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. 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. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. >> Kyle: Well, good morning and welcome to the second service of the First Colony Church. This is super Sunday. We've got a great morning for you. So excited to engage in worship with you this morning. Hey, let's stand and let's praise the Lord together. >> Here we go! [???] ? Our God ? >> Our God is strength. Our God is stronger. Our God is faithful. No matter what we face. ? The Way ? >> You may be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to see you all here in the darkness, as the lights are low. And those of you that are watching at home, good to see you too even though I can't see you. Today there is a big game. I know you're excited. Some may or may not be. I'm curious, how many of you think the Kansas city Chiefs will win? Raise your hands? How many of you think the Buccaneers will win? In that sense, Kansas City may have it. How many of you think the commercials will win hands down? It looks like the commercials are it. Well, the thing is we don't know. We have no idea. You can watch TV shows and they'll go on and gone about one team or another will win. I have an illustration where I'm going to predict the future. All right. So as you can see, I have a number 1. Very cool. I have a number 2 and I have a number 3. Very cool. Now, I see Mr. Keith Kaiser right there in the front row. You know, if you sit in the front row, that's really cool because you might get called on and who knows, when we're not social distancing, you might get to come up on stage with me. That's so much fun. Mr. Keith, I'm going to read your mind and predict ahead of time what you're going to pick. We have 1, 2, 3. Which one is your number? Have we predetermined anything? I have talked to you this morning? No. What is your number? 2. What are the odds? That is a good choice because I knew all along that you would pick number 2, bad boom bad bing. We have a number 1, number 3, but for some reason Mr. Keith picked number 2. On the back of that one it says, you're going to pick number 2. It 457ed in first service too. What are the odds? What is the point of this? Our Bible verse is proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. If you had the ability to guess the Super Bowl, you could pick that. If you're mattress Mack, you could make a lot of money. But if you could have God make your path straight, which would you choose? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and in the long run, He will make your paths straight. Thank you very much. >> Kyle: Thank you, Joel. We are going to enter into our time of communion. If you are in person this morning, you know our communion elements are in the foyer. If you don't have yours, you can help ourself -- yourself or our ushers can help you. If you're at home, get your elements ready. This is a special time. We're going to share communion together whether you're in the room or wherever you are. We are going to be led by the On steads this this morning. >> Charlie: I am Charles Onstead and this is my son Ben. Let's pray. We enter into your heart with humility. We have accepted Jesus' death as a penalty for our sins. The price He paid covers us for all time. As we take the bread that represents us so freely, we celebrate your faithfulness to all. We will receive you. We thank you, Jesus, that your death gives us life, abundant life and now eternal life forever. Just as you instructed your disciples, we too receive this in remembrance of you. Amen. We will now take this bread together. >> Ben: Today I'll be reading from 1 John 1:5-9 The scripture will be on the screen for you to follow along. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. >> Charlie: Let's go to our Father again in prayer as we pray over the cup that represents the blood of Jesus. Let's pray. Lord God, in the same way as we take this cup representing Jesus' blood poured out from a splintered cross, we realize that he was the perfect lamb, a sacrifice for all of our sins, past, present, and future. Because of his bloodshed for us and body broken for us, we are free from the power and penalty of sin. Thank you, Jesus, for your victory over death. You took the death that we deserve, you took our punishment, you took our pain and torment. As we take this cup, we remember and celebrate the precious gift of life you gave us through the blood you spilled. Jesus, I offer this prayer in your holy name. Amen. Let's partake in the cup together. ? You Say ? >> Kyle: Yes, amen and amen. I'm going to ask one of our elders Darrell Roth who will pray over our offering this morning. Darrell. >> Darrell: Well, good morning, church. As we pray over our offering today, we want to remind you that giving online is safe, secure, and easy to set up. You can also text to give. You can click on the link on your screen. And we also have marked boxes at the exit doors of the who were center. We give in partnership and as a response to the awesome gift of Jesus. Thank you for giving. Please pray with me. Father, as we bring our offerings to You, we give back to You from the abundant blessings you've given us. May our gifts be acceptable in Your sight. Blessing, glory, wisdom, Thanksgiving, honor, power, and strength be unto you, our God, forever and forever. Through Jesus we pray, amen. >> Kyle: Hey, it's been a good morning so far, amen. Amen. I'm so glad you're here. This is a great day. This is time for main Street live. Wave to Joel. It is the first to the fifth grade. This is our time. We've got MainStreet live. Let's all stand up. Kids and moms and dads, you can follow Joel. This is our fellowship greetings. Tell people if you're pulling for the Chiefs or the Buccaneers. This is our commercial, folks. And if you're online, go ahead and say hi in the chat. [Indistinct chatter] ? Glorious Day ? >> Hey, thank you for your worship today. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. Good morning, everyone, and welcome today to our second service here at the First Colony Church. My name is Ronnie. To those of you in the room, welcome. So grateful to have you here. To those of you watching online, we welcome you and you can fill out a connection card on your service app or on your screen. There are people that can pray for you this morning. You can see the information on the church app or on your screen. It would be our honor and joy to pray with you and encourage you through the Lord. We welcome two new members bobby And Mandy Barnet. Some of you are getting closer to that decision. We want to have a conversation with you about being part of our church family here. On super Sunday, I thought it would be finish to have a conversation with three of our First Colony Church members. All three of these guys played in the national Football League. I've got Jordan black, billie Granville and Jordan Duncan. They are great players, great guys. College ball, Jordan played for Notre Dame and billy played for duke university. You have something to say about playing for high academic schools. We'll put you on the spot. >> Notre Dame, duke, northwestern. I say it's because of our academic giftings and accolades that we were accepted into those fine institutions. [Laughter] >> Ronnie: Your athletic ability had something to do with it? >> Just a little bit. [Laughter] >> Ronnie: Guys, why don't you take a minute and introduce what you're doing now. Tell us about your family. >> My name is Jordan black. My family is seated to my right over here. We've got five kids and we're in the process of adopting number six. I'm currently the head football coach at four big Christian academy. Other than that, that's about it. >> Ronnie: And actually you coached Billy's son Zion, who recently signed a scholarship letter of intent with Illinois State University. Billy, why don't you tell us about you. >> Good morning, church family. I'm Billy Granville, my family and I have been a member since 2006. We love our church family. The local church is where it's at. We love the local leadership and continue to thrive in this spiritual family. My beautiful wife Gretchen and I have six amazing children. They're all wonderful kids. I have a financial services business. I work primarily with private companies and family-owned banks throughout Texas and Oklahoma and provide various services in regards to key employees. >> Ronnie: Very, very good. Thank you, Billy. >> My name is Curtis. I'm married to Meredith. We've been married a long time. [Laughter]. >> We have two boys, Graham and Schafer. We have been members of first reading for 25 years. I'm a port controller or the port of Houston. >> Ronnie: Very, very good. [Applause. ] >> Ronnie: So I have several questions this morning. We'll see how many I can get through. Some are going to be fairly, fairly serious. We'll talk to them about their faith. Some may be a little fun, a little curiosity. Let me just start with something we need to know. Who are you pulling for tonight and why? Jordan. >> Well, I think I can speak for everybody up here. We relate to Tom Brady because he's an older guy. He's very, very good looking. [Laughter]. >> And he, like us, has a super model wife. [Applause]. >> But definitely I appreciate what Tom Brady is doing. He has been in half of the Super Bowls for the last decade. I should be a little upset because he single-handedly decreased my chances of ever going to a Super Bowl by 50%. At the same time, I played for the Chiefs as well. Really, I don't have a dog in the fight. >> I'm going with the old man, TB 12. I'm a huge Star Wars fan. The Jedi masters beat the Jedi. >> I'm going for Kansas City. I'm trying to keep humility in the family. Andy Ree, the last month and a half I was in the NFL, I was with the Packers. There is a connection there and I'm really pulling for them. >> Ronnie: So now, all three of you guys, you're strong believers. Talk to us a little bit about the influences in your life. Maybe just pick one or two. Significant influences in your life that have shaped your decision to begin to follow or to follow with greater intensity, follow Jesus, some of those influences. >> I think an example that stands out to me, when I was a rookie in Kansas City, you know, I wasn't where I am today in my walk. A real good friend of mine Brett Williams, an offensive lineman, we were at a movie. I was watching the movie. Something inappropriate was on the screen there and I'm not really paying attention to it -- I am paying attention to it, I shouldn't have been. I look at Brett. He's got his head down and he's averting his eyes from the screen. That was so powerful. Literally what he did changed my life. He didn't know it had an impact on me for years until I finally told him about it a decade later. Seeing a small act like that from a person that truly loves Jesus, that walks the walk, it's just so powerful and profound. It can be something very, very small, but that guy had a huge impact on me. >> Ronnie: Excellent. >> There's a lot of influences in my life. I just wanted to point out the book, "the purpose driven life," Rick Warren, that book was an eye-opener for me. The first words in that book were "it's not about you." It hit me. It was a tremendous catalyst for my walk and growth in Christ. >> Ronnie: Very good. >> For me, it happened when I was an undergrad. I met an inner city guy from Detroit and this was a guy from the suburbs of Boston. He asked me one day, who are you serving? I was 18 years old in college. I had a pretty bad attitude at the time. He said, look, I don't know who you're serving, but I want you to come to a meeting. That meeting turned out to the the fellowship of Christian athletes. That's been the primary vehicle that took me from where I was then to now. God has been good to me and it's through athletics that I was able to make that journey. >> Ronnie: You know, you were talking in our first service today about how the faith factor is actually pretty strong in NFL culture. Talk to us a little bit about some of the people you encountered along the way, maybe in your college career, but certainly in the NFL, the folks who stand out to you, they were pretty inspirational people. Maybe a coach, a team mate, maybe someone you were across the line of scrimmage from. >> I had great coaches and teammates. When you bring up people like Bruce Matthews, Spencer tillman, and then I had a coach during one of my summers. Jack Pardee was a man who lived his faith. He lived his faith. He was just a nice man. It's something -- and I was telling Jordan about this earlier -- to be a coach and people are looking to you and you're bringing them Jesus. That's what Jack did. He was quiet and didn't bother anybody, but he brought that sense of Jesus to us. >> Ronnie: You know, I didn't bring this up earlier, but one of the more infamous episodes in Houston football history occurred several years ago when our defensive coordinator took a swing at our offensive coordinator. I saw a replay of that just a couple of years ago and it really dawned on me for the first time that Curtis was actually standing right between them. I always wanted to ask Curtis, what did you say to create that conflict? [Laughter] [Laughter]. >> We were praying for each other. That's what it was. We were praying. >> Ronnie: Actually, if you ever see that clip, it catches Curtis by surprise and you were instrumental in breaking that thing up. You're welcome. >> Thanks. >> Ronnie: Billy, you were going to talk about some inspirational folks. >> I was inspired by Jimmy Hurnder and Tony Vercelli. They were both with the Jackson Jaguars. I believe several men from that group are pastors today. I was just impacted by their passion and their zeal for Christ. >> Ronnie: Excellent. Jordan? >> Being a coach, I recognized that in my playing career I made some mistakes. And I coach in a way that no young man will repeat the same mistakes that I made. Now, later in my career being around a guy named Erin Campman who came to Jacksonville from the Green Bay Packers. He told me, when you play football, yes, it's a game. But it's only important if you go on the field and do it for the glory of God. Thinking about that and discussing that with him, what anxiety do you have when you take the field if you're playing for an audience of one? You don't have to worry about what John Maton is going to say. He no longer does Monday Nightcap football. I'm dating myself. You don't have to worry about what people think or what the coach is going to say in a meeting about your performance. If you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end of a game and know that you gave your all to glorify Him, that's important and I wish I would have learned that as a rookie. >> Ronnie: I appreciate you bringing that up and also bringing up that a person who is a teacher or a coach has such a significant opportunity for impact and influence in the lives of young women and young men. Also this mindset that there's really no dichotomy between the secular and the sacred, that, yes, I work for the Lord, but you work for the Lord too. Whatever we do to have that mindset that we want to do it with excellent -- we cannot do our absolute best in every single thing. Stooiments you need to know when, where, I need to compromise here so I can excel in these other areas. But we have an opportunity to honor the Lord and do it to the glory of Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a fun curiosity question. Several folks wanted me to ask what does an NFL player do during the week? Sunday is game day. What in the world do you do Monday through Ied. That's the same thing people ask preachers. What goes on Monday through Saturday? What's a pro-football player's life like during the week? >> I think Curtis took this one this morning. >> So we play on Sunday. On Monday there is a walkthrough. We go through a walkthrough just to get the aches and pains out. Tuesday is our off day. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday is the hard-hitting days. We go right back into the path we're heading. During that day, we get there about 7:00 or 8:00, depending on if you're trying to nurse an injury. So if you get there about 8:00, you're watching film, maybe two hours, two or three hours on your opponent. Then we get together with the special team, this is how it was with the Warriors. Then we will watch more and then have lunch, between 11:30 and 12:00 have lunch. After lunch, we watch more film and then go on the field and practice everything. Then after the field, we would come back and look at more film. The good thing about that is, by the time I played my opponent, I knew exactly who he was. This is important because when I played, we didn't have social media. We didn't have the Twitter and the Facebook. But I knew my opponent very well because we had statisticians that would go around and pick up certain information about those players. So I knew everything that I needed to know that I worked use against you during the week. I knew whether you were left-handed or right handed. I knew your parents' names, your siblings' names, what school you attended, and on Sunday, I knew who you were. It was all about knowing your opponent. >> I'm going to chip in. In Kansas City, you just -- just to kind of describe you our workday. My wife and I were with some friends and we had to leave because I had to go to work. I made the comment, I have to go to work in the morning. Our friend laughed and said, work, you don't have a job. And in my mind I'm thinking, yeah, I only have to battle the biggest, strongest, scariest people on planet earth day in and day out. That's not a job. Anyways, I have some bitterness there. Most days it's a 12-hour workday, 7:00 to 7:00, other than the off day, Thursday, and it's a very gruelling business. >> Ronnie: Billy, what would you add? >> That's well said. >> Ronnie: So was it difficult for you to make the transition from professional athlete to a "normal" person with normal routines? Was that a difficult transition? What do you maybe miss, if anything, from your playing days? >> I'll take a stab at it and say it's extremely difficult, the transition. When you're dealing in football, high-level division one football, the NFL, I mean, that career and the intensity of that career really becomes a big part of who you are. So transitioning into the real world, it's almost like a death. So you kind of have to have a funeral of your football career that you've been doing since you were like 7 or 10 years old to, what, 30 years old. So that's a very difficult process in kind of transitioning. >> Ronnie: All right. >> Yeah, for me it wasn't as difficult. I want to be honest with you. I didn't consider myself to be a football player anyway. It was one of the things, God gave me an opportunity, I was able to play. So I was always preparing for my life after football anyways. I had great mentors, like some of the people at this church. I had people that always told me, hey, you got to get ready for life after football. That's what happened. It was easier to make that transition because I didn't know if I wanted to be there in the first place. [Laughter]. >> That's the truth. >> I would say it was hard, but at the same time I think it was God working on me. After my last year in Jacksonville, I was out of football. I made the decision, yeah, I'm done. I had already started losing weight. I was probably down to, I don't know, 265 pounds. I was teaching class here actually and my phone in my pocket was blowing up. I ignored it, I ignored it. After class I checked. It was my agent. He said, hey, Washington wants you to come play. I said, tell them I weigh 265 pounds. My agent told him I was 280 and I decided to go play another year. So I kind of got it out of my system. The funny thing is two weeks before I got that phone call, I was cleaning out my closet and I had my Jacksonville helmet and I said to my wife, man, I miss it. And having the opportunity to go back and do it again. I told her that I missed taping my fingers up before a game and I miss it. And he gave me an opportunity to go back and play. All those things I took for granted, I could enjoy and got it out of my system and the rest is history. >> Ronnie: All three of you, you're men of strong faith and deep faith. You guys love the Lord with your heart, with your soul, with your mind, and with your strength. And you guys take your assignment as -- your assignments as husbands and fathers very, very seriously. Talk to us a little bit about the values that shape your family foundation. What values are you trying to -- what's the essence of the essence you're trying to pass looj to your children? >> Four. Love for God, love for family, love for country, be excellent at what you do. Love for God, love for family, love for this beautiful country, and then just be excellent. So talk about love for God, always think about the apostle Paul. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation for those that believe. So we talk about that. We talk about love for family. We talk about love for this country. Don't apologize for loving this country. Even though we may have -- you know, it's not perfect. Love this country. Don't apologize. You want to have an American flag on your Twitter handle, do it if that's what you choose. Love God, love family, love this country, and be excellent. Whether it's sports -- I have a daughter that's in nursing school. My oldest son is in accounting and finance in Indiana. Be excellent at that. >> Ronnie: Outstanding. >> And I agree. You know, I try to teach my boys, definitely, love Jesus. First and foremost, love Jesus. Then say, love your family. At times you -- that's the only thing you will have is your family. So you love Jesus, you love your family, and work hard. Be the best you can possibly be. I take it a step further and tell them, you got to love people. You got to meet people where they are as Christians and love them. Billy and Jordan, we come from different backgrounds and places. We have different values, but we all share the blood of Jesus and that's our commonality and that's important. And I hope my boys and everyone else I talk to understands, that's where the bond comes, the love of Jesus, and that's the blood we share. >> Amen. To echo what these guys are saying. Yeah, a man's chief purpose is to glorify God. That's number one. As far as my family goes. As far as the boys that I coach in football, the -- virtue, the Latin root for virtue is a word v-i-r pronounced weir that means man. It used to be that manhood and virtue were synonymous and woven together. So I want my boys to grow up and be men of God that are virtuous that live their lives with integrity, that are fearless -- not fearless, that are courageous. I want them to live their lives with a sacrificial intensity to know that they are a living sacrifice. It's a little different for the girls, but the same thing is true. They're a living sacrifice. I want them to glorify God in everything they do. >> Ronnie: Thanks so much. I mean, really very encouraging and really very inspiring to hear what all three of you had to say. Guys, would you have any advice for young people, young women, young men who aspire to athletic excellence? Would you have any words of caution? Any words of advice or caution to parents in that regard? >> I'll take the first stab at it. I don't want to come across as harsh, but speaking the truth in love, I'll talk about athletes first and then talk to parents. As an athlete, and this is countercultural to today, value team goals over personal goals. You go on social media and all these athletes and, hey, look at me, look at my stats, look at this. Like, have you won anything? Oh, no, we didn't. Team goals. Value team goals. As a church value, value team goals. What is First Colony Church striving for and what does God want out of First Colony Church. Meet him and he will meet our needs. Similar to that, to the athletes, help lead your team to a championship. Be a part of leading your team to winning. Team goals. Third thing I will say to athletes, aspire to be the captain of your team if you're in team sports. Aspire to be the captain of your team. For parents, get out of the way. Stop coddling. Don't coddle these young athletes. We're talking about athletes who want to aspire to a high level. Do not coddle them. Allow them to experience adversity. Allow them to experience failure. Allow them to be coached hard by a man like this man right here, ho is a man filled with love and filled with God's spirit, but he's going to coach them in the right way. He's not going to be easy on them. He's going to bring out the best. Don't coddle them. Let them experience failure and adversity. Get out of the way. Don't stand in the way between the athlete and the coach. Teach your son or daughter, if they have an issue, let them go to the coach and have a conversation. Don't you call the coach or e-mail that you want to have a meeting. No. Why is that important? If you coddle your kid and this -- even outside of sports or football, if you coddle, if yow do not allow them to experience failure and adversity, if you don't allow them to be under coach Black and be coached hard, they'll never develop the grit and the mental toughness that you need if you want to play at high levels. The national football league, I don't know if you debris -- agree with me or not, but that is about mental perseverance than physical toughness. If you have a young athlete that is apyring to compete at high levels, how does God grow us up? By giving us a billion-dollar net worth and giving us everything we need and making everything easy? No, he allows us to go through challenges and adversity. As parents, I feel very strongly about that, you have to let go, let them build that toughness and figure it out. Let them -- it's okay to cry and let them go through that process and they'll develop that toughness and that strength. They'll learn how to overcome obstacles and be ready to perform at high levels. Once you get to a high level and this guy is tall and can dunk a basketball. Everyone is a great athlete, but it's what goes on in here and here that makes the difference. >> Ronnie: Thank you, Billy, outstanding. Do you have anything to add? >> I agree. One of the benefits God blessed us with is the ability to play on a team. There are so many lessons playing on a team. You have to let your children go and you've got to let them grow. I'm glad I was able to play a team sport. I'm glad I met these men and also glad that I had the coaches that I had and the teams that I had. It's with those other experiences that help me become who I am today. So I'm very thankful for that. >> To answer that, I'm going to butcher a C.S. Lewis quote. "Seekers of comfort find misery and despair, but seekers of truth find it as well as comfort." So whether you want to be an athlete, whether you want to be a child of God, we don't look for comfort. As a matter of fact, we should expect discomfort, but it's often in that discomfort that we will find this crazy thing called peace. So don't spend your days looking to be comfortable. That's not where it's at. >> Ronnie: So true. All right. We're getting close to winding down here, but very quickly I want to close with something and ask. Guys, I don't want you to be bashful, don't be modest. Do you have a favorite highlight reel play where you were amazing? I know you've got lots of them, but if you want to pass along one play, one moment, where you were absolutely fantastic, what was it? >> Every play I ever played. [Laughter]. >> No, at best I was a mediocre football player. One time in particular, my second league in the league, we were playing Baltimore, a Monday night football team. We were struggling and needed to win. Inside the NFL Ray Lewis was micced up. If you look at that episode, he is complaining that he's being double played and triple. They would take one of his quotes and show the video where he was being double teamed and it was one or another player pancaking the dude. Who was it? Will Shields, the left guard, he had to come out for like three plays. I was starting at the time, but I was the first guy up. I'm in at left guard. We run a zone play to the right. I step right, heading to block the second-level defender. I don't know who it was, but I smoked this guy. He was on his back and didn't think much of it. Anyways, it was Ray Lewis. Split his nose. So I was happy about that. [Laughter] [Laughter]. >> All right. So he's a young guy. Curtis and I, we're with the old republic where football was actually really violent. [Laughter]. >> I could give you a lot of examples where I got laid out and I've got the scars and everything to show for it. As line backer you always dream of those big hits. I used to watch these videos and butt kissing. You dream of those snot bubblers. Where you hit them so hard that the snot comes out of their nose. Those are my highlights, getting as many snot bubblers as I can. >> I'm glad Jordan was on offense and Billy was on defense. These guys are great. With me, it was a little different. I played with a bunch of great guys. I played with hall of famers. They were good in their own right. I was just part of a big team. It wasn't a play, but it was one incident I had with a little kid. He was about 7 years old. I met him up in Indianapolis. I was headed back to get on the bus. He was about 7 years old and he said, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Duncan. I turned around. He said, can you autograph my card? I said, I'm sorry, I'll do your shirt or anything for you. I don't have a football card. He looked at me and said, yeah, you do. And he showed it to me. It was that incident that made me realize the platform that I had as an athlete. That was important. Not only did I sign it, but I gave him a hug and said thank you. That was the incident that changed my life all together. >> Ronnie: Now, as we -- >> Is it okay if I say something? >> Ronnie: Yeah, sure. >> I know we're a praying church and I just wanted to very quickly put in a prayer request. My daughter Zoe, who is a vocabulary player and at nursing school in Oklahoma, she has a roommate going through a serious health challenge. Her name is Mackenzie Smith. I want to ask the believers and the prayer warriors to add your faith for us that God would touch her and help her through this challenge. >> Ronnie: Thank you, Billy. Absolutely. Let's -- just a moment, Darrell will come up and lead us in prayer. Curtis, to close, tell everyone the story -- this happened to you I think in Cleveland. You finished the game. Your mom -- you're from Detroit. Your mom was able to come over to the game and was able to be sort of in the area where all the players are departing. Tell everybody what happened. >> Yeah, you know, it's a situation where -- Detroit is only about two hours from Cleveland. Some of you guys have heard this story before. Every time I think about it, I cringe a little bit. We leave the game. We beat the Cleveland Browns. We're excited. We're walking down the staircase to go meet our families. And I can hear my mother outside. She's like, here comes my baby, here comes my baby. And you have guys like Jordan and Billy here. I'm like, oh my goodness, my mother is embarrassing me. It's funny. I was like, mom -- I gave her a hug. I'm like, you can't be talking like that here. She said, be quiet and give me a hug. It let me know, I don't care how old or who you are, your parents still love you. My mom showed me love that day and it was a little embarrassing, but I appreciated it at the time. >> Ronnie: Curtis, Billy, Jordan. Guys, thank you so very, very much for sharing this morning with us. Let's thank them. [Applause]. >> Ronnie: To those of you in the room and those of you watching online, let me tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ loves and cares for you. Just as these men love the Lord and follow him, you can make that same decision and day by day allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life. You follow him. It will make a difference. You don't seek comfort, you seek truth and the Lordship of Jesus. You can know his grace and his mercy. You know, I love what these guys were saying a moment ago. Let me sort of summarize it. Love the Lord your God first. Love your family. Love your country. Be a good citizen. Whatever you do, do it with excellent for the glory of God. God bless you, everyone. Let's pray and then we'll finish with one more song. Darrell. >> Darrell: What a great morning. I know on super Sunday we often have guests coming from around the world who have visited with us, but let me tell you, these three men we get to rub shoulders with every single day in our community and in our church. Let's give them another round of applause. [Applause]. >> Darrell: They talked about things like being courageous, loving Jesus, giving glory to God, pursuing excellence, seeking truth, peace, appreciation for the little things, perspective, team goals over individual goals, what an amazing day. I would encourage each of us to go on not only pursuing those things, demonstrating them, but being an example and being there for others like them. Thank you, gentlemen. I feel like I need to suit up and go hit somebody. It brings me back to my little league days. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for this church family in Christ. Thank you for the encouraging words that we've heard today. Help us to share Jesus' love and legacy with everyone that we encounter this week. May we lavish Christ's abounding goodness upon our families, friends, and colleague s colleagues. Holy Spirit, come and equip us in our workplace, guide us in our school life, and inspire us in our neighborhoods. May we be your hands and feet to the needy, your words of affirmation to the oppressed and our arms of comfort to the lonely. Father, we want to pray a special prayer for the Smith family right now, specifically for Mackenzie. Father, I pray that you would wrap your arms around her in this battle with cancer. I pray that you would bring her healing like only you can. I pray that you would grow her closer to you through this process and know at the end of the day she is yours and will be with you. Father, I pray a special prayer for Troy and Heidi watching their child go through this. I pray that you would give them the words of comfort and touch their daughter needs. I pray for Zoe who is encouraging her daily, to continue to do so and you be with her during that. Father, you are on this super Sunday we know truly super. Thank you for choosing to use us to bring your kingdom here on earth. In Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen. >> Kyle: Four quick things before we dismiss. Don't forget about our Bible classes at 9:45. I'm online every morning at 10:00 a.m. for the conversation. Engage in those. They're here for our nourishment. This is connection group season. You can sign up for connection groups. Number three, we have resumed in-person meetings of celebrate recovery. You can find more information about that on our website. Fourth and finally, we want to extend our sympathy to the family of Danny Murphy. We ask that you pray for that family. Arrangements are forthcoming. It's been a great day. Amen. Let's stand and worship. >> God is good. ? Glorious Day ? >> 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 on the church app, you can find it across all podcasting platforms. Our children's ministry is posting a weekly kids online Bible lesson. Be sure to check that out. And our student ministry is creating lots of daily content on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Be sure to follow them. Thank you for joining us online today. We are glad you're here.