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 of 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're glad you're here. ¶ >> 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're glad you're here. >> Ryan: Welcome to the worship service of First Colony Church of Christ. We're glad you're here with us today. Hello to everyone online and glad to have you here in the building. We come together today to invite God to speak to us through His Word; to encourage us through His Spirit; and we give Him praise because He's our hope and joy; so let's all stand and worship together! >> Richard: Yes! ("Great Things" playing) >> Richard: Yes! Our God only does great things, amen? What a faithful God we serve! There is no One like Him in all the earth. ("Great Are You, Lord" playing) >> Richard: Sing it out, church, for all the earth! >> Richard: Yes! Great are You, Lord, amen, church? You may be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to see you here on this lovely day. If you're watching us online, it's so good to see you guys as well. Just note today is the first day that 100% of our activities are open on Sunday, which is amazing. (Applause) That's pretty cool. AND the only thing that is missing is you! So come on down! And, of course, all the ministries could utilize volunteers, which is awesome. All right, well, today my verse involves joy; and a famous verse that we all know and sing is, comes from the end of Nehemiah 8:10 that says, "The joy of the Lord is my strength." Is the joy of the Lord your strength? It's like, "Well, Joel, yeah, I know that's in Scripture, but sometimes I don't feel like I've got some joy, and especially joy that's overflowing." And so today my experience, my experiment, will blow your mind; and I know you guys are like, "Man, how do you do it?" This one I'm gonna totally reveal, all right? So we have water. I have a jug. It has water. It's real water. I think you can see there's water. Now, if this was full, this was half -- this would be about a fourth of water, all right? Now, we know as believers that we are filled with the Spirit, and it's also sometimes likened to drinking of living water. And so inside of us, as a believer, God resides, which is pretty amazing. And the cool thing is that He gives us the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience -- soap, the secret ingredient. Just so you know, you can do this at home, right? So we have that and we have that inside of us, but you'll notice I think a lot of Christians just kind of stop there. They're like, "You know what? As far as being filled, as far as being overflowing, as far as I've got the stuff, I'm good to go." But as you look at this we have a fourth is full of the water and the soap, and then this much is empty. Well, what is interesting is that God shakes us up. Sometimes it things you don't like. We go through trials and difficulties. We all experience them. And then other times you make the choice, and you go beyond your comfort zone to shake yourself up to do what is right. So how are we going to fill in this void? Anyone? We get shooken up! Isn't that cool? The more I shake, the more bubbles you will see. Now, I got to see this actually happen in my own family just this weekend. A number of my kids and another young man from the church went to a special needs camp, and they got to help out. And it was hard. It was really hard, but one of my daughters, her face was just beaming. "Dad, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but it was amazing, and I want to go back!" She had joy overflowing by being shooken up, so I want to challenge you: as you look forward to this year, are you willing to let God shake you up? Are you willing to let Him fill in those void spots in your life by investing in eternity? THAT is my prayer for you. (Applause) >> Ryan: Thanks so much, scroll! Each week we come together to take communion to honor and remember what Jesus has done for us. Thom and Sandy Besso will lead us. Get your packets ready. If you're at home, gather your supplies. If you weren't able to pick up one, we have some available in the back of the room. Thank you so much, Bessos, for leading us. >> Thom: As you're getting your packets out, just one quick comment for everybody. Back in 1998, if you guys remember that movie that came out, "Saving Private Ryan," many of you saw -- it's actually one of Ronnie's favorite ones and one of mine. The day it came out in Houston, there was a matinee here, and Sandy and myself and two other members -- Jeff and Diane Simmons -- decided to go the first showing of "Saving Private Ryan." The ladies had no idea what they were getting into. Jeff and I kind of did. So over at the AMC, 1:00 in the afternoon, we watched "Private Ryan." It's an incredible movie. It's an incredible movie about the sacrifice soldiers did for us, but in that opening scene -- which is pretty much unbearable, as the soldiers are landing in Normandy and they're being attacked pretty aggressively, there was a woman sitting to my right. Sandy was on my left. The Simmons were over here. A woman to my right -- I never saw her before or after. During that opening scene, that graphic scene, she grabbed my arm and was doing, "Oh, my God; oh, my God!" Like that. And it reminded me of, you know -- and for me, it gripped me and I think everybody who saw that movie. But the point of it is right after that scene I moved on. Jeff Simmons and I moved to the next scene. We want to see the next scene. It's like that way in communion on Sundays, right? Sometimes we really grip it and it makes really sense to us and is deep; and then other times we're onto the next scene. We're onto the coffee. We're onto the greeting. We're onto the next song. We're onto lunch, the Rockets playing or Texans or the kids or anything else. It would be my prayer today as we pray over communion that we try to think of the sacrifice those soldiers paid for us that day and is magnified 100,000-fold for what Jesus did for us. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful and thankful. We are so thankful for the Sacrifice that You did, the unbelievable, amazing Sacrifice at times we do not know. Father, we are like the leper sometimes that don't thank You, although we really appreciate You. Help us to be that lone leper that comes back to You and thanks You immensely for everything You did. We pray, Father, for the cup of Your salvation; for the bread; and Father, we pray for our forgiveness. We thank You so much for the sacrifice You paid on the cross that we could live for You eternally, have eternal life with You and Your family. We praise and thank You in Your Son's Name. Amen. >> Sandy: I'll be reading from Psalm 116:5-8, New Living Translation. (Reading) ("At the Cross [Love Ran Red]" playing) >> Richard: Why don't we all stand together and worship the Lord together? >> Richard: Thank you for your worship today. You may be seated. >> Ryan: Jesus is good to us, and we owe it all to Him. At this time, we'll collect our offering. Tim Smith, one of our elders, will lead us in our offering prayer. >> Tim: Church. It's always a good time to be grateful, don't you think? One of the things that I'm very grateful for is your partnership in the ministry of this church, so I want to thank you for your time; the love that you give; the funds that you give; and just the energy that you bring. I want to thank you for that. As a reminder, there are lots of different ways to give. I know of many of you have selected the online option, which is really great. It's secure and it's really convenient, particularly for recurring giving. Also, if you're here in the room, there's giving boxes at the rear; and if you're online, of course we have the option there for you online. Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we have so many resources that You have placed at our disposal. Lord, You have given us energy; time; talents; money; influence; relationships; and so many more things. Lord, we pause and acknowledge that every one of those things comes from Your good hand so we gratefully and with full acknowledgment of Your provision, God, we hold an open hand towards You. Father, please multiply and bless Your kingdom through this act of worship. Grow in our faith and our generosity. In all of this is for Your Name's sake. We pray in Jesus' Name. Amen. >> Kyle: You know, our rooms and spaces here have gone unused in the past year and a half; but we are getting them ready because we are excited to open them back up and to welcome our individual adult campus groups, our Bible classes, back this summer. If you have been a part of one in the past, you know these are great groups. They are GREAT places, safe places, where you can talk about Jesus and feel connected. But if you've never been a part of one, there's no better time to join than this summer. In fact, if you want more information about our campus groups, you can join us this Sunday morning live in person for one of our worship services. Our groups meet at 9:45. Or you can find out more information on our website. We are excited to welcome you back! We'll see you soon! ¶ >> Ryan: Yeah, really excited to have all our class options back and have some information in the lobby. We hope you will join us at 9:45 on Sundays and find a group to be a part of. All right, all my first to fifth graders, it's time for Main Street Live! Mr. Joel is waving at the back and will take you over to chapel for our children's worship time. Parents, if you didn't get a chance to check your kids in, you can follow Joel. He'll help you get started. We would love to have you fill out a Connection card while you're here this morning so if you're online, just click the "Connection Card" button. If you pull out your phone here in the building, there's a code on the back of your seat. You can scan that. It will bring up our Connection Card. Tell us what you're interested in and what you want to know more about. Maybe you want to know more about baptism, becoming a member, our finding about our children and student ministry programs. We'd love to follow up with you about those things. There's also a place to write a prayer request. We have a group of people that put requests every week so please tell us your prayer needs. We will be glad to do that. If you're a guest here today, welcome! We're so glad to have you here with us. I want to invite you to come to our “New Here? Start Here” area across the lobby. There's some people there that just love to meet and get to know you and answer any questions you have. We also have a gift available for you to pick up as our guest so we hope to see you at “New Here? Start Here” after the service It's time for our fellowship greeting; so let's stand, say hello to one another this morning; and if you're watching online, you can say hi in the chat box. ("From the Day" playing) ¶ Yes, from the day You saved my soul ¶ >> Richard: Thank you for your worship today! You may be seated! >> Ronnie: Thanks so much, Richard and team. We appreciate that. Good morning, everybody! Glad to see you! Welcome today! To the First Colony Church of Christ. Welcome to our second service. Good to have you with us. Those to have you watching online, we're glad to have you part of this worship experience as well. In just a moment, I will show you a commercial. You know, maybe you have not seen a car commercial in church but will show you a car commercial in just a moment but not just yet. We're in a message series called "Kinda Different." Because as believers, we are called to be different. You think about it. We have been redeemed by grace, marked by the Holy Spirit. Our lives are rooted and directed by the Living and Abiding Word of God; and so we're called to be unique; to be different as we walk with the Lord. We have different values. We have different morals, different belief system. You'll be a different kind of mom, different kind of dad; a different kind of husband; a different kind of wife. You'll be different in the way you raise your children and different in the way you relate to people, different in the way you respond to personal hurt and offenses. You'll be different in the way you invest your money and spend your time. The title of today's message: "A Different View of Trouble." As believers, we have a unique and different mindset towards adversity, difficulty, and trouble. Not that we like it, not that we want it. If you can avoid it without compromising your faith, great! However, as you'll hear in just a moment, it's inevitable that some trouble, it will find you. Now, you know, a few months ago we had the Super Bowl. Some of you love the Super Bowl. I think the highlight of this past Super Bowl was actually a Toyota commercial featuring the Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long. She's won 13 gold medal in the Paralympics, born in Siberia with a condition where she did not have fibulas, didn't have ankles, heels. Very few bones in her feet. She was raised in an orphanage, adopted when she was 13 months old. Her adoptive parents, Steve and Beth Long out of Baltimore, Maryland, were told her lower legs will have to be amputated at some point. And yet that condition and that difficulty certainly did not and has not defined Jessica. It certainly didn't define her parents, Steve and Beth. One of the things this commercial will -- well, let me just show you the commercial first. You ready? Here it is. It's a car commercial, but it features Jessica. ¶ (Phone ringing) >> Mrs. Long? >> Yes? >> We have found a baby girl for your adoption, but there's some things you need to know. She's in Siberia, and she was born with a rare condition. Her legs will need to be amputated. I know this is difficult to hear. Her life, it won't be easy. (Cheers and applause) Mrs. Long? >> It might not be easy, but it will be amazing. I can't wait to meet her. >> We believe there is hope and strength in all of us. Toyota, proud partner of Team USA. >> Ronnie: Jessica Long is an impressive person. Her parents are impressive people. They homeschool their children. They have both biological and adoptive children. They are VERY, very strong Christians; and Jessica says that her faith is front and center in her life. Now, the commercial doesn't go into this. She said, "It's my faith in the Lord that gives me all of my strength, and I actually believe my story is part of God's plan. It's my faith in Him that helps me remain sane in the midst of everything." I'm not saying trouble is fun. I'm not saying it's good on its own. I believe God can work good out of it. And as believers, we have sort of a different view of trouble. It's not just an interruption. Now, everybody in this room, you're either in the midst of some difficulty right now; or you're about tonight; or you're coming out of it. Life is just difficult. It is. Sometimes the difficulty needle, sometimes the adversity needle, it's just in the yellow zone; but sometimes it goes all the way over to the red zone. Some of you might be in a season like that right now. I have two simple points today. Here's the first one: trouble is both inevitable and purposeful. It is purposeful. Reading from the book of James 1: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kind." Now, that's a kind of different mindset right there. "Consider it pure joy." Consider that even in the midst of whatever trial or difficulty this might be, they are multifaceted. It might be financial; it might be relational; it might be something you brought on yourself; it might be something because you live in a fallen world; whatever the shape of that difficulty, God can be with you in the middle of it. Therefore, you know you're not alone, and God can have a purpose here. So consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kind, because I know -- listen -- you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." "Let perseverance do its thing. Let perseverance finish its work so you will be mature and complete, not lacking anything." God says, “In the middle of this trouble and difficulty I can be with you and help you mature.” There are various types of immature faith. There's a kind of faith you would simply call inherited faith. This is the kind of person who says, "I go to church because my mom and dad go to the same church or they check with me. Now, once they pass on to their great reward, I'm not sure if I will be around anymore because my faith -- it's an inherited faith. It's not really mine but belong to my parents." Now, there's a difference between the kind of faith that you've inherited and now it's yours and the kind of faith that's just sort of a dead inherited faith. There's another kind of immature faith, just a shallow faith. Jesus talked about this. At the first sign of difficulty, this person bails. There's another kind of immature faith, conditional faith. This is the person who says, "I love the Lord. I believe in the Lord. I love my wonderful house; I love my beautiful new car; and as long as things are new and shiny and smooth, I love the Lord." It's a "as long as" kind of faith. "I just want God to be my cosmic bodyguard and cosmic genie." Well, trouble is inevitable and coming to you; but with the Lord, there can be purposes in you; through you; and to others. Now, why do all these troubles come, you know? What's their source? This is not an exhaustive list, but let me just put some possibilities up here for you. Sometimes we hurt because of empathy, empathetic reasons, empathic reasons. You may not be wounded; you may not be hurt; no one hit you with a rock; but you care about someone who is; and you hurt because someone you care about is hurting. Secondly, there's undeserved hurt; and this is where Cain and Abel -- what did Abel do? Nothing. He was innocent. What happened? His brother attacks him. And some of you know undeserved hurt. I mean, you read the news this past week. A 17-year-old kid's riding home with his family from the Astros game and somebody gets mad on the highway, pulls out a gun. I mean, this is absurd. What did he do? And you live in a fallen world. That's where we are. This is not the world God created. Now the world has been tainted by sin and fallenness. That means you deal with hurricanes; earthquakes; fires; tornadoes; floods; natural disaster; COVID-19. And then there's self-inflicted hurt. I don't know who said this, but someone has said that if you could kick in the pants the person most responsible for most of your pain, YOU wouldn't be able to sit down for a week. In other words, how many of us have been our own worst enemy and brought a lot of pain and grief upon ourselves? You know, sometimes you reap what you sow. Self-inflicted. And then there's disciplinary hurt and pain. This is where God is getting our attention about something. Hebrews 12 says, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?" Now verse 11: "No discipline seems pleasant at the time but feels painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." He says, “Just any kind of hardship that comes along, endure it as discipline.” There's missional pain or missional frustration. Like in the commercial we saw earlier, Jessica Long's adopted mom in that telephone conversation, her life will not be easy. No, it won't be easy. It will be amazing but won't be easy. But we will intentionally and deliberately step into this. And my friends, followers of Jesus Christ from the earliest days have said what? "It's an honor to suffer for Jesus Christ. It's an honor and a privilege." Since Jesus is who He says He Is, I'm an heir of an eternal kingdom; and since Jesus rose from the dead, I will, too, for me to live as Christ and even to die His gain. Believers from the earliest days have said, "I would rather suffer for Christ than be comfortable and cowardly." Sometimes we hurt missionally. We're living on purpose. Someone may make fun of you or ostracize you -- whatever it is -- but it's intentional and missional. And last of all, mysterious suffering, mysterious hurt. We just don't know. Trouble is complicated. Sometimes it's all my fault. I brought it on me. Sometimes it's partly my fault. Sometimes it's not my fault at all. Now, gang, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying you should go out, seeking trouble. If there's a way to avoid trouble, if there's a way to avoid trouble without rejecting Jesus and without compromising your faith, then by all means avoid trouble. Trouble will find you; you don't need to go seeking it out. You don't need to feel like you need to go all Happy Gilmore and stand in project of a pitching machine, taking fastballs into the chest just to try to toughen yourself up. If you can avoid it, do so. But it's coming. It's inevitable. But it's not purposeless. God is there and will walk with you through it and will do something IN you and will do something THROUGH you. Here's my second point: trouble is an opportunity for grace to shine through you. Dallas Willard defines grace as follows: "Grace is God acting in our lives to bring about what we do not deserve and cannot accomplish on our own." When we have been knocked to our knees, when there's some difficulty, some trouble, it's an opportunity for God's grace to shine THROUGH us. Now, the classic passage on this is from 2 Corinthians 12, beginning verse 7. The apostle Paul says this: "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. And three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away." What was his thorn in the flesh? No one knows for sure. I know this: Paul thought, "God, if You would take this away, it would make perfect sense. I would be so much more effective for You if I didn't have to deal with this, but it's there." Was it a memory of something? A physical ailment? I don't know. "Three times I plead with the Lord to take it away, but you he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. And therefore, I will boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me." Paul was faced to look at his point of weakness every day; think about it regularly; so that he might lean upon the Lord even more. Verse 10. "And that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults; hardships; persecutions; difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." When we go through trouble, we often want to ask why. It's natural. I'm not sure it's a particularly productive question. Here are some questions that I do think are fairly productive. First of all, how? How can I grow in Christ through this? God doesn't always provide a "why." He will provide wisdom. How can I grow through this? Because being in a season of difficulty or trouble, what does it do? It alerts us; it awakens our sensibilities to a bigger picture. Have you ever heard someone say, "God will never give you more than you can handle"? That's not true. That's actually a twisting of a verse of Scripture that does say, "God will never allow you to be tempted more than you can bear." But there are times you have a load on your shoulders that is beyond your strength, and it's there to teach you to depend on Him because when you're hurting; when you're confused; what do you do? You draw close to Him. When you're desperate, what you do you do? You run to Him. In your weakness, His strength gets a chance to show. And when you're knocked down and all you can do is look up, that's actually a good thing. How can I grow in this? Secondly, what can I learn? Because you're in a one-day-at-a-time mind set here. What can I learn here? Thirdly, what does this make possible? You know, life is all -- life is full of transitions. It's full of changes and transitions. Some of them are intentional and welcomed. Sometimes they're just put upon you, but when you go through a change or a transition and it might be challenging, you say, "What now does this make possible?" Here's a fourth question: who now can I uniquely serve? "I know how you feel. I've been in your shoes." Those phrases can only been said to someone if you have walked a similar journey, and there are people to whom you can uniquely say, "I know this. I've walked in these shoes." Some of your most significant ministry and service opportunities will flow out of your most painful experiences, even some of your failures. "Ronnie, I failed in that moment." Yes, and out of that, then you have run to the grace of God, and you can take that grace and minister and serve another person. Let me remind you there is only one Person who's always gotten right, only One; and sometimes out of your failure and pain and experiences will flow some beautiful ministry. Why? It's not always a productive question. How can I grow from this? What can I learn from this? What now does this make possible? And WHO, now, may I be uniquely posture and positioned to serve? I know a lot of you are familiar with Nick, a famous speaker, Australian-American, born without limbs, arms, or legs. He's a motivational speaker; he's a business leader; he is a VERY powerful Christian evangelist. He knows what it's like to walk through a season of awkwardness and trouble; so as I tie a bow on our thoughts today, I want you to listen to Nick. >> God will use the foolish things to confound the wise. God can use a man without arms and legs to be His hands and feet, to prove that it's not about Nick. It's not about his ability. It's not about him and his strength and how he speaks all around the world and uses his hands greatly as gesture and body language while he gets excited, preaching. It's not about me; it's about Jesus. I didn't write my story; Jesus wrote my story. He knew me before the earth began. And I don't know about you, but yeah, it's good to have a job. It's good to have relationship and get married and have kids. It's good to have that stuff. But until you find Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there will always be something missing. You can't rely on you because you will fail you every single time, just about. I needed Him. Not just cause of this but for my heart, for my mind. By the grace of God, He kept me here on earth, even though I tried to commit suicide at age 10. The bullying at my school convinced me that I was a mistake; that I'll never eventually be anything. Man, what a lie! When you realize it's just the devil, I say "just the devil" because the devil is nothing compared to Jesus. I was listening to the encouragement my parents were saying, but then listening to the lies at the same time, the lies saying, "You're not good enough, Nick; just give up." "No, I'm wonderfully and fearfully made according to Psalm 139." "Oh, you should give up." "No, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." At age 10, I didn't believe the truth because I wasn't running the race. I wasn't in the right race. The race where it's not just getting things in your life and doing things and having things. What happens after you get married? You think you're the happiest person alive. You need to talk to some married people first. (Laughter) Amen? >> Yea. >> All right, so after getting married -- I love my wife; trust me -- if you're not happy single in Jesus, then you're not happy married, amen? >> Amen. >> It's not about me; it's not about my ability; it's not anything about that; it's all about Jesus. It's not about what you have or what you don't have or what you wish you had or didn't have. It's all about Jesus, that no matter where you are in your life right now, if you ask God to forgive for you of your sin and repent of your sin, God will come into your life, forgive you of your sin. You will receive His life; His blessings His life eternal; and His life's plan for your life. Not my plan. I don't want my plan. Sometimes we just need to get over ourself and realize sometimes God actually has a better plan. I suggest a plan to God, and He doesn't say anything sometimes. But we got to understand that God's ways are higher than ours and thoughts are higher than ours. I showed that video for the summary of my testimony, and I want you to know in your life I don't know what you're going through, but God does. If I have Jesus, I have everything I need. Now, does that mean I don't have a pair of shoes in my closet just in case He says yes to me? No, I do have a pair, okay? (Laughter) Just in case! Okay? I want to be ready. But what we need healing first is in the inside and to hear the voice of God. Hearing the voice of God, when you hear a phone ring, you pick it up. Okay? When you're sometimes dialing into heaven and it feels like He's not picking up, don't hang up on God. He's listening. I hung up on God because I didn't understand His plan. God said through my parents, "Nick, God's got a plan for your life, Jeremiah 29:11." "I have a hope, plan, and future." I'm like, "No way, there's no race like that! There's no heaven. There's no God." Look at all the pain in the world. If God loved the world, then why is He letting so much pain happen? Later on you realize in the Bible God doesn't give us pain; but whatever the enemy tried to use for bad, God turned into good. I can't do anything with my broken pieces, but there's nothing that God cannot do. I've seen pain. I've seen miracles. God allows thing that we don't understand, but I want you to know if you hold onto Him, He'll hold onto you. If you trust the Lord with all your heart, even when you cannot walk He'll carry you. When you don't get a miracle you can still BE a miracle. I don't need what the world can give me. I want what Jesus want to give me. What do you think I would rather want: One more person to live forever or have a little bit more money? What do you take with you? Nothing. Nothing. Not your garden; not your car; not your nothing. Just you, your soul; and the encouragement you have planted all around you hopefully solves to come with you. I can only imagine. Now, don't handcuff me because of my doctrine but just like this illustration. Imagine God sees me and he says, “Well, done, My good and faithful servant. Welcome home," and looks over my shoulder and says, "Who did you bring?" Amen? I want to run that race, the race that matters, the race that counts; and I'd rather be paralyzed in the arms of Jesus in that race than be the first-prize winner and runner in any other race. >> Ronnie: Only Jesus. Only the resources, promises, the goodness; the grace of Jesus makes it possible for us as Christians to have such a different view of even trouble -- not that we like it; not that we want it -- but we know that even though it's inevitable, that as we walk with the Lord in it, we may not get the miracle, but we can be that miracle; and it's an opportunity for the grace of God to shine IN us and THROUGH us. My friends, let me remind you the Good News of the Gospel is not that we are always delivered from our trials; the good news is not we're deliver from every crazy coworker we might have or from migraines or difficulties. The Good News of the Gospel is that we are redeemed from our sins. Our soul is forgiven. We have an eternal destination, and even in the midst of whatever difficulty we find, the Lord is with us and walks with us through it. Tim, would you be making your way up here, please? As Tim Smith comes to lead us in prayer, you know, virtually all of you are familiar with the Serenity Prayer. God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; the wisdom to know the difference. Well, sometimes when it comes to difficulty, we can pray, "Lord, help me to endure the suffering that I cannot fix; and by Your Spirit help me to change the suffering that I can fix; Grant me the wisdom to know the difference." Tim, lead us in prayers, please. >> Tim: Thank you, Ronnie, for that fantastic message and what a great reminder of our incredible dependence on the Lord and also for His promise that He will be present with us. Let's pray. Lord, as we approach the end of this worship service in which we have encouraged each other; we have heard truth; we have expressed our dedication and adoration to You there are out worship; and as we share in a time of dedicated remembrance of Your sacrificial love for us; God, we are grateful. Lord, we invite You to change us in any way and everywhere in our lives. God, as we close and we go from here, Lord, help us to continue in earnest with our spiritual active worship, which Paul describes in Romans 12. Teach us, lead us, and ignite in us what it means to be living sacrifices; that we will offer You our bodies; our time; our energy; and our resources to You and for Your kingdom purposes. Thank You, Lord, for the immensely valuable church body You have seen fit to build in this place. In Your grace and for Your Name's sake continue to grow, stretch; unite, and mature us in the faith. We bless Your Holy Name through Jesus we pray. Amen. >> Ryan: Amen. Thank you, Tim. We're thrilled to have two baptisms this morning. First, Max Girod will be baptized by his father Cody. We are celebrating along with Cody and his mom Bethany and the whole Girod family. >> Cody: Thanks, Ryan. Good morning, church. Today is a good day, huh? My name is Cody Girod and blessed and humbled to stand with my 10-year-old son Max. If you don't know him, he's brilliant; he's kind; and he's the peacemaker in our family so we're so grateful for everything he is and does for us. We talk a lot about decisions and critical decisions in our lives that matter. We were thinking and meditating over Romans where we're called to embrace the truth that Jesus died, made that choice; that He rose again. Now we have the power to rise and live in Him as well. That's big. We also were talking about the water in the baptism, and it's about choices, choices that many folks have made in this church and for many years. This is probably full of tears of joy and inspiration for many of you as folks have made a commitment to Christ and how that can change the world. So I look at my son. I'm excited for how Christ will live in him; how we can have more equality; we can have more trust and more love in this world; so buddy, I'm proud of you for exploring this and for the decision that you're gonna make. So I will ask you one question, okay? So do you believe that you are forgiven of all your sins and do you take Jesus as your Christ and savior? >> Max: Yes. >> Cody: All right, bud. With the power of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, I baptize you in their Name. (Applause) >> Ryan: Awesome! And next, Maggie Myers baptized as well, celebrating her decision today. She is the daughter of Brian and Sheri Myers and will be baptized by student ministers Jenna Davis and Kevin Porter. >> Jenna: Good morning, church! This is Maggie Myers, and I just want to say a couple things about Maggie. Maggie is pure and in everything she does. You can see on her face right now she's smiling huge. That is Maggie all the time. Maggie loves her friends and most importantly loves her church. She loves First Colony and has a love for the community. She desires for other people to know about Christ that don't. So today she's here to make her commitment. Maggie actually want to say something. >> Maggie: I just recently went to Camp Eagle with our church and when I was there, I had an experience with the Lord that I have never quite had before. I just truly felt His Presence and just an overwhelming joy; and that's when I knew I wanted to live the rest of my life for Christ. >> Jenna: Yeah, Maggie wants the Holy Spirit. (Applause) >> Kevin: Maggie, I will ask you confession, okay? Do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son to have God and that He died for your sin and He rose again on the third day? >> Maggie: I do. >> Kevin: Okay. With that confession, we'll baptize you in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Applause) >> Ryan: Congratulations to Max and Maggie. Very good. All right, we have a few items before we finish up today. Remember, our 9:45 classes for all ages on Sundays. Again, we started our full offering of adult classes so really looking forward to that. We hope you will join us for those online with class at 10:00 a.m. with Kyle Strickland each week. If you're here for a while or new, you're welcome to our info session Tuesday night online. We'll talk about what it means to be a member here; the vision of our church; next steps for getting connected. They're really fun so if you're an online participant; if you're here in person, either way we'd love to have you join us. Sign up online for that and will see you there, me and my Connections Team. It will be a good time. Camp Ten:10 is for elementary-age kids. You can register on the website. Remember to help out for our back-to-school drive. Every year we partner with Holley Elementary and try to just bless that community. The kids that are underprivileged and then overworked teachers that need our help as well. This year we're buying gift cards so that teachers can buy school supplies for their classrooms. If you go to our website, there's a few different ways you can purchase those gift cards and make a donation. I hope you will help out with the back-to-school drive. Women's Ministry has “Paint until You Faint” on July 31. And then we're also really excited that Celebrate Recovery is back with our full in-person program. That happens on Friday nights from 7:00 to 9:00 in the East Room, which is a room behind the Worship Center. You will see signs to guide you where to go. There's guides to help you get to the meeting room. We've got worship. There's a teaching time. There's small groups. Child care is included for that so really hope you will take advantage of Celebrate Recovery. It's an awesome program to help you overcomes habits, hurts, and hang-ups. You can go to the website for more info or talk to Shane Gage who leads that program. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're glad to have you with us. I hope you will leave today feeling encouraged to persevere and knowing you have everything you need to move forward; to take the next step; and face whatever you're going through because you have Jesus with you. Let's all stand and sing one more song before we go! >> Richard: Yes, God is good! ("From the Day" playing) >> Richard: Hey, thank you for worshiping with us today! You are dismissed!