We encourage you to read and reflect on these scriptures, songs, notes, and prayers as we look forward to our time of worship together this coming Sunday.

Download This Guide (PDF)Download
Download Ekidz Bulletin (PDF)Download

Please print this guide or have it handy in digital format for use during the service.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Please join in on the bolded lines.

We’ve come to worship God,
who loved us before we were yet born,
who knows us even better than we know ourselves,
whose presence never leaves us,
and whose love for us never ceases.
This is our God. Let’s worship together!

MUSIC: PRINCE OF HEAVEN

CCLI #7095645 | Brooke Ligertwood and Scott Ligertwood © 2017
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

CORPORATE PRAYER

Please join in on the bolded lines.

God, we confess that we are a nation addicted to violence.
We have celebrated violence when it serves our purposes,
Only to be shocked by violence when it is brought upon us.
We have sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.
Forgive us for the vengeance we hold in our hearts;
For embracing the lie that good can be done by killing;
For idolizing violent men instead of servants of peace;
For desiring to hurt, when we have been hurt;
For desiring to punish, when we have been punished.
Forgive us, and have mercy, O God.
May we learn to be peacemakers & holy-troublemakers,
May we not be ruled by fear, but committed to faithfulness.

Most compassionate God, You know death, violence, and loss intimately.
Comfort us as we grieve the violence and division in America.
Send your people to heal and uplift.
Give us the courage to name evil,
the resolve to say enough is enough,
and the strength to be peacemakers.
May we discover more fully the new life you promised,
and may we be faithful witnesses to the Way of Christ in our nation. Amen.

MUSIC: BE THOU MY VISION

CCLI #4586883 | Allan Hall, Todd Smith, and Nicol Sponberg © 2005
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

MUSIC: GIVE US YOUR HEART

CCLI #7080403 | Ashlyn Clift, Charles Groves, Jake Richards, Lauren Wells, Mackenzie Fessler, Jordan Merritt, and Melanie Tierce © 2016
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

WORD

Download Sermon Notes (PDF)Download

Everyday Faith: Patience & Endurance
James 1:2-4; 5:7-11 (NRSV)

INTRO
The book of James is named after the author, who is the half-brother of Jesus.

The book is the legacy of James’ wisdom. It is written like a letter, but for a wide audience of Jesus followers. James is especially influenced by Jesus’ collection of teaching that we know as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.

The beginning of the letter introduces the major themes and teachings of the book as a whole. The rest is broken into 12 lessons about wholehearted devotion to God. These lessons touch on different parts of our lives and are filled with some pretty powerful one-liners.

These hard-hitting one-liners have given the book a reputation of getting right in your business and challenging you about what it means to practice faith everyday.

GROWTH IN SUFFERING
“whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” -James 1:2-4 (NRSV)

According to the logic of James, 2020 is to be considered one of the most joy-filled years because of the trials we all faced.

This is jarring. Upsetting even.

This isn’t coming from someone who had it nice and easy in life. James personally experienced poverty, famine, and persecution. These words are not cheap cliche from someone who has lived in the lap of luxury. They are words from someone who has suffered deeply. So, let’s listen to what is being said….

There is a string of events talked about in this passage. First, the trial comes.

The trial produces endurance. Some translations say “patience.” We often associate trial with the loss of something (security, health, relationship), but the claim of the biblical writer (who himself has lost so much) is that in this time of withering, something is also being produced.

While counter-intuitive, our experience often bears this out. Isn’t it true that when we catalogue our lives, we look back at easy and joyful times with fondness and nostalgia, but it is the most difficult times in our lives that we’ll point to that changed us, transformed us, helped us grow.

We are to be joyful, not because of the trial itself or the things that have been lost. We are to be joyful because in the midst of the trial, God is growing something in us that will bring us to greater maturity.

GOD IS WORKING
In chapter 5, James employs the metaphor of the farmer who plants seeds and then waits.
I remember visiting my Grandpa’s farm as a child. There were seasons when it appeared that the field was nothing but dirt. During my week-long visits, he would go out to the field everyday and everyday it looked the same – just dirt. Was he wasting his time? Has the crop failed?

The answer, of course, was neither. It wasn’t an empty field. Seeds had been planted. It was a harvest in progress.

What a beautiful metaphor for life. Sometimes what appears to be an empty field is actually a harvest in progress.

I’m convinced that part of the wisdom of James is that our lives are not to be blown side to side by every trial. Rather, we are to be anchored to the immovable God; patient for the work of God to be completed.

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” -James 1:2-4 (The Message)

TABLE

Prepare the elements of “bread” and “wine” for use as we gather around The Lord’s Table. These can be any items convenient around the home that symbolize these for you. 

CONFESSION OF THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

Christ has died.
Christ is risen. 
Christ will come again.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

As we pray together, we invite you to share your own requests and testimonies with us this week. If you have a request you can share it live in our video stream chat, or you may email us at emmausroadfc@gmail.com

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven,
        hallowed be your Name,
        your kingdom come,
        your will be done,
        on earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins
        as we forgive those
        who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, 
        and deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, 
        and the power,
        and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

BENEDICTION

You are invited to hold your hands out, palm-up as we receive this benediction.

May you listen for the voice of the Lord and follow wherever it leads.
Do not be dominated by anything.
Allow no room within yourselves for deceit,
but offer yourselves as a temple for the Holy Spirit.
And may God be with you and speak through you;
May Christ Jesus be one with you and raise you to life;
And may the Holy Spirit dwell within you and make you holy.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord, In the name of Christ. Amen.