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/ / WHO WROTE JAMES? / /Even though James did not specifically identify himself as to which “James” he was (James 1:1), the author is widely known to be James the little/half-brother of Jesus. James wasn't a follower of Jesus early on (Mark 3:21–35; John 7:5) but eventually He became an apostle, as one who'd seen and believed the Lord post-resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19). After witnessing the Jesus' resurrected body, James became one of the leaders of the church at Jerusalem. Peter singled him out among the other Christians there following Peter’s miraculous release from prison (Acts 12:17). James made the deciding speech at the Jerusalem Council (15:13–22), and Paul called James one of the pillars of the church (Galatians 2:9)./ / WHERE ARE WE? / / As one of the chief leaders in the church at Jerusalem, James wrote from that city prior to the meeting of the Jerusalem Council, which Luke recorded in Acts 15. At that council, James, along with Peter and Paul, affirmed the decision to take the gospel message to the Gentiles. This council met in AD 49, meaning James likely wrote his letter in AD 45–48. Such a significant event as the Jerusalem Council warranted comment from James, as he was writing to a Jewish Christian audience. But, James made no mention of Gentile Christians at all, making an early date for the letter most likely. In fact, it was likely the first New Testament book written./ / WHY IS JAMES SO IMPORTANT? / / The book of James looks a bit like the Old Testament book of Proverbs dressed up in New Testament clothes. Its consistent focus on practical action in the life of FAITH is reminiscent of the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament, encouraging God’s people to act like God’s people. The pages of James are filled with direct commands to pursue a life of holiness. He makes no excuses for those who do not measure up. In the mind of this early church leader, Christians prove their faith by walking in certain ways and not others. For James, a faith that does not produce real life change is a faith that is worthless (James 2:17)./ / WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? / /In the opening of his letter, James called himself a bond-servant of God, an appropriate name given the practical, servant-oriented emphasis of the book. Throughout the book, James contends that authentic faith produces authentic deeds. In other words, if those who call themselves God’s people truly belong to Him, their lives will produce deeds or fruit. In language and themes that sound similar to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, James rails against the hypocritical believer who says one thing but does another.For James, faith wasn't just an abstract proposition but had its effects in the real world. James offered numerous practical examples to illustrate his point: Faith endures in the midst of trials, calls on God for wisdom, bridles the tongue, sets aside wickedness, visits orphans and widows, and does not play favorites. He stressed that the life of Faith is comprehensive, impacting every area of our lives and driving us to truly engage in the lives of other people in the world. While James recognized that even believers stumble (James 3:2), he also knew that Faith should not coexist with people who roll their eyes at the less fortunate, ignore the plight of others, or curse those in their paths.

God can do more with your inabilities than you can with your abilities. He sees not just who we are, but who we're meant to be and chooses to use us still ‪#‎therestisyettocome‬

Thank you for praying for rest throughout the month of January each day, for God to make some room with us at restoration. #therestisyettocome

Do you have any? Would you like to check it for good? The good news is that God is ready to claim it, we just have to be willing to let it go. Learn how to pack up the pain and hurt, find release from addiction and torment, and break free from the battles that keep you dragging around your #baggage #threstisyettocome

Christmas isn't about the presents, it's about THE PRESENT that came to save in the person of Jesus Christ. We are praying for you and your family this year to have a radical Christmas that glorifies the King of Kings. #therestisyettocome

Do you know them? They wave at you when you drive by. They help pick up your kids from practice when you're running late. They help you study for that huge test on Friday. They pray for you when your world just crumbled... Those are My Kinda People. They may look different and talk weird, but we can relate with them because our common identifier is Christ inside. They live life from a different set of principles and value that point in the direction of hope. We are pumped to jump into part 2 of a series you really enjoyed last year: #MKP2 - My Kinda People, coming your way.

Pastor Adam Bretz - James 3:13-4:6 ESV3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome

Pastor Cody Walls - James 3:1-12 ESV1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[a] and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome

Pastor Isaac Whitley - James 2:25-26 ESV25And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome

Pastor Adam Bretz - James 2:20-24 ESV20Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome

Pastor Cody Walls - James 2:14-2:19 ESV14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome

Pastor Cody Walls - James 1:26-2:13 ESV26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome

Pastor AB - James 1:19-25 ESV19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.GET THE APPThis is a great resource for you on the go. You can check out past sermons, submit prayer requests, take a look at rest groups and a lot more!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rest-ch...SOCIAL STALKING ENCOURAGED:Facebook: facebook.com/restpaducahInstagram: instagram.com/rest_churchGIVE at the link below. When you donate online it helps to build the kingdom and allows rest Church to do ministry both locally and globally. Thanks fam!restChurch.net/GIVEHASHTAG ITUse our hashtag on your social anytime you find yourself doing some rest worthy stuff =)#therestisyettocome