I Think That A Church Should Be

I Have A Lot Of Special Memories With My Parents But My Toughest One Is, I Had, As A Teenager, A Pretty Insatiable Appetite For Beer. The First Time I Got Drunk My Father Found Me Throwing Up In The Bathroom. I Was 15, Maybe 16, And The Disappointment In His Voice, I Can Hear It To This Day, And The Sorrow That That Brought To Him. He Just Felt Like A Failure As A Father, And Id Give Anything To Take That Day Back Because That Was So Hard On Him. In Time, My Life Got Better, And His Did Too, But That Was Really Memorable, One Of Those Memories Id Like To Forget.

The Past Does Not Have To Be Your Prison. You Have A Voice In Your Destiny. You Have A Say In Your Life. You Have A Choice In The Path You Take.

You Cover 50 Yards On The Playing Field Of Faith With A Story That Downplays Your Success. You Cover 3 Yards, Or You May Even End Up Backward, With Anything That Up-plays Or Promotes You.

What I Try To Do Is Narrow The Sermon Series Down To One Big Question. In This Case The Question Is: What Happens When Grace Happens? I Knew I Wanted To Preach About Grace. I Just Felt As If It Was Time For Our Church To Be Refreshed And See The Beauty Of God's Grace - The Uniqueness Of The Christian Grace As Compared To The Teachings Of Other World Religions On Forgiveness.

Every Time We Equip The Church With A Verse, Chapter Or A Story From The Bible, We're Really Placing Another Weapon In The Hands Of The Holy Spirit That He Uses To Challenge And Strengthen The Church. I Think That's Very Important.