 Good morning and welcome everyone. Thank you for connecting to today's class. It's exciting because we have completed the book of Hebrews and we will now get into the book of James. We'll pray and begin. Could one of us on the call please lead in prayer? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for this morning. Thank you for this time that you have given us to come together in your presence. Lord, as we are starting the book of James, we pray to God that you would minister to us. Help us to understand your word and we pray to God that we would come to a place of helping others also to understand your word. You would minister to us, our God. Help us to pay attention and be good listeners and understand this of your word, God. Thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, John. Let's quickly go to the book of James. So what we will do is we will read the entire chapter and then I'll kind of in summary share regarding that particular chapter. So we won't be doing it the way we did the book of Hebrews, you know, like a couple of verses at a time. But we just get an idea of what the chapter is about and then come back and describe it for us. So this first chapter has about 27 scriptures. What we could do is maybe have two of us read. It's still manageable. Two of us could read and then we will begin with it. James, the born servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which have scattered abroad greetings. My president, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with the burning heat than it withers the grass. In flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by him nor best he himself tempted anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Thank you John. Another one of us could pick up from where John stopped and continue from there. Verse 16 onwards. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to roth, for the roth of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, receiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Amen. Thank you Rosalind. Thank you for reading through the entire passage here. Now let's begin by looking at some background to the book of James and then we will go ahead and explain the contents of chapter 1. So when we consider the book of James as the name suggests, it was written by James. There are two James among the disciples of the Lord Jesus. There's one James the brother of John and James a half brother of the Lord Jesus. So the James that who is writing the book of James is the half brother of Jesus that we are speaking of. So Jesus had four half brothers and sisters namely James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Judas, the short name of Judas is Jude who has written another book. So we have both the brothers of Jesus who have written these letters. One is the book of James and one is the book of Jude and they two were apostles and you know leaders in the early church. Now James the brother of Jesus was one of the leaders in the early church. We also read about another James if you recall Acts chapter 12. There is a James who is killed and after which Peter is imprisoned with the idea of killing Peter but thankfully he escapes the prison because of the prayer of the church. So we've seen all this in the book of Acts. So this is the James that we are talking about the half brother of Jesus a very prominent leader of the early church just with the thought that James was the brother of Jesus. We can imagine you know how it would have been for him to grow up with Jesus. The son of God is your brother and you know they would have probably played games together. They would have shared the meals. They would have spent time as a family and knowing the Jewish culture families were very close in it and families were a social unit where it was known as a good thing for brothers to support one another and have a sense of solidarity. So that is the way Jesus and James and Joseph and Judas you know Simon all of these people would have been together but even though they were so close knit a reality that we can understand from scripture is that they were most likely unbelieving of Jesus. So that is quite startling to know that Jesus and his family were so close knit and yet there was a lot of unbelief that the family members carried as far as Jesus's ministry was concerned. How do we know this? If we look up look up some passages in the book of John we see that they do not believe in Jesus. So John chapter 7 and verse 5 is a one such scripture which states that for even his brothers did not believe in him. I am using primarily the notes from apcwo.org. We have done a series of sermons from the book of James. It's a it's a Bible study of the book of James. So most of the content that I'm going to put forth for us is from there. So you can always refer to the notes as well. You simply have to go to the sermons section and download. So yeah so James though being a brother had unbelief as far as Jesus was concerned. However things seem to have changed after the death the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We noticed that it was after the fulfillment of what Jesus had said about him rising up from the dead that many started believing. Even his own brothers it's when they saw him go through the crucifixion and then be resurrected that they actually believed in him and they got saved. So it's really interesting that the family of Jesus began believing him at a later point and they continued following the Lord Jesus and we see how they became leaders in the early church. So that is the the context or a little bit of background about James the author of this particular epistle. How do we know that he saw the Lord Jesus risen from the dead? There is a passage 1 Corinthians 15 7 that clearly states this. It says after that he was seen by James then by all the apostles. So obviously James saw his resurrected savior and began to follow the Lord Jesus. So from that point onwards we know that he was together with the believing people and he was a part of that group in Acts chapter 1 you know who continued in prayer in one accord. They sought the Lord along with the disciples. There was the women and Mary the mother of Jesus. The scripture also says his brothers were there at that point and you know they were very much a part of what was happening in the early church. Now when we get into the book of Acts we see a reference to this leader James starting from Acts chapter 12 where Peter states you know he says that once he is released to be this information is supposed to be informed to James in Acts 12 17. So that in itself gives us a picture that James was quite prominent and that is why Peter wanted to inform James otherwise there was no need for Peter to inform of his escape from the prison. So James was a prominent leader. We also see that James was one of those leaders of the council the Jerusalem council when the question about the Gentiles and them being circumcised came up. So he was serving the people and he had great authority. We can attribute you know this leadership position and a lot of honour and respect to James. There are a couple of other things that we notice about James from some passages of scripture like 1 Corinthians 9 5 it seems like he was married and James was also named as James the Just. Even when you google and you want to learn more about James the brother of Jesus it will show up as James the Just. He was called by that name and we can suggest that he was probably such a man of integrity that it spoke to people and no wonder he was given this title James the Just and tradition has it that he was a devout man who would pray many hours in the temple and also towards the end of his life he was martyred like so many other apostles he was also martyred. How was he martyred? It's quite sad to consider the manner in which he was killed he was thrown it is said from the pinnacle of the temple and once he was thrown he was also stoned beaten to death by religious leaders in AD 62. So a very similar death such as Stephen is what James underwent and you know the beauty is to consider that as a brother of Jesus interacting so closely with Jesus he did not believe in the beginning okay even if you're a family of the savior you can't you can't come into the kingdom of God unless you are born again and that's what the scriptures tell us isn't it? I heard someone say God does not have grandchildren he only has children we are supposed to each one make a personal choice to to give our lives to Christ and be born again and that was the same story for James at some point in his life he had to make that decision to follow Christ and then the journey started he was saved obviously we understand that the early church placed so much emphasis on the baptism in water baptized in water filled with the Holy Spirit and then ministering as a leader of the church and look at the devotion and the commitment that James had he lived so passionately for Christ that his life even ended in martyrdom and that is amazing that people were so dedicated to the call that they gave up their own lives for the cause in which they believed so that is the life of James for us at what time was this book of James written it is dated back to around AD 45 and AD 45 is very much the time when the church was emerging and at that point we don't see too many Gentiles okay being ministered to by the church of Jerusalem this this whole thing of Gentiles coming to know Jesus and churches with Gentiles rising up came a little bit later so the Jerusalem council is said to have happened around AD 51 and so when we consider AD 45 the Gentiles were not in the picture and it's at that time that James has written this book to the believers so it's one of the earliest books which earliest New Testament books that was written in AD 45 and it was written to the Christian Jews similar very similar to what we have seen the book of Hebrews but of course it was written a little bit later but even the book of Hebrews was written to the Jews now James wrote this to the Christian Jews and the Jews were scattered all across the region of the Middle East we could state that they were spread over places like the current Palestine, Europe, Asia, Africa and certain such parts of the Middle East and apart from this what are the contents of the book of James no that's another question so primarily the theme of the book of James like we wouldn't say theme because he will go from like he will jump across themes and address matters which are important for the Christian Jews but a common thread that we will find time to time is the subject of faith so he speaks a lot about faith there are references to faith where you know he states that faith is something which will sustain us in our difficulties he talks about how faith is the key when we are praying he talks about how faith and works go together faith is expressed when we overcome temptation we resist the devil so in different contexts he keeps bringing up this this thought about faith very very often but his his instructions will spread across different themes and that is something that we are going to look at so when he was speaking to the Christian Jews what was their condition their condition was similar to the Christian Jews whom the book of Hebrews is addressing a persecution was quite rampant okay it did not come down it only went up so persecution was happening and it also seems like there were powerful rich Jews with influence who were withholding opportunities and rights from the Christian Jews so it it looks like they the Jews the Christian Jews were being persecuted but then a lot of what was happening was the overbearing of the rich Jews who were still following you know the the traditional religion and so you would you would find that this letter is also I mean it has instructions but it's also an encouragement for these believers who are persecuted who are struggling in these circumstances to continue in the faith and to not really give up on the faith we'll notice that some of the statements of James are quite connected to Jesus's Sermon on the Mount things like humility you know like how Jesus says we need to we need to be humble be hungry for the Lord hungry for righteousness so those kind of teachings are stated by James in his passage as well so we will notice those things some people have listed at least 14 comparisons to the teachings the sermon on the Mount of the Lord Jesus so obviously you know Jesus he must have heard Jesus speak those sermons and those teachings he's also putting out as a leader of the church so these are a couple of things about the content of the book of James so many different themes but the thread of faith is noticeable throughout and now we've read through the book of the first chapter of James so let me go ahead and explain I will highlight some of the words there or some of the scriptures there and you can always look it up as we are discussing so as we begin with the first line over there it would make us think once again we are saying James is the half brother of Jesus so how might he want to open out the episode he might want to say hey I'm writing to you as the family of Jesus so you better you know listen to what I'm saying I am the very brother of Jesus so you better listen to what I'm saying but that's not how he puts it and it really you know it's very inspiring to see the position that James took so in the very first verse James introduces himself as a bond servant of God just think about it you grew up with Jesus playing with Jesus having meals with Jesus but he understood who Jesus was the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah not just his brother but the Messiah and so that is how the life of James the just he lived a life of integrity a life devoted as a leader to the church a life devoted to the gospel to the extent that he was martyred so we know the mindset that he carried and he's calling himself of all the choices you know out there in the world that he could have picked a leader James a leader of the church he could have said that but no what what is his description of himself he says a bond servant of God bond servant comes from the Greek word doulos some of you may have heard of the ship right the doulos ship that goes to different nations but yeah that word doulos means bond servant or it actually means like a slave who gives themselves wholly completely to the master and that's the way in which James is looking at himself and he's saying I'm sold out to Christ I belong to Christ everything that I am is the Lord Jesus is and so he's saying the bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ and then obviously he's addressing the letter to the scattered believers and therefore he refers to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greetings and immediately he goes into a mode of encouragement and this particular passage is always you know there are there are certain passages that a strike a chord with us in every season of life it's one of those where he talks about joy he talks about joy in trials and he states something like count at all joy when you fall into various trials okay now count at all joy that word count comes from the Greek where you know we we understand that when somebody is in a position an influential position like a governor or a chief or some sort of a judge they make a decision right they count something as a right or they count something as wrong it comes from that terminology so he's stating that one must be very definite in their in their understanding okay they must count it all joy what is joy joy is rejoicing okay joy is being happy cheerfulness or a calm delight so count it all joy we can have a calm delight and rejoice saying in what circumstances when you fall into various kinds of trials so that is a mystery very similar to what the book of Hebrews is talking about encouraging the believer and saying hold on to your faith don't give up if you hear the voice of the lot today respond to it be sensitive to it James is saying when you're going through all this persecution and difficulties you need to be definite that this is a joyful thing okay you need to be rejoicing now to the world outside that might seem crazy that someone is happy when they're going through difficulties isn't it but what he means is that there is this inner sense of peace this inner sense of assurance that a believer has even in difficult times trusting in their God so that's what he's saying he's saying be assured be definite that these trials are also going to be it'll turn out for your good and therefore count it all joy be rejoicing in these times so what is one of the excuse me outcomes of having this attitude of rejoicing he continues and he says that when we go through trials what's actually happening is that our faith is being tested okay and when our faith is tested that is going to be an outcome what is that outcome he talks about something known as patience patience you see patience is nothing but the ability to not be shaken in any given situation so a person who is not shaken or swerved and who's standing in continued faith that is a demonstration of patience how can patience be produced patience can only be produced when our faith is tested and these trials what they are doing is they are testing our faith and then he talks about patience having its full work or its perfect work in us when it is completed and it is perfect and complete lacking nothing so we need to allow patience to do its work in us and it's when we allow that to happen that you know character will be formed in us so we can consider something like a diamond we all know that diamonds are nothing but carbon and carbon in its original form as you look at it it looks very different but when carbon is put under very high heat and pressure okay what happens we know that it comes out as this beautiful structure that we can look at and people spend you know a lot of money to even have possess these diamonds because they have completely changed how did they change they changed under pressure they changed in circumstances which were quite extreme and it's very similar when it comes to our character when we want our character to develop our character will not develop unless our faith has gone through testing and patience is produced from it and patience it has to run its course it has to become perfect right absolute and it's then that our character is formed no we cannot go and buy character of a shop and say hey i want to buy some character and you know let me have character immediately it's never going to come that way it's when we end your it's when we go through certain challenges that character is really formed in us but there's a parallel scripture from roman chapter five versus three and four which is similar and it states that we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character character hope so there is a chain reaction james is talking about patience that comes when our faith is tested and that is why when we are going through trials when we are going through difficult circumstances we should count to joy because there is something going on some work is going on in us what are trials okay we just look at that word trials that may mean that you know we're going through some adversity an attack or you know some form of a temptation some provocation something difficult in our lives so when we go through that and yet maintain our joy allow our faith to be tested in such a way that we are holding on to our patience and we saw in romans five there are other terms such as perseverance character hope one by one these things will be established in us right we'll develop perseverance that will help our character and we will become people of hope and that is a reason why god does not short circuit the process when we look at the lives of you know jesus for example 30 years why did jesus have to wait 30 years before he went and he did his ministry right one of the reasons is there was no short circuiting the process we read that jesus grew in in wisdom and stature right what is the need for jesus to grow he's already god he already knows everything but god did not allow him to cut the process he still grew step by step the the human development that needed to happen in him it happened because he became fully man and similarly when it comes to us as believers for us to become people of hope we go through all these trials not that god is bringing trials upon us but in this world there are tribulations as jesus said but the attitude with which we go through those trials really matters and that's what james is talking about he's saying look we were not prepared to the believers he says you were not prepared for the persecution you were not prepared for the oppression that you're going through but do you want it to result in something good then change your attitude attitude matters we can't change the afflictions we can't change the difficulties that we are going through immediately but the way we go through it can actually make it beneficial so count it all joy it will develop patience in us right and as we have seen from romans 5 patience endurance leading to character character lean to hope and so we become people who are you could say more mature okay with some proven character think about this you know if at all we have to give a responsibility to someone and we have three four people who come up to us and all of them are capable in terms of their skill who would we pick to assign the responsibility and if the responsibility is huge we would definitely look for someone who has experience we would definitely look for someone who has handled it in the past there is some proven record that they can handle such things and then hand over a very important task it's very similar when our character is developed when we become people of hope you know there is so much more maturity in us we are able to handle better bigger things and we are able to you know walk with the Lord and be a blessing to the kingdom of God and that's what James is talking about he's saying when we change our attitude go through trials in a proper way we will come out with better results and also maturity now he continues to verse 5 here where he suddenly starts talking about wisdom now why is he talking about wisdom he was talking about trials earlier and he was talking about having joy in the midst of those trials see one of the things that we need in our trials is wisdom isn't it without wisdom how do we know how to come out of our hardships how to come out of the challenges and how to come out of you know our difficulties so wisdom is needed and that is why he starts talking about wisdom and he says if we are lacking wisdom in the midst of our difficulties what should one do he says if you feel you lack it ask God how to get wisdom ask God God is wisdom God has wisdom he will give it to us how does God give wisdom verse 5 we notice he says God gives liberally and without reproach meaning God gives generously and he does not hold back wisdom and so this is so beautiful no matter what we are going through which stage of life we are in what responsibility we are carrying one thing we can always trust God for his wisdom and say God I need your wisdom help me speak to me what should I do how should I do it and he says faith has got to be attached to the prayer because when we ask by faith we are going to get it that's what Jesus taught isn't it if you if you speak to the mountain without doubting in your heart if you have faith you can speak and the mountain will be uprooted be cast into the sea very similar James is saying if you're asking for wisdom let one have faith in their heart so in verse 6 he says but let him ask in faith with no doubting okay and he says that when we do when we have faith we will get it God will give it already he said God is generous he'll give liberally he will not hold it back but when we ask without faith what does that look like no he says when there is doubts okay man who has doubts and he's asking God he is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind so he simply is stating that there is no stability in a person who is asking without faith right or who is carrying doubts in their hearts so that analogy of the waves waves are waves go up and down okay and so you can't really rely on them and then he goes on to talk about something known as double-mindedness so he says somebody who doubts first of all they will not receive they don't have stability in their thinking and verse 7 he says obviously they're not going to get what they're asking for because they're asking with doubt and verse 8 he says anyone who is double-minded meaning who is believing both sides who's saying that yes God will give me God will not give me both sides I mean how can that happen right we've got to believe either of the two but if there is someone who's believing both sides he's calling that person as double-minded and he's saying what is double-mindedness like unstable unstable in all his ways so that is something that you and I need to be careful about being double-minded while making decisions in in life to really help us God to help us make decisions that are definite and you know not being this category of being a double-minded person because double-mindedness as per James he's saying it is unstable and you know one should not be like that so what did we see so far you know James introduces himself he talks about trials how to face trials and the advantage of facing trials the right way and he also says in the midst of trials let's ask God for wisdom he has it he will give it to us and trust in that and don't doubt it because if we are doubting we won't receive it first of all and somebody who is saying they believe but they actually don't believe they follow the category of being double-minded which is quite unstable so are you all with me is this okay is it too confusing okay so great so if this is good then let's just go at this space we can cover more ground all right so let's move on to the next section here where he will switch to talking about the lowly and the rich so we said that the rich Jews were overbearing on the Christian Jews so that is what was going on so in the midst of that he is encouraging the believers and he's saying let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation okay but the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the field he will pass away what is the point the point is he's saying riches of this world are temporary it's not going to make like you know it's not forever having resources not having resources it's a temporary thing in this world and so even if someone is lowly he says let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation okay exaltation would be like you know anything anything that blesses that person and you know anything that kind of builds up that person just glory in those things and he says the richness humiliation it also kind of shows us that somebody when they are poor the only way if they are very poor the only way positive way of looking at it is the way is up isn't it they don't have anything so there's always hope to get more to have more and you know consider trust God for more so then you rejoice in those things that there will surely be God's blessing and then you rejoice in those things but whereas someone who is rich he says in his humiliation that simply what he's trying to point out is having everything is not like a permanent thing and so humility is needed okay we we don't know at what point these things will not be there with us so it's not he's not trying to scare the believers but it's more to prove the point of the temporary nature of resources that we have or the riches that we have and he says for a rich person he says like a flower of the field he will pass away because riches are temporary then same aspect of riches being temporary continues in the following scripture there in verse 11 also he says for no sooner has a sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass its flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits so we must not put our trust in riches that's the point okay now we come to the question does that mean that being rich is something bad or evil is that something that that James is trying to say not at all we've got to take the point that he's he's trying to make all that he's saying is riches are temporary don't depend fully on it okay and he also emphasizes there the aspect of humility though it's mentioned here as humiliation the point he's making is always be humble and we will see later on in James chapter 4 he'll come back to talking about how God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble and so maintaining that humble attitude is necessary for one even if they possess earthly riches okay we'll talk more about being rich later on in the book of James itself so just you know we just touched on the scriptures now we can move to the next section in the next section he is addressing the matter of temptation so some of the key things that come out of this passage is that when we end your temptation God rewards us okay so that is what verse 12 says blessed is the man who end your temptation we overcome temptation and that is encouraging for us so when I'm going through temptation I can go through it you know in a strong way knowing that when I come out of it God is going to be pleased with me and it even says he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised so there is a reward there is a crown to overcoming temptation so praise God you know we can overcome temptation but what is the origin of temptation James is making it very clear that when a person is tempted they must not say that God is tempting them because neither is God tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone so the origin of temptation is not God so for us to say in a in a hardship that oh God is the one he put me in the situation to tempt me to see whether I will do the evil that is not correct because temptation never originated from God and he goes on to say where does temptation come from here he's mentioning the desires that a person you know the desires that one carries they we are enticed by those things but obviously we know there's an external influence also so there's both external and internal external is Satan Satan tempts people and we when we don't deal with our fleshly lusts right we haven't uprooted it we still have some roots deep in our hearts even then what happens those things can pull on us and temptation starts in that place and then he is talking about the progression of temptation earlier he spoke about how patience and then you know we connected that to perseverance character hope that's a good progression right there so for us to become people of hope you know we go through difficulties in a proper way now there's a bad progression or a progression that we don't want which is being spoken of here which is the progression to sin how does one end up sinning so this is how it happens he's describing it from verse 15 where he says if a person is carrying desire okay temptation starts from there so desire has conceived or let's say you know desire is now full blown somebody is desiring evil or wrong so much that they can come to a place where the desire can give birth to sin or the next stage where a person because of that desire goes ahead and does what they are desiring even when that is wrong so that is the progression earlier you had desire now desire what's happening to it it's become full grown or it is conceived it gives birth to sin and now when sin is full grown it brings death so four things here desire desire conceived birth to sin right then sin when it's fully developed will lead to death so this progression no one wants how do we uproot this progression it starts with dealing with the flesh as Galatians 5 you know Paul writes about it he says that we know the works of the flesh but we know the fruit of the spirit so walk in the spirit live in the spirit so that you do not gratify the desires of the flesh so when we live in the spirit we can overcome this progression so that death is not the consequence that we reap and he goes on and he says look God is a giver of good gifts let's not be deceived only good things come from God temptation is not something that originates from God so in the light of God being generous again verse 17 very beautifully he says God is giving us good gifts and he's a God of abundance a God who is blessing our lives and we need to know him in that way so he says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above what are some of the gifts that we have received from God firstly life you know it's beautiful to be alive isn't it we can sense we can see we can hear we can experience it's a gift from God life itself and of course when we are born again life in Christ Jesus who we then become in Christ Jesus what a gift it is to have all the covenant blessings that we now experience and not only that we know that God gives gifts to each one of us to minister to one another in the book of Peter we read about it there are gifts that he has bestowed and owed on each of us which we can use to serve one another these are gifts spiritual gifts you know we talk about prophecy and tongues but notice all the gifts that have come from God are always good good perfect he's a giver of good gifts he'll ever give us a gift which is evil which will destroy our lives it only brings life produces life peace right joy and it come it comes down from the father of lights so father of lights is a description of God we read again in other passages of scripture that our God he dwells in unapproachable light so he's the father of lights all things bright you know around him and that is the God whom we serve the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning you know the Bible teaches us that God cannot lie God does not lie there is no untruth in him he cannot tempt and here the scripture is saying no shadow of turning which means that when God promises we can rely on those promises it's not like you know God woke up on this side of the bed today he felt nice and so he said something and then tomorrow when he wakes up on the other side of the bed he changes his promise over our lives so there is no shadow of turning with God he's dependable he's faithful and so we can trust in the Lord so we've covered till verse 17 today and then we will move on to the rest of chapter one in the upcoming class and please do review recap all of this by using the notes on our website we will pray and close for today want to request one of us on the class to kindly lead in a word of prayer let's pray do you have any father I come to under the name of Jesus thank you for this day and God I thank you for the fast that we had God I thank you for the life that you live for us so that God we can live as your children's today Jesus and God everything that we learned about having patience about counting it all as joy but I pray that we will reflect these qualities in our life Jesus it's a joy to be your children to be your doctors and some Jesus and God I pray that Jesus we will live as your children as as believers who walk in the light every word call it has been printed in our heart and help us to require glory thank you for Pastor Nancy and I thank you for all my classmates it will be all the glory and honor and Jesus name amen thank you Jeffy now thank you everyone um god bless you have a great week ahead and we also have to have the assignments up so that those will be up shortly and you can access them and complete your assignments um we are in the book of James now we still have other than James three more books to go we will be able to complete it not a problem so please be in sync we may go a little bit fast from this point on so it's helpful if you read up the chapter and even after the lesson go back read it up and you will have a better grip on the scriptures okay thank you thank you god bless and see y'all in the next class tomorrow bye for now