Street Faith: Don’t Get Taken in by Looks - James 2

Speaker: Ken Boonstra

True faith - especially concern for the poor - comes through in our actions, not just our words.

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Song of Invocation: Your Name
Call to Worship: 1 Chronicles 29:10-13
Song of Response: Your Great Name We Praise
Call to Confession: based on Leviticus 6:107
Prayer of Confession
Assurance: from 1 Chronicles 29:20-22
Songs of Praise: Be Still; Open the Eyes of My Heart; We Will Glorify
Words of Gratitude: from Exodus 23:1-13
Prayers of the People
Offering/Offertory: Holy
Scripture: James 3:1 – 4:12
Message: Street Faith: Watch Your Mouth
Song of Response: The Heavens Declare Your Glory
Blessing:
Video: “Volunteers”

“Jesus in your name, we pray
Come and fill our hearts today
Lord, give us strength to live for you
And glorify your name”

We being with these words of invitation, “…come and fill our hearts today”, and are called to worship with words that remind us that everything in heaven and earth is God’s – He’s ruler of all. So we respond, “here we are, O God, our God, giving thanks to you, praising your splendid name” (from 1 Chronicles 19). We follow with a song that does just that:

“Immortal, invisible, God only wise
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes
Most holy, most glorious, the Ancient of Days
Almighty, victorious – your great name we praise”

A time of confession begins, “If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord”, and ends with a prayer for “courage to make right what I have done wrong”. Words of Assurance are followed by:

A Reminder:
“…be still for the power of the Lord is moving in this place
He comes to cleanse and heal, to minister his grace
No work too hard for him, in faith receive from him…”

A Request:
“…open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you
You are holy, holy, holy and I want to see you”

A Response:
“…we will glorify the King of Kings
We will glory the Lamb
We will glory the Lord of Lords
For he is the great I AM”

As we worship by the giving of money gifts we sing words that remind us again “…all blessing, all honour, belong to you. All power, all wisdom is yours. Holy is your name in all the earth…”

James 3:2 says, “those who are never at fault in what they say are perfect, able to keep their whole body in check”. We respond: “…so let my whole behaviour, each thought, each deed I do, be Lord, my strength, my Saviour, a ceaseless song to you”.

Following God’s blessing we praise God for our volunteers with a special video and reflect on these words:

“You (Jesus) are the face that changed the whole world
No one too lost for you to love
No one too low for you to serve
So give us grace to change the world
No one too lost for me to love
No one too low for me to serve

Let us see
Let us be
The face of love”

Street Faith: Not Every Test is a Temptation - James 1

Speaker: Ken Boonstra

Today we begin a new series exploring the book of James. The first chapter considers the place of trials, testing and temptation in our Christian life and how we face these realities.

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Video: “Wonderfully Made”
Songs of Response: How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art;
Because of Your Love
Intro to Baptism/Profession of Faith
Baptism/Professions of Faith
Songs of Response: Grace Flows Down; Be the Centre
Offering/Offertory: Video: “I Believe”
Prayers of the People
Scripture: James 2:1-26
Message: Street Faith: Don’t Get Taken in By Looks
Song of Response: Multiply Your Love
Blessing
Song of Praise: How Great is Our God (Chorus)

Beauty surrounds me
Beauty confounds me
So I drink it all in

To all those who came before me
And those who were before them
They all are behind us
And memory reminds us
Of why we are who we are

Our opening video (Wonderfully Made) is both a homage to fathers (Sunday being Father’s Day) and an introduction to the professions of faith that will happen later in the service. As we reflect on “…why we are who we are”, we are moved to respond “…how great is our God! We continue with a reminder of Christ’s great love: “…because of your love, we’re forgiven; because of your love, our hearts are clean; we lift you up with songs of freedom; forever we’re changed because of your love”.

It is our privilege this week to witness several individuals take an important step in their faith journey through baptism and profession of faith at our 11:00am service. It is our joy to join them in this simple song of praise:

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound
Amazing love now flowing down
From hands and feet that we’re nailed to the tree
As grace flows down and covers me”

As we hear the professions of faith and are reminded of our own promises, we join together with a song that invites Jesus to “…be our centre, our source, our light, our hope, our song, our vision, our path, our guide – the reason that we live”.

Our sermon text reminds us that “…we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone”. (James 2:24), and so we respond with a song that reflects our desire to see Jesus’ love multiplied through our actions: “…through our simple words and deeds, let love be multiplied”. Following God’s blessing we end as we began, with the declaration “…how great is our God!”

This project “Street Faith” was inspired by a challenge. Visuals for church were needed for a sermon series called “Street Faith”. I researched graffiti art on the internet and I found much of it is hard to read. Letters are scrunched together and behind them were blasts of colour. This is the first time I have ever created art using spray paint, and I have never worked this large before.

There ended up being symbolism within this piece, and sometimes it was a surprise. As planned, the words ‘believe’ and ‘persevere’ form the shape of a cross. Many times there are arrows placed randomly in graffiti. I guess this red arrow could show that we move forward in life as we believe and persevere; the red symbolizing Christ’s life/death for us. The cityscape adds a sense of balance to the piece. The city represents the place where ‘street faith’ takes place.

My name is Eric and I am a grade 12 student graduating this year. I am an artist who loves to go past the boundaries and explore new ideas in many ways. I enjoy working independently while creating my pieces. After graduation, I hope to pursue a career in the art industry. My family is a clear example of where I get my influence to create my art.

No matter how hard we try to imitate life through art work, life will always be a more artistic piece. The life of an artist is one big piece of art even when we are not creating. God has given me the gift of my artistic ability so that I can express my life through art and express my art through life. As an artist I believe that I am able to appreciate what God has given to me even more through the creations He has made. As his artwork I am able to create pieces to show just a small fraction of how much I appreciate the life He has given to me.