Conversations With God

INTRODUCTION

Today we conclude our True Religion series with a message that is last but not least in James' thoughts.

James is famous for his down-to-earth, practical teaching.

Throughout the book, James hits on many issues about putting one's faith into action.

After all the practical moral teaching found in the book of James, James shifts gears to something vital in the life of one who belongs to Jesus.

Our message today is entitled, Conversations with God.

If one is going to walk with Jesus, we MUST be in constant conversation with Him.

We call this communication prayer.

Prayer is an underutilized gift we have from God.

Prayer is how we connect with God, express ourselves to God, and seek answers and guidance from God.

Imagine being in a relationship where there was no communication. Would that be a great relationship?

If we followed all that James has offered us thus far and fail in prayer, we would be moral people with no relationship or connection with God.

Where do you turn when things are rough? Who do you offer praise to when things are going well?

As James concludes his letter, he moves from a further warning against the abuse of wealth into a broad appeal to prayer.

Suffering?

Sick?

Sunk in sin?

The construction of these scenarios in the form of rhetorical questions points to the inevitability of these circumstances arising.

Prayer is the answer.

Sometimes we think we have the answer; sometimes, we try to go it alone without God.

James reminds us that prayer is the answer!

In verses 13-18, the word pray, prayer, and prayed is used in each of the verses (except verse 19).

Let's turn to James 5:13-15 for our opening thought.

James 5:13–15 (NET 2nd ed.)

13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises.

14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint 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.

SERMON

I. Reasons to pray.

In verses 13-15, we see that James offers four instances (and there are more) for one to communicate with God.

Prayer is not just closing your eyes and bowing your head but communicating with God.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NET 2nd ed.)

17 constantly pray,

When you love someone, you want to communicate with them as much as possible.

You want to share your sorrows and joys with the one you love.

The first instance where James directs us to pray is when we are suffering.

The context of the book of James is set behind people who were persecuted, and maybe because of the pressure they faced, at times, they were turning on one another.

James teaches his readers how to react to the changing circumstances and difficulties one faces.

The word "suffering" from verse 13 was used in conjunction with the troubles and calamities that the Old Testament prophets faced at the hands of others. It includes ill-treatment, oppression, and loss of property.

The word deals explicitly with oppression at the hands of others.

The readers of this letter were all too familiar with this issue.

When others are oppressing us, there are many ways in which we can react.

How do you react?

Anger, spite, or vengeance?

I know my initial reaction may often be to get angry or look for some way to get back at the one who causes my suffering.

Some folks like to make God the scapegoat for their issue.

James gives us the proper way to react, to pray!

God wants us to have a conversation with Him when we are being oppressed.

Who better to go to than GodGod?

When we are faced with these issues, what stops us from going right to prayer?

Could it be an issue of trust?

Do we not trust that God will care for things in His time?

I know we want it when we want it; we want to see the person who caused our issues to suffer now.

Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew that God would gladly accept the people's repentance of that dreaded city.

The Psalmist appeals to God to take care of the enemies throughout the Psalms.

Psalm 46:1 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 God is our strong refuge; he is truly our helper in times of trouble.

Prayer is the outpouring of the righteous heart to the Father whom it trusts.

James shifts the mood to another time we are called to communicate with God.

We are told to communicate with God when we are in good spirits!

"Pray when you are in trouble; sing when you are happy."

Both are natural attitudes for different circumstances of life.

Together they are logical and proper responses to changing moods and circumstances.

Enjoy the good times, and offer prayers of faith in the bad.

We are to sing praise to God.

What kind of relationship would we have with God if we just called out to him in times of trouble?

James also encourages us to pray when we are sick.

I will handle this part of the verse as speaking to the need for physical healing.

We are told that when we are sick, we are told to call the Elders of the church.

The word translated as "sick" also denotes one who is bedfast and has no strength; they are incapacitated because of the sickness.

One point we need to grasp here is that it is the responsibility of the one who is sick to call the Elders; it is not the Elder's job to wonder if a person is ill or not.

The Elders are to pray over and anoint the sick person with oil.

This was commonly olive oil which was used for a variety of medical purposes as well as to keep the skin hydrated in that dry climate.

James tells us we need to pray when we need spiritual restoration.

Look at verse 15 again.

James 5:15 (NET 2nd ed.)

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.

The word translated as "SAVE” can deal with physical healing or salvation issues.

We see that the one who is healed or saved is done so through the PRAYER OF FAITH.

If this is dealing with PHYSICAL healing, ONLY we would have a problem because not ALL who go through this process with be healed, but all who go through this process can be saved.

God will forgive the one who is repentant for the sin.

The context tells us we are dealing with physical sickness.

The word "sick" is translated 18 times in the New Testament with that meaning in mind. Still, commentator John MacArthur Jr. also notes the word is translated 14 times to denote emotional or spiritual weakness.

The word "sick" refers to physical illness only thrice in the epistles.

Struggles with sin often cause spiritual defeat, and the way to fix that is through repentance and confession.

A visit from the Elders of the church can be a time of encouragement and an opportunity to have some godly men come around you to encourage you.

The thought of restoration leads us to our next thought found in verse 16.

James 5:16 (NET 2nd ed.)

16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.

II. The heart of effective prayer.

I have talked about the issue of repentance before.

Why, in the middle of a discussion on prayer, would James start talking about confessing sins?

The issue here, once again, is repentance.

James turns to the church as a whole and reminds them that if they have issues with one another, they are to confess to one another and pray for one another.

The word "HEALED" here does not deal with physical healing but symbolically represents God's forgiveness and could deal with the healing of the relationships that were damaged by sin.

The thought in this verse is reminiscent of something Jesus said concerning presenting an offering to God.

Matthew 5:23–24 (NET 2nd ed.)

23 So then, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your gift.

In Proverbs 28:13 we also find this thought.

Proverbs 28:13 (NET 2nd ed.)

13 The one who covers his transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy.

When we have unconfessed sin or we have issues with our brother or sister in Christ, those issues can affect the effectiveness of our prayer life.

Imagine being in a relationship with someone and sinning against them.

Do you think that relationship would be healthy?

If you are holding on to unconfessed sin, it will weigh you down.

It is hard to open your heart to God when your heart is not open to Him.

If we doubt God can heal or God can forgive, we will not go to Him.

Earlier in James, in 1:6-8, James said:

James 1:6–8 (NET 2nd ed.)

6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind.

7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

8 since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways.

Let's turn to verses 16-18 for a final observation.

James 5:16–18 (NET 2nd ed.)

16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.

17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!

18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

III. Prayer in action.

James offers us a glimpse of prayer in action and what it can do.

James gives the example of the Prophet Elijah.

We tend to think people like Elijah are some higher form of being.

James quickly points out that Elijah was an ordinary person like the rest of us.

Elijah was a man with the same flaws the rest of us have.

King Ahab of Israel led the nation into Baal worship.

The nation was in bad shape, so God sent Elijah to warn the King to change.

Then Elijah prayed it would not rain and left.

It did not rain in the region for three and a half years.

Then God sent Elijah back to the King, and Elijah had his famous showdown with the prophets of Baal.

Long story short, the prophets of Baal could not make it rain; Elijah prayed to God, and it rained.

Elijah then had all the prophets of Baal destroyed.

To show how human Elijah was, when Ahab's wife, Queen Jezebel, called for Elijah to die, Elijah ran away and felt sorry for himself.

Conclusion

• Prayer can lead to many changes; it can cause God's providence to be exercised in a special way.

Matthew 17:20 (NET 2nd ed.)

20 He told them, “It was because of your little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.”

Ultimately prayer springs forth from our trust and faith in God.

Have you ever pondered what Jesus is saying in the Matthew passage?

When we face a variety of things in our life, let us discipline ourselves to first turn to God in prayer, we will be blessed in a mighty way for doing so.

As we close this series, our thought on the message is:

We learn to trust God by praying, and we learn to pray by praying.

Therefore, Pray.