With Us … Here Today | Sunday, September 13, 2020

Good morning, Cross Connection Church at Home family! Welcome to the broadcast this morning. We're so glad that you joined with us today, and we are looking forward to worshiping with you both in song and through the Scriptures.

Make sure you get out your Bibles or your Bible app, as we are going to be looking into the book of Deuteronomy again this morning. Before we do, would you send a message to a friend or a group of friends to invite them to join us? This is a great way that you can, in some ways, fulfill the commission that God has given us to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, to preach the gospel to every people.

So, send a text message to a friend or a group of friends and invite them to join us for church online this morning. Just send them that link: live.cccchurch.com.

As we get ready to worship the Lord with Pastor Anthony, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day. We thank You that we can come together and worship You on this great Sunday. God, we ask that You would move in us and inspire us to worship and praise You. Lord God, use this time to minister to us as we minister to You, and bless this worship team. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'll raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies. I'll raise a hallelujah. Having come to fight for me, from the ashes hope will arise.

With everything inside of me, I'll raise a hallelujah. I will watch the darkness in the middle of the mystery. I'll raise the hallelujah; fear, you lost your hold on me. From the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated; the King is alive! A little louder in the presence of my enemies, I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm, louder and louder. From the ashes, death is defeated; the King is alive.

Welcome! Thanks for tuning in to Cross Connection Church as we bring you church at home today. If you're new or visiting, welcome! I'm Pastor Garrett, and here at Cross Connection Church, we are all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

Part of living life in connection is that I want to encourage you to be in connection with God this week through prayer. Check out our website.

Prayer.life and connection is a great resource for this week. It is a place where you can submit your prayer requests, and you'll know that our prayer team and pastors are going to be praying right then and there for you. We see God answer so many prayers here at Cross Connection Church, and I cannot stress it enough: when we get on our knees and pray, things change. God moves, and we shake things up. God is good; He hears your prayers, He is faithful, and He loves you. We just want to be praying with and for you, your family, and your friends this week. So check that out at prayer.lifeinconnection.com.

For all other points of connection with Cross Connection Church, just check out our homepage at lifeinconnection.com. You'll see all the other ways for you to get connected. I also want to point you to events.lifeinconnection.com, which is our main event page. You will find lots of great resources and ways to get connected there. We have men's groups, women's groups, and groups for married couples. We want to get you connected and into discipleship, where you can really dig into the Word together.

On the events page, you will also find that we have announced our summer baptism, which is coming up on September 20th, a Sunday. We will start baptizing around 3:30 PM at the beach, specifically at South Cardiff or Seaside State Beach. All the information for that is on our events page right now at events.lifeinconnection.com. If you want to get baptized, you don't have to sign up; just show up. We would love to baptize you there, and we hope to see you there.

For our mission this week, I want to ask you to be praying for the Nazareth Evangelical College. They are located in Nazareth, and we have a short video for you. I'm going to hand it over in just a second. As Cross Connection Church, we have been supporting this ministry for quite a while, and they are raising up many disciples and church leaders all around the world.

Greetings! My name is Johanna Katanasho, and I am the academic dean of Nazareth Evangelical College. We are located in Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus Christ. This is the place where the Annunciation happened; it is a unique city. We are an evangelical institution that focuses on the Bible and a Christ-centered perspective. We welcome all people from all denominations and all faith communities. One of our exciting programs is the International Study Program, in which we welcome people from all over the world to come and study about Judaism and Islam.

About Christianity, about the spirituality of the land, about the conflict in the area, and about peacemaking from a Christ-centered perspective, we welcome you to visit our website at nascal.org and to come and visit us here in Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus.

It is pretty cool to see what Nazareth Evangelical College is doing now. I just want to encourage you again to be praying for them. Keep all their students, faculty, and staff in your prayers right now.

In just a moment, I'm going to hand it off to our youth worship team. They will be leading us in another song of worship. This is going to be a time where we set aside time to give to the Lord. This is for those of you who call Cross Connection Church your home church.

There are a couple of different ways I want to encourage you to give this morning. First, you can text the number 84321 on your phone. Second, you can go on our website at give.lifeinconnection.com. Third, you can simply mail it to our address here at 1675 Seven Oaks Road in Escondido, California.

So, it's as simple as that. Let's go ahead and worship together. God bless you and have a great week.

All things have passed away; your love has stayed the same. Your constant remains a cornerstone. Things that we thought were dead are breathing in life again. You cause your sun to shine on darkest nights. For all that you've done, we will pour out our love. This will be Jesus.

The orphans now have a home. All that was lost has found its place in You. You lived instead; You took these.

This will be Jesus. We love You. Oh, how we love You! You are our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus.

Oh, how we love You!

Jesus, we love You. Oh, how we love You! Yes, Lord, we do adore You, God, and we thank You, Lord God, for just who You are in our lives. God, would You speak to us through Your Word now? Yes, in Jesus' mighty name, Amen.

If you have been joining with us over the last several weeks, you know that we have been slowly moving through a passage of Scripture in the Old Testament of the Bible that deals with the law of God. Beginning in the next couple of weeks, we will be looking at the specifics of God's statutes and judgments, what are commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments.

You don't even really need to be a student of the Bible to have some inclination about what the Ten Commandments are. Many people who have never attended a church have at least a bit of an understanding because we still have something of a cultural memory of what they are and where they came from.

By way of reminder, if you don't remember the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston or "The Prince of Egypt" by DreamWorks, not Disney, or "Exodus: Gods and Kings" with Christian Bale, Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. They crossed the Red Sea and eventually came to what is called Mount Sinai, or Horeb. There, at the mountain of God, Moses received the law from God and rehearsed it before the people. That's recorded in Exodus chapter 20.

We have been studying through the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible and takes place about 40 years after Exodus 20. In this book, Moses is rehearsing the law before the children of Israel just before they are going to enter into the Promised Land, which is all in the book of Joshua. Immediately following their wilderness wanderings, he is now speaking to them because this is the second time Moses has corporately preached through the statutes and judgments of God. The book we are in is called Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy, which is a compound of two Greek words, "duro" and "namas," meaning "second law," raises an important question. By this point, I may have already lost you, and I'm not even two minutes into my message. You might be wondering why a moral code from the Middle Bronze Age should have any bearing on your life. That's a valid question—a good question. It's very similar to the question my son Ethan, who is in sixth grade, asked me as he had to read through a portion of the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi this last week.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is irrelevant. For some people, Deuteronomy is about as relevant as the Code of Hammurabi or the New York Times newspaper from 1957. You might think this doesn't apply to you and has no bearing on your life. But is that really the case? Are the statutes and judgments of Deuteronomy still relevant? Is the law of God, as handed down by Moses, still important?

I want to take a few minutes this morning, before we actually consider the law together this fall, to show you three reasons why I think this passage is relevant and important to us as we live here today. Notice that's exactly what Moses says in the passage before us: Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning at verse 1.

Moses called all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today—all of us who are alive."

The statutes and judgments of God, read and preached by Moses before the children of Israel 3,400 years ago, were for those who were alive, hearing his message that day. The rules weren't for those who had come before them in the past; the law was for the living. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says the law is binding upon a person as long as they are alive, but if the person dies, the law no longer has power over them.

But that, of course, begs the question: What does this law have to do with me? Wasn't it for the people of Israel who were living at the time of Moses? To those questions, I would respond: Yes and no.

The law was for those people who were alive at the time that Moses spoke to them, but they are dead now. The law is only binding upon those who are alive. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the statutes and judgments of Exodus and Deuteronomy are never referred to as the law of Israel; it is the law of God. Since God is eternal, His law remains relevant for all of those who are alive today. If God is real—and obviously, I believe that He is—it is His law by which He will judge. The law is for those who are alive and will be used to judge them at death.

God is revealed in Scripture as Judge, Lawgiver, and King. The New Testament proclaims that God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness, as stated in Acts 15:19. On that day, God will judge the secrets of men, as mentioned in Romans chapter 2. What will God use to judge us? His law. Whether it was the law written upon stone tablets 3,400 years ago or His law written upon our hearts, God, in His judgment by His law, will be perfectly impartial.

Paul writes this in Romans chapter 2, beginning at verse 11: "For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles, non-believers who do not have the law, do by nature the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or excusing them."

The first reason that the statutes and judgments of God revealed by Moses 3,400 years ago are important is that they are continually relevant for all who are alive and will be used to judge us at death. The next reason, or reasons for...

Its importance is found in Psalm 19. Three thousand years ago, the great psalmist of Israel, King David, wrote these words: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward."

In these lyrical verses, King David gives us six descriptive titles of God's law, six characteristic qualities of His law, and six divine effects by it. That's right, six, six, six. Don't get scared by that number. Six in Scripture is the number of man, and the law was given from God to man and for man to relate to God.

So, in these five verses, we are told that the statutes and judgments of God are described as the law of God, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord. These together are perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous—desirable and sweet. In our lives, they convert the soul, make wise the simple, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes, endure forever, and bring warning and reward.

All of that leads to the second reason I would suggest that the statutes and judgments of God are important for us today. The law of the Lord leads to a solid society, a steady heart, and a sanctified life.

At this moment in our national history, we are seeing our society fracture. Is it surprising? We long ago relegated the words of the commandments of Scripture to the shelf as irrelevant in our lives. At this moment in our national history, we have more people stricken by anxiety.

Fear, worry, and depression—could it be that our rejection of the commandments of God is somehow connected to all of that? At this moment in our national history, we are witnessing the devastation of sin in individual lives and in communities like never before. Are we willing to admit that there might be a connection between these things?

So, are the statutes and judgments of God, delivered by Moses 3,400 years ago, important for today? They are continually relevant for all who are alive, as they will be used to judge us at death. They lead to solid societies, steady hearts, and sanctified lives.

But finally, and more importantly than the previous two reasons, I give you the third essential reason that the law of God is necessary and important for today: the law of God brings the knowledge of sin and directs us to our Savior.

It's a long passage of Scripture, but I hope you'll follow along as I read from Paul's New Testament letter to the Romans, in Romans chapter 3, beginning at verse 19. There, Paul writes, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, note this: by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness. Because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Paul hammers this point some more four chapters later in Romans chapter 7. He asks, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin?" Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin.

Except for the law, I would not have known covetousness unless the law said, "You shall not covet." In another place, Paul puts it like this: "Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The law of God is important because it helps us to live and will be used as a judge in death. It leads to solid societies, a steady heart, and a sanctified life. However, the law cannot save; it shows us our sin and leads us to our Savior.

As we prepare to close today, I want to finish with two final things. First, if you're not a believer in Jesus today and you've often thought that the Bible, especially the do's and don'ts of the Old Testament, is irrelevant in your life, I want to speak to you very candidly. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. By your good works, you will not be able to stand before a holy God. The payment for your failures and sin is death—both physical death and eternal death, which is separation from God's love, joy, peace, kindness, and blessing.

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. By putting your trust in Jesus and confessing Him as Lord, and by trusting in His death in your place on the cross, you can be justified; that is, you can be made right before God. In just a moment, I want to give you an opportunity to do that—to put your faith in Jesus if you never have, to pray and ask God to forgive and save you.

Before I do that, let me give the second thing that I want to close with. If you are a follower of Jesus and you now see, in some part, the relevance of the law—these statutes and judgments of God—in your life, I want to encourage you to commit them to memory. Psalm 119 says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You." Have you hidden God's word in your heart? Do you have the commandments of God hidden in your heart? Have you memorized them? Our kids have been trying to learn these as part of our home children's ministry plan that we're doing at the church right now. So, I want to teach you at home today a very simple way.

I have a somewhat cheesy way for you to memorize the Ten Commandments in five minutes or less. After I pray and after Pastor Anthony leads us in a final song, stick around for just a few minutes, and I will help you memorize the Ten Commandments in less than five minutes.

However, if you have never trusted in Christ for forgiveness and salvation, I want to lead you today in a very simple prayer of faith to do just that. Putting your faith in Jesus Christ and receiving His salvation and forgiveness can be as simple as A, B, C. First, you admit that you are a sinner. We already looked at it in the passage of Scripture we were examining today. Romans tells us that by the law is the knowledge of sin.

In the coming weeks, we will be looking at the specifics of the Ten Commandments. We will talk about those in just a few minutes when I help some of you memorize them. The commandments say things like, "You shall not lie," "You shall not steal," "You shall not covet," "You shall not commit adultery," and "You shall not murder." I'm sure you have heard of these commandments before.

Jesus made these commandments even more weighty in the Sermon on the Mount, where He says that the person who looks upon a woman or a man to lust after them in their heart has already committed adultery. Similarly, the person who is angry with someone without cause has committed murder. When we look at the law, we realize that all of us have fallen short of God's glory, and we need to admit that we are sinners. This is the same as confession: to agree with God that we have broken His law and that, because of that, we are at odds with Him.

The second thing you need to do, after you admit or confess your sin, is to believe that Jesus died on the cross in your place for your sin as a substitute for you. Then, third, you need to confess Him as your Savior and Lord. Romans chapter 10 says that whoever calls upon the Lord shall be saved. The person who confesses with their lips that He is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead shall never be put to shame.

If you would like to receive the free gift of grace, salvation, and forgiveness that Jesus offers today, I want to invite you to pray a very simple prayer of faith. Prayer is just talking to God, and we believe that He hears and answers prayer. That's why we are so focused on praying for the needs.

Of our church every single week, if today you would like to pray to receive Christ and His forgiveness for the way that you have broken His law, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer. All you have to do is pray with me now. Talk to God in this way:

"Dear Jesus, I recognize that I have broken Your commandments. I confess that I am a sinner, and I thank You that You are a good Savior. I pray that You would come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You by faith. Be my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen."

We truly are rejoicing in all the good things that God is doing. As I have shared many times over the last several weeks and even months, this is not the ideal for us to be doing church. It is not the ideal way. We would much rather be gathering together as a body to worship, to fellowship with one another, to sit out on the patio and have some donuts and coffee after church. Someday we will do that, hopefully not too far away.

Until then, we are so grateful that you are taking the time to share this with other friends and family members to watch with us as we gather together weekly. I want to encourage you to prayerfully consider reaching out to a friend, a neighbor, or someone and inviting them over to spend some time in fellowship with one another. This is really important. I think everybody is experiencing this right now; we are fellowship-starved in the midst of everything that's going on.

One of the things that the church was committed to early on, at the very beginning in Acts chapter 2, was that they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine, teaching like what we go through here on Sunday mornings. They also devoted themselves to fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Obviously, we continue to pray, and we continue to go through the Scriptures. We break bread together through communion, and we will do that very soon.

In that area of fellowship, as the Lord leads, maybe reach out to someone—a neighbor, a friend, a family member, or someone here at the church. Invite them to fellowship with you, even if you have to do that socially distanced or physically distanced. It would be a great encouragement, I believe, and continue to grow you in your walk with the Lord.

In just a moment, Anthony is going to lead us in a final song, but stick around after the song. I want to share with you.

A very simple way that you can memorize the Ten Commandments in five minutes or less is effective. I tested this out with my own wife about a week ago, and she got it in under three minutes. She's pretty quick, so no problem there.

Before we go over to Pastor Anthony, let's close our time in prayer. God, we thank You for Your grace. We pray for all the things that are going on in our community, in our church, and in our nation. We pray especially right now for those throughout the states of California, Washington, and Oregon who are fighting fires and those who are fleeing from the fires and being evacuated. We ask, God, that You would protect the firefighters and those who are in the midst of all this that is going on.

We pray for a shift in the weather—cooler days and more humidity to cut down on these fires. But, God, would You help us to direct our hearts and our minds to You in worship right now? Lord, help us quicken our minds so that we would be able to hide Your word in our hearts, so that just as Psalm 119 says, we would not sin against You. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Are you hurting and broken within, overwhelmed by the weight of your sin? Jesus is calling. Have you come to the end of yourself, to your thirst for a drink from the well? Jesus is calling. Oh, come to the altar; the Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with...

The precious blood of Jesus Christ calls us to leave behind our regrets and mistakes. Come today; there’s no reason to wait. Jesus is calling. Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy, for from the ashes, new life is born

The blood of Jesus Christ brings forgiveness, which was bought with His precious blood. As I mentioned a moment ago, we want you to hide the Word of God in your heart, including the Ten Commandments. Psalm 119, verse 11 says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you."

For many people, the thought of memorizing scripture can be daunting. They might say things like, "I don't have a good memory; I don't think I could commit these things to memory." However, you probably already know some of them. Many people who don't attend church have heard some of the "thou shalt nots" before, perhaps because they grew up in a Catholic church or somewhere else where they were exposed to these teachings.

I want to help you memorize these commandments in a very simple, albeit a little cheesy, way using word association and pictures. We will display images on the screen to assist you in this process. While they may seem corny, I believe they are genuinely helpful. I have seen this method work for others, and it worked for me many years ago. Since then, I have memorized the Ten Commandments using these super simple pictures.

The first commandment, which we will study in depth in the coming days, weeks, or months as we go through the scriptures together, is represented by a red ribbon with the number one on it: "You shall have no other gods before me." God needs to be number one in our lives.

The second commandment, which may also seem a bit cheesy, is represented by a picture of a person bowing down to an idol, resembling the number two: "You shall not make for yourself any idols." If you keep this image in your mind, you will remember this commandment clearly.

The third commandment, represented by a corny picture that looks like lips, is: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain."

In vain, do not use your lips to dishonor God.

Number four presents another picture. You have the book on the shelf that looks like it has been neglected. The book on the shelf resembles the number four. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Do not neglect the things of God.

Next, we have a very corny picture for number five. The number five looks like your parents. Hopefully, your parents don't look like this! Honor your father and your mother; this is the fifth commandment. We will look at this in depth in a few weeks.

Moving on to number six, there is a bomb that looks like the number six. The commandment is, "You shall not murder."

For number seven, the image shows a heart, making it look like a broken heart. The commandment is, "You shall not commit adultery." Remember these pictures.

Number eight resembles the mask of a thief, coming in and trying to steal things. The commandment is, "You shall not steal."

In number nine, the picture looks like it is lying down. The commandment is, "You shall not lie."

Finally, for number ten, you have a thief looking through a door. The door looks like the number one, and he is looking at a ring that resembles a zero. The tenth commandment is, "You shall not covet."

As I mentioned, these are really corny pictures, but I guarantee that if you remember them, when I ask, "What is the sixth commandment?" you will immediately think of that bomb that looks like a number six: "You shall not murder." Or when you think of number seven, which looks like a broken heart: "You shall not commit adultery." Number five, with that corny picture of the parents, reminds you to honor your father and your mother. I assure you that if you think about this, you will memorize the Ten Commandments very quickly.

As David said, "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you."

Father God, I pray that you would help us to commit not just this to heart and memory, but your word as a whole. Help us to commit your word to memory, to learn it, and to hold it deep in our hearts so that we would walk in a way that is honoring to you.

When we fail—and we will all fail—Lord, we thank you so much that we have an advocate. We have a mediator. Jesus, you are the one who stands in our place. You are the one who bore our sin and offers us forgiveness. If we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us.

All unrighteousness, God. Help us to share that good news with the people we interact with this week. We praise You and thank You for this time. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

What's going to happen? They're disappointed when there's nothing, right? They're like, "What the heck?" That's the whole reason why we come to church: to watch the bloopers.