Sermon Tone Analysis

All About That Christian Life | James 5:13-20

It's hard to believe, but we're wrapping up our sermon series in James this morning.

I don't know about you, but this book has been such a blessing.

When we opened the series, we spoke about having joy, even in the most difficult of times.

James spoke about this even in our passage last week, where he encouraged the Christian to be patient.

James spoke to this church about temptation and how the Christian cannot blame God for temptation but must overcome their desires.

He then reminded us that good intentions are not good enough as they must be followed by action.

James warned these Christians in chapter two about showing partiality, in chapter three about our words and seeking godly wisdom instead of the wisdom from the world.

And in chapters four and five, James condemned the arrogantly presumptuous, and the oppressive rich from taking advantage of those less fortunate.

Today, we'll be in James 5:13-20 as we wrap up our sermon series.

I want to share something quickly before we get into the passage.

About a week and half ago, a mutual friend and acquaintance of Natalie and I reached out to us.

Fairly random and unexpected.

After engaging, she revealed that she was agnostic and had some questions about God and Christianity.

During our conversation, I saw myself, not only speaking about God's grace and His plan of salvation through Jesus, but I found myself referencing relationship and - in so many words - the family like community of our church specifically.

I've shared this before, but the acceptance and the relationships that I've built since surrendering to Christ when I was 17 were the things that attracted me to the faith to begin with.

It is also one of the reasons why picking this church was very easy for us back in 2010.

I share this because after studying the passage we're going to read in a few moments, I realized that James has done an incredible job in this section in pulling out what the Christian lifestyle should look like.

Follow along as we read James 5:13-20.

13 IS ANYONE AMONG YOU SUFFERING?

LET HIM PRAY.

IS ANYONE CHEERFUL?

LET HIM SING PRAISE.

14 IS ANYONE AMONG YOU SICK?

LET HIM CALL FOR THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH, AND LET THEM PRAY OVER HIM, ANOINTING HIM WITH OIL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.

15 AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH WILL SAVE THE ONE WHO IS SICK, AND THE LORD WILL RAISE HIM UP.

AND IF HE HAS COMMITTED SINS, HE WILL BE FORGIVEN.

16 THEREFORE, CONFESS YOUR SINS TO ONE ANOTHER AND PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER, THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED.

THE PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS PERSON HAS GREAT POWER AS IT IS WORKING.

17 ELIJAH WAS A MAN WITH A NATURE LIKE OURS, AND HE PRAYED FERVENTLY THAT IT MIGHT NOT RAIN, AND FOR THREE YEARS AND SIX MONTHS IT DID NOT RAIN ON THE EARTH.

18 THEN HE PRAYED AGAIN, AND HEAVEN GAVE RAIN, AND THE EARTH BORE ITS FRUIT.

19 MY BROTHERS, IF ANYONE AMONG YOU WANDERS FROM THE TRUTH AND SOMEONE BRINGS HIM BACK, 20 LET HIM KNOW THAT WHOEVER BRINGS BACK A SINNER FROM HIS WANDERING WILL SAVE HIS SOUL FROM DEATH AND WILL COVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS.

While there seems to be a lot to unpack here, I'm going to try to make it as simple as possible.

Let's begin by identifying the main idea from this passage:

A Christian's life is characterized by prayer, worship, and fellowship.

Not only will this be the main idea for our time today, but this will also be the outline in which we will discuss:

THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN

The life of a Christian is full, and what we'll see is that it is full of four primary areas that James describes for us in this passage today.

First, the Christian's life is ...

* Full of prayer

o James addresses TWO TYPES OF PRAYER in this passage:

* Individual prayer

* Verse 13, James tells the suffering to pray.

* The person he addresses here is the one who is afflicted.

The one who is under duress or in the midst of a trail.

* This is a command to that Christian that has been patiently waiting and enduring

* The word used here is in the present tense, so it could literally be translated "let him keep on praying"

* The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians to do the same thing, "pray without ceasing"

* Prayer drives us to fellowship with the Lord

o In it, we can praise Him

o In it, we can confess

o In it, we can refocus

o In it, we can make requests

* There is so much prayer can do for a believer

o Prayer is also how one can come to faith in the Lord

* Prayer is hard though.

Sometimes we don't know what to pray or even how to pray.

* James, yet again, provides us another example, this time in the form of the prophet Elijah, a man that he describes is just like you and I. Elijah's prayer of faith caused it to stop raining - and it did, and when three and half years passed, he prayed for the rain to return - and it did.

* Aside from reliance on the Holy Spirit, there are some prayer models out there that we can use to guide us.

I'll provide you with two examples.

o A.C.T.S.

* Adoration

* Confession

* Thanksgiving

* Supplication

o Or my new favorite: T.A.C.O.S.

* Thanksgiving

* Adoration

* Confession

* Others

* Self

* In the end, prayer must be primary in the Christian's life.

* Next, we see ...

* Intercessory prayer

* Intercessory prayer means that someone is praying for you and on your behalf.

We see several examples of this in the Old and New Testaments:

o Moses continually came before the Lord on behalf of Israel.

o Jesus in John 17 prayed for His disciples

o We read that Paul always prayed for his churches and his fellow workers.

* This means that we're a part of each other's lives, and it also means that we're being open in dialogue with one another.

* Prayer is important to God.

So much in fact, we read in Revelation 5:8 that at least some of the prayers of the saints were stored up in golden bowls as incense.

* James says in verse 14 that the sick are to go to the elders for prayer, and that the prayer of faith will save them.

o Praying the prayer of faith indicates that the one who is praying believes that God can heal, so he leaves the results to Him.

* This word "sick" here is an interesting one.

It could refer to one who is physically sick, and it could refer to the one who is spiritually sick.

* Sick could also be translated "weak"

* Interestingly, this word, when used in the Gospels and Acts it is normally speaking of the physically sick, but when used in the letters, it generally speaks to the spiritually sick.

* So, what does this tell us?

In short ...

o If you are physically sick, take it to the church leadership

o If you are spiritually sick, take it to the church leadership

o Why?

Because they are super holy?

No.

o Why?

Because they have special oil that can heal all things?

No.

o Prayer is powerful.

When multiple people are lifting your weaknesses before God, it is powerful.