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 are glad you're here. >> Richard: Good morning, church. It's good to see you here today. I'm glad you're hear to worship with us. I'm going to read a quick scripture over us this morning. It says: As for me, I will sing of your mighty strength and power, I will sing joyfully of your loving kindness in the morning. You have been a stronghold and a refuge in my day of distress. How many of you can say that of the Lord? I will sing of your love and your power because you have been my refuge and my strength in my day of disstress. Let's all stand and worship the Lord. He is faithful. ♫ "We Praise You" ♫ >> Richard: Yes, God, we do praise you this morning. There is no one like our God, amen. Let's continue to lift our voices, church. ♫ "What A Beautiful Name" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you for your worship, church. As we prepare for communion, why don't you all be seated. >> Good morning, church. My name is John Ricks and we have our pastoral minister Shane Gage with us today. Let us go to our 40 in prayer for communion at this time. Father, we thank you so much for your son, not only for the way he lived and taught us to live, but also for his death, the blood shed on the cross. Be with us today as we take the bread and the cup and help us to keep in mind the life that was given so that we could live eternally. It's in his name that he pray. Amen. >> Shane: Let us partake in the bread and the cup now as I read from Romans 5:18-21 Of the New Living Translation. Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ♫ "At The Cross (Love Ran Red)" ♫ >> Richard: Why don't we all stand together and worship together. Amen, church. We owe it all to him. You may be seated. >> Kevin: We're going to take a moment to remember what God has given to us as we give back to him. There's a lot of ways you can give. You can drop in the boxes at the back or give online. The thought I had this morning is Ronnie has said so frequently not only to us as a church or a staff member, that you're either going to be a giver or a taker. I want to encourage you all, this is an amazing church of givers. I want you to give as much as you can. Let's go to God in prayer right now and ask his blessing on things we do give that his kingdom will come. Lord, thank you so much for what you have first given to us that even allows us to have something to give. Lord, I pray that you would insprooir and encourage us to give this in worship of you. Lord, we're so grateful and we pray in Jesus' name that your kingdom will be done and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name we ask that. >> Joel: Amen. It is so great to be with you on this Sunday. This is the children's portion of the message. Here at First Colony we love kids and you are included in our times of worship. What I do is start with a Bible verse and the one I've chosen is Psalms 46:10. It talks about with be still and know that I am God. He will break the bows and shatter the spears. When you're a kid and you come to church, you're often told to be silent. You know, we're here to learn about God and you guys just need to sit there and be quiet. I like this illustration because when you hear a verse like this, be still and know that I am God. What I'm going to do is I'm going to turn these around. You can see I have numbers 1 through 6. I'm going to pull these cards as so. Bauer, from your spot, would you eds assist me? Have you ever playedplayed Wordle? Bauer, tell me when to stop and pick a number between 1 and 6. 5, okay. So we've got our 5 right here. Tell me when to stop again now. 1 to 6. 2. Don't let me mess that up because that would go bad. Bauer, quick, tell me when to stop. Now. Between 6, 3, 4, and 1. 3, man, you're making this tough on me. I don't know why you're doing that. We're supposed to be friends. It's going to look bad if it doesn't work. Tell me when to stop. 4, 6 and 1. 4. Man, I wonder what we're going to come up. I have two left. How about this one? 1. How about if you let me pick the last one, 6, and hopefully this works. When you come across a verse that is be still and know that I am God, it also talks about -- oh my -- I can't mess with it. All right. So interesting. Way to be, Bauer. We are to be still and know that God is God and he is in control. When you're in church, what do we do with our ears and our eyes? And the magic word is listen. Way to go, man. That's awesome. Good job. Boys and girls, moms and dads, we are here to listen, to grow, and to be in awe of our incredible and mighty God. Thank you very much. [♫♫♫] >> We're a title one school so 65% of our kids are in reduced lunch. They don't have a lot of support from home. When First Colony gives them that enthusiasm, teaching is hard. >> Coming from a school that is economically disadvantaged and to see the reaction on not only the teachers' faces and the students' faces. Something as simple as receiving materials and supplies, seeing the kids' reaction, hey, I've got a pencil or a pair of scissors. >> We appreciate the support the church has given to us over and over. We are blessed. When teachers are stressed, you provided casseroles or gift cards for Sonic. This is making them feel appreciated for the things they do. >> One thing I appreciate about the church that comes and supports us is that they're truly a part of our community. To know that you are looking out for us and that you care for us, whether it's the little thing of providing goodies at birthday bash or bringing supplies for kids who don't have them or the extra things they don't have, we appreciate it. >> For more on supporting the Holley ministry team, go online. >> Kevin: We want to officially welcome you and especially if you're a guest or a came with a friend or you're trying out church for the first time, we're glad that you're here. There is a connection card that you can fill out or scan the Q.R. code. It's a great place to write down a prayer request. If you want to know any information, you can find it there or go to the information desk, new here start here. All great places to find out what's going on at church. We want you to feel welcome and know what's going on here. The kids from first to fifth grade can go back with Ms. Denel. All the adults left, turn to your neighbor and in the spirit of giving what is something that someone sacrificially gave to you in your life? Let's greet each other. ♫ "Sing Wherever I Go" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: That is terrific. Band, thank you so much. Let's thank our band, our singers this morning for leading us so well. That's just terrific. I try not to be an envious person, but I do envy our drummer Thomas. He makes it look so easy. What he's doing is not. I have such appreciation for these musicians and these singers and they all make it look easy, but they rehearse and that's something to appreciate their preparation. Hey, you know, in our first service today we recognized a couple, Henry and Ellen Milligan who this week celebrated their -- listen to this -- 65th wedding anniversary. Is that not incredible? I mean, that is fantastic. [ Applause ] >> Ronnie: And they like each other. They're smiling and it was terrific. We're in our message time and if you're new here, what we do often is actually just walk through a section of scripture and we do that all the time, but right now we're going through a book of the Bible, the book of Acts. We will not get through it all before we take a break and do something else. Today we're in Acts 16. Hopefully you have a Bible with you or go to your online Bible. I'm asking you: Are you the Christian type? You know, I have a particular blood type, so do you. I don't know what your blood type is, A positive, A negative, O, but we all have a blood type and I have a personality type and you have a personality type. Assuming you have a personality, you have a personality type and Meyers Brigg personality, I'm an EMTJ. Is that particular personality and there are different combinations. That means we all have -- I have, you have certain tendencies that have to be muzzled and harnessed under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, otherwise chaos can ensue. Are you the Christian type? You might not see yourself as the Christian type. If you're with us online and we're glad to have you with us. You might not feel like you're the Christian type. I've got somebody in my family and I just don't know if they're the Christian type. I believe you are the Christian type. In today's narrative we're going to see different types of people make a response to Jesus. Let me put a map up here on the screen. So what you have here -- and our section of scripture today, we're in Paul's second missionary journey. He and Barnabas have decided to go their separate ways. Barnabas took John Mark and went one direction. You have Paul and Sylas and they became a trio because they added Timothy and today they're going to add Luke to their missionary team. Bible students, you'll be introduced to the we portions. It says from time to time we did this or we did that. Back to the map. So if you look almost at 12:00 on the map, you see Philippi. Philippi is in Greece, ancient Macedonia. So today you're about to see the gospel -- you're about to see Christianity born in Europe. The first European converts to Christianity. Now, if you see Troas, that's where this story will sort of start. I'm telling you this to say something else, which is they didn't want to be in Troas. That's not where they wanted to be. That's not where they planned to go. Paul said, Luke said, we want to go to Bithinia and the Holy Spirit wouldn't let them go there. They wanted to go to Asia and to Bithinia and preach and start churches there. But they're in Troas and they're going, why are we in Troas and they're going to end up in Philippi going, how did we end up in Philippi? Let me just touch on something I'll remind you of later. Make your plans in pencil. It's good to make plans, but you give those plans to God. You say, I'm going to Asia. I'm going to Bithinia. I believe God's will for me is -- God might give you something differently and, quite honestly, he might give you something better and he spry surprise you along the way. Okay. Acts 16:9-34 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Greece, Europe. After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. From Troas we put out to sea and traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. They're in Greece for crying out loud. Aristotle, Socratese, Zeus. It's like someone educated at Harvard is saying, would you come teach us? You have information we need to know. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. What that means is she's a wealthy businesswoman. She's driven, she's smart, she's savvy. She's well-known. She's well respected. If you're dealing in purple -- they didn't have brands, but they had colors. And purple -- if you're a dealer in purple, you're high-end fashion. And that's Lydia and Paul basically does a little Bible study with her. Look at this, She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. Isn't that a fantastic phrase? ? How does a person come to know the Lord? How does a person grow in the Lord? Does God do it all? Do you do it all? Notice the wonderful partnership here. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. Paul never thought he was responsible for converting another person. Simply responsible for presenting a message. And we're the same way. And so Lydia was the first member from Asia. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. She is not inviting Paul's missionary team to come to her house for a 45-minute tea on Thursday afternoon. She's saying, I have resources and I want you to use my house, my estate and I'm going to be one of your benefactors. I want you to use my house as ground zero for launching your work in Philippi and beyond. Let me just say to you, for those of you with affluence, I hope you'll be like Lydia. Don't let someone twist your arm. Be that eager person who says, how can I help? What can I subsidize and energize? Using your affluence for great influence. Well, as the story continues: Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the Future and she could actually do this. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. You heard of human trafficking? This is human trafficking. She followed Paul and the rest Of us, shouting, and what she says is absolutely true, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” And she follows Paul's team around Philippi and she's like a chatty Cathy doll over and over and over saying the same thing. She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. And you would think, everybody's ecstatic and overjoyed, right? No. You do know that evil can be lucrative. And the human traffickers are not overjoyed that their cash cow has been healed, to pardon the expression. When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men Are Jews, anti-Semitism, and are throwing our city into an uproar, false accusation, by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” Let me remind you of something you know and it needs to be stated again and again. Just because someone says something doesn't make it true. Okay. Just because someone says something doesn't mean it's true. I'm not saying you disbelieve everything, but be discerning, test everything. Let me pause for a moment and just say a word about human trafficking. One of our mission efforts, for example, is in Nepal. So part of your tithes and offerings, Nepal is known as a place where unfortunately slave trading and human trafficking is rampant. And one of our missions ministries in Nepal is to fight and rescue those who have been victimized by human trafficking. It certainly continues to happen not just on foreign soil, but right here, especially in the Texas triangle of Dallas, San Antonio, Houston. People think of human trafficking as taken by force and the only way to extract someone for human trafficking is to have a particular set of skills where you can extract that person. But in terms of human trafficking, that is a very small percentage, that most people are lured and deceived. And, adults, one of the best things we can do in teaching younger people, teaching our children, especially our daughters and younger women, is there are appropriate places to be vulnerable but online is not one. Online is not one. Be vulnerable with a friend. Be vulnerable with your parents. Be vulnerable with another adult that maybe your parents have vetted and said this is okay, maybe a counselor. But don't be vulnerable online. There are people waiting to lure you when you say I just feel so ugly, oh no you're not. My parents don't get me. My parents are clueless. I know how you feel, my parents are the same way. Don't be that target. So this young lady in Philippi and delivered. But Paul and Sylas are now attacked by the mob. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. They were thrown not just in a cell, in the inner cell. And where they were thrown would make modern-day prisons look like a five-star resort. Their feet were placed in stocks, meanwhile more than likely their feet were elevated higher than their upper body. This is not a pleasant experience at all. So what -- how should Paul and Sylas react to such injustice? What had they done wrong? Preached the gospel? Heal a young lady? What have they done wrong? And here they are languishing in a cell after having been beaten severely. Here is how they response. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. You do know that worship does not depend on your circumstances, don't you? Worship -- you can worship anywhere any time and it doesn't depend on your circumstances. It depends on your convictions and your values. Actually, I've been there. I've been in a prison before and had wonderful worship experiences. Some of the most meaningful worship experiences I've had or I've witnessed in a hospital room. Someone with hardly any muscle tone left would even raise their arm in grace. I drive a Toyota Camry and I am able to create a Goldilocks zone in my Toyota Camry. I can. I'm able to set the temperature, for example. It's not just low, medium, and high. I can set it at 73 greeds if I think, oh, that's not cool enough, I can turn it to 72 or 74. I have seat warmers. I have air conditioning that comes through my seat. If Martha's with me, I can hit a button and she can adjust her side from my side. Music? I can listen to 60s with one press of a button I can listen to 70s -- greatest decade of music, by the way, amen. 80s, 90s. I don't know why I would do that. I never hit that button, you know. If I want to listen to Elvis, one -- I can create a Goldilocks zone and there's nothing wrong with that. And it's wonderful that we live in a culture where we are privileged to have so many comforts and choices around us. Brothers and sisters, we can't become Goldilocks worshippers. We want to teach our children and we want to have the kind of faith that says, listen, there's nothing wrong with having a fantastic worship environment, but when it's less than ideal, bring your praise to God. He is worthy of it in the Goldilocks zone and he's worthy of it in a hospital bed, in a prison, when things are not ideal. As Becket would say, though the fig tree does not bud and there are no vines and the fields are producing no food and no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet, will I rejoice in the lord and I'll be joyful in my Lord and savior. And yet, the atmosphere in that prison changed and the atmosphere around you will change when we bring a sacrifice of praise to God. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. You see, if you were a jailer and the prisoners escaped on your watch, you paid for it on your life. He said, I'm going to save myself the trouble and the embarrassment and the humiliation. He was about to take his own life. But Paul shouted, “Don't harm yourself! We are all here!” Don't hydroplane over that. I know you harmed us and now the doors are open and we could make a bee line out of here. Even though you harmed us, don't harm yourself. We're right here. Is it possible that Paul and Silas, it is donning on them that maybe even this prison cell can be a platform for ministry. Maybe God has us here and instead of saying, why God, why? Maybe we can ask, how, God, how might you use me even in this distasteful assignment. Don't harm yourself. We're all here. The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And the most succinct answer to that question in all scriptures is next. They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God he and his whole household. So after reading through that narrative let me just highlight four quick lessons. Here is the first one. Plan in pencil. It's good to plan, it is. Nothing wrong with making plans. It's a wise, good thing to do, but give God permission and you know how I mean that, tongue-in-cheek. He's got permission. Give God permission to alter these plans. Sometimes people will say that, but they tend to put a negative twist on it. You never know, God will throw you a curve ball. You make plans and something unsettling comes to you. Sometimes God surprises you with something wonderful that's more than you can even ask or imagine because he's a good, good father. He will often surprise -- I prayed with somebody this morning and prayed that very prayer, surprised them in such a good way. Plan in pencil. Secondly, The Gospel is for everyone! There is no just one Christian type or just a -- there's no type that -- for whom the gospel is not intended. Rich, poor, Black, White, younger, older, from good families or broken families, we all have one invitation to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness and renewal and the Holy Spirit. There is no just type for becoming a Christian. Are you the Christian type? Yes, you are. And what that means then is the church is a place where many different types can find unity in Christ. The kind of unity you'll not find anywhere else. You do know that Christianity is the only religion that's never been dominated by one part of the world. Yes, it started in Jerusalem. It begins to grow and spread. We read today in Acts 16, okay, now it has a base in Europe. And today Christianity, today, there are more African Christians, more Latin American Christians, Asian Christians, Korean Chinese Christians than all of western Europe and North America combined. Because the Christianity is a religion where there's just no type. There's no culture that it's native to. No one personality type. It's not just for the rich. It's not just for the poor. It's not just for men or women. It's not based on any human factor. It's been invitation to all. What's the old song? I used to sing it growing up, "the blessed gospel for all." Thirdly, would you Give God an opportunity to open a heart. Remember this phrase from verse 14: “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.” I'm not responsible for filling your bucket spiritually. I am responsible for sort of emptying mine. And we have opportunities to give God an opportunity to nurture a heart. Lydia -- what's faith? Faith is basically responding to information, responding to a message. Paul did that. But let me apply it not just to a person who's not yet a believer. As Christians gather, let's give God, let's give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to nurture our hearts, to nurture one another to do something wonderful, to remind us of who we are and the wonders we have in Christ. Here's what I mean. Sometimes believers can get together and be together for an hour and a half, two hours regularly and not talk about anything that gives God an opportunity to nurture us all. If I just lean into my own human nature, here's what I'm going to talk about always. Are you ready? Either the mundane or the negative is where I'm going. Mundane, how about those Astros, can you believe they lost yesterday 3-2. Talking about mundane stuff sort of gives us a platform and that's life, but if I just lean into my human nature, I'm just going to talk about either the mundane or the negative. Can you believe or I don't like this. And there are believers who will get together and hardly ever go beyond either the mundane or the negative. Will you be that person, though, who will give God something to work with where you can nurture -- where God can nurture a heart and stir a soul and the Holy Spirit can do something? Maybe it's something as simple as this week in my devotional time, let me share with you something that I was reading. Maybe it will encourage you. Here's a ministry that's going on, something that happened at our church that I just thought was really inspirational and encouraging. Let me share this piece of good news with you. You give God a chance to work in hearts by saying something that's good news-centered. Thankfully when Paul went down to the river and met Lydia, he gave her something to work with. Very quickly number 4, Seasons of trouble are platforms for ministry. God, how can you use me and this? For all of us as believers, we got to see it coming and see it through. See a difficult season coming, know it's coming, but also see it through with praise because even in that prison experience, God does give us a chance to put his grace on display. Church, after reading through Acts 16, apply it, don't miss it. Just sort of reflect on it, for example, like Lydia use your affluence for good influence. Like Paul and Silas, be willing to keep praising God even in a less-than-ideal setting. Like Paul, let's respond to injustice with some grace and love. Don't harm yourself. We're still here. And after you've had your heart opened, be baptized and make amends, clean up maybe some of the wounds you caused. God bless you, everybody. God bless you to those of you watching with us online. We want to take a few moments to pray. Let me ask our elder couples to take your places. You're invited to pray right where you are, but you're also welcome to come down and pray with one of our elder couples this morning. Let's be standing and singing and praying. ♫ "10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)" ♫ >> Richard: Pray with me, please. Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness to us. We thank you for being worthy of your praise. We thank you that you hear our prayers. You are a good father, a faithful father. We thank you that we can come boldly to you in our prayers before you. There are a lot of prayers offered to you today for needs. We thank you for your faithfulness to this church and the families represented here. We give you the praise, the honor and the glory in Jesus' name, amen. >> Kevin: Amen. You can go ahead and have a seat. If you're still praying, you can stay up. I'm grateful to worship with you and be part of this church. A couple of things going on that I wanted to let you know about is we're getting carpet in different parts of the building meaning we can't have our Wednesday programming. We still have some stuff in the gym because we don't have carpet there. Just a reminder about that. Also for Holley Elementary, you saw the video. If you're interested in donating supplies to that, you can go to the lobby and grab some apples of the list of things they need and you can drop that in the bins in the upcoming weeks. Children's ministry we have camp ten:10 and zoo camp. Today is the last day to sign up for camp ten:10. If you don't have a class that you're a part of. We meet at 9:45. There are adult classes and the online class at 12:30 afterwards. There are student classes and children's classes. This is where we have more conversation and get to know each other more during the worship service. I'm glad that we're all here together. Let's stand and sing one more song on our way out. ♫ "Sing Wherever I Go" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church, for your worship 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.