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 >> 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. Everybody doing well this morning. Let's all stand together. I'm going to read a scripture for us real quick from Psalm 105:1. It says: Give praise as to the Lord, proclaim his name, make known among the nations what he has done. That's what we want to do this morning, exalt his name and praise together. Can I get an amen from the church? >> Yes. >> Richard: All right. Let's exalt the Lord together. He is faithful. ♫ "House Of The Lord" ♫ >> Richard: Yes! Amen. We shout out God's praise this morning. We want to do a new song for you this morning. ♫ "Graves Into Gardens" ♫ >> Richard: Yes. Do you believe that this morning that he is the only one who can meet our needs. Amen. Let's all be seated as we prepare to take communion together. >> Good morning, church. My name is Jason Campbell and this is my daughter Ava. It is our honor to celebrate the Lord's supper with you as we celebrate the bread that represents Jesus' body that was broken for us and the cup that was shed for the atonement of our sins. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you now asking that you prepare our hearts and minds, ready to accept this great gift that you've given us. Lord, to know that you paid the price for us so that we could spend eternity with you. Lord, thank you for sending Jesus, your only son, to his death because you love us so much. Lord, may we just take that in and remember that great sacrifice that he made for us. Lord, thank you for loving us so much and giving us eternal life. We love and thank you. Amen. Let us partake together. >> Together I'll be reading from Romans 12:1-2 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. ♫ "Your Love Defends Me" ♫ >> Richard: Why don't we all stand together and continue to worship. ♫ "Your Love Defends Me" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church, you may be seated. >> Grant: Amen. We are about to pray over our offering this morning municipal we have giving bins at the exits. You can text to give as well as give online. Church, let me say the obvious. Thank you all for playing your part as the body of Christ because it is a beautiful picture of what comes together as we give to this church to bless the ministries here and this community and what we do and our five international mission points. Let's pray over the offering today. Father, you're good. Your love endures forever and may we not be fooled by who is the provider. It is certainly not us. We know that all the good gifts come from you, come from above. Today we give back what is already yours. We come with joyous, thankful hearts to give so that you may bless your kingdom. Father, we trust you with our time, possessions, talents, and lay them down at you and your will be done and in our powerful name. Amen. Andy Pace. >> I am and this morning's kid's spot is brought to you by science. This morning's topic: Density. What is density? Density is just how much matter is packed into something. It's how much something weighs, compared to how big it is. If I had a Styrofoam block this big, I could toss it in the air because it's not very dense. But if I had the same block made of steel, it would be so heavy. I could lift that if I wanted to but I've got to do that. No, I couldn't because it's too dense. Density also applies to liquids. Up here I've got some ordinary household water in some beakers and I'm just going to add some food coloring to each one just so you can tell the difference between them. They're still ordinary household water. What I am going to do is add salt to the blue one. Now, I don't know if you can see this from where you are, maybe with a black background. Yowl have to take my word for it. The salt actually fell to the bottom of the beaker because it's more dense than water. If it was less dense, it would float on top because that's how density works. I'm going to stir up the salt so it becomes part of the water. When I say blue water, it's salt water and yellow is still ordinary household water. Now so you can see it better, I'm going to pour it into this graduated cylinder. Already. There is the salt water and now I'm going to add this ordinary household water on top. I have today this really slowly otherwise it won't work. I'll tell you what will happen. If it was two regular kinds of water dyed two different colors, they would mix and you would be left with this mess of a mix of green water. But that's not what's happening here. Instead, what we have is blue water staying on the bottom and the yellow water staying on top of the blue water. Why is that happening? Because of density. Because the salt water is more dense than the regular old water, so the blue salt water stays at the top and: Science. [ Applause ] >> All right. So. The science is great and all. Why are we doing this in the middle of the church service? Great question. Here's the picture. There is an idea echoed throughout the New Testament and the idea is this that we should be in the world but not of it. We live in the world, but we shouldn't look like the world, shouldn't look like it. Just like this blue water is clearly separate, the salt water is clearly separate from the yellow water, you can see it difference clear if I hold it up because of the salt which is a whole other day. When we go out and interact in the world, we should look different as followers of Christ than the rest of the world. Some might watch you and say, wait a minute, you're a Christian, aren't you? Why would they say that? Well, maybe because of the way you talk or the way you act is different or maybe because of the way you make decisions is different because of what is important to you. Let me encourage you to do two things this week. Get into your kitchen and particular with some liquids with your parents' permission. Honey, dish soap, rubbing alcohol. Play around with liquids and drop solid objects in there too. We didn't have time for that. The other thing we encourage you to do is as you live in the world, don't be of it. Let your words and your actions and your choices set you apart, make you look different from the rest of the world in a way that glorifies God. Thanks. [ Applause ] >> Grant: Thank you, Andy Pace. This is a great time, members and guests, to go ahead and fill out your connection cards. There are cards on the seat backs. Members, you can drop those in the giving boxes. Guests, we would love it if you take it across the hall. We have a room called new here, start here. We would love to meet you. We have staff who can snrer questions. We also have a gift for you today. Fill out those cards and put in those prayer requests. Members, we would love to pray for you this week. Kiddos, if you're in first to fifth grade, we have the Main Street live team who will take you over to the chapel for Main Street live which is a kid-appropriate service for the second half of the service. For everyone else, this is a good time to stand and say hello to the folks around you and say who is a person who impacted you for Christ, a mentor or a role model. If you're online on jump on the chat box and let us know who made an impact on your life and how. [Indistinct chatter]. ♫ "Endless Light" ♫ >> Richard: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Richard and team, thank you for leading us so very well. Good morning, everybody. Glad to see you. Welcome today to our second service here at the First Colony Church of Christ. And to our online worshippers, we welcome you as well. Glad to have you with us. My name is Ronnie and if this is your first time with us here, glad to have you. I do know of two folks, that this is their first Sunday with us. Chris and Nathalie, where are you? Okay. And we have -- okay, there we go. We have Valentina and Beatrice, two months old, twins right here. There you go. And evidently they walked out -- they got you. Very good. Okay, everybody. Again, so glad to have you with us. Please take your Bible and open to the book of Acts. If you have a digital Bible, open that one and turn to Acts 18, please. The title of today's message is irrepressible. The movement of God, the church of God, the kingdom of God is impossible to control or restrain. It cannot be stopped. It is irrepressibleirrepressible. The book of Acts chronicles the beginning, explosion subsidy advancement of the early church. The first half of the book is about the ignition of the church and the second half of the book is where the Dr. Luke is following the apostle Paul and his adventures with churches and being used by God to advance his great work. And today, today, we're going to see Paul show up in the Grecian city of Corinth and he is going to meet a power couple called Priscilla and Aquila. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. Now the gospel is in Europe, it's in Greece. Let's put a map up on the screen. Paul had a sfooerm /* stooerm ministry in Athens and then he goes 50 miles westward and he was in Corinth. Think Vegas. This is a sin city. This is a cosmopolitan city, a sizeable city larger than Athens. It is multicultural and milled with immorality. It is the original what happens here stays here city. This is a photo of what ancient Corinth looks like today. I've been there a few times and it is a fascinating place to visit. Paul is now in Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. All right. Let's stop there for a moment. You have this power couple here. Here they're just mentioned, but you're going to see the names Aquila and Priscilla quite a bit in the New Testament. They will become fast friends with Paul and ministry workers. He will even say of them, they risked their lives for me and they are a power couple. Think Chip and Joanna. This is Chip and Joanna right here. What makes them so formidable is actually their marriage, their partnership. By the way, I hope you and your spouse, if you're married, I hope you will just say, honey, we're going to be a power couple for Jesus. That's who we're going to be. That's what we're going to be about. Just stop for one moment here. So Aquila and Priscilla lived in Rome, but they're now in Greece and they had to find somewhere else to live because they had been evicted from Rome. Even though they were Christians, they had been evicted because they were Jews. Listen carefully, their lives had been radically altered by the ungodly decision of another person. Let me say that again. Their lives had been radically altered and changed by the unrighteous work of someone else. Claudius said, I'm ejecting all Jews from Rome. It turns the world of Aquila and Priscilla upside down. Here they are now in Corinth, Greece. Everyone in this room has experienced that. Everybody here. Maybe for you, your dad walked out on your family. Maybe for you, you had a neighbor who sabotaged something at your house. Maybe you had a relative who interfered and complicated your inheritance. You had a broker who just didn't pay close enough attention to your accounts. Your life was significantly changed by an ungodly action by someone else. So how do you stay steady in something like that? How do you maintain any semblance of Christian joy with something like that? Are you going to stay angry, mad, frustrated, off balance, out of kilter? The only way is to have a godly view of circumstances. Let me say it again. To have a Godly view of circumstances. So look at your circumstances in a particular way, to view the events and circumstances of your life through a particular and specific lens. Now, the classic example of course is Joseph in the older testament who said to his brothers who sold him into slavery, he said what you did, you meant it for harm, but God has actually worked this for good. In other words, God is bigger. He was in front. He was behind. He was on either side. He was above that situation. And I am saying to you today that you can have a Godly perspective on your circumstances and events in your life that were not good, I'm not saying they were good, but God can work all things for good to the people who love him. Ronnie, are you sure about that? I'm as sure about that as I'm sure about anything. Why? Because God said it and promises in the Bible and his promises are cultureless, they are timeless. You can take them to the bank. Here is the first thing I want you to write down today. We are not dust in the wind. With a nod to the right group from Kansas in the 1970s. Who would have thought that Aquila and Priscilla, who would have thought that being evicted from your home and forced to leave your country would have actually worked out to where you meet Paul, you become ministry partners because -- I mean, they're going to stay with Paul in Corinth for a year and a half. When Paul goes to Ephesus, they're going there for two years. When Paul leaves Ephesus, he says, I need you staying here to lead this church. They are going to be fast friends and partners for years. How in the world did that come about? Because they weren't dust in the wind. Somebody might have meant it for evil. God can work it for good. Not all things are evil, but God is at work. He is at work in your now today. If we don't accept it, we stay joined to the past. You need to be confident because God will cause all things to work together in a good way and this power couple, they weren't dust in the wind. Neither are you. The Lord knows you. Verse 5: When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But when they opposed Paul -- when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” We are not overcome by opposition. The invitation is there. You're adults, but I'm not accepting your ability to choose and put that on my shoulders. It's on your shoulders. And he said, so from now on I'll go to the gentiles. He didn't say, from now on I'll quit. I'll go to my cabin by the look and look at the stars and sing kumbaya. If you don't want to receive, I'll go somewhere else. Here is the second thing I want you to write down. We're not overcome by opposition. The movement of God is not overcome by opposition. You need to plan on it. You need to accept it. Paul here faced opposition and but notice what happens even next, verse 7: Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized. So here he is in Corinth filled with immorality. He goes to the synagogue. He's opposed. He's abused. But now look what happens. People are responding to the gospel. Even the synagogue leader is responding to the gospel and many people believe and are baptized. Listen carefully, my friends. Opposition inspires. When you are opposed for the cause of Christ and you maintain your head and you maintain your purpose and you stay steady and strong, it inspires. That's what Paul did. And you know what those watching, what their reaction was? You really believe this, don't you? You really believe this message of Jesus Christ raised from the dead? And the way you can respond or I can respond to opposition, it actually inspires and, listen to this, it also purifies. Opposition will clarify. I don't know if you know who Irwin Lutzer is. I highly recommend his writings. He's got a fantastic book that came out a couple of years ago that is "we will not be silenced: Responding gashls to our culture's assault on ChristianChristianity." raciously to our culture's assault on Christianity." He said several years ago I was in China speaking with the head of the three self movement in China. You are familiar with this, self-support, self-propagation, that is the official Chinese church. This leader told him this, if you go through the length and the breadth of China, you will find Christians who believe just like you do, conservative, Orthodox, Bible-believing Christians because -- and listen to this -- persecution wiped out theological liberalism in China. Do you think somebody who denies the virgin birth is actually really going to want to suffer for the cause of Christ? Someone who is not sure that Jesus really went to the cross and rose from the dead, someone who doesn't believe the Bible, do you think they're actually going to be willing to endure hardship for the cause of Christ? If you deny the foundations on which Christianity is built, no one is going to be willing to endure hardship for that kind of flimsy foundation. So he said the true church has endured in China. Opposition purifies our faith and our theology. And verse 9: One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. I want you to say that with me: Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. You might want to write this down: We need not be slaves to fear. So the Lord gives this message to Paul: Do not be afraid. Do you know why he gave him that message? Because he was afraid, that's why. You say, well, Paul's an apostle. Really fine person, but he's human facing opposition. In the center of immoral Corinth. My friends, this is God's consistent message to his people throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Do not be afraid. And it's not just the message. It's the source of that message because the words "do not be afraid," those aren't my words. The creator of heaven and earth who knows you and loves you, those are his words to you and he's got the goods to back it up. There's only one who can say, do not be afraid, and it ring with authority, and that's the living God. Whatever you face, you will not face it alone. You know, there is an ancient benediction that goes like this: May you fear God so much that you fear nothing else at all. Here is a fourth thing I encourage you to write down: We will not be silent. Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. And I encourage you to keep on speaking even if it seems no one's listening. When it seems like no one's listening at home, no one's listening around you to the Christian message, both grace and truth. When it feels like or it seems like it's going nowhere, keep on speaking, do not be silent, do not be afraid. Good will open hearts if a heart is receptive. The gospel is good. The word of God is true. And God opens hearts through the preaching and teaching of his word. He's done it for 2,000 years and he will continue to do it. Don't be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. You know, many believers are shamed into silence. It's said that many believers are not so much talked out of their faith, they're mopped out of their faith. Uh-huh, I'm in the in the -- not in the popular crew, I'm mopped out of my faith. Parents, I encourage you and urge you, please, do not be silent. One church leader older than me interviewed not long ago and said, how has ministry changed over your tenure? He said one major word: Technology. He said, I see a lot of situations where parents no longer raise their children. The cellphone in your teenager's hand does more to inform his or her world view than an hour of church or an hour of Sunday school. He says, we're allowing culture and technology to raise our children and technology is very, very addictive. I don't have all the answers there, but be engaged and pay attention. Parents, don't be silent and don't be afraid. Keep on speaking. Be clear and engage the Christian message with your children. Teach them the wonderful love of God and teach them to pass that love of God on. Teach them the commands of God which are good for them and good for everybody around them. Teach them that regardless of what they hear, they are created in God's image and he made them either a male or a female. And that regardless of what they hear, marriage is actually a very, very good gift and to be between a man and a woman and is to be lasting. And regardless of what they might hear, every single life and person is precious, regardless of their socio-economic status, regardless of the color of their skin, and even if that child is just a few months old or that child is preborn, every life is precious. Regardless of what they might hear, they really do need a Lord and Savior. They're not going to be a good Lord to themselves and they're not going to be a good savior to themselves. We need a Lord and we need a Savior. Jesus Christ is that answer. Keep on speaking. Don't be silent or afraid. When we do speak, we can be gracious and kind. We don't have to be mean-spirited in order to have a spirited conversation. And rather than leaning into being an avoider or to the other side being the impatient, angry, aggressor because no one likes being talked down to, we can simply be an advocate for God's word, God's truth. And we can engage and we can dialog. But don't be afraidafraid. Keep on speaking. Don't be silence. Speak the grace and the truth of Jesus Christ. Then verse 10: For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” Write this down: We are not alone. We are not alone - God is with us! That wasn't just a promise to Paul. That was a promise to Moses, I'll be with you. That was a promise to Joshua. I'll be with you. That was a promise to David. You remember Psalm 23? Two days ago we had a funeral here for our brother Paul Knight, a really fine man who passed away this early Tuesday morning and on Monday I was able to visit with Paul in his home. We prayed and went over a number of scriptures. One scripture we read together was Psalm 23 and he was right there me and you remember that phrase from Psalm 23. It's as true today as the first time you heard it. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Why? Why? You are with me. And even when you're in the middle of immoral Corinth, believe you're not alone. You're never, never, ever on your own alone. He is with you. So don't be afraid. We're not alone. And last of all, we'll not be stopped. The church will not be stopped. It won't be stopped. The gospel message will never be stopped. The work of Christ will never ever be stopped. It will advance. It will persevere. Jesus himself said these words. The gates of hell itself will not prevail against my church. Even right here in Corinth -- so Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half teaching them the word of God. You can read on here later, but what you find happened is you had a group of leaders there in Corinth and they tried to have Paul canceled, but the local government officials actually canceled them and made it legal for Paul to preach. Jesus -- I'm not saying there aren't setbacks along the way. The gates of hell will not prevail against God's work. Let me remind you, we're in a fight. It's not a fake fight, but it is a fixed fight. We know how this fight ends. You know, a lot of you in your Bible, the last book in your Bible is Revelation and there are a number of believers who write two words at the beginning of Revelation because that final book of the Bible, God pulls back the curtain on several things and he reveals to us how everything works out. And a lot of people will write down these two words: We win. And it's true. So most of you know I grew up in Tennessee and as a kid, 8, 9, 10 years old, Saturday afternoon if I wasn't outside playing, I'd be watching wrestling on TV. My parents weren't crazy about it, but they didn't actually forbid it. It wasn't like big arena wrestling. The crowds were small, a couple hundred people or so. It was based out of downtown Nashville. And we had great wrestlers. Toe Joe Yamamoto. Jackie Fargo. But my favorite: Lynn Rosey. Look him up later. And his signature move was the Rossey Sleeper, you were toast and to this day I can hear the announcer saying, oh, he's got him in the Rossey sleeper. It's done. Oh man, those were exciting times. And my dad would say, you know this is fake, don't you? It's not fake. You know, to this day I don't believe it was fake. There was a lot of real pain and real blood. I think some of it was fixed, but not fake. And we're in a fight right now that is not fake but it is fixed. We win and the gates of hell will not prevail against. There you go. [ Applause ] >> Ronnie: So here's what you got to do, brothers and sisters, you have play from a stance of victory. Play from a stance of victory because that's who you are. We will not be afraid. We will continue to speak. We will not be silent because the Lord is with us. Now, in a moment we're going to be praying together. Let me ask our elder couples to come down here, please, and ask our worship team to be taking their places out here. As they're doing so, let me tell you one more thing. One Bible scholar was asked if he could summarize the gospel in just a few words and here is what he said. He said, I would say it like this. Here is the gospel. God gets the last word. That's it. God gets the last word. Our God is the kind of God who insists on having the last word. Now, the second-to-the-last word can be disconcerting. Sometimes it is evil, disease, oppression, failure, sin, death, but God insists on having the last word. And the last word is a word of healing, liberation, hope, forgiveness, new life. That's our great God and king. We're going to give everybody a chance to pray together. You can pray right where you are or alone or with one another. You can come down and pray with one of our elder couples this morning. All right, everybody. Let's be standing and singing and praying. ♫ "The Heard Of Worship" ♫ >> Richard: Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your faith in us, for your mercy and your grace. We thank you, Lord, above all that you hear our prayers this morning because you are a faithful Father and a faithful friend. We thank you for your mercy and for your love. We pray, Lord, that as we have prayed and laid things before you, you speak and meet needs and do only what you can do. We trust you as our Father and our faithful king. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seatedseated. >> Grant: Amen, church. There are a ton of ways to stay connected here at the First Colony Church of Christ. Every Sunday we have classes at 9:45 here. This is a great place to be, classes for all ages. If you're online, you can stay online, we have a great class led by Kyle. We have zoo camp this Friday here at the building. Yes, it is camping. We are going to be camping here at the building. Bring your supplies, tons of games and activities. If you have a 3-year-old all the way up to someone who completed first grade, you can come here and it's going to be a blast Friday at zoo camp. As we've been talking about Wednesday nights for the most part all of our major things are canceled. This Wednesday no uplift, no children -- no youth ministry, but everything will resume in August. Just a reminder there. Our back-to-school drive is wrapping up this week, but it's not too late to still make a difference. All you need to do is jump on the website go to the Holley Elementary page. We have items that the teachers have recommended every one of the things they could use to bless them and their students. You can go to volunteer central where we have apples that you can go and buy. We lost a great member this week Paul Knight. We want to extend our sympathies to the friends and family of Paul Knight. Just a great man who had been here from the beginning. Had a great celebration of life here on Friday, many friends and family who were gathered. Let's be praying for Janice, Aaron, Taylor, and their family during this time. Church, know that our staff is also praying with you. Turn in those connection cards because we would love to be praying for you by name. As we go, let's go in the strength of the Lord and stand as we sing one last song here this morning. ♫ "House Of The Lord" ♫ >> Richard: Church, thank you for worshiping with us today. You are dismissed. Have a great Sunday.