This week we are focusing on laying the foundation of why we believe in God. In doing so, we will strategically go through the entire alphabet and find 26 reasons why we believe in God based upon each letter of the alphabet.

Notes:

A-mazing

B-eautiful

C-reator

D-irect

E-quip

F-aithful

G-lorious

H-oly

I-ndependent

J-ust

K-ing

L-ord

M-ighty

N-earby

O-omnipresent

P-athway to Peace

Q-uake, you make the Earth when You speak

R-ighteous

S-aviour

T-enacious

U-ltimate

V-ictorious

W-AY

X-enophobic, You are NOT!

Y-HWH

Z-ealous

In times of discomfort, God is our comforter. He reminds us, through the Gospel according to Luke, that we doubt Him in times of discomfort. However, His power remains true, which is evident through His works and the Word of the Gospel.

This sermon stresses that our Heavenly Father moves our ordinary situations into the extraordinary realm. In order for Him to do this, we need to "shut the door" on the distractions, pray and prepare for His presence, and trust Him with what we have.

So often in life we try to tackle all life's issues on our own, but James reminds us that we in fact do not have to tackle these things on our own. God is ready & waiting for us to communicate through prayer with him, therefore allowing him to come alongside us as we journey through this life.

It's very easy for us to get caught up in working very difficult to pursue the growth of our own worldly kingdom. unfortunately though when we do this we have the tendency to do so at the expense of others and the expense of honoring God. So, James calls us to remember that it's not about working to grow our own kingdom, but growing God's kingdom and pursuing Gods call for our life. James reminds us that to do this their are a few things we must surrender if building God's kingdom is what we are all about.

It's not a question of is there going to be conflict within the church or our own personal lives, rather how are we going to handle it. Conflict happens everywhere, so as Disciples of Jesus we have to ask ourselves what it looks like to deal with conflict in a godly way rather than in a worldly way. James gives great advice on how to do this in James 4: 1 - 12.

James revisits this theme of living under the wisdom of God, but this time does it in comparison to living under the wisdom of the world. In classic head to head match up James give great insight as to what living under the wisdom of God looks like vs. living under the wisdom of the world.

James reminds his readers just how powerful the tongue can be, but in today's world it's not just about the power of the tongue, but the power of words. As Christians we have the responsibility to use our words as we speak, post, e-mail, or txt as a tool for honoring God and building up our neighbor.

In James's call to live a life of complete obedience to Jesus (radical discipleship) he calls us to see others through the eyes of God and then lays out some great advice on how to make this happen.