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 studies, online giving and our podcast anchor points. 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 of Christ. Thank you for joining us today. We are glad you're here. >> Shane Gage: Good morning, welcome to First Colony Church of Christ. Aren't we so thankful for so many blessing? One of the great blessings is gathering together for fellowship, worship and sing praises to our good God. >> Richard Bowling: The Bible tells us God gave us his one and only son. ("God So Loved" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Yes, for God so loved the world He gave his one and only son. Even though he came as a baby he grew up and died on the cross. But he rose again. ("Midnight Clear" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thank you, church. You may be seated. >> As we begin this long awaited Advent season we have coped because the promise of Jesus, the Son of God who came to Earth as our perfect we light this candle because Jesus is our sure foundation and hope in this fallen world. >> Jeremiah 33:14-16. >> Joel: Thank you so much. We'll have our communion time. If you're at home or in this room and you haven't gathered your communion supplies, we have in the labor. Let's focus on Jesus who is the source of our hope. The Campbell family will lead us. >> I'm joined by my family and we're so proud to be able to share with you in the Lord's supper this morning. Please pray with me as we pray over the cup and body of Jesus. Gracious Heavenly Father as we gather here today we're humbled by your grace and love for us. As we take this bread and cup may we truly examine ourselves and not see them as another Sunday ritual but truly as the body and blood of Jesus that paid for the atonement of our sins. Lord we are so thankful for the sacrifice that gives us hope knowing all the work was done by Jesus on the cross and through that work that Jesus we can spend eternity with you in heaven. Thank you Jesus for loving us so and may we never forget all that you have done. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. >> I'll be reading Romans 5:2b-6. ("O Come To The Altar" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: You may be seated. >> Shane Gage: What a powerful, wonderful song. We'll have our offering. You can give online, text to give. It's secure, safe and simple to set up. You can give in the offering box if you're in the house. So thank you for your offerings. And in fact, we want to thank you for the incredible response to our missions offering. We've raised so far over $200,000 for the mission efforts. Isn't that incredible? [APPLAUSE] So let's pray over today's offering. Our Father in Heaven we give these offerings because we want more people to know about Jesus, more people to be saved. We want the people of all nations to find true and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask that he is funds be used to multiple your glory and expand your Kingdom to all over the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus, amen. >> Joel: Good morning, this is the kid's spot. What's so cool is that Christianity, when you really think about it, has elements that don't make sense. You're like what do you mean? Think about it, Jesus asked us to be servants. Jesus asked us to come in last. He asked us when our neighbor is need to give them something. When someone's mean to us, do we respond in a mean way or do we respond with love? Things that just don't naturally make sense to us. My verse for the day comes from Mark 8:34-35. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. I have a sheet of paper here, and you would think that if you cut something off of this in the same way as a Christian, if you give something away, you're going to lose it. But this is what's really interesting is that when you cut something away, what happens? You're like wait a second, Joel, how did you trick me like that? It's not going to go twice because surely there's tape or something in there we didn't see. What? Isn't that cool? Well, so the point is, is that Christianity following Christ may not make sense but we know that God is in control. He has a plan for us. His road is different than ours. And we have to give away and follow His example especially as you go into Christmas. One more time. Can we get three to work? No way. All right, thank you very much. >> My name is Kyle and I want you to join me for our next teaching series on the Conversation, the series is called the cast of Christmas. We'll be taking a look at the key players in the Christmas story found in the New Testament. It will be a good series. I hope it gets you in the Christmas spirit but hope it helps you fall in love with Jesus more. You can catch me live at 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. after our service. If you can't catch me live find our website and catch this series on demand throughout the week. It will be a good one and good way to wrap up 2021 on the conversation. New series called the cast of Christmas. Find it right here. Hope you'll join me. I'll see you soon. >> Shane Gage: We would love to get you connected. Fill out the Connection Card. There's a QR code. It will take you to our website's Connection Card. Where we can connect with you, answer questions, put in your prayer requests. We would love to help connect. If you're new go to the lobby to the new start room. Kelly and I will be there and be glad to answer any questions you might have. Kids grade one through five you'll go to main street live across the lobby there. You walk across there. Parents if you have not checked your kids in, there's a kiosk to check them in. Everybody else, let's stand and have a time of fellowship greeting together now. [ Please stand by for captioning ] ("Joy To The World" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thank for your worship, church, you may be seated. >> Ronnie Norman: Fantastic, Richard and team. And thank you so very, very much. And good morning, everyone. Glad to see you. Welcome to our second service at the First Colony Church of Christ. And to those of you with us online participating in this worship experience, we welcome you as well. And our first service today we recognized some recent baptisms and welcomed some new members into church family, Delilia Smith and Bowie Spivey and new families and also Mike and Teresa Green. So wanted you to know of that and as you come across those folks be sure to welcome and congratulate them. Today, by the way, happy Thanksgiving weekend to you. And today I want to conclude just brief two-week series where we're talking about attitude. You know, your attitude and mine, it's actually one of your greatest problem-solving skills and assets. Because so often a problem's not really the problem; the problem is our attitude about the problem. You change your attitude about the problem, you actually can change the problem and the situation. Now, let me just do a little brief review, to put an image on the screen. This is an attitude indicator. And every flight deck has one. Why? Because if you change the attitude of an aircraft, you change its performance. And likewise, it's true if you change the attitude of a person, you can change their performance and their perspective. What's an attitude? An attitude is a mindset -- a way of looking at things. An attitude is our mental and emotional and spiritual response to circumstances. I mentioned last week, our attitudes are made of faith, hope and love. Faith gives us what? Purpose, not aimlessness, purpose. Hope give us a spirit of optimism, not pessimism. And love helps us to lean into a spirit of reconciliation, not alienation. We emphasized our attitudes are chosen, not given. We might be born with different personality tendencies, but mostly we choose our attitudes. I want to give a caveat, if you find yourself in a continual state of depression you cannot overcome or dealing with anxiety disorders, it's very real. Go visit with your physician or Christian therapist. For many people their negative despairing outlook is a direct choice of decisions they've made in their life. Now, the Bible speaks to this. This is not just pop psychology. Philippians says: Make a choice that's where you're going to go. My friends, remember that whatever you give your attention to is the person you become. Whatever you give your attention to is the person you become. Now, that bodes well -- that is really, really good news if you're thinking about what's good and beautiful and true and seeking to have an attitude that's rooted in high road motivations. But if you give your attention to the 24/7 news cycle of ongoing outrage and anxiety or you give yourself to one emotionally charged tidbit of celebrity gossip after another, don't be surprised if your attitude needs quite a bit of attention. Ephesians 4: In other words, he says you can think like an old Ronnie, you can think like, you know, there's not so good Ronnie. But you have been created anew in Jesus. You are the vessel of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is within you. You know the Word of God. And he says I'm asking you to put on a new mindset, a new attitude. In other words, we'll be active in this, not passive. An active mindset not passive. A passive mindset says my attitude just happens. But the active mindset says I'm going to take responsibility for it. My attitude will not take care of itself. And I have to maintenance that attitude virtually day. You own your 20 square feet. I can't control everything that happens to me. I can control or have a say in my response to it. I'll own that 20 square feet and hopeful the influence can grow from there. And, again, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying everything's rosy, that we should never correct or challenge or criticize. We should. As Christians we're taught to not be gullible, not be naive. But I am asking that on a daily scale that our mindset is primarily one of good will and optimism and joy that we accentuate the prove and we're willing to speak one another's virtues more so than one another's fault. We'll allow optimism to replace pessimism and let our faith exceed and color our fears. Well, if you're taking notes today number one, monitoring our attitudes, let me ask -- what's your attitude about relationships? What I'll do is take a look at two passages of scripture where the word attitude or mindset is used specifically to describe the attitude of Jesus and then we're called to imitate that. And so here let me ask what's your attitude about relationships? And here's something the Bible has to say in Philippians 2. And what kind of attitude was that? Many of you know that passage well. You know how it continues. Here's Jesus who could be no higher, but listen carefully -- but he willingly voluntarily demoted himself. He took own the humble role of servant, why? For your benefit and mine. That's humility. What's humility? It's being willing to use my resources and my influence for the good of the whole. That's Jesus. And he says would you let your attitude be that of Christ Jesus who looked at his people and valued them and he added value to them. You know what's interesting to me is how humility has really caught on over the last few years even in the business world. Seven or eight years ago John Dixon had a fabulous book called Humilitas. The business world bought into it even though it's from a Christian perspective. There's a book called Humility is the New Smart. Basically saying if you don't bring humility to your work game, as I've said many times Jesus is not just right about church stuff. He's right about everything. He's the smartest person in the room. Humility really is -- it's always been the new smart. That business book talks about doing things like having an accurate self appraisal. Acknowledging you don't have all the answers and don't pretend like you do. Committing yourself to life-long learning. But one of the main features of the book is that a humble person engages in otherness. They emotionally connect, they emotionally relate. And in an all-about-me world, when you bring humility to the table, for example, you're willing to overlook an offense. You're just not [INAUDIBLE]. You compliment instead of criticize. You're okay with maybe not being noticed as much as you think maybe you should be. And you're willing actually to shine the spotlight on some others as well. And you're willing to serve, to actually be engaged and be part of the solution. Humility has always been the new smart. It's what makes us a we instead of just a bunch of me's. And it's a beautiful thing. So what's your attitude about relationships? Before I move on I want to show you a football video and you'll see something I think pretty interesting. Actually, you'll see the spirit of humility here. Show it. There you go. Reversing direction. Tackle's about to be made. Uh-oh, strip, fumble. He's headed for a touch down. Did you see what he did? Before he scored he said here you go. You take it. You score. The spirit of humility binds a family, church, a group together. It's always been the new smart. Secondly here, what's your attitude about roadblocks? Reading from 1 Peter 4:1-2. Now, here what's interesting is that the scriptures are teaching us that the Christian attitude, if we're imitating Jesus, it's an attitude that's willing to endure difficulty and hardship. Jesus did not have an easy assignment. His assignment was not for sissies. And yet, did he quit? No. Did he persevere? Yes. And occasionally you'll meet people who say I'm willing to serve, willing to be involved as long as it's easy. Marriage is not easy. Raising children is not easy. Leading a group is not easy. Max [INAUDIBLE] says one of the qualities of a leader is you have to be willing to bear the pain. A lot of people want the title. But you have to be willing to bear the pain of leadership. Leading a family, leading a group. And here Peter says if we're going to accomplish anything in our lives, arm yourself with the attitude of Jesus who says "I will see this thing through." Let me give a definition of perseverance. In spite of opposition and in spite of relenting hard work. Arm yourself with this attitude of Jesus. There's a business book out called Rethinking Positive Thinking. And this is one of the things folks do when they start thinking and planning, they don't factor into the equation obstacles. They think obstacles are an interruption. You can count on them. Anything worth doing has opposition and obstacles. But every obstacle is an opportunity. One business book has a little acrostic, WOOP -- your wish, what you want to see happen, your outcome you're dreaming about and the possibilities. But you have to factor in and not be surprised by obstacles and be willing to keep planning it and working it in spite of opposition and obstacles and setbacks. You know, sometimes God zaps a situation. He just zaps it. Most of the time you don't get the zap. Most of the time you get a partnership. And you have to keep at it and keep persevering. Remember in the Old Testament you had Naman what wanted to be healed of leprosy. He was told to go to the River Jordan and dip seven times. There's one nearby easier. Why can't I just dip once? Just keep dipping, one, two, three -- well, God, just zap me. Just zap it. He didn't zap it. Nathan had to get engaged in the process and stay at it and arm himself with a mindset that says I will persevere and I will see this through. Some of you have been in a situation are you would look at it and say I faltered there or I failed. Failure's not final. We live in a culture that says if at first you don't win a gold medal, just quit. No. Keep at it. Get back up. Obstacles are opportunities for you to learn something new about yourself, learn something new about God and push through. Perseverance is pursuing Godly aims in spite of setbacks, opposition and unrelenting hard work. How can we maintain an attitude that's embedded with faith, hope, and love? Let me give a few quick practical suggestions. Number one, pray like Jesus. One time Jesus was asked about prayer and he gave the best model ever. And, you know, sometimes it's good to just quote the Lord's Prayer but the Lord's Prayer, if you look at it it's really a series of, guidelines, teaching us to pray in a fully orbed way. For example, this, then, is how you should pray. Notice we're giving praise. In my life just like it is in heaven. I'm offering myself to partner with you. I am dependent on God for even the smallest things. Grace to you, grace for me. Taking unnecessary shame, putting it away. And Jesus remind us of our relational attitude. Pray like Jesus. Secondly worship God first. We all worship things but praise God first. You know, we live in such a negative fallen world. So much of what we hear is negative. But if you want to counter it, praise is a great tool to do that. And praise depends not so much upon a particular place, as it does a perspective. Remember that scene? Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were thrown in prison, they're beaten and placed in stocks. And what are they doing at midnight? Worshiping and praising God. And that's just a reminder that praise doesn't need a particular place; praise depends upon a perspective. And my friends, negativity is the devil's language spoken in that moment by that person who's just may not normally speak that way. God's language is faith, hope, and love. God's language is full of possibilities with God all things are possible. Faith doesn't say oh there's no obstacle, there's no problem. Faith sees it, acknowledges it but also says God is with us in the midst of this and He'll work in us and through us. And we'll see what he will bring about. Thirdly, make sure you're reading your Bible and letting truth wash away falsehoods. Just engage in the regular reading plan. When you miss a day, miss days, don't beat yourself up. Just come back to, letting the Word of God speak truth to you. Number four, stop comparing. Be content. It's easy to compare and compete. And if I want to compare my blooper reel with your highlight reel I'll always be envious and in self-doubt. I have particular lane which I need to run and a particular assignment I need to fulfill. It's good to have role models and people around to inspire you and you learn from them. But I have to give God permission to bless other people more than he blesses me. I have to give God permission to use other people more than He uses me. And let's release our jealousy to the Lord. Let's cheer on our brothers and sisters in Christ. And let's shine in our own unique way. Let's stay in our lane and enjoy every minute of it. And remember, contentment doesn't mean laziness. Contentment simply means Lord, I'm grateful for your provision as of this day now. Monitor your influences. We're all influenced, our attitudes are influenced by what we read, watch, listen to. Monitor your influences. And make sure you get people around. It's good to just certain people what they talk about, how they talk about it, it rubs off in a good way. And the power of music and even Christian music to really bless and lift your soul. And last of all, gospelize others. What I mean here is speak good news. You know, the word gospel means good news. And when we gospelize others, we are doing what Stephen Covey says we're keeping the main thing the main thing. And we're articulating even to ourself the main thing, the good news that we believe in the Lord, we love the Lord, He loves us. He's coming back. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing in Houston, in Washington, nothing high or low, not even death itself. And when we speak good news and articulate it we're not only reminding others, we're reminding ourselves what the main truths are in our own heart. And so it does you good. The book of Philemon says this: In other words, you're speaking good news. Why? So that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ Jesus. All right. I want to close by showing you a video here in just a moment of Frank Wright. If you're a sports fan, he played college football at University of Maryland and several years in the NFL. He'd been a long-time coach. You may not know he's also an ordained minister. He has a master of definity degree from seminary in North Carolina. He's the head coach of Indianapolis Colts. He was a guest speaker right here. A couple of weeks ago he was doing a press conference. But before he did his press conference he just took an opportunity to remind anyone who was listening what's most important to him. And he took an opportunity just to gospelize remind people here's the main thing. Here's true news. And I think it will encourage you. Remember my friends, your attitude is so important. We get to represent the Lord. And a good attitude a healthy attitude is rooted in faith, hope and love. It's inspirational to the people around you. I'm not saying we don't face difficulties. I'm not saying there aren't appropriate times to lament. But let's let the Holy Spirit wash our souls and attitudes. Let it be said like of [INAUDIBLE] this is a person who will refresh your spirit. God bless you, everybody and let's listen to Frank Wright. >> Shawn Jones: Amen. I want to thank Ronnie for a powerful presentation today. He did a great job. And thank you all for being here. Will you please bow with me now. Lord, as you send us forth from this place, arm us with the attitudes of new life in Christ. With the purpose of faith and optimism of hope and the reconciliation of love. And as we in this season to come turn our eyes upward again to the star of Bethlehem, we pray, Lord that you will illuminate each of our lives with the light of the world that we may shine into the darkness and lead others to you and to your Son to whom we pray this prayer and amen. >> Shane Gage: Thank you for being here today. I have a few things to highlight before we close. First, we have Bible classes for all ages at 9:45. You're invited to check those out and talk to me in the lobby if you like to know more about those. There's also an online adult class at 10 and 12:30. So following the service you can check that out. Today we have stories from the mission field. Looking at mission partners and the focus is on Haiti and the work there. You notice holiday season. Go to our website. Check the holiday schedule for what's happening over the next month or so. I have a few to highlight now. Our annual care and share toy food drive will be during services December 12th. Go to our website and see what toys and food you can bring to contribute to that cause. You can also volunteer to help. There's a link for volunteering. You can donate online if you visit our Amazon wish list there. See about the care and share. Our grief support group began today at 9:45 and will meet the next two weeks. I'm so grateful. And if you have experienced loss of a loved one or grief this season, I hope you'll check out this group. They're meeting in a classroom in the gym. Find us in the lobby, we'll be happy to show you where they're meeting next week at 9:45. Take advantage of that wonderful group for these next two weeks. Next week Ronnie begins a new Christmas series called Come Lord Jesus. There's a woman's ornament exchange on Saturday so you can register online for that. Finally next Sunday we have a new member information session. For anyone interested in joining, or have questions and what we're all about, me and Ronnie and other folks in the new start room, 9:45 next Sunday to meet you and answer questions and how to connect. I hope you'll meet if you're new. What a great day. Now we get to go out into the world and share this good news message of Jesus and to be salt and light and to just bring this hope we have in Jesus out to the world. So let's do that now as we exit but first let's stand and sing one more song. ("Joy To The World" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thank you for your worship today, Church. You are dismissed.