ST JAMES COMMUNITY BIBLE STUDY OCTOBER 2023 LESSON ONE

This is a virtual Bible study being held at St. James United Church of Christ. They are grateful for the participants and are planning to have the study at least once a month. The study will focus on scripture and how it can help deal with life's challenges. They will start with a lesson on prayer and provide multiple lessons in the future. The study will be recorded and shared with participants. The speaker emphasizes the power of the Bible and how it can change lives. They discuss the importance of being part of a church community and the accountability that comes with studying the word. They also mention that studying the Bible will help to know the truth and be set free. The speaker encourages discipline and dedication in studying and praying. I just want to welcome everybody in to St. James United Church of Christ, our virtual community Bible study where right now we want to start it and have it at least once a month, but we'll evaluate that process, and if it needs to be more, we would add more. But we are so grateful and thankful for those of you that are with us today, those of you on the prayer line, those of you that are with us, the young man that's joining us all the way from Arizona, Justin, God bless you and we welcome you. We have Dan and Diane, leaders in our church, Minister Dan and Diane. We have Minister Jan. She pretty much runs the entire thing. We chase after her as we can't catch her, but she runs pretty good. And so we're just so grateful to have you all. So tonight I want to just go through a basic syllabus, but it's going to be a little twist in it because we're going to add scriptures in there and just really, really kind of show you how we study, how I study, how I've been taught and trained how to study so that the Bible says we study to show ourselves approved. We study so that we can deal with life, challenges that come our way, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And so we'll find out what the word means. You'll find out who the word is. You'll find out that nothing was made on this earth without the word. So then you go back and who is the word, Pastor Rob, and how has this come about? And it will show us and it will tell us, and we'll start off with a very, very simple thing, why we should pray. And we'll go over that tonight, and then we have multiple lessons. Again, I have a syllabus and I tried to send it out, and then I'll make sure everybody get a copy. I am recording this. Not only on Facebook I'm recording, but I also have another method that I can record where as soon as it's over with, it calibrates and then I can text it to you so you will have that. You literally can listen to it on your computer. You can listen on your cell phone, your iPad. And so we just want to take away any excuses that anybody might have of them not being able to receive God's word. And so we're already covered under prayer, and so let's just get ready to get started here. So I want to start out, first of all, just saying thank you to each and every one of you. Tonight I'm going to give us a scriptural guide to help us study the word and be more effective in our study. And so this is our October introductory lesson here. And we'll start off by teaching on how will studying the Bible help me? How will studying the Bible help me? And so I'm going to put it on the screen, so time from time I'll put it on the screen and I'm going to come back to it. I will send out, for those of you that sent out the syllabus, I will send out this revised version which I'm going to be a working document. So I want to make sure that, hey, Lori, good to see you. All right. And so let me know if you guys can see the screen. Yes. All right. Very good. Okay. All right. Good. Let me make it a little bit bigger. A couple of us are seniors. I don't know about y'all, but I'm a senior. Justin is still a young puppy. So how will studying the Bible help me? The Bible is no ordinary book. Okay. I want you to know it's the best seller of all time. There's no other book that have been printed more than the Bible. The words within the Bible's pages are like medicine to your soul. It has the power to change your life because there is life in the word. Now, Justin, one of the things that many people like to do is they want God to change the situation. God change that person. God change my mama, change my husband, change my wife, change my children, change my coworkers. But God has the ability through his word to change you. And many times he will give us that grace to be able to deal with whatever situation we're dealing with. Now, right on the screen there, Dan, if you don't, you'll see it there. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. Would you read that for us, brother Dan? Well, the word of God is living and active and full of power, making it operative, energizing and effective. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and the spirit, the completeness of a person, and of both joints and marrow, the deepest parts of our nature, exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. All right, so the Hebrew writer here is telling us for the word of God, and that's what we're talking about, the Bible, is living and active. Now, I work for an organization, Dan. I'm sure at some point you work for an organization. I know Melissa Serena and Sister Gwen, they work for an organization. I know Jan worked for an organization. And right now, Justin is working for an organization, right? And so an organization is based upon rules and regulations and this and that. But the Bible and Christendom, as I like to call it, God deals with an organism. There's a difference between an organism and an organization. An organization can start a business, Dan, and go out of business. An organization, Jan, can give you benefits in 30, 60, 90 days, and then it can also take them away from you if you quit, you retire, or get fired. But an organism is alive and it does not die. So we are part of an organism and not an organization. For God's Word is living and active and full of power, making it operative, energizing. The Lord is my shepherd and I don't have to want for anything. That's energizing for me. The Lord is my light when it's dark, but the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear and whom shall I be afraid of? Another scripture says, minister Serena, if God be for me, who can be against me? That's energizing. Matter of fact, one scripture said, goodness, Psalm 23 and 6, and goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And people stopped there, minister Serena, but the rest of us said, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God has mandated that we stick and stay with the church. Yes, he's mandated. And some people have made a habit of not doing that. You know, it's all around us now. Churches are empty all over and some of them are doing pretty good, but others are empty because people have made a habit of not assembling themselves together. That's scripture. That's not something Pastor Rob made up. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, reading for yourself. We're not going to go there today, but I wanted to share that with you. So I wanted you to get that, that the word of God is living and active and full of power. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. Do you know what that means, Dan, when it says it's sharper than any two-edged sword? What do you think that means? Well, I think a two-edged sword is sharper than just a knife. A knife only has one sharp side. A two-edged sword has two sharp sides. It's twice as sharp. Okay. All right. Anybody else? Yes, it's triple, triple sharp. Just a slight touch of it, you can get cut. Amen. Amen. Anybody else? Let me just break it down to you. A two-edged sword, Dan, it means it will cut the reader and it'll cut the other person as well, the person you're reading to. In other words, we're all being held accountable. So the Word of God is a two-edged sword. You just can't send it out there and you think you're not being held accountable. It's a two-edged sword for all of us, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and the spirit and the completeness of a person, of both the joint and the marrow of the soul. And watch it say, exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. That's what the Word of God will do. Amen. Now, Jesus says in John 8, 31 and 32, if you abide in my word, continually obeying my teachings and living according to them, then you are truly my disciples. Can anybody define what a disciple is? A disciplined, dedicated person, an obedient person, a trained person, a person who don't let nothing stop them, and no one. How about God's follower? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, God's follower. All right. But a disciple, the word discipline, Jan, is in that word disciple. So God wants us to be disciplined, disciplined in our learning. Discipline in our study and discipline in our prayer life. Discipline. We ought to have time not only for prayer, but you ought to have time to praise God. Yes. What's this? Hey, Dan, what's the name of that song we like to sing, I Woke Up Where? I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed On Jesus. I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed On Jesus. Amen. I have a beautiful wife, but I get up thinking, thank you, Lord. Thank you for life, first of all, and thank you for my wife. Thank you for my children. Thank you that I can see, I can taste, I can touch. I can move my fingers. I can see my toes. It's a blessing to give God the glory first thing in the morning. He's worthy to be praised. So it says here, so then it says, then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Minister Serena, what is the truth? The truth. Can you go to and prove it to them in John chapter 17, verse 17? Yes, sir. We need to know what the truth is, and they will know the truth. They will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And she's going to read to you and you're going to find out that the word, the Bible is the truth and the Bible can set you free. It will set you free if you get involved in it and study to show yourself approved. What does it say, Minister Serena? Out of the New Living Translation, it says, make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. Your word is truth. And we, and that's when Jesus is praying, Lord, make them holy by your word, because your word is the truth. That's the only way we can live a holy life is that we get into the word and we know that the word is the truth and we follow the word by as a disciplined disciple of God. So these verses have brought me to a simple conclusion. If we don't study God's word consistently and apply this truth to our lives, just in case y'all missed a spot, let me just highlight it. I'm right there. We will lack power. We will lack the power we need to mature, to become a disciple, to mature in Christ. Diane, where's Christ at? Christ is in my heart. Where's Jesus at? The right hand of God. So if Christ, what's another word for Christ, Jan? Um, Emmanuel? That's Jesus, for Christ. You just said, you just said it suddenly, the anointing. The anointing. The anointing, right. And then what's another word for the anointing? Let me, let me take this loose. It's the power of God. That's what the anointing is. It's the power of God. And let me say this to everybody. If I call on you, I'm not picking on you. Do not be afraid to answer. And if you get, there's no wrong answers. And Jan, what you said was absolutely right. But I like to be precise. I like to be surgical. All right. We want to always be surgical when it comes to the word of God, because we know that. We know that. You just said it Sunday, but some other people may not know it. I know I'm not calling a lot on Minister Sabrina because I know she knows that. And Justin, I want you to learn and, and all of us. Sister Gwen is getting a refresher because she's another student of the word as well. And so it's very important that we, that we understand that the anointing, I'm going to read that again. It says here, when we lack, it says God's word consistently implied this truth in our lives. We will lack if we don't do, we will lack the power we need to mature in Christ. Okay. There's no way that God will release the power of Christ in you. If you're immature, you will end up hurting yourself and somebody else. You'll go down or go down to the Bel Air bridge and say, watch this y'all in the name of Jesus. I'm going to jump off this bridge. I'm going to be back up here in a minute. They're going to be scooping you up. And the more it's going to come, the undertaker's going to come pick you up. Cause that's not maturity. You don't tempt God and glorify God in this world. Stop saying I'm going to wait till I get to heaven to do it. God wants you to glorify him now. Cause if you're not glorifying him now, you're not going to get to heaven. All right. So no matter where you are in your walk with God. Okay. No matter where you are in your walk with God, I want to encourage you to start spending time in his word today and be determined to stick with it. Don't give up. If you have questions, write them down, text me, email me, call me, but we got to get it together. Cause I want everyone to be mature and become a minister of God. You'll find that every time you study the Bible and pay attention to what you're reading, you're learning something. You're learning something. Let's prove it. Let's read Proverbs. Well, I'll just read it right here. Cause I haven't got to the main scripture yet. Proverbs 4, 20 through 22 says, my son be attentive to my words. In other words, pay attention to my words for they are life to those who find them. The word attend means to pay attention, pay attention to give some time to something to attend to the word of God is a lot more than just reading. It's meditating on it. God wants us to meditate on his word day and night. The scripture says, that doesn't mean you have to be a fanatic. He know you got to get some rest. He know you got to eat. He know you need some recreation time, but we need to give him some time. I don't care if it's 15 minutes a day, hour a day, it don't matter. You, just between you and God, some of us can't even give him an hour on a Sunday, Dan. We don't even want to give him an hour on a one day a week. What's wrong with us? What happened to the people of God? And we've made it so easy. Now you can just click a link. You can have your pajamas on. You can have your rollers in your hair. You ain't got to have no makeup on. You can be looking like Ghostbusters. The person Ghostbusters are chasing. It don't matter. You don't have to fit. All you have to do is click the link and guess what? You at church. You can call in. You can go to Facebook. We need to get into agreement with what God wants us to do because as a writer of Proverbs said, these words are life. I want you guys to get an agreement with me, make a commitment to learning because these words are very healthy for us. Our very healthy for your life. When you need an encouraging word or you're in a negative environment, it is good to know that you can find life plus healing and health in God's word. I remember one Sunday, Diane came to church and she wasn't feeling well. She had a cold cough and she still pushed her way through. I remember seeing Jan one time when I walked through the door and she was walking slow. I said, you're not feeling good, are you? She says, no, but she pushed her way through. I know Dan a couple of times he wasn't myself. Hey, listen, if I'm not laying down on my back or whatever, I want to come to church. It's just part of not because I feel like I'm trying to impress somebody, but I just want God to be pleased with me, with my actions, with my thoughts and with my deeds. The first thing we want to talk about, and we're only going to get this far tonight. We have a half an hour right now. I want to stop at eight o'clock, about 10 minutes to eight, we'll have questions and any thing you want to say. I'm going to go another 20 minutes and I'm going to stop. I'm going to send this to everybody and you can pick up these things yourself. In November, be prepared that we're going to break these down really, really, really to a finite level. Prayer and preparation. It's very important that we pray and that we pray so that we can get prepared for each day. Prayer, preparation. Spend time in prayer, seeking God's guidance and wisdom as you approach his word. Even before you start studying, you should pray to prepare yourself. Lord, open up my eyes so that I can see what you want me to see today. Open up my understanding. Minister Serena mentioned that wisdom is the principal thing. We were talking earlier today, Proverbs 4 and 7. Therefore, get wisdom, but with all you're getting, get understanding. And understanding, yes. So we spend time in prayer, so God will use Christ, God will use the Holy Spirit in you to prepare you for your study as you approach his word. So let's take a look. Dan, if you could read Psalm 119, 18 on the screen. Open my eyes to spiritual truth, so that I may behold wonderful things from your law. Amen. Amen. Open my eyes to your spiritual truth, so that I may behold wonderful things from your law. Minister Serena, do you have the New Living Translation? Yes, sir. Can you read that Psalm 119, 18? Yes, it says, open my eyes to see the wonderful truth in your instructions. In your instructions. Again, the Bible has instructions, basic instructions before leaving earth. It's very important that we get a good hook on that and understand it, so that God can use the word of God to help us in our times of distress. In our times and good times. We ought to praise God even in good times. And so that's what that Psalm 119, 18. Now, okay, here is a very controversial scripture. And a lot of people get it wrong. At mostly 100% of the churches I've ever been to, they call this the Lord's Prayer. Well, I want to prove what prayer this is. This is called the model prayer. Okay. And it starts off in Matthew chapter 6, verse 5. And when you pray, this is Jesus speaking. I should have put it in red. It's the red letter edition. And when you pray. Now, Dan, does that say if you want to pray? No. When. That is a, Jan, when it says when, that is an assumption that you're going to do it. So God has mandated through Jesus that he wants us to pray. Don't wait until you're in trouble. Don't wait until you ain't got nobody else to turn to. Don't wait till all the money is gone. Don't wait until you're laying in a hospital on your deathbed. He says, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Right. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues, standing around the church and impressing people and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. In other words, they want to impress people. Assuredly, he says, I say to you, they have their reward. Now, I want to say this before we continue. There is a reward for prayer. I want you to know that. God rewards those who pray. We're going to get to it in a second. It's very important that you understand that. But if you try to impress somebody, he say, you have your reward with other people looking at you. All right. Verse six, but you, Dan, but you, Serena, you, Gwen, you, Justin, when you pray. It's right here in verse six. I'm going to highlight it. Jan, when you pray, but when Jan prays, go into your room, King James, a closet. And when you have shut the door, I would advise you to leave your cell phones outside, go in there and give God a minute, three minutes, five minutes or whatever your time is that you can spare. Make sure you take time for just you and God. Do it in private. This is what basically the closet means. The room say, do it in private, shut the door. Pray to your father who is in this secret place. He's in the secret place. He's in the closet. And your father, and we're talking about God, who sees you in secret, my God, will reward you openly. Do y'all get that? When you pray in secret, he will reward you openly. Verse seven. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. Oh Lord, you said you was going to do it. Oh Lord, you said you was going to do it. Now, wait a minute, Lord. Just continually repeating yourself. What are you doing? You're wasting your time, God's time, the people. No, listen, don't be vain in repetitions in your prayer. You can do a 30 second prayer. My grandmother, Dan, she used to tell us, say, Bobby, I want you to pray, bless the food. I don't know what to say. She said, just say Jesus wept. It's a scripture, literally said that Jesus wept. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions. Therefore, watch this. He says, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them. For your father knows the things you have need before you ask him. Wow. I want everybody to see verse eight. I pray that you get that. God already know what we need, Dan, before we ask. Amen. That's the reason why we should praise him, just as much as you pray. Lord, I just want to thank you for being my shepherd. I just want to thank you for knowing that I got a bill due on Monday and I don't have the money. So you see the difference now when you pray, you pray a scripture about money. Yes. Lord, you said according to the scriptures, but my God shall supply all of my need according to your riches and glory by Christ Jesus. I believe it. I receive it. It is done. You just did what you're supposed to do. Now, don't ever come back and ask him for that same thing again. Now just praise him. Do a prayer of praise. Lord, I thank you. Glory. Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with the money to pay this bill. You ain't even got it yet. I'm going to read it again. Therefore, do not be like them. Verse eight. For your father, God knows the things you have need of before you pray. Therefore, in this manner. Minister Diane says every Sunday, our father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours. Dine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now from this day forward. I'm going to show you that you will not call this the Lord's Prayer. This is the model prayer. Minister Serena, what scripture is the Lord's Prayer? John 17. The entire chapter of John 17. First third, he prays for himself. Second third, he prays for the disciples. The last part of John 17, he's praying for all believers. So it's very important that we understand the difference between the model prayer and the Lord's Prayer. We get a chance to recite the model prayer, but we also get a chance to do what? Remember, recite the Lord's Prayer. You ain't got to learn the whole thing. Like this one, we know it by heart. We learned it when we was a kid and many people just say it just to say it don't have no meaning to it. They just say it just to be saying it. You ought to mean it. You ought to fill it in your spirit. When you say, Our Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Father. Your will be done. What is God's will, Dan? We know it in the word. His word. God's will is his word. His word be done. We are not only to be a hearer of the word and a reader of the word and a study of the word, but he wants us to become a doer of the word. In fact, Mrs. Renner, you got to become the word. Yes. What are you talking about, Pastor Rob? You got to become love. God so loved the world. God is, he doesn't have a body. Jesus, Diane, he no longer has his earthly suit body. Jan, the Holy Spirit is a spirit. So the way God get his work done and advance the kingdom of God on earth is through us. And so we have to be that word. We have to be love. Dan, you need to be peace in your household. Peace in the community. Peace on the job. Joy. When I see Jan, I see joy. When I see Diane, I see peace. Radiant. That's the way we got to be. We are the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, hope, long suffering, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness. All these things are you and I. We are the fruit of the spirit. We're not the Holy Spirit, but we are. We're on the vine. We're the branches on the vine. We're the fruit that you can see. Amen. Y'all know I get a little animated sometimes. So y'all have to reel me back in. All right. So, all right. Now, I'm going to let Dan read this. Read it kind of slow, Dan. This is Luke chapter 18. I want to prove it a little bit more, what we were saying. Go ahead, Dan. Now, Jesus was telling the disciples a parable to make the point that at all times they ought to pray and not to give up and lose heart. Now, wait a minute. That's for each one of us. Justin, that's for you. Gwen, that's for you. We are his disciples now. We are his disciplined Christians. We are his disciplined daughters and sons. At all times that they ought to pray and not give up, not give in, and not lose heart. That word lose heart means lose hope. Keep going, Dan. Saying in a certain city, there was a judge who did not fear God and had no respect for man. There was a desperate widow in that city, and she kept coming to him and saying, give me justice and legal protection from my adversary. For a time, he would not, but later he said to himself, even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will give her justice and legal protection. Now, stop right there. I hope you all see what's happening here. In a certain city, there was a woman that was so desperate to get what she wanted, and we need to be like that. When your body is hurting, Jan, you got to be desperate to be healed. Amen. When you need money, you got to be desperate, Lord. I need that blessing. Whatever the situation is, she was desperate, and she kept coming back and back, and that's how we need to bombard heaven. Jan, when your foot was hurt, I bombarded heaven. Today, one of our brothers at United Open Door, her brother Eric, had major surgeries, reconstructed his ankle, and we went into fasting and kept praying and thanking God, and we finally got a text from him, sent him out of surgery, and this is what they did, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'm telling you, we wouldn't stop. You got to be relentless, because the devil would never stop Justin trying to kill you. His job description is to kill, steal, and destroy, and we got to be more relentless, so even though that judge kept telling her no, she kept going back. In other words, she was persistent, and even though I do, look what he said, even though I don't even feel God. Now, what kind of fool would say something like that to a God that can stop you from breathing right now? Even though I don't, in other words, he said, I don't acknowledge him, I don't even, God is dead as far as I'm concerned. That's what he's saying. Even though I do not fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will give her justice and legal protection. Okay, Dan, finish it up. Otherwise, by continually coming, she will be an intolerable annoyance, and she will wear me out. Good God almighty, y'all fools will wear that devil out. This is the attitude that we got to have. Mrs. Renner, she got two boys, and she said, I ain't going to let you have my boys. I know they're grown, and I got two children. We're going to pray every day, multiple times a day for our children, our grandchildren, wear that devil out. That's what she did. It's right here in the book. I will give her justice and legal, otherwise, she will keep coming, and keep coming, and she will be an intolerable force, an annoyance, and she will wear me out. Keep going, Dan, verse six. Then the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says, and will not our just God defend and avenge his elect, his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay in providing justice on their behalf? I tell you that he will defend and avenge them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, when the Son of Man comes, will he find this kind of persistent faith on the earth? There is the question of tonight. The Bible says, faith comes from hearing, and hearing the word of God. And you just read that Jesus gave a parable. When he comes back, will you be found faithful? Will you be found faithful? And if you're not in the word, there's no way that you could be faithful if you're not in the word. There's a whole world out there right now. Dan, Jan, Diane, Serena, Gwen, we have so much opportunity to be a blessing to the world. We haven't even scratched the surface. Even with all the churches on every other corner, and even all the ministry that's going, we haven't scratched the surface because there are people when that trumpet blow and Jesus come on a white horse, are going to be found unfaithful. And Jan, I don't know if you know it by heart, but minister Serena, can you get Revelation 9 and 6? We got to have, we got to be found faithful people. We got to be found faithful because if you're not found faithful, okay, faith filled. Okay, watch this. If you're not found faithful, then when the trumpet blow, the dead in Christ will rise first. It says in Christ, it doesn't say out of Christ. So you better make sure before you take your last breath that you are in Christ. Watch this. He said they will rise first and then the rest of us will be caught up in the air to meet Jesus. What's going to happen to the other people? Tell them minister Serena, what does it say? Revelation 9 and 6. Revelation 9 and 6 out of the New King James Version reads as follows. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them. The word desire means they're going to want to commit suicide and death going to flee from them, going to run from them. I'm, every time I think about that, I almost get in tears when I think about the many people, Dan, that I've shared the gospel and they rejected me. Many, many, many people. I'm telling you, I had somebody, Jan, I sent a two minute inspiration and they text me back and they cursed me out and said, don't you ever send me this BS and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, I'm sorry, I must've had the wrong number. Be blessed. And I, and I, and I deleted it. And I was just thinking, all I said was, just trying to encourage you. I wasn't trying to convert you. I didn't even mention Jesus. I didn't mention accepting Jesus as Lord and personal Savior. Y'all have heard my inspirations. I try to make it so generic that it's just encouraging words, inspiration. But some people they see and they see God in that and they reject him. They don't, I don't take it personal. I do in a sense that I don't want to see nobody perish and go to hell. And that's why I teach the way I do. We just taught last night. Tonight, we're teaching. Tomorrow, I'm going to be teaching on Thursday night. Saturday, we're teaching at 10 a.m. Saturday night, we're teaching at 8 p.m. Sunday morning, I'm teaching at St. James at 10. Sunday afternoon at 12. My pastor appreciation, I'm teaching at that. Why? Because the hour is getting late and Jesus is soon to return. And the question is, as Dan just read, I'm going to put it back up here and then we're going to get ready to open up for any discussion. He just said here, the son, however, let me highlight it. However, when the son of man, son of man is Jesus, comes, we call it the rapture. The first Thessalonians call it snatching away. It's going to get so bad, Dan, so bad, Justin, that Jesus is going to say enough is enough and God's going to call him and he's going to come and get us. When the son of man comes, will he find this kind of persistent, faithful, that that woman was desperate and persistent in her faith? Will he find that on earth? And so I'm going to stop right there. Now, what I'd like for you to do, pick up from here. All right. James chapter one, verse five, read that. It's very important that you understand that. Then go to choose a topic. This here is the major scripture here. I wanted to get to, but we just ran out of time. Second Timothy three, 16 and 17. All scripture is inspired and breathed on by God. This is not Pastor Rob's scripture. It's God. Then here talks about, this is what your homework is because we're going to start here next in November, your personal study. I want you to be already ahead of this. I want you to read John chapter one, one through four. And then you're going to skip down and read John chapter one, 12 through 14. But I want you to read the entire book of John, John one, all the way to the last chapter. All right. Then I want you to read Psalms, Psalms one. Start with the Psalms. Take your time. Don't go no further than the book of John and the book of Psalms. We got a month. You got a month. Just chip away a little bit at a time. Start out with John. Read a chapter. Highlight. Use your highlighter. Any questions that you have, do not wait. Send them to me. Pastor Rob, I was studying what does this mean? All right. And I'll make sure that you understand it so that when we come back, it'd be real easy discussion. Then this is what I'm going to tell you. Then you guys would be like, excuse me, Pastor Rob. This is, you'll be. So in other words, I want to create an environment where we're all mature believers and understand the word for ourselves. I want you to trust the word. I'm just a partner. I want to be a partner with you. And that's it. I don't want you to depend on me to give you something that you have the ability to learn yourself. You know why? Because God is a jealous God. Don't be putting me up on no pedestal. Oh, I'll just get it from Pastor Rob. No, you better learn it yourself because I'm going to tell you, no, go study for yourself. So anyway, thank you guys so much. Are there any questions? Anybody want to say anything? I'll start with Dan and Diane. Anything you guys want to share? No, thank you for beginning the study. And that's my sharing is that I'm grateful to get into this. Amen. Thank you so much, Dan. I've been reading Psalms quite a bit lately, and I'm really glad that you've selected that as one of the things that we're going to look at. There's an awful lot of good stuff in there. And I think there's some questions I have to ask too. Absolutely. There's some words. And first, if you're studying the King James, I would advise everybody. And if you have a computer, I can send you a link. I will send it to you. So you don't have to go out and buy all these Bibles. But I use Bible Gateway. And I'm going to show you. Let me just put it on the screen for you guys. I use Bible Gateway. It is a phenomenal book that helps me to study. Let me show you how I study this, and then we'll move over. See, BibleGateway.com. Here it is here. And all you got to do is go in the box and put the scripture in there. Or it says, read the Bible. And it'll take you from Genesis to Revelation. But what you can do, I want you to start with John. But watch this. So I got the amplified version here. But if you click this arrow, you can go down to the Common English Bible. OK. And it's going to give you what the Common English Bible. Now, Melissa Serena, she liked to use the New Living Translation, right? So that is right here. OK. So it gives you another perspective. I like to stick to the King James and the Common English. But sometimes some words you don't understand. And these scriptures, I'm going to tell you which one really breaks it down for you, is the amplified. It'll break those words and put them in parentheses for you. And believe it or not, there's another one here called the International Children's Bible. I'm telling you, we're children of God, right? Watch this. International Children's Bible, it breaks it down even more so that we can understand it. So BibleGateway.com. And just put, you can have your way with this. There's commentaries in Bible over here to the right where it says commentaries. You can see what Matthew Henry had to say about it. You can see there's encyclopedias. There's dictionaries. So if you're stuck on a word, Dan, click on dictionary. And it'll help you. All these resources are right at your disposal. And it's free. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Dan. Jen, anything you want to share? I'm good. You feel okay? Yeah. All right. Now you got to give me. That's just like one thing I've done today. So I'm starting to kind of. I know. All right. All right. Now don't, are you telling me Pastor Rob is a little boring? No, no, he's not stopped all day. I know. I understand. Love you, sis. All right. Minister Serena. I feel like Jan, you know, I started off at 340. The word never boring. But you know, Jesus, he's clever. Oh yeah. No, I understand. This is powerful. I thank God. Cause God have our plans. Our life is already scripted. I call it already. He already know what he want us to do. And I like when you said discipline ourselves and spend more time with him. He said, you draw closer to me. I'll draw closer to you. And you said that I was getting late. I wouldn't rather be no place than here with Justin sharing the good news. But they asked me today, why do you come up here every day? What else am I going to do? I can come home and study this word, but the word is no good until I put it into action. Faith is not alive until you activate, believe it, trust it. Diane and Dan, I had surgery. You all may not. I made a replacement. My left foot, the doctor said, looks like Home Depot. You can check with Pastor Rob. I haven't stopped. The doctor said, I heal like I'm 20 years old. Here's a 20 year old. You see him? He's with my foot here. The power of prayer. The power of prayer and the power of faith. And God is a rock keeper. And I thank Pastor Rob because he said to teach us how to learn this word. When I learned in Proverbs 8, where Jesus couldn't wait, and he was the master craftsman with God. Everything was made through Jesus. He said he couldn't wait to interact and fellowship with making us the sons of man, his daily delight. So he was excited to just fellowship with us. I say he loves us so much. So let me delight in his word every day. But I think this is a wonderful, wonderful teaching us how to pray. And you know, this is an overflow and bonds are going to be broken. And just a wonderful pleasure to have this little 20 year old. So let me hear from Justin now. Hey, Justin, did you get anything out of the lesson tonight? Yep. I mean, I've heard a lot of different things. And I am new to, you know, what in St. James, St. James United Church. I'm really new to this. But there's a lot of good things I've heard. And thank you for the time of, you know, sharing, you know, letting us sit here and hear the word. We are we are. That's just the name of our church, Justin. But we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. I, the Lord sent me over there about seven, be seven years in this coming April. And they fell in love with me. I fell in love with them. And we show people that people of opposite races can get along and respect one another. They're my brothers and sisters. And I love them. And I appreciate their faithfulness. Um, because while God is wanting to look for faithfulness on the earth, as me, as a man of God, I'm looking for faithful people. I've been around a whole lot of fakers. And when I found people like them, that even when they don't feel good, they come out. Even when, I mean, they, they sometimes don't even like to tell them, uh, pastor, we're not going to be here next week. We're going to be out of town. I say, you gotta be rejoicing. You're going to recreate. But that's how they feel. Jan is the same way. I'll be gone for two weeks, but I'll be thinking about you, you know? And so I love it. You know, I love that. And we love them. Sister Gwen, anything real quick? It's almost eight o'clock. Yeah. And Serena took up all your time. Anything you want to share, Sister Gwen? Thank you. Thank you. I just enjoyed, enjoyed all that you've taught today. And it's a refresher, a lot of it, but I'm, I'm enjoying it. I just think it's wonderful that I'm writing down some of the stuff that I missed and, but some of the rest of it, I'm staying right with and going right along with you guys. So thank you again for, for having me on tonight. All right. Well, praise God. We thank you too. Thank you all for joining those of you on Facebook, on the prayer line. Thank you for joining in. I will, I did make a recording, uh, Jan and, uh, Dan, I'll send that to your, uh, inbox on your email. So you will have that. Minister Serena, I'll send it to your phone and Sister Gwen and all the rest of you all. I'll post it as well. Where are you broadcasting from, sir? Um, this is on Zoom. Yes. What state are you in? Oh, Michigan, Michigan, Michigan. Very Michigan. Yeah. We're in Michigan and we have some Arizona here. We also have some people from California on the prayer line. And so we're all over the place. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia's represented my mom. And so just so thankful and grateful for all of you all. But listen, if they don't want, I went over and Father God, in the name of Jesus, we just bless you tonight. We thank you for your goodness and your mercy. I see my brothers and my sons over in Africa, Brother Darlington, my Riffy. I see them on tonight. Lord bless them. I see my sister Janice Mills from Arizona on. Bless her, Lord. Sister Janice Johnson, LaRonda, Mother Betty, Jan, all of them, Lord. Thank you for their faithfulness. Thank you for their giving to this ministry as well. We love you. We give you glory and honor in Jesus' name. Thank God and amen. God bless you all. Get some rest now, Jan. All right. Take care. All right. Good night.