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. >> Richard: Good morning, church! Let's all stand and give God worship this morning! He is worthy! ("Victory in Jesus" playing.) >> Richard: Yes! He is worthy! God is faithful, amen, church? ("How Can I Keep from Singing" playing.) >> Richard: God is good all the time. >> Richard: Yes, church, doesn't that make your heart want to sing? He is the King! He is the Lord! There is no one above Him! We're about to take communion together so let's all be seated. >> Albert: Good morning, church. My name is Albert Faraone and will be here with my daughter Isabella as we will lead you this morning in our communion and our prayer. Please bow your heads and pray with me over the bread, which represents the body of Christ; and the cup, which represents the blood that was poured for us. Lord Jesus, from Matthew 26 You said, "Take this bread and eat it; this is My body." When He took the cup He said, "Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Lord, as we take this communion 2000 years later, we can continue to keep that covenant; and we thank You for Your death and Your Resurrection on Easter day. Lord, we love You. Be with us. Continue to build us as stewards of Your kingdom. In Jesus' Name, amen. Let us rejoice and partake together. >> Isabella: Today I will read Acts 5:27-32. (reading.) ("Stand in Your Love" playing.) >> Richard: Why don't we all stand together and continue to worship? ♫ Yes, I'm standing in Your love ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church. You may be seated. >> Kevin: We're gonna pray for our offering right now and so there's a lot of ways that you can give. You can do it online or here in person. The boxes are in the back and if you have questions, we can help you in "New Here? Start Here" for that. Let's pray for God's blessing in the ministry He use it for. Lord, first of all, thank You for providing us. You have been good to us so we thank You for that. It's out of that we give back for the ministry that You want to do that the kingdom of God would be here on earth as it is in heaven. So Lord, I pray that You take these funds and use them and give them guidance as a church so we know how to use them and use it to bring those who are lost to us. Amen. >> Joel: Amen. Good morning. It's so good to be with you this Sunday. My name is Joel Smith, Children's Minister. This is the kids' spot where we fry to create something that's visual that can be remembered. So I have a bottle of little plastic things that are called -- I forget what they're called. Pearl-something. And I have -- this is just regular water, not anything special. I would drink it, but I didn't actually clean the bottles before I purchased them so we'll go from there. Well, this represents the world, and as a believer we are commanded to go into the world and share the Gospel. And how do we do that? What is so exciting is we're in the book of Act and getting to see firsthand how people did that. Well, we also know from a time when Jesus met with a Gentile, He mentioned He had living water that He was willing to share with her. Very fascinating. So where do we come in? So our verse involves the word "Salt" and you know your Bibles, you know in Matthew 5:13 it says "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become less saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." So we have living water, which we want to share with the world, which we want to impact the world. So my challenge is, can I make these float up into the water? Without making a big mess on stage? (Laughter) Someone's like, "Why did you do water?" All right, here we go. So we have our salt, and we have our world; and the cool thing about the Gospel is, you know, how do we be salty? How do we become salty? Essentially Jesus said that He came in grace and truth. So grace is kindness. You know, we know the truth, but are we kind? Some people are really kind, but they don't know the truth. It's the mixture of those two, being kind and sharing the truth of the gospel. Let's see if we can impact the world by stepping out of the way. What? (Laughter) It's working! Who would have thought? And that's what is cool about the principles of God's Word. Yes, it will keep going. (Applause) you can be salt; you can be salt by being kind, grace, and sharing the truth. Now the real challenge. (Laughter) This is where hopefully the applause will come in but I have a towel -- you ready? Whoo-hoo! (Applause) yea! >> Kevin: Good job, Joel! So this is our time for Main Street Live so if you're a first through fifth grader, you can stand up and make your way to the back. You will be led to go to Main Street Live. Parents, if you haven't checked them in, you can do that at this time as well. The rest of us, we'll stand here in a moment. I just want to let you know in front of you are QR codes you can scan with a phone camera. That's a place for a lot of stuff. You can get information on the website; you can put in prayer requests; you can let us know you're present; anything you want to know can be started there. If you have a specific question, "New Here? Start Here" is outside in the lobby and will see it outside. Feel free to go and can answer your question or direct you to who needs to know for that question. Why don't you stand and greet one another and tell each other how you're doing, okay? ("Good God Almighty" playing.) >> Richard: Yes! (Applause) thank you! Thank you, church! You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Richard and team, thanks so much for leading us so well. Good morning, everybody. So glad to have you with us today at our second service at the First Colony Church of Christ. To those of you in the room, glad to see you. To those of you online who are with us in this worship experience, we welcome you as well. Let us hear from you and let us know how we might serve you. In our first service today, we celebrated the baptism last Sunday of Austin Speights and were glad to do that. Right now we want to continue with our message series from the book of Acts called "Spirit, Mission, and Tr tray Drama." The message today is "First and Second Conversions." Ronnie, I'm familiar with 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Peter. What do you mean by first and second conversion? We're in Acts 10, the story, really, of two conversions -- one by the name of cornelius and the other is the apostle Peter because both gentlemen will have a profound turning point in their life and will have a powerful story to share around the campfire for years to come. And I hope, for those of you who have already been converted to Christ, that you will plan to have really multiple conversions in your lifetime. Second, third, and fourth. I'm not talk about go outside and seeing the sunset; that's nice. That's a wonderful thing. I'm talking about a moment; an event; a season; an experience -- sometimes painful -- whereby you take a quantum leap forward in your spiritual walk. You get straightened out on something. Or there's a doctrinal principle that begins to explode in your life. Your heart gets softened, maybe, to a particular group of people or a ministry gets born in your life. You get where I'm going with this. That's a second conversion, a third conversion. Okay. Let's walk through this narrative here from Acts 10 and will divide it into four scenes. Here's scene number 1. At Caesarea -- if you have been to Israel with me, you know that Caesarea is is usually our first stop after landing in Tel-Aviv. It's by the sea and a fantastic place, the sea. Well, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. So Israel is, of course, under the Roman occupation, the Roman Empire; and Cornelius is an important military official. He's a centurion, over 100 soldiers; but he's a part of the Italian cohort. More than likely a Secret Service group protecting one of the Roman officials stationed there in Caesarea because it was a provincial capital and major administrative center. But what is emphasized here is not so much what Cornelius DID but who he was, the kind of person he was. He's going to be described. He will be described in four fantastic ways. Verse 2. "He and all his family were" -- notice -- "Devout; they were God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly." This is a really, really good guy. He would give you the proverbial shirt off of his back. He's impressive. He has a sparkling reputation. You're not going to find a better chap than Cornelius. He's friendly to the Jews and has a good reputation among them but doesn't necessarily believe in the God of the Scriptures and is certainly not yet a Christian. A good man, a good moral person but not yet redeemed. If you adhere to the belief of universalism that there is no judgment to come; everybody -- all of us just end up in a good place -- then why would he need to hear the Gospel? But here's Cornelius, a REALLY fine person, friendly to the people of God, but he still in need. So verse 3. "One day about 3:00 in the afternoon he had a vision, and he distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, Cornelius! And Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it Lord?" And the angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa it has" it's 30-mile to the south. "Send some men to Joppa to bring a man named Simon who is called Peter. He's staying Simon theanner, whose house is by the sea." And so this entourage from Cornelius begin to make their way to Joppa -- as I said, 30 miles south -- but as they're on their way, God is also providing for Peter His own little divine encounter. Scene 2 -- verse 9. "About noon the following day as they" -- that's the end tour range from Cornelius -- "As they were on their journey and approaching the city of Joppa, Peter went up on the roof to pray." Can't you just see him, a little sunbathing? It's a nice day, going up. He's going to pray. "He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. he saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners." And it contained all kind of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." All the hunters in our church LOVE this Scripture. (Laughter) "See, honey? I told you. Right there. It's in the Bible." Peter, get up! Kill and eat. Now, everybody in this room are familiar with Apostle Peter. He's an activist, the most colorful of the apostles; passionate; enthusiastic; he's also very meticulous when it comes to Jewish dietary laws. There were laws given to the Jewish people that set them apart from the Gentiles, from others. By the way, when I use the word "Gentile," the word simply means "Nations." Basically in the Bible if you see the word "Gentile," it simply means you're not a Jew. You're not from a Jewish background. Now, Gentiles could convert to Judaism and could become a Jewish prost lite and begin to observe all the Jewish rituals as a proselyte. The Jewish had three components -- a moral good, which is good and most of that is still in effect. There was the ceremonial law, the civil law. The ceremonial law had all the restrictions and codes that set the Jewish people apart as being unique. God's people for God's particular purposes. And Peter was meticulous. He was Kosher. Certain foods he would eat; certain foods he would not eat. And so when he's got this dream, this vision, and here comes this sheet let down with ALL of these animals representing international foods, foods he NEVER would have touched. "Peter, get up! Kill! Eat!" Notice what he says. "Surely not, Lord!" Those are three words that shouldn't go together. Right? "Surely not, Lord." I have NEVER eaten anything impure or unclean." I have followed meticulously the principles laid down in Leviticus 11. I have never broken, he says, Jewish ceremonial dietary laws. So "Surely not, Lord! I'm not going to eat anything impure or unclean." "And the Lord said, verse 15, "Do not call anything impure that God has made." Now, this little episode is repeated three times because I think Peter probably thought the first time, "Uh-oh; I'm being testds here in a way." Three times. God is letting it sink in and, hey, everybody, at some point it begins to sink in to PETER. "Uh-oh. This is not really about food, is it? This is not only about food, is it?" I remember Jesus saying the food laws have been done; that's no more. This is about people. "Don't you call any person whom God has created and made impure or unclean. Don't you view ANY person as someone who's outside the boundaries of God's purposes." Well, while all this is swirling around in Peter's head and psyche, the friend of Cornelius show up in Joppa, introduce themselves to Peter, and escort him 30 miles north to Caesarea. And Cornelius has gathered his family and friends around, and they're having a welcome party for Peter. When Peter gets there, oh, they are so excited. He could not have had a greater welcome. And I wonder what it was like when Peter stepped across the threshold into the home of a Gentile. I mean, you just go go s into a Gentile's home because they don't follow the dietary laws, and you defile yourself as a Jew. What was it like to step across that threshold? Peter actually said these words. He says, "You yourselves know that it's just unlawful for a Jew to associate with anyone of another nation, a Gentile." "But God has provided us a new solution. God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. It's not just about the food; it's about the people who would consume the food." You don't call any person impure or unclean. Peter's vision was ostensibly about the food but understands now it's about people. And by the way, I hope you still believe in God's supernatural ability just like the supernatural working He did to connect Sau will Ananias and just like the supernatural working here to connect Cornelius with Peter. I believe God is supernaturally in our world, orchestrating events and visions and opportunities, connecting a seeking heart with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will never find a wiser and more creative evangelist than the Living God. 2 chronicles 16 in the older testament says this, "The Lord's eyes roam the earth, looking for hearts that are devoted to Him." So Scene 3. Peter has stepped across the threshold. He's going to talk to Cornelius and his family about Jesus, but here's the heart of his message in verse 34. "Then Peter began to speak." Look at these three words. "I now realize." Say those three words with me. You ready? "I now realize." One more time: "I now realize." I knew it before; I knew it at the edges before. It was out there at the periphery before. I sort of knew this, but I now get it. "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but He accepts from every nation the one who Fears Him and does what is right." God does not show favoritism. "There almost some people smarter or prettier or more talented than me." That's not what with it means. It means God does not show favoritism in that whomever you might be, from whatever nation, you're not inherently impure or unclean or unworthy or out of bounds. God welcomes ALL through faith and repentance into His kingdom and into His family. So Peter, he has stepped across that threshold and says, "I get it now," and to this Gentile group that's gathered, he talked to them about Jesus. He lived; He died; we are witnesses to this. Verse 42. "Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and testify that" -- pay attention now, because Peter is about to emphasize the universal applicability of the message of Jesus. "That Jesus is the One whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead." My friend, that pretty much includes everybody. Can you think of a category of persons outside those two category, living or dead? That's pretty much everybody, right? Hello. Yeah. God shows no favoritism. In fact, starting out, He's the judge over ALL the living and all the dead -- so everybody. And then Cornelius, even you -- verse 43, "And all the prophets testify about Him that --" what's the next word? "Everyone." Say that word with me. Everyone. "Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name." But Cornelius is such a good guy! Moral, decent! You're saying he needs to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins? Yes. even good people need the Gospel. So the Holy Spirit fall in such a wonderful way upon Cornelius and his household. They begin to speak in tongues, something that happens only three time in the book of Acts. And Peter and his group, they're amazed at this. This is eight years after the Day of Pentecost and what you're seeing now is a Gentile Pentecost, if you will. The Holy Spirit coming upon Cornelius and his household and very dramatic ways. That leads to Scene 4. Peter says, "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have." "So he ordered they be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Then they ask Peter to stay with them for a few days." That's the first Gentile baptism service we know of, and isn't it wonderful that Cornelius and his household, when Peter says, "Oh, how beautiful this is!" "So you, too, can be baptized in water in the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." Isn't it wonderful they didn't say, "Oh, didn't you know about the experience we just had?" "We don't need to embrace baptism." Throughout all these narratives, you see in Cornelius and Peter just immediate, meticulous obedience; and they were baptized. It's a beautiful scene. So five quick lessons, very quick. Five. First, which is the obvious one -- God does not show favoritism. He does not show favoritism. No nationality or race or class is beyond God's call. No terrorist or murderer or drug addict is beyond His grace. We are to have no partiality -- we, as His followers -- are to have no partiality or prejudicial when it comes to the Gospel. No human is common or unclean, and no human is to be spurned; shunned; rejected; despised because of their ethnicity or race or culture or physical traits or their age or their socioeconomic status. Chris Green said this: "We have a common salvation. We have one common problem, which is sin. We have one common Savior, Jesus. There is only one real race, the human race; and we have one Hope, Resurrection to eternal life." My friends, though, there's a kind of partiality that some of you might have and has to do, maybe, with a person's behavioral past "Well, I just don't know if someone like that would ever be open to the message of Jesus Christ. I'm not sure that someone who has been involved in THAT lifestyle would ever be receptive." May I read a passage from 1 Corinthians 6 -- not on the screen. I will just read it to you. "Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor idol for thes, more men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the free did nor drunkarsds or slanderers or swindlers will inherent the kingdom of God." Pretty pointed. Low listen to this next phrase. "And that's what some of you were." "But you have been washed and sanctified, justified in Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God." Peter, Ronnie, First Colony Church of Christ; please don't call anything I have created impure or common. We welcome all to God's grace through faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. Secondly, no one is go to do for the Gospel. No one is too good for the Gospel. I'm speaking to someone here today or maybe online that you are the finest person. People love working with you; they love volunteering with you in the community. You are generous and friendly to Christianity and you're friendly to some -- some of your best friends are people who go to church. And you're generically religious. You wouldn't say -- you're certainly not anti-God. You're friendly to God, but you're at the edges and never made that personal decision to put your faith in Jesus Christ, to be baptized in His Name just like Cornelius and his household. And to begin to walk and follow in Jesus Christ and to be a part of the church and church family. No one is too bad, but no one is too good for the Gospel, either and to receive those wonderful promises. Thirdly, no one comes to Christ just by observing alone. Sometimes you'll meet a believer and tend to think, "If we just live good lives among people, people will see us and will just automatically come to faith." No, they won't. Now, when people see your good lives, you can awaken the possibility of faith; but faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by responding to the message of Jesus Christ. That leads to point four -- to whom, then, could you be a Peter? To whom can you be a Peter and speak God's welcoming love? Hey, let me ask you a question: An angel of the Lord appeared and spoke to Cornelius, right? Why didn't the angel of the Lord just tell him how to respond to Jesus? Why did he say, "Hey, send for Peter 0 miles south and have him come up." " why didn't the angel of the Lord tell him? It's like when the Lord Himself appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road. Why didn't He just tell Saul to arise and be baptized and wash away your sins? Why did He say, "Go into the city and wait for a man named Ananias and he'll come and teach you." I don't know all the reasons, but that's the way the Lord works. He doesn't need us; He chooses to need us; and He primarily works through His people. It was then Peter who showed up and said, "Hey, I'm here, and I want to talk to you about Jesus." He was real; went through a sacrificial death; He rose again. Is it possible that God has arranged for you to be near near that particular cubicle or particular office? Has God so orchestrated your situation to where there's a person in your class or a person on your street or a person that you lift weights with and you can be a Peter to that Cornelius? And don't you just wonder, is there a grandparent or a parent somewhere today or a friend who's praying for their friend or their child or their grandchild who's moved to Fort Bend County or greater Houston area saying, "Lord, I'm praying over them. They used to walk with You; they don't anymore and they just" -- or "They have just been at the edges. Lord, I'm praying there will be someone in their life -- in their work; on their street; in their recreational basketball team who will just speak up for You and be a spiritual Christian word of wisdom and breath of fresh air." Faith is responding to specific information about Jesus, and might it be -- let me just ask -- to whom might you be postured to be a Peter and speak God's welcoming love? Here's my last, fifth observation, quick lesson. Would you be attentive to life-changing moments from God? Would you be attentive to some of these second conversions and third conversions? And maybe fourth conversions. Would you be attentive to some of these "I now realize" -- you know, like Peter said "I now realize God doesn't; I get it now. I sort of knew it before. It was out at the periphery. I sort of knew it, but now I really get it. God doesn't show favoritism. He welcomes all. I get this now." Would you be open to some "I now realize" moments for you? Basically you are walking with the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit. You know, maybe it's "I now realize -- I sort of knew this before but really get it now that children don't just automatically follow Jesus." They need to be discipled. I now realize -- I knew it before, but I now realize marriages just don't function well on auto-pilot. They need nurture and attention. I now realize -- and I kind of knew this before -- but I now realize and I'm not going back. The love of money really is a root of all kinds of evil. I kind of knew this; now I really know it. I now realize that in a world filled with lies and deception, discernment is absolutely vital and cannot be overrated. I knew this sort of before COVID but here's now something I realize. Fellowship with other believers is not a luxury; it is a precious privilege. I want to keep in step with the Spirit and have those second and third conversions. For some of us here, it's like, "I knew this before, but here's something now. I realize and get it fully. I now realize JUST how high and long and wide and deep is the love of God for EVERYONE and for me, too." "I now realize that if my God is for me, who can be against me?" Here's something I kind of knew before, but I now realize that I can cast all of my anxiety upon the Living God -- why? Because Help cares for me. Here's something I sort of knew but now realize -- I can't do it all, but I can do something in His power, and I can make a difference for Him starting at home; in the church; in the community; and beyond. Just like sometimes, just like Peter had to look at that threshold and say, "All right. I'm stepping across. Here we go. But I'm stepping; I'm keeping in step with the Spirit." Some of you in this room today, are you in the shoes of a Cornelius? And you're a really good person but you need the Gospel? Is it time for you to take those steps of faith, repentance, baptism? Following. Are you in the shoes of a Peter? You can and are and will be used beautifully. Stay open to those moments that are second conversions, would you? God bless you everybody. Thank you for being with us today, and let us hear from you. Gordon Ware will come up now and lead us in prayer. >> Gordan: Will you pray with me? Great, Mighty God, God of the Universe, thank You for being here today. Thank You for Your gifts of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus. Thank You that You have blessed us in the church. We pray for Ronnie and the church and leadership and deacons. May we step over the threshold and be a discovery and salt and light in this world. Watch over us as we head into the world and protect us from the father of lies. Bless our efforts in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to world. In all this we pray in Jesus' Name. Amen. >> Kevin: We have a few announcements Gordon will tell us about something new. >> Gordon: Thanks, Kevin. We're starting a Young Professionals class. We're in F-111, for those that could be interested. We want you to come. We had our first class this morning, a great class with a good bunch of folks. F-111 -- I believe that they used to call it the back room? Yeah. So please join us. We have some good food and fellowship together so again, Young Professionals, F111.. Thank you, guys. >> Kevin: Cool. That will be in the gym. They have a billboard and will be able to show you which room to head to. And couple more things. We have got Baby Day coming up. Today is the last day you can sign up to be a part of Baby Day if you would like your baby dedicated or prayed over. Joel as a special thing we do on stage in a couple of week. You have to sign up today because there's a class that will happen next week during the 9:45 hour. Then the Baby Day is the following Sunday. Go on the website to sign up today. Then speaking of babies, we have our Baby Bottle Boomerang fundraisinger we do. Outside to the right are bunch of baby bottles. All the money that you might collect over the course of the week with your family will help moms that are in decision about what to do with their pregnancy, supporting them through their pregnancy. It's all things having to do with moms so that is something fun to do with your family. Pick up a bottle and will be able to fill it up and bring that back. The last thing we wanted to highlight is next Sunday we're going to have a Foster Care Spotlight, an elective class at 9:45. It will be in one of the classrooms in the gym. If you want to know anything about how you can support foster care, specifically in Fort Bend County, this will be the elective to go to. It's everything from being a foster parent to "Can I mow the lawn of a foster family to give them a break? Can I give a foster mom an evening where she can do what she needs and I'll help with something around the house?" It's everything inbetween so we want you guy to know if you're interested in helping out with that, it's for that at the 9:45 hour next week. That's all we have for the morning so let's all stand together and sing one more song on our way out. ("Victory in Jesus" playing.) >> Richard: Thank you, church! You are dismissed!