James 5:7-20 - The Right Tool

How many of you have ever tried to loosen a rusted & rounded nut? How many of you have ever tried to apply paint with something other than a can, a brush or a roller? A Phillips head #2 screwdriver is a great tool, but it is useless to paint a wall. A handsaw is a great invention, but does very little good if trying to move snow or earth.

Let me illustrate with a little experiment. – [supplies needed: hammer, power drill, 2 blocks of wood, 2 nails & 2 washers.] Ask 2 teenagers to volunteer to affix a nail through a washer into a 2x4 1 with a hammer & 1 with a drill.

In our lives we tend to look at an obstacle and respond with the wrong tool. Man can’t get along with each other and we want the government to make it right. Some children are lazy and we expect education to make them productive. Some people have sinful hearts and we expect society to be more accepting.

Over simplified “Christianity” may respond with “here is a verse, just have faith. After all Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please him and Luke 1:37 promises nothing will be impossible with God.”

I completely believe both of these verses, but there is still room for how we apply faith in various situations!

Transition: As James concludes his letter, the Holy Spirit gives 4 obstacles that need spiritual tools to bring about godly resolution.

Patience: the antidote for worry (James 5:7-11)

Patience involves changes (v.7)

By illustrating with a farmer James is calling attention to the entire process of plant, germinate, sprout, stalk, and finally fruit. The plant is changing throughout and some of us don’t handle change real well.

Any cook knows that chopped onions mellow when sautéed until they are soft and that the flavor of a soup is always better after the ingredients have simmered for an hour.

2. Sometimes those changes happen in the thing we worry about, other times the changes happen within the worrier.

Patience resets expectations (vv.8-9)

Establish your hearts – find something that gives confidence. We saw in the last 2 sermons that confidence is not found in our control or our wealth. Confidence comes from a God who is at work!

At hand; at the door – 2 phrases that remind of God’s proximity, not linear action

The prophets who spoke – God has provided dozens of judges, kings, and prophets who spoke of God’s promises and fulfillment.

1 Corinthians 10:6 ESV:2016

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

1 Corinthians 10:11 ESV:2016

11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

4. Patience allows us to be changed by God’s presence

Patience sometimes has no evidence (v.11)

Some of you have been praying for a loved one for years and it looks like nothing is happening.

I told you a couple of weeks ago about my smoker that died between the 2 and 1 stages of my cook. A week ago the replacement part arrived and the 10 minute YouTube video only took me 3 hours to complete the repair. Anyone who has worked with machines knows that 4 years of heating and cooling (especially in a smoky greasy environment) means that screws that went in easily do not come out as easily. Some of the screws I had to drill out and replace. Others just needed a little patience.

I squirted the WD-40 and had to let it sit. There was no evidence that the spray was doing anything. It didn’t smoke, it didn’t sizzle, it didn’t change color of the screw. It just appeared to sit there. But after some time, the screw that would not budge before suddenly began to turn under the pressure of the right tool.

2. V.11 reminds us that Job did nothing to change his situation, but by waiting, God brought about a reversal. Often we just need to apply the oil of the Holy Spirit and wait for God to do what only He can do!

Transition: God’s presence doesn’t only transform us, it drives out all falsehood.

Truth: the remedy for plentiful words (James 5:12)

I believe v.12 is our attention away from perceived circumstance, because our perception may be wrong.

I can’t promise based upon the way I think things are in heaven/earth or spiritual/natural worlds. I can only testify and rely upon God’s revelation.

Condemnation falls when our claims are proven to be false. (look back at 4:15)

A polished pitch

1. One part of being a pastor that I still struggle with 35 years in is strangers asking for money. I tend to swing to the end of the pendulum by either “giving away the store” or being abrupt or stingy.

2. I have learned that contacting other pastors usually reveals when someone is just going through a calling list.

3. Their stories often start simple, then the more I let them talk or ask more questions, they frequently talk themselves into a circle where the falsehood gets exposed (fall under condemnation).

Transition: Based upon the truth of who God is and what He promises to do, we align ourselves with Him through prayer. Prayer is not primarily about asking, it is primarily about aligning ourselves with God. How does the Lord’s prayer begin?

Prayer: the solution for weakness (James 5:13-18)

Solo prayer/praise (suffering– 13a)

Some things are just between you and the Lord.

The prayer/praise instruction is directed at a personal awareness of God in your life.

· Sometimes we find ourselves like Moses in Exodus 17 and we need Aaron and Hur to help us stay focused on what God is doing! My preaching has more unction when I know Marie is praying daily, I hear our people pray for me before the service or in prayer groups.

Community elders of the church (sickness – 14-15b)

The prayer, anoint and oil of these verses have been twisted in many situations, it is imperative that we read clearly what this says and what it doesn’t say!

Initiated by the sick person

Prayer of the representatives of the church

Anointing (applying a liquid) with oil (cleansing, fragrant, or therapeutic)

Faith of the sick person AND the elders.

The Lord(not the faith healer) raises [with no time schedule]

Soul Sickness (sins – 15c-16)

We tend to go straight from anointing (previous verses) to exorcism.

What if honest confession is the doorway to healing?

There are varying levels of correlation, causation or coincidence between spiritual disobedience and physical health

Sometimes the Holy Spirit brings something to your remembrance personally (v.13) and sometimes the prompting of others in the body (v.14) are the words that bring about needed confession.

As protestants we resist the sacrament of confession, but we never ought to neglect the act of confession. Notice the contrast between v.9 and v.16: do not grumble against one another; but pray for and confess to one another!

Seasons of waiting (17-18)

James illustrates this with one example of 42 months before an answer was given

Yes, Jesus told the paralytic to take up his mat and walk immediately, but God intentionally waited with Elijah, and sometimes healing doesn’t happen until after the grave.

Lack of an instant miracle is NOT an indication of lacking faith or weak pastors. It is a recognition that God is always on time! He is rarely early, He is never late!

Transition: From suffering and sickness, James moves to what is in my opinion a much more essential need...

Restoration: the response to wandering (James 5:19-20)

If you wander - (return)

The 1758 hymn Come Thou Fount shines a spotlight on a weakness of EVERY human being.

v. 2 states “Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;”

v.3 makes it even more explicit when we admit

“Let that grace now, like a fetter,

bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love;

here’s my heart; O take and seal it;

seal it for thy courts above.”

2. I don’t care if this is your first time in this sanctuary or if you’ve been walking with the Lord longer than the 54 years that I have. EVERY true Christian has some recognition of our proneness to wander. This doesn’t make you an unsavable person, it means you and I are humans in need of something outside ourselves.

If you encounter a wanderer – restore (brings back)

Sin is rarely a personal matter. Your wandering impacts the body.

If your sickness is connected to sin, the leaders of the church hurt for you.

If you’re wandering in sin, the whole body aches and yearns for your spiritual health!

Fast forward 200 years and Kurt Kaiser wrote another Christian song that communicates the heart of a Christian who encounters a wanderer”

I wish for you my friend This happiness that I’ve found.

You can depend on Him, It matters not where you’re bound

I want the world to know

The Lord of Love Has come to me

I want to pass it on.”

Application

Notice how the book ends: cover a multitude of sins

I don’t think James has in mind the sins of the wanderer, but, rather, the sins of whoever brings back a sinner.

He has spent 5 chapters talking primarily about the shortcomings of those in the church. You and I experience temptation, quarrels, partiality, apathy, wagging tongues, over confidence in ourselves, and unconfessed sin.

The Holy Spirit is calling all of us to the ministry of reconciliation! By doing so, we have the great pleasure of saving others from death and covering a multitude of our own shortcomings.

Conclusion:

Patience, Truth, Prayer & Restoration – These are spiritual tools for spiritual problems.

The world strongly favors just 2 tools to fix most problems: the screwdriver of Education & the hammer of Funding. But neither a screwdriver nor a hammer is going to do much good if you need to turn a bolt or plant a row of seed.

Instead of trusting either political party to funnel programs and dollars toward issues of concern, what if we realized that spiritual problems need spiritual solutions.

What if we allowed the Holy Spirit to instill peace and patience where we are consumed with worry and hurry?

What if we committed to live according to God’s truth, rather than our own made up ideas?

What if we first prayed about our suffering and sought God’s help with the sickness and sins of our lives?

What if wandering were the exception and our greatest obsession was to see sinners restored to fellowship with God and man?

Reduced inflation, tax and spend initiatives, military security are not the tools that will fix lives that are broken by sin. You and I need the Holy Spirit to transplant my selfish heart and replace it with gospel-fueled restoration and reconciliation.