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 Bowling: Good morning, church. We're going to do something a little different this morning. So why don't we all stand together? And I'm glad everybody is here especially those watching online like my family in North Carolina, love you and miss you. That was shameless. So we'll do a call to worship this morning. I'll read a scripture and you'll see on the screen, the part in bold we'll all do that together. Here we go. Church, let us exalt his name together. ("Every Giant Will Fall" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Nothing is impossible with our God, amen? So wherever you're at this morning, just know Jesus is here to help. ("My Jesus" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Amen, church. Give God praise this morning. >> Each week we get together and hear the Word and worship God. We remember to give back to the Lord for what he's given to us. Think of all the ministries you've been involved in supported by generous people. Things you're doing right now and if possible I want you to envision what ministry God might do in the future. Let us bow right now. God, thank you for the ways you have taken care of us. It is beyond certainly what we deserved and in many times beyond what we expected. Lord, we right now ask your blessing as we give back to you this week that you would use that to build your Kingdom and see Jesus be glorified, people come to know him. I hope you would help us remember to celebrate all the good you've done in the past and help us see what you do in the future, the money would go towards those purposes you have. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. >> Good morning, everyone. How are you this fine and lovely Sunday? Good to see you. I heard somebody say "This is a little scary. You have a glove and glasses on. I'm worried." And yes, there are people who asked for fire every Sunday. But believe it or not [LAUGHS], this is not the splash zone. You're okay. All right. Well, so this is kind of cool. Last week we got to go to camp Tin Tin our kids' camp. And while I was there I lost my voice. You're like, a voice isn't really that important. It turns out it is. And so it's like cool I get to come back to church and recover. And then on Wednesday my kids are like "Dad, we need a driver for, like, the scavenger hunt on Wednesday," then I lost my voice again. And I got back it but then on Friday we had zoocamp, the most brilliant idea ever, a toddler, lock-in. It was awesome. So I lost my voice again. But it's mostly back. And I'm grateful for that. But I wanted to have a message on praising God. And we come to church to praise God. We use our voices in song but we praise our God. We exist to glorify God. And you think in scripture of the situation where people were glorifying God and they were told to stop. You remember in Luke 19, where Jesus is coming back into Jerusalem. And the people said in verse 38 "The king is coming. Blessed be the king, the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and on Earth and the pharisee said stop them from talking" Jesus said in verse 40 "I would tell you if these were silent the very stones would cry out." I don't have a stone but I'll make a metal pipe cry out. You say that's cool but how much cooler is it when you praise the Lord? I'll heat it up, hence the glove. Let's see if we can get it to work. This is one of the experiments you practice it and will work but then it won't work a second time. So I didn't practice. Isn't that cool? Isn't that cool? [APPLAUSE] >> And you know in scripture even the stars are praising God right now. So my prayer for you as you continue in this worship service you would say I'm here to praise and glorify God. I'm going to use my voice to honor God. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Joel. A special greeting to everybody online. There's Connection Cards in front of you. There's a QR code. If you have questions or prayer requests that's the place to let us know about this. If you have questions, you can go to the -- and they would love to meet you. At this point we have a children's program. If you are first through fifth grade we'll dismiss you. If you want to stand up and head back to Ms. Denela. If you haven't checked them, go ahead and they'll have their own worship service back there for them. Everyone else, stand up and greet the people around you and let them know how your week's been. Okay? [ Please stand by for captioning ] ("God So Loved" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Yes, thank you, church for your worship today. You may be seated. >> Ronnie Norman: Fantastic. Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. And hello, everybody. Glad to see you today. Welcome to our second service. Here at the First Colony Church of Christ. And my name's Ronnie, welcome. And to our many online worshipers, we are really glad to have you with us as well. And let us hear from you. And if you're online we'd love to hear from you. There are folks who will open and eager to pray with you, visit with you this morning. And in our teaching time today we are in a message series from the New Testament book of Acts and. Title of today's message is Sharp and surrender. Let me start with a map. I love maps. I like knowing where am I, what's going on around. I like being able to see perspective. One reason I like to show you a map from time to time when we're going through, you know, particular sections of scripture is it reminds you this really happened -- happened to real people, real places, real events. And this is not just history, it's salvation history. It's what God chose to record for you and me for salvation purposes. So if you take a look at this map, right at the -- 6:00 o'clock you see Alexandria, Egypt and the reason I highlight that is one of the key characters in today's narrative is from Alexandria, Egypt a major city. It's still the second-largest city? Egypt. But then you'll see, you know, the Ephesus there which is where today's events occur. And several of you have been to Ephesus, I've been to Ephesus in Turkey. And over the last couple of weeks, if you see Athens around the 10:00 o'clock point and 50 miles to the west is Corinth. The Apostle Paul was ministering in Corinth and met Priscilla and Aquila, a married couple. They were both tent makers also. And the three of them did ministry together in Corinth for 18 months, a long time. Paul then said let's go to Ephesus. So all three of them go to Ephesus. But while in Ephesus for a short time Paul says, Aquila, Priscilla you stay here and I'm going on a missionary journey. And the people in Ephesus said "Paul, will you come back to us?" I have six questions to ask you this morning and here's the first one but let me tell you Paul's response. He said acts 18:21. So here's my first question: Have you learned to plan in pencil not pen? I think it's really good to plan, it's a mark of wisdom. But you do not hold the ink pen. Neither do I. God does. You know the book of James says it's a good thing to even say is if the Lord wills. I plan to see you next week Lord willing. There are many believers who signed letters or maybe emails using the abbreviation DV which is Latin for Deo, vole in at meaning God willing. You think about Apostle Paul's missionary journeys and can't go North, plan to go south and that door closed. Then all of a sudden there's this message from the Lord saying go west, young man. And he's got this vision, come on over to Europe, come to Greece, Macedonia. And when he started out on that missionary journey that's not where he planned to go, but he planned in pencil. Saying Lord, I'm yours, I'm your servant. And if you redirect, you redirect. And I plan to return if the Lord wills. I think that's a pretty good mindset. All right. In verse 24 you'll meet this man by the name of Apollos. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos -- Let me just stop there for a moment. So Alexandria was the capital of the Roman province of Egypt. And Egypt had a Jewish population, it is estimated around a million people. And they were largely concentrated around Alexandria. And so Alexandria, it was a city founded by Alexander the great in 331 BC. It was an intellectual haven Josephus reminded us it had a library of over half a million scrolls. So here's Apollos well educated from an intellectual haven. He's also well-studied in the scriptures. The next verse says he was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures. Old testment scripture. Did you get that? He spoke with great fervor, taught about Jesus accurately. We'll come back to that in just a moment. But he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Here's Apollos, eloquent, enthusiastic, bold without a peer in public skills. Not just sharp, super sharp. He was sharp and surrender to the purposes of God. But get this, he only knew the baptism of John. Baptism of John the Baptist which says repent the Messiah is coming. And so here's Apollos, not a false teacher, not a heretic he's just incomplete in his knowledge because Judaism is transitioning gradually to Christianity. One Bible teacher says Apollos preached Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. He believed Jesus was the Messiah and the one who would come. He believed Jesus is teaching true things. But as of yet, Apollos is incomplete on his knowledge of the cross, the resurrection, the ascension and giving of the Holy Spirit. And so he's teaching a baptism but not a complete one. He's missing the message of redemption. He's missing the message of blood atonement. Missing the message -- it's incomplete. Missing the message of Christ ascending, giving the Holy Spirit his promised return. All these wonderful things we have by grace in Jesus. He just didn't fully understand the scope. And you know what he needed? He just needed a little help, someone to come along and help him and God supplies that through two mentoring Christians. Now, before I get to those two mentor, let me ask a second question: Are you boldly using your talents for the Lord? Apollos was. And remember, it's easier to steer a moving ship than one That's stable. He was on the move. And my friends, you have talents. You have time, treasure, energy. Are you using those talents for the Lord and the Church, home, marketplace? And let me add another word: Are you using those talents with initiative, with person initiative? So here's Apollos, learned, eloquent, competent. But incomplete. And so when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of the Lord more adequately. Now, if you have a printed Bible you might want to write in the margin. They invited him for enchilada and tres leches cake. They didn't pounce on him or write him off, knew he was a good man with a good heart. They brought him privately and graciously into their home and simply poured into him what the Apostle Paul had been pouring into them over the past year and a half. So I have a third question for you: Are you gracious enough to be helpful? Or are you too quick to write off and write up and pounce? I was reading an interview not too long ago by a business leader. And she said something that's very important to me is kindness. And kindness over niceness. And she said the easiest example I can give over kindness over niceness is a kind person will take you aside and tell you that you have spinach in your teeth. A nice person will not tell you that because it's just uncomfortable. But a kind person is going to set you up for a much better rest of your day because you're not going to be running around with spinach in your teeth. And so here's this wonderful, wonderful couple of Aquila and Priscilla. Not just nice, but kind. And helpful. And I got a fourth question: Are you humble enough to stay in the growth zone? Look at the humility of Apollos here. Learned, public skills second to none. A master speaker. In fact, many people think Apollos was actually the require of the new testment book of Hebrews. Read the book of Hebrews sometime it's a master oration. Notice he's humble enough to go to the home of a couple tent makers and Apollos is a big shot. To remind you what a big shot he is, remember when he goes to Corinth? It will create a ado in Corinth because they're so impressed with Apollos, remember you have a group saying "I follow the Apostle Peter, he's my guy," and others saying "I follow the Apostle Paul, he's my guy," but others saying "I follow Apollos." If you can be in the camp with the Apostle Peter and Paul and you're not an Apostle that means you have persuasive skills -- that's Apollos. He was, everybody, he was a big shot. But he wasn't a big shot in his own eyes. He was a big shot but not in his own eyes. Are you too much of a big shot in your own eyes? Are you so much of a big shot in your own eyes that God can't get your attention? When Apollos actually welcomed correction and improvement. You know, giftedness can actually be a curse. It can be. In any environment, giftedness without humility can be a curse. Even in the church giftedness in the church can be a curse. More than a blessing. If it's not accompanied by humility. Humility is your growth zone. So let me a fifth question here because Apollos was taught about baptism beyond the baptism of John and repentance: Have you been born of water and the Spirit? Have you experienced Christian baptism -- listen, that celebrates all the wonders of grace? The death, the sacrificial atoning death of Christ? The bodily resurrection of Christ? His ascension to reign over all. The fact he rules and reigns and distributes gifts to his followers especially the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that he's coming back. And that no one can oppose him. As Christian baptism, it's a response to the fact that Jesus is both Lord and Savior, it's a faith response to the cross, the empty tomb, to the ascension -- the reining, ruling Jesus. Have you been been baptized like that yet? Have you forgotten its significance? There are times I have and I keep running back to my baptism years ago. I'm in Christ. My baptism was a baptism of repentance but it was beyond and was a baptism of reconciliation, and redemption. And then from Titu3, an absolutely beautiful passage. As I read this listen to how rich this is. That can sort of describe our culture, right? That's a picture of Christian baptism. Baptism is a faith response to the wonderful grace of Jesus. To the giving of the Holy Spirit. So the having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Just remember, John the Baptist wasn't able to teach when you're baptized you also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit -- within Christ we have all things. Let me remind you the Holy Spirit is not an it. It's he. The Father, son and Spirit. The Holy Spirit is as much God as the Father and Son. He is the invisible but real presence of God within you and among you. He is your holy helper. He helps to remove spiritual blindness. He helps to soften hearts. He empowers our ability so that we might serve one another in love. When you're going through difficult times he's your comforter and comforts you in the trials of life. The Holy Spirit actually prays for you when you're so worn out and defeated and broken and grieving you don't even know how to pray or what to say; he does it for you. By the way, that's grace, God doing for us what we cannot do on our own. And the Holy Spirit restrains evil. Sometimes around you and even within us, so that God can move forward in your life and mine. And actually, I think best of all the Holy Spirit is your down payment on your eternal salvation. When you come to Christ you receive the spirit as a down payment with the promise there is more to come. That's our good God. That's what it means to live in this land of grace. And Apollos is needed to be brought up to speed. He had a good heart, was sharp and surrendered. He was teachable and humble and thankfully Aquila and Priscilla were there to help. And so verse 27. Think Athens and Greece and Corinth. He says I want to go there and serve. How would you like to debate Apollos? Notice this last phrase. Taking Old Testament scriptures and applying them to Jesus. I wonder what scriptures he used? Before I make a few suggestions, my sixth question is this: Do you know that your faith has both roots and reasons? If you accept the Old Testament scriptures as being actual scripture, you need to know your faith has roots. For those of you who may be evaluating Christianity and say I'm sure if I believe in scripture, Christianity has reasons. Keep searching with a good open heart. I wonder what scriptures Apollos might have used? The Old Testament is full of Messiahic prophecy meaning anointed one, Jesus the Messiah. Sometimes we'll say Jesus Christ, Christ meaning the anointed one of God. Maybe Psalm 22 actually written in 950 BC. That sound familiar? Verse 8. Sound familiar to you? Can't you just imagine a master teacher orator like Apollos taking these scriptures and applying them and pointing them to the people keep saying, these prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots. Maybe he quoted Isaiah7:14. Can't you just hear Apollos driving this home? This has been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Isaiah 53. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death? Do you not remember that Jesus was crucified between two thieves? He wasn't buried with any thief. He was buried and given a grave with the rich because a man, a wealthyy prominent one by the name of Joseph provided the grave for Jesus, a borrowed tomb if you will. Maybe one more -- maybe Micah 5:2. Ephrathah Not even on your GPS Bethlehem Ephrathah. Who else could be Who else could be both human and from ancient times define? The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in the city of David, divine and human. There are skeptics who point to prophecies and say "Okay, I don't really believe they were written 950 or 850, 550 BC. I think they were written during the time of Jesus or Christ and insertions there to make Jesus appear more than he actually is." There have been skeptics who have thrown that out. Since 1947 it's been increasingly difficult because beginning of 1947 you had the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. And the Dead Sea scrolls were written from a period of about 250 BC, some of them through to 68 AD. And they contain biblicallic manuscripts of all the Old Testament books except Esther and crucial manuscripts dealing with Messiah scripts. The Isaiah scroll gives a manuscript that predates -- the dating of these scrolls show that they were written 100 or 150 BC, a century before Christ. And so skeptics can no longer contend portions were written during the time of Christ or right after the time of Christ or maybe first-century insertions were there. No, these prophecies were written a century before the coming of Christ. Well, some other cynic or skeptic says "I just think Peter and the boys made all this up. I think it's just a hoax." And you know what? That's possible. That's possible. They made it all up, it's possible. Cuts against the grain of human nature, though. You see, human nature says that when the heat is on, when the persecution gets turned up, when the pressure is is there, people are willing to suffer for a lie that they don't know is a lie. People are willing to die for a lie that they don't realize is a lie. But people are not willing to suffer and die for a lie they know is a lie. And you turn up the heat all those early Christian martyrs say "We're not taking the rap on this. I'm not going down for this because one of my top motivations is self-preservation." And they chose death rather than denial. And so in this story today, you see some people who were really sharp but surrendered to the purposes of God and Aquila and Priscilla. And Apollos. And what a difference they made. And if you look around this room, you see a ton of people right here who are sharp and surrendered. And I'm grateful for you. And the Lord is using you to make a difference in this church, in this community, in your homes. My friends, let me just remind you: Nothing beats serving the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing beats being used by him. It's the best way to build a marriage, build your marriage on the foundation of serving the Lord on the word of God. You want to build your home and family without apology, raising your children in the nurturing admonition of the Lord. You want to invite the Holy Spirit to have unhindered sway in this home, church and your life. And it's a beautiful thing. The Lord loves you, peaceful and grace. Remember, the message to you is not just repent for the king is coming; it's repent and receive for the King has come. Receive atonement. Receive forgivenness. Receive renewal in the Holy Spirit. Receive the fantastic promises of God for your future. Now, Gary and Kathy, would you make your way up here? We'll enter now to a time of communion. And Kathy is actually going to be reading to us from Isaiah 53, which is one of those Messianic prophecies that looks forward to the coming Messiah and King and Savior. And as she reads this just let the truth of these words wash over your souls, everyone. Just remember, I love you and I pray for you. God bless you. Gary and Kathy. >> This is Isaiah 53:1-6. Who has believed our message and who has the arm of Lord been revealed? He grew up before him. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. We considered him punished by God, stricken and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequityings. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the inequity of all. >> Part of reading scripture is to help us focus on Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. And so as we do another part of our worship together incorporate as we partake of the Lord's suffering. And if you have your cup and your wafer, we eat the wafer to remember Jesus' body put up on the cross and we drank the blood which is the fruit of the vine which represents the blood for atonement and forgiveness of the let's pray first. Father we come before you and we say we love you for what you brought Jesus down to Earth to do for us. Jesus, we love you that you invite us to this table now. Not to shame us, not to make us feel guilty, but to display your love. So in this we remember you Jesus, we remember what you did and that you love us. And we remember that you desire so much for us. So as we eat this wafer that represents your body, we say thank you. Go ahead and eat. [ Please stand by for captioning ] >> Now let's partake of the fruit of the vine. So Father, we thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus and for the shedding of his blood. As we are now clean, we love you and drink and celebrate with you. Amen. [ Please stand by for captioning ] >> So after eating at the table we'd like to finish with another scripture. >> I'll be reading from 1 John 2:15-17. >> Richard Bowling: We want to take a few minutes to pray and pray with you. If we could have shepherding elders. We can pray with you. Let's all be standing, let's all be singing. "Good Good Father" playing >> Richard Bowling: Father, we thank you that you are a faithful and good Father. We thank you, Father you give us examples in your Word that we can trust as historically accurate. People we can look up to and model ourselves after. We thank you Father for the prayers offered today that you hear them and respond in a faithful way. We give you the praise and honor and glory of Jesus' name. Amen. >> Amen, you guys have a seat. I want to highlight before we close our service today we have tons of classes going on. We worship here together but the place where we develop friendships and grow in our understanding of the scriptures even deeper are classes. We have online class at 12:30. We have an international adult class, college class, young adults class, we have tons of classes. I encourage you guys as school year starts to find your own class to join not only to learn but offering something as well in those discussions and conversations. And I think our church will grow up and become stronger. Speaking of classes that's Sundays but on Wednesday we meet in the middle of the week. We haven't because of the all new carpet in the gym and education wing. Because of that we haven't had classes. That will start back up this Wednesday. So make sure you knew about that. Besides that, I think that's all we have. Don't forget the Conversation for everyone online at 12:30 p.m. and for the rest of us let's stand up and sing one more before we leave today. ("God So Loved" Playing) >> Richard Bowling: Thank you, church, for worshiping with us today. You are dismissed.