... >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our podcast "Anchor Point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. we are glad you're here. >> Richard: Good morning, First Colony Church. Let's all stand and give God praise. He is worthy, amen. Here we go. ♫ "We Praise You" ♫ >> Richard: We do. We give Him praise today. There is nobody like our God. He is faithful. He is true. And He always makes a way where you need Him. ♫ "Way Maker" ♫ >> Richard: He is worthy, amen, church. He is worthy. Let's all be seated and take communion together. >> Michael: Good morning, church. My name is Michael Potthoff and this is my wife Ruth Potthoff. We're excited to be here with you this morning to celebrate communion. Communion is so important to us as we talk about the blood of Jesus, which is represented in the juice and the body of Jesus which is represented in the bread that we eat, that we do it every Sunday. And because of that sometimes if we're not careful, we can rush through this and make it kind of going through the motions instead of understanding the importance of why we do what we do. We have a Bible study on Sunday night and right now we're studying fear. In this Bible study we share our lives, confess, hold each other accountable. It's amazing. I'm here to tell you that we struggle with fear. We're afraid sometimes. I'm here to tell you that this table we celebrate right now is where fear goes to die, amen. Christ has conquered death. He has defeated sin and we celebrate that this morning. We are grateful that we serve a God that can make a statement like that and actually make it happen. Let's pray together. Father, we love you with our whole hearts. We thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for our sins, that he would make a way that we simply could not make. Father, we thank you for this time in which we can stop and celebrate the sacrifices that your son made for our sins. Father, we thank you for this church and for the time we have to focus on you and truly celebrate who you are and what you have done. Father, let us be people that show the world what you have done through our actions and through our lives. We praise you in this time. It is in Jesus Christ's most holy and precious name that we pray. Amen. >> Ruth: Our scripture this morning is from John 14:1-7 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” >> Michael: Let's partake together. ♫ "You Say" ♫ [Applause] >> Kevin: Amen. Each week we give back of what God has given us, and this week I want our prayer to focus on God helping us to see the ways that He is working, ways to inspire us and to participate with him. Let's prayer together and ask Him for that. Lord, we love you so much and, God, you have given to us and provided for us. We have all had times we needed you desperately and you have been there with us and taken care of us. We give back to you from that. And we pray that you help us to see the ways that you are working and using what we give so we can enjoy your kingdom coming down-to-earth. That is our prayer that your kingdom will be done and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. >> Joel: I'm Joel Smith, the children's minister. Here at First Colony we love kids and we want to empower them to make a difference. So often people see kids who are little people who will make a difference in the future, but we see kids as people who will make a difference today. When scripture refers to something, it refers to the same something regarding children and we all have a desire to please God. I have a little container here. When we talk about offering, we talk about giving back to God. So when a child has money, it is typically not as much money as their parents and often it's just coins. You have the choice of going to the dollar store and buying one item or you have the desire to invest in the kingdom of God. When you just spend it on yourself, I don't know if you heard that, but it fell through. Here you go. There we go. I'll get it. Let's see. You have a problem, your bag kind of has some holes in it. As you can see, I'm wearing our VBS shirt. This year for VBS, our offering at VBS is going to Hope for Haiti's children to buy school supplies. What is so cool, we have a matching grant. Whatever we raise for our VBS will be extended double which is pretty incredible. We've never had that before. What kind of things do you get with school supplies? Well, first of all, when you invest your money, you get return. As you can see, nothing fell out, but you get things like glue. How does glue help in another country? Well, when it's school supplies and talking to children, hopefully they'll remember that God's love sticks to them. Or another example, they actually get a Bible with their school supplies. We want them to know that God has a plan for their life and that God loves them very much. We also in getting them school supplies want to get them crayons or pencils or markers. It's so cool that God did not create a world of beige. God is a creative God and those colors can point back to God. Finally I wanted to include a notepad. What do you do with a notepad when you're in school? You write out problems, notes, things you want to remember. We want our kids in Haiti to, A, learn; but also remember what they've learned and it can impact them for eternity. Our prayer for us is we would make a difference. My Bible verse comes to us from Hebrews 13:16: And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices, God is pleased. Do you want to please God? Hopefully you're nodding your head. Do good and share with others. That commandment is to big people and little people. Let's make a difference. Those of you going to VBS, we wanted to give you a head start. In the back you will find offering containers to fill for VBS. Finally, if you haven't registered for VBS, please do so as well. There is a QR code at the table and you can register and we'll see you soon. >> Kevin: Thanks, Joel. We have some special we're doing this morning. I'm going to invite any elder and their wives to come up to the stage. We have five elders who will be ordained. Come up to the front and we will have a special time of ordination over them. Josh, take it from here. >> Josh: This morning we, your elders of the First Colony Church of Christ, want to officially recognize and appoint The following men and their wives to the role of elder within our church family. They are as follows: Jason Campbell and his wife, Lindsey Brant Grundy and his wife, Jana Michael Harris and his wife, Melissa Wade Holmes and his wife, Wendy Landon Speights and his wife, Aja >> David: We have solicited your input, we have evaluated these men personally, and we have sought the Lord's will in prayer regarding these men and their qualifications. After a careful examination, we affirm their qualification on five essential points: The genuineness of their Christian experience; The sufficiency of their spiritual, moral, emotional, and social maturity; The correctness and health of their doctrine; The adequacy of their practical abilities; and Their compatibility to our church's values and priorities. Gentlemen, This morning you stand before God and this church as having been set apart for the work of an elder. You are set apart to serve God's church as a spiritual leader, spiritual protector and as an example to the believers. >> Darrell: Brothers, in view of this holy calling to shepherd the Body of Christ at First Colony Do you profess your living faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Do you acknowledge as the supreme standard of faith and living the Holy Scriptures? Do you declare your loyalty and affection to this Body of Believers, and will you seek the will of God for this church, in these times, and in this community? Will you make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?? And above all, will you rely upon the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in all that you do? >> Johnny: The laying on of hands with prayer is attested in scripture as a sign of empowering and sending forth. I would like to ask the elders to lay hands on. As a congregation we go together in prayer. Our wonderful God, you are worthy of our thankful praise. Through your Holy Spirit you have given a variety of gifts, making some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for the building up of Christ's body, the Church. We pray that you will empower with your Spirit Jason Campbell, Brant Grundy, Michael Harris, Wade Holmes and Landon Speights as we appoint them to the eldership today. Confirm in them the grace and power to lead the church in its faith, life and mission. And, God, we pray that you empower them to be examples to your people in love, patience, and holiness of life. God, we pray for these men and their family that in their works they glorify you. This we ask in your precious Son's name, amen. And now to our church family, just as you love and honor our other ministers and elders, we are asking you to follow and honor these men as well. We ask you to think the best of these men, to lift them up in Prayer, to lift their families up in prayer, to blanket them with security, health, and protection. We believe you will, and we thank you for continued expressions of faith, hope and love. I encourage each one of you to take a moment after service today and get a chance to meet our new elders and let them know that you will be praying over them and for their families. Thank you. >> Kevin: Church, let's go ahead and thank our elders and their families for all the services that they do. They're incredible servants for our church. You can go and find a seat. I want to welcome everybody here, especially if you're a guest or if you've been coming for a couple of weeks now and you're trying it out, I want to say welcome to you. If you need any information, you can ask around you or head to new here, start here. There are also some QR codes on the back of the pew. You can make a prayer request or request certain ministries. At this point we're going to have our first and fifth graders stand up and make your back to Main Street live. Ms. Danel and the VBS shark are at the back. I don't know if I would trust them. They're going to make VBS awesome. How about everyone else stand up and greet the people around you. ♫ "God So Loved" ♫ >> Richard: Yes, God to loved the world. Thank you, church, for worshiping with us. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Thank you so much, Richard, and team. We appreciate that. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ. We're delighted to have you in our second service. To those of you worshiping with us online, we welcome you as well. And right here in the room I'll offer just my commendation and reinforcement to what was said earlier. So grateful for those five new elders. In fact, our message today, I think it's applicable to us all, but I think certainly apropos, especially, to these new elders among us. In just a moment we'll be in the book of Acts 13. Get your Bible ready to go. In the room we do have also some little paper connection cards here. If you would like to communicate with us via one of these cards, we would love to hear from you, a prayer request. Fill this out and you can place the card in one of our giving receptacles around the building. The title of today's message is Holy Spirit Partners. And all of us in this room have been blessed in some way through various and strategic helpful partnerships over the years. Just think, every time you board a flight and you go somewhere significant or fun, be thankful for Wilbur and Orville Wright. Those brothers had a pretty significant partnership and the impact of that is still ongoing. Or take two brothers-in-law, William and James. They were both immigrants and entrepreneurs. William was a candle maker and James was a soap maker. They were both living in Ohio, they married sisters, the Norris sisters. Their father-in-law gave them some advice. He said, you guys need to congeal and pool your efforts. Like any wise person would do, they listened to their father-in-law. And so William Proctor and James Gamble became Proctor and Gamble. Whenever you buy Crest toothpaste or Bounty paper towels, you're benefitted by that partnership. The most jaw-dropping partnership ever is our partnership with the Holy Spirit. God doesn't need me. God doesn't need you. God does not need us, but He chooses to need us. That's just a wonderful thing. So we cooperate with the Lord. We are in this together. God chooses to need us and with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is simply the real and visible presence of God within you and among you and the Lord works with us. Let me put a little definition here on the screen. The word "mission." Live on mission they say, live on purpose, and I agree. Let me define it for you I think as a believer. To be on mission is the intentional spiritual investment in the life of another. Let me say it one more time, the intentional spiritual investment in the life of another. It could be a project. It could be a program. I mean, there's nothing wrong with serving in a program. We have people in this church who are, for example, legacy Sunday school teachers for years they taught one generation and then the next generation and then another generation. I grew up in a church with Mrs. Pogue, she taught my older sister, she taught people older than them, taught me when I would take my kids back home to visit, she was still teaching. There are all sorts of ways to be on mission, simply living with the mindset of I'm going to make a spiritual investment in the life of another person. Christian parents do that all the time. Sometimes it's through a program. Sometimes it's through a project that lasts a month, six months, nine months or so. Sometimes it's through personal students. The good Samaritan, it wasn't a program or a project, it was just there you go. And we do this for believers and we do this also for non-believers. And sometimes when we're acting on mission, we are the actual doer. Sometimes we're the underwriter, the sender, sometimes a little of both. Sometimes it's local, sometimes it's global. For most of us in this room, most of our service for the Lord is going to be local, it's going to be in your family, in your community, in your church, in the market place. There you go. For some of us, though, God will say, you're being really effective here and I think for a season you should go elsewhere. We want to send you to another nation, to another police station. You know, we have -- we sponsor a number of missionaries here and we have several in our church who spent time in short-term mission trips, some in much longer-term mission trips. I would say to all of us here, your life is one long mission trip. And every single week is a short-term mission trip, as we live intentionally seeking to be a really good representative of Jesus in our homes and our communities in the market place. But, you know, I'm so grateful for those who have gone to other nations. Many of you have met Justin and Allison Thompson. Justin is the new executive director for lifeline chaplaincy. He's Virgil 2.0. They spent 12 years in Peru. I just think that's terrific. We'll start reading here Acts 13. We come to the multi-ethnic church in Antioch located in modern-day Syria. We'll read in verse 2. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Notice, while they were worshiping, while they were fasting, fasting is simply an indication of intensity, it might be a partial fast, it might be a complete fast, but it's a way to express our intensity. While they're worshiping, the Holy Spirit says, set apart Barnabas and Saul. How that happened, I don't know, but it happened and it was obvious. And so then verse 3: So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. So the church prays, the church fasts, the church sets apart Barnabas and Saul. They lay hands on them, which is simply an indication that we are with you. We affirm and confirm you and we are behind you. Here is the first thing I want you to write down: Mission is rooted in the worship of our limitless God. Mission is rooted in worship. In other words, what we do for the Lord, whatever it might be, it grows out of our time with the Lord. It's like today, if you are here attending a worship service, I'm not sure you're going to get much out of this time, quite honestly. But if you are participating in had a worship experience, if you are humbling yourself and bringing yourself before the Lord and actually praising Him and worshiping Him for His grace, His goodness, His glory. Listen, friends, you can't come before a holy, wonderful, fantastic God who's full of grace and mercy and hold a grudge. That's just hard to do. That's hard to do. It's hard to praise a God who's full of glory and wonder and goodness who's done so much and to just sit on your hands and say, here am I Lord, but send somebody else. Mission is rooted in worship. Dean Gilliand says this: “Worship is not meant to be an ingrown self-enhancing cultic act done by, and on behalf of, a select group. Worship is a celebration of what God did in Christ Worship, therefore, never ends with the lives of the worshippers but ends in mission.” For all of us, we're all called into ministry to represent Jesus Christ, to represent him well, and for most of us that's going to be in our community, in the market place, in our home. There you go. So -- but Saul and Barnabas set apart for a unique mission. And verse 4: The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. You say, Ronnie, I need to see a map on this. I've got a map for you later. They've been in Antioch, they go down to Seleucia and they sail to Cyprus When they arrived at Salamis, This is a port city on the eastern end of Cyprus, listen to what it says, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. This is the typical M.O. of Saul and Barnabas and many early Christian missionaries. What would they do? They would go to a town or to a synagogue. Synagogues are small. These are small communities. This is a non-mobile culture. People would discuss scripture. They would discuss scripture, the Old Testament scriptures, that pointed to whom? The Messiah. And they would say not that the Messiah is coming, but the Messiah has come. His name is Jesus. They would go to synagogues and proclaim the Lord and sometimes there were open doors for the gospel. Sometimes not so much. But notice what the text says: They went there and they proclaimed the Word of God, the Scriptures. And the teachings of Jesus. And you know what the Word of God was. The Word of God teaches you and me what to believe and what not to believe. How to behave and how not to behave. Let me just say to us here in 2022, let's not just listen to the voices in our own head, let's not just listen to the voices of the city, let's listen to the sacred scriptures what to believe, what not to believe, how to behave, how not to behave. If you want to know one of the key points of their teaching it's in Acts 13. Let me put a second statement on the screen to write down that is: We are sent with a clear message to proclaim. That as Christians, there is a belief system that is our foundation and our parameters. Here is is the heart of what Saul and Barnabas were preaching and teaching from Acts 13. “Now when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. You see what He's doing right there in the synagogue? David is everybody's hero. He points to David, but he says David died and David's body decayed, but there is one whose body did not see decay. Who is that one? Verse 38: “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. May I stop right there. I don't know of a more beautiful statement in the Bible than that. Unless it's the next statement. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every Sin -- from every sin -- notice this, don't overlook this next line: sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. Interesting phrase. Do you remember that under the law of Moses there were certain sins that were capital sins? You were stoned for those. In Jesus Christ, the only capital sin is to have a hard heart against Jesus. And to resist Him. But their message was there is one who has been raised from the dead who is Jesus Christ. There is not a pantheon of beliefs. There is a belief in Christ and it's through him, everyone who believes in Christ is set free from every sin. In other words, he's preaching not a philosophy, but history. May I just remind you, Jesus was voluntarily punished in our place to satisfy the wrath of God against sin so God can justly forgive sin restoring relationship between God and mankind. And the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, what does it accomplish? It washes us clean, sanctifies us, justifies us, gives us new life, reconciles us, adopts us, redeems us, protects us, fills us with peace, gives us eternal life. My friends, there is a reason the gospel is called good news. When you draw close to the Lord and worship, good things are going to happen. Well, verse 6: They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. You say, Ronnie, I need a map. Okay, here is your map. Right here. Take a look. If you look at your 2:00 position on the map, you'll see the town of Antioch where Saul and Barnabas were set apart. They travel 16 miles to Selucia, the port city, and they sail to Cyprus, which is the third-largest Mediterranean island. They land at Salamis and travel across the island to Paphos. This is Barnabas' home turf, where he grew up and went to high school. They traveled over the island where they -- They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. He would be a leading Roman government official. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, Saul was his Hebrew name and Paul gentile name, Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now, I'm about to say something that could be probably misconstrued. I'm going to ask you trust my heart. You don't need to be the kind of person who goes around looking for a fight. But you don't need to run from one either when it's appropriate to defend the gospel. Saul did not try to pick a fight with Elymus, the sorcerer, but when that sorcerer tried to prevent the proconsul from coming to real faith and real Jesus, Saul engaged him. Now, the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. This sorcerer -- by the way, real powers, there is an underworld. There is a demonic world. But now he experiences the same discipline that Saul himself had experienced back on the Damascus road and he is completely helpful, but God's purpose in this was to do what? Wake him up, arouse his faith so that he might turn to the Lord. Did he? I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. But it does tell us in verse 12 that: When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. The greatest work, it's not the blindness of the sorcerer. The greatest demonstration of God's power is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the way, Cyprus to this day is over 95% Christian. Well over 95% ChristianChristian, predominantly Greek Orthodox, but a majority of the population holds to a form of Christianity. Here is a third thing I want you to write down: The kingdom does not advance without struggle, setbacks and opposition. Sometimes that opposition will be demonic. Satan and his demons have not retired from their work. Until Jesus comes back, they have a measure of freedom to work. The Bible tells us we are engaged in a real battle. It's not laser tag. A real battle with a real enemy who is potent and that's one of the reasons we're taught to put on the whole armor of God and to pray: Deliver us from evil. It is fun to be on mission for the Lord, to every week think, I get to represent Jesus, you get to represent Jesus, in a home, in a market place, wherever you might be and you want to make a difference. There is so much fulfillment there, but don't be shocked, don't be disillusioned that there will be times of Opposition and difficulty and disappointment and struggle. That's just part of the nature of the assignment. There will be some wonderful open doors and at times there will be closed doors. It's not always going to be easy, but persevere. Don't grow weary in doing good. In due time you will reap a good harvest if you don't grow weary. Gang, we need to make this internal decision because it won't be automatic to where I'm going to have some grit here and persevere and see this through. I'm not going to let this get the best of me. There will be times when you will think you are surrounded by something incredibly difficult be but God, my friends, has surrounded whatever you think is surrounding you. No, you'll not be cushioned, but you will be kept. And even in that difficulty, even in that time of adversity, just sort of remind yourself that whatever you think is trying to defeat you, God in His greatness can use it to develop you, to develop the muscular -- the muscle tone of our faith so that we have a tough faith, a resilient faith, a gritty faith. All right. Here is the fourth thing I want you to write down: We are junior partners with the Holy Spirit and He will do more than we can ask or imagine. I'm going to close this message in sort of a little different way. I'm going to ask you not to believe something. It's important that as a believer that -- the Bible teaches us things to believe and what not to believe, how to behave, how not to behave. May I share with you a list of things I hope you never, ever believe. You must refuse to believe that the Christian life is dull and joyless. Let the joy of the Lord be your strength. You must never ever believe that hatred is more powerful than love. It is not. Watch love knock down one wall after another. You must never ever believe that evil will triumph over good. It might win a skirmish. It's not going to overcome. You must never ever believe that your service, your mission, your ministry, the good you do in Jesus' name is in vain. You must never believe that. You're not crazy for trying to make a difference for the Lord and you must never ever believe that God will forsake you or abandon you. He never will. You must never ever believe that death is the end. For the Christian, your death will be the crowning moment of your life when you take hold of the life that's truly life. God bless you, everybody. We get to be partners with the Holy Spirit, representing Jesus, sometimes in a public way, in a private way, sometimes in a big way, sometimes in a small way, but you're making a difference. Let your beliefs be clear. Don't be shocked when something is difficult or you have opposition or a season of awkwardness. It happens. Have grit. Push through. Believe that God is with you. Expect God to be at work. Ed Harris will come lead us in prayer. Ed. >> Ed: Would you please pray with me this morning. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that we're able to come together in fellowship and offer praise and worship to you. We're just overwhelmed by your love for us, love that -- you created us, you created the world that we live in. We owe our very life to you. You sent your son, your only son, to live on earth and to die on the cross and be burdened by our sins. So that when we can't on our own be saved, that through your son, through Jesus, that the love that He shed on the cross washes our sins away. We pray, heavenly Father, for those who are suffering loss like that this morning, who have lost loved ones, people that are in pain that are suffering. We ask that you be with each one of them. There are many here in church who ask for prayers and many others that, while they haven't specifically asked for prayers, they certainly can use them. We're also saved by the grace of God. As we go from here, we pray that we fellowship with one another, we love one another, and that you be with us this coming week. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. >> Kevin: Amen. I want to invite you guys to class next week at 9:45. We have classes for children and students in the education wing and adults across the building. If you have not found one, you can find information at the info desk and we would love to have you in class. I want to make sure you know about our website, firstcolonychurch.org. Everything we register for event-wise is on there. Speaking of a few of those, I want to let you know if you're interested in becoming a new member, we have a new member info session coming up on June 5, you can sign up for that online. We also have a women in aapologetics conference. That will be great there. A lot of our middle school students going to Camp Eagle, it's down by San Antonio, there are limited spots. The next thing is VBS. Make sure you sign up your kids and that you can help. Make sure you add value into it. It's something that happens with a lot of help. With that said, let's stand together and sing one more song before we're dismissed. >> Richard: Amen. God is good. ♫ "God So Loved" ♫Thank you, church, for >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today. You are dismissed. >> Thank you for joining us today. We want to let you know about a few items of interest. First, go to our website, firstcolonychurch.org, and go there often. You'll find links to our worship services, Bible study options, online giving, and our podcast "Anchor Point." You can also download our church app. Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us today. we are glad you're here.