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.    >> 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. >> Kevin: Good morning, everybody! I'm so glad you guys are here. I got to have a little bit of a break this last week so I'm just feeling energized and glad to see all your faces. Last week I had lunch with a couple of friends and talked on the phone to a couple former students. I'm just recognizing God is doing something in every single one of our lives, whether that's something that is a really challenging season or life is going great right now. God is still doing something, and the common denominator is not whether our life is up or down but we're meant to live our life with God at the center of it. You have done step one, shown up or here online. Step two -- invite the Holy Spirit to do whatever it is He wants this morning. We'll get to see and experience all God wants us to. Let's all stand together and we'll worship our God this morning. >> Richard: God is faithful, amen? ("Every Giant Will Fall" playing) >> Richard: Nothing is impossible with our God, amen? EVERY giant will fall! No matter where we find ourselves, our God is always greater! ("Rescue Story" playing) >> Richard: Thank you, Lord! Thank you, church, for worshiping with us. You may be seated. >> Joel: Good morning, everyone. It's good to be with you on this Sunday. Now, I like light, and I'm sure you like light as well. I know when I was little I was scared to death to sleep in a room that didn't have a night light, and if it went out, I was scared of that. I remember one time I wanted to go from one end of the house to the other but had to walk through a dark hallway, and I didn't want to do it all by myself. Well, the cool thing is that God represents life, and as light and as believers, you know from Matthew 5, "Let your light so shine before men they may glorify your Father." We are to do good works. I have a little illustration here with a light. I don't know if you can see -- yeah. It's there. Cool. I wasn't sure if it would be too small. Normally I would do this with, uh, flashlights, but I know some of you happen to like fire. (Laughter) So, you know, we'll do some fire. It's exciting. Well, I've had the opportunity to go in a cave and turn off all the lights, and when you're inside the cave and that darkness just feels like it's covering you like a blanket -- like it's super strong -- all you have to do is light a little match, and the darkness backs away. Well, as believers, we are to reflect God in this world, people who have turned and responded to Christ. We are now light in a dark world. But I'll tell you this -- I have been in a cave with a tiny little light, even actually my phone flashlight, and it's not that bright. And you're like, "Man, I wish I had a brighter light." Well, we live in a world right now where we need bright lights to shine. That is you, to shine and push away darkness. So the question is, how do you go from just a little light to a bigger light? And one key is God's Word. It's truth. Recently I heard someone say, "God's truth says this, and this truth says that." There's only one Truth that comes from God's Word, the Bible. It's the truth and highway; we know the truth and the truth sets us free. But secondly, the cool thing about spend time in God's Word is that it makes your light even brighter. So here's an example of what God's Word does. This is where it gets fun. Are you ready? Isn't that cool? Do you want me to do it again? >> Yes! >> Joel: Dr. Kaiser is like, "Oh, please, do it one more time!" Oh, no! That's why you need to spend time in God's Word! Ah! (Laughter) Look at that? What are the odds? You know -- there we go. Oh, yeah. Whoo! We got a mushroom cloud, in church! All right, boys and girls, moms and dads, wherever you are on that journey, we want to shine God's light; but the way you become brighter is spending time in God's Word and reflecting Him in all you say and do. Thank you very much. (Applause) >> Kevin: Thank you, Joel. We're about to take communion so if you need to grab that, pull that out. If you're at home, get what you need. I want to remind us as Sam and Elijah come up, this is a table that we eat at together. You are welcome in this place, and God is the only One who has the ability to welcome the entire world and He's doing that right now. Thank you, guys, for leading us in this. >> Sam: Hi, I'm Sam Walker and this is my son Elijah Walker. Thankfully we have an opportunity to lead you in communion today. We're going to pray for the bread, which represents the body that's broken; and also for the cup, which represents the blood Jesus shed. Please pray with me. Lord, thank You so much for an opportunity that You have given us to take time every single week in order to remember the ultimate sacrifice You gave so we have an opportunity to spend an eternity with You. Thank You so much for being with us daily in this journey, Lord, and giving us an opportunity and resource we can always count on. We love You so much and thank You and Your Son for the opportunity. Amen. >> Elijah: I will be reading John 10:7-11. (Reading) ("Your Love Defends Me" playing) >> Kevin: We're gonna take up our offering right now. If you don't know, there's a bunch of ways to do it. You can do it online or text to give. There are boxes at the back where you can drop it off here if you want. I was thinking this week of all the moment that have happened in my life spiritually that were because somebody like you decided to give to God's kingdom and the work He's doing. I just want to say thank you. That work is still going on today, and I just enjoy being a part of it with your guys. Let's pray and ask God's blessing on the offering. Lord, thank You so much for how You have blessed us; and Lord, we're giving back to You right now in a step of faith we can take, that we trust You; but it's also a way to show gratitude for the way You have provided for us. We want You to continue to work in whatever You know is best and help us to be a part of that. We give You money for that so you can continue Your work. It's in Jesus' Name we pray the blessing. Amen. ¶ >> Ryan: Hey, First Colony, I'm excited for the Connection groups. We have so many good group options for you and hope you will find a rhythm of gathering with people and having an opportunity to grow in your faith. We've got neighborhood groups that meet in homes and great on-campus options. We have online groups. There's men's and women's group and care groups and hope you will find just one group that's a really good fit for you. We have really made it easy. All you have to do is go on the website and look at the Connection Group catalog. It's also in the lobby. Fill out a quick response form and we'll match you up to a group. Take a look at all the groups available and get connected. ¶ >> Kevin: All right! A couple other things. If you're new here and you're a first-time guest, we want to say welcome and would love for you to step outside at the end of the service. There's a place straight back out the back door called "New Here? Start Here." You can find out information you need. If you also want to know about different ministries, that's the perfect place to start to get you connected. Another way to do that is the QR cards in front of you in the pews. Scan with your phone camera to pull up a link. You can ask about any ministry or prayer requests. We'd love to pray for you with that. All the kids that want to go to Main Street Live, stand up and make your way back to Joel in the back. He'll take you there. Parents, if you need to, check in with them right now. Everybody else, let's greet and ask everyone how their week has been. ("This is Amazing Grace" playing) ¶ All that You have done for me ¶ >> Richard: Thank you, church! You may be seated! >> Ronnie: Fantastic! Thanks so much, Richard and team; and good morning, everyone! So glad to see you. To those of you in the room, welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ. Welcome today to our second service. To those of you watching online, buenos dias. Good morning! (Saying good morning in French and German) We're so glad to have you with us. I want to recognize four recent baptism, and please hold your applause until I mention all four of these. As the young ladies stand, please remain standing. First of all, Brynley Marrie. Also Macy and Lexi Houston. They're right from. And then also Kaitlyn Smith. There you go. So let's just celebrate and recognize and applaud. (Applause) There you go. Fantastic! Brynley, daughter of David and Lyndsey. Macy and Lexi, daughters of Philip and Heidi. Kaitlyn, daughter of Kevin and Sheryl. Congratulations. That's fantastic. We continue today -- in our teaching time with -- with a series from the New Testament book of 1 John, which is full of assurance and reassurance. It's also full of challenge. We need both. It depends on where you are. There's a time where you need assurance and re-affirmation. There are other times you need adjustment and challenge. You need correction. The book of 1 John is like the Bible at large. It will do both. Today's message is from a challenging section of the book of 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. Today we're talking about the love that God hates, which is love for the world. I'll define that here in just a second. You know, it's not so much a question of "Do you love something?" But what do you love? And you have -- I have -- the capacity to nurture what I care about. There are some loves that are just not good for you. A love of fire, Joel, is not good for you. (Laughter) You can like it, utilize it. A love for donuts is not good for you. Have a donut occasionally and enjoy one, but a love for donuts is not really good for you. And a love for this world's system is not good for you. It's just not. Some of you have not thought about that in a while. If you think about it, though, loving God SHOULD be so easy. Is there a nicer person in the room? No. God is supremely lovable. Think of ALL the good gifts He's given us. Think of His mercy and His grace. God is SO lovable! So then, why is it difficult to love such a lovable God? Answer: He has a lot of competition. There are a number of items competing for the affection of God in your heart and mine. In this world, our love for God gets repelled by so many things that are easy to love, and if we're not careful, we can have SO many gods, little gods, on our plate that our love for the One True, Eternal God gets thinned out. 1 John 2. "So do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them." What does that mean, "the world"? What is "the world"? This is a word that is used in multiple ways in Scripture. I mean, we have a lot of words that are used in multiple way. Take the word "ball." Last night we went to a ball. While we were there, we had a ball! And while we were at the ball and we had a ball, we threw a ball! Same word. It's utilized in different ways, depending on the context. The word "world." God created the world. It's beautiful! It's wonderful! "For God so loved the world," meaning the people in the world. There's so much in the world to enjoy: art and culture and music. But there is something about the world you were not to love. What is it? Let me just read some quotes. "It's an entire system set against God, determined to live without Him, running after satisfaction in created things rather than in the Creator. It's an organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from Him." "The goal of worldly people, if they do not completely deny God, they simply ignore Him, forget Him, or else they use Him only for their selfish purposes." Let me put a statement up here on the screen. What is the world? It's a system of values, ideas, and actions that rebel against God and redefine good and evil. Worldliness is a system of thinking whereby you treat what you can see and touch as if it's all there is, and you redefine right and wrong along the lines of popular opinion or popular desire. That's what the Bible calls "the world." Do not be in love with the flow of this world. "For everything in the world" -- verse 16 -- "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life -- it comes not from the Father. It comes from the world." He breaks worldliness here into three ways. First, the lust of flesh. That's unrestrained human nature, the craving to succeed at any cost; to satisfy sexual urgings apart from God's design, the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes like greed, envy, to be captivate by external outward appearances. And the pride of life. One writer says, "There's the pride of control -- I got to be in control. There's the pride of power. There's the pride of applause." Hmm. Here's the deal: gang, it takes an enormous amount of conviction and courage and choosing to push the pause button to regain your wits about you and then to say in those moments, "Look, I want to be a woman of God. I want to be a man of God. I want to be a friend of God. And if that makes me a little bit of an alien in the current of this world, so be it. But I want to do the right thing with the right spirit to please God." One writer said, "In North America -- not around the world; in North America -- we try to get people to love God more without compelling them and reminding them 'You've got the love the world less.' You have SO many little gods on your plate; no wonder you can't love God more." A.W. Tozer said, "A whole generation of Christians have grown up believing that it is possible to follow Christ without forsaking the world." Let me just meddle a little more, okay? Just meddle a little more. Let me mention a couple areas here about our ethics. Ethics. I think most of us in this room, we all pretty much know right and wrong. The rules have been the same for the last couple thousand years: don't cheat; don't lie; don't steal; don't misrepresent yourself; don't misrepresent your company; don't break the law; don't break your promises; do unto others as you have them do unto you. That's not a big mystery to us. But if we're not careful, over time people sort of learn to tap dance around things. Exploit, pad, take advantage. But as people who do not love this world, there is a phrase in Scripture I'd like to remind you of called "beyond reproach." Not trying to see how close I can get to the edge. Beyond reproach. Again, it takes courage. It takes choosing to want to be that person but it's good for you. It's good for everyone around you, and it's incredibly good for the people that you want to influence and witness. Relationships. You know, in the world people just reflexively, "Hey, you mistreat me? I'm going to miss treat you. If I need to just bury this relationship, hey, we'll tie a bow on it and I will not even tie a nice one. Throw you away." But as believers, we have the Holy Spirit of reconciliation where instead of wanting to make one more burial in our relationship cemetery, let's see what we can do to maybe work through any awkwardness -- I'm not saying it's always easy -- but to push through and to a spirit of reconciliation and walk in that direction. John says, "Don't love the system of this world. You have been redeemed. You have been reclaimed. You have been renewed. This system is broken." Verse 17: "The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." So I would ask you in a fresh way this morning -- and just urge you, don't put your heart into the values of this world. Just ask: "Where do I need in a fresh way to revisit my lines? Where do I, in a fresh way, need to revisit my values, my belief system, and say I tether myself to these doctrines, to these beliefs, to these values? And this is where I stand." And, you know, some of you may be listening to me today. You have forgotten that there is an alternative to the world system. There's a great alternative. You know, you don't have to operate in pride. You can operate in humility. You don't have to be a sexual predator or wanderer. You can actually invest in your marriage and build a better one. You can love your spouse. You don't have to try to get your identity out of everything you can own and promote. You can actually get your identity out of being loved by Jesus Christ and know your identity in Him. There is a wonderful parallel reality out there. Yes, there's the system of the world; but there's a heavenly system as well and heavenly values. As believers, we're not anti the people of the world. "For God so loved the world," the people. We want to do the same thing and we're not anti the use of God's good gifts. And so much has been taken and corrupted -- what we want to do as believers, let's redeem it. Let's redeem it. We want to be all about redemption and can redeem love. We can redeem marriage. We can redeem sex. We can redeem money. We don't earn and spend and hoard like someone who has worldly values. We can earn and spend and give like people who have heavenly values. We can take what God made so beautifully that's been corrupted and take it back and redeem it. That's what I want for you. All right, let me give a couple of statements here. Here's the first one: "You love God more by loving the world's system less." This is something that doesn't often get underscored. You're not going to create greater love for God just by marketing it and exhorting it. Some of you have too many competing allegiances, and something has to be taken off the plate so that there is an absolute clear allegiance to our Lord. The great commandment is what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength." Have you taken that stand? There's a second statement: "Stay in the Scriptures. Keep in the Scripture and keep the Scriptures in you." Scriptures are so vital. They are our North Star. They keep us in alignment because what is the world again? The world is a culture. It's a pattern of belief, social and cultural practices that are opposed to the reality of God as revealed in the Bible. It's rebellion against God; it's redefining good and evil. That's why, for example, I think people often are confused about a topic like abortion or greed or sexuality or morality or the nature of God is just up for popular opinion because what the world thinks is often not colored and shaped by the perspective of Scripture. As one writer said, "There is a form of belief now that's pretty common. It's the desire to retain a little Christianese but not give up any individual rights." As one person said, "It's `I want the kingdom but not the King.'" The danger is our faith becomes sort of a do-it-yourself faith. That's a collage of Christian-like, Christianese, politics -- either to the right or left -- popular culture, circle of friend. It's a very synchronistic approach, mixing several different views into the faith. And the speed bump here in this is that all of us, if we're not careful, we are masters at self-justification. We are masters at echo chambers. You know what an echo chamber is? I just love to get feedback. If you agree with me and support me, that's great. If you don't, I don't want anything to do with you. The Bible is not an echo chamber. The Bible will challenge you and speak the truth to you, and as Tim Keller wisely said, "If you cannot have a God who will contradict you and challenge you, then you have to ask, do you really believe in God; or have you just created a god in your own image?" That's where I stand. That's where I stand. I am susceptible to drifting. You are, too. You say, "Ronnie, not me; I grew up going to church." We're all susceptible to drifting. You may have been born in the heart of the Bible Belt, Nashville, Abilene, Surcey, wherever. You may have a degree from a Christian school. We're all susceptible to drifting. You know why? Because all of us live in a culture that is, as the Bible say, it's not necessarily God friendly. Some cultures are more God friendly than others, but it's not flow in a Godly direction. That's why we are reminded, whatever you do, don't love this world's system. Stay true to the system that God has provided to you and His values. Love Him; honor Him; love and follow Jesus Christ; and take what you encounter in this world and redeem it for good. Use it for good. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for being with us today. I think we're going to conclude now with a time of prayer. Gordon, would you be making your way up here and lead us in this time of prayer? As Gordon is doing so, let me just remind you. Some of you, it's time for you to maybe take an initial step in coming to the Lord. For some of us, maybe today you have been listening and you say, "You know, I have. I have been drifting away, and I need to re-ignite my faith and my passion for the Lord and my service in His church." That's a decision that the Holy Spirit will help you with today. All right, everybody. Let's pray. Gordon? >> Gordon: Lord God, we're just wanting to lift up our hearts to You, and may we learn to love You more and relish the things of this world less. May our identity rest in You and on Your promises. Several things on our heart right now, Lord God. We are mindful of Hurricane Ida and people in the path of that storm. We ask that You protect those that stayed behind and You watch over those trying to exit. We pray for Your blessings over that situation and You be served in that. I also want to be mindful of our church leaders here at First Colony. I want to lift up a special prayer for them as they work through this new reality that we're dealing with, corporate church services and online and how that works. And Lord, may we ever strive to reach the lost in the search. It's through Jesus we pray. Amen. >> Kevin: Amen. How fortunate are we that we get to talk to the Creator of Universe and He cares about our lives, you know? A couple of things to let you know. Classes are going again so if you just started coming back to service, 9:45 classes are going, adults to teenagers to children. That is back there. You can check that out at the Information Desk out front to see what is going on. Also, if you're online, there's a thing called The Conversation that happens; so you can find information about that on the website. Then a couple other things that are unique -- there's First Conversations. If you're a person who want to know the basics of walking with Jesus in the Christian faith, pick one of those up or find the information on the website. It's a great resource just to go through all the things. You're like, "I got questions but don't really know how to ask them specifically." We also have a New Member Info Session so if you have been wanting to be a part of the church or just been a part of the church and don't know how to get plugged in to a certain place, this is the thing for you. It will be on September 19 and right in the "New Here? Start Here" outside during classes on that date at 9:45. And then a couple highlights of thing to look for. FriendSpeak training is coming up and a marriage event that will be a Marriage Night online. That's a great thing to do what Ronnie was saying, pour in to your relationship. How about everybody stand together, and let's send s sing one more verse together? >> Richard: Amen! God is good! ("This is the Amazing Grace" playing) >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today! You are dismissed!