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 Chuch 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: Good morning, church! Let's all stand together and worship the Lord! He is faithful, amazing, and worthy to be praised, amen? ("Your Love Awakens Me" playing.) >> Richard: Yes, the love of God, amen? (Applause.) He is faithful! He is true! He is the King! He is the Lord! We worship Him alone today. ("One Thing Remains" playing.) >> Richard: Do you believe that this morning? The love of God never fails. Everything else will fail, but one thing will remain: the love of God. Let's all be seated together as we share communion. >> Doug: Good morning, everybody. This is our time of communion. My name is Doug Freede, and with me this morning is my oldest grandson, Max Girod. We're glad to lead you this morning as we take the Lord's Supper so if you would, please pray with me. Lord, thank You for this Sunday morning, this first, this last Sunday before we celebrate what the world calls Easter but what we call Easter really every Sunday; that commemoration that You died for our sins; that You were raised from that tomb; that You walked the earth for many days and finally went back to be with our Father, Your Father in heaven. Lord, at this time we want to commemorate that suffering. We want to think about that blood that flowed from Your veins and Your arteries and dripped down to that ground underneath that cross, and we want to think about that body of Yours that was just crushed for us, stabbed and poked and thorns put on Your head. Lord, we never want to forget that that sacrifice is what brings us together this morning to celebrate and what will ultimately bring us together to celebrate for an eternity in heaven. Thank You, Lord, for loving us. Thank You for sending us this big, big, big sacrifice for us; and thank You for saving us from ourselves again so we will be communing like this for eternity in heaven with You and You, Father. We pray this prayer in Jesus' Name. Amen. So if you would, let's partake. >> Max: Hello, everyone. Today I will read from Leviticus 23:39-40 and John 12:12-15. (Reading.) From the first day you are taken from palms and leafy trees rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. John 12:12-15. (Reading.) ("Amazing Grace [My Chains Are Gone]" playing.) >> Richard: Church, why don't we all stand together and worship together? >> Richard: Church you may be seated. Thank you for worshiping with us today. >> Grant: All right, church. The Children's Ministry will make their way on stage. We have a special treat from them here shortly, but right now we're gonna be praying over our offering. So if you're online, it's a great way to give. It's easy to set up and give there. You can also give by texting, and we have giving bins at all the exits where you can drop in your tithe this morning. Church, thank you guys so much for your tithes and offerings. It's a beautiful gift that makes the body of Christ come together and bless this congregation, our community, and our mission points. So let's pray over that here this morning. Well, Father, You Are good. Your love endures forever, and we thank You so much for all that You have given us and that we're just giving that straight back to You so You can take that and go use it to bless Your work for Your kingdom. So Father, we lay it at Your throne and say multiply it. We pray this in the Powerful Name of Jesus. And all the church said amen. All right. So we have our Children's Ministry up here. They have been working the last several Wednesday nights on just a special thing, getting us ready for Easter and might I just plug Wednesday nights? This is where life happen at First Colony so bring your families. There's stuff for kids, adults, everybody. But they have been doing some great work here we get to enjoy. We have our Bible Readers Theatre Team and elementary chorus sing an Easter song, accompanied by our sign language interpreters. So with no further ado, let's give a warm welcome to our Children's Ministry this morning! (Applause.) >> Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, Jesus sent two of His disciples and said to them -- >> Go into the village in front of you and immediately as you enter it, you will find a donkey tied and colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says to you, "Why are you doing this?" Say, "The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately." >> We went and did as Jesus had directed us. >> We found the colt tied at a door outside in the street and we untied it. >> And some of those standing there said to us, "What are you doing, untying this colt?" >> So we told them what Jesus had said. >> And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it and He sat on it and many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches they had cut from the fields. >> Those who went before and those who followed were shouting -- >> Blessed is the one who comes, Hosanna is coming -- Father David, Hosanna the highest! (Applause.) >> And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this? What is happening? What is going on?" And the crowd said -- >> This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. >> This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Zachariah. Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt the goal of a beast of burden. >> We disciples did not understand these things at first. >> But when Jesus was glorified, then we remember that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him. >> Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Applause.) (Children singing.) Hallelujah Hear the bells ringing, they're singing That you can be born again Hear the bells ringing The angels on the tomb He is risen just as He said Quickly now Go tell His disciples that Jesus Christ is no longer dead Joy to the world He is risen Hallelujah He is risen Hallelujah He is risen Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hear the bells ringing, they're singing that you can be born again Hear the bells ringing, they're singing Christ is risen from the dead The angels up on the tombstone said He is risen just as He said Quickly now Go tell His disciples that Jesus Christ is no longer dead Joy to the world He is risen Hallelujah He is risen Hallelujah He is risen Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah (Applause.) >> Grant: Fantastic job! Big round of applause for our Children's Ministry! He has risen! He's risen indeed! Hallelujah! We get to enjoy that here on Palm Sunday and of course next week on Easter Sunday. Fantastic job, guys. All right, this is a great time to go ahead and fill out your Connection cards. If you're online, just click the "Connection card" button. If you're here, scan that QR code in front of you. Let us know you're here, what ministries you're interested in learning about, or prayer requests that our staff can be praying for you this week. If you're a guest was today, we would love to get to meet you. We've got a room right across the lobby called "New Here? Start Here." After service, we invite you to come there, and we have a ministry team and staff to greet you, answer questions, and we have a gift for you there this morning. All right. If you are first to fifth grade, Mr. Joel is in the back center and it's time to release to Main Street Live! So head back there first to fifth graders; parents, if you haven't signed your kids in, head over to the chapel for that. Everybody else, it's time for the fellowship greeting so we can go ahead and stand up, greet the folks around you. If you're online with us, this is a great time to jump in the chat box and say hello. We'd love to know you're here with us. ("Good God Almighty" playing.) >> Richard: Amen, don't you agree with that? (Applause.) Church, you may be seated. >> Ronnie: Good morning. We appreciate it. To those in the room, welcome today. To those of you worshipping with us via the online experience, we welcome you as well. So glad to have you as part of our worship service. And weren't our children, weren't those kids fantastic, the way they were singing to us, yea? (Applause.) And signing and reading and we appreciate them. We appreciate the parents bringing them up here. None of those kids have drivers' licenses. (Laughter.) We appreciate so much our volunteers serving and training and having a really good time bonding with them. In our first service today, we recognized someone celebrating an 80th birthday and recognized a 30-year wedding anniversary. We celebrated the baptism of Ben Armstead and in this service want to recognize and welcome new members to our church family. Please stand, Elliott and Riki Garcia and their children, Hannah and Elliot. Somebody will say, what are the dogs' names? Ellie and Ernie. You have the photo back? There you go. Right there. We welcome the Garcias. Fantastic. We're in a message series in the Book of acts, Spirit Mission, and Drama." The title of today's message is "Pivotal Moments," the moments when your life can change direction, hopefully in a very positive, good way. I do believe God brings pivotal moment to you to draw closer to Him. Sometimes a pivotal moment comes maybe in a negative way. We have a broken world experience or to use an old phrase, we get knocked off our high horse. We just been rolling right along. Something happens that shatters our world, and it forces us -- or at least it pushes us -- in God's direction. That can be good. Anything that leads us closer to God is a good thing. Often, though, it's really, as the Bible says, God's kindnesses that lead us to a spirit of repentance. We begin to sort of pay attention to all the good things in our world. We begin to pay attention to one blessing after another, opportunities we have had, kindnesses we have had. And we start to be grateful and we follow the bread crumbs all the way back, not to just some generic deity; we follow those bread crumbs of kindness all the way back to the God of Bible, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. It's a good thing, a pivotal moment. And then there are times when God might bring people, certain people, into our life. And they rub off on us. We're dismayed by what they talk about and how they talk about it. We're fascinated. Their values; their characters; their foundation; come to find out they're people of faith and if we're open to listening, they can pass along vital information to us. And sometimes God will bring people into your life who can provide a clearer understanding of God's will for you. Here's what I'm saying: God's perfectly capable of shaking up your world and mine. He's done it before; He's been doing it for years; He's not lost His touch; He's not lost His knack. Think with me for just a moment. Was there a time when someone, in your mind and you said of that person, maybe in a moment of weakness, "I just think that person is beyond the capacity of God to touch or influence or redeem or transform"? I just think that person just might be untouchable and untransformable by God's hand. Let me put it another way: is there someone you have just given up on and you've written off and you just said, "You know what? I just don't -- I just see no way that person's EVER going to be open and sensitive to the God of the Bible." Well, Saul of Tarsus was a hate-filled, violent person who was so convinced that he was right and everyone else was wrong that he would stop at nothing -- listen -- including arresting and killing innocent people, men and women, to force his views, his religious views, on the known world. Last week we read the episode from Acts 7 where Saul gave his approval for Stephen, one of the most respected leaders of the early church, to be executed publicly. What was Stephen's crime? He said, I believe in Jesus Christ. He's the Promised Messiah. He's been raised from the dead. When Paul or Saul -- Paul the Hebrew name; Saul the Roman name -- when he heard that, he gave the thumbs up for the public execution of Stephen. So the early disciples, those early Christians, they would not in their wildest dreams would not have voted Saul of Tarsus most likely to be baptized. Most likely to become a Christian. Oh, no. He's beyond being touched; he's out there; he's church enemy number one. But three times in the Book of Acts the conversion of Saul of Tarsus is mentioned -- not just once. In fact, his conversion story is given more press, more press, narrative in the New Testament, than any other conversion, any other episode, excepting for the passion of Jesus Christ. It's recorded in Acts 9, Acts 22, and Acts 26. People who study Christianity, apologists, and critics say, "You've got to deal with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus." So we're gonna quickly walk through that story today out of Acts 9 with three key players: Saul, Hebrew name; Roman name Paul. Ananias, whom you will only meet here; he's not mentioned again in the New Testament. And of course God, the Ultimate player. (Reading) "The Way" is an early description of the church. I know some names of churches is "Church on the Way." (Reading.) So Damascus is 150 miles north, and Saul is going to Damascus to persecute. He has good intentions and is not an evil person. He was zealously passionate for the Old Testament law for the Jewish way of doing things. By the way, it's been said there's a difference between someone who's passionate and someone who is zealous. Someone who is passionate will try to respectfully convince or persuade you to their point of view. Someone who is zealous will try to force you to their point of view. Saul believed that the survival of Judaism depended upon the extermination of these new radicals called Christians; he thought he was serving God by imprisoning and even executing these Christians. But something happened to this, if you will, religious terrorist, Saul of Tarsus, on the way to Damascus. (Reading.) Interesting statement, isn't it? The Lord doesn't say, "Why are you persecuting these Christians?" He says, "Why do you persecute me?" Let me remind you: whatever you do to a Christian, you do to Jesus. Whatever you do to the church, you do to Jesus. You persecute the church; you persecute Jesus. You bless the church; you bless Jesus. You serve a brother or sister in Christ; you serve Jesus. It is a dangerous thing to try to hurt a church. It's a dangerous thing to attack another believer in a mean-spirited way. "Why are you persecuting me?" "Well, who are You, Lord?" Let those words sink in again: "I am Jesus." Don't you know Saul's head was spinning? "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." And now he gives him instructions, three things: "Get up, go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." And Saul has a decision to make. And in a wise move on his part, he meticulously obeys this triad of instructions. He will get up; he will go into the city; and he will wait until God makes clear what his next move should be. So the men traveling with him -- verse 7 -- with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but didn't see anyone. Saul got up from the ground but when he opened his eyes could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus and for three days was blind. He didn't eat or drink anything. And don't you know he is sitting there for three days in Damascus. "My world has been turned upside down. I'm not sure what to believe anymore. Is everything I've ever believed just all rubbish?" "In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias." Why doesn't the Lord do things like that anymore, a vision to someone? Who said He doesn't? Why would you assume He doesn't? God is a wise and creative missionary. The stories you hear around the world of God being a wise and creative missionary are inspiring. So Ananias says, "Yes, Lord." And the Lord told him, "Now, go to the house of Judas on Straight Street." Notice how specific the Lord is, GPS, God's positioning system. "Ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore sight." And now Ananias -- can't you see him turning his head a bit "Lord, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to Your holy people in Jerusalem, and he's come here with the authority of the chief priest to arrest all who call on Your Name." I guarantee you he knows who I am. So it's Tuesday night visit team, and Ananias gets an assignment to go to Straight Street, and he is less than thrilled with his assignment. I'm thankful he went. We never hear of him again, but God stands by His one-word reply. "Go." "This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim My Name to the Gentiles and their king and to people of Israel." This is interesting -- "And I will show him how much he must suffer for My Name." So Ananias will have to overcome his fear and his reluctance so that Saul could be overcome by grace. Verse 17: "Then Ananias went to the house. He entered it and placing his hands on Saul, he said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord, Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' And immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes. He could see again! He got up and was baptized." Let me say that again -- he got up, and he was baptized. He continues his philosophy of meticulous obedience. "Get up; go to the city; wait till we tell you what to do." And here he's baptized -- why? In Acts 22, we hear Ananias say to him, "What are you waiting for? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the Name of the Lord." Have you been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ? Sometimes people resist it for whatever reasons. They've not heard that it's significant or important. Sometimes they just procrastinate; one thing leads to another. But if you say you believe in the Lord, can you imagine stiff-arming Him on this very first command? He that believes and is baptized shall be saved? We begin that process of "Lord, I want to be an obedient, responsive follower." So Saul, he got up; he was baptized; and after taking some food, he regains his strength. So Saul now begins that process. He does a 180, and he goes from persecuting the church to building the church and being such an instrument in God's hand. This is a dramatic, dramatic conversion; and you know what? Dramatic conversions happen. They are the exception. They're not the norm. They're the exception in our day and age in my lifetime. I can name several dramatic conversions that have occurred and will just mention two. Charles Colson, back in the 1970s, back when I was a teenager, Charles Colson was in President Nixon's inner circle. He was -- the infamous Watergate scandal, he was in that infamous inner circle. Charles Colson was convicted of Watergate crimes and went to prison, and through that broken world experience, he had a pivotal moment where his life took a new direction. Charles Colson became a Christian, and I don't mean some perfunctory statement. He became a Christian, a follower, began to learn and grow. He started a ministry called Christ Prison Fellowship. We have partnered with them many times over the years, many times we have done angel tree ministry connected with that ministry. Out of that ministry, a number of other ministries have been started over the years. One of the best ones is called Break Point. Some of the finest teaching and articles you will ever read. They're robust and strong, breakpoint.org. It's a good daily dose, but that's Charles Colson. He died just a few years ago but had a track record, such a dramatic, public conversion, transformation, and ministry. The most famous atheist, at least in my lifetime, has been Madalyn Murray O'Hair. She was a militant atheist. By the way, her law degree is from South Texas School of Law. She's been dead now a few years, but she is the one primarily responsible for getting prayer taken out of public school. When she would take her small child to school and read the Bible and pray, she hated that. She would keep them out until after that time and then filed a lawsuit. You know, so prayer taken out of public schools. But her son William Murray, in 1980, became a Christian, continued to follow the Lord. To this day, he's living. He's thriving as a minister and author. By the way, after he became a Christian, his mother wrote these words: "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess. I repudiate my son entirely and completely for now and all times. He is beyond human forgiveness." Dramatic conversions are the exception, not the norm. They happen. People who are very, very public, high-profile; but let me tell you what is not the exception. The Lord told Ananias, "You need to tell Saul he will suffer for My Name," and did you know that's not an exception? Sometimes people think that if you come to the Lord He removes all difficulties and problems. May I just remind you the only way a difference is made for Jesus Christ is if His people are willing to step into the arena -- and yes, we have so much joy. We celebrate grace, forgiveness, new life. But if we're going to make a difference, we got to be people of initiative; be willing to accept responsibility; push through difficulty; have a spirit of perseverance about us; and not be so quick to quit and falter and avoid hardship. That's not an exception. The idea that all the generosity and all the serving and all the enduring has been done in generations past and we're just invited to coast? My friends, that's just not true. So three summary points very quickly: number one, doing God's business is no substitute for doing God's will. Doing God's business is no substitute for doing God's will. You know, Saul of Tarsus was doing God's business, he thought. He was persecuting this sect called "The Way." I'm doing God's business; but he was not doing God's will. Some of you have created a god in your imagination. You have created a god in your heart, what you want God to be. The god of your heart does not exist. The god of your imagination does not exist. The God of the Bible exists, and Saul of Tarsus came to a distinct point of maturity in his life when he sought the God of the Bible. You know, to him he had rejected the prophesies of the Messiah either deliberately or non-deliberately; but when he saw the light, he came to the truth. Sometimes people will come to the Bible and say, "Well, you know, I don't like that. I don't like that teaching. That makes me uncomfortable." You've got to give God permission to make you uncomfortable and to tell you things that are true, even though you may not want them to be true because if you don't give Him permission to do that, how, then, can you give Him permission to tell you things that are too good to be true? You know, there's a statement in 1 John that says sometimes our hearts will condemn us. You can't just trust your heart. He said, God's greater than our heart; and when our heart wants to beat us up, we run to the God of the Bible. We are reminded, yes, we can be forgiven; yes, we are redeemed; yes we are adopted as His children; yes we will have and enjoy resurrection and an eternal home. So what we do is we come to seek God's will, and unless you have a God you allow to tell you things you do not want to be true, you will never be changed when He tells you things that are just too good to be true. Seek God's will. Secondly, invite God to bring pivotal moments into your world. Invite Him to shake and change your world. You know, what if Ananias had said, "You know, I just don't want to go to see Saul. I'm nervous about that. I'm apprehensive. I'm reluctant. I don't want to go. Here am I, Lord; send someone else." But Ananias was a huge catalyst in the spreading of the Gospel. He was the first person to call Saul "brother." He taught him; he baptized him; he was the first one to extend the right hand of fellowship; and God does not need me. God does not need you. But God chooses to need me. God chooses to need you. God didn't need Ananias, but He chose to need Ananias and work through him. And that's God's beautiful model in the New Testament. He works through His people. Christ is the head; we are the body, and we say, "Here am I, Lord; send me." So let me just ask you here in 2022. Would you be willing to just pray, "Lord, would You bring to me some pivotal moments, maybe even some life-changing awareness, where I can serve You, powerfully and uniquely, here in 2022? How might You use me at the First Colony Church of Christ to make a difference?" and don't be afraid of that prayer. Here's my third iteration: respond to those pivotal moments with vigilant obedience with meticulous, careful obedience. When God interacted with Saul of Tarsus, what did He do? "Get up; go to the city; wait; and listen" -- Paul did exactly those three things. Here's the beautiful thing: he never stopped that pattern. Throughout his lifetime, Paul never got -- listen -- he never got too mature; too seasoned; too smart; too sophisticated to do anything less in his Christian life than to say, "Lord, I want to be Your servant; I want to be available and useful to You." And would you cycle back one more time to Ananias, who was told, "Ananias, I need you to go a couple blocks over here and talk to Saul." "I don't want to." "I know, but I will ask you to go. Trust Me; go." And he did. And good things came from it. Everybody, let me just sort of tie a quick bow here and that is we all need to be confronted again with the claims of Jesus Christ. Lord, who are You? I am Jesus. And indeed, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of a virgin; lived a perfect life; died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins; was raised to life again as the forerunner for you and me to know eternal life. That's Jesus Christ. And some of you in this room, some of you watching, you're close. You're close. But you're still on the outskirts. I will ask you not to stay on the outskirts. What are you waiting for? Arise and be baptized, washing away your sins, calling on the Name of the Lord. For some of us here, we've gotten a little, eh, lax with our spirit of obedience to the Lord. When that happens, your enthusiasm dissipates. When that happens, the Power of the Holy Spirit gets minimized. When we have that sense of readiness and meticulousness, you know, we're redeemed by grace and useful by obedience. It's such a wonderful place to be. You know, this afternoon from 1:00 to 3:00, we'll have baptism Sunday. If you would like to be baptized this afternoon, all you have to do is just come up here between 1:00 and 3:00; you come to our main entrance. We'll have staff members here showing you just the next step. We'll have some elders to pray with you afterwards and would be our joy to facilitate your baptism into Christ today. 2 Corinthians 5:17. As I read this, Scott, would you make your way up, please, for prayer. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here." That's our identity in Christ. Some of you need to claim that for the first time; some of us need to lean into that again. The Saul story, the Paul story at its most fundamental, it's this reminder: no one is too bad or too broken to be a part of God's family. No one is too bad or broken to be beyond the touch of God's grace, and no one is too bad or too broken to be useful when surrendered into the hands of God. Paul would call himself what? The chief of sinners. He said, "If God can redeem me, if God can use me, don't you believe He can redeem and use you?" God bless you, everybody. I love you and pray for you. For those of you online, we love and care for you. Now Scott Wolfe, one of our elders, has an exciting, positive announcement to make and then will lead us in prayer. >> Scott: Amen, Ronnie. Thank you for your powerful and convicting words. Good morning, church. You may recall a couple of months ago we requested your recommendations on additional candidates to serve as additional elders at your church and we are so pleased this morning to present this list of names to you of men that we feel will serve this church well. They will serve a two-year term and hopefully much longer, but I want to share this list with you now along with their wives. Jason Campbell and his wife Lindsey. Brant Grundy and his wife Jana. Michael Harris and his wife Melissa. Wade Holmes and his wife Wendi. Landon Speights and his wife Aja. If you are aware of anything that would disqualify these men from serving here at First Colony as an elder, or if you have any concerns, we ask that you please speak to them first; after doing so with those conversations, don't delay your concerns. If you will please submit your concerns to elderchair@firstcolonychurch.org and make sure to have that completed by May 1. So thank you very much; and we ask you continue to pray over this process, pray over these men, and also pray over the Lord's church. So will you join me in prayer, please, as we close out our service? Good morning, Father; and Father, we thank You for delighting in us. We come before You as a family, Father, and we thank You for life and Your gift of grace. Father, we pause and first acknowledge You as our Maker and Deliverer. We strive daily to grow deeper in obedience with You. Lord, we pray this morning that You specifically bring us the wisdom of Your Spirit; bring it to us each day, Lord, and help us to grow more holy in our walk with You. Father, that takes intention so we need to make time to be holy, time to listen and time to lean in Your Word. Father, we ask You to abide in us. Father, help us to stay grounded in Your Word and we can do that from reading Your text and listening and leaning into Your teachings. Lord, this morning there are so many among us that are sick and ill or are in need of a variety of healing prayers. Lord, You know the name of those people. You created them, and we lift them up to You. Father, we humbly ask for Your Presence to surround them, that they may feel Your Presence; and we pray for healing. Father, there's also economic and financial pressures that impact many of us, and I pray that we pause to reflect on Your goodness; and in spite of the pressures around us that can distract us, Father, we stay near to You. While You don't promise immediate or any resolution, Father, You do our pathway before we get there, and it's in You we trust. Father, we continue to be on our knees for those in Ukraine and especially our Ukrainian brothers and sisters that are suffering the persecution that is going on over there and destruction, Father, as well as many of the Russian citizens that are also unfortunately impacted, Father. Just a horrible situation, Father. We pray for the leaders; we pray for Godly men to be installed. Father, we pray for Your wisdom and Your path to be made known. We just pray for the hostilities to end. And finally, God, we invite You into our world because we know there's no substitute for doing Your work, as Ronnie said. We know when we invite You, You will move; and may we be aware and respond with obedience just the way Ananias did, Father. Help us not to hesitate for a moment or doubt Your will as we can't successfully spread Your Word or make disciples if we hesitate in doubt all the time. We know You do not need us, Father, but we thank You for choosing us. You're our joy, and we thank You for being our King; we pray this in Your Son's Name and give glory for all the things you have done. And all the church said amen. >> Grant: Amen. Thank you so much, Scott. There are tons of great ways to stay spiritually connected and spiritually fit so let's make sure they're on your calendar. If you're online with us, stay online. We have class every Sunday at 12:30. As Ronnie talked about, this is Baptism Sunday. We have our "New Life" T-shirts rocking and will see those around. It's a new tradition we're starting at First Colony, handing these out to folks putting on Christ in baptism and receiving our new life in Christ. Today 1:00 to 3:00, staff and elders will be up here. Of course next Sunday is Easter Sunday. Invite your friends and family; it will be a great day for worship and celebrating our Risen Lord. We have three services at 7:00, 9:00, and 11:00, so make sure we're here for that. Then Kyle Strickland is starting a new First Conversations Intensive that will be an online Zoom group that meets on Tuesdays during lunch, and it's a three-week class; so if that is something you're interested in, go online. Go ahead and get registered this week because it's going to start on April 19. And speaking of new life, we are going to have a baby dedication day on Mother's Day so if you have babies or children that you want to dedicate, go ahead and get them signed up in the next two weeks because that is going to happen on Mother's Day. For everybody if you're interested in our new member info session, that's in two weeks over in our "New Here? Start Here" room during classes at 9:45. To learn more about church or placing membership here, put that on your calendar. It's also on the home page of the website where you can check out and register. All right, church, it's been a blessing to be with you and to worship this morning so let's stand as we close in one last song. >> Richard: Amen! ("Your Love Awakens Me" playing.) >> Richard: Thank you, church, for your worship! You are dismissed! Don't forget Baptism Sunday at 1:00 today! 1:00 to 3:00.