DISCLAIMER: This text is not a verbatim transcript. Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our podcast "Anchor Point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. we are glad you're here. >> Richard: Welcome to the worship service at First Colony Church. We're glad to see you here in the building and online. We come to give praise to Jesus for what he has done for us. Whether you're in good times or times of hardship, difficult times, we have so much to be grateful for because of who Jesus is. Psalm 9 says: I will give thanks to the Lord, I will recount all of your deeds and be glad and exalt you and sing praise to your name. Let's sing praise to our Lord Jesus. >> Richard: We want to teach you a new song, but we need your help. We need you to stand up. Clap. [Clapping] ("Sing Wherever I Go") >> Richard: Do you believe that this morning? God has been good to us. God is good all the time. Amen. ("The Blessing") >> Richard: Yes, the blessing of the Lord be upon you, church. You may be seated. >> Joel: Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to be with you on Sunday. Good to see you. Today we're going to make magnets sing. I know you're excited about that. Some of you are like, ah man, no fire? No fire. If you want an amazing illustration at the end of this, I'm going to disappear. We've got that going for us. All right. Why would we need magnets to sing? If you remember in scripture, there is a particular situation where Jesus is entering into Jerusalem for the final time and the Pharisees come to him and say, hey, these people are praising you, you need to stop it. Jesus responds in Luke 9:14: I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Here we are to worship God by singing, praying, studying his word and living a life worthy of the calling we've received. We praise God by thanking him. We praise God by loving others. Those are illustrations. I have a magnet here. You may have seen these before. What's interesting is, listen to this. Pretty cool, huh? Did you hear anything? No. That's because we need two together. Did you hear that? Sounds like electricity. When I practiced this the lights weren't there. I also like a verse from Matthew 18:20 that says when two of you are praising and worshiping God, Jesus is in the mix. When it's one, he's there. But we know when two, he is there as well. My prayer for you is as we continue to worship God today that we would worship and glorify him with all your heart. Thank you very much. >> Ryan: Thank you so much, Joel. Joel mentioned being together as a community. As we come together each week we take communion together to remember the loving sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And Pete and Missy Edgmon will lead us in our communion this morning. If you came in and you weren't able to pick up supplies, we have some supplies at the back of the room. >> Pete: Good morning, church. It's our privilege to lead you in celebrating the Lord's supper together this morning. Bow with me as we go to our Father in prayer. Holy Father in heaven. How great is your name? You are the great and everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth, how bounded are our mercies to us. Help us cast aside our daily troubles from our thoughts and prepare our minds to consider the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us. Father, in the scriptures from the gospel of Luke Jesus says no one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, it's placed on a stand where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. Father, might we have that light that radiates and be united through Jesus Christ. Father, bless this bread that represents Jesus' broken body on the cup and bless this cup that represents his precious bloodshed. Let's take these emblems in remembrance of him, in Jesus' holy name, amen. Let's partake together. >> Missy: I'll be reading John 13:31-34 From the new living translation. As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once. Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can't come where I am going. So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. >> Richard: Why don't we all stand together and worship the Lord. ("How Great is Our God") >> Richard: Thank you, church, for your worship. You may be seated. >> Ryan: Amen. It's so good to worship together. It's time for our offering. We want to thank you for your generous donations that help support the work of the church here and in the community and places all around the world. You have options to give. You can give online. You can text to give. Those are safe and easy to set up. Here in the building there are some collection boxes at the back of the room that you can place your offering in. Will you pray with me? God, we thank you for your generosity and that you have plans for us that are for your glory. God, we give to you today as a response to your goodness for us and we ask that you would receive this offering and continue to provide for our needs. God, we pray that your peace will be in our hearts, your grace in our words, and your love will be in our hands and the work that we do to share your love with others. We pray owl of this? Jesus' name. Amen. [\M\M\M] >> Why is it that the desires that we find deep in our hearts are so far from the life that we find ourselves living? Why is it that the movies that we love speak far more to us than our daily grind? There was a heart that we had as a boy filled with wonder and dreams of paddle and adventure and beauty. Somewhere in the process a boy is a man. Most of us lose heart, maybe not all of the heart, but we lose big chunks of it. >> And in order to find the life that we are still looking for, we have to go back and we have to get those lost parts of our heart back. >> This is a journey into whole-heartedness. And in the course of this journey, it opens up a world that we have been waiting for. >> In the weeks since I finished the book, my relationship with my wife has gone to another level. She sees me as a different man. >> In this time that we're all in different places, we could be struggling with different things or the same thing, we come together and encourage one another. >> If you want to grow in your faith, there is no better way to do it than to get together with other guys to work it out and grow in the process. >> There's going to be something in here that's that finger in your chest saying, that's you, that's your issue. He personally covers it all. >> I want to personally invite you to this great journey. Come be filled with life and God's word and recover your masculine heart. Go to the website and register. We look forward to seeing you. >> Ryan: I'm really exciteled for the huddle. If you're a guy and need to have some guys to give you encouragement and to have your back, you need to sign up. We could love you to fill out a connection card today. If you scan the code in front of you, you can tell us about ministry programs you're interested in. There's a group of people that will pray over those this week. Please tell us your prayer needs. If you're a guest here today, thank you so much for being here with us. Come to our new here start here area after the worship service. We have people that would love to meet you and there is also a gift there that you can pick up. Thank you so much for being with us. It's time for Main Street live. Mr. Joel is at the back. He's going to take you to the chapel. Parents, if you didn't have time to get your kids signed in, you can do that now. It's time for our fellowship greeting. Stand up and if you're online, say hi to everyone in the chat box. [Indistinct chatter] ("From The Day") >> Richard: Thank you for your worship, church. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Fantastic, Richard and team. Thank you for leading us to very, very well. You know, I love Buzzie as a drummer and they're just really a fantastic group of musicians and singers. Let's thank them for serving us so well. [Applause] >> Ronnie: And Thomas and Buzzie both, they are really, really just great as drummers and servant hearts and just a fantastic group of people who lead us so well in our worship. Good morning, everybody to those of you in the room, glad to see you. To those of you watching online, we welcome you as well. My name is Ronnie. We are in a message series from the New Testament from 1 John. The theme is walking in the life. The title of today's message is "now we know." The first message is from 1 John 3. If you're at home, get out your Bible, smartphone, Bible app, follow along on 1 John 3. Let me start with some trivia. Some of you love to do trivia competitions. Let's see how you do so far. What year was the very first model of the iPhone released? If you said 2005, you were wrong. It's 2007. Which country produces the most coffee in the world. If you said Argentina, you would be wrong. It's Brazil. What is the name of the world's longest river? Please don't say Brezus. The Nile. Which Beatle was born first? In other words, who is the oldest Beatle. I realize some of them are deceased. Who is the oldest beetle, John, Paul, George, Ringo, the oldest is Ringo, followed by John, Paul, George being the youngest. Now you know. Now you know that those pieces of information. Well, some Bible information, for example. Did you know that Psalm 118:8 is the absolute middle verse in the Bible? Did you know that Ezra 7:21 contains all the letters of the alphabet except for the letter J. You knew that, didn't you? Do you know what the longest verse in the Bible is? It's Esther 8:9. There you go. Now you know. That's information and people who study information will tell you that there's data, there's information, there's knowledge where a lot of that data and information has now been structured and organized, but then there's wisdom. There is the kind of information that's actually really, really helpful. And the wonderful thing is that we serve and worship a God who can't be known. Someone says, can you really know anything? Yes, you can. God has made himself known in three ways, one through creation, two through Jesus, God in the flesh, and thirdly through the scriptures. We can know that there is a God. We may not know everything about him, but we can know that he is exists and has revealed his will to us. This is the thing about knowledge, you have to seek it. If you're going to go into business, medicine, law, whatever, knowledge doesn't just jump down your throat, you seek it. If you want knowledge about God, you seek it. It doesn't just jump down your throat. That's why we study the Bible. In today's section of scripture, the apostle John is going to use this phrase, this is how we know. He's going to highlight three really important ingredients that as followers of Jesus we can know, we can know. All right. Here is the first one. You can know what God's children look like. What does a child of God look like? Verse 10. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Yikes. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. Throughout the book of 1 John, he gives us and he repeats these over and over and over three key tests of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Follower of Jesus, number one, first test is we actually believe in Jesus, we believe in him. The son of God died for our sins and was raised to life again. Secondly, we seek to walk in the light. We hate sin, we love Jesus, and we seek to put aside misdeeds and walk in the light. Thirdly, we love people, not just this wispy, generic, we love people, we're willing to do the hard work. Sometimes has emotion and feeling to it. Love always has sacrifice and energy and passion to it and we're willing to do that. He says, you can tell who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. You see, if you're the kind of person, to those of you online, if you're the kind of person who says, my will be done, not your will be done, God, then you need to get in line because the first created being to do that was the devil who said, I'll be my own judge, my own lord, my own manager. I'll do my will, not your will. If that's your attitude, get in line, the devil was the first. Then he goes on and says [text on screen]. Cain, what did Abel do to you? Cain could have changed or repented or looked at Abel and saying instead of just being jealous of you and envying and hating you, I could actually imitate you. You could inspire me and motivate me to be a Godly man, but instead, Cain just murdered his brother. [Text on screen] Strong stuff and you know, no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This does not mean that a murderer cannot be saved. You're talking about the seriousness of taking a life and the seriousness of hating another person, especially hating a brother and sister in the Lord. If you hate a person, you just simply don't want them there. I just wish you would disappear. Go away. That's what I like to see, go away, just disappear. By the way, remember what the apostle Paul said about himself? He said, I am the chief of sinners. I was a blasphemer. I was a murderer. And yet, God poured out his mercy on me. If he could save someone like me, he could save someone like you. When you read this about hatred and about taking a life, some of you, immediately you're thinking of the topic of abortion, which is simply the voluntary termination of an unborn child, where -- I'm not talking about the situations with life of mother at risk and difficult situations are made, but as someone who is pro-life, I am, the foundation of that mindset is simply this: All of life is valuable, preborn, newly born, aged, all of life is valuable, no matter how small, no matter how vulnerable. By the way, you saw when you came in today and you'll hear about it later about our baby bottle boomerang as we partner with a counseling center to provide encouragement for women in need. I want to read a quote and this quote comes from a woman who did not characterize herself as an evangelical Christian. She was a pretty well-known spokesperson for what's known as progressive Christianity. Here is what she had to say on the topic of abortion, and I quote: A lot of pro-choice folks like to say that, really, no one is pro-abortion. But when celebratory concert series and festivals are organized around the anniversary of Roe versus Way, I cannot help question the degree to which we have desensitized ourselves to the reality that abortion means the termination of, at the very least, her words, a potential life and something that should never ever be celebrated with balloons and a rock concert. What frustrates me about the pro-choice movement is the lengths to which advocates go to dehumanize unborn children and sanitize the abortion procedure, reducing life to nothing more than a cluster of cells and the implications of pregnancy to little more than a choice. The word fetus is used instead of child and efforts to encourage women to receive counseling prior to an abortion are stubbornly opposed and an argument is framed around the woman's body exclusively as if the fetus is inconsequential and pro-life advocates are characterized as being against women's rights." John would remind us that every life, every person is valuable. I don't think that he has in mind that you're going to send out a hit squad, but you may not be willing to cross the aisle to extend an olive branch or to be gracious or go the extra mile for someone. Let me just say and remind you -- you say, Ronnie, in my past I've been a life-taker. You don't know my past. I would remind you, there is grace for the worst of us. Name the sin, God's grace is there. As Paul would say, I was a blasphemer, I was a murderer, and Jesus Christ has come to me, the chief of sinners. If he can forgive me and use me, he can forgive you and use you as well. Let me ask a couple of questions, do you have that reconciling spirit? Do you just have the spirit that says I'm willing to cross the aisle. I'm willing to go the extra mile. I'm willing to forgive one more time? And secondly, are you committed to the flourishing of others, to the flourishing of one another in the body of Christ? Now, here's where some of you are. You would not say that you hate another. You just say this and you may not say it out loud. I don't hate you. You're not going to get very much from me. You're not going to get my best. You're not going to get my energy. You're not going to get my generosity. You're not going to get my service. Why? Paper cuts. That's why. No one big thing. Just a lot of paper cuts over time, they hurt. And they can add up. So what we have to do is do what God does with our sin. By the way, you know the Bible never just says to you love one another, forgive one another. It gives you a rationale. Love as you've been loved. Forgive as you've been forgiven in Christ. Again, just church life is wonderful, but here's what happens. People will do things to you here that you don't like. The church will sometimes make some decisions that you don't like. People will say some things to you that might be unkind or a little thoughtless. Many times people can do harm without even intending it to you. Many times you can place expectation on people that a super human could not meet. And then there will be those times when maybe someone has expended some wicked energy to make your life a little more miserable. John's not naive, but he says we are children of God and we do the hard work of loving one another. And he says, secondly, you can know what love looks like. You can know what love looks like. This is not pie in the sky stuff. He says in verse 16. [Text on screen]. Let me put three words up here on the screen. John has talked to us about murder. He's talked to us about hating. But here he says, do you know what love looks like? Love looks like taking action for the good of another and rather than indifference, rather than approaching church life with, here you go, here it is, what's in it for me and that's all I ever ask, what's in it for me? He says, I'm going to ask you to step in with your brothers and sisters and enter and see and serve, take action. And you know what this assumes, don't you? This assumes that from time to time there are legitimate needs in the body of Christ. Now, there could be illegitimate needs as well, but legitimate needs, he says, you see those legitimate needs, take action and help. In a sizeable church, every week Martha and I give online and we just know part of our time and offering goes into a fund here that as legitimate needs are surfaced, maybe you surface them for someone else, let me just say to you, if you have a need, contact us. We help, we serve, we do that. That's love not just in work but in action. Let me put this on the screen. [Text on screen] Sometimes you feel it. Sometimes there's some emotion there, but there's always, always action, you act. We don't just ask, what's in it for me? We enter, we see, we take action. How can I uniquely serve? Okay. Here is the third thing you can know. You can know what God's expectation looks like. What does God expect and want from me? John will answer this all the way through his book. He's very repetitive. He spirals around to some of the same topics. But people say, what are the cliff notes here? What does God want and expect from me? Well, here's the verse. This is how we know, third time you see this little phrase. [Text on screen] Everyone here knows what it's like to have your heart broken if you have a sensitive conscience. You read your Bible and worship the Lord and something happens and you wonder if God is going to give up on me. I memorize the golden rule and I keep blowing it and I have some successes. Why am I not farther along? Is God going to hit the eject button on me? I feel like I made some progress. Why can't I make more? I have to make an apology again and your heart condemns you, it just does. I was reading about a guy and he was talking about his days in student ministry, in college ministry, and one night they were at a strong group Bible study and one of the girls in the small group stood up and said something and he said, it sounds a little silly, but it's really profound and I've never forgotten it. She stood up and said, I know that I am a daughter of the living God. I am a daughter of the king, but I still can't get a date. Then he said both of those facts are true. Both were true. I am a daughter of the king and right now I can't buy a date. Why is no one paying attention to me? Both of those facts are true. Do you know what's true for you? John has already been telling us this, here is something that's true about you. You walk in the light, you want to please him, you love one another, and yet you have sin that you need to confess. If you deny that you have sin you need to deal with, you make God out to be a liar. But here is something else that's true. We have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who cleanses us from all of our sin. All of that's true. It's true. I still have sin to work on. It's true that I have to confess and apologize. It's also true that I am a son of God, a child of the king filled with the spirit. It's not like, well, I know I'm a the court of the king, can't get a date. Both of those are true. And he said to her, which of those facts, though, will you allow to be the governing vision of your life? They're both true, but which truth will you choose to receive with greater weight? My heart condemns me. Okay. God is greater than your heart. Are you going to allow him to be greater than your heart? I'm not sure I can forgive myself. Here's how you do that, you accept God's forgiveness of you and you accept the fact that he is greater even than your heart. And therefore, we can come to him in great confidence, boldness, he says, and you think, oh, that's sweet and wonderful. People talk about, oh, I just want to be close to God and feel close to him. Let me tell you, it can be traumatic. It can be absolutely traumatic when you sit back and you really contemplate eternal realities and contemplate who you are before the Lord. It's scary. My wife has one of these mirrors in our bathroom and you flip it. One side is like a magnification mirror and you can light it up. It is a scary piece of equipment and I try to avoid it at all costs because every time I look at that, it's like, yikes, I'm 63 and I look 93. I mean, this is crazy. Do you know what happens when you come before the Lord, you always have his attention, but when you really give him your attention, there are times it's scary and traumatic because you're shining the light on you and your heart is going to condemn you and your conscience is going to beat you up. God is greater, thankfully. Don't you let your -- your emotions need to be in your passenger's seat and not your driver's seat. Thankfully God is greater than even our heart. And he says in verse 23. This is his command. We keep his commands. What does he want from us? He says it again. [Text on screen] In other words, God is doing a supernatural work in your life. When I started this message I asked, did you know what the longest river in the world was? Some of you did. Yeah, that's good information. Did you know who the oldest Beatle was? Some of you did. But John the apostle says you can know a child of God because they have a heart that wants to please him, they love the people who mean so much to him. You can know what love looks like. It's not just words and platitudes, saying you do online. You're willing to lay down your life in specific ways for the benefit of another and you can know what actually God wants from you, he wants you to believe in and honor and worship Jesus and love the people who mean so much to him. God bless you. Thank you for being with us today. Kyler is going to lead you in prayer. Let me ask you to welcome the Holy Spirit. The Lord may be putting a finger on an area of your heart to be reinforced and challenges and changed in some way. No one loves you like Jesus Christ. No one will ever be a better friend to you than Jesus Christ. Let's receive today his renewal. Let's receive the refreshing of the Holy Spirit. Kyler, come lead us, please. >> Let's join together in prayer as we close. Dear God, we love you and we give you honor and praise today. May our worship be acceptable and pleasing to you. We celebrate your goodness and place our hope and trust in you alone. We love to be gathered together in your presence with our Christian brothers and sisters. Help us to intentionally seek out relationships with other believers and get to know them. Increase our love for each other and bind our hearts together in love and service. Train our hearts to be grateful in service and use our gifts for others. Take away our impure thoughts of jealousy and replace them with the fruit of the spirit. Help us to be against the evil one who plots against us and give us the strength we need. Remind us to keep our focus on Jesus. Send us out today with his love. In Jesus' name. Amen. >> Ryan: Amen. As we finish up this morning, remember, we have Bible classes every Sunday and the online Bible class starts at 12:30 p.m. Marriage night is this Friday, an online streaming event you can watch as a couple. Go online to learn about that and register. Remember, the huddle starts September 20. You can help pregnant women in need in our community right here locally through baby bottle boomerang. There are two ways to donate, you can take a baby bottle and fill it up with coins or online. Our Wednesday program is coming back this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. We have programs for children, student, friendspeak is coming back and adult connection groups and we have a new UPLIFT service on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. We hope to see you this Wednesday. Thank you for joining us. Our prayer is that you're encouraged for the week ahead and that you know you are loved and that God is with you. Let's sing one more song before we go. >> Richard: Okay, everyone, put your hands together. [Clapping] ("Sing Wherever I Go") >> Richard: Be blessed, church. Thank you for your worship today. You are dismissed. >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our podcast "Anchor Point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. we are glad you're here. [\M\M\M]