Hello Blue Mound Church Family!

It has been great to be in worship with you as we have now completed our slow walk-through James. One of the challenges we have where we’re located is that we don’t have reliable internet access. So, a change we’ve made is taping our worship services and then putting them out on our Facebook page one week delayed. This way we are more confident we can provide a good working worship service for those of you who are worshipping with us online. Of course, it’s always better to worship in person, so I hope to see more and more of you joining for the music and singing and just the good fellowship of being together in the sanctuary worshipping our Lord and Savior! As a recap, here are some of the things we’ve learned recently:

 

September 26th – Facing Your Future (James 4:13-17)

  • You should plan for your future but be aware of these three mistakes.
  • The first common mistake we make is planning without God.
  • The solution: Include God in your goal setting.
  • The second mistake we make is presuming about tomorrow.
  • The solution: Live one day at a time.
  • A third common mistake is putting off doing good.
  • The solution: Do it now.

 

October 3rd – Being Wise with Your Wealth (James 5:1-6)

  • God isn’t opposed to wealth, just the misuse and abuse of wealth.
  • Wrong uses of wealth.
  • In the accumulation of wealth, don’t hoard it.
  • Whatever you accumulate, deteriorates.
  • In the appropriation of wealth, don’t steal it.
  • In the allocation of wealth, don’t waste it.
  • In the application of wealth, don’t abuse it.
  • Right accumulation: Save it faithfully.
  • Live on a margin – Save 10%, Tithe 10%, Live on 80%.
  • Learn contentment.
  • Why do we save? Christians save for stewardship reasons.
  • Right appropriation: Make it honestly.
  • There’s no set limit on how much Christians can make as long as it doesn’t hurt your health, family, others, or your spiritual life.
  • Right allocation: Spend it wisely.
  • B-U-D-G-E-T: Telling your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went.
  • Right application: Give it generously.

 

October 10th – Developing Patience (James 5:7-12)

  • You need patience in your life.
  • Be patient when circumstances are uncontrollable.
  • Be patience when people are unchangeable.
  • Be patient when problems are unexplainable.
  • Be patient because God is guiding the future.
  • Be patient because God rewards patience.
  • Be patient because is working things out.
  • While waiting on God, wait expectantly.
  • While waiting on God, wait quietly.
  • While waiting on God, wait confidently.

 

October 17th – Praying About Problems (James 5:13-20)

  • I should pray when I am hurting emotionally.
  • I should pray when I am hurting physically.
  • Five attitudes on healing: Sensationalists, Confessionalists, Dispensationalists, Rationalists, Realists.
  • I should also pray when I am hurting spiritually.
  • Any believer can pray.
  • To pray effectively ask and be specific.
  • To pray effectively have the right motives.
  • To pray effectively have a clean life.
  • To pray effectively ask in faith.

 

These are just the highlights. For those of you who have participated in person in worship these highlights will seem familiar to you and remind you of the points that we learned. For those of you who have yet to come back to worshipping with us in person, I hope that these highlights will pique your curiosity so that you’ll come back and rejoin us. Let me personally invite you to return to the fellowship of your church family. I began a new sermon series October 24th on encouragement, so I encourage all of you to join us this coming Sunday.

 

You were created to be in fellowship with other believers. Covid has caused us to separate ourselves from one another and we lose something very precious when that happens. What we lose is how we build one another up when we’re worshipping together in person. We all need the support and encouragement of our church family, especially during life’s challenges. So, come to church. It will warm my heart to see you, and it will warm your heart too!

 

Peace be with you,

Buster

H.O.P.E.

Hold On Praying Expectantly