James 5:7-19

Intro

Hey y’all how are you? Is everyone good?

Who is ready for fall break?

cool cool.

So tonight we are going to be in the book of James, and this is going to be a little bit different of a sermon.

Well, if you have bible, open up to James 5:7-19. If you need a bible, there should be some around you. Throw a hand up and someone will pass you one.

We are going to finish out the book of James,

and what I want you to see is James is closing his letter.

And by closing it he is giving some final instructions, saying here is what to do now.

Here is what this whole letter has been leading up to.

and so lets recap James,

James has been about 2 major things, it s been, Steadfastness in following Jesus and a faith that works.

a faith that is real.

So this is what James leaves us with.

Context

So last week James painted a picture of how quick our lives are,

how not long we are here.

A mist, that dew that you don’t notice is gone until it is.

That our life is building towards the age to come,

So, James here is answering the question,

what do we now?

So let me give you some context.

these are the last words we have from James,

and what he is doing here is tying the book together.

basically asking the question, now what?

What do we do while we are waiting on the lord?

What does life look like while we wait on Christ to come back?

Cause here is the reality, we live in this in between place, still, just as the people this was written to

We know that Restoration has started, but everything hasn’t been fully restored and so here we are.

In the already but not yet.

So what do we do?

So we need to be able to answer a question.

so here is what i want you be able to do when we leave James.

I want you to be able to answer the question — what does it mean to follow Jesus? I want you to be able to answer it better.

My hope for you is that you would be able to give an honest response to the question, how do you follow jesus.

Cause here is what this world needs.

It needs Christians with an answer that is better than “Well just believe”

We need to be able to answer the how, what does it mean to actually pick up our feet and follow Jesus.

So lets read this together and this about these three things.

but be fore we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word

pray

James 5:7–20 ESV

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. 12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. 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.

P1 - Cultivate patience

Okay, so this is a big chunk of scripture.

But like James does a lot in this book, look at the imagery.

James is always painting pictures,

He says, Be patient, there fore, throwing it back to last week, life is fast, Christ is coming, ultimate restoration is on the way,

Be patient.

and here is the image James paints, And I love this,

Its this picture of a farmer cultivating his fields,

Its this picture of a farmer. Who is working the fields.

Saying, you be patient like the farmer who is waiting on the rains and the crops to come in, be patient like this.

Establish your hearts he says, for the coming of the lord is at hand.

And so, James is saying cultivate patience in your lives. So what kind of patience is this?

it is a forward thinking patience. It is a patience that see the long game of life,

it is a patience that sees beyond tomorrow.

We have talked about this a good bit, but our culture has set up a world that we can have anything we want when we want it.

And what this does to us, is it dulls us.

It dulls us to not be able to think beyond next week for the most part.

And so having a patience that is active, not idle, is what James is asking

So let me pull back the veil a little bit on how we operate here at FBC Gray in the student world.

So at best, you are apart of this group for 6 years. 6-12th grade, that is if you start with us in 6th grade, and go all the way through 12th grade.

So let me ask you a question, 6th graders do you know what you’ll be doing in 6 years?

12th graders, did you know in 6th grade what you’d be doing this year?

probably not,

so this is how we have to think,

if we get you in 6th grade, we won’t know if we have done our job until you graduate, and we won’t know if we did it well until your sophomore year of college.

So we have to be patient in how we plan things.

And this may not seem like it has to do much with what James is talking about, but do you know how farmers work?

Farmers work in seasons. Farmers work with the long game in mind.

Farmers know that you have to rotate crops in to different fields,

farmers know when to plant things, and when they plant it, they already know when they’re gonna harvests.

James is saying, we need to treat out faith like a farmer, cultivating and forward looking patience.

James is warning against an idle patience.

Because all too often when we here the word patience, what do you think to do?

Be patient.

that means hold still, wait.

But that is not what we are called to do.

James is saying, there is work to be done, you need to work in the rhythm of seasons, looking to Christ coming back, asking, how can we get the gospel to as many people as possible.

P2 - steadfastness

P3 - communities

Timeless Truth -

Truth for our context

P2Christ Isaiah 55.