Why Cross Connection? | Sunday, January 12, 2025

Amen, amen. Praise the Lord! Thank you, Anthony and team. Good morning, Cross Connection.

Hey, before you are seated, if you would just stand with me for a moment. Paul, in 1 Timothy Chapter 2, talks about standing as God's people and praying. I think it would be good for us to pause and pray at the beginning of our service this morning for those in Los Angeles. We've all been seeing what's been going on. Living here in Southern California, we can definitely sympathize with the people who are going through this.

If you look at the fires over the last five years, they've been slowly moving down through California. We had a number of fires several years ago in Northern California, in the Santa Cruz area, and then in the last few years in Ventura and Santa Barbara. Now, they are in Los Angeles, and they will come here eventually. We want to lift up those in LA and pray for those who have lost homes, but also for those fighting the fire.

So let's pray. Father God, we come before You this morning, and we pray for the crews that are fighting the fire, including CAL FIRE and the local firefighters, as well as firefighters from here in San Diego County who have gone up from all over the place, even from Canada. People have come down to fight this. God, we pray that there would be a change in the weather this week; that You would increase the humidity and decrease the winds, and that clouds would move in, making it easier for them to fight the fires due to the climate conditions.

Lord, be with the firefighters and all the teams that are there fighting this fire. Protect them, direct them, and go before them. We also lift up those who have lost everything in these fires. It's so hard to see the images and videos coming out of the LA area. We've seen it here before, so we can comprehend and understand the devastation, but there's nothing like being in the midst of it and experiencing it yourself.

The news highlights many big names and celebrities who have lost homes, but there are so many people—thousands of people—whose names we don't know. Would You be with them, Lord? Pour out Your mercy and grace upon them and comfort their hearts. We are thankful that the likelihood is that many of them will be able to rebuild, but there are many who probably won't. We pray, God, that You would be with them. More than anything, we ask that You would protect those fighting the fire and help them to bring an end to these fires. In Jesus' name, amen.

You can be seated. I also want to note that Sharon Moody, who is here this morning, would you raise your hand up real high? Sharon has been ministering to her daughter, who...

Battling cancer, she is also a part of our church as a Chaplain with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse. She has been dispatched to help with that. If that's something you think you would be interested in doing, talk with Sharon. She would love to connect you, and we would love to see you be a part of that.

On that point, another thing I want to encourage and challenge you with at the beginning of a new year is that you are going to hear, as you always do, about opportunities to be involved with the outreach of this church, whether it's local or around the world. We are connected with a number of different missions organizations. One of them is Surf Fujio. My wife and my daughter, Evangelene, went on a trip last year to Peru with them. There are going to be other trips available this year, and they are already planning another trip in the fall.

Ethan Danin, who plays bass guitar for us, along with Rita and Al Wilson, went on a trip to Africa last year. There will be opportunities for that, and I want to encourage you to begin to pray about the possibility of going on a short-term trip. That might sound scary to you; I understand it. I have been on many trips. It is not something to be afraid of; it is actually one of the greatest blessings.

One of the first things you must do, if you do not have one of these little blue booklets, is to get one. My encouragement to you is to apply for a passport if you don't have one or if it is expired. All you have to do is go on your mobile device and search for "passport application." You can do it all online. Yes, there is a cost associated with it, but if there is ever the possibility that you would say yes and go on a trip, you need this to go. I want to challenge you to get this.

In a couple of weeks, on Saturday, the 1st of February, Surf Fujio is going to have a couple-hour meeting in the morning just to give you information about their trips. You don't have to sign anything or pay for anything; you just get to hear about what the opportunities are. My wife and my daughter will be there, and if you would like more information about that, you can talk with my wife or you can talk with Nick at the connection point after the service. This would be a great first step, and I encourage you to consider doing it because it will absolutely transform and change your life.

One other thing before we get into the message: again, at the beginning of the year, I am certain that...

Every single person in this room connects with people on a daily basis who are not connected to God and His church. I want you to begin to think about who some of those people are in your life. Maybe they are part of your family, they live on your street, or they work with you. They may even go to school where you go to school. Wherever it may be, just begin to pray that God might see them come to church.

In the next several weeks, we will be doing something we have done many times before, called "You Connect." Basically, it involves identifying the people you connect with who are not connected to God. We are going to ask you to begin to pray for them by name, that maybe this year might be the year they come to know the Lord and enter into a life of connection with Him. So, be thinking about that as well.

With that, I want to give a preface or a caveat to my message today. Today's message will not be of the same type or kind that I typically deliver here at Cross Connection Church. If you are visiting for the first time, this is not how I usually go through the Scriptures. Normally, we go through whole books of the Bible. At the beginning of the year, I often take some time to talk about why we exist as a church and why we are here in this place, individually, as God has placed us here.

I talk about these same themes every single year, and it can be a bit of a challenge for me because I don't like to sound redundant or repetitive. I try to express basically the same ideas in better or different ways each year. However, as I have been reflecting on my call in ministry and our place here as individuals and as a church over the last several months, I came to the realization that there is something I don't think I have ever said as the pastor of this church.

I have been serving this church in ministry first as a youth pastor, then as an associate pastor, and I became the senior pastor in 2008. I have been a part of this church since I was 19 years old, so for quite a while. I don't think I have ever said this, and as I thought about it, I realized I should probably say it: I want our church to grow.

Now, that may sound strange, but I have never explicitly stated it. When I say that, there are a couple of things I mean. I want our church to grow qualitatively. I want you to grow in your life and relationship with God.

I want you to get to know Him more fully, to comprehend His Word better, and to be able to live out the teachings of the Scriptures more fully in your life. I want you to grow qualitatively, but I also want us to grow quantitatively.

I believe there are empty seats in every single service, and we have plenty of parking space to reach more people. We'll add more services if we have to, and God willing, we'll buy a different piece of property someday if the Lord leads us in that direction. I want our church to grow, and I will readily admit my motives for that may not be 100% perfect. I don't know if you know this, but I'm not perfect. You can spend some time with my wife, and she'll tell you I'm not perfect, or just follow me around for a little while.

My motivation for growth may not be entirely perfect, but I do believe that it is also God's desire for His church to grow both quantitatively and qualitatively. We see this in what is called the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28. Jesus commissions His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. Qualitatively, that's a lot of people. There are 8.25 billion people on the face of this planet today, and many of them are far from God.

So qualitatively, God has said to His people—if you're a follower of Jesus today—go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.

That's the quantitative side. The qualitative side is teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. He wants His people to know Him fully and to know His Word fully. It's an amazing thing about that word "all." Do you know what "all" means? It means all, and that's all "all" means.

God doesn't have a limited perspective on who He wants to reach; He wants to reach all people so that they would know all the things that He has given to us in His Word. Individually, and then collectively as the people of God, we've been given a mission or a mandate from God. In Mark chapter 16, Jesus, in another commissioning statement to His disciples, said, "Go and preach the gospel to every creature." Now that "every creature" is significant.

It might even include your dog. Maybe you have a healing dog like mine. Perhaps I need to preach the gospel to my dog, Watson. I don't know, but God wants us to preach the gospel to every creature. That might not mean your dog, but it definitely means your neighbor and your co-workers. He wants us to preach the gospel to every creature.

If you've been a part of Cross Connection Church for any length of time, you might have heard me say before that within ten miles of this building, there are more than a million people. Research has been done by a number of different groups over the years, and they found that roughly 90% of those people here in San Diego County are not connected to a gospel-teaching, Bible-believing church. Roughly 90% of those people. Even of the 10% who are, many have been disconnected from the church since 2020.

Last week, after one of the services, a gentleman I recognized walked up to me. I know his name. He said, "Hey, Pastor Miles, great to see you! I have not been here since COVID." I thought, "Man, that's a long time." Do you realize there are a lot of people like that in our county who used to go to church but haven’t because, sadly, they got out of the habit of being a part of the body of God?

What happens with that is, if you're not connected to the vine, there's a problem. Things start to dry up in your life, and your love, joy, peace, kindness, and patience all begin to diminish as well. I would say there might be some people in your life who you remember used to go to church, and you haven’t seen them for a while. It’s not a bad idea to call them this week and just say, "Hey, I haven’t seen you. You should go to church." If they get offended, that’s okay. Tell them, "Wake up earlier; I’ll come pick you up if you need to."

There are a lot of people that God wants us to reach, and I want to reach those people. I believe God wants to reach those people, and I think He would want us to want to reach those who are disconnected from Him and His church.

In many ways, I think we’re doing a great job reaching people in our community. I don’t know the exact number, but I know that on an average Sunday here at Cross Connection Church, between adults and kids in the youth ministry, children's ministry, nursery, and toddler, we average about 450 people a week. If everybody showed up on one Sunday...

That would be an absolute miracle. If everybody showed up, that’s probably 650 to 700 people, which to me doesn’t seem like a large church. I have friends in this area who pastor churches with around 13,000 people. That’s a big church, and it would actually be referred to by sociologists as a giga church or a mega church, which is a church with over 2,000 people.

When you live in an area like San Diego, where there are giga churches and mega churches, you might think, "Well, we’re a church of about 750 people," and it seems small. However, did you know the average church in America is only 100 people? So, in many respects, we’re doing a great job reaching people. But I’m convinced that God wants us to reach more people.

I can honestly say that my desire to reach more people is, at least in part, motivated by God. I can say that because, point number one, if you’re taking notes, God does not want anyone to go to hell. Did you know that? I hope you know that. God does not want anyone to go to hell.

Now, I will readily accept that there are Christians who don’t agree with that statement. I know them; they’re friends of mine. They have a theological seminary here in town that doesn’t necessarily agree with that view. I disagree with them, and we have a disagreement on theology, and that’s fine. I believe that the Scriptures make it very clear. I will argue the point with them, and I have argued the point with them before: God does not want anyone to go to hell.

How can I say that? In Second Peter 3:9, Peter says, "The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Let me ask you a question: What does "all" mean? "All" means all, and that’s all "all" means. That’s what I was told growing up here at this church. God is not willing that any should perish and that all would come to repentance.

Paul, in First Timothy chapter 2, says, "God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." There’s that word "all" again. It’s the Greek word "pas," and it means all. God desires all to be saved. If God is not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance, to the knowledge of the truth, then all truly means all.

Should we be saved, then, as a follower of Jesus, I should also not want anyone to perish but desire all to come to the knowledge of the truth. Let me backtrack a little bit and restate that I want us, as a church, to reach the people who are not connected or are disconnected from God and His church.

I am convinced, after so many years, that next month I will celebrate 26 years in pastoral ministry. I started as a pastoral intern on February 14th, Valentine's Day, 1999, teaching junior hires through the book of Galatians. I am so thankful those messages were not recorded. No, they weren't. My mom tells me every week that it was the best message I've ever given. She is like my champion, and she sits next to my other champion, my wife, just a couple of seats from her.

So, yeah, it was not a good message. I’m sorry, it wasn't. But I started teaching the gospel, and after 26 years of teaching the Bible, I am convinced that living in this area, I know how to share the message of the Scriptures with those people who are not connected to God. I believe that part of my gifting and my calling is to make the theological truths and principles of Scripture understandable, applicable, and practical for people.

I am what you would call a theologian, but a practitioner. I am committed to what is called applied theology. What is really considered biblical ethics, or Christian ethics, is applied theology. That is what my research for my PhD work is focused on—ethics and public or applied theology. How do you take these things and bring them to people who don’t know any of these concepts?

Being that I am an applied theologian, I cannot stand conceptual or theoretical theology. I have seen a lot of this up close and personal over the last couple of years. Two and a half years ago, I started working on a Doctor of Ministry. There are different kinds of doctorates within the theological concept, and one of them is called a Doctor of Ministry. It is really a doctorate for practitioners—pastors who are professionals doing the work of the ministry. A lot of times, those individuals will pursue a Doctor of Ministry, and I was working on a Doctor of Ministry in apologetics.

What is apologetics? Well, the word apologetics comes from the Greek word "apologia," which...

In Peter, it is said to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within you, with meekness and fear. That word "defense" is "apologia" in Greek, and so apologetics comes from that. I have been interested in apologetics for my entire life. Since I was about 15 years old, I started studying this field.

If you want to see an expert use of apologetics, there was an interview that came out this last week. An apologist from Canada named Wesley Huff was interviewed for three and a half hours by Joe Rogan. He provided an apologetic for the Christian faith during that time, and he hit it through the uprights. It was awesome! You should listen to it; it's amazing. There are some strong language moments, which I should caution you about, but those come from Joe Rogan, not Wesley.

So, that is what apologetics is: defending the faith. Always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within you. I have been interested in this topic for a long time. In the months leading up to my first seminar, I did a lot of reading, research, and writing. I read book after book, and then I flew out to Kentucky, where I attended Southern Seminary, one of the top five seminaries in the world.

For four days, I presented what I had researched and written, and then I defended it as people asked me questions. I discovered something amazing during my first seminar there in January of 2023. I sat down, having read and written a lot, in a room with a guy who has become a friend of mine, Dr. Andrew Walker, a professor of ethics. He was leading the seminar, and there were about 12 or 13 other guys, including myself, in that room.

We spent four days going through various topics, and I found something really remarkable. I was in a room with pastors, mostly apologists trying to defend the faith. Everyone in the room, except for me, was from a deeply dark red region of the country. They were discussing how to share their faith with people who are skeptics, agnostics, atheists, or perhaps members of a community with a different lifestyle or worldview.

As I listened to them present their work, I came to a realization: they were presenting these ideas as conceptual and theoretical. For instance, someone wrote a paper on how to share with a family member whose child is transitioning, but it felt completely conceptual.

Theoretical as I am, listening to them talk about this as a completely conceptual idea, I think this is not a theory to me; this is like a Tuesday. We live in a traditionally conservative county in a very blue state. Did you realize that your California conservatism in San Diego is considered majorly progressively liberal to someone who lives in rural North Carolina? They might think you are a Democrat, and maybe you are, which is fine, but that’s what they think. They perceive you as very far-left progressive because you live in California. You might feel like a conservative, but not to someone who lives in rural North Carolina or Kentucky.

In this environment, I’m hearing this, and I realize that this is just theory to you. How many of you have a friend, neighbor, coworker, or family member who has left this state to move to a place like that over the last four or five years? Probably every one of you. But did you realize that over the last 50 years, many people have left those states to come here? They were often the ones with alternative worldviews and lifestyles: the atheists, the agnostics, the skeptics. You live next door to them; you work with them constantly. We live in what’s called a post-Christian environment.

In the last six months, I moved out of that Doctor of Ministry program because my friend Dr. Andrew Walker asked me to be his PhD student in ethics and public theology. That’s where my research is now. There are many days— in fact, I have a paper due on Wednesday— where I’m up at 4 in the morning reading through books and writing. This paper is about 31 pages at this point. I often ask myself, "Why am I doing this?" There are times when my wife asks me the same question.

Here’s why I’m doing this: I want to reach those people who are not connected to God. The way to do that is to speak in a way that they might understand the things of Scripture. This is not theoretical for me or for us; we live in this place, and God wants us to reach these people who are disengaged, unengaged, disinterested skeptics, the deconstructors, and those with alternative lifestyles or worldviews. They live here in our area; this is our cultural context. So, this is not theory.

I remember I was at a seminar some time ago. It was a Monday, and I was sitting in the seminar in Kentucky. While we were discussing various topics, I received a text message from a guy who goes to our church. He is part of the group that meets at my house, and he was asking me how to minister to his coworker who is transitioning. This is not theoretical for us; I had to write a letter to a family member at the beginning of last year whose five-year-old daughter is transitioning. I had to say, "Listen, this is not right." These are challenging issues, and we have to figure out how to minister to these people. This is what God has called us to.

Now, why does any of this matter? It matters because those are the kinds of people I am trying to reach. I am a minister, and whether you realize it or not, you are an ambassador and minister to a post-Christian culture. God wants us to reach these people, and we are surrounded by them.

All of this is context for what I have been thinking about recently. I have been pondering two questions. The first one, which I think about quite a bit, is: Why does Cross Connection Church exist? I talked about that last week. We exist to see people come into life in connection with God and one another, and we want to reach the world through Jesus. That is our mission here at Cross Connection Church.

The second question I have been considering is: Why should you attend, support financially, pray, and serve? Why should you invite people to come to this church and be a part of this body? I have several thoughts on why that would be, and I want to run through them. This is different from what I would normally present in a message on a Sunday morning, but I think it is important for us to understand our place at this moment, for such a time as this.

First, I believe that at Cross Connection Church, you are going to connect with God and with others in very simple and practical ways. God created you for this; He made you to live life in connection with Him and with others. Here at Cross Connection, we do not put a lot of weirdness around this. It is just very simple. We gather together here on a Sunday morning to connect with God through His Word, through serving Him, through fellowship, and through sacrificial giving. We connect with one another as we are gathered here for fellowship.

We are in homes with our connect groups or growth groups, or as you're serving on a team. We are very simply connecting with God and one another in those ways. It's very simple, but that's what God has called us to. So, that's one of the reasons that we exist.

Secondly, as you attend here, you may have noticed that you are going to be challenged to think critically and deeply about life and about the Bible. You will explore how these things are worked out in your life or applied. That's ethics. You will be challenged to think deeply about those sorts of things. You might have noticed that I don't prepare surface-level messages because I'm convinced shallow messages make for shallow Christians, and I'm not here for that. That's not what I'm here for. We go deep into concepts that are hard to wrestle with, and we need to wrestle with them.

Over the last several years, we've been in Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges. We have looked at passages where the antagonists, the skeptics against Christianity, say the Bible supports slavery and genocide. We've been covering those topics. I don't bypass those things; we go into what the Bible actually says about that and whether that is really what the Bible is saying, because I don't think it is.

Third, you come to Cross Connection Church to receive what I would call a rigorous, yet understandable, applicable, and hopefully clear teaching of the whole Bible, even passages like Deuteronomy, Genesis, and Revelation. I don't preach platitudes; I don't present just theory. I present, hopefully, what is truth with a capital T. That's what I want to present because I think that's what sets people free.

Fourth, here you are going to learn applied theology. Theology is about the principles and precepts presented by God in the Scriptures. But how do those things work out in the real world, a world that is countercultural to the teachings of the Bible? This is not theoretical; it's the experimental side of it. In physics, there are experimental physicists and theoretical physicists. The theoretical physicists are like super geniuses; they come up with theories about all the things in the physical world and the math. Then the experimental physicists take those theories and have to prove them true. They have to show that it's actually true.

A wide generalization, it might be a bit of a stereotype, but as I've observed, the theoretical guys are kind of like the introverted, slightly socially awkward people. They're in a laboratory somewhere with a chalkboard, coming up with theorems. Yes, it's a stereotype. The experimental people, on the other hand, have to actually make it work.

What I've discovered is that in theology, it's the same. In my time in academia, I've met a lot of guys who are super geniuses when it comes to theology. The reality is that those guys are not really the experimental types. They probably wouldn't function well in Southern California, trying to explain those theological concepts to regular people. My aim is to be the kind of person who can bridge that gap.

At Cross Connection, you're going to be expected to be stretched mentally, spiritually, practically, and personally. As I said, I do my best to take these difficult concepts and make them clear, interesting, engaging, and understandable from the text. However, I've been told I move somewhat quickly, talk somewhat fast, and use some big words and concepts. I was recently told that an average 40-minute message from me is like three or four messages in one. That might be the case; that's what I've been told.

I probably talk fast because I listen to every audiobook at two and a half speed and every podcast at double speed. Maybe I've just been trained to talk a little bit fast. But I'm not here to give sports illustrations. I don't know a lot about sports, and if I use a sports illustration, someone who knows about sports will probably come and tell me, "Yeah, that wasn't really right." You’re probably right; maybe I won't use that one next time.

I'm not here to give you tips on living a good life; that's not my thing. I'm not here to teach you business principles. We're talking about the deeper spiritual questions of life—things that I think are the really important issues that people wrestle with. Here, you're going to be pushed to wrestle with God, and I think that's not a bad thing. It's an important thing. You're going to be challenged to ask yourself hard questions, the kind of questions that I ask myself when I'm writing in my journal in the morning. Questions like, "Should I watch this? Should I do this? Should I say this? Should I think this?"

Should I buy this? Should I work there? Should I do that kind of thing? Should I parent like this? Should I treat my spouse like this, my kids like this, my family like this, my co-workers like this? We wrestle with hard questions. Those are theological concepts that now need to be applied. That's applied theology.

Like the Bible says, "Be kind and tender-hearted to one another, forgiving one another, for God in Christ forgave you." I taught my kids how to sing that song. My wife and I did: "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another just as Christ forgave you." So, you might know the verse, but do you do it? Are you kind to people, tender-hearted, forgiving? Because if you're not, you're not a Christian. That's heavy. It needs to become a part of our lives.

Here, you're going to be confronted with questions like: Are you living with honesty, integrity, and self-control? Do the people you work with know that guy's different? I don't know why, but he would never cheat on this. Why? Because he's got integrity. That should be my witness in this world.

You're going to be stretched with how you're using your energy, your assets, and your time. Notice that the first three letters are E, A, T. Whatever you give your energy, assets, and time to becomes dominant in your life. If it's your hobbies, that's what's going to be dominant in your life. It's been said, "Show me your calendar and your charge card statement, and I can tell you what your God is." You're going to be devoted to what you give your energy, assets, and time to.

What are you really devoted to in your life? Is it your family, your marriage, your work, your interests, your God, or your church? Now, this is the point, if I haven't already lost or offended some of you. I'm not boasting here, but my wife and I, throughout our entire marriage, have given a minimum of 10% of our income every year to the church or other ministries that we support. I'm never going to ask you to do something that I don't do.

Beyond just our commitment to give a minimum of 10% of our income, we give above and beyond that to bring people into our home.

Homes, just so you know, every year it costs thousands of dollars because my wife is the most hospitable person I know. She goes above and beyond, and we always have way too many leftovers, which is great after the fact. However, I need to fast for a while to lose some weight. We're committed to that.

When I ask you to be a part of a group, whether it's a Connect Group or a Growth Group, we have hosted a group and we continue to host a group. Some of you here are part of that group every single month for years. We welcome people into our home. When I say you should serve, I serve too. You might say, "Well, come on, you work for the church." Yes, but I also serve beyond this, where I'm not paid. I serve as a chaplain with the fire department. Pastor Mark is a chaplain with the San Marcos Fire Department, and Pastor Nick and Pastor Garrett are chaplains with the Escano Police Department.

We are committed to not just working here at the church where we get paid, but to serving. I serve on the board of Blue Letter Bible and on the board of Enduring Word. I have helped churches, businesses, and organizations for more than 20 years strategize, rebrand, and replant. I've designed their websites and built their logos. I have done all that sort of stuff without getting paid for it. Sometimes my wife says I should get paid for that, but I don’t. I am committed to doing these things, and I don’t say this to boast. I just want you to know I’m not asking you to do anything I would not do.

I am asking you to engage because there are a lot of people within ten miles of this building who, apart from the work of God's grace and maybe even your inviting them to church or sharing the gospel with them, may very well go to hell. That’s my theology; I think that’s what the Bible teaches. It doesn’t sound good to people who live in California, but that is what the Bible teaches, and that is what we believe here at this church.

I look at my life, and I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine about this the other day. He has a huge YouTube channel named Mike Winger, and we were talking through text. I said, "I’m more blessed than I could ever have imagined." I look at my wife, my family, the house we live in, and all the things we have, and I think I am incredibly blessed. I am absolutely certain that many of those blessings, in fact, I would say all of those blessings, are the result of how we have used our energy, assets, and time.

God blesses obedience, faithfulness, and stewardship. I am convinced of this, and I have watched it happen. He blesses obedience, faithfulness, and stewardship, which brings me to my final reason for why I think you should attend Cross Connection Church and invite other people here. This is kind of the payoff: why should you do all these things? Why should you submit to the challenge of being a part of this church?

You should attend Cross Connection Church because you're going to grow. You're going to grow spiritually, intellectually, and in your character as a person. You will grow practically as a spouse, as a parent, as a student, as an employee, as a son, as a daughter, and as an individual. Most importantly, you will grow as a Christian. You will grow spiritually in the fruit of the Spirit. What is that? It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. You will grow in those areas.

I have watched myself grow, and I have seen others in this body grow in those areas. It is such a striking and amazing thing to witness when someone comes because they have been encouraged by a friend or a spouse to attend church. They may arrive a little skeptical at first, observing and thinking, "These people are weird." I will give it to you; we are weird. The Bible calls us weird. We are a chosen generation, a peculiar people, as Peter says. I can say, "Yep, that's me—peculiar. Hello, that's me."

So, the skeptic sits here, thinking, "Oh, I came here, and this is weird." Then they stick around, and all of a sudden, you see that they are a little bit different than they were a year ago. It is a transformation that happens here at Cross Connection. As you add to your faith what you believe, you will see that you grow in knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. You will grow in your love for God and for one another, which is the great commandment: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. You will see yourself grow in that.

You will grow intellectually in your knowledge of God's Word and in the wisdom of how to work it out.

Is the practical side of knowledge. How does this become a part of your life? I think one of the other very practical things you're going to learn is how to be a better parent or grandparent. You're going to learn how to be a better spouse if you are one or have one. You're going to learn how to be a better single person if you're single, and you're going to learn how better to use your finances.

That's one of the things we learn from the Scriptures: how to earn, think about, invest, give, and spend your finances. Listen, as you do those things according to the principles of the Scriptures, that's how I've governed my finances since I was 19 years old. I've governed my finances according to the basic teachings of Scripture, and now I look at what we have and think, "I can't even believe what we have." I believe it's a direct result of that.

You're going to grow as a student, as an employee, as a citizen, as a member of the church, as a spouse, as a single person, as a parent, as a grandparent, and as a leader. I've already kind of said that, but just going through it, I have total confidence that this is a reality because I see it applied in the Scriptures and I've seen it in my life and the lives of others.

I've said for years that our mission, our vision, is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. Many years ago, when we first started saying this, one of the members of our church, who was a little more introverted, said, "Man, connection is hard," or "Life in connection is difficult." And it is. It requires a lot to be connected to God and His people, the church, but the results of it are good.

Now, I initially warned that this message would not be my typical message here on Sunday morning. So if you're visiting for the first time, this is not typical. Come back; I promise it'll be different. But as we close, and I'll try to wrap it up, I want to encourage you to pray about, maybe aspire to, seek to apprehend a few things by God's grace and by the work of His Spirit this year.

The first one is this: it's point number three on your outline. Discipline yourself to run the race to win. This comes from Paul's letter to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9:24. He says this: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one..."

Receives the prize, so run in such a way that you may obtain it. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but you an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty; thus, I fight, not as one who beats the air.

But here's the key verse: I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection under my control, so that when I have preached to others, I myself should not become disqualified. Discipline yourself to run the race to win.

Next, point number four: aim at unity, humility, and the interests of others. This comes from Paul's letter to the Philippians, Philippians chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, Paul says, "Fulfill my joy." Pastor Paul says, "Make me really happy. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others."

What will make your life better and your church better? If you seek, by God's grace and the empowering of the Spirit, to do that—to look out for the interests of others. I don't know if you've noticed, but we live in a really self-interested society. It is totally countercultural, but it is very Christlike to be selfless. In fact, Paul, in the next passage, uses Jesus as an example when he says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, becoming a servant." He is our example.

Next, point number five, and I'll wrap it up: deny yourself. Yeah, that doesn't sound good. Deny yourself, count the cost, take up your cross, and pursue Christ. This comes from Jesus in Luke 14, verse 27. He says, "Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my follower, my disciple." For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down and first count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?

After he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all see it and begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish."

Or what king, going out to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able, with ten thousand, to meet him who is coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while he is still a great way off, he sends a delegation asking for conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all cannot be my disciple.

Paul builds on this, and I mentioned it last week in Philippians chapter 3, where he says, "Letting go of those things which are behind and reaching forward that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me." He says, "I have forsaken; I've let go of certain things that I may apprehend that one thing from the Lord."

What's awesome in laying aside those things is that you gain so much more than you lose when you forsake those things to lay hold of Christ and follow Him. But He calls us to follow Him. God does not want anyone to go to hell, and within ten miles of this building, there are more than a million people, many of whom do not yet know God.

Here's the kicker: you are God's plan A, and there is no plan B. You are His ambassadors to reach those people. You might say, "God, that's a bad plan," and God would say back, "I ain't got no other." I don't know if He talks like that; He might. "I ain't got no other; that's the plan."

You are plan A; there is no plan B. God blesses obedience, faithfulness, and stewardship. Therefore, discipline yourself to run the race to win.

God help us. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father God, we definitely need Your help. We have a big task, but You are a big God, far bigger than anything that we've been called to. So God, would You work in us by Your Word and by Your Spirit that we would press on and lay hold of that for which You've laid hold of us?

God, I pray that if there's anything I have said today that is out of line with Your Word and Your Spirit, You would cause everyone here to almost immediately forget it. But, Lord, if any of this is Your Word and Your will, which I am convinced it is, would You cement it deeply in our hearts? Would You cause it to nag us in our minds, compelling us to seek You, Your power, and Your enabling by Your Spirit to fulfill the mission that You have given to us here in San Diego County and beyond?

God, right now, would You remind us of the people we connect with on a daily or weekly basis who are disconnected from You? Lord, bring them to mind right now. We lift them up to You in prayer because we believe that the first move in evangelism requires a move by You and Your Spirit. It is also incumbent upon us to pray.

God, we lift those people into Your hands. We ask that You begin to move in their lives and that You would begin to move in us, so that we might move closer to them to share the good news of Your grace with them, that they might come to know You in 2025. Lord, help us to reach more people here in this County with Your love and Your grace, for we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."