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'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. >> Richard: Well, good morning, church! Are you ready to worship this morning? Let's all stand together and worship the Lord! ("All Because of Jesus" playing) >> Richard: Yes! It's all because of Jesus, amen? Jesus changes our lives. ("The Blessing" playing) >> Richard: Amen. >> Richard: Amen! >> Richard: Amen, church. Our God is for us, amen! You may be seated as we prepare for communion. >> Michael: Good morning, church! My name is Michael Pothoff, and this is my son Luke. Luke is really excited to read some Scripture for you in just a minute. I want to ask you that wherever you are this morning; that wherever you come as you enter this building; whether you come in a place of peace or a place of stress; that no matter where it is you lay it all at the feet of Jesus because we're gonna take a minute now to remember the sacrifice that Christ made with His body as we take the bread and the sacrifice of Christ shedding His blood as we take the juice. Will you pray with me? Father, we come before You now, and we are simply humbled to be in Your Presence. We ask that You would remind us every day of what You have done for us and that we would live a life that shares what You have done for us. We thank You for sacrifice and forgiveness of sin that only You can provide. Be with us now and help us throughout this week. It's in Jesus' Christ most Holy and Precious Name we pray. Amen. >> Luke: Today I will be reading from Matthew 11:27 through 30. (Reading) >> Michael: Please partake with me if you haven't already. ("At the Cross [Love Ran Red]" playing) >> Richard: Church, why don't we all stand together? >> Richard: Thank you for worshiping with us today, church. You may be seated. >> Kevin: We are about to pray over our offering; but before we do, let me remind you that giving online is easy to do, safe, and secure. We have giving bins at all the exits, but church, let me take a minute to say thank you, guys. Thank you for your partnership as we lay it all at the cross and trust Jesus as we pour into His kingdom and pray over the fruits of what He wants to do with this. So let's do that right now as we just give thanks to the Lord. Father, You are good. Your love endures forever, and what a privilege it is to be called Your own, to come together as the body of Christ; to love; to serve; to give; to worship today. So Father, today we raise up our hearts; and Father, I pray we get to experience the blessing of giving today; Father; that we have joyous hearts as we give. Father, we know You are the provider of all good things and You have given us so much. Today we give back, but we also remember the biggest blessing of all, that You gave us Your Son. We pray this in His Powerful Name, Jesus. Amen. >> Joel: Amen. It's good to see every one of you this morning and especially kids in the audience. You know, we're a church that really values kids. We love them, and so this spot in the service is for them. You know, one of the things I appreciate is the fact that families get to sing together and take communion together. We have children's programming for our babies, cradle roll. We have children's programming for our preschoolers, and then in a moment they will be dismissed for elementary as well. Today I wanted to talk to you today about worry, and worry, fear, anxiety -- what do you do when you're worried about something? So often in the world we're kind of told to change our perspective. You know, look at it through some maybe different glasses, and that worry will go away. So I have a little example of seeing if we can get that worry to go away here with my glasses on and say "Ow." Aw, man! It's still there! I thought the glasses would actually help. So that's when you go to Scripture, and the verse that I have chosen today comes to us from Matthew 6, verses 31-33. It says, "Do not worry about what we shall eat. Do not worry about what we shall drink. Do not worry about what we shall wear, for the pagans run after all these thing, but your Heavenly Father knows you need them. But instead, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you." Now, I really like this verse because let's face it: We all do worry about different things. We worry about what we're gonna wear; what we're gonna eat; politics; sickness; school; tests; college; you know, how you will pay for different things. I can tell you from my own life there have been MANY, many stories where God has provided for my family. The car breaks down. What will we do? Well, I guess we can praying at it. We can seek the Lord. God provides us so many different areas. So we need to seek the Lord. Now, you may think I'm stalling, but that's actually important. You're not gonna get it if you're not seeking the Lord. So how do we go through worry? How do we go through worry? That is the question. Well, we seek the Lord, and as you can see, I'm taking this worry sheet of paper and I'm cutting it all up. You're probably saying, "Man, you have made a mess. How will you ever fix this? You burned it; you cut it. I still see the words there." They didn't totally go away. Two more cuts. One and -- two. The way through worry is through it. You go through it, and how do you go through it? By seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Pretty cool, huh? (Applause) When you're worried, let's go through it by seeking the Lord. >> Kevin: As always, thank you, Joel. All right, well, speaking of Joel and children's ministry, we have our Main Street Live that it's time to release first to fifth graders. So if you want to head back, Ms. Danelle is at the center doors. This is a great age-appropriate worship service with worship and activities for first-to-fifth graders. Parents, if you haven't registered your kids, you can go to the chapel and do that now. For everybody whether you're a guest or member, it's a great time to fill out a Connection card. We love to know you're here with us and if you have prayer requests, let us know those as well. If you're a guest with us today, thank you so much for joining us. We are honored to have you here. We've got a room right across the lobby called "New Here? Start Here." We'd love to have you come over after service with staff and others there to answer questions and greet you. We have a little gift for you there this morning. Church, let me ask you a question: if you're out there and you have been looking for a way to connect with the church to help with outreach; or maybe you're in some relationships where you have been wanting to share your faith, have some spiritual dialogue, maybe start a small group or just even having a one-on-one Bible study. Maybe you're stuck. Maybe you're looking for new tools. I've got good news for you. We have got two great opportunities this spring at the First Colony Church of Christ to help with that. The first one is our FriendSpeak ministry. We have an online training coming up. If you have an hour a week, speak English and love Jesus, this is great opportunity. We provide our international community a skill and service they want to improve their English skills while we get to share with them our faith and stories of the Bible. This is a great one. The training is very simple and gives you tools and mind set and philosophy to help in that ministry. And then secondly, this is a new opportunity that we have. We have not done this before. It's called Disciple Maker Cohort. It's something myself and my friend and a missionary Jared Looney will lead every other Monday night on Zoom this spring. It's a great opportunity. It's called a "cohort" because we will learn as we go. So again, if you are looking for ways to have spiritual conversations, looking for ways to share your faith, looking for ways to have some tools for that or for discipleship, this is a great opportunity to jump in. Those are proven tools that missionaries around North America are using and are helpful right now. If you're interested in either of those opportunities, come find me after service. I will be at Volunteer Central. Ask questions or we can sign up and register online. All right, church, it's time for our fellowship greeting, so why don't we stand and say hello to folks around you. ("Only King Forever" playing) >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today! You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Fantastic, Richard and team. Thank you so very, very much; and good morning, everybody. Glad to see you today. Welcome to our second service here at the First Colony Church of Christ. And to those of you who are worshiping with us online, we welcome you as well. Happy New Year, everyone. You know, we do have some printed Orders of Worship available in our lobby. You can also download a digital Order of Worship through our church app, and we encourage you to do that so you can keep up with all the good things going on around here. Let me also thank you as a church family for your incredible generosity in 2021, and we just ended with such a burst of generosity. Thank you for your faithfulness; thank you for your buy-in. Thank you for your support, and thank you for just being faithful to the Lord and wanting to be used by Him to advance His cause. So thank you for that. I want to recognize a couple of folks here. First of all, Gavin Groves. Please stand. There's Gavin. (Cheers and applause) He's the son of our Christ and Bethany Groves, and Gavin was baptized back on December 19. One more time, let's celebrate with Gavin, please. It's fantastic. Thank you. (Applause) Very good. Daniel and Cathie Orozco -- where are you? Right there. (Applause) We welcome them to our church family as new members as well, Daniel and Cathie. We're glad to have you. You know, there are few words as sweet-sounding as these: "You have been upgraded." You've on from coach to business. You've gone from a regular room to a suite. And an upgrade is an improvement or an enhancements. That's actually our message series beginning today for the next four or five weeks or so as we seek to upgrade key areas of our lives under the touch of God. Today we want to take a look at going from anxiety to security. Now, I'm talking about a particular brand of anxiety. I'm talking about the kind of anxiety that has a spiritual dimension to it. The fear and stress that comes from maybe having misplaced values or a low view of God. I'm not talking about anxiety that has a physiological cause or it's rooted in trauma. My friends, medicine can be God's good gift to you; and therapy and counseling can be God's good gift to you; but sometimes we battle anxiety with a low view of God or with some misplaced values. You don't need to feel less than because you battle anxiety. We all do. Okay? So today we'll take a look at a Biblical text about facing anxiety, and we're gonna use a boat story from Scripture. You say, "Boats are fun and are not anxiety-producing vessels." Most of the time, boats are fun; but sometimes a boat can even be a scary place. For example, you're going on a nice little three-hour cruise, right? And lo and behold, something happens and where do you end up? You end up in a sitcom. There you go. (Laughter) And we all know the story of, you know, taking a trip on the world's most luxurious liner, and you know what happened there. Or you've bought into -- you bought the brochure; you're going on a wonderful week-long cruise with the spouse, and you're expecting great food, terrific entertainment, and smooth seas. And, um, you know, it just doesn't quite turn out that way. Sometimes a boat can be a fun place and sometimes when the waters are rough and the winds are strong, a boat can be a pretty scary place. Everybody faces anxiety because we all face anxiety-producing events; and anxiety is the natural human reaction to fear. And the presence of anxiety doesn't mean that you have no faith. The presence of anxiety, listen, it's unavoidable; but living in the ongoing prison of anxiety without fighting back by faith -- well, that's your choice. That's optional. I believe that with God's help we can upgrade. Here's the boat story from Mark 4. It's such a succinct story. It's tremendously compact. There's an incredible economy of style. Here we go. Verse 35. "That day when evening came, He said" -- Jesus said - "to His disciples, let us go over to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along just as we was in the boat. A lot of little details here. It's after a long day of teaching. The disciples are going to cross the Sea of Galilee, a big lake eight miles wide, 13 miles long. And it mentions here they took Him along as He was. In other words, Jesus didn't change clothes. They get in the boat and were also other boats. You see little details here. "A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. And Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" In other words, "Jesus, we thought if we were with You, we would never be in a scary situation. We thought if You were around, we wouldn't need. We would never be in a scary scenario. Do You not even care about us?" And by the way, sometimes we'll face scary situations and we'll say, "Lord, don't You care?" But remember now, on this side of the cross and this side of the empty tomb, you really have to ask: is that a fair question? He does care. So here's what Jesus did. He got up -- verse 39. He does two things. He rebukes the wind and the waves. "Quiet! Be still!" In other words, He says, "Quiet and stay quiet." "And the wind died down, and it was completely calm." He says two things and two things happen. He rebukes the wind and the waves; the wind stops and it's completely calm. If some cynic were to say, "You know, it could be coincidental. He commands the wind to calm down. And then over the next 45 minutes or so, the winds diminished" -- no, that's not what happened. He gives the word, and immediately not only do the wind become calm, but the waves become completely calm. This is beyond ANY claimed miracle ever. THIS is incredible. And He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" By the way, some of you will sometimes look at another person and say, "Oh, I wish I could have faith. I wish I had your faith." You can. Faith is not some mystical little cloud floating around and we hope it falls on us. Faith is your response to key information. Your faith is your response to the claims of Jesus Christ. As Jesus told His disciples, "You have enough information here to make a response. You have seen and heard enough from Me to have a response." And most of you in this room have seen and known enough to have a legitimate response to Jesus Christ. Verse 41. "They were terrified." That's interesting to me. They were scared in the storm, and now after the storm they're terrified. They were squared because of the wind and the waves; and now they are in absolute awe. But one theologian has called the mysteruim tremendum -- in other words, the grand mystery of "We want to be close to Jesus; and yet at the same time I have to say woe is me; I am not worthy. I'm both fearful and I'm fascinated by Who He Is." When they were in the midst of their problem, they were scared. When Jesus solved their problem, they were terrified. And they asked this question -- and this is the key question here of this narrative. "Who is this? Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him." And we know the answer to that question. You've read on. You know how the story unfolds. Who is this? Even the winds and waves obey them. This is God in the flesh. That's who this is. This is our Teacher; our Rabbi, whose words have authority. This is the One who will be the Sacrifice for our sins. This is the One who will be the Resurrection and Life and win the cosmic victory because of His Death. This is a coming King coming back again to set all things right. This is the One who will become Head of the Church, who will send the Holy Spirit to empower the body of Christ the bride of Christ. That's who Jesus is. Do you have a high view of Jesus? You need to know that He is Lord of Lord and King of Kings; and if you're looking for some peace in your life, peace doesn't come from finding a lake with no storms. They don't exist. Peace comes from having Jesus Christ in the boat with you. Now, we'll come back to that boat in a moment. I want to talk about three spiritual causes of anxiety. I'm gonna give them to you in three phrases. Here's the first phrase -- you ready? "If only." I believe one way that Satan attacks our peace of mind is through that phrase "if only," because "if only" deals with the unchangeable past, and he loves to attack you and for you to focus on the unchangeable past. "If only; if only. If only I had walked into that bar. If only I hadn't done this. If only I ..." Unaddressed sin can be a source of anxiety, unaddressed "if only." If you have never received God's forgiveness, there's a barrier, and that can produce fear in your life about the possibility of facing the living God without your sins covered in His grace. You will never be at peace with yourself. You will never be at peace with your circumstances until you first of all are at peace with God. Romans 5:1 says this: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." Have you come to Christ? Trusted in Him? Been baptized in His Name, seeking to be a loyal follower? Are you a Christian walking in disobedience? Get that right. Start walking with the Lord in freshness and if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. "If only." My friends, your "if only" can be covered in the vast and deep mercy of our Great God, and that's good news. "If only." How about this phrase? "What if." What if deals the unknown and unpredictable future, the unknown future. "What if this or that? What if this happens?" It can paralyze us. "What if I can't control the situation?" you most likely won't be able to. "What if I can't control that person? I love them so much. What if I can't?" Hey, you most likely won't be able to. "What if the way God handles this is not my preferred way?" "What if God answers my prayer differently than I want?" And sometimes we carry loads we're not designed to carry. We must place an unknown and unpredictable future into the hands of a Known God and a Good God. Now, let me give a couple quick disclaimers here, okay? First of all, taming anxiety doesn't mean you don't plan. That doesn't mean you just say, "Well, you know, tomorrow will take care of itself" and you don't plan. No; as Christians we plan; count the cost; plan for retirement; plan for your family; but plan in pencil, knowing that God Himself is the One who holds tomorrow in His hand. You know, James says it like this, saying if you were going to tell somebody, "Hey, I'll see you on Wednesday," the book of James said, "I will see you on Wednesday, Lord willing, if the Lord wills." Taming anxiety doesn't mean you don't care. It doesn't mean you're unconcerned. We should be concerned. We have responsibilities. We have concerns about our lives and our family lives; but the Bible said don't be overly concerned, overly anxious where you take it all and you put it all on your shoulders. You know, Chapman University recently released their annual survey on American fear; and given the headline of 2020 and 2021, no one is surprised to see an uptick in fear across America. Fear crosses partisan lines. The bipartisan power of fear is evident in that here is the foremost fear in the United States, according to Chapman University. For six years running, by the way -- here's the fear. It's the fear of corrupt government officials. It's the fear shared by Republicans and Democrats alike; and it's such a dominant fear that the next highest ranking fear is a full 20% lower. That's the fear of a loved one close to me dying. So we shouldn't be surprised that fear of corrupt leaders is rising at the same time as secularism. Secularism is simply religious skepticism as faith in an all-powerful God decreases. The fear of powerful people increases. Where faith decreases, fear and anxiety increase. I believe for Christians it's this kind of fear should be met with a bigger perspective. 13 times in the Book of Acts, you will see the early church dealing with government. You know what they did every single time? They prayed and they prayed boldly because they believed that we serve a Living God who, and I quote, "Made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them." I believe we have an opportunity as believers in this anxious age where we can be redemptively countercultural by pointing our anxious friends, family, and neighbors to the fear-dispelling God of the universe whose power dwarfs every kingdom, every empire, every king. I'm not saying we're not concerned; I'm not saying we don't plan. But in direct opposition to persistent anxiety and stress is the hope and peace Christians have because we know the Living God. If only. Do your "if onlies" need to be covered? "What if?" We place this in God's hands. But here's another little phrase: "I'm not." "I'm not talented enough." "I'm not pretty enough." "If you really knew me, you would know I'm not good enough." "I'm just not enough." A constant barrage of "I'm nots" can create a lot of anxiety. Listen carefully: you are human, and you must give yourself permission to be just that. I'm not saying we shouldn't push ourselves to grow. I'm not saying that we shouldn't push ourselves and ask for the Holy Spirit's help to be a really consistently good version of ourselves, okay? But we're human. We still live with the infection of sin within our body. None of us is good at everything, and we all need others to compensate for our weaknesses; and the best way for us to deal with our humanness is not by denying it, not by being defensive; but simply by basking and living in the love that God has for us. John Mark Comer has a book called "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry." He says this: "To be made in the image of God means that we're rife with potential. We have the Divine's capacity in our DNA, but that's only half the story. We're also made from the dirt, 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.' We're the original biodegradable containers, which means we're born with limitations. We are not God. We are mortal, not immortal; we are finite, not infinite." I read a Christian article this week that said, "Here's a mantra I recommend you say to yourself almost every day." You ready? Here it is: "Nothing I do today will likely be perfect or ideal. Virtually everything I do today can be picked apart. And that's okay." When I was a kid growing up in Sunday School, I learned a song with this line: "I am weak, but He is strong." All right. Let's go back to the boat, and let me just remind you Jesus is in your boat. He is in our boat. Sometimes the seas will be rough and the wind unpredictable. He may not take you out of every storm. He may not take you out of every problem, but here's what He does promise. He promises to go WITH you through it. There are two key promises of God in every storm, and they are "I am with you" and "I will be acting on your behalf." You know, the basis of much anxiety in life is making a calculation without God and leaving the God factor out of the equation. How many times you read the Biblical narrative and will see these two little words: "but God." When God shows up and we leave Him out of the equation, it creates unnecessary anxiety. Whatever you're concerned about, don't leave God out. Don't forget you have a Heavenly Father who made you; who loves you; who sent His Son to die for you; and who wants to spend all eternity with you. He promises to be with us. He promises to act on our behalf. What that will look like, I don't know; but it's a promise, and it's our boat. You know, sometimes we'll say "We're in the same boat." We really are. Our boat. And it's important that IN this big boat called the church that we encourage one another, even in our anxieties. One writer says this: "Never worry alone. When anxiety grabs my mind, it is self-perpetuating. Worrisome thoughts can reproduce faster than rabbits so one of my most powerful ways to stop the spiral of worry is simply to disclose my worry to a friend. The simple act of reassurance from another human being becomes a tool of the Spirit to cast out fear, because peace and fear are both contagious." You know, over the last two years one of the most read Scriptures has to be from Philippians 4:6-7. Though you may have heard it a lot, it's STILL true and so very reassuring. "Do not be anxious about anything" -- you have tools and weapons. "But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, you present your requests to God." Prayer is that refuge where in the midst of the storm we run to our Great and Living God and place our requests into His hands. We get specific about it; and the specificity is not for His benefit. It's for ours. We place it there, and in prayer that's not a time to try to prove how good we are. It's a time to be raw and honest and bring who we really are before all that God really is. Prayer is the gift to anxious believers, and here's the promise. Verse 7. "And the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus." That means God's gonna be ministering here. He promises to be with us; He promises to act on our behalf; and what He will do may be inexplicable to us. You may have to get to heaven before you fully understand how God responded in that specific situation. It's without explanation simply because it's coming from God Himself in direct response to your point of anxiety and your request for help. He will see you through. Sometimes He will perform a miracle for you, but if miracles happened every day, they wouldn't be called miracles; they would be called normals. Sometimes He just delivers you in a supernatural way, but He will see you through. He will be acting on your behalf; and to everyone in this room, there will come a day when you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death; but you will not walk through that valley alone, and you will not fear evil because our Great God is with you. He's covering you with His goodness and mercy, and you will live in the house of the Lord forever. Brother Mike, would you make your way up here, please? I believe God has a good upgrade for us. We know who we are. We're children of the Most High. We know where we're going, and we have a Heavenly Father who cares. Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. God bless you, everybody. Let's pray together. Mike, come and lead us. >> Mike: Before we leave this morning, whether it's here in person or online, let's pause for a moment and talk to God about what we've learned from His Word this morning. Dear Father God, Creator of the Universe and Everything in it, You created us from dirt but also in Your image. Help us to fully realize and comprehend what it means to be created in Your image. The potential we have because we possess Your DNA. Knowing this, help us to be controlled by You and not by our fears. May our anxiety be overcome by our faith, knowing that Jesus can bring peace to us when we are fearful and anxious, just as He did for the disposals in the storm-tossed sea when they feared for their lives. Knowing that we and our family and friends will encounter events in this life that cause us to be anxious and fearful, help us to shine the light of Your peace to others. We ask this through the All-Powerful Name of Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen. >> Kevin: Amen; amen. Thank you so much, Mike. Church, there are tons of great ways to stay connected here at the First Colony Church of Christ so the beginning of the year, let me let you know what is going on. So of course as always we've got our Bible classes every Sunday morning, 9:45. If you're online with us, we've got -- stay on the livestream at 12:30. Kyle Strickland has his online series. For the whole church, Wednesday nights are starting back this Wednesday night this week. There is something for every age group. We've got Children's Ministry; there's Student Ministry; for adults, Uplift; there's small groups and FriendSpeak as an opportunity. Join us Wednesday nights because there's stuff happening over the building for all ages. For our ladies, they start back this Wednesday night and Tuesday morning ladies studies start the following Tuesday. If you haven't registered for that, go online this week to make sure you get registered. If you're looking for a way to get connected here at this church, one of the best ways is through our Connection groups. The last two Sundays of this month, out in the lobby you can go out there. Our Connection group leader, Shane Gage, and other leaders that lead groups, will be out there for you to talk to and learn about groups and get connected. Don't miss out on that opportunity. That's going to be January 23 and 30. That's in the lobby. That's a next, great step to be able to get connected at this church. Last but surely not least is our Super Sunday. Bring a friend event. It's happening. We do this every year on Super Bowl Sunday so it's easy to remember the date; but this year will be awesome. We literally have an astronaut coming to our church. How cool is that? So Barry Wilmore has spent 175 days in space. He's actually leading the next big manned mission. He's the commander that will be leading the next mission to space, and we get to hear from him. We get to ask him questions. Ronnie has a bunch of great questions we get to ask. So not only do we get to hear a great perspective, but this is a Godly man who is a Christian leader; and we get to hear his view -- I mean, to ask a guy who sat up in space, "What is your view of God?" I mean, can you imagine reading Genesis from looking down on the earth? I'm so excited to hear his answers, just his perspective of science; this knowledge; his experience. It will be awesome so make sure you're here. Invite your friends because it will be a great Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday. Let's stand as we close out with one more song. It's been a blessing being with you. ("Only King Forever" playing) >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping today! You are dismissed!