James | Living Your Best Life Week 1 | Pastor Candace Cortez
June 25, 2023 / Pastor Candace Cortez / Koinonia ChurchJames | Living Your Best Life Week 1 | Pastor Candace Cortez
Author and Reader:
James 1:1 NIV: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
Umbrella Theme:
Together we can walk in the Messiah’s wholeness.
• Encourages his readers to respond positively to their trials (James 1:2–4 NIV)
• Exhorts them to ask in faith for wisdom (James 1:5–8 NIV)
• Comforts the poor and warns the rich (James 1:9–11 NIV)
• Pronounces a blessing on Christians who endure trials (James 1:12 NIV)
• Warns believers not to blame God for temptations (James 1:13–15 NIV)
• Reminds his readers that all good gifts, including the new birth, come from God (James 1:16–18 NIV)
• Warns his readers about sins of speech (James 1:19–20 NIV)
• Exhorts believers to be obedient to the word they have received (James 1:21–25 NIV)
• And reminds them of the essence of “true religion” (James 1:26–27 NIV)
James 1:2-4 NIV: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James recognizes that Joy is found in who we are becoming, not in what we are doing.
Are you positioned to become?
James 1:12 NIV: 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.
James reminds us that there’s purpose in the trial.
Are you Standing under the trial?
James 1:19-26 NIV: My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
Perfect Law:
Mark 12:30-31 NIV: “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. ‘ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ‘ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
James warns that it’s possible to pretend, but real transformation is in partnership with the Word.
Are you hearing AND doing?