Enduring Trials

Just a real day for our church.  I feel like our church is becoming more and more of a family and that was so evident today.

We started our time by some video announcements and a great testimony to highlight Sanctity of Life Sunday.

In light of today’s text, we focused on songs of worship through trials.  We began by singing “We Rejoice” and “Cornerstone.”

We then took time to pray for our missionary partners serving in Africa.  There has been some rising persecution in certain regions and so we huddled up in prayer groups to intercede for them.

To look ahead where we are going in our new series (Faith Works: Study in James), we had some readers read pivotal passages from the book.

We then shared a new song entitled “Your Word” which takes one line from every epistle (Romans-Jude) and celebrates who we are in Christ.  I loved singing this song with the church today.  We sang “Amazing Grace” and then Jeff came up to preach.

Some things to note from Jeff’s message from James 1:1-4:

  • I must accept trials not for what they are, but what they will produce.
  • Circumstances don’t destroy real faith, they reveal it.
  • James doesn’t say “if you meet trials,” he says “when you meet trials.”
  • James is Jesus’ half-brother and yet he describes himself as the servant of Jesus.  He had enough perspective to neglect mentioning that!
  • Think about the change in James from a brother trying to stop his crazy brother (Mk. 3:21) to a servant of him (James 1:1).

We finished our time singing “It Is Well.”  Loved the honest worship during that time.

It was great to have a great turnout for college lunch today.  Many NSU courses, Divorce Care, and groups starting up tonight – exciting times! To Jesus be the glory!

Watch Online

Worship Music