DISCLAIMER: This text is not a verbatim transcript. Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. >> Kevin: Good morning, church. Let's decide right now to worship God. For no other reason than God deserves it and we will find our life in it. So if that's singing out loud to joy of your family or resting in the peace of the music in your heart, let's give what we have to him. So glad we're here together. >> You heard the man, let's sing. ("Jailbreak playing) >> Yes, we are free top thanks to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are free from sin. We are free from shame. ("Way Maker" playing ) >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is a joy to see you through the camera into your house, even though we can't actually see into your house or at your breakfast table or on your couch or wherever you're watching today. My name is Joel. I'm the children's minister here at First Colony Church of Christ. I want to talk to you about frustrations in your life and you wonder what to do. Scripture addresses that. I don't know if you've heard the phrase, sending a square peg into a round hole, but that is what I'm going to show you today. I always have a verse that emphasizes what we're talking about. The verse I've chosen is John 16:33. So I have told you these things that in me you may have peace. In this world, guess what, you will have troubles, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Well, as a student last year you were probably worried about the STAAR test, how am I going to do on the STAAR test? A whole other year later you're wondering if you will be able to go back to school and what will that look like. Let me let you in on a secret, even when you're an adult, there are still things you're going to worry about. You're going to worry about my job, family, needs, health, things like that. One day your car will break down and you will say, oh no, how am I going to get that fixed. There may be bills that you owe and what do you do? Number one, I have told you these things. Remember what Jesus has done in the past. That's the first key. The second key he says, in me, you may have peace. In Jesus, we have peace. We can know that to be patient in difficult times. Finally, we need to be obedient. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. Take heart. Be obedient. Do the next right thing. So my illustration today is a curved hole and a square peg. Very nice. Is it possible to make this thing go through like that without sticking it through like this. A man at our church made this, Mr. Cody Reeve. This is super cool. For all of our engineers, mind blown. A square peg is going through a round hole. It can go the other way. Isn't that awesome? Bottom line, Jesus is the one who makes the impossible possible. Check out Jared Anderson, Jesus makes the impossible possible. Check it out, we love you. Hang in there. >> Kevin: We're gonna take communion together now, so go ahead and be grabbing what you need for that. When Jesus led the first communion it was in a home, like you are today. So let's enjoy this together. Dee and Emily are going to lead us right now. >> Dee: I'll be praying for both the bread and the cup. Shall we pray. Our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ our savior, what a glorious day that we have to come together and show our love for you and remember the love that you have for us. Lord, we believe, our faith is rooted, Lord, in the birth, the virgin birth of your son, Jesus Christ. That he walked on this earth as a human, that he taught us how to love and live and forgive. Lord, that he was tried, tortured, hung on a cross and He shed his blood for us so that we might live with You forever. Lord, he was buried and slept for three days and rose on the third day to show his life to the world, that death could not keep Him. Lord, that ever-cleansing blood that is represented by the cup that we're about to partake. Lord, we pray that each day that we live, that we'll remember that and we might go down the path that You have give us and put before us and that we might love others more and forgive more and that we might do your work, the work that you've set out for us as your children. With everything that we have in our heart and our soul, we lift it up in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. >> Emily: Good morning, church. I will be reading1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33 You say, "I am allowed to do anything"but not everything is good for you. You say, "I am allowed to do anything" but not everything is beneficial. Don't be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don't give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. >> Kevin: We're going to now pray for the money that we give to be used and blessed by God for his purposes. Can you pray with me. As a reminder, you can click the link on your screen to give, use the FCCC app or even text. Let's pray.God, I want to worship you with my giving. Paul once told a church to give out of a cheerful heart and not out of reluctance or compulsion. Would you help us to determine in our own hearts how much to give, by removing the greed the makes us reluctant and the guilt that would compel us. Instead we ask for the fruit of your spirit to reign so that our hearts would be cheerful and we could see your good works happen. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. My name is Kevin Porter and I'm one of the student ministers here. I have a couple of announcements for our students. First of all, I miss you guys and can't wait to be back in person. Until that day comes, we're goings to make this the best semester. Next week, August 23, if you are a sixth grader or the parent of a sixth grader, we have a special rite of passage on a Zoom call. That's 10:00 between the two services. We're going to send that out in an e-mail and on social media. We are going to have this rite of passage saying you are ready for this next phase of life. We want to introduce yourselves. The following week, August 30, all of the students will be back for a Bible study. We'll be going through the book of Philippians. You will log on to the same Zoom room. We want to seek the Lord and make the best of this unfortunate time. Love you guys so much, and let's keep worshiping here right now. \M "Endless Light" \M >> Thank you so much for your worship today! [\M\M\M] >> Ronnie: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this live-streamed service from the First Colony Church of Christ. I'm Ronnie. So glad to have all of you with us. So glad to have you. Glad that you're here. Welcome to this worship experience. We would love to hear from you. You can communicate to us via the connection card you'll find there on your church app or on your live stream page. Let us hear from you and let us pray for you. It would be our honor and joy. I'm so pleased to tell you that in three weeks, the first Sunday in September, September 6, that's Labor Day weekend. We do plan to reopen our church facilities and regather for in-person worship at our regular times of 8:30 and 11:00. We'd love to have you here. Sometimes people will ask, what about live stream? Listen, live stream is part of our DNA and has been for a few years. It will, Lord willing, always be part of our DNA. We will be open for in-person services. We'll communicate with you on various protocols and do that via all the usual communication channels. We will -- well, for the most part, we will be following our governor's recommendations. So I look forward to seeing several of you in just a few weeks. We're in a message series from 1 Thessalonians called "steady and sure." Today's message is the glory of the ordinary taken from1 Thessalonians 4:9-12Get your Bible out, get that Bible app out and be ready to follow along. Mark Twain said it's not the parts of the Bible that bother me, but the parts that I do understand. We all recognize some sections of scripture are a little more dense and more difficult to understand. Other sections of scripture can be challenging because they are so very, very clear. Today's section of scripture is very clear, very, very practical, and I think very apropos. You have people who have started to overlook the mundane distractions of life. They were minimizing ordinary faithfulness. For some of them it had to do with the teaching regarding the second coming of Jesus. Jesus is coming back. His return is imminent. We don't know when it might be. You have some of these early believers saying, Jesus is coming back. Fantastic. We're waiting for him. We're anticipating Him. But they were anticipating the coming of Christ with such strength and intensity that they were ignoring their normal life routines, responsibilities, and duties. Hey, we might be going to heaven tomorrow, so why should I give in due attention to life, work, responsibility? Hey, what do you do when your future is a little uncertain and unsure? Well, this teaching to the church in Thessalonika is so apropos to us that it elevates the beauty of the ordinary and the significance of it. So let's start reading here verse 9. Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. In other words, you know the love that God invented. And in fact, you do love all of God's family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,Paul causes a wonderful teaching technique here where he says, look, you know this, you're doing this, but let me remind you of something you don't need to be reminded of, which is love each other. It sounds so ordinary, but it's not. Make love for your Christian family. He says, your brothers and sisters, make that your highest goal. That's easier said than done because all of us are someone's difficult person. You know someone who's difficult to love. Well, you were that difficult someone for another person. You see, redemption in Christ with does not homogenize the church. So with all of our differences and different backgrounds and differences along the way, we learn to love by being around people who stretch our love muscles. We learn patience with by being in situations that stretch our muscles of patience. C.S. Lewis pointed out once, we may talk so much about loving people in general, that we really love no one in particular. And sometimes as brothers and sisters in Christ, we'll simply have to agree to disagree and be patient with one another. But if we are believers and we are, we must find a way to love each other, even when loving is hard to do. Sometimes we need to do a Paul and Barnabas in Acts. They loved each other but had a sharp disagreement. What did they do? They gave one another time and space. What they did not do is they did not attack and demonize and divide. A critical part of our faith is loving the people around us and not treating them like robots or machines, but especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, and humans with souls that need to be nurtured and loved. Any time you generalize people, you dehumanize them. One more time, any time you generalize people, you dehumanize them. You know what all those preachers are like. No, you don't. You can't generalize. We're able to dehumanize people when we don't see them as people, as a person with a name, a family, a story. So Paul says, it sounds so ordinary, but it's absolutely glorious. Love each other and do what you can to help your brother or sister along the way to take their next notable step. You may not be able to solve every dilemma in their life, but you can help them take that next step. I might not get you through an entire season of grief, but maybe we can share a cup of coffee or a word of encouragement or a meal. Then Paul continues in verse 11: and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should -- isn't that interesting terminology. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and you should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, This sounds so ordinary. We says lead a quiet life. Literally the wording is a calm life. Keep calm. Avoid un necessary contention, contentiousness, and celebrate the glory of ordinary faithfulness and mind your own business. Now, he's already told us to love one another. He's not saying mind your own business and don't be a good Samaritan. No. Be a good Samaritan. Love one another. But don't be that busy body, that nosey person. Know when to stay in your lane. Be fully engaged with your own duties and your own responsibilities because if you don't, you're going to make comments on things, you're going to form opinions about things you really don't have the facts on. Most importantly, you'll not pay attention to the responsibilities in your own lane. You remember one time Jesus said, you're constantly trying to fix your brother or sister because they got a speck of sawdust in their eye. . But if you'll step back and look at reality, you've got a baseball bat protruding from your eyeball. Before you try to pick out that speck of sawdust in your neighbor's eyeball, you might want to pay attention to the bat in your own eye. Once you address that, then maybe you can be helpful. Mind your own business. It might be the reason you're so focused on that issue or their issue is you're unwilling to face an issue of your own. In 1858 James Smith wrote an article called "Mind Your Business." And he got particular with it. He said, are you an unsaved sinner? Well, then you must mind your business and your first principle of business is it's time for you to be reconciled to God and it's time for you to believe in Jesus, confess your sins, turn to Him, be baptized into His name. The Lord loves you and if you don't run to him for salvation, then you will at will receive the full justice for your wrongdoing. You don't want that. You want the grace and mercy of God. Mind your business and right now, unsaved person, run to Jesus Christ. He went on to say, are you a parent? Mind your own business first and your first principle business is to seek the salvation of your children's souls. They're to be educated not just for time merely, but also trained for eternity. Let me just take that concept and particularize it. Are you a deacon? Are you an elder? Are you a minister? Are you a group leader? Are you a group leader, a teacher? Do you have some specific assignment in the body of Christ? Make sure first and foremost you mind your own business. Be willing to help. Be willing to be a good Samaritan, but know when to stay in your lane. Then Paul says -- and this again sounds so ordinary, but it's beautiful and meaningful and he will show you why in just a moment. Then he says, work with your own hands. Embrace the glory of the ordinary by being personally responsible. Work with your own hands and productive. Obviously, this assumes a measure of health and opportunity. Work with your own hands. Maria Kornikova has written about the two mindsets, the active and the passive mindset. The passive mindset tends to think that things happen to me and I'm not responsible. The active mindset says, you know, I have a measure of ownership in this. I have a measure of responsibility. The passive mindset is defined by the assumption that I'm not responsible in any way whatsoever for my life. The active mindset says, I can't control everything. I'm not responsible. Maybe you were born on second base and I was born on first. But I have a measure of ownership and control. And the apostle Paul is encouraging this Christian community to embrace a sense of responsibility and productivity. It's a beautiful thing. I read a book not too long about by Cal Newport called "So Good They Can't Ignore You." It's a quote from the comedian Steve Martin who learned how to play the banjo after years and years of practice. In that book, Newport advocates becoming a master craftsman through hunger, humility, and practice. He's not a big fan of the follow-your-passion advice in life. I'm not either. Now, what I'm about to say now is not Bible. I'm just sort of applying this concept of being productive. What I'm about to say now is my perspective, take it or leave it. I think the follow-your-passion advice leads to a lot of unnecessary anxiety and chronic job hopping. Passion for work comes after you put in the hard work to become good at something valuable. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it. Newport in his book says that's not to say there are some people who should follow their passion and they will book a world-class musician or they will become a professional athlete, but that's a pretty small percentage. Actually, what you do for a living is less important than how you do it. Newport advocates these qualities of hunger, humility, and practice. Hunger, which is just curiosity. You know, you might be really, really smart, but are you curious about your job and your work? If you're not curious, you're going to get stuck and you have to go outside your own filter bubble. Stay hungry, stay curious, stay a learner. Another quality that goes with this is humility, which is a willingness to acknowledge our own limitations. Humility means we do not overestimate ourselves and underestimate the input of others. If you don't have humility, then you will not have curiosity and you will not grow your level of expertise. And then practice. You lean into those things, whatever it might be. Learning to play blue grass music, learning to play chess, learning to drive a race car. You got to practice and there are going to be parts of that that come more easily than others. There are other parts of your job and it feels awkward and you've got to practice and learn those skills and lean into them week after week and month after month and you adopt not this follow-your-passion wherever it leads mindset, but you adopt the mindset of a craftsman. Whatever I do, I want to do this well. I remember years ago talking to our plumber, this was 20 years ago. He said, you know, Ronnie, a lot of people downplay being a plumber. It's not a glamorous job. Not a lot of people grow up saying, I want to be a plumber. It's great work. It's a skill. You become better. You become a master plumber. Then you learn business principles. You have to learn how to run a business and deal with people and help people. People always need you and sometimes when they need you, they really need you. You could tell, this guy loved his work and loved the service he was providing because he got good at it. Now, you might be retired. You might volunteer. When I talk work and vocation, I'm talking those services you provide to your work and family. You may be a full-time homemaker. Listen, that is fantastic work. Whatever you do to bring value to our society, our community, and your family, you might say, well, it sounds so ordinary. It's glorious. Martin Luther wrote so much about the doctrine of vocation. He said, when you're productive, you're wearing actually a mask. It's the face of God on it. On the surface we see an ordinary face, a mother, a doctor, a teacher, a waitress, a pastor. But beneath that ordinary face, God is ministering to us through that person. God is hidden in human vocation. When we live out our callings, as spouses, parents, children, as employers, as employees, God is working through us even when we don't realize it and we're fulfilling part of our Christian calling. This sounds so ordinary. Paul says, it's incredibly important. Love each other. Mind your own business. Be productive. Why? Why? Verse 12: so that your daily life may win -- your what? Your daily life. Another way of saying it, your daily routine ordinary life that might sound mundane, but it's not. so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so -- one of the greatest evangelistic strategies is someone gets to rub off and spend time with a Christian believer who walks in integrity. The Holy Spirit says the glory of the ordinary, your daily life, it wins the respect. Notice the wording. We don't go around demanding respect. We win the respect of outsiders. We're not dependant on anybody. In other words, let me put this on the screen. Never underestimate the influence of an ordinary, responsible daily life lived with Jesus. So there it is, sort of an ordinary sermon, but I give it with love and I give it with hope. Listen, just know I do love you and I do care about you. I want to leave you today with a blessing. You know the last thing Jesus did before he ascended to heaven. A lot of people think he gave the great commission. That's not true. The very last thing He did was give a blessing. He lifted his hands and arms. As He ascended into heaven, he blessed them. What was the blessing? I don't know. It might have been the traditional blessing from the book of Numbers, that Jewish believers would have been reciting in the synagogue for years and years. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord turn his face to you. And be gracious to you. May the Lord shine His face upon you and give you His peace. And I pray that for you. As you embrace and as you engage in the glory of the ordinary with faithfulness and God's going to meet you there and together you're going to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Thank you for being with us today. One of our elders, Randy Glover, is going to lead us in our closing prayer. >> Will you join me in prayer as we close our service today. Lord, as we come to you in prayer today, we ask for strength, strength to persevere in the midst of a seemingly endless pandemic. Strength to deal with the disappointments we seem to face on a regular basis. Strength to work in stressful situations or under circumstances that are different and challenging for us. Father, we pray for those who are hurting, those who have lost jobs, those who have lost loved ones, those who are ill, those who are struggling in many other ways. Father, we pray for our leaders, both nationally and locally. Please give them wisdom and discernment to make the best decision possible. Lord, we pray for our church, for each member, guest, volunteer, staff member, minister, deacon, and elder. Father, be with them and be with our families. We pray that you protect us, guide us, strengthen us. May we turn to You and may You give us peace in an abiding sense of your presence in the midst of difficult circumstances. Father, may You please heal our land. Show us your ways, O Lord. Teach us your path. Guide us in Your truth and teach us, for You are in us and your hope is in it all day long. Father, we thank you for Jesus and it is in His name that we pray these things. Amen. God bless you, everyone. I hope you can join us next week. >> Thank you for joining us online today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. We have a unique page dedicated to resources for you during this season. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our new podcast "Anchor point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the app store or on Google Play. every link is there. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. "Anchor Point" is our new podcast. We are posting a new episode every week day. In addition to finding our podcast on our website and on the church app, you can find it across all podcasting platforms. our children's ministry is posting a weekly kids online Bible lesson. Be sure to check that out. And our student ministry is creating lots of daily content on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Be sure to follow them. Thank you for joining us online today. We are glad you're here.