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 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 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 are glad you're here. >> Shane: Welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ, great to see everybody. Those of you watching and at home, great to have you here as well. Let's worship our King, our God. He has done great things. Amen? >> Richard Bowling: Amen, it's time to worship the Lord. ("Great Things" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Yes. Our God does great and amazing things, amen? Faithful King, faithful Creator. Faithful friend, faithful Father. ("The Way" Playing) >> Joel: All right. You can have a seat. This is kids' spot in the message where he have a kids' observable teaching. It's a special time. All right. Well, if you've been paying attention these last few week, we've been talking about capital vices which is basically a big word to say things you don't want to do. And today we're talking about slothfulness. And I have a heart and as a believer, we want to use our heart to love God and love others. Luke 10:27. The verse I want to emphasize it Colossians work onto the Lord, not to men. So this heart is to quickly slide back and forth. Pretty cool, huh. But if we're talking about slothfulness, every now and then you might have a problem. You see, it's time to get up in the morning and you're like I don't want to get up. It's time to do your homework, I don't want to do my homework. I did it last year. Why do I have to do this year? And as you can see, sometimes our heart moves slow. It's supposed to go fast like that or like that but not slow like that where it just kind of stops. So the important thing to remember is when dealing with slothfulness is that we are to do our work onto the Lord. When we do our work onto the Lord it zips things up. Pretty cool? And that is our focus on our God. Thank you very much. >> Shane Gage: As rocky and Ginger make their way up, grab your communion supplies. There are some on the tables in the back or lobby. If you would put your cups back into the paper baggy into the trash bins or in the baskets at the end of the aisle. This is our opportunity to focus on Jesus, to remember what He's done for us. >> Rocky Hudson: Good morning. My name is Rocky Hudson, this is my Ginger. We're thankful to lead you in communion. This morning as we take communion we remember the supreme sacrifice Jesus gave for our sins, past, present and future. Because of his gift we're free from the penalty of sin. Join us as we pray. Father, thank you for your love and unmerited favor. We know there would be no celebration out sacrifice. You gave us Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. Lord Jesus, take this bread and drink this cup and we remember you are the bread of life. You nourish our hearts and feed our souls of you give us strength to run the race before us. In this cup we see your sacrifice was powered out for many. You brought forgiveness and light into a dark world. Through your death you gave us life, abundant life now and eternal life forever. We pray this through the precious name of Jesus Christ, amen. Would you join us now as we partake in communion together? >> Ginger Hudson: The reading from Romans 12:9-14. ("Amazing Grace: My Chains Are Gone" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: amen. Thank you guys. As Rick comes, he's one of our elders and would lead us in our offering prayer today. >> Greg Stirman: This is our offering time. It's also a part of our worship to God. These offerings are never taken for granted and they're always prayed over. We want you to know your giving online or by text is safe, secure, and simple to set up. We always have boxes at the exits as you leave if you've brought your contribution with you this morning. Our offerings make a difference in the world and for the mission of Jesus Christ. I wanted you to know that part of your gifts are feeding over 100 families a day in our community through second mile mission center which we partner with. They appreciate it so much if you drive by over there, there are hundreds of cars lined up every day for those in need. Thank you for your generous gifts and your partnership in the mission of Jesus and the gospel. Let's pray for our offering. Father, will you bless our gifts this morning as we acknowledge you as our God and creator. All good things come from You. May we be good stewards and faithful ambassadors for You. May all we do and say be pleasing to You. We thank You for the precious gift of Jesus and pray in His name. Amen. >> Shane Gage: Now it's time for our fellowship greeting. Every stand and give a nice friendly wave and greet one another. At home you can say hello in the chat box. Let's stand and have a little time of fellowship greeting. ("Only King Forever" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: You may be seated. Thank you so much for your worship today. >> Ronnie Norman: Thank you so very, very much to our worship team and thank you to you as well for your participation today. I am so very, very glad to see you. And so glad to have you joining us as well. Welcome to those of you watching on live. It's our joy to have you with us today. We would love to hear from you and pray with you. There's someone right now, during this service you can click the button there as you're watching and someone, one of our church leaders will be happy to pray with you this morning. To those of you in the room, if you would like to turn in a prayer request, go to your First Colony Church of Christ app and do so. We realize that even as we've be open a few weeks, we have folks who stop by. This is maybe their first time, maybe this is your first time to be with us. And we're glad to have you here today. I want to say thank you just to the congregation, an anonymous group -- don't know all the specific folks but this past week is pastor appreciation month and you've been very, very gracious. And we received an anonymous goodie bag for our ministry bag from the congregation and I want you to know it was a lot of fun and very appreciated, very kind of you, very, very generous. Thank you so very, very much. Okay. In our teaching time today we're continuing with a message series called Vice Grip and today we're talking about sloth. Laziness for the workaholic. Sin is a momentarily one-time thing, a vice is like a groove, a rut in our character. And initially these seven items on the screen, they were a roadmap for self-examination and a plan for improvement. And they're not listing the worst things we can possibly do but doorways -- these are vices that if embraced in our character you just think -- we started talking about envy, last week vain glory. And today sloth. And you hear that and think sloth, how bad can that be? You hit the snooze once. Maybe you hit the snooze button a couple of times, I mean, what's the big deal with that? Well, the Bible certainly talks about laziness but this is not laziness. Sloth as we're going to see today is a willfull resistance to the invitation to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. And this is especially -- you know, we live in such a mobile time right now. And, you know, I mean, if you want to hit the easy or eject button it's easy to do in this culture. But think of a time when you are living in community for a long period of time, years, think marriage if you will. Long-term marriage. Think family of origin. Think long-term friendships. And you think that's so wonderful that you euphorically and beautiful and romantic. Yeah, for the first three months. And then over time things I rub you, you rub me the wrong way. Things get difficult. And it's going to be real easy to just say I want to hit the easy button. I want to hit the eject button. This is hard. You know, walking down the aisle, celebrating with everybody on your wedding day; how fun is that? Now you got to be married. You got to do married and be married. As one person said oh, married and love just lasts a lifetime but it's as daily as doing the dishes. Daily, regular stuff. And sloth shows up in long-term relationships where I don't really want to push through awkward. I don't really want to do difficult. The grass is far greener over there. And I don't wants to do the work that love demands of me. Let me put a picture up here on the screen, a picture of a sloth. An animal that sleeps from 15 to 18 hours a day, one of the slowest-moving mammals in the world. Moves so slowly algae can grow on their fur. You say that's not me. The term is used in scripture of something that's unnecessarily slow and resistant. Let me put a phrase up here on the screen, slots: Known by another term Acedia known, simple as lack of care. Dante, the poet described it as the failure to just love God with your heart and soul. It's apathy, if you will. Apathy in the face of the known will of God. I don't care and you can't make me. But it has more to do with love than it does work. Let me put that statement up here on the screen. Now, in our culture when he talk about sloth a lot of people think laziness and they only think of it in terms of a secular version. Listen very carefully. . You can be super diligent, get up early, go to the gym, no one would accuse of you being a workaholic -- but you might be slothful spiritually or relationally. Suppose I get up at 5:00 a.m. and read the paper and go to the office and I'm a workaholic. Things aren't going well in my life and I'm distant to my kids so I play golf all weekend. Let me plan a trip away with the guys. I'm super diligent but I'm willfully resistant to the demands of love -- love for God, church, my family, my neighbor. And so Rebecca De young defines sloth as the resistance to love. And that's what it is, a refusal to be moved by love; a willful focus on the negative, a bitterness that will not move. So let's read scripture here for a moment, Ephesians 4:22. And the basic idea of the passage is contrary to what you might think, growing more and more like Christ is not an instantaneous process, I'm not zapped, I am partnered with God and taking off the old and putting on the new. And the slothful person resists that. Don't tie me down, I don't want to be committed. But sanctification happens. But the Bible is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to a sense of human merit that what I do merits something. But the Bible invites us to exert effort and partner with God in spiritual growth. Here's another passage of scripture, 2 Peter 1:5. As one person has well stated, God loves us exactly the way we are and He loves too much to let us stay that way. And so he says you partner with me and make every effort to add quality that culminate in love. As we talk about sloth what are some qualities, some obvious symptoms? Here are some on the screen. First of all, carelessness. I don't really care -- frankly my dear, I don't care and you can't make me care. And it's not my fault that I don't care. Sloth has given rise to what has traditionally been called the sins of omission so that things I could have done, things I could have said, goodnesses I could have brought to the table. I'm just not willing to put in the energy and effort. This prompts the work of the Holy Spirit that prompts us to do good. Secondly there's an unwillingness to act. You remember the parable of good samaritan and their mindset is somebody else can do the dirty work. But the message is I can do what's right or easy. And often what's right is not easy. Someone with slothness is easily discouraged in the face of difficulty. Because so often especially over long-term assignments, there are obstructions, obstacles, things you work through. There are times of awkwardness. And listen we can do it but the slothful person says I'm just too easily discouraged by difficulty. And they give up. And then escapism. Again, you may be a super diligent person, but spiritually slothful because in escapism I resist the call to love God, love the Church, love one another, love you, love my family when it is not easy. And it's never been more convenient. It's never been easier than it is now to just hit the eject button, hit the easy button. So you remember the movie groundhog Day? You've seen that movie, great funny movie starring Bill Murray as a big-city weatherman. As Phil Connors and gets stuck on groundhog Day living the same day over and over in Pennsylvania and wakes up every morning at 6:00 a.m. and his alarm goes off and you remember the song, I Got You babe goes off every single morning. And he can't believe it then realizes he is stuck in groundhog Day. How many times very heard over the past few months it's Groundhog Day. And you remember the movie here he is stuck in this small town. First of all, he just can't believe it. And then he gasolenes into himself which he's pretty self-centered. He manipulates things. He seduces people. Now, he's got his eye on Rita, his TV producer. In fact she says one of the key lines in the movie is "I could never love you because you could never love me. You could never love anyone but yourself." And then Phil Connors, Ground hog Day goes into despair. Remember him sitting in the lazy boy knowing Jeopardy, he knows the questions before they're asked. And then something changes. He hated this town. He couldn't stand living in this town. By the way, at the end of the movie you remember what he said? I love this place, let's live right here. But there came a change in him. And instead of it being, you know, self-centered, slothful, he puts his mind to some energy. He actually learns music. He learns the routine of people. There's a little boy who falls out of a tree but every single day he's there to catch him. There are three older ladies who get a flat tire. There's a guy in the restaurant, he knows he'll choke on a piece of steak but he's right there -- and all of a sudden the entire town changed and he changed because he embraced the invitation and the "Demands" of love when you're in the same place even living the same day over and over and over. You know what? Some of you, you're married to the same person you were married to a year ago. Five years ago. 40 years ago. And you could say well, I'm just going to be passive Groundhog Day. Or you could push through and find some new energy -- I'm not saying it's all on you -- resources to help. But maybe you could pull a Phil Connors and all of a sudden rather than saying I hate this place, I don't like where I am; say I want to live right here. This is where I want to be. What's Acedia and sloth? It's a refusal to be moved by love. It's a willful focus on the negative. It's a refusal to see God as good. It's a refusal to see any good in the surroundings. It's being filled with ongoing bitterness. So what can we do? Three quick suggestions. First of all, value stability. Wise people have always used a Latin term stabilitus. Here's what you do, you stay, you persevere. No, it's not always easy but you learn something about yourself in doing that. You know what? I don't know everybody's story here but I guarantee you everybody in this room has a story where you have stayed -- I don't mean grin and bear it, I mean you tapped into the invitation to love God or love another person and you practiced stabilitus. Even when the temptation was there and you were uncomfortable and sick and tired of it and there could have been an easy escape, but you kept going and you said God has done work on me and through us through that kind of stability. We pushed through the awkwardness. We pushed through the down season. We didn't hit the eject or easy button. Galatians 6:9 says. Secondly, stay connected to the Church. Those of you watching online, I commend you for staying connected virtually during these days. And for making worship, participation something that's still a part of your routine and your habit. You know, the book of Hebrews has some warning passages. And warning people against just drifting and falling away. And the warning passage in Hebrews 10 has always intrigued me because of the passage that immediately precedes it. And here's the passage that immediately precedes the warning. You ready? Here it is. You see, what happens to me if I just stop meeting, gathering with the Church? And I just say willfully, I'm not going to go there? Then it becomes so easy not to reengage down the line. I'm going to have to push through difficulty. I'm going to have to push through a time of awkwardness. And don't you see the wisdom of the Hebrew writer here? He says you got to intercept that because if you don't intercept that, that just leads to greater and greater willful resistance to the invitation of Jesus Christ in your life. There's an old story about a man who stopped attending -- not sick, just stopped doing it, willful decision, drifted away. And one of the Church leaders went to see him on a cold winter day. There's a fire in the fireplace. And the Church leader's talking to the guy about coming back and being a part of the Church. And he didn't think he was getting very far. So that preacher pulled the screen back, he takes the tongs, he reaches into the fireplace and he begins to separate the coals. And when none of the coals were touching the others, he stood and he watched in silence and in a matter of moment those coals were cold. And then that church leader said to the man I'm afraid that's what's happening in your life. And as soon as you isolate yourself from God's people for an extended period of time, you just watch and see how the fire and the warmth dissipates. My friend, stay connected to the Church. Yes, there are going to be up and down days. There are going to be days when the music is fantastic and days when the music -- there are going to be boring sermons -- but stabilitus, stability, perseverance, hang in there. Stay connected. And one more thing, when there's slothfulness, Acedia, a lack of caring about your relationship to God, let me remind you to encourage, pray -- pray like you can. Do -- don't give up. No matter how feeble the attempt, just attempting to pray is prayer. And God will take care of the rest. And there may be times when all you can pray is that simple is called the Jesus prayer. Which is a quote from scripture and it goes like this. Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner. And you know what that? Is sums it up, doesn't it? Lord Jesus is the Son of God and I need his mercy on me, the sinner. Everybody thank you for being here today. Listen, I commend you. I commend you. I applaud you for running the Christian race. You've had 101 different opportunities along the way to hit eject and easy buttons. But I commend you for hanging in there in your relationships and faith and hope and love. Let's reach into the reservoir of the Holy Spirit, let's find energy. Let's bring that energy into our own hearts and let's take that energy and share it with others. And rather than sins of omission, let's go into various environments and let's speak up for Christ. Let's be a well spring of encouragement and strength. And as the scripture we were reading during communion reminded us let's not allow our zeal to waiver. God bless you. Remember we love you and we are praying for you. And let me ask Greg to come up here because as we close our time today we want to pray over you. And as we talked a little bit today about hanging in there and persevering, let me remind you no one loves you like Jesus Christ and he had one opportunity after another to hit the eject button on his assignment, he went to the cross. He paid a debt he did not owe so we can have a relationship with Him that cannot be destroyed. May the Lord bless and keep you. >> Greg Stirman: Thank you for joining us this morning for worship and thank you for joining us online. Let's pray together. Father, we pray for perseverance that we may remain connected to each other and to You. And to seek Your love and the love of others. Father, we appreciate Your provision and goodness for our every need. We pray for peace for our country and wisdom for our leaders. Father, will you grant comfort for the lonely and for those that mourn? Will you send your Holy Spirit as You have said for comfort? We pray for healing for the ill and strength for those in need. We give You thanks for Your provision for our needs. All good things come from You. We especially thank You for the gift of Your son Jesus Christ. We pray in His name, amen. >> Shane Gage: As we close today I want to bring to your attention missions Sunday is November 8th. We'll have two mission-focused weeks, November 1st and 8th. We will take our missions contribution, our special missions contribution on November 8th. We encourage everyone to be praying about that. Secondly we have the last of our podcast for this season dropping this week. Our Anchor Point podcast and it's me interviewing Nick Fouts, former teammate from our Uganda mission. It's what's living for Christ. Do you know the difference between isolation and solitude? I hope you're blessed by that podcast on Anchor Point. It's wherever you get your podcasts. And finally the leadership at First Colony Church of Christ, we thank everyone for the way you're engaging and investing in this process to come back together. You've shown resilience, patience, enthusiasm, grace, flexibility. Last week's restart of our Bible classes in person went great and this morning was great. It's fantastic to be together and work this out together. We want to give you a special thank you to the hosts, teaches, leaders, everyone making this happen. It's great to have your partnership. So we want to invite everyone to connect and engage with what the Spirit is doing here, whether that's doing something here in the building or online. There's options force engagement and connection. For adult ministries, we have classes in the gym. Online we have a 9:45 a.m. Bible class. For the student ministry but also Wednesday nights in the courtyard have been great. All our connection groups, care groups and Foster Creek campus which is meeting at 6:00 p.m. tonight. It's a great thing to be able to connect and engage together. Go to our website, find your connection point, find your place God might be calling you to engage, okay? And we love your spirit, your enthusiasm, let's keep this going. Amen? Well, we want everyone to stand, everyone here in the worship hall but also everyone at home. And we'll read a scripture together. The words are on the screen. Let's read this together loud and clear. This is from Ephesians 3:20-31. Amen? All right, let's do one mother song. >> Richard Bowling: Amen. ("Only King Forever" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thank you for joining us today. We'll see you next time. Be safed safe, be blessed. You are dismissed. >> Thank you for joining us online today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website First Colony Church of Christ.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 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 are glad you're here.