Welcome to this morning’s service which was pre-recorded as we are not meeting in the chapel at present.

Rev Stephen Haward MA is leading and we continue our voyage through Lent.

All hymns can be found on YouTube.

HYMN Mission Praise 467 ‘Morning has broken’
Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) © David Higham Associates Ltd from ‘The Children’s Bells, published by Oxford University Press

Welcome and Call to Worship, Prayer, Introduction to Theme and Bible Reading: Genesis 7:17-8:12

I waited for the Lord my God, I waited patiently;
And He in mercy heard my cry; inclined His ear to me.
He brought me up out of the pit, out from the miry clay;
He set my feet upon a rock, there firm to stand and stay.
HE PUT A NEW SONG IN MY MOUTH, GOD’S PRAISE FOR ALL TO HEAR;
AND MANY THEN WILL TRUST THE LORD WHO SEE AND LEARN TO FEAR.
FOR MANY ARE YOUR WONDERS, LORD, THINGS PLANNED BEYOND COMPARE;
THEY ARE FAR MORE THAN I CAN COUNT, MORE THAN I COULD DECLARE.                       Psalm 40: 1-5, David and Joy Tennent, CCL 53960

HYMN Mission Praise 1201 ‘Longing for light’
Bernadette Farrell, published in 1993

Church News and Bible Reading – James 1:1-8 and 12

HYMN ‘There is a balm in Gilead’
African American traditional

Sermon, Prayers and Offering Prayer, Blessing

Holy God, we receive your call to wait upon your word,
to live by your promises,
and to place ourselves at all times in your hands.
ACCEPT WE PRAY THESE GIFTS AND OURSELVES FOR YOUR USE.
Like the dove that flew from Noah’s arms,
MAY WE BE RELEASED TO DO YOUR BIDDING. 
As it returned twice to his hand,
MAY WE FIND OUR REST IN YOU.
As it brought home a sign of life,
MAY WE BE MESSENGERS OF PEACE AND HOPE FOR THE WORLD.
In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
whose grace the whole world longs and needs to find.
AMEN

HYMN Mission Praise 193 ‘God moves in a mysterious way’
William Cowper, altd. Graham Kendrick © 2017 Make Way Music, CCL 53960

Genesis 7:17-8:12

¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.^{[a][b] 21} Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, ⁴ and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
⁶ After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark ⁷ and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

James 1:1-8 & 12

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Trials and temptations
² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
¹² Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.