DISCLAIMER: This text is not a verbatim transcript. Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. >> Thank you for joining us online today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. We have 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. "Anchor Point" is our new podcast. Thank you for joining us today. We are glad you're here >> Well, good morning and welcome to the first colony church of Christ, where it is our mission to lead you to Christ. My name is grant Richard. I am honored for you to join us today as we dive into the biblical truth found in 2 Corinthians. Before we do that, let's stand and enjoy this time of worship this morning. \M Great Things \M >> Do you believe that this morning? Our God is faithful and He does great things. Amen. \M Rescue Story \M >> Thank you for worshiping with us today. Please be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to see you in the house. For those online, it is good to see you as well. Jesus is our rescue story. He carried us from death into life. That is our hope. Things that were dead start to sprout to life. There was a dead-looking tree and now there is a flower blooming. In Jesus we have hope. In Lamentations 23, it says: Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed for His passions never fail. Great is your faithfulness. When we lived in Oregon, we had a flower called the passion flower that would bloom every morning. In the same way we have the opportunity to bloom and grow in God's word. Today you're going to hear God's word in the message. My hope is those seeds would go into your life and something beautiful would crow. I have a wand here and I'm going to show you a trick. If I squeeze this wand really hard you can pancake it stick there. Isn't that cool? The sad thing is our worship team never gets to see it. This thing is levitating. Have you ever seen this stick to someone's hand before? Don't tell them, it's a secret. What we're talking about is blooming and coming to life. Our prayer is that something that is dead will come to life and where there is nothing there will be something. Friends, you're going to hear God's word today. Is it going to bloom or fall to the ground? My prayer is that you hear it and it blooms into something 10-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. >> Grant: Thank you, Joel. We are going to go to communion, Gary and Patti will be leading us. Thank you all so much. >> Gary: My name is Gary Tuma and this lovely lady to my right is my wife, Patti. We are so thankful to be leading the service this morning for a large supper. Please pray with me as we break the bread that represents the body of Christ and take the cup which represents his blood hypothesis please bow. Heavenly Father, we come to you today with great Thanksgiving, and our prayer is that you will continue to open our minds and soften our hearts so we can reflect on the great sacrifice that saved us all. Jesus died and showed us the light and the way to everlasting life through Him, through His suffering and pain we were saved. We offer this prayer to you today, in Jesus' holy name, amen. Please protect me. >> Patti: I'm going to be reading this morning from John 11:21-27 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” "Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” \M Your Love Defends Me \M >> Grant: Amen, church. You may be seated. We are about to pray over our offering, but before we do, let me remind you, giving online is safe, secure, easy to set up. If you're here with us, we have giving boxes at all the exits that you can give to. Thank you, church, for your generosity. It makes a big difference. A portion goes to mission and you gave a huge donation in missions month of November. Let me tell you what's happening there. Our brothers and sisters in Uganda had to shut down their three Christian schools that they started because they couldn't meet the COVID restrictions in place by the government. The three schools will be reopening. We're helping them meet the regulations. Hundreds of people who are in those churches will be able to get back to a solid Christian education. Church, thank you for making a difference, absolutely. That is worth some praise this morning. [Applause]. >> Grant: Lord, you are good. Your love endures forever. We want to have a heart to give it back to you for your use. Take it, multiply, use it, we trust You, we are Yours. We trust you in Jesus' name amen. Let's turn our attention to the screen. [\M\M\M] >> 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. [\M\M\M] >> Prayer is the greatest secret weapon that 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, disappointment. Some prayers seem to work, while others go unanswered. I think that has caused a lot of good people to give up on prayer. I believe we can find our way back to confidence in prayer, effective prayer. I'm not going to try and convince you that you ought to pray. What I 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 and there is a way things work, even in prayer, especially in prayer. >> Billy: Prayer is so powerful. I want to invite you to join me in this eight-week study of moving mountains. To be good at something, you have to have a lot of confidence, but to have confidence, you have to have a clear understanding of what you're doing and a lot of repetition. John Eldridge brings clarity, simplicity, and encouragement to the topic of provider. Go to our wide website and register for moving mountains. I'm excited to lead you in this study. >> Grant: Excited about that new series moving mountains with Billy. Also excited in three weeks is Easter Sunday. Make sure that is on your calendar. The times for worship are different. We're going to open with a sunrise service out in the courtyard. It will be a beautiful morning for worship. Two more services at 9:00 and 11:00. Start inviting your friends and family. It will be a great Easter Sunday at the First Colony Church. We are about to have our fellowship greeting. Before we do, let me remind you, 1st to 5st graders are invited to go with Joel for the main Street live worship. Parents and grandparents, if you have kids that are kindergarten or below, we do have children's programming throughout the morning for every hour for kids kindergarten and below. That is in the education wing. Feel free to take advantage of that. At this time, let's stand for the fellowship greeting. The 1st to 5th graders, head back with Joel. If you're online, jump in the chat box, we'd love to see you and say hello. [\M\M\M] 2 Corinthians 5:9 \M Your Love Defends Me \M >> Thank you for your worship today. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Fantastic, Richard and team. Thank you so very, very much. Good morning, everyone, to those of you in the room on this spring break Sunday. You don't even miss that hour of sleep last night, do you? You don't even miss it? You're wide awake. I can see it in your face. There you go. To those of you watching online, maybe some of you still in your pajamas, that's just fine. We welcome and glad to have you with us here at the First Colony Church. We have people online, ready to pray with you, visit with you. We'd love to hear with you. You can throw in a prayer request and communicate via the connection cards as well. I would recognize you even with that mask on. You're better-looking with the mask on, in fact. Great to see you. Also now, we want to celebrate today. Greg and Stephanie Hugoworf. Stand up, remain standing. Greg and Stephanie are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this week. [Applause] >> Ronnie: That is wonderful. Several of us had a chance to be with them on Friday night and Martha and I have known Greg and Stephanie for 40 years. The finest people. Greg and Stephanie, we celebrate with you. Easter is coming up in three weeks. For the next three Sundays, pre-Easter, I want us to think under the theme aim to please. The title of today's message is pleasing God. Aim to please. You'll hear that often in a business environment. Companies say, we aim to please. You love it. You've experienced it, I have too. Tremendous customer service to be on the receiving end of that. At times we've received less-than-ideal customer service. Maybe it is a word only. If someone says, I aim to please, you like that because they're saying you're the priority. I'm not the priority. The world doesn't revolve around me. I aim to please. And certainly we can lean too much into being people pleasing. It's a good thing, but it's especially good when we aim to please God. There is a statement in the Bible 2 Corinthians 5:9 And it is a tremendous life motto and here it is. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. That's a fabulous life first life motto. In every aspect of life, my ambition is to please the Lord. The most noblest thing you can do is to please God. There is a false dichotomy, I'll work this out. That's so good and here is why. You're not the foundation of your life. You're not that wise. You don't have the answer. How many people do you know who are self absorbed and they live only to please themselves, they find themselves in one chaotic moment after another and they just have to say if you listen to the good Shepherd, he will be your good friend. Not on your own efforts or merits. In fact, some of you when you even hear the idea of pleasing God, you think, well, I've blown that. I've got this huge, big regret. I've got this series of regrets. I don't know that I could ever please God. And on your own, no, there is not one of us in this room that can. The good news is, you can please God because of something and -- because of something that's been done for you. We're able to please God through the time-tested formula of grace and faith. Okay. Let's start walking through two or three passages of scriptures today. And here is one out of Hebrews 11:5-6 As we're introduced to a man Enoch. And it starts: By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: There are two people in the Bible who did not experience death, Enoch and Elijah. “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” Beam me up, Scottie, moment. What happened to Enoch, he was here yesterday, where did he go? I don't know. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. So it's possible to please God. As an imperfect person, it's possible to please God and he did it by faith. Now, let's look at Genesis 5:21-24 Where Enoch is talked about. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And you know how old Methuselah lived. He lived to be 969. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Notice for the second time what it will say about Enoch. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. So so far we know that Enoch was a person of faith that he walked with God and he pleased God. He pleased God because he walked faithfully with God. What does it mean to walk with God? Well, when you walk with God, you're going in the same direction, you're following his lead. It means you are aligned with him. We agree with God rather than resisting and arguing. Walking with God means I may not be walking with you if you're not walking with God. It means to walk in a different direction. In fact, Enoch lived at a time -- well, in fact, he was Noah's great-grandfather. So he's living at a time -- and of course Noah, the flood, the world is becoming increasingly vile and wicked. Enoch is raising his family at a time when his faith is not popular and when he is so out of sync with most of the culture, but that's Enoch. Listen, he lived to put a smile on God's face, and you do too. When you live to put a smile on God's face, you want to walk with him. Walking with God means we walk with him. We don't just have him in a little compartment over here, but as a parent, I want to please God. As a spouse, I want to please God. As an employer, as an employee, as a man, as a woman, I want to please God. In a dating relationship, I want to please God. It's not compartmentized. You're aligned with the Lord. You see, pleasing God is possible by faith. Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, But obviously with faith it's possible to please God. because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. We believe God exists. We believe He's good, that he rewards. I reminded you that faith has three ingredients, three key ingredients. Knowledge, agreement, commitment. Knowledge, information. Faith responds to information. Secondly, faith agrees with that information. Thirdly, faith commits to living in light of that information. Okay. Do you feel like you please God? Do you feel like you can? Do you have a great sense of security in your Christian faith? Do you have a great sense of assurance in your Christian faith? Do you feel like God can use somebody like you or do you feel like there's something always hanging over your shoulder and that maybe you're still stained, ought to still be in the penalty box because of that thing or that season or that failure? Let me put another statement up here on the screen. Trust in the fact that Christ pleased God fully for all. In just a moment I'm going to read with you out of Romans 4:2-8 But before you get to Romans 4, you have to go through 1, 2, and 3. I'll summarize what they say. All Jews need a Savior. All gentiles need a Savior. And then Romans 3, everybody does. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Not one of us on our own can please God. Is there a remedy? Is there hope for someone like you and me? And the answer is yes, that through Jesus Christ all races, all nationalities, every single one of us can be welcomed with a sense of assurance and security and boldness into the family of God by grace through faith. That means there's no room for arrogance, there's no room for bigotry, but neither is there any need for insecurity and timidity. People like you and me can be declared righteous through faith, and that's the only way it's ever been done. Everything before Christ was looking to him. And now on this side, we have the story. Here's the story out of Romans 4. If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? And so now he's about to quote genesis 15:6, one of the most important statements in all the Bible, it's repeated in Romans, Galatians, and the boom of James. What does the scripture say? Here's what it says. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. One more time. What does that mean, to declare innocent and righteous. And their faith in what? Their faith in God. He's there, he rewards. Their faith specifically in the giving of Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ has accomplished, through that kind of faith we are credited with righteousness, credited with perfection. In other words, when God looks at you, he sees you as perfect as Jesus Christ. You say, Ronnie, that's a bold statement. I know. The number one description of a Christian in the New Testament is this, you're in Christ, you're in Christ. When Father God looks at us, he sees us in Christ. We're not only forgiven, we're declared perfect. We're declared righteous. Jesus Christ lived the perfect right. Here is the thing, we get credit for it. Justification is the act by which God declares us not only forgiven because of Christ, but also righteous because of Christ. You don't have to wait and see if you did enough. Christ bears our punishment and Christ performs and gives us his righteous. Verse 6: David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” That thing back in 1998, I mean, he won't count that against me? He won't count that against you in Christ. Now, some of you will hear this and say, oh, great, I have a license to sin. There were people in Paul's day who said, fantastic, I love this concept of grace. That means I get to rebel, just do whatever I want to do, right? I know that there are people out there who will twist grace. And I know there are those who see so little of the wonder and the beauty of Jesus Christ that grace sounds like a license to just sin and rebel. I will say to you, my friend, that when you consider the cross, if all you see is a license to rebel, I don't really believe you have saving faith. I believe you love the concept of grace, you just don't love Jesus. You love the idea of grace. You just don't love Jesus. You don't care about pleasing him. He's the one who gives you grace. The Lord of your life is not Jesus Christ. The Lord of your life is the concept of cheap grace. I want to challenge you today to make the Lord of your life the wonderful Jesus who calls us to follow him and I urge you to fall on your face and plead that God would open your eyes to the compelling, wonderful glory of Jesus Christ and to say goodbye forever to this mutant form of grace that just wants to embrace the lifestyle of the minimum, what's the least I can do, the least I can give, the least I can serve. The gospel of Jesus is not opposed to effort. The gospel of Jesus is opposed to merit, a sense that I've earned. The gospel of Jesus invites us to follow and to follow with enthusiasm. Listen, my friends, the tell-tale sign, one of the distinguishing marks and features of saving faith is not perfection. Let me say that again. The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. If it is, none of us have saving faith. The Bible says if we say we don't have sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. The mark of saving faith is not that I never stumble and falter. The mark of saving faith is that I fight. I keep fighting, and I keep persevering. That's the mark of your saving faith. You persevere. You keep fighting. And anything that would seek to obscure the beauty and the wonder of Jesus, anything that would seek to diminish Jesus Christ as the great treasure of your life, you fight and resist it. Let me tell you why this is so important for so many reasons. A lot of believers settle for a mundane version of Christianity because they're convinced that there's still a stain in their life, that there's still a residue of built because of a moment or a season, that there's still this leftover -over mark /* /* -- that disqualifies me from serving the Lord with energy. A lot of folks say, this is what I'm going to do, go to church in a perfunctory way and I'm going to embrace middle class, upper middle class life because I don't think God can really use someone like me. And to be sure, I don't know if I can encourage my faith or embrace my faith because I don't have much assurance or confidence myself. That is the work of the evil one in you to keep you and the kingdom of God restricted. Satan can't steal your salvation. He can steal your joy and assurance so you become a Timid and weak believer. I want you to deal with that sense of guilt and residue so Satan doesn't use it to produce another wasted life. Aren't you thankful that the apostle Peter, just a few weeks after he denied Jesus, aren't you thankful that on the day of Pentecost he said, God can't use me. You know what I did just a few weeks ago. You think God can use me to be his spokesperson now? You please God by your faith in Jesus Christ. And you are fully qualified to be a player in His kingdom. Now, along the way we're going to stumble and falter. What do you do? You keep fighting, keep getting up. I want to close today by reading a passage of scripture over you. It's not going to be on the screen, intentionally so. This is sort of what you say the day after. This is what you say when you need to run to God for a French sense of profession and confession and renewal. It's a passage of scripture out of the Old Testament, Micah 7:8-9. It goes like this: Rejoice not over me, my enemy. Hey, enemy, you think you got me? You might have won the skirmish, but you don't have me. I will keep fighting. My God will see me through. When I fall, I shall rise. Yes, I've fallen and I hate what I've done and I grieve it, but this is not the end of the story. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. Yeah, I said a stupid thing, I did a stupid thing. I repent and I'm sorry. I'm sitting in darkness and I feel terrible about it. Listen, that's true, but that's not the only thing true of me. You know, there are a lot of things true about me that are not the only thing true of me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I've sinned against Him until He pleads my calls and executes judgment for me. Right now, my heart is heavy and my bones feel like they're broken. I'll take the indignation until the Lord sees fit to take it away. The very God I disappointed is the very God who is my advocate, my champion, and the one who bears my punishment for me. He will bring me out to the light and I should look upon his vindication. The misery, the weight I feel now is legitimate. Here's something else I know for sure. Jesus Christ, the son of God, has born my punishment and Jesus Christ, the son of God, by what he's done for me, his righteousness is credited to me. In other words, in simple terms on the report card, all the Bs and Cs below have been erased. And in their place, straight A's, 100. Forgiven and credited with the righteousness of Christ. We've all met people and you've said of them, they're impossible to please. Sometimes when you look in your heart you might think uh-oh, there's no way I can please God. On my own I can't and on your own you can't, but hallelujah, what a Savior. What a great God and king we serve. The Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross, bore your guilt, was raised to life again. And in faith in him, it's not hope so or maybe so. We stand secure and bold and confident and qualified to serve in God's eternal kingdom. Don't you let the liar make you settle for mediocrity and mundane existence. Is it possible to please God? Yes. In fact, the Bible says Christ is our yes. Yes and yes again. Now, before we pray, Mike Calvert is going to lead us in prayer. Let me just ask you to consider your next step as a man or as a woman of God. For those of you watching online, think about it. Maybe your next step today is come afresh. Come afresh to the Lord. We walk around in a dirty world and we need to get our feet washed spiritually from time to time and have our hearts cleansed afresh. It might be that you're ready to go through a significant Bible study. We have something called first conversations. You can go to our website and download a PDF. If you're in the room today, you can pick up a hard copy in our welcome center. There are four lessons in this first conversation study. Jesus in history, the claims of Jesus, why we need Jesus, and the life of a Jesus follower. You can do this on your own. Or if you would like to have one of us here help you with this and do this Bible study with you, it would be our joy to do so. Again, I want to remind you of the video we saw earlier and the great upcoming session we have led by Billy Granville and the wonder of prayer. I hope that you'll be a part of that. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for being with us today. Let the Lord bless you and keep you. We love you and care for you. Let's pray together as Mike Calvert leads us. >> Mike: One of the really good gifts from our Father is the ability to talk to Him directly, one on one. Let's do that now. Dear Father God, Lord of heaven's armies and Creator of the universe and everything in it, we praise You for Your mercy, compassion, and unfathomable love. You showed your mercy as a way to be forgiven of our sins. We learned the meaning of compassion through the way Jesus showed and demonstrated compassion through his words, actions, and miracles. You showed us the ultimate meaning of love, by sending Your Son to teach us about You and the way You would have us live, proving to the world through many miracles that He came from You and seeing the painful cruelty inflicted on Him in the crucifixion. As we think about Ronnie's message, it's a new day. Help us to use this season to revive our hearts to You. Search us, 40, to know what attitudes and behaviors we need to setson and what new attitudes and behaviors we need to embrace. Bless us, Father, as we gather to worship and honor You. As we grow in our demonstrated love for You and Your Soifior. As we go, carrying the gospel message to a lost world. Thank you, Father, for the sacrifice of Jesus on Good Friday. Thank you for the bodily resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. We praise you that through Jesus every day is a new day because every day brings fresh mercy, peace, and love from Your hand to our souls. Through Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. >> Grant: Church, there are a ton of ways to stay spiritually nourished and serving. Right now at the First Colony Church, let me make sure these are on your radar. First is the 9:45 a.m. Bible class hour. There is something for every age on campus. For adults here, next week we are starting a new series in the gym and it's entitled another gs pel. We're going to be taking a look at progressive Christianity, versus historic Christianity. We have a great team of teachers, some of our elders. Myself, we will be leading this conversation. This is a conversation that is permeating our culture and our society and even getting into the church. When we talk about progressive, this is progressive in theology. This is a world view that is based in the fact that truth is relative. When you follow a world view that truth is relative, it leads to another gospel. It is not historic Christianity where we have truth in Jesus and truth in the scriptures. Our goals in this class are three-fold. We want to as a church recognize what is progressive Christianity. Second, we want to think biblically through these ideas. Third, we want to be able to engage our church and those outside of our church and a healthy dialog about the topic. Join us next week in the gym for this series on another gospel. You'll see this book on the picture behind me. Alisa Childers has a great book as a starting point for this conversation. Folks online, every Sunday at 10:00 you can join Kyle Strickland on the live stream. We heard about Billy Granville's series, moving mountains. The first 10 who sign up get a free book. We have the second mile mission clothes and shoe drive coming up in a couple of weeks. In the next few weeks, but it on your calendar, go to the closet and get a sturdy bag and throw your clothes and shoes out. They will be chucking them out the window at us because if you can't dodge a shoe, you can't dodge a ball. Thank you in your heart for serving and bringing it to the community this week. Thank you for serving. Before we do that, let's stand and sing one more song. \M Your Grace Is Enough \M >> Thank you for your worship today. You are dismissed. \M Your Grace Is Enough \M >> 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. 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. [\M\M\M]