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. >> Well, good morning and welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ, where it is our mission to honor God and lead them into a growing relationship with him. My name is Grant Wright, the outreach minister here. We are glad to gather to worship, to center on Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, our king. Let us do that as we stand to enter into this time of singing and worship and praise. ♫ "Joy To The World" ♫ >> Richard: Yes! Joy to the world. The savior reigns, amen. Don't you believe that this morning? A faithful God. A faithful king. ♫ "Midnight Clear" ♫ >> We relight the candle of hope because of God's promise to send a Savior; the candle of peace, remembering Jesus is the prince of peace and now we light the candle of Joy. May our hearts be forever filled with the joy of His coming because He is the fullness of joy. >> Luke 2:9-11 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don't be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior yes, the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! >> I love this tradition of advent as we get to center on joy, the unspeakable joy. Just like we were speaking about. You can go ahead and have a seat. We're going to go into communion. If you're at home get your supplies out and if you're here, get your supplies. >> "Good morning, my name is Brendan and this is My family We are so thankful to lead you in celebrating the Lord's Supper together today. Please pray with me over the Bread which represents the body of Christ given for us." Thank you, Lord, that we can be together with for the fellowship of Christ. You died on the cross for us which we don't deserve. We thank you for this Christmas season that we can focus on you for the holidays and remember that Jesus came to earth and died for our sins and that we can celebrate this every Sunday with you. "Let us partake the bread together. >> "Today I will be reading from Isaiah 52:8-10 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. ♫ "Light Of The World" ♫ >> Grant: Yeah, amen. Anticipate the coming of Emmanuel. It is time for our offering. You can give online. It is safe and secure and easy to give. That's how my family gives. There are also boxes at the exits here. This is the beautiful thing about the body of Christ. There are three things that fuels the life and the ministries: Prayer, a servant's sitter and heart and generous giving. As we go, we start everything we do with prayer. We pray over the ministries and the missions. We go and serve together. We get our care and share Sunday that we get to serve which is a ton of fun. We give back and it is an expression of the body of Christ. We give big with joy. As we enter into the year end, we ask you to consider the church and the year-end givings. This fuels the life of our church. Let's pray for the offering. Father, you are good. Your love endures forever. We recognize you as the provider of all good things. You've provided for us once again. Lord, we know that you have given us everything. We give back to what you have already given us. We pray over the offering that this is a blessing to your kingdom and your people. >> Joel: Hey, everybody, it's good to see you all here today. Merry almost Christmas. The verse I chose to focus on this morning comes from John 10:10, the B portion of the version which says: I am come that they might have life and more abundantly. Those of you visiting, this is the kids spot where we want some specialized observable teaching. I'm going to show you something. And I want you to see if you can spot what is missing. I'll let everyone see and then I'll ask you if you can spot what is missing. Raise your hand if you noticed what it is. Yes, I see somesome. For the rest of us, there are 26 letters of the alphabet and I have five rows of five which makes 25. One letter is missing, just say it out loud. L. So there is no L. Nice! I know, isn't that sad? You could say when you ain't got no water, you ain't got no L. Without the L the song Noel would not exist. Noel means born and birth. It comes from a French word we have utilized for Christmas, but if you think of the things we would not have without Jesus' coming, we wouldn't have sacrificial love and freedom in Christ and we wouldn't be set free and finally we wouldn't have life. John 10:10 B says I am come that they may have life. When you go through these weeks leading up to Christmas and you say it's Christmas and I don't know what to do and I'm stressed out, you can say, what's the reason for the season? Well, it's the fact that Jesus came and he came to earth that we may live. That's my prayer for each one of you, that you would live in Christ. Thank you so much. >> Grant: This is our annual care and share Sunday which is a toy and food drive that we do each year that goes to bless families right here. It is more blessed to give than to receive. What is special about this day and week is we get to practice that and we get to experience the blessing of giving. Church, we've got two great partners in this event, second mile mission and Santa's toy exchange. As we bring the food, it goes to second mile mission. During the Christmas season, a lot of food pantrypantries go low on supplies. That is our reason for collecting food in December. All the toys go to Santa's toy exchange. We're going to host a huge community event here on Saturday and we are going to impact 4,500 kids that are going to be able to have toys on Christmas morning. This is a massive event. We will invite people to be a part. Parents will come and pick up the donated toys and take care of Christmas morning. A real fun event. If you go on the website, we have an Amazon gift list. You can buy items as long as they're here by Wednesday we're in good shape. If you're here in the building you probably saw it at the front porch, you can drop donations. You can also buy things in the lobby, they're $10 a piece. This is a great day to give the gifts and the food and also this week we have volunteer opportunities all week long. As we talk about our church, we give our time and talents. 5:30 to 8:00:30 p.m. at the building, you can come, we are sorting toys and then all day Saturday we are serving the community. Sign up and you can register or show up in the eveningings, if you've got spare time, we would love for your family to jump in and serve. All right. It is time for Main Street Live. If you are first to fifth grade, go ahead and stand up and ahead back to Main Street Live. Parents, you can go and sign your kids in at the chapel. Whether you're a guest or a member, we would love it if you fill out a connection card. If you're online, click the connection card button. If you're here, you can scan the Q.R. code and fill that out. You can learn more about the ministries or submit your prayer requests, and our staff prays for you every week. If you're a guest, thank you so much for joining us. We have a room right across the lobby called new here, start here, we would invite you to come there, we would love to meet you, answer questions, and we have a gift for you this morning. It issing time for the fellowship greetings. Say hello to those around you. Ask somebody what's your favorite Christmas tradition this holiday. If you're online, jump in the chat box, we would love to hear from you as well. [Indistinct chatter] ♫ "My Soul Magnifies The Lord" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today. Let's all be seated together. >> Ronnie: Fantastic, Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. Good morning, everyone. Merry Christmas to you, to those of you in the room. From Martha and we, we wish you a happy Christmas season. For those of you worshiping online, I wish the very same thing. Everyone, I would like for us to recognize some new members. We have the Oberle family. You're in this service today. There they are right there. Yes. [Applause] >> Ronnie: Good morning and welcome. All right, everybody. Well, during this Christmas season, this advent season, the word advent comes from a Latin word meaning appearing, coming. What we as believers do, we look back to the first coming of Jesus. We look forward to the second coming of Jesus. We get in touch with the in-between time, that's a mixture of joy and sorrow. We give thanks for what God has done in Jesus. We give thanks for what he's doing while we're waiting and watching for his return to finish and bring to a climax what he's already started. And the story of Jesus is not just a good story in our heads. It is a story that happened in history. God, our creator, has become our redeemer. Dr. Jonathan Fing is a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Irving. You hear about people who are Bible believing believers in Christ, and I don't mean jaded, cynical, full on board and he's one and he says: “What's truly amazing about the Christian faith is the idea that the God who made the universe from quarks to galaxies also cares enough about us to be born as a human and to suffer and die to bring forgiveness and new life to broken people.” My friends, God's up to something. He's up to something good. He's up to something wonderful. And what he's up to had been his purposes can never be stopped or thwarted. Now, they can be opposed. His purposes are always opposed, until he sets things right, but they cannot be overcome. So here is my exhortation to you, get on board with his purposes because God's purposes will not be stopped. What he starts, he wills to finish. Like the book of Acts says, you have to stop kicking against the rocks because when you kick rocks, you hurt yourself. The rocks are not going anywhere. The purposes of God are not going anywhere. Get on board with the flow of what God started and will bring to a glorious conclusion. You know that your life is not pointless, it is moving to a point. You know if you're in Christ, you have not just a happy ending ahead of you, a neverending happy ending ahead of you. What God started, he wills to finish, in his grand purpose and say what he wills to start in you. I have three questions for you. Are you offended by Jesus? Don't give me a Sunday school answer because all of us are offended by something Jesus says or does or doesn't do when we think he should. If you read the scriptures, at some point Jesus is going to teach something or he sends the Holy Spirit to guide his apostles. You're going to read something in the scriptures and go, whoa, wait a minute. Will you allow your offense at Jesus at some particular point to become fuel so that you'll keep learning and keep growing or will you allow that point of offense to become an impossible and insurmountable roadblock where you say that offends me. You do know that the God of your imagination does not exist. You do know that the Jesus of your imagination does not exist. The IRS agent of your imagination does not exist and the Jesus of your imagination does not exist. You don't create Jesus. God created you. Jesus created you. And we respond to the revelation of the one true God. Well, here's a scene out of Mark 6:1-6 Where people were offended by Jesus. He was in his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” They asked. “What's this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Then they said: Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” By the way, you do know that Jesus had brothers and sisters, half brothers and sisters, same mother, different father. And notice the next phrase: And they took offense at him. In other words, Jesus was just a little too much. They took offense at him. I mean, Jesus says some outrageous things before Abraham was born, I am. I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. This is a new covenant and my blood is poured out for you, for the forgiveness. I mean, Jesus says some strong things. Let me put four statements on the screen. Jesus warns us that we are lost and we need a savior. That's offensive. We don't want to be told that we need a savior. We want to be told that we're fine and dandy just the way we are and we never need repent of anything. Jesus teaches us we are sheep, needing a Shepherd, we need coaching and direction. That if left to our own devices and mindset, we will wander aimlessly. The word of God, for example, the Bible says ifs a light to our pathway, a guide showing us where to go. Jesus informs us that avoiding hardship is not an option and that offends a lot of folks that think if you come to Christ, it is a guarantee of a comfortable, easy lifestyle. Don't get me wrong. Christianity doesn't teach you, you need to seek suffering, Lord beat me up, but the way of Christ is serving and the way of Christ is not a guarantee that you avoid all hardship. Jesus commands that we forgive. That is one of the most offensive teachings in many parts of the world. Forgive? Are you kidding? There are culture scultures at various places of the world where the idea of God punishing, the idea of hell, that's exactly right. My goodness. People need to be held accountable and a sense of justice. You're telling me that God forgives and I'm taught to forgive? These are offensive teachings. You're going to be offended at many things you'll read in scripture in here. Here is my encouragement to you. When you're offended, don't give up. Don't just walk away. Let that point of offense and those questions motivate you to keep thinking, keep searching. I know in my lifetime, I just keep a box over here, a mental box of questions. Just put those questions and wrestling in a box and over time a lot of those get answered and resolution. But I never let what I cannot deny, the big rocks of the Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus, et cetera, I never let what I cannot deny outweigh the things that maybe I can't explain at the moment. Well, back to Mark 6. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” In other words, you've gotten so familiar with me, says Jesus, you think you can't know me better. He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. The clear implication is if they just had a mustard seed of faith, Jesus could have done a great deal more. Ask the questions you need to ask, but don't use it as a shield to keep you from following Jesus one step at a time, walking in faith. Let me put an image on the screen of a Christmas candle burning. Obviously we've got two Christmas Eve services coming up. We'll do a candle lightlighting. It is a visual image, the light of Christ is coming to the world. There is darkness without Christ and darkness is a metaphor in scripture for evil, suffering, from light apart from God and darkness is always offended by light, always. And in your heart and mine, we need to regularly be praying, Lord, let the light of Christ come into those shadowy places still in my own life. John 3:19 Says this: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And then verse 19, and this is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. It's the inclination of every heart to reject what God calls good, but God wants to shine the love of Christ, love, grace, and truth into the shadowy places. Don't be offended when the love of Christ is trying to break through in a fresh way. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. During Christmas season, during the season, welcome the light of Christ in such a fresh way. Are you offended by Christ? You will be. You will be. But when you are. When you're reading something in scripture and something taught, don't just walk away. Let those points of offense guide you to keep growing and walking by faith. Secondly, are you inspired by Jesus? I spent quite a bit of time on the first point. The second point I'm going to flow through quickly. I think Jesus is one of the most inspirational personalities. There is so much to love. He is worthy of our worship. For example, four statements on the screen, his unlimited power. All authority and power is given to him. He has power over the demonic realm. He has power over the physical realm. He goes toe to toe with death and he wins. His unrestricted compassion, he cares for all. The Bible says to us, even this day you can cast your care on him because he cares for you. Not a hair on your head can fall out that he doesn't know about. That doesn't mean that you'll never walk through hardship. Sometimes the compassion of God takes you right through trouble, not around it, right through it. And when you're going through it under his care and compassion, he will put you in a spotlight, not for your own glory, but for his. And he will give you the grand privilege of being a testimony to the reality and the validity of the Christian faith. And his unvarnished truth. A true friend will tell you when you've got some broccoli in your teeth. There are friends who will just tell you what you want to hear and they're a dime a dozen. Friends who care so much about you, that they're willing to speak the truth to you, they are rare. But Jesus who knows our hearts, the smartest person in the room, you read his teachings and the Bible and there will be points you are offended, but he's giving you the unvarnished truth, reality. He will look squarely into the eyes of your soul. He will at times make you uncomfortable, but he will always bring you hope, but the most repeated statement is give thanks to the Lord, he is good, and his love endures and his unmatched grace. He was the friend of sinners. He even eats with sinful people. I think about that every Sunday when I take the Lord's supper. I'm so thankful he's the friend of sinners. Since Adam and Eve, we all know what it's like to fail. I've failed, you've failed, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in colossal ways. But God and his grace redeems the failures of his people and he will even use those to shape you and form your life. Jesus is so worthy of worship and following. His truth, His grace, His power. Let me ask the third question. Are you on offense for Jesus? The first question was are you offended, but last of all, are you on offense for Him? Make a difference. I told a football story about Bear Bryant who brought in his players. If you knock him down and he stays down, we don't want that. Or another, you knock down and he stays down and then gets back up. We don't want that player. You keep knocking him down and he keeps getting up. And then the question was if he wants that player, and he said, no, it's the guy who's knocking everyone down. My friend, the purposes of God will never be thwarted or stopped. They will be opposed until the second advent. When Jesus was born, King Herod opposed it. Jesus was opposed all through his life. His enemies put him on a cross and wagged their hands at him. What they didn't know is he went there on purpose and while he was dying, he was freeing and redeeming broken people like you and me for himself. He was raised to life again and ascended to heaven. All dominion is under his feet. Whatever God starts, he wills to finish in a glorious way. He's bringing all history to a point and it is not pointless. You have before you in Christ a neverending happy ending when the kingdom of God comes to its full consummation. That's true on a grand scale, but let me get more personal, what God has started in you, he wills to finish as well. And as a daughter of the King, as a son of the King, you stand in a fortress of grace with strong walls around you with the work of the Holy Spirit in your life and with what God has started in you, my friend, He wills to finish. So keep welcoming the light of Christ's example, his teachingteaching, his moral law, his grace. Those words are up there intentionally. Last week I talked about the kingship of Christ and gave you a quote from someone from 1922 that I think summarizes the kingship of Jesus. Christ is king in our lives as His teaching reigns in your lives, as His love reigns in our hearts, and as his example and law reigns in our will. Keep welcoming the light of Christ in you. Stay at it. Stay and worship, keep engaging with the word of God. Pray. Sometimes you say, Ronnie, I don't have the heart for prayer. I know you don't. If you want to make someone feel guilty, talk about prayer. Before you have a heart for prayer, take a habit of prayer and say regularly I'm going to go to the Lord. My friends, your growth in Christ, there are going to be times you see quantum leaps. You're going to see big leaps and growths and there are times it is going to be a slow crawl. It is going to be a slow dance. Ronnie, will I ever get past this tendency to become angry and petty? Ronnie, will I ever get beyond this? There are times you will see a quantum leap growth point and at times a slow dance. You keep creating space for the Lord to work. What God starts, he wills to see through. And you know how the story is going to end. You -- the story is going to end with your glorification where you're dressed in a robe of white which is symbolic for you're not going to have to fight to fall in nature anymore. So keep welcoming the light of Christ and keep growing on the mission for Christ. Keep reflecting the light. Your words, your attitudes at home and in your workplace as your very, very worthwhile. God is up to something really good. He started something and will see it through. This ends with Christ being pre-eminent over all things. Now, right now the pre-eminence of Christ is sort of hidden, it really is. He's pre-eminent in your life and mine but I don't know if he's pre-eminent everywhere. I like live music. I've gone to a lot of concerts. The highlight concert would have been Paul McCartney in 2011. The wealthiest musician on the planet, deservedly so. Incredible legacy. We saw Paul McCartney at Minute Maid Park. He would play and stand there and then applaud ore stand and turn this way. When he would turn this way, everybody over here would again come back to their feet and deafening applause. And then he would turn here and the people in the middle would come right back to their feet with deafening aplays louder than these people over here and he would step up and wave to these people and on their feet roaring with applause. Paul McCartney is incredibly talented and popular. He is not pre-eminent. Jesus Christ is pre-eminent. It's sort of hidden now. Not everyone confesses or worships the Lord, but you know how this story ends. This story ends with every single knee bowing, every single tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord. You know how the story ends. It ends with one person standing. Everyone else kneeling in worship. Don't fight this story. Don't run against the grain. Don't keep kicking the rocks. Keep pouring out your life now for this Christ. Nothing can thwart His purposes. Give your life to this grand story. Yes, there will always be opposition, but the opposition will not overcome God's purposes. What He has started, He wills to finish and what He has started in you, my friends, He wills to finish. Don is going to lead us in prayer. Everyone, we thank you for being with us here today. We thank you for your support of the church family. To those of you watching online, we care for you and love you as well. Let us hear from you and any ways we might serve you in your next steps as a follower of Jesus Christ. >> Holy father, all power and might, dominion, honor and glory belong to you and we bow before you now in surrender and submission for our will in our lives. When we remember again with joy unspeakable, the time when the heavens exploded, with the glory of the angels announcing that God had come to earth, even had come to earth. What joyous time that must have been and what joy it brings us today as we refresh our minds and our lives with that great truth. But, father, help us also to remember that the manger was replaced with a cross and that the glory of a simple stable was replaced with an empty tomb. We rejoice even greater today because the tomb was empty and we serve a living God and a risen savior. Oh, Father, help us as we walk through this life to rejoice in that, to know that you are with us, that yes, indeed, our God came to earth and is still in our hearts and lives and minds by His spirit and we can walk with him. Help us as we look forward to the return of the savior Jesus Christ, even so come, Lord Jesus. Father, love us freely and guide us daily as we walk in your path and as we fulfill whatever plan it is you have for our lives. Help us to be faithful to you. Help us to love one another but to love you most of all, as our prayer in the wonderful name above all names, even Jesus, our Lord. Amen. >> Grant: Well, all right. There are a ton of great ways to stay connected here at the First Colony Church of Christ. Let me make sure you're aware of these. If you're online with us, we've got a class at 12:30, you can stay on and join Kyle there. Today is the care & share drive. You can drop items at the front porch or buy them on the Amazon wish list. We have opportunities every night this week and all day Saturday. We would love to have you jump in and serve as well. Today is our service of remembrance. This is a beautiful service led by Virgil to have a time to remember and be thankful and remember the loved ones we lost and we're not celebrating with in person. It is an online only event, so you can join online or on the YouTube channel. Service of remembrance online at 4:00. Just real quick to review the holiday calendar for us. This is on the order of worship. Next Sunday two services, normal times. No 9:45 Bible class, but the next Sunday. Following that we have our Christmas eve candlelight services. This is one of the most beautiful services of the year. Let's make sure family is here. Invite extended family and friends. We have these signs. There are signs in the lobby. Take pictures and throw it up on social media. This is one of the services you don't want to keep to yourself. It is too good and special. We want to open this up to the community, let the light spread, let people know the goodness as Christ is coming. Share the good news of those two services Christmas Eve. Then the following Sunday, December 26, we're going to have one 10:00 service we can be a part of. That is on the website order of worship. Let's take the joy of the Lord to the world. Let's experience that blessing of giving as we enjoy care & share and we serve through the week. Let's go ahead and stand as we worship with one final song this week. ♫ "My Soul Magnifies The Lord" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping 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.