law, it is our obedience that proves that we are His people. In the New Testament, in Romans chapter 1, we read, "Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations." By grace, we are adopted as God's children to live in obedience as His people. If you've never experienced the forgiving and saving grace of God, I encourage you to seek it.

I want to give you an opportunity today to turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. If you've never received the grace of God for forgiveness, I want to encourage you to do so today by putting your trust and faith in Jesus, repenting, and turning to Him.

It's as simple as A, B, C. First, you admit that you are a sinner, that you've broken God's command, and that you are not perfect and righteous before a holy God. Then, you believe that Jesus died on the cross in your place to deal with and atone for your sins. Finally, you confess your sins to Him and commit your life to Him in faith.

I want to lead you today, if you've never done that, in a prayer of faith to confess your sins to the Lord and to invite Him into your heart and into your life. The book of Romans, chapter 10, promises that if we confess Him as Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, then we receive His forgiveness, His grace, and His salvation. We will not be ashamed on the day that we stand before a holy God because we will be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive the righteousness of God in Him as we trust in Him for salvation.

If you'd like to do that today, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer of faith, asking God to forgive you and to come into your life and save you from your sin. So, if that's you, just wherever you're at, would you consider bowing your head and praying with me? Prayer is simply talking to God and trusting that He hears you. By faith, you can pray this very simple prayer:

"Dear Lord Jesus, I recognize that I am a sinner. I understand that there's no good work that I can do to undo and fix my sin, but I trust that You died in my place on the cross for my sins. I pray that You would come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, and that You would help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Listen, if you did that today, I would very much like to know about it. We at Cross Connection Church would love to pray with and for you, and potentially send you a Bible if you don't have one. We want to help you start your walk with the Lord, learning more and more about what you just did by putting your trust in Him.

Or maybe even recommit your life to Him today. Just go to the website commit.lifeinconnection.com and fill out the form there, and we'll be in touch with you.

Now, as we begin to close our service in just a moment, our worship team is going to lead us in one last song. But before they do, let me close our time in prayer.

Father, as we look at all the things that are going on in our world and in our nation right now, it is very clear that we need Your grace in a huge way. So, God, I pray right now that You would move in a powerful way in and through Your church, nation, and worldwide. I ask that You would pour out an extra measure of Your grace, mercy, and peace. Lord, fill us afresh and anew by Your Holy Spirit, and enable us, Your church, to be the light shining in a dark place that You desire us to be. Just as You spoke about Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, may people see our good works as Your people and be drawn to You to glorify You, our Father in heaven.

So, God, would You use Your church to be a preserving agent as salt in this world and as light to a people who are in darkness? It is clear that we are in desperate need of a move of Your Spirit in our time. We pray for revival and for You to do a work through Your church. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

When darkness tries to roll over my bones, I won't be shaken. My fear doesn't stand a chance; it doesn't stand a chance. No longer has a place to hide.

I am not a captive to life. I'm not afraid to leave my past behind. Oh, I won't be shaken.

Does fear stand a chance? This power can break every chain. Is this resurrection? Fears don't stand a chance.

Oh God, we thank You that our anxieties and our fears do not stand a chance as we enter into Your presence. As we spend time with You in prayer, devotion, and worship, Lord, the Scriptures say that You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. I pray, God, that we would be experiencing that power, love, and sound mind, and that we would be displaying it to other people in a time of turmoil and tumult, as we are in the midst of in our own nation and in the world right now here in 2020.

Lord, it is so essential that the people we interact with in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, and in the community—those who don't know You—would see in us that we have a peace that surpasses all understanding. I pray, God, that You would stir our hearts this week to draw near to You, to spend time with You in Your presence, and to experience Your peace and joy. God, may the fruit of the Spirit abound in our lives: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. Cause these things to abound in Your church, that people would see it and understand that this is not something we have produced on our own. It didn't come from some self-help program that we got on Amazon; it came from You, by Your Spirit, through Your Word.

So, God, do a work in Your church this week. And now, may 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.

What do I want to be called? I mean, grandpa, the Grampinator, Grandpalicious, Grandpa, oh, so Grandpa Magnifico, Grandpa Numerono, the Chief Papa, Grandpasaurus Rex. Grandpa, yeah, Grandpa.

All right, you.