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. >> Ryan: Welcome to the worship service of First Colony Church of Christ. It's great to see everyone here in the building; and for all of you watching at home, hello. We gather together because Jesus said, "I have come to give them life and give them life to the full." So we come here to praise Jesus because He came to YOU to give you a full life, so let's stand together and worship. >> Richard: Amen! God is faithful, amen? Come on, let's put our hands together! Here we go! ("Fires" playing) >> Richard: Yes! Yes, give God a praise! He is worthy! (Applause) >> Richard: No matter how dark it gets, God keeps the fires burning so we can see our way. He is our Light. He is our Strength. He is our Shield. He is our shelter. Faithful God. Faithful Father. ("Way Maker" playing) >> Richard: ¶ Yes, it is ¶ ¶ It's who You Are ¶ ¶ That is who You Are ¶ (Applause) >> Richard: Amen. You may be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone! It is so good to see you, whether you're watching online or you're here in the audience today. I have a cool little trick for you! I hope you're excited. I am. I have more fun than you do, believe it or not. All right! Well, I have two little recycled water bottles. Both have rice in it. There's nothing else other than the rice. One has a little more than the other, but overall -- well, if I do that, I will get it all over the place. But essentially the first question I want to ask is to all the kids: do you know what you want to be when you grow up? And some do. Some don't. I would ask the same question to adults: do you know what you want to be when you grow up? And some of you would be like, "Ah, I'm still figuring it out." I think we can all agree as a believer we want to do something great. We want to make a difference in this world. We want to do something that is awesome. Well, these are identical. Except for one feature. You'll see what that is. So if I want to do something great, I want to pick up this, one of these bottles without using my hands, without -- with only utilizing the stick. So check this out. I stick this stick inside one of them and pull it out and nothing happens. If I want to go underneath, go on the side, it's impossible. I will make a mess up here and will be a long time to clean up. However, the other bottle also has rice in it, nothing extraordinary. When I stick the needle inside, it clings. What?! Isn't that cool? You can say “What?! That's awesome!” But really, the only difference is in preparation. I used exact same bag of rice. I poured rice in here, but once it got to the top, I stopped. This particular one I poured rice into it. When it stopped, I pushed it down and kept pushing it down until I could not put any more rice inside. To me, the key is preparation. So as a believer, how are we preparing our life to do what is good? Matthew -- excuse me, Micah 6:8 -- says, what is good? What does the Lord require of you? That we, number one, seek justice. Number two, love mercy. Number three, walk humbly with our God. So as you're a youngster or whether you're an “adultster,” wherever it is, you want to be great? You start with seeking justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. Thank you very much. (Applause) >> Ryan: Yeah, give Joel a hand. Thank you, Joel! He does a great job bringing illustrations every week. We'll take communion together so if you're watching online, get your communion supplies ready, and everyone here get your packets out. We have some available at the back. Doug and Janet Calvin will lead us in our communion right now. >> Doug: Good morning. I'm Doug Calvin and this is my wife Janet, and we will be praying over the bread and the cup. It represents Christ's body and His blood given for us for the remission of sins. Let's pray. Dear Lord, Your moo might I can Name -- mighty Name reigns on high. We remember You now, Your Good News sent to all. We thank You for dying on the cross for us. Your love surpasses ALL that we may even comprehend and we now have hope. Hope in our heart to Your grace and we now remember Your broken body. We pray this morning with a joy, a special joy, an everlasting joy because Your blood shed for us opens the door of eternal life. We now take the bread and the cup, and we thank You. It's in the Name of Jesus we pray, amen. Let's partake. >> Janet: Good morning. Today's Scripture is found in Romans 6 and will be reading 5 through 9. Please follow the screen as you will find the Scripture on that. (Reading) ("O Come to the Altar" playing) >> Richard: Why don't we all stand together and continue to worship? You may be seated. >> Ryan: Amen! Well, we're going to gather our offering; and Doug, one of our elders here, will lead us in our offering prayer. >> Doug: As we give, we remember that we give together for the cause of Christ in this world. You may give securely online or alternatively, there are arrangement in the back of the auditorium. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we come to You in thanksgiving for all You have blessed us. We pause now to remember those blessings, and we commit a portion back to You. We pray that in this time of need we can increase our sharing and help meet the needs of so many in these times. There are great needs, and we pray that this offering will bless many both physically and spiritually. We pray these funds will show Your faithful love to all and that they, in return, may grow much closer to You. In Christ's Name we pray, amen. ¶ >> There is a way things work. This is one of the simplest, most basic, most important lessons in life. There is a way things work. Prayer is the greatest secret weapon God has given His people. It REALLY is! I know; I know. We all have our own stories of prayer, and some of those stories involve confusion and disappointment. Some prayers seem to work, while others go unanswered. And I think that has caused a lot of good people to give up on prayer. And I believe we can find our way back to confidence in prayer, effective prayer. I'm not going to try to convince you that you ought to pray, but what we CAN do is put a far, far more effective understanding of prayer in your hands together with enough applications that you get a feel for how it all works. I want to show you and model for you as much as I can. God is growing us up. There is a way things work. Even in prayer. Especially in prayer. >> Prayer is so powerful. I want to invite you to join me in this eight-week study "Moving Mountains" with John Eldridge on the subject of prayer. You know, I have always believed in order to be good at something, you have to have confidence and a clear understanding of what you're doing and need a lot of repetition. John Eldridge has done a phenomenal teaching in bringing great clarity, simplicity, and encouragement to the topic of prayer. So go to firstcolonychurch.org and register for "Moving Mountains." I'm excited to lead you in this study. ¶ >> Ryan: Really excited about that group with Billy Granville starting this Wednesday so make sure you sign up online. It's time for Main Street Live, so kids first to fifth grade, head back with Mr. Joel. He'll take you across the lobby to the chapel for a great time. Parents, if you didn't have a chance to check kids in, follow Joel over to the chapel, and he'll get you all settle up. It's time for our fellowship greeting. I have a feeling there's a few ACU fans out there and you had a big night last night. (Cheers and applause) There you are! I want to see your Wildcat logo during the fellowship greeting so let's stand and greet one another. If you're online, thanks for joining us again. Go ahead and say hi in the chat box. ("Jailbreak" playing) >> Richard: We are free! Yes, thank you for your worship today! You may be seated! >> Ronnie: Good morning, everybody. Glad to see you today and welcome. (Audio cutting in and out) I think I'm good. (Audio crackling) Testing, testing. Okay. (Audio crackling) (No audio) All good? Okay. (Audio crackling) Well. How's this? Better? Okay. You know, we pay a lot of money for this stuff. (Laughter) And, you know, Best Buy right next door, you know -- anyway. I'm so grateful that you're here. Thank you for being with us today and always for being patient with us if things don't quite go as they're supposed to go; but that's the nature of the world, right? Nature of light. And to those of you watching online, we welcome you as well. We'd love to hear from you and have a chance to pray with you. There are people right now ready to engage with you see ya our church app, or you can just click on your computer screen. You know, we're two weeks away from Easter Sunday, and you know, Easter just always a highlight, celebratory time. We'll have three services that morning, no Bible classes that day, but three services. We'll start with the sunrise service in our courtyard. The next Sunday we will do something, a clothes drive, clothes and shoes, where we partner with Second Mile; and that will be from -- they don't really -- any time from 8:00 until 2:00 next Sunday. Bring some clothes; bring some shoes; anything gently used, brand-new, whatever you'd like to do. You know, put them in a bag and bring them up and just -- you can drop them off right here at our front door. Well, today we are continuing a brief series called Aim to Please. That's root in a fantastic Scripture out of 2 Corinthians 5. I know a lot of folks, this is sort of their life verse; and it reads as follows. (Reading) We just make it our goal to please the Lord. In other words, wherever we are, in this world or the next, we aim to please the Lord. We live for that ultimate audience of One. Well, the title of today's message is “Act. Love. Walk.” We'll look at one of the most famous statement in the Old Testament, the most famous statement in the book of Micah. It's actually a verse of Scripture that is engraved in three buildings in our nation's capital, including the Library of Congress. One wise person has said that if you wanted to summarize the New Testament, particularly the ethical teachings of the New Testament, you could do it from Micah 6:8. Before World War I, our nation provided New Testaments to every soldier, every American soldier; but the verse of Scripture written in the front of the New Testament was Micah 6:8 that we will read here in just a moment. You know, the Old Testament book of Micah is a beautiful book. Micah is one of the 11 minor prophets and when you hear "minor prophet" you think, “They're not that important, right?” No, no. Minor prophets and major prophets have to do with the length of the book. So the minor prophets are shorter. So Micah, a small-town guy. He lived in a small town about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. His book is seven chapters long, and it's three sermons, three little speeches; they all begin with the word "here" or like "listen up." It's like, "Hey, are you listening?" "Are you listening?" "Are you listening?" So three times Micah does that, and he's challenging the people on their authenticity, on their legitimate faith. He says, "You know, you pay a lot of attention to the quality of your ceremony, but your heart tends to be far from the Lord. Actually, you tend to mistreat people. Those most vulnerable among you, you don't care much for them.” I had a professor in graduate school, and this was his big phrase over and over -- you ready? Here it is: religious ceremonies are not an adequate substitute for righteous living. Religious ceremonies are not an adequate substitute for righteous living. Don't get me wrong; religious ceremonies have their place, but Micah is calling the people back to righteous living. Now, some of you hear the book of Micah and think, "Well, isn't that the prophet who prophesied concerning Bethlehem?" That's exactly right. Micah 5:2. 700 years before Christ, Micah prophesied Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. So here we go, Micah 6:6. (Reading) Here's Micah playing along very dramatic. "What will please the Lord? Will the Lord be pleased if I offer my firstborn child as a sacrifice?" Verse 8. (Reading) You know, if there's a good, there's a bad. If there's a right, there's a wrong. God shows us what is good. God shows us what is right. He reveals His will to us in Scripture and so here, listen -- you don't have to guess what the Lord is seeking. You don't have to wonder what pleases the Lord. Micah now gives us his Micah mandate, if you will, this three-leg stool; and what does the Lord require of you? (Reading) What does please the Lord? Here's his three-point message. (Reading) Here you go, action words. Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God. All right, let's very quickly walk through this Micah mandate -- first of all, by acting justly. Let me put a definition of justice up here. It's using our power, using our influence, in a fair, ethical, and helpful way. It's using your power or your influence to advocate for what ought to be and against what ought not to be. First and foremost, it begins with personally leading a life of integrity, honesty, not open to bribes. You know, the Old Testament -- as a just person, you're not observe to bribes and don't exaggerate or lie. You don't bring out a false witness. You seek to treat people in your business dealings in a fair, honorable way with integrity. But justice isn't just about a vertical relationship with the Lord. It also involves how I treat others and has this idea of giving people their due and treating people fairly. The idea it's rooted in humanities status that every single person is created in the image of God and has equal value and dignity. Justice certainly include generosity and social concerns, especially towards the poor and those who are most vulnerable. You know, in the Old Testament there was almost a quartet of the vulnerable; the poor; widows; orphans; the foreigner. And the told Old Testament would say basically those in a position where you have resources and power and influence, you want to look around and be a voice and an advocate and a help for those who are less vulnerable. Yes, let's do that individually. Let's continue to do that as a church. A lot of our church ministries and places where we send money -- your tithes and offerings -- go to justice ministry, part of our ministry in Nepal, for example right now. Yes, it's about preaching the gospel and teaching the gospel; but it's all about rescuing a number of women from human trafficking, and that's such an important ministry. Over the years, churches and believers have given themselves to protecting and advocating for people, from the youngest to the oldest; seeking justice for the unborn; seeking justice for the aged; those who tend to be forgotten; the orphan; for victims of racial discrimination. Wherever it might be, acting justly, seeking to be the kind of person, high-road integrity, but also seeking to be an advocate, a friend. Here's the word Jesus used. He went back to the book of Leviticus and brought out that concept that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." You remember that? And He told the Good Samaritan story and He expanded what a neighbor looks like. A neighbor is not just someone who is right next to you, not just someone who might look like you; but it might be the opposite, the Samaritan helps the Jew, and didn't wonder whether or not – “Well, he got himself into trouble in the first place.” No; you just help and you be a friend and you be a neighbor. So to act justly is to love my neighbor, no matter who they are and where I find them. I want them to be as blessed as I've been. Now, in our culture today, you often hear the phrase "social justice." It can mean something very, very good; but as Thaddeus Williams said, not everything called "social justice" today is compatible with a Biblical vision of a better world. Thaddeus Williams has written a book I will recommend to you: "Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth." Dr. Thaddeus Williams is a respected professor and spoke around the world at law schools and other places, and this book -- he says, for example, the problem is not with the quest for social justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that's not compatible with the Bible. Now, in that book -- what's interesting to me are number of people who endorse it; and I think the gentleman who wrote the foreword for it gives a lot of weight to this to it. George Yancey a few months ago when I was preaching about race for a few weeks, I quoted Dr. George Yancey, who is a well-regarded professor, just up the road at Baylor University. Yancey endorses this book. John M. Perkins -- many of you know his name, a civil rights icon, and he wrote the foreword to this book. I think it's in a very, very important book that delves into an important topic, confronting injustice without compromising truth. In fact, John Perkins said this, and I quote, "If we don't start with God first, whatever we're seeking, it ain't justice." We start there first. And that's who we are as men and women of God. So Micah gives us a three-legged stool. His Micah mandate. They're not just three separate -- they congeal together. You act justly, but you love mercy. If you don't have mercy in there, often acting justly just looks like it can even look like vengeance at times. And mercy I would define it this way: loving the inconvenient to love others. So Micah is saying, look, if you're going to live together in any kind of community, you got to be willing to cut one another some slack. You got to be willing to give one another a break. You've got to be willing to go the extra mile to one another; otherwise, you will be SO quick to judge and pounce on one another and beat each other up. Everybody loves mercy when you're on the receiving end. The Micah mandate says love it when you receive it, and love to give it away. You remember the story Jesus told about the unmerciful servant who had, what, received SO much mercy! An AMAZING amount of mercy? And what does he do? He goes out and is not the least bit generous with another person. He loved to receive it, just didn't love to give it away. But the Micah mandate says, you want to build a beautiful community and beautiful church and beautiful family. Listen, love mercy. You know, gang, sometimes mercy is real inconvenient. It hurts. It costs. It will give you a heartache and headache -- why? Because you will face some insults without retaliating. You're gonna forgive that thing for the umpteenth time. You're going to graciously bear the consequences of someone else's sin. You're gonna reach out to the lonely or to the neglected or to the addicted; and you're going to give away something tangible, money -- you're going to help and show mercy, and you're going to be merciful. And sometimes it does cost. You know, Bill and Sally were an older couple. They were thinking about getting married. They were both widows. She was a widow; he was a widower. They became friends. They started having, you know, lunch together. They thought, well, they'd sort of be friends and companions, but one thing led to another, and they started thinking seriously about marriage. But one day, Sally thought to herself, "I've got to have lunch with Bill and come clean about something." So she scheduled the lunch. They go to the restaurant. And she said, "Bill, I've got to talk to you about something important because if we're going to get married, THIS is vital, and the answer to your question depends on -- and your response here today -- really depends on whether or not we can get married." Here's what she said. She said, "Bill, if we get married, Tippy has to come, too." And Tippy was her pet poodle, and Bill did not like dogs; and Bill certainly did not like dogs in the house. But Sally said, "Bill, if you want to marry me, Tippy comes, too." And he just chuckled and said, "Yeah. Tippy comes, too. He's a part of the deal." “You see, Ronnie? That's a little goofy story.” It's a true story. Here's why I like it: every single one of us comes to a relationship with a little baggage. We all have a little Tippy back there. We all do. And aren't -- listen. Sometimes you ought to look around at your own family and say, "Thank you for being so merciful to me. Thank you for cutting me some slack from time to time. Thank you for being willing to overlook my Tippy that I bring to the table. Thank you for doing that." But also, Bill had to come to the realization that, “You know what? If I want Sally -- and I do -- and I want to marry Sally; but Sally brings with her Tippy. She's not gonna be ideal; the ideal Sally wouldn't have a Tippy, but she's bringing Tippy. You know what? I'd rather have Sally with Tippy than no Sally.” That's mercy. Mercy says, no person is ideal; no person is perfect; and without some grace and mercy along the way, there's just going to be bloodshed everywhere, you know? There's a guy by the name of Mauricio Estrella. He walked into his office one morning and had been a tough time. He had just -- he'd gone through a very difficult divorce recently, and in his own words, he had been brutally betrayed; so he went to his office that morning. He had been running late and he didn't have breakfast. He had a meeting coming up. Every month his company server would require that you change your password so that morning, you know, it came up on his screen "You have to change your password." So he thought to himself, "I'm going to change my password to something that's going to influence my life." Here's what he did: his password for that month became "forgive her." And every morning when he came to work, he had too to type it in. "forgive her." And every time he logged off and there was a break, he had to type it right back in: "forgive her." And he said, “You might think that that wouldn't make much of a difference, but it did. It became my mantra.” And my friends, when we get stingy with mercy, the problem really isn't a mercy problem. You see, how we view God impacts how we treat other people; and if I'm stingy with mercy and I serve a God who is rich in mercy, if I serve a God who is rich in mercy but I'm stingy with mercy, I don't have a mercy problem. I've got a view of God problem. I've got an image of God problem. I've got an awareness of God issue. The Micah mandate all connected together. Here we go. Act justly. LOVE mercy. And walk in humility. Walk humbly with your God. Here's the way I would define, describe humility: seeing ourselves in relation to God. I didn't create my world, and neither did you. And all of us, as we see ourselves in relation to God, it leads to a good place because the humble place is a place of joy; and walking humbly with God actually enables you to act justly and love mercy. You know, at first sight the ancient virtue of humility is not a particularly appealing one; and some of you in this room, some of you watching online, might think, "You know, humility is not a strong virtue." It's absolutely a strong virtue. It's been interesting in the psychological world over the last 15 years how there's been a Renaissance and a revival in humility -- why? Because many social scientists are aware that we've had an epidemic of narcissism and entitlement, and we have forgotten the joy of humility, the camaraderie of humility, and that actually, as one social writer said, one psychologist said, actually humility is your growth mindset. You know, just two days ago oral Roberts university defeated Ohio State University in the NCAA tournament. Oral Roberts University is coached by Paul Mills. Paul and his wife Wendy actually used to worship here quite a bit years ago. He was my son's high school basketball coach, and after he left Fort Bend Christian Academy, he ended up as assistant coach at Baylor for I think 14 years and head coach at Oral Roberts for three years. They were a 15th seeded team, and they took down the number two seed team, Ohio State. You should read Paul Mills' post-game interview. He talks about humility. He was asked about his two best player, and he said, "When your best players on the team are your most humble, they're the most teachable. They're the most eager to learn and grow and develop." He said, "That mindset just rubs off.” It's your growth zone. It's a willingness to see ourselves truthfully. It's an accurate perception of our place in the world. It's an ability to acknowledge our own mistakes and limitations. It's an openness to others, to their input, a low self-focus; and an appreciation, the value of all things. Humility is not beating yourself up. It's simply bate being aware of your weaknesses and seeing your strengths as gifts from God to be used for Glory. Well, walking humbly for our God simply means, hey, we give Him the reins, and we follow. He's the Shepherd; we're the sheep. Okay, so there's the Micah mandate. Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. Let me ask you some questions. Acting justly? You know, do you owe anybody anything? Any compromises in your finances going on? Do you tell the truth? I didn't say "create narratives." I said, tell the truth. Have you done right by people? Do we treat others as we want to be treated? Am I seeking to live by God's moral laws? Love mercy. Am I merciful to others when we have it in my power to help someone, and do city see my material blessings as a means actually to help to bless others? And Do I partner with the church to help and bless others? Walk humbly with your God. Have I given God the reins? Am I yielded to Him? Do I feel the need to take credit for everything I do? Listen, saved people do good, but doing good is not the way to be saved. The Micah mandate does not negate the need for grace and the cross. Actually, the Micah mandate is an invitation for us to live as God's redeemed people; and Micah in his book, he closed it out -- you know, he had these three sermons, and he would challenge and he would call people to excellence; but he always reminded them of the hope we have in the grace and love of God. Here's Micah 7, the way he closes his book. (Reading) Why do we love mercy? God does. (Reading) You know, let me just remind you that Jesus is our Ultimate Example. When it came to justice, Jesus knew justice needed to be served; so He went to the cross as our Perfect Sacrifice. When it came to loving mercy, even on the cross as Jesus is displaying His mercy, He does it tangibly, and He looks down at His executioners and said, "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do." When it came to walking humbly, the cross is the most humble event ever; and even on the night of His betrayal, what do you find Jesus doing? You find Him with a towel on His knees, washing feet. What a great God we serve and what a great invitation it is to partner with Him! You wonder sometimes, “How can I, one person, make a difference in this big, big world?” Well, here's how you do it: you act justly; you take the high road of character. You love mercy, and you continue to walk humbly with your God. Everybody, thank you for being here in the room today. Thank you for watching online. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and now Doug Calvin will come up and close our service as we pray together. >> Doug: Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we are honored to approach Your throne with our praises and also with our requests. You are Almighty, and we trust in You and in Your control. Today, many are facing times of difficulty, possibly health, finances, relational, spiritual. We ask that You walk with all those in need and that You would give each hope both now and eternally, for You gave Your Son for our salvation and have left us Your Spirit for our guidance. For these, we give thanks. We pray for leaders, leadership locally, here in America, and globally. As we watch the adoption of concepts contrary to Your Truth, we ask that leaders everywhere turn and look to You. We ask that they understand Your simple truths and principle and not follow their own selfish ways. We ask that You raise up chosen leaders and give us strength to faithfully follow. Lord we pray for Your kingdom. We pray for those persecuted believers that are fighting the good fight for You. We pray for outreach, where the Good News is known by more people. We pray that we watch for kingdom opportunities that You send each of our way, that we make the best use of those times. We pray for strengthening in the church and in our commitment to You. Lord, You Are Great. You Are Mighty. You Are Good. We pray that each day we grow closer to You, following Your Truth; trusting Your Spirit; and praising Your Name. In the Name of Jesus we pray, amen. >> Ryan: Amen! Well, as we close this morning, I've got a few things to highlight for you. Easter is coming up soon on April 4. This year we will have sunrise service at 7:00 a.m. and then services at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. as well. Remember, the “Moving Mountains” group with Billy Granville is this week so sign is up online. We started a new adult Bible class in the gym at 9:45 called "Another Gospel," comparing historic Christianity with progressive Christianity and helping people think through that Biblically for the important issues going on in our culture today. So you want to check that out in the gym. It's really good. On Sundays we have our online class every week at 10:00 a.m. with Kyle Strickland, and then Second Mile Mission clothing drive is next Sunday. So go home, do some spring cleaning, find some donations that you can bring back in a sturdy bag. You will be able to leave those at the main entrance next week. Well, thank you for joining us today. Our prayer is that God would encourage you; that He would strengthen you as you go with Him this week. Practice justice. Practice loving mercy. Practice walking humbly with God. Let's all stand together and sing one more song before we go. >> Richard: God is good! ("Jailbreak" playing) >> Richard: We'll get your blood flowing a little bit on your way out, okay? Here we go! Amen! Thank you for your worship today! You are dismissed!