When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn't they matter most now?

I do believe that leaders have to be held to a higher standard, especially Christian leaders. I put myself in that camp.

I want a real take-home quality to the sermon, so I built the whole sermon series around the word grace, those five letters.

When troubles come our way, we can be stressed and upset, or we can trust God. Caleb could have cursed God. He didn't deserve the wilderness. He had to put his dreams on hold for four decades. Still he didn't complain or grow sour.

Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him-and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.

The Prodigal Son story is, I think, the greatest short-story ever written. It has such drama in it, such great characters, it's so clear and concise, and it's entertaining in the sense that everyone can relate to it. But you have no doubt what our Lord was trying to communicate in the heart of that story. So the truth was not sacrificed on the altar of entertainment in that case. And it can be.

Your serenity matters to heaven. God's presence encapsulates your life.