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. >> 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 weekday. In addition to finding our podcast on our website and the church app, you can find it across all podcasting platforms. Our Children's Ministry is posting a weekly online kids' 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. >> Grant: Good morning and welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ. It is wonderful to be you all as we gather to worship today. Whether online or in the room it is exciting to unite and worship to our King. I will say if you're online this morning, take a second, sign in, say Hello. We'd love to know you're with us. Let's stand as we prepare our hearts and minds and be able to enter into this joyous time of worship. ("Fires" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: He's the only that keeps our dreams alive, keeps our hopes alive. Amen? Especially when things go ahead weird, when things get hard. Keeps us going. ("You Say" Playing) >> Joel: You may be seated. That was outstanding, way to go. I'm Joel Smith. I'm the children's minister here at First Colony Church of Christ and I get to do the kids' lesson. This morning it's interactive so you're going to have to participate. And this one really targets middle elementary and up. So if you have someone that's a little younger, you might help them. It's a math problem. Before we get there we'll start with our would you be able to verse. And as you know we've been dealing with some capital sins or things we want to catch out for. And the thing I want to challenge you with is second Corinthians, 10:5. We're told the warfare we're in starts in our mind, not physical. Here's my challenge, try it with me, okay? So I'm going to let you know there's about six or seven steps -- multiplication, subtraction, adding your letter. It's a little confusion but we'll get there. So you'll pick a number between one and ten. Don't tell me your number. Hopefully they're all over the place. You picked a number between one and ten? All right. First step, you'll take your mystery number and you're going to multiply it by ten. Multiply it -- actually, you know what? Sorry, you're picking a number between one and ten and multiplying it by nine. That's important. You have your big number, let's pretend your number is 26. So you have a 2 and 6. You add the 2 and 6 to equal number mystery number. You started with a number between and then a ten, multiply by nine, add them together. You have a number. Getting complicated. Now you subtract that number by 5. Now we're at a good spot. And whatever that number is, that's your special number -- we'll just call that your special number -- that's going to relate to a letter in the alphabet. If you had a one, that's A, B is two, C is three, etc. I have a grid behind me. You have a your special number that correlates to a letter. So I want you to think of a country that starts with that letter in Europe. Don't say anything. Think of a country in Europe that starts with that letter. Okay. We're still going to do more steps. It's going to be cool. All right? So you have your special number that gave you the letter of your country. I want you to take that special number and add a 1 to it. All right? So you have your country. You have your special number, you added a 1 to it. Now I want you to see what letter that correlates to as well. All right? So 1 is A, 2 is B, 3 is C, you get the idea. So now with that letter, I want you it think of a circus animal. You're like what? I'm so lost. This is hard. I wasn't supposed to do math. I'm getting you geared up for the message today. So you have a circus animal, hopefully you have a country, you have a circus animal; what color is that circus animal? It should be a gray elephant from Denmark. Cool? All right, cool. Now, the whole point of that is that you can control your thoughts. We all went on a little journey and you were going all over the place but we all ended up at the same spot. You can control your thoughts and that's how you have victory over since. I want you to remember Philippians verse 8. >> Billy Granville: No test, just going into communion. Bringing our hearts before the Lord. If you're at home go ahead and start collecting your communion supplies and if you're here you can get out those packets. If you don't have one, there's one in the back you can get one there. After we're finished with communion, you can put them in the baskets. >> Good morning, church. Good morning, First Colony Church of Christ. My name is Billy Granville. Please pray with me as pray over the bread which represents the body of Christ and the wine, the blood. Heavenly Father, the scripture said he who did not spare his own son, how will he not graciously give us all things? Lord, as we come together as a body of universe, we reaffirm our faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. We acknowledge that we are in Christ. Lord, as Satan would distract us and discourage us, help us Lord to focus our minds on Jesus. We need Jesus, Lord. We need Him. We don't need greater strategy -- I believe in it but we need Him, Christ, we need prayer. I'm reminded of the scripture that says God gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness through our relationship with Jesus Christ. So as we remember His sacrifice or us Lord help us also to reflect on your great and precious promises. Amen. Let's partake together. >> Today I read John 1:14-17. ("Good Father" Playing) >> Grant: We're about to enter in a time of prayer again. And Bob Gowens will be leading us in our offering prayer. >> Bob Gowens: Tithes and offerings are part of our worship to God. They're never taken for granted and always prayed over and used for the betterment of our congregation. You can mail a check to our office, marked bookkeeping, give online or if you're here the giving boxes. Giving online or by text is safe, secure and easy to set up. I find is especially easy for our family. Thank you for participating in the financial help of our congregation. Let us pray. Almighty and an-present God in whom we live and move and have our being, we are thankful you provide for us financially, spiritually and you provide for us in so many other ways. We cannot begin the ways to list the ways you bless you each day. Receive our tithes and offerings so your work and word can be expanded. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, amen. >> Grant: At this time we want to recognize baptisms that happened last Sunday. If I call your name, stand first is Juliette Colley and Eli Cole. Let's celebrate with these two families today. Very exciting. All right. It's time for our fellowship greetings. So everyone stand up and give your very best social distancing greeting this morning, all right? If you're joining us online, jump in the chat box and say hello. ("All Because of Jesus" Playing) >> Ronnie Norman: Fantastic. Thank you so much Richard and team. Go ahead and have a seat, everybody. Glad to see you today. Welcome to those of you in the room, glad to see you. For those of you watching online, we them you as well. And those of you watching online, we would love to pray with you. There are people you can contact right there in our chat room and it would be our joy to do so. You have a church app and you can go to our church app and turn in a prayer request. And, again, our church leadership will be praying for you this week. I want to join in with everyone and just, again, say to Juliette and Eli our celebration and congratulations to you and your families in your baptisms last Sunday. Last Sunday we celebrated Ben Mize baptized yesterday. We have a person in our church Helene Lamp celebrating 99th birthday. We have Debbie and Joel Williams celebrated 50 years of marriage coming up here. Congratulations to all of you. We continue today with a message series called vice grip and the title of today's message is green with envy. We say that someone is green with envy because, you know, if somebody looks green, they look pretty sick. And envy will just wear you out. We'll get there in just a moment. It makes you sick in more ways than one. It's a losing game. It eats away at you, it eats away at your relationships, eats away at your connection with God. You know, somebody kind of humorously said one time, of all the seven deadly sins, envy's no fun at all. The others might be temporary fun but envy is no fun at all. With you, with anyone else, with God. And, of course, the breeding ground for envy is what? Proximity. We envy what we see regularly. We really envy those names we know. And at the root of envy will be competition and comparison. Gang, let me just be real clear to those of you in the room and online, I want you to thrive. I want you to know the peace and the joy, the shalom of God. I want you to know his goodness and thrive. I want you to lead the kind of lives that are joyful for you, full of the Spirit that they emanate, they radiate to others and to be around you to be in your circle is to get a boost. And that's why we're in this series called vice grip. Last week I put up here the seven capital vices, seven deadly sins. And, again, they're called capital vices because a vice is habitual. It's one thing -- envy, we've all envied. It's occasion misstep, periodic I know I need to turn away from. There's a difference between that and having green eyes. Where everything is a comparison and competition. And a vice is a groove in the concrete of my character. A vice is a rut in the concrete of my character. And it will wear you out. And it will intercept the shalom, peace, joy the Lord wants to bring to your life and mine. Did you see the movie, do you remember the movie Amadeus? The movie about the life of Mozart? Here is Salieri, he was a musical talent. He prayed for musical ability and was reasonably successful until Mozart came on the scene. And his Mozart's talent far exceeded that of Salieri. So his envy grew, envied and hated Mozart. Because envy opened the door to hate. He started to hate him and he worked to plan for Mozart's destruction. Not only did Salieri hate Mozart, he came to hate God. Because he said God, why would you give that much talent to that person instead of me when I love you so much? But he started to hate God. Listen, when I envy, I can begin to see God as unjust and thinking if God were just fair, the scales would now be recalibrated and I could at least be equal, maybe even superior to you. Just what is envy? Augustine said it's begrudging God's good gifts to someone else. It's pain at the good fortune of someone you view as a rival. Envy is resenting God's goodness to another. And ignoring God's goodness to you. Envy's not just wanting maybe what someone else has; envy's wanting what another person has or envy is wanting their life enough so that you are willing to act in a destructive way. Maybe it's intentional. Maybe you hear gossip you don't defend. Maybe you think God you've been overly generous to him or her and given me a raw deal. Envy's no fun at all. Listen to these scriptures. James 3:16. All kinds of disorder. All kinds of evil practices motivated by envy. Matthew 27. They were willing to attack the very son of God. They were willing to attack the plan of God just because the plan of God didn't fit their personal plan. Pilate knew the only reason these religious people were acting this way, they had it in for Jesus. The relationship between envy and hate is pretty close. Let me put the envy continuum up here on your screen. At one end on the destructive side is resentment, hatred, even harm. But if envy can be converted, it can be converted to admiration, even emulation. You see, our comparisons drive us to admire a trait in another, this can be a force for good. And we can convert the envy into a decision to emulate. Envy at its worst wants to harm. It experiences joy at another's misfortune. Envy converted can be used as a stimulus for improvement. Okay. Do you remember a few years ago -- does the name Nancy Kerrigan ring a bell, Tonya Harding? They were figure skaters. Nancy was a little better. Tonya was no slouch but she viewed as Nancy as her rival. She envied her and orchestrated to have Nancy's knee whacked -- literally whacked so she could not compete in the Olympic trials. And now because Nancy is out of the picture, Tonya can look better -- that's just not a good look on anyone. It's not a good look on me or you. No wonder envy is one of the seven capital vices. It's no fun at all. It eats away at your own joy, at our calling to love our neighbor as ourself. And it eats away even at our relationship with God. So we aware the comparison trap. The Bible even says -- everybody remembers the Snow White story? Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? And the queen was regularly told she was the fairest until she was told Snow White has developed into a beautiful young lady. And I think she is the fairest of them all. And that agitated the queen. It wasn't enough for the queen to be beautiful and she was. It wasn't enough for her to be queen. It was all about the comparison. And envy lives into the zone of comparing and competing in an unhealthy way. It brings arrogance if I think I'm winning. It brings discouragement if I think I'm not. And it robs us of joy and contentment. You know, your self worth cannot stand the life of competition. Your self worth needs a new narrative. It cannot stand a life of comparison and competition. There's a better foundation, we'll get to that in just a moment. And gang, let me just remind you in our quest for things to be equal and fair, they're not fair. There will be people who will be smart than you, I know that's a shock. There will be folks born maybe with better business connections than you have. There will be folks born with more athletic ability than you have. And there will be folks born with less intelligence, less athletic ability. And you were born at a good time and place, perhaps. You could have been born in the 1700's in a remote village high up in the Himalayas and there's nothing wrong with that. You've been born here exposed to all our people here. I urge you to avoid like the plague a life of envy and competing and comparing. God has created you in a beautiful way. All right. So can we tame this green monster? Let me offer five suggestions. Number one, acknowledge your deep need for unconditional love. For some of us there's a big hole right here. You know what it is? We have a need for unconditional love, and quite honestly you're probably not going to find it looking around horizontally. Let me tell you where you find it. You find it in the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ. That is a completely different foundation for our self worth. Myself worth is not rooted in the fact of I don't have to compete and compare. And somebody's always wanting to tell you that they'll -- you know, we're ranking football teams, somebody's always going to rank you where you do rank or stand. You need and you have a deep need for unconditional love. You are precious to God. And God loves you for your self, not for anything that you have achieved, not for your beauty or your intelligence or any other qualification. But simply in a way that a good, good mother adores her child. The way a good, good Father adores his child. And if you can get that into your head, better yet into your heart, you'll not desperately be grasping for self-worth and self-esteem and comparisons and competitions. We must unlearn this narrative that I'm not good enough unless I'm beating you. Even today, if you're here stiff arming the love of God, if you don't believe in God yet, he loves you, he's for you. He's inviting you into a relationship with and him and that love is not susceptible to any destructive force. Secondly, replace envy with productive zeal. We've already touched on this a bit. A zealous person -- notice I didn't say jealous -- a zealous person can operate out of humility, acknowledging that I'm not the best but also acknowledging that I stand on a solid, sure foundation of God's love for me. And now I'm free to take an honest look with humility and also desire to get better. And rather than viewing you as a rival or an obstacle, I can view you -- I can be zealous to improve. I can be zealous to grow. I can be zealous to get better. Envy wants to bring somebody down. Zeal seeks to lifted up to make everything around me better. And where as envy distances, zeal brings us into connecting, collegial relationships, mentoring relationships with one another. From every person you might envy, there's something good you can learn. So use positive envy as a stimulus for personal change and growth. People we admire need not threaten us but rather inspire us. Thirdly, practice gratitude. Martha and I were talking about this last night and she said I'm just convinced that envy and ingratitude go together. Be thankful for who you are, where you are, what you are. You may not be the most athletic. You may not be the most handsome. But God indeed loves you and has a plan for you. And you'll never have a plan with thankfulness if you understand that quite honestly you don't deserve anything you have -- it is all a gift from God. It is all a grace gift. Everything good in your life is a gift of grace. You say I went to school, yes, you did. You responded to God's kindness and opportunities. And this practice of naming small and large, these good gifts from God, that's just good for you. Envy, remember, it's resenting God's goodness to others. Typically it's resenting God's goodness to someone I deem a rival. And it's completely ignoring God's goodness to me. Number four, practice hidden acts of love. Practice hidden acts of love. And the reason I mention this is that for some of you, envy may not be a particular challenge. What is a challenge is the desire to be envied. Mark Twain once said folks really want to be loved, but they will do almost anything to be envied. And when we practice hidden acts of love and kindness, we're not trying to engineer status. I'm not comparing it with you. I got to tell you, you know, Bob was talking earlier about your giving in church. Giving in church is so different from other kinds of nonprofit giving. And I'm not being critical of other kinds of nonprofit giving. But if I give often in a nonprofit way, you know, there are tiers. There are status tiers. There might be you're printed in a program. Here's the silver level. Here's the gold level. Here's the platinum level. Here's the amazing wonderful level right here. And my name might get there. And your name gets there. And there's nothing wrong with recognizing, you know, generosity. When you give in church, it's hidden. It's virtually anonymous. When I was younger I used to take that for granted. As I've aged over the years, I realize that's an incredible act of character on the part of people. That kind of giving simply out of altruistic worship -- as you mentioned -- worship and generosity. And it's done never as a tool to create envy. It's simply an act of generous worship. I think it's a beautiful thing. And, again, Rebecca De Young highlights this practicing acts of hidden level. And practice permission. Give God permission to use other people, maybe more than you, give God permission to use other people maybe in a different way than He uses you. And that's okay. And what we're called to do as much as possible is to cheer one another on and believe that rather than a philosophy of scarcity, there's room in the body of Christ. There's room for multiple gifts. There's room for one another to serve and we cheer one another on. And another owes blessing, another's opportunity is not necessarily your loss or mine. Let me put one more quote on the screen. From Jesus. Love your neighbor as yourself. When I envy you, I can do neither. Neither. Not really loving myself because envy's a losing game. It's no fun at all. If you're going to pick a seven deadly sin, don't pick envy. I'm not loving me or you. Did you read the Wall Street Journal article a few years ago, a couple of twin brothers, Al and Elliot in their 80's had a falling out with one another. And for over a year they didn't speak to one another. They said basically it was just accumulation, of so many envies and jealousies over the year. And they didn't speak to one another until one day Elliot sent his brother Al an email with a little story in it. And the little story was about two men who had a stream dividing their properties. And one of the men hired a carpenter to build a fence along the stream [LAUGHS]. But instead of building the fence, the carpenter went out and built a bridge. Al said he got the point of the parable and he called up his brother and said "I'm sorry. I want to walk across that bridge, too." When I win at envy, I destroy the possibility of loving my neighbor as myself. And gang, I want you to be a life giver. I want you to know the peace, joy, and love of the Holy Spirit. I want you to know the shalom of God. And one day we'll be standing together in heaven. >> Bob Gowens: It says I exhort giving of prayers for all men and for all in authority that we may be led in quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty for this good and -- for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, amen. Let us pray. Almighty God who has given us this great and good heritage, may we always prove ourselves and be mindful of your favor and be glad to do your will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning and pure ways. Save us from violence, discord, pride and arrogance and from every evil way. Defend our liberties and fashion us into one united people. Empower with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in your name we entrust the authority of government. That there may be justice and peace at home and that through your law. We commend that we may dwell and secure in your peace. Grant to the President of the United States, the members of his cabinet and all in administrative authority wisdom and strength to know and to do your will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in your fear. We entrust to your loving care the President of the United States, relieve his illness, guard him from all danger, restore him to his health and strength. Bless the means that are being used for his care. Fill his heart with confidence and trust in you and restore him to a life in service of you. We further pray for all captured by this disease, including the president's wife Melania. May it be your will all are healed. Grant the senators and represents in the Congress of the United States those who make our laws in the cities and towns and states courage and wisdom to enforce that to provide for the means of all our people, to fulfill our obligations in the community of nations. To the justices of the United States Supreme Court and to all the judges and all our courts give wisdom and understanding and integrity that human rights may be safeguarded and justice served. As election approaches we better understand the issues. We ask for eyes we might first see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, one in equal in dignity. We pray for discernment we choose leaders who live and follow your love in truth. And finally choose people to accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, we may elect trustworthy leaders to make wise decisions to your nation. We may serve you faithfully and honor your time and holy name in peace. Grant we may lead a peaceful life in honesty. For yours is the Kingdom and power and glory forever through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reins with you, world without end. Amen. >> Grant: Thank you, Bob. Let me give you a couple of announcements. To our students, student ministry is back on campus. We'll be outside, yeah. Clap it up. Be outside in the courtyard, welcome back students excited to get to going Wednesday night starting at 6:45 p.m. To the whole church we're starting back with Bible class for the next seven weeks at 9:45 a.m. -- birth through adults. Adults in the gyms, kids and students in regular locations. For a look at all our 2020 events, opportunities to come get involved, always check out our home page on the website. And one quick note tomorrow morning we're dropping a new podcast. It is anchor point. So check that out. If you are in a connection group, if you lead a connection group, if you're interested in connection groups, this is a podcast for you. You'll love it. All right. At this time let's go ahead and stand. We'll read a scripture together. And as we do that you'll see it on the screen. So we'll read it loud and proud together. As we doing, I want you to feel the blessing of these words washed over you. Let's read these words together. Let's receive that blessing. Lead us in worship ("All Because of Jesus" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thanks for coming today. Those online, we're glad you're here as well. We'll see you next time. You are dismissed. >> Thank you for joining us online today. We want it let you know about items of interest. First go to our website, we have a unique page dedicated to resources for you 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 Google play. It's a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church of Christ. Anchor Point is our new podcast. We are posting a new episode every weekday. In addition to finding our podcast on our website and 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're glad you're here.