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 today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. Firsts go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org and go there often. You'll find links to our services, Bible study, online giving and our podcast Anchor Point. You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or in Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church of Christ. Thank you for joining us today. We are glad you're here. >> Kevin: Good morning, church, friends. So glad you're here. If you're online, I'm glad we have this way to be connected. If you're here, glad you're here as well. I want to ask us to do something to start our who were time that you may have already done in your mind but I'd like us to do it together. If you trust me close your eyes and I'll ask a question. I want you guys to ask yourself this question: Why did you show up today? Whether here in the building or online? You chose to show up. Maybe it was out of habit, maybe no greater habit than to commune with God and his people. Maybe you're looking for healing, direction. Maybe you're looking for peace. I mean, there's as many reasons to come to God as there are stories in the building and people. Maybe you came with a friend or family member and if that's the case I hope you love the fact they want you to be here. Open your eyes. I hope that reason comes deep in your heart. We're going to stand together and worship. Let's stand and let's sing together. ("Fires" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: We serve a faithful God, amen? We worship our God this morning in spirit and in truth. As He is worthy, He alone is worthy. ("King of My Heart" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Let's sing that one more time together. Thank you for your worship. You may be seated. >> Joel: Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you. I'm Joel from the children's minister. It's an exciting day. All children's programming is up and running, Bible classes are up and running. So we look forward to seeing you soon. Today I have an illustration and this illustration involves some rings. And the interesting thing is Ronnie in his message will talk about faith, hope and love. And so in order to get there, first thing's firsts, we have some dark rings here. Like so, very cool. And the challenge is that with faith in Ephesians28:9 it says word is by -- it is the gift of God. That results of works that anyone should boast. So the interesting thing is that God gives us faith. But we have the ability to respond to that faith. And when he respond to this faith, as you can see, we begin to reflect. And the cool thing about faith is that ultimately it's like a seed -- a seed that grows. So it's almost like you have to plant it in the ground and get it down in there, in the ground. And faith, hope -- with faith then comes hope. However, those two are kind of the internal items. You have faith, you grow in your relationship with God. You have hope, you have a future and a hope. But as a believer, we are also to exhibit love -- that's what needs to overflow from us. So as you can see, we have the ability to overflow God's love. And it's that's my prayer for, that wherever you're at in your faith journey, if you're at the faith stage, level up, if you're at hope stage level up. We as believers need to be known as people who are showing God's love and that's just overflowing from us. That's my prayer for you. I think you're really going to enjoy the message today. >> Kevin: We'll take communion and if you're at home grab that and if you're here you can go to the back of the aisles. >> Albert Faraone: Good morning, church. My name is Albert and this is my daughter Sofia. We are here to lead communion. If you get our your bread and juice, we'll take together. Follow me in prayer. Lord Jesus, this morning we gather here together as others around the world share in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It reminds us the sacrifice He made for us so we can live. It also reminds us that we are called as a Christian body to go and make disciples by being the light of the world and sharing with others our faith, hope, and love. And Lord, we thank you for sending your Son who taught us the way. So as we take this bread and this cup, may we go throughout our week, be mindful that you are the Prince of Peace and our sure foundation. Lord, we know so many things are trying to pull us away from You. Let us reflect on the burden you carried for you and be thankful. We can continue to lay these burdens at Your feet because you are the great and mighty Lord. Thank you for taking away our sins and the sins of the world. Amen. Let us partake the bread and cup together. >> Sofia Faraone: I will be reading from Revelation 22:1-5. >> Richard Bowling: Why don't we stand together and continue to worship? ("Who You Say I Am" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Rocky Hudson will lead us in prayers. >> Rocky Hudson: I want to thank you for your generous hearts and faithful stewardship. Your giving and generosity is not taken for granted. We want you to know giving online is safe, secure, and simple to set up. If you're watching online you can simply click on the link next to your screen or text to give. If you're in the worship center, there's giving boxes at the door exits. Your offerings do make a difference, not only for local organizations we support like Second Mile missions or lifeline chaplaincy but also our local work and church ministry as well. Will you join me as we pray. ? Father we thank you for the blessing you've bestowed on us. Help us be cheerful givers as we honor your gifts. May these offerings be used to glorify your name and furthers your Kingdom. In Jesus' name. Amen. >> Parents have your asked you questions like this? >> Why do bad things happen to good people? >> How do I know the things in the Bible are true? >> How do you know that God is listening to you? >> Why did Jesus get baptized. >> What do you we talking about faith with people of different faiths and religions? >> Why does God let people go to heaven others not? >> Why do I have to follow the Bible? >> Why does it seem God answers some prayers and not others. >> Apologetics a five dollar word that has nothing to do with apologies. It's one of the best tools parents can use to equip their children. Grass roots apologetics or GAP, so when your children ask questions like this -- >> Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? >> You're ready. First Colony Church of Christ is starting a chapter this year for GAP. Look online for details and how to sign up. >> Kevin: I'm going on record I don't think they had belly buttons. But we can debate that later. All our elementary schools, first through fifth grade we have a special program called mainstream live and they typically are already down in there. We're doing a special thing where they've been in service and will be dismissed during fellowship greeting. Corey will be your guide. If you're first or fifth grade, go back with him and he'll take you to the chapel and you'll have an awesome program. Parents, you can go in and check them in at the front of the chapel. Everyone stand up and greet your neighbors, okay? ("Your Grace is Enough" Playing) Conn Card >> Richard Bowling: You may be seated. Thank you for your worship today. >> Ronnie Norman: I love that song. Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. Good morning, everybody. Glad to see you those in the room. So very glad to see you. Welcome online watching this live stream or later. So grateful you could be us by way of technology. We care about you and want to hear from you. There are people standing by, waiting to pray with you. There's a live chat button where you can communicate via church app and turn in prayer request and it would be our joy to pray for you. Coming up January 27thth we invite everybody for a day of fasting and prayer. We'll send you information and prayer guides. It will be pretty simple. But on that day we invite you to fast and pray. Fasting, send you some information on that. You skip a meal. Maybe two or maybe you fast for the entire day. Whatever you'd like to do. And together we'll be praying for one another, ourselves for our families, for our nation. And we look forward to that. Here over the next three weeks I wanted to step back and just take a look at the big picture of three theological virtues that aren't mixed in with everything else. These stand out. Let me illustrate it like this. Here's a picture. If been Switzerland or you've seen photos of the majestic alpine scenery in Switzerland. And there's a particular area, the Berner overland and but there are three peaks that tower above the rest of the mountains, the Eieger, maybe you have a North Face shirt, -- over the last year almost every day, Martha and I pray for you in those three areas, your faith, your hope, your love. You know, online Bible companies say that one of the most searched and requested verses is that well known statements from Corinthians 1:13. Here it is. Monch Jungfrau maybe you heard love is the greatest because it's eternal and faith and hope are actualized. I think it's the opposite of what the Bible is teaching us here. That for all time, there will be certain things that go away. Takes about tongues and proposition, knowledge. But for all time we will enjoy together an atmosphere of faith, hope, and love. You just think about it, faith, the essence of faith is trust, right? Can you imagine an environment without trust? And for all eternal we're in beautiful perfect trust -- we trust the Lord, we trust one another. And hope, as CS Lewis said heaven will never get boring for you. There's always something wonderful to look forward to and new experiences and wonders from the Lord. And, of course, love the greatest of these being love. All right. I'm going to say three words. I'll want you to repeat these after me. We'll go one word at a time. Knowledge. Agreement. Commitment. One more time. Knowledge. Agreement. Commitment. What is faith? Faith is knowledge of specific information. Faith involves responding to data, to information. Knowledge, agreement. I agree with it. I agree with this information. You know, I don't just believe; I believe in something very specific. It matters what you believe. And by the way, the strength of your faith is not so much in how much faith you have -- I mean, that's important, you want your faith to grow, we'll talk about that later -- but what's really important is the object of your faith has great strength. I would rather have actually a weak faith and really strong bridge than a strong faith and really weak bridge. Faith involves knowledge, a response to data, to information, it involves agreement -- I agree with this information, this data -- a commitment to it, trust. I'm willing to sign on the bottom line. Okay. Let's read the Bible, Hebrews 11. The unseen. In other words, if you choose to be a person of faith, you'll not be the first. Get in line. You are in a wonderful legacy line of people. You think of God's hall of fame through the years. These were people who had great confidence in God's promises. And great assurance in things and in realities they could not see. And you know, just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not real. Just because you have not seen something yet, doesn't mean it's not coming. Again, let's put this phrase on the screen, confidence in what we hope for, assurance about what we do not see. That our faith -- get this -- has this incredible confidence in the future. Confidence in what God has promised and what God's told. And it is so real. You know, people talk about hope as being wispy. Faith, hope, Christian faith has substance to it. It's got robust meat to it. It's got muscle tone to it. And we are so confident in the future -- we don't see it, it's not here yet but it actually impacts our decisions today. Classic example in the Old Testament would be in the book of Daniel. Where king Nebukanezzer says bow down and worship me. And [INAUDIBLE] said nothing personal against you but we worship the living God and so we will not bow down and worship you. Now here's the thing you got to realize, they could see, hear, feel from a distance that firey furnace. They could see it, it was tangible. But what decision did they make? They made a decision by faith. And they said we believe in a God whom we've not seen. But we believe His promises are true. We believe our future is in good hands. And whenever your future's in God hands, it's in great hands, the best hands. It's easy. King, we will not be bow down and worshiping you. The God we serve is perfectly capable of delivering us from the firey furnace even if you chooses not to. Even if he chooses not to, we will not bow down and worship you. Faith lookings at God, looks at His future promises and says that's got substance to it. I'm confident in that. I'm so confident in that, I can see the future, taste it. I know it's coming. It affects my decisions today. You know, faith is the assurance, too, that this unseen exists and it's banking your life on it. Faith is living on the basis of things not seen. You know, our Lord told Thomas, said Thomas blessed are you, you believe because you've seen. But even more blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Now, take Noah, another Old Testament example. The Lord comes to Noah and says, Noah, I need you to call people to repentance because things are crazy and chaotic. Noah had no idea what it meant to rain. It's never rained before. The Lord says Noah I want you to build an arc. And so for 120 years the Bible says Noah's building an arc. He's a preacher of righteousness. And get this, don't you think he looked absolutely foolish doing so? And it's not like he had a lot of takers to his message. Somebody says was Noah a great preacher? The only people who responded was his family. He had a building program but nobody else responded to his preaching. And everybody else thought Noah was foolish until what? Until it started to rain. And that's when faith doesn't look so foolish. You mean to tell me you believe in an unseen God? You know, actually, we all operate by faith in the natural realm. In your house, you drink water that comes out of pipes and you believe that those pipes are delivering water to you toxin-free. You say Ronnie, not me. I've got a fancy filtering system at home. Okay, so your faith is in your fancy filtering system. By the way, I hear a lot of things are called back because they don't work -- I'm making that up. We have natural faith. You're riding down the road you see a sign that says Sugarland 50 miles, you believe that. You're a scientist working in a laboratory and there's an older scientist that says if you mix this with that, it won't blow up. And you believe it, you trust it. We do this in the natural realm. What about the spiritual realm? Can you prove God exists? No, but there is evidence and faith has its reasons. God is there, he's not silent but we do walk by faith not by sight. And believe me, as you're reaching out for God, He's always reaching out for you. One person said so astutely and I quote "Our problem is not so much we've been taught to question our faith," it's good to ask questions, "The problem is rather we have been taught to reject any answer." And doubt, it can be a state of mind or it can simply be a way of life that refuses to accept any answer. You know, the Bible talks about forever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. All right. Let me put a statements up here on the screen. Faith responds to revealed information; both general and specific. Faith responds to information both general and specific. What's general information? Well, Hebrews 11:3. In other words, we look at the universe -- it's moving, it has design, it has creativity, we believe there is a creator. That's general information. Specific information, Romans 10, for example. And this is one statement in scripture that, you know, this sentiment's repeated throughout that faith is a response to teaching, to learning, to specific information about Christ and His way. It involves knowledge, agreement, you know, it's more than agreement but it's certainly not less than. Knowledge, responding to it, agreement, and commitment. I need to be persuaded of the truthfulness of this. And as you encounter specific revelation, in other words specific teaching from the Bible, some of it you will find unsettling but just because it's unsettling does not mean that it's not true and helpful. Let me put another statement up here on the screen, faith is both trusting and faithful. These two aspects are included in the concept of faith. And let me show you how they're emphasized in scripture. There's an Old Testament scripture Habakat2:4 and it says something you've heard, the righteous shall live by faith. You've heard that. Now, that statement is actually quoted three times in the New Testament. It's quoted twice by the apostle Paul to emphasize we are saved and justified by trusting in what Jesus Christ has done for us. It's used by Hebrew writer to emphasize the faithfulness part of faith. A person of faith, trust the Lord, knowledge, agreement, commitments. But also, a person of faith will be faithful and the Hebrew writer says the righteous live by faith, meaning we're not people who give up. We are not quitters. We're not those who shrink back, he says. We are not those who fade in the face of persecution and opposition. We have muscle tone, we have endurance, we have faiths and are faithful. We carry out the promise we've made to the Lord just like he carries out promises he's made to us. Here's another statement, faith shows and it grows. Your faith will display itself, it will be obvious. But listen carefully: Your faith will grow over time, there's a beautiful cumulative effect and you do not need to beat yourself up without mercy when there are moments of faith failure and missteps. One of the greatest people of faith is the apostle Peter. And you remember that scene on the sea of Galilea. Jesus is walking on the water, the apostles see Jesus and say Jesus is that you? And Peter says would you invite me to come walk to you? Now, what's interesting is that, you know, people want to give Peter a hard time because he'll end up sinking in the water. Remember, he's the only one willing to get out of the boat, right? So Peter gets out of the boat and starts to walk on the water to Jesus. And what happens? You remember this story. Peter starts to pay too much attention to the noise and circumstances around him -- by the way, some of you may be doing the same thing, paying way too much attention to the noise and circumstances around you -- he takes his eyes off Jesus and he starts to sink. Jesus doesn't say well, you made your bed, lie in it. Said Peter, you've got little faith. But then what did Jesus do? He reaches down and picks him up and brings him back to a place of safety. Does that mean Peter's faith was then always strong? No, remember just a little while later he will deny Jesus three times. And after that what does Jesus do? Restore him again. In your faith journey, you will experience a temporary failure or setback. But one of the most encouraging things we can learn about the path of every single disciple is that if we'll keep at it, our faith will grow in a cumulative manner. Just about every follower of God you read through in the Bible, they'll have moments of faith setbacks and failures; but it's not fatal and final unless you want it to be. Faith, it will show and it will grow. All right, I want to give you a couple words of encouragement before I tie a bow on this. Let me put a photo on the screen. This is a photo of Eta Linneman, doctor and professor. I've told you about her before, I'm sure you remember. She was an earnest supporter of what's called historical critical theology. Historical critical theology does not have high view of the Bible. It does not believe the Bible is God's holy and inspired word as I would understand it and I believe as you would understand it. And it does not inspire confidence in people that the Bible has a living message for you. Now, she was a well respected scholar, well educated, liberal theologian. She became a professor, an honored professor at a German university. Her first book turned out to be an academic best seller. She was clearly on the way up the ladder of theological importance in a particular genre. But she began to have inner doubts and turmoil. She said this does not make sense to me. She started making bad personal choices. But she said God by His grace led me to some vibrant Christians who loved Jesus Christ as Lord and savor. And by God's grace and love I entrusted my heart and soul and my life to Jesus Christ. And her life changed dramatically. Later she said in one of her books, would I continue to control the Bible by my intellect or would I allow my thinking to be transformed by the Holy Spirit? This led her to an unswerving commitment to the inspiration and the authority of scripture. She said "I recognize first mentally and intellectually but then in a vital experiential way that holy scripture is inspired. My former perverse teaching about this was absolutely sin." She said this, "Whatever of my previous writings I had in my possession, I threw in the trash by my own hands in 1978. And I ask you sincerely if you have any of my writings before I became a Christian, I ask you sincerely to do the same." What's interesting is she came to a points and said the promises of God are real, the miracles are in the myths but realities. She tells Jesus Christ of the glorious Son of God, he's Lord, messiah, died on the cross for our sins. He was literally raised to life again. By the way, she ended up leaving Germany for quite some time, went to Indonesia and served as a missionary. She said my "Know" to historical theology stems from my "Yes "To my wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to the glorious redemption for me. Faith is also a gift from God. And if we open our hearts, I believe he gives us the ability to see truth. Pray and invite that. And here's what I want you to know, you need to know I have high view of scripture. Our church leaders have a high view of scripture. I encourage you to keep engaging the Bible, Word of God, let it feed your faith and nourish your soul. And the most important question you ask as you read and listen is this: If I really believe this, if I really believe what I'm reading what I'm hearing, what's next for me? Because your faith will show and it will grow. All right. One more just little word of encouragement. You know, certainly this past week and many previous weeks we've seen a lot of late, anger, devisiveness, unrest, despair, anxiety. Just anxiety. And you could hear about it easily, you know? I mean, people who study this stuff, they will say, I don't know how you prove this that our world has changed more over the last 30 years than over the last 300. I don't know if that's true or not but it's certainly changed a lot. We can move faster, maybe not personally. We can communicate faster. 22 years ago I go to Uganda, we're out in the villages, we get there, all of a sudden I hear drums. I mean, jungle native drums playing. I asked one of the missionary, what's that? He said they're communicating with one another and letting them know the missionaries are here and we're going to have lunch soon. As we were visiting those villages, I ask do they know who Michael Jordan is? The athletically superstar of 1988. You go there now in the villages they got cell phones. So you don't have to have drums playing letting them know when the missionary lunch is, just text me and I'll be there. You want to know what's going on in the world, you can find out what's going on in the world. Here's what I'm saying, a lot of the news you get is not good news. It can wear you out and lead to despair and anxiety. And as Christians, what can we do? We are people of faith and a person of faith who will respond to God -- listen, prayer's not something we do to prove what a good person we are. We can pray because we believe there is a living God, and listen, and that He's good and trustworthy. He cares. He sees. He's paying attention. I might not always agree with what He allows. I might not always agree with His plans. I may not always understand or like them. But I believe He is there, He is not silent, He is good, He cares. And that's why we're invited -- you know, you can't keep anxiety from knocking at your door; you can keep anxiety from coming in and setting up in the extra bedroom in your house. You can keep perpetual anxiety away as we run to God in prayer, we believe He's there. We ask for His help. And none of us have the ability to control our circumstances. We do have the ability to interpret and respond and view our circumstances as we -- as people of faith -- bring those to our great God. You know, some of you here today, you're resentful and you're bitter. And you're not connecting it to your faith. You're resentful and you're bitter because you do not believe that God can bring good out of some difficult situations in your life. You say Ronnie, I've brought some of it on myself. Who hasn't? The Lord loves you, is gracious. I want to believe He can believe good out of bad. Some of you today, you've got forgiven yourself? You know why? You've not yet tapped into your faith to accept that God accepts you on the basis of Jesus Christ. And some of you feel inadequate today and not connecting it to your faith. You feel inadequate because everything has to be done in your own power. And actually, when you're weak, God's strength shows up. All right, I've talked long enough. Part of faith is accepting God accepts you. Part of faith is believing that God can use you for good purposes and it's believing that God can work all things together for good in your life. These three remain, they tower and they remain. They don't go away. Faith, hope, love. Hey, I'm going to continue praying for you and those big three, okay? Rocky, would you lead us in prayer? I want to tell you Travis Wolf leaves today for Navy boot camp, 20th birthday, leaving for Navy boot camp. And Travis has had a lot of prayer support from friends, church family. And, you know, I've known him since before he was born and many of you have. And in this church family he is been taught and loved on and prayed over. Travis, I just want you to stand, we wish all of God's best and pray for you and very, very proud of you. Let's give Travis and hand, please. Rocky? >> Rocky Hudson: Righteous Father we lift your name and give praise as the creator of all good things. You have given us love and even when we were undeserving and sent your only son as sacrifice. Jesus left heaven to dwell among us. His light shines in a dark world and gives us hope. Lord your promises give us hope, hope of eternal life with you forever in your presence. Until then you've given us the holy scriptsures to teach, admonish and how to live our lives. Today we ask for a stronger faith. May we be led by your spirits in paths of righteousness. May we trust in you, keep your statutes and keep you in our hearts. Our relationship with genuine, sincere and personal. But thank you for accepting us wherever we are in our faith walk and journey getting closer to you. We pray for our nation, in Psalm 33 blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. May we aba nation that seeks your will as it is in heaven. We pray for wisdom and discernment for awesome people and those in government. It is our special prayer today for you to protect our church, our people, our students, and children. Protect each of these from COVID and protect us from the evil one. We pray for your provision for those suffering from economic hardship or other consequences from COVID. Father, heal our land. We also pray for our brother Travis Wolf as he heads off to be protected with the armor of God as he serves our country. May he do so valiantly. We pray you will provide wisdom, guide us, patience, protection for each us. May we reach for the church for those in need especially those in need of the gospel. We pray you will guard our hearts and minds and keep us from evil. Let the living example of faith, hope and love shine forth as a beacon to the world. In Jesus' holy name, amen. >> Kevin: The women's Bible classes are starting back up on the 18th. There's a variety, the apologetics but also a variety of other choices. There's also a conference, Women in Apologetics on the 21 -- 23rd. It's two evenings and Saturday. Also, we've got our Connection group leader kick offer coming up. It will be a virtual thing Ryan's doing. And one of the things we're talking about is connection is something we've been malnourished from for the last period of this pandemic. So if you've been trying to connect with your people, Ryan has great ideas of had you to do that. Maybe revamp things with all the limitations and challenges. Also 9:45 classes started today. If you didn't know about that, come back next week. That will be adults in the gym. We'll have children and students in the education week. Those will be at 9:45. Also Kyle has started a group called the conversation. It will be online. And that happened at 10:00 o'clock. If you're watching the online service at first service or before this one you get on the exact same place. If it's the website or YouTube it will be the same place. If you stream through Facebook, you'll have to go to YouTube for that. Let's worship God with one more song. >> Richard Bowling: God is faithful. ("Your Grace is Enough" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thank you for coming today. You are dismissed. [MUSIC]