Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Popcorn and Previews




Whenever you go to the movie theaters you always get your popcorn and soda bought in time to watch the coming attractions on the big screen. It’s one of the fun parts to going to the movies (and spending over fifty bucks for your family to be entertained for less than 2 hours…go figure)! So let me give you some free previews of the sermon series coming to Grace Church through June 2008. Before you read on, why don’t you go pop yourself some popcorn, put some extra butter on it, and grab a soda! Here we go:

McWorship: Authentic Worship in a Fast Food Culture! Over the months of January and February we will be taking eight weeks to study through the book of Malachi which is the last Old Testament book in your Bible. Throughout this book, God speaks through the prophet Malachi, rebuking the priests and people of Israel for their half-hearted worship of Him. The same elements that kept Israel from authentic worship back then often keep us from authentic worship today. In fact, we may even have a greater problem with these issues because we live in such a fast food culture that our “get it done quick” approach to life has also transferred over to our worship. Through this series we will focus on eight key words that we must understand in order to be authentic worshippers.

Helping Those Who Hurt! Beginning March 2, this will be a three week series from the first chapter of Second Corinthians where we will see two of the reasons why God allows suffering and trials to come into our lives. One is for the purpose of ministry so that we can help others who go through similar struggles. The other is for the purpose of maturity so that we can become stronger as followers of Jesus. We will be using this series to begin a mentoring ministry within our church where lay people are trained to be able to minister to others in the church that are going through trials.

A Whole New World! Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008, will begin a new 3-week series on the topic of heaven as described in Revelation 21-22.

Battle Ready! April 13 through May 4 will be a 4-week series through Ephesians 6:10-20 as we study Paul’s command for us to put the armor of God in order to survive the spiritual battles that we face each and every day as followers of Christ.

A Wise Woman! We will use Mother’s Day on May 11 to start a new 5-week series studying Proverbs 31 as we see both the wise words and the wise ways of a wise woman.

Wanted: Men Who Forgive! We will use Father’s Day, June 15, to start a three week series that will take us through the end of June as we study the story of Onesimus in the book of Philemon and see the need for us to be men who practice genuine forgiveness.

The last half of the year (July through December) has not officially been planned out as of yet but it just may include and in-depth study on The Anti-Christ…That one man that the Bible teachers will rule the world during the coming tribulation.

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