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. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services; Bible study options; 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 on Google Play. The App is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. We are glad you're here. ¶ >> Grant: Well, good morning, and welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ! Our mission is to honor God and to lead people into a growing relationship with Him. I'm excited that you have decided to join us today for worship as we center on the Biblical themes of faith, hope, and love. And specifically today we're focusing on love. So let's go ahead and stand as we enter into this time of worship together today. ("From the Day" playing) >> Richard: We want to teach you a new song this morning. The good news is we're learning it, too! Come on, that was a joke. ("From the Day" playing) >> Richard: Here we go! >> Richard: Here we go! >> Richard: My love is Yours! From the day You saved my soul. Yes! From the day You saved my soul! I'll sing! I'll dance! My heart will overflow, amen? ("One Thing Remains" playing) >> Richard: Your love never fails! >> Richard: Your love never fails! >> Richard: You may be seated, everybody. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to see you all here today. Welcome! My name is Joel, Children's Minister here at First Colony, and this is our kids' spot. If you're watching us online, we're honored to have you here as well and look forward to seeing you soon. Well, if you have been paying attention, you know that we have been talking about faith, hope, and what would be today love. The songs we were singing about and forth. So it's interesting when you think about love, the world has a definition for love, and God has a definition for love. And the interesting thing is that God's definition is opposite of the world. It's sacrificing to give, whereas the world's definition is wanting to feel good about whatever it is. And so when I think about love, it didn't originate with us. The Bible says in 1 John 4:10, here in His love not that we loved God but He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. The cool thing is God gives us all His love, whether you have trusted in Christ or not; but the question is: does it lead you to salvation? And when it does, then it begins to grow. So my illustration today is about growing love, and we know as believers that, how do we love God? By keeping His commandments. That's where it starts, but the interesting thing is in 1 Corinthians 13, love is described as patient. Love is described as kind, not failing, not boastful. And the cool thing is, as you can see, love continues to grow when we focus on God. Now, I'm hoping at some point as we focus on God and our love just keeps growing that this growing stick of love will eventually fall toward you guys. But, you know, it just keeps growing, and that's the cool thing about love. There it goes. Very cool. So the point is that, yes, we need to grow in our love toward God; but we need to grow in our love toward one another. Are you loving one another? And the question begins. God has planted His seed of love in your heart. Is it growing? Is it overflowing? And that's my prayer for you, is that God's love would overflow. Thank you very much. (Applause) >> Grant: As always, thank you, Joel. We're about to enter into our time of communion, and Zion and Max Granville will lead us. If you're at home, gather your supplies. If you're here, get your packets out. If you don't have one, we have extras in the back. After we finish up, if you would stick those back in the bag and place them in the basket at the end of the aisle, that would be great. Let's go ahead and enter into this special time of communion. Zion? Thank you, guys. >> Zion: May you please pray with me. As we enter into this time of communion, we reflect on Your sacrifice You gave for us. You sent Jesus Christ, Your One and Only Son, for forgiveness of sins. When we take the bread, may we remember Your body that was sacrificed for us. When we take the cup, may we remember the blood that was shed for our sins. In Jesus' Name, amen. >> Max: Today I will be reading from Matthew 8:5-10. 8:55-10. The Scripture will be on the screen for you to read along. (Reading) ("You Say" playing) >> Grant: All right, church, we are about to enter into our time of offering, and Robert Beasley, an elder here at the church, is going to lead us in this time. Robert? >> Robert: Good morning, church. We're entering into our time of offering, which really is a gift God has given us to help break the hold that fear and greed have over our lives. If you want to give online, you need to know giving online is safe and secure and simple. You can just go to our website and click the link or text to give. If you're here and like to give, we have boxes in the back marked "Giving." This church is always excelled in generosity so thank you so much for your giving. Let's pray. Good Father, we love You. We thank You so much for this time of worship today; for being together as Your church; and Father, right now we acknowledge that You're the ultimate model of what it means to give. You've given Yourself so sacrificially so us to redeem us and to save us to live with You forever. Father, thank You for the opportunity to join with You to learn the joy of giving and the joy that comes from being involved in what You're doing in this world. And we thank You and praise the Name of Jesus. We thank You that whatever we give, You multiply so we're so thankful for already in advance of Your multiplying our offering this morning. We love You. In Jesus' Name, amen. >> Grant: Amen. Thank you, Robert. Well, this is a time we're about to enter into our fellowship greeting and the last couple of week, we have started releasing the first to fifth graders to go to Main Street Live. If you're not familiar, this is a worship time that has age-appropriate teaching, activities for the kids. So when we get up, kids can go to Mr. Joel. He's center aisle. They will head out through these doors here so if parents are good, head back, meet Mr. Joel. Parents, you do need to know you have to have your child signed in for Main Street Live. You're able to do this before service starts so if you have done it, great. If you haven't done it yet, it's not a problem. Head with Mr. Joel to the chapel. He'll show you how to do that, and then parents, after our service is done, you can head to the chapel to pick up your child. All right, let's go ahead and stand for our fellowship greeting. Students, first to fifth grade, head to the back. If you're online, this is a great time to jump in the chat box and say hello. We'd love to see you that you're with us this morning. ("Forever" playing) >> Richard: Give thanks to the Lord! >> Richard: His love endures forever! Let's sing it together! Here we go! >> Richard: Thank you for your worship today! You may be seated! >> Ronnie: Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. Good morning, everyone! Glad to see you, those of you in the room; and to those of you watching online, we welcome you as well. We'd love to hear from you. You have an opportunity. We'd love to pray for you. You can contact us on the livestream page or church app. You can send in a prayer request. Two weeks from today is Super Sunday. That will be Super Sunday here and two weeks from today, I will have the pleasure of interviewing three of our members, three guys who are former NFL players but strong, strong believers. We'll have a little fun with that conversation. Billy Granville, Curtis Duncan, and Mr. Black. That is two week from today on February 7. On January 27, we're just inviting everyone to participate together in a day of fasting and prayer, and we have a little prayer guide for you. It's on our website. We'll also be e-mailing that out. Well, today I want to conclude a brief series, taking a look at the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. And today, we're talking about the topic of love. The title is "For the Love of God." You know, the last few months have certainly been stressful, to say the least. Some have even used the word "traumatic." Trauma speaks to a sense of helplessness, a feeling where there's a loss of control. No control over a painful situation. And we like to be in control. No one likings to drive and start hydroplaning. We like to control -- or at least we treasure the illusion of control. But a global pandemic with so much uncertainty, so many consequences -- some of which are relational and some are economic -- have certainly impacted us. National violence that shows up on your phone immediately, whether it's in Portland or D.C. And an election season that's been stressful, leaves people either mad, sad, or glad; not to mention just the usual stresses that when I say "usual," you know, beyond the pandemic, beyond elections, beyond -- that happen to you uniquely. The bottom line is that so much happens in our world and your world that is beyond our control, at least beyond our significant control; but what if that is okay? And what if it's okay to acknowledge that SO much that goes on in my world or your world really is beyond my control? What if it's okay to acknowledge it and what if acknowledging that is actually a good step for you as you embrace the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love? Because faith, hope, and love have simply not compatible with being completely in control. It's just not. When you say "theological virtues," these are virtues that relate to our connection to God; and they're not emotions. They're not feelings. They're actual practices and qualities that you feed; you nurture; you grow; you develop your faith, your hope, and your love. But again, faith, hope, and love -- if you're a person that has to be in absolute control, well, faith is all about trusting God and placing your trust in Jesus Christ for salvation and your trust in God as a Good Father. Hope -- believing that God has good things ahead for His people; that Jesus lives and reigns now; and that the Lord sees and knows. And love. You know? A controlling person really doesn't love you. They'll bully you. They'll try to manipulate you, dominate you; but to be patient with you, give you a chance to develop. Instead of saying "Hey, you must think as I think today as of this moment," and they don't honor the dignity of free will and development. So today, we've talked about faith and hope. How about the love of God? 1 Corinthians 13:13. (Reading) For all time, these three remain. Even in heaven, we'll continue to trust the goodness of God. Even in heaven, there's always something to look forward to. It's never completely exhausted. And love is that beautiful, eternal dynamic. Listen, let me put something on the screen. You are created to receive and give the love of God. You were created to receive it, to give it away. Just think about the love of God defining you. You're no longer defined by your guilt and your shame. You need no longer be defined by your guilt and your shame but rather defined now by your belovedness as God's daughter and son. We're just set up to absorb and receive the love of God into our marrow, into our DNA, and to give it away specifically to other people. Now, you use the word "love." You know, in English language we've got, you know, we use the word "love" for a lot love different things. I love my wife. I love my children. I love my grandchildren. I love tacos. You know, I love sports. And the Greek language uses different words to describe different aspects of love. Eros -- erotic love. That's a love that takes that says, you know, "You're appealing to me." Chemistry. Phileo -- friendship love. That's give-and-take love. You know, we're buddies or friends. Agape love is the love of God. And it's that love that sacrifices for the good of the other -- let me put this up on the screen. It's acting sacrificially for the good of the other, even when the other is sun deserving. As Martin Luther would say, God doesn't love us because we're so beautiful. Actually, we're made beautiful because God loves us. It's acting sacrificially for the good of the other. Now, erotic love is a wonderful kind of love -- nothing wrong with that. That's chemistry. It's a good thing. Nothing wrong with holy eroticism in marriage between a man and a woman. God. That's God-ordained and Bible supported and thousands of years of Judeo-Christian history behind it. It's beautiful to see the friendship love, the give and take. That's wonderful. But the love God invented, the love God invented, is different; and I am for erotic love in marriage between a man and a woman. I am for friendship love, but I am REALLY also for the love of God. I hope it shapes us. In 1 Corinthians 13, we will quickly walk through this section of Scripture, and a lot of people, you know, "It's the love chapter in the Bible." A lot of people think, "Oh, this is written about marriage" and hear this Scripture read often at weddings. Listen, it's a beautiful thing and very poetic and certainly applies in marriage, but this is not written to married couples specifically. It's written to a church, and it's teaching them how to have a good church fight. It's teaching them how you handle different-ness and diversity and people coming together, agreeing on the big rocks but come from various backgrounds. They're at different stages of growth and development. You know, if I want to have a church that's just me, I pretty much get along with me. I want a somewhere church just Martha and me, I pretty much get along with Martha -- most of the time. But all of a sudden when we add a third person and now gets to be more complicated. Well, how do you hand it when you add tens and hundreds? How do you have a good church "fight"? How can all of these people come together, agreeing that we love Jesus and we're on the foundation of the Bible; but yet we're colliding together? How can we handle that? The greatest of these is love. What does love look like? 1 Corinthians 13:1. (Reading) By the way, I thought about just having a cymbal up here to illustrate with an actual cymbal and bang on it for a while. You know why I decided not to do that? Because it is so annoying. (Laughter) That's why. It's absolutely annoying. Imagine me just banging on a cymbal for a while? Paul says, no matter how knowledgeable you are -- I know you think you're the smartest one in the room; I know you think you can handle all mysteries. Without love, you're this annoying noise. (Reading) He's using hyperbole simply to say that anything minus love is hollow and nothing. And you need to get how important this is in the midst of contention and stress and uncertainty and diversity and stages of growth. And now he'll begin to describe love. Not necessarily define it, just sort of describe it. And none of us will bat 1.000 here so as you read this you can't say, "Oh, you know." This is written to souse we might become a better "us." Here's what he says. (Reading) Love is patient, meaning it's long-tempered. Patient with people. Patient with people. That person may not be where they need to be today, but they're not where they used to be, either. Everybody's a work in progress. Patient with people. You know, if God were impatient, if Jesus were impatient, the church would have been cancelled a long time ago. I am -- and we'd all just be assigned to condemnation, but He is patient with us. Love is patient. It's kind, not only patient but kind and works in a blessing, doing good, positive energy. And love does not envy. You know, envy says "Why them?" Gratitude says, "Why me?" It was because of envy that Eve ate the fruit because she wanted to be like God. Out of envy Cain killed Abel and Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Out of envy, the elder brother refused to go into the party when the prodigal son came home. The Bible said in the book of James that envy creates disorder and chaos. And love doesn't boast. You know, we hardly ever hear anyone boasting in such obvious ways; but boasting happens all the time in these calculated conversations designed to make me, you, look superior to someone else. “Well, I know they were in charge of that, but if I had handled it, it would have been gone much better.” That's just not the way of community love. By the way, this is teaching design -- this is teaching that elevates community. It elevates relationships. This is not how you handle a business, necessarily; or this is not how you run an airline. This is how you handle relational dynamics. And love is not proud. Arrogant people feel like they're above the rules and apply to you and not to me. Arrogant people start to feel like, you know, actual doing and serving, that's for the "Little people." But love is not proud. And love doesn't dishonor others. The Bible said it's not rude, just not rude. There's a little equation that says right plus rude equals wrong. Love isn't rude. It doesn't demean and pays attention to its tone and timing. Love is not self-seeking. It doesn't demand its own way. You know, we sometimes joke about the "all about me" mindset. Not really a joke. It's a reality. We've got to call fouls on it. What about others? What about the community at large? What about the sense of unity? If I'm more committed to my cause than to my community, I'll wreck the community. If I'm more committed to the sense of community than I am to my cause, I'm willing to surrender the cause to the good and the perspective of the community. And be committed to the team you signed up for. Love is not easily angered. It's not irritable. You know, it's good to be angry in a righteous way when the Name of Jesus is blasphemed; when lies, destructive lie and heresies, are spread in the name of the teaching of the Bible. It's good to want to correct that, but to be hypersensitive over offenses that people bring to you and to explode in anger and harbor grudges for ages, that's just sin. That's not the way of love. And love keeps no record of being wrong. That doesn't say that we try to rewrite history and say, “Well, that wasn't wrong really wrong." It was really wrong, and it hurt; but just like God is willing to give us an opportunity for a different future and a new future and a new beginning, we can do that with one another. And listen, if you're going to be around a group of people for any length of time -- years on end -- we will all see one another at some of our worst moments. Isn't it wonderful that the Bible will say that love can cover over a multitude of sins? It keeps no record of wrongs. (Reading) You know, our culture does delight in evil. There are people out there who just love an opportunity to spread salacious gossip. They delight in it. "Do you know the latest thing I heard about so-and-so? Let me spread it." Love doesn't want to just delight in wrong and in failure. Love rejoices in truth, what's true and good; and love takes no pleasure in wrongdoing but encourages what is true and good and right. And then he gives four statements here that are wonderful right here together. Love just always protects. Not that it puts up with everything, but because love honors and out of a genuine passion, honest, legitimate concern for the value of another, it will do everything it can to protect and cover over that weakness. It will address it and talk about it with you but not seek to take it beyond where it needs to go. It protects. Love covers over a multitude of sins. Love always trusts. It doesn't mean that love is gullible. You'll see that statement "Love always trusts. Oh, how naive." You think Jesus is naive. He's not naive but trusted people enough. He trusted Judas and Judas let Him down. Backup when we trust, we bring out the best in one another; and if we don't trust, what happens? You just become this cynical person who doesn't inspire anyone because "Well, you know how people are." Yeah. I do know how people are. And sometimes that person, that frustrates you today, will inspire you three weeks down the line. And love will protect; it will trust; it will hope because where God is at work and the person is the least bit open to the work of God in their life, I have great hope for that person; and it always perseveres. It's not going to give up. It's in here for the long run and then he says love will never fail. Now, don't romanticize that statement. Love as a relational dynamic will never fail. It's never going to fall to the ground. It's never going to expire. Love remains for all time, but when he says "Love doesn't fail," that doesn't mean that sometimes love doesn't fail in a marriage. It does. It doesn't mean that, you know, you can love a child and not have that child actually rebel against you and reject you. Jesus loved people unconditionally and powerfully, but like the rich young ruler, Jesus loved him but what did he do? Walked away. Jesus loved Judas -- walked away. Love can be spurned, and it can be rejected; but love absolutely is one of the magnificent trilogy of durability -- faith, hope, and love -- and the greatest of these love. Now, let me be very clear and blunt: I am for the love of God, and the love that God invented is a different kind of love. You CANNOT just love the way the world loves and be a follower of Jesus Christ. You got to be for the love of God. Some people say that persecution is the greatest threat to Christianity. I don't believe that. I don't believe that persecution is the greatest threat to Christianity. I don't believe it's the greatest threat to American Christianity. I believe the great breast threat to American Christianity are materialism and lust and watered-down, self-centered versions of love that say "I'm only going to pray for you and help you and care about you if you're just like me." Christ-like love is an absolute DEAL-BREAKER for some people. They don't find it hard; they find it absolutely unacceptable. And I think the passage we've read today basically says, believers, followers in Jesus, you got to have your own values. You know who you are. You love the Lord. You build your life on the Word of God; and yes, you want to be principled people, but you want to be as easy to live with as possible. You want to be as easy to live with, with one another, as you possibly can without compromising the essence of Biblical Christianity. All right. Let me put some statements here on the screen. First of all, love doesn't always condone, but love loves. It doesn't always condone. I can love you without condoning everything you do. I can love you without agreeing with all of your principles. I can love -- there are people beyond my Christian circle -- we have fellowship with one another here -- but beyond my Christian circle. I'm taught -- well, here's Jesus in Matthew 5." (Reading) You know what this assumes? This assumes that my values will be clear and that there will be people out there who oppose me because of my values and my testimony and my faith and my beliefs. And love doesn't always condone. It doesn't always agree, but love loves. And love requires, secondly, a strength beyond your natural inclinations. It's not natural. Martin Luther King said, "Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. And if I hit you and you hit me and so on, it just never ends” – and, listen to this – “somewhere, somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.” Love requires a strength that I believe is energized by the love of God, being appreciated and activated, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, God's love, received and distributed, it sets you apart from a world of just "Hating and being hated." That's a quote from the book of Titus where the apostle Paul said, you want to describe what life outside of the Christian fellowship is like? It's a world of hating and being hated. But the Lord calls us to a different dynamic. As I mentioned last week and quoting from Robert Beasley's book and the book "Resident Aliens," the church doesn't need -- here's the quote, "The church doesn't need a social strategy. The church IS a social strategy." Now, when I say -- the local church is a social strategy, not the church in a generalized, wispy, out there -- no, the local church of real flesh-and-blood people IS a social strategy. it's because love releases so many "-isms" and "ought-tos." We love one another, being for the love God invented; and we'll never devalue anyone because of their ethnicity; their race; their nationality; their age. No chronological snobbery. To the contrary. As the Bible will say, we will try to outdo one another in showing love. The local church IS a social strategy. Now, you are people of strong values, and you are people of great love, and the Bible never tells us to compromise our faith and the big rocks of the Christian faith. It does tell us to, as much as possible, be at peace with all people and do your very, very best to be the easiest person in the church to get along with. All right? We can do this, and God will help us. As Robert Beasley is making his way up here to lead us in our closing prayer, I just want to remind you, gang, that sometimes love is difficult. It's a challenge, but it's worth it. It's such a blessing and will warm your heart. You will be so glad and never regret taking a high road of love. I want to just remind you, again, you were created, before you give it away, created to receive it. No one loves you like God. You are His beloved son and daughter. You know, one of the best known Scripture is Psalm 23, and one person wrote it like this. Psalm 23 describes the love of God for us, and here it is: beneath me, God's love is in the green pastures. And God's love is beside me, beside still waters. And God's love is with me because He is my Good Shepherd. And God's love is before me on a table. God's love is around me, protecting me from my enemies. And God's love is even beyond me where I am, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Let's pray together, please. >> Robert: Thank you, Ronnie. I just want to say we are so blessed to have Ronnie's powerful and effective preaching week in and week out. Thank you. Let's pray together. God, our Good Father, and our Lord Jesus, the Only Savior of humanity and Lord of heaven and earth; You who are here among us and many us and with us, we thank You for seeking us; for loving us; for changing us; and now giving us the privilege of partnering with You in Your loving action in this world. We praise You that You have broken sin and death and You have been and are right now powerfully at work in this world to accomplish Your will. We pray for Your church throughout the world and for Your church here at the First Colony. We pray for those in this church who are suffering and hurting and pray that the COVID virus will be gone and eliminated soon. Lord Jesus, as Your followers here, we pray for this year for 2021 that each of us will open ourselves wide to allow You to work through us. Make each of us aware of Your calling on our lives. We pray for all our ministry staff here and their family and we thank You for them. We also ask that You stir the hearts of each one of us in Your church to be fully engaged in Your ministries here. Lord, we pray today for all nations; for all people groups that You created and You love. We pray now for the political leaders of our nation and our state and pray for President Biden and Vice President Harris and Congress and judiciary. We pray for a spirit of compromise and humility among our leaders so there may be good governance and pray for Governor Abbott and state leaders. We pray for the city of Sugarland and surrounding cities and elected officials. As You have commanded this, we pray this so we who bear the Name of Jesus may live peaceful and quiet lives marked by Godliness and integrity. May we be spreading the aroma and fragrance of Christ and be ambassadors of reconciliation. Fill us with Your Spirit; that we may always be ready to serve others; to slander no one and not quarrel but instead be gentle and show true humility to everyone. God, we do not fret or worry. That tends only to evil. Instead we hope in You just as the faithful throughout history have hoped in You. We trust in You because You are faithful; and You are the only source for truth and love. May Your Word and Spirit dwell in us richly, and may we love each other deeply so that the world will know that we are Your followers. Help us to point to You to be witnesses of You to the world around us; that they may see our good live and glorify You, to You who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or even imagine, according to Your Power that is a work within us; to You the glory and the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. >> Grant: Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Robert. Well, church, this is a great time to get connected at the First Colony Church of Christ and coming out of 2020, I think we need it more than ever and we are starting a new season of Connection groups. Let me just say this: Connection groups the heart of our church so this is where faith gets deepened. This is where friendships and relationships happen. This is where you get accountability; prayer support; where people are coming together on a regular basis so really excited groups are getting started. We have new groups online and in person and they are ready for new folks to join those. So to find information, they've got new listings of everything. It's on the website so go to firstcolonychurch.org/getconnected. Firstcolonychurch.org/getconnected. You can see a list of groups. Ladies Ministry kicked off last week, and we had 120 ladies in classes and in the conferences this past weekend so really excited about that. Missy Edgmon, Women's Minister, was saying we have openings in apologetics class, some of our online class, and there's one on how to study the Bible, so still some great opportunities to sign up and get connected, ladies. Just go to the women's page, and you can register for those classes there. Ronnie talked a little earlier about Super Sunday in two weeks. I am excited to have some of our members who are former NFL players speaking to us. Of course we'll hear great football stories, but I'm also just excited to hear about how God used football to teach these men about what it meant to be a man; a father; a husband; and most importantly, a follower of Christ. Two weeks, Super Sunday, looking forward to that. And church, of course, we're back in full swing with our Bible classes going right now -- so 10:45. We have in-person classes that are going. Adults in the gym, and next month I'm excited because Robert Beasley, who was just praying, will be teaching a series on the book he just wrote. Ronnie read some excerpts so we're looking forward to February with Robert there. We have things for all ages. The kids have classes and we have our online class at 10:00, and Kyle Strickland is teaching that. Lots of great things to connect with, church, so don't miss out. This is a great time for us, kicking off the new year, just kind of founders some good centering habits and places to be for our family and our kids to keep us centered on Christ. All right, with that, let's go ahead and stand and let's sing one more closing song. >> Richard: Here we go! ("Forever" playing) >> Richard: Hey, thank you for your worship today! You are dismissed!