Comeback Stories
Opposition, Obstacles and Opportunities
August 8, 2021 • Dr. Willy Rice • Acts 8:1–8
All summer long we have been talking about the comeback. We’ve learned the 4 parts of the grand metanarrative of the Bible: Creation, Corruption, Redemption and Restoration. But where does that leave us now? Right now? What is God up to right now to redeem this world and in what way does he plan to restore a broken world full of broken people and make all things new? Are we just supposed to wait and do nothing, looking forward to a better day, or is God moving right now and if He is, how do we get in one the movement? How do we get in on the great comeback?
The Final Comeback
August 1, 2021 • Dr. Willy Rice • 1 Corinthians 15:20–26, Philippians 1:22–23
Something went wrong. Something is broken. When the famous Apollo 13 flight ran into trouble the Astronauts diagnosed a problem and immortalized the words in their transmission back to mission control “Houston, we have a problem.” The truth is we can all identify. We all face problems and we all know something is broken in our world. Every religion tries to answer 4 great questions. We seek spiritual truth, some try philosophical truth to answer 4 great questions that science and human reasoning alone cannot answer. Why is there something rather than nothing? What went wrong? Is there any hope? What lies beyond life itself? The Bible points to the character of man. We are all sinners and our sin has distanced us from God. Consequently the world is broken is some fundamental ways. Is there hope? The answer is “Yes, there is.”
For Such a Time as This
July 25, 2021 • John Antonucci
Everything happens for a reason. Albert Einstein said that “Coincidence is just God’s way of remaining anonymous.” Proverbs 16:33 says “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” If we were honest though, we don’t really live like that. We think we just happen to be here or in that job or living in that neighborhood or raising that family, rather than seeing our unique lot in life as our God given position and assignment in this very moment in time. We mostly think of God’s will as something we strive for in the future, not something we live in today.
United Church - Divided Culture
July 4, 2021
What does it mean to be the body of Christ in this culture? A culture that is coming apart needs to see a church that is coming together. Our culture is coming apart. People seem more divided than perhaps at any time, even during the Civil War of the 1800’s. These political and sociological divisions are impacting our churches and sadly some churches seem as divided as the culture. Stories of people leaving over racial tensions, to mask or not to mask, etc... Unity is not about accommodating the culture, we are to stand apart and distinct from the culture. Yet our prophetic role does not look like simply assuming a role as a political sub-group in the latest political skirmishes. What does it mean to play a prophetic role? Tony Evans, metaphor of http://referees...the 3rd team. How can we be that “3rd team”/ how can we stand apart from the culture to represent a better country, a more excellent way?
Failure Isn't Final
June 20, 2021 • Dr. Willy Rice
One of the greatest comeback stories in the entire Bible is the story of Simon Peter. Few people have every failed so miserably at a critical moment and on so grand a stage as Peter did. His http://boast...his http://failure...but everything changed when Jesus rose from the dead and Peter would learn what every one of us needs to learn, failure is not final as long as there is faith in God.
Until He Comes
June 27, 2021 • Jeremy Westbrook
The book of Acts describes how the Spirit of God empowers, energizes and literally expands the church. The only Gentile Bible writer, Luke, who also gave us our third gospel, wrote Acts, which covers a period of about thirty years: early 30’s to early 60’s. Luke wrote in part to commend Christianity to the Roman world. He also made it clear to the Jewish people that the gospel was not their exclusive possession.
Even If
June 13, 2021 • John Antonucci
“Where is Jesus?”, is a question that, if we’re honest, just about everyone asks when they experience something like this. If you’re not a Christian, this question is a big reason why you aren’t a Christian. Where is God at in this world? Thankfully, it’s a question that some people asked Jesus to his face in the first century. In fact, it takes us to an interaction between Jesus and two sisters who asked the same exact question that we do.
The Way Back Home
May 30, 2021 • Dr. Willy Rice
We have come through a challenging season as a country and as a church. It is time for a comeback. But the comeback we really need is not a return to normal but a return to something supernatural. We need to return to God. We need what the old folks called revival. We find such a revival in the history of the Jewish people recorded in the book of 2 Chronicles 30. It took place under a king named Hezekiah and it describes for us a time when the people came back to God and it can show us how to find the road back home ourselves.