James - Part 5 [Notes]

November 23rd, 2025

You’re invited to join us for to "James," a five-week series through the five chapters of James. This letter to early Christians is packed with practical truths to help us learn and live our faith every day. Whether it’s standing strong in trials and temptations, using our words to build others up, or serving and sharing with those in need, this series will help equip us for an everyday faith that grows our relationship with God and others.

Takeaway: Deny yourself and hope in Christ

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you.
– James 5:1 (CSB)

“James’ attack was direct. ‘[Come Now]’ is literally, ‘Go now’... The interjection both goads the reader and gains his undivided attention.”
– Dr. J Ronald Blue, The Bible Knowledge Commentary

Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.
– James 5:2–3 (CSB)

Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
– Matthew 6:19-21 (CSB)

Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies.
– James 5:4 (CSB)

You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
– James 5:5 (CSB)

The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable — who can understand it?
– Jeremiah 17:9 (CSB)

You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
– James 5:6 (CSB)

In the scramble for more wealth, the rich used their influence in courts of justice, and in the process were guilty of bringing condemnation and even death to innocent men who offered no resistance. What began as an interest in money ended as an insensitivity to murder.
– Dr. J. Ronald Blue, The Bible Knowledge Commentary

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
– James 5:7 (CSB)

You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
– James 5:8 (CSB)

Then He said to them all, "If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."
– Luke 9:23 (CSB)

Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!
– James 5:9 (CSB)

Nor does the farmer get into fights with his neighbors. One of the usual marks of farmers is their willingness to help one another. Nobody on the farm has time or energy for disputes with the neighbors. James must have had this in mind when he added, “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged” (James 5:9, NIV). Impatience with God often leads to impatience with God’s people, and this is a sin we must avoid. If we start using the sickles on each other, we will miss the harvest!
– Warren W. Wiersbe

Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about — the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
– James 5:10–11 (CSB)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
– Romans 5:1-5 (CSB)

Practice saying no to yourself
Be generous with what you have
Spend time with Jesus

Discussion Questions //

Do you have a dream house or dream car? If so, share about it and why it’s your dream house/car.
Whether or not you consider yourself rich, poor, or somewhere in between, Can you relate to what James shares about the attitude toward wealth he is attacking? How so?
In what ways, might God be calling you to deny yourself so you are not “fattening your heart”?
What emotion boils up as you think about the reality that Jesus is going to come back to judge the unrighteous and deliver those who have trusted in Him? How might that reality bring you hope in the midst of difficult circumstances?

Worship Setlist //

Trustworthy // Who Is Like the Lord // Crowns Down // Nothing Else

Catch Up //

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Past Messages

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