DISCLAIMER: This text is not a verbatim transcript. Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. >> You'll find links to our worship services; Bible study options; online giving; and our podcast, Anchor Point. You can also download our church app. Just search for "First Colony Church of Christ" in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. We're glad you're here. ♫ >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services; Bible study options; online giving; and our podcast, Acar 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: How are you this morning? Oh, come on! Are y'all ready to worship this morning? Let's all stand together! ("Good God Almighty" playing) >> Richard: Yes! Hey, we've got some special guests with us this morning. The fourth and fifth-grade strings class from CCA. They're going to play with us on LPS song. (what a Beautiful Name" playing) >> Richard: Yes, you all may be seized and let's give a big round of applause to the fourth-and fifth-grade strings class led by Ms. Amy -- oh, I forgot your last name. Mathis. As our communion leaders come up and prepare to lead us in communion, let's focus on what Jesus did. >> Corey: Good morning. My name is Corey and this is Ms. Phyllis Murray. We'll let you in communion this morning for the bread and for the cup, which represents the body and blood of Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we come before You, Lord, we are so grateful for the sacrifice made on Calvary for the remission of our sins. Thank You, Lord, for the bread that was broken, Your body broken for our sins and blood poured for our forgiveness. God, I pray You never let us forget the sacrifice made through Your Son. We ask these things in Jesus' Name. Amen. >> Phyllis: Today I will be reading from 1 Timothy 4:7-11. (reading) ("My Jesus" playing) (Applause) >> Grant: Thank you. Amen! I hope we do that, let Him change our lives. Well, all the students from CCA and staff, welcome! It is great to have you guys here and in just a minute will head from the Head of School, Mr. Eric nickly, and looking forward to that. It's time to pray over the offering. If you are online, Texas safe, secure, and easy to set up. If you're here, we have giving bins at all the exit. Let's pray today. Father, You Are good. Your love endures forever, and, Father, we pray You change our lives. Just give us a heavenly perspective, a kingdom perspective we come to You with grateful hearts, knowing all we have is a gift from You. We pray as we give today You bless this offering, that it may multiply to bless Your kingdom. We pray this the Powerful Name of Jesus. Amen. Joel? Go good morning. This is the kids' spot, where we have an observable teaching. The verse that I have for us today comes to us from Psalms 119 that say, "Your World is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." So if you have ever lost power in your house, do you want a tiny little candle to make your house, uh -- do you want a, uh -- let's see here. Boy, I tell you; we got this. Three, two, one! You know, look at that. We got flame. I am going to hold it because I don't want to lose it for what comes next. Do you want a tiny little candle to light your way inside your house? No, you want a big one; and the Bible says that God's Word is a light unto our path. So how do you get God's Word into your life? By memorizing it. All right? So that's option one. Hopefully -- (Laughter) Wow! You know! This is -- second service is special. First service I never have any problems. Second service, you guys are just -- wow. Are you ready? okay, that was cool but this is cooler. (gasps) So the point is getting God's Word inside your life is what shines a path for your future. Now, check this out. Hey, everybody! One of things we want to do in Children's Ministry is Desiminate God's Word. We know God's Word will not return void so if I want to leave kids with anything, I want them to know the Gospel and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want them to understand worship and Heap is our hero; but I want them to know God's Word. Something we're trying this year is creating little packs of ten Bible verses that we think every kid should know. And then it will build into the next level and next level. So this is going to be called Camp Daniel, kind of like a fitness camp but a spiritual fitness camp. It's gonna come with little challenges like the core pack. What are the bakic verses everybody should know? We're targeting first through fifth grade, but anybody is welcome to work on these. However, our challenge is that we want kids to know God's Word and have it in their heart, which can NEVER be taken away. So I want to encourage you as parents to encourage your kids to learn God's Word. We're gonna have some sin sent sieves. We will have events that if you reach a certain spot and you've said it to your Mom and Dad and to a church leader, you've had your ten verses signed off; there's going to be an ice cream experience -- more to come during the week of spring break. And then we'll have another pack of ten and another pack of ten and kids can learn at their own pace, but regardless, they will have God's Word in their heart and will know what to do when things around them may be a little crazy. So check out this link. Download your Bible verse card, and let's get your kids learning God's Word. Thank you very much. >> Great job, Joel. We for sure want our kids at CCA and in church on fire for the Lord so when you can incorporate fire in a lesson, I say 100% go for it. What is interesting is they don't have a fire extinguisher here and there's one sitting in the front row as well. Just letting you know you're always say. My name is Eric Nicholie, Helped of School at Cornerstone Christian Academy. I would like to thank First Colony Church of Christ with their steadfast partnership, 19 year. Never year is is obviously 20, big time; so 19 years of being age to, you know, skims for life and faith for eternity for our kids. I want to personally thank Ronnie and leadership of the church for that blessed partnership. Give them a round of applause. (Applause) and it's a joy for me to serve this ministry, also as a member here at church. I teach in Main Street Live! As well to the kids and elementary kids so it is truly a blessing to be able to do that. I would like to thank our Board -- Shawn Burnett is our board president, here this morning's service; we have Dr. Hooper, our haven't in the front; secretary is Don Brian, Jr.; Andy St. jean, Meredith Duncan, mark Mize, and Phyllis Murray who read our Scripture a few minutes ago. I appreciate their efforts and volunteering and giving their efforts to serve in kingdom education that honor our school. Also an honor to see our strings students perform. We had our music production students, some of them, performing this morning. And then students, of course, you had Corey Wears our Campus Minister and middle school principal, leading in prayer. Dr. Hooper will close us out in prayer at the end of this service as well. Cornerstone Christian academy opened in 2003 at first as a small mother's day out preschool and later on in 2005, the first kindergarten class and in 2009, they had a middle school. The vision is to educate students here at First Colony and Fruto Fort Bend County. We have students from Missouri City, Stafford, out in Siena; from Katy; you know, Richmond and Rosenberg and of course here in First Colony. CCA has been blessed also -- I would say one of the greatest asset in a school aside from the children, of course, is it staff. So our teachers, about half have been teacher of the year from their previous school. We have a principal of the year that's currently part of our staff as well. Our accreditation comes through two -- one national organization COGNIA, and national Christian school association as well. And something that is kind of a consistent thing that people always say about our school and accreditation team that separately said the exact same thing -- and they are coming from all over the nation when they looked at us -- is the strong sense of family and academic excellence. So that's something we take great pride in. Our staff members have multiple certifications through high school and our students on standardized testing perform at least in the top percentile band in science, math, and reading and many, many grade levels. This is a huge accomplishment in these last couple of years with the pandemic, which I would say is probably one of the most challenging times for educator in the last 50 years. So CCA also has a comprehensive health and wellness plan upon our website, which you can view at WWW.cornerstoneCCA.org. It has a lot of videos, pretty much anything you want to know habit the school you can see there. So one really important health indicator for schools today is the percentage of students that are participating in after school programs. whether you're private school or public school, that percentage. If you can get 40% of students participating in after school programs -- from sports to clubs to extended-care programs -- that's considered like a gold standard. At CCA, we have about 90% of our students participating in some type of after school program in connection with the school, which is truly an amazing feat. One thing we're going to taupe up to our church community is this spring is we have an elementary program called Junior Cougar, a track team. We also do soccer in the fall. We would like the church community to sign up as well. They will give you more information later on. We will have our newly enrolled students for next year that will have that opportunity also. It will be just a day where we can have fun outside this nice, beautiful weather doing a sport event together. So rigorous academics and preparing students to be leaders in stoat is obviously extremely important for us at CCA; but the faith for eternity is really our foundation. So I went to a national head of school conference earlier this fall, and one of the things I found was very interesting is the trend of students attending chapel. So typically they're attending chapel on Wednesdays, but the percentage of schools that are going to school, attending chapel every day, is down to about 6%. CCA, which is a huge blessing, I think; is we do that every single day from r preschool II through eighth grade attend chapel. That is a HUGE benefit to our kids; it's a praise and worship time that you can see online. You can watch it online on Facebook Wednesdays; but I encourage you to come in. So 8:45 on a Wednesday, just come in to the school, come to chapel in the Worship Center, and can see what children's church is really meant to be like. I would ask you to come to that. Our middle-school students also with faith for eternity have an opportunity to get community service hours through service learning trips, basically mission trips for our kids. That is a huge blessing to them as well. And so the main thing I am pleased to kind of go with this theme to see in our children is their spiritual growth and their maturity. I had the opportunity to personally baptize kids here at CCA but also just as an example, this past Christmas break our campus minister, Corey Waters, who was up here earlier, baptized two kindergartners in a private ceremony at the church. It's these moments, I believe, which solidity who we are at CAA. Lastly, I would like to highlight something that makes us different -- so a strong Board of silos of expertise they give freely to our school -- 90% of our parents kind of give above tuition, above and beyond tuition, which is truly an amazing mark; and then the competitive price and amazing value that we give. So it's an all-inclusive price the Board has set and has been a theme of the school and we include basically our one-to-one technology, service learning trips, field trips, armed security that we have; even food cost and even supplies. I mean, parents don't -- part of the tuition is every single instructional supply students could use. This is something that is not commonplace among private schools across the nation. And, of course, our staff. So our staff -- obviously they're all G.T. certified and I gave you some examples of some of their Al lo Cades earlier -- but what they pour into the kids each and every day from our aides to our administration to our teachers is something that I think really sets us apart. So with this theme, in closing, I recently reflected on a devotion I todayly. It was talking about serving, working, and offering the time. Colossians 3:17 says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in My Name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father." When I think of the words "In word of deed," I think of my staff and what they do for the kids at the school so I want to recognize those individuals now. If you're currently in the Worship Center and served in any capacity, currently or in the past -- you have been an aide or on the Board, or a teacher -- please stand so we can recognize you. If you're online, you can stand as well. I just thank you for your service. (Applause) I would include the church in that. I got people in the church like Rocky right here. Thank you for your service towards the school as well. We appreciate you. We love you, and we love the relationship that we have together. Thank you, and God bless. >> Grant: Thank you, Eric, so much. (Applause) we definitely appreciate you, our partnership with CCA. Well, speaking of, elementary, it's time for our fifth-to fifth-graders to head back to Main Street Live! You can see Ms. Danelle at the back center doors. It's a great, age-appropriate service. If you haven't checked your kid, you can go to the chapel do get them checked in for Main Street Live. For everybody here whether you're a guest or member, it's a great time to fill out a Connection card. If you're online click the "Connect card" button. If you're here, get out the phone, scan the QR code, and let us know things you're interested in or prayer requests so we can pray this week. If you're a guest with us today, thank you so much for joining us. We would love to get to meet you. We've got a special room called New Here? Start Here across the lobby and we have a gift for you as well as staff to meet you and answer questions for you this morning. All right, church; it's time for our fellowship greeting. Let's go ahead and stand and tell somebody what is your favorite cold-weather drink, something that warms you up and tastes goods. ("Forever" playing) >> Richard: Sing praise! Forever! >> Richard: Amen! The love of the Lord endures forever! Church, you may be seated! >> Ronnie: Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. Good morning, everyone; glad to see you today. Welcome to our second service here at the First Colony Church of Christ; and to those of you war shipping with us online, so glad to have you with us as well today. Eric, we appreciate so much what you had to say; and we do, as a church family here, we are grateful to God for good, healthy partnership with CCA over these last 19 years. They're do a fabulous, fabulous work there. We've got some new members I'd like to recognize this morning. I want you to stand, James and Stacey Green. Where are you? There they are, right there. (Applause) we welcome the Greens into our church family here. Fantastic. Next Sunday, of course, is Super Sunday; and it's Super Sunday for our church family as well. Bring a Friend Day. Certainly with online possibilities, I encourage you to invite folks around the country, around the globe to be with us next Sunday. Our guest speaker, we'll do an interview format, is Captain Barry "Butch" Wilmore. He's a man of science, undergrad, graduate degree at engineering. He was a navy pilot, test pilot, been with NASA close to 20 years. He spent I think over 170 days in space, spent nearly six months at the ISS, International Space Mission -- Station. He was the Pilot of space shuttle "Atlantis" and is the commander for NASA's next manned space mission on the Boeing Starliner. He's a strong believer, Bible teacher, preacher. He and his wife will be next with us next Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I ask you to turn in some questions, and a lot of our kids, I think, turned in some really, really good questions. I'm looking forward to hearing his responses. Well, we're here for a few moments. Let lease talk about change, shall we? An upgrading from shame to acceptance. It can wake you up and weigh you down. It's designed to get your attention about something needs to be addressed. It has a connection to guilt, and there are people, sociologies, will say shame has absolutely no place in a person's life. I beg to differ; I think it can actually wake us up to some things that we need to pay attention to. Can you imagine living in a culture where no one feels any shame for anything? Well, self-restraint goes out the window, and in cultures where obscenity has no boundaries, obscenity has no definition where nobody feels any shame, well, my goodness. You know, self-restraint just simply but not exist. Let me put a statement up here on the screen: Guilt and shame, they're related and yet different. I don't want to push this too far because there are certainly some overlap; but generally speaking, guilt is where someone say, "You know, I did something wrong. I did a wrong. I need to apologize. I need to confess this. I need to make this right." Shame tend to be a little more pervasive. "I am a wrong. I am a failure." Guilt is about is punishment; I need to apologize, confess, receive forgiveness -- legally if you will. Shame fears abandonment and tends to reroute good news. It's like a person who's just wallowing in shame might say, "I believe the Good News of God; I believe the Good News of Jesus. I believe there's grace. I believe that for you." "I'm on the outside looking in. You don't know my story. You don't know what I did. You don't know my connection." And the simple definition of shame is simply when other people think poorly of you. When other people think poorly of me. It's that intense pain of feeling unworthy, disconnected, and unlovable before people and God. Here's a good definition from Ed Welch. "Shame is the deep sense that you are unacceptable because of something you did, something done to you, or something associated with you." You feel exposinged and humiliated, or to strengthen the language, you're disgraced because you abouted less than human. You were treated as if you were less than human or you were associated with something less than human, and there are witnesses." You know, there's no shortage of things in Satan's tool box to make you just sort of feel ashamed. It might be how tall you are; how tall you're not; your weight; where you're from -- "Oh, you're from that place? You're not from here?" "You went to school there? You couldn't get in here? Well, you didn't go to school." There's no shortage of weapons in Satan's tool box to cause you to feel shame. You know, back in November 1963 -- you know, I was 5 years old. November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated here in Texas, in Dallas. The assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, and I realize a lot of people are into conspiracy theories on that; but I believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin. He not only shot President Kennedy, he murdered a Dallas police officer, J.D. Tibbott, later that afternoon. Lee Harvey Oswald had a brother, Robert Oswald, who was a professional, working in Dallas; and he hears on the radio about the assassination and later about the arrest of his brother that afternoon. For those of you who know the history, Oswald himself was shot by Jack Ruby on Sunday. So Robert Oswald -- here he was. He was married, a businessman. He had been a Marine, served our nation during the Korean Conflict; and his friend said, "You're either gonna have to move out of Dallas or change your name. It's not going to work to have the last name Oswald here." And he said, "I live here. I love it here. I'm not moving. I'm not changing my name. My brother may have dishonored our name, but it's a good name. If you dig into my family background, it's a good name." By the way, two week after president Kennedy's assassination, our nation provided Secret Service protection for the family for a couple of week. He's driving with his family and had a taillight out. A police officer pulls over. He shows his driver's license, and the police officer says, "Oswald. Are you related to Lee Harvey?" He said, "He was my brother." He said the police officer got close to him and said, "We just want you to know, my wife and I, we have been praying for you for the last two weeks." Robert Oswald died at the age of 83 in 20. >> 2017. He never changed his name or moved. He and his wife raised two daughters, had four grandchildren; and I actually believe that it was due to his Christian faith that he refused to allow shame to have the last word. By the way, when he died, he was a member at the Faith Village Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, Texas. There's no shortage of weapons in Satan's tool box to beat yourself up with; and the shame game can be fed, one, by hiding, just by refusing to commit to a vulnerable, open relationships. It can be fed by constant comparing. In my first service today, my friend Louis parker was sitting over here. He is a great guy, and in a way I really like him and really respect him. In some way I don't like him at all, and I'll tell you why: I have a pretty healthy self-esteem. I feel pretty good about myself, and I think I'm pretty productive; but whenever I'm around Louis Parker, I feel like a lazy slug. Let me tell you why: He is the preacher for the Sugarland Church of Christ. He was here in our 8:30 service, but after that he was preaching at 10:00 a.m. at the Sugarland Church of Christ and is preaching again tonight a different message. Louis is also an attorney. Not only that, he's a lieutenant with the Houston Police Department. He can arrest you, advise you, and pray for you all in the same day. (Laughter) I said, can you not make up your mind on a vocation? I mean, my goodness. Preaching the way he does regularly, an attorney, a lieutenant with the Houston Police Department. So if I just want to compare highest myself to Louis, I am full of shame. I'm a lazy slug. No, he's just an overachiever is what he is. And then judging -- judging is where, you know, "Hey, I need to find somebody. I'm going to cope with my shame by finding someone who I think their shame exceeds mine." Or just unbelieving. This is where I think, you know, nobody has a skeleton in their closet like I do." This is where you just can't believe that the worst moment in your life can EVER be dealt with by God's grace and mercy and renewal. And you take the worst moment of your life or the worst moment in someone else's life and you put a label on them and you put that label and it stamped and is permanent. You look in the anywhere report and say, "You know what? I'm always going to be 1985. I'm always going to be 1991. You'll always be 2012 in my book." "You know, you're always going to be 2017, and don't think you will ever get beyond it." Shame says, I believe the Good News -- I do. It's just not for me. I'm on the outside looking in. My label can't be dealt with. Well, shame is not erased but can be replaced and begins by truly believing the cleansing, believing the grace God has for you. Reading from Romans 7, Apostle Paul says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" "So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sin self mind a slave to sin." "Therefore, there is -- are you listening? Right now, fully, here, now -- no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the Law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did it." Who did it? "God did it by sending his own Sin in if likeness and so he condemned flesh in order that the righteous requirement of God's Law might be fully met in us, who dot no live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." In other words, you don't earn grace. It's free, and Jesus paid for our freedom and Satan himself is called what? A tempter. What's another name for him? A deceiver. What's another name for him? A liar. What's another name for him? The accuser. The accuser. And the accuser wants to keep reminding you of your worst moment. EVERY saint you know has a past, and every sinner you know has a future under God's grace. The salvation of Jesus Christ, it involves more than just legal forgiveness. There's something more than just legal acquittal here, and that's personal acceptance. That's why when you read the Gospels and you read them about the life of Jesus, the definitive blow to shame is how Jesus treated all the marginalized, the people who should have been wearing shame hats; but tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Gentile; the demon-possessed -- He goes to the edges and loves and welcomes. The grand story, that wonderful message of the Prodigal Son who did what? Shamed himself, shamed his father, shamed his entire community; and then comes home empty handed, covered in pig filth. And everything about him screams shame. And how does the father respond? Gives him a bear hug. New clothes. A ring on his finger -- the American Express card. And a feast where he is the guest of honor. The father's radical love banishes not just guilt but shame. You know, sometimes people say, "Well, how can I forgive myself?" Well, I understand the question. You know, you can't play tennis by yourself. You just can't do it. And you can't -- you can't forgive yourself. You can sin; you can be broken; you can be alienated; you can't forgive yourself. GOD does that, and what you do is you believe the cleansing by faith. You accept it. And you accept that, my friends, in Christ you are not a burden to the Lord. You are blessing! When you view yourself as a burden to the Lord and a burden to others, you're incapable of seeing Him as a Good Father, a Generous Father and don't see yourself as a child of the King, as a son or daughter of the King. You're not a burden; you're a blessing. I am a child of the King, and so are you. And then you receive the fellowship. You really do. You receive the fact that you do belong here. You do belong with God's people; and quite honestly, you need them and they need you. You take an ember from a fireplace; you pull it out. I tell you what will happen. Over time, it's going out; and whenever somebody says, you know, I don't feel as connected as I need to be, get engaged in the fellowship. Not just from a personal -- like for me -- no, no. The body needs you, too; and here's what happens. In dealing with guilt and shame, God forgives us legally; but we need one another to regularly say to each other, "Hey, you're not your worst moment here. You're not your worst moment with me. I'm not going to be brokering shame to you saying, `oh, you're always 2005 in my book." No, what we want to do is we want to broker grace, renewal, and traffic in the gracest distribution of one new beginning after another. In 2 Corinthians there's a story of a man who would sin greatly in that particular church. Here was Paul's advice to them. He said, "You need to forgive him and comfort him to keep him from having too much sadness and giving up completely." Ray Ortman said, you want to get better from shame? Here's a formula. Pill put it on the screen. The Gospel, the Good News that God is for you, can forgive you and renew you in Christ; plus safety; plus time equals better. You know what safety is? Safety is a group of people who say, "Hey, we're in this together." I know the story. I know the flaw. I know you're not -- you don't have to pretend with me, okay? You don't have to pretend with me. We're safe. We're walking together. Let me just remind you, ONE word of encouragement after a failure is worth more than a whole book of praise after a success; and some of you in this room and some of you watching online, you've got to stop listening to some goofy comment that was made to you three years ago and start listening to wise, Godly people of today who can breathe new life into your soul. Some of you have got to stop listening to these imaginary voices, these imaginary accusatory voices in your head and start listening to the true reDemocrattive voices of relief and new beginnings. And then thirdly you own your new life. You own it in Christ by repentance. This is where we are gonna say, "Okay, I will take ownership of my life. I acknowledge what needs to be acknowledged. I want to turn from what I need to turn from." There's a phrase in the Bible that is beautiful and talks about having a clear conscience. You know how to have a clear conscience? You say, "Ronnie, how in the world can a person, a broken, sin self person like me, have a clear conscience?" A clear conscience does not belong to someone who's perfect. That person doesn't exist. Jesus taught us to pray the Lord's Prayer, right? And part of that daily prayer is "Forgive me of my sins, even as I forgive those who sin against me." Here's how you have a clear conscience, though: It's the assurance that neither God nor anyone else can blame me for wrong that I haven't tried to make right. That neither a person nor God can accuse me of a wrong that I'm aware of that I haven't tried to make right, either through an apology or a correction. That's a clear conscience. You own that. You start to step out of shame. And last of all, be good with a new kind of shame. There's a kind of shame you want, and you're willing to embrace. That's why the Bible says don't ever be ashamed of the Gospel. 1 Peter 4 "However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." You know, in are lot of folks, a lot of believers, who can actually have shame over good things and be ashamed of the Lord, be ashamed of the Gospel. Be ashamed of Biblical value. You know, gang, we live in a world now that if you're going to own your faith and live by Biblical values and those are your, you know, rocks that you stand on, nobody's gonna throw you in prison; but you might not get invited to the party. There may be some social costs. You'll no longer wear the cool hat. You may not be in that group. Be willing to be good and own the kind of shame that says, "I'm with the Lord; I stand with Him; I'm not ashamed of the Gospel." It was said of the apostle Peter that when he would preach, people would make the sound of a rooster crowing. It's just to remind him of who he was. You know, shame usually follows a little pattern, and here's the pattern: First we experience a really painful event. Secondly, we start to believe the lie that our pain and failure is who we are -- not just something that I did or not just something that was done to me. It's who I am. And then thirdly, we start to believe the trap that "I'll never, ever be able to recover and that I really don't even deserve to recover." I go back to Peter, who told the Lord, "I'm going to stand faithfully with You until the very end" but unfortunately, real-life events proved Peter wrong. A rooster's crow reminded Peter of his triple failure. But Peter refused to believe the lie that his betrayal was a permanent brand. He was broken; he was repentant; he cried out to God; and Jesus honored Peter's desperate plea, forgave him; restored him -- listen -- gave him a new assignment -- and it was Peter who preached that inaugural kingdom message. His failure was transform if from tragedy into a victory because of Peter's repentance's God's forgiveness, and became an inspiring story. Like Peter -- listen carefully -- I want you to be convinceds that you are not your worst moment and you are not what others have done to you; rather, WE are who God declares us to be by His grace and in the Holy Spirit. We are His children, and you are forgivable; you are moldable; you are changeable; you are covered in the limitless love of God; and He has a fresh assignment for you. Here's what you're gonna have to do: You got to accept the fact that there are some things you can't go pack and undo. You cannot unscramble that egg, and you can't go back and undo it. But then you can embrace the truth that our Great God, He can change future. Jesus went to the cross; He took our guilt; He took our shame; and here's what you're invited to do today. You're invited to step out into the light of God's fresh tomorrow. Embrace His grace; embrace His declaration to you that you are indeed His son, His daughter. In our first service today, I asked Kyle to lead a song that we sing here primarily at our a cappella style. Don, you can be making your way up here for our closing prayer. It's called "The Lifter of My Head." Do you know that song? The Lord is the lifter of my head. That's a picture, an image, I want you to have of yourself today; that if your head is bowed in worship, that's one thing; but if your head is bound in shame, I believe the Good News. I believe the Lord is good for everybody but me." "I'm on the outside looking in." No, you're not. NO, you are not! You let Him lift your head; and that's why the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4, "WE can come to the throne of grace and mercy." You know how? The Bible says "You come boldly." We come boldly not because we're arrogant. We come boldly because we have been declared righteousness our Great God and King. Brother John Hooper, would you lead us as we pray? >> Would you please pray with me? Our most gracious, heavenly Father, we're always enjoying the love and the joy and the peace when we approach Your throne of grace and mercy. We come to You through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer; with your Holy Spirit also making groanings that we don't know how to utter. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the fellowship, Father, of a church; being able to be together. We thank You for the fellowship of family, Father, because that is the one that we get to be with on a daily basis. We thank You so much for Jesus Christ, who is the Cornerstone of our foundation of faith. Father, as we as parents, grandparents, friends, close associates look at the wonderful gift of young people in our lives; that You would help us to move past our own guilts and shames and rear them up to be strong, faithful Christians to meet; and marry strong faithful Christian mates; and to accomplish and maintain strong, faithful Christian homes; and to set a family culture, Father, that make, it okay for failure in our lives; because that is -- we show, then, the grace, mercy, and love You show us. We educate them properly, Father. And whether they go to Cornerstone Christian Academy or another private school or a public school or a homeschool, help us as the older ones to realize that knowledge comes when you're young; but wisdom and understanding comes with age. So help us to take seriously the great gift that You've given us but also the great responsibility to teach them; to lead them not only in what we say but more importantly by what we do. Father, we may demonstrate to them that we hear them; o our prayer is they do the same thing and repeat it so from each of our lineages from now until eternity, not one soul is lost. May we bring all of our clan and family to You and do it through proper education; do it through prayer; and take the opportunity to daily meditate upon the Scriptures, Father; and realize that Jesus Himself went upon the mountain to pray. So help us to take that kind of time, too. So thank You, Lord, for all the examples that You've set; for the wisdom of Your Word; for the opportunities that we have to love You and to serve You and to bear the fruit of the spirit as well as the fruit of repentance. So please forgive us and protect us, guide our thought and our deeds, as we pray in the Holy Name of Jesus the Christ. Amen. >> Grant: Amen. Thank you so much, Don, for that prayer and blessing. Well, church, there are ton of great ways to stay connected at the First Colony Church of Christ so let me make sure you're aware of those. Of course if you're on our online campus, you can just stay on the live stream and we've got came's teaching a new series today called "Magnetic." It's a great teaching on intimacy with God so just stay on. That starts at 12:30. For Paul of us, Wednesday night -- this is where life happens at the First Colony Church of Christ. There's stuff for children's ministry, students, adults 7:00 to 8:00 every Wednesday night. Ronnie's teaching through a great series called "Deep Dive," dealing with great questions. Shane and I are teaching a parenting class, "Parenting in a Post-Christian Culture." We're talking about defining tolerance and different world views that affect us and equipping our parents to be able to have difficult conversations with their kids, teach them, and equip them to be and thrive in the world of culture that we are faced with every day. Wednesday nights, be up. here. There's something for everyone in with lots of great opportunities. Of course, next Sunday is Super Sunday. It will be a great opportunity to invite friend. We have made it easy for you guys. You can go to the website. If you liker maims, there's a button. You can send she mail e-mail invites to your friends. I encourage send a couple of personal text invites this week. You can go to our social media, share those, send those out. Let's go ahead and be intentional with our invitations this week. For our schedule next Sunday, service times will be the same. We will have 8:30 and 111 services. There's nothing at 9:45 so no classes, no Children's programming; but during our services there will be our normal children's programming as normal. That's what to expect for next Sunday. And if you've been at First Colony and want to learn more about us or maybe take the next step of membership here, in two Sundays we will have a New Member Info Session hosted in our New Here? Start Here room at 9:45 so we'd love to have you here. All right church. I love you guy. We're praying for you this week. Let's stand as we get to close out with one last song this morning. >> Richard: Yes! ("Good God Almighty" playing) >> Richard: Thank you, church, for your worship today! You are dismissed!