The Gift of Grace…I hope
Posted on December 4th, 2007 by Reformed Pope into the Sermons categoryHere is Today's Thought from last week's City Bible Church bulletin.
Dear Church,
John Newton's song, "Amazing Grace," says it all- "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." We have all been captured by the amazing grace of God, rescued from our lostness, transformed by His love and mercy. Grace frees us from our past and lifts us to a place of hope and freedom. Please join with us during this December series "The Gift" as we preach the grace of God. This would be the time to invite that friend, that family member, that prodigal that has strayed away. No one is beyond the reach of a loving God. Believe, reach, pray, activate your heart and your hands to reach the people around you.
Every service in December there will be a direct message of hope, love, forgiveness, the gift of a new life, and the gift of renewing the life you have now. Help us touch people with the amazing grace of God. Beginning this weekend December 1st -2nd and going through every weekend of December. No one is beyond God's gift of love.
God bless you as we have a wonderful Christmas season sharing the best gift of all.
Pastor Frank
On of the reasons I enjoy going to my current church is the extreme focus on grace and how important it is in our everyday life. Every week and Every Sermon grace is one of the main themes. It pains me when I look back and think about how rarely I heard the Gospel of Jesus and His grace for us taught from the CBC pulpit. I am very excited that Frank is now going to dedicate an entire month to it…I'm excited, but I'm also nervous…I don't have a lot of confidence that Frank really understands what Grace is seeing as how many times he has been quoted as saying "I love the smell of sinners"…and he isn't talking about himself.
I just downloaded his first sermon and I'll let you know how it goes. For those of you who are confused right now let me say this: We are all sinners…we all continue to sin…if someone says they have walked away from sin they are lying…therefore, we all need grace in our lives…every day, every minute…it is not just for the "un-saved" it is for all…and quite frankly, I love the smell of that.
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December 4th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Reformed Pope: I am so glad that you are willing to listen to the CBC messages and come back and tell us what Frank Damazio is preaching. (I’m afraid that reading through Frank Damazio’s books and listening to his tapes on tithing have just about done me in! Sorry, Frank!)
I would not be surprised, however, that your blog post (under FAQ?) about how much Frank preaches on money and your post about how much he preaches on the Faith Harvest Offering (from Sept - Dec.?), and of course the constant barrage of us calling foul for the strong tithing-legalism of it all got him to announce - ahead of time no less - that he would dedicate an entire month to the subject of grace! I’m anxious to hear whether he can keep to his promise. Please tell us if he can’t resist and gets back on top of one of his favorite financial hobby horses.
Does anyone ever feel like you’re having more of an influence upon CBC - or your own home church - from a blog like this than when you were an active member in your old church banging your head against the wall just to get an appointment with the “senior” pastor or going overboard in your effort to try to talk “non-rebelliously” to him to try to get him to implement one of your suggestions or to adjust one of his off-the-wall doctrines? I sure do! The freedom feels soooo good!
December 6th, 2007 at 12:19 am
The message of the grace of God is not just for backsliders and the unsaved but for all beleivers no matter where they are at.
The feeling that I am left with after reading Franks bulletin is that regular christians don’t need the gospel of grace but that the congregation should envite those that do need it.
Paul in Romans is writting to believers, and says in Rom. 1:15 I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
And in 1Cor. 1:18 Paul say sthat the word of the cross, the gospel, iit is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved- believers- it is the power of God.
So the message of God’s great grace is not just benefitial for salvation but it is necessary for a christians strength and growth in the Lord.
“Every service in December there will be a direct message of hope, love, forgiveness, the gift of a new life, and the gift of renewing the life you have now.” PF
This leads to the question. What will be the message in January?
December 6th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Me thinks it will be overtime to make up for the lost time in December. An entire month of speaking on giving to make up for! Assuming he makes it that far… I wonder how strong the urge will be by week three?
December 7th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Don’t have too much hope. I did once.
Then his sermon turned into “Jesus is a good god” and hay everyone lets listen to me quote some random verses in no particular order and that don’t have anything in common with each other so I can prove my point i’m making that has no meaning, but that i’m just using to get to the fact that god blesses you if you give us money.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Wow, you nailed it. What you described is the basis for every Frank Damazio sermon…and people still eat it up.
December 8th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Yeah, I sat through about 3 of those in a row before I decided that no matter what I just can’t possibly stand to go back there and listen to one ever again.
What bugged me the most was, like you said, people eat it up. Just.. I just couldn’t take it anymore.
December 9th, 2007 at 6:14 am
checkmarks/RP said: Wow, you nailed it. What you described is the basis for every Frank Damazio sermon…
checkmarks/RP: I haven’t heard Frank preach live for a long time, so what I am saying describes how I knew Frank from years ago. Frank’s father-in-law, Kevin Conner, taught many of us at PBC, and several in private, his favorite way of studying the Bible: following every occurance of a word, e.g., “fatih,” through the English concordance and then using those categories or lists of verses for one’s teaching or preaching outline.
If I’m not mistaken, and if what you two are saying is an accurate description of FDD’s present sermon preparation method (Delano is Frank’s middle name, by the way), then it is probably because his mode of sermon preparation has not changed very much over the years. It still could be the concordance method. If so, this would explain the long lists of scriptures in every message (whatever he felt like writing down on his notes from various word lists in his concordance) and taking them many times out of context because concordance lists provide no historical or theological contexts for Bible verses. Other research books are necessary for context.
Many years ago, Sharon Damazio told her husband that he needed to read other books besides Strong’s concordance! (In my view, what a good word for all pastors!) This comment motivated Frank to read books like Father Damian’s on the priest’s ministry to lepers. The question still stands: Has Frank yet taken his wife’s excellent advice seriously enough?
Two years before he went to heaven, Ern Baxter, a well-known Bible teacher from Vancouver, B.C., lived in Eugene, Oregon for many months and attended Frank’s church, Eugene Christian Fellowship, in order to train leaders. One day Ern told me that the problem, in his opinion, of the teachers and preachers associated with Bible Temple, etc. was that they were “Bible thumpers” rather than Bible theologians.
If I understand Frank’s preaching style correctly, “Bible thumping” comes from reading only the Bible, making long concordance lists for one’s sermon outlines, and then “thumping” them onto the people from the pulpit. Being a Bible theologian, on the other hand, requires reading that is much broader and deeper than what James Strong’s or Robert Young’s concordance lists of Bible words can provide.