Welcome Worship 2025

Intro

Who I am, UCC’s mission, what Reach is Connect card (later), Fall Blitz events, Beach Retreat

My convo with [guy] and how I want this to be everybody’s best year yet and I know how to do that

A tale of two people — Tom Brady v. Siran Stacy

Both great college football players in the 90’s, both at blue blood schools (one played for the winningest program in history, the other for the team with the most national championships), both all conference, both drafted into the NFL

Tom Brady

Drafted in the 6th round, ended up becoming the GOAT, 3 SB rings in says: “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man, this is what is.” I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: God, it’s gotta be more than this. I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean I’ve done it. I’m 27. And what else is there for me?…I wish I knew. I wish I knew…”

Siran Stacy

Drafted in the 2nd round, released after one year, arrested at a Kmart and not picked up by the Browns, in 2007 wife and 4 kids killed in a car accident, later suicidal

After wanting to end it all and reading 2 Cor. 12, said “With God’s grace I can get up” “God, even to the person that murdered my family, God, I forgive him. I forgive him, Lord.”

How is it that you can have everything and still feel like you have nothing? The path to being blessed is probably not what you think

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” — Prov. 14:12

Read Psalm 1

Pray for our time in the Word

3 things you need to know in order to be blessed

Explanation

Verse 1

Pay attention to the progressive nature of destructive living…walking/standing/sitting

What I missed before is that it’s not just about sin itself, it’s about the community you surround yourself with

If you want to be blessed this year, it’s not enough to enter the building; you need to embrace the body.

You can have someone who shows up to church every week, but is living in sin.

And you can also have someone who eats and drinks with sinners, but lives a righteous life. It’s about where your roots are.

I can’t stress enough the importance of your primary collegiate friendships on the direction of the rest of your life.

“You are who you hang around” was his way of saying “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Cor. 15:33)

Verse 2

The important part about verse 2 is that it exists

Being blessed is not just about avoiding the wrong thing, but about pursuing the right thing

If you want to be blessed this year, it’s not enough to deny your sin; you need to delight in your Savior.

In fact, the wording implies that there is no verse 1 without verse 2. It’s two sides of the same coin.

Specifically, we need to delight in the instruction/direction of God.

Satan’s original lie was that God is not a loving father and that he’s holding out on us.

One of the best ways to delight in his direction in the future is to remember how our own direction led to pain in the past.

How no new Christian would choose not to raise their kids in church

Verses 3-6

Metaphor is striking given the arid climate of Israel

Not to say no hardship comes, but that the tree can weather the change of seasons and not wither up

The Christian still goes through hardship, more in some ways, but can brave the storm… …because there is a greater type of prosperity than money/social status/sexual pleasure/etc. // spiritual prosperity

He can speak of prospering this way because he has the end in mind

If you want to be blessed this year, it’s not enough to think about this year; you need to think about eternity.

Verses 4-6 contrast the end of a tale of two lives

Those who delight in God are like sturdy trees, but those who delight in sin are tossed around by the wind

The way of the wicked leads to destruction

We are all the wicked, and we are all in need of rescuing.

You may find a way to weather the storms of life without Jesus, but you certainly won’t find a way to free yourself from sin.

Exhortation/Communion

For non-believers — invitation to respond on connect card

For believers — there is no better way to delight in Jesus than to remind ourselves of our hopelessness apart from him and his grace poured out for us on the cross

Someone else transplanted, or planted as a seedling, the tree by the water; it didn’t grow up there itself.

As we come to communion, we’re reminded that it was he who rescued us and brought us to living water, not ourselves.