James 5:13-20

Good morning, if you have your Bibles turn to James 5:13-20

This is our last sermon in the book of James

Today we are talking about “3 reasons why you need the local church

One of the biggest problems in America today is that many professing Christians don’t value the local church.

- Watching a sermon at home is a substitute for church

- The local church is an unnecessary part of the Christian life

I hope to prove to you this morning from James 5, that there are at least 3 reasons why you need the local church.

Follow along with me as I read James 5:13-20

13 Is anyone among yousuffering? 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.[b] 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.

Pray

The main theme of verses 13-18 is prayer

If you look at verses 13-18 prayer is mentioned in every verse

The word prayer is mentioned in every verse,

The word prayer is used 7 times

And he is specifically mentioning the role of prayer within the Christian community

In Verse 13

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

That is why he uses the phrase “among you”

James is addressing people within the Christian community

Every circumstance in life ought to be responded to with either prayer or a praise.

If you are here this morning and you are suffering (physically, emotionally)

- You first response should be to pray for yourself

- We should pray for ourself before we ask someone else to pray for us.

At the same time James encourages us to sing praises to God during the good times of life

- Joy

- Cheerful

- Happy

I don’t know how to explain it, but there is something just so sweet about praising God and singing, and thanking God when we experiencing joy in this life.

Verse 14 James address what a Church member should do if they find themselves sick.

Look at Verse 14 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.

This is a situation where someone so sick that they cannot get out of bed and they are unable to go meet with the church.

That is why it says that they must “call for the elders of the church” to visit them.

Lets stop here and think for a moment

Who are the Elders of the Church?

Some of you might not be familiar with the term “Elders” because that term is not used very often in Southern Baptist churches.

But this is actually a reference to what we normal call the pastors of a local church.

Let me show you one example that demonstrates that Elders are Pastors from 1 Peter 5:1

1 Peter 5:1-4 (turn there Leave finger in page)

5 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Peter Exhorts “elders” to do the work of “shepherding the flock of God”

This word “shepherding” is where we get the word pastor

Peter uses the term elders to refer to the pastors of the local church

3 Terms in Scripture.

Now let’s go back to James 5:14

Now that we have established that Elders are pastors

Lets look at what the Elders are called to do when they get to the sick person 

Verse 14

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.

- Pray over him

- Anoint him with oil with

- In the name of the Lord

In Verse 15 the goal of this gathering of the elders.

Verse 15

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 Goal of the prayer is that this sick person would be healed.

And if his sickness was brought about by some sin he has committed than he will be forgiven of that sin.

Why should the elders anoint the sick person in oil?

As Baptists we are very skeptical of anything that looks religious.

Or anything that looks like a ritual

Using oil when praying for somebody naturally seems strange to us.

What is the purpose or meaning of the oil?

Anointing with Oil is used throughout the bible as an act of setting someone apart for a divine purpose.

- Kings were anointed, priests

In the same way, the oil during this prayer for healing symbolizes committing a sick person to God in order for God to heal them

- The oil is not magical, it doesn’t guarantee that the sick person would be healed,

- But it is something that can be done alongside the prayer for the sick in order to commit them to God for healing.

It is important for all of us here to know that

If anyone in our church winds up seriously sick, and they are unable to get out of bad.

you can call us and we will come pray over you.

- We cannot guarantee your healing but we can pray over you.

- Pray over you that God would heal you of your illness.

First reason why you need the local church.

1. The local church cares about you during every season of your life.

The preachers on TV are not going to visit you when you are your sick

- But you know who will, your pastors

- Your church members

- Deacons while. (whole group of people)

The Preachers on TV aren’t going to be with you during the highs and lows of life encouraging you to pray and praise God during every moment

But your local church will.

- We simply are not meant to follow Jesus alone.

- We are created for to do life within the community of our brother’s and sisters in Christ

That is one of the reasons why God created the local church.

Now let’s move on to Verse 16

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.

Did you know that unconfessed sin can hinder the effectiveness of your prayers.

A life with little or no confession of sin is a life with little to no power in prayer

Some of us have elephant sized sins in our life and then we come to God in prayer acting like they don’t exist.

- God want you to address that sin first.

James says here that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

The righteous person is not righteousbecause they don’t sin, they are righteous because they confess their sin and turn from it and turn to faith in Christ daily.

Look at who James tells us to confess our sin to in Verse 16

Verse 16 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.

We should confess our sin to one another

I don’t think this is saying you need to confess every sin to everybody in the church.

That actually would not be helpful to anybody.

You do need people in your life who are safe to confess your sin too.

These are people who are not going to gossip about you after

- Their response is, I am so proud of you for having the courage to talk with me.

- Love you and they pray for you.

You need people like this in your life.

But,where are you going to find these people?

Find them in your local church.

The second reason you need the local church

2. The Local church provides you with people to confess your sin too.

You might be thinking, isn’t it enough to just confess my sin to Godand not talk about it with other people.

- Well, you should confess your sin to God.

But If you never talk to other people aboutyour sin than you are missing out on the blessing of having another brother or sister encourage and pray for you.

The pattern James is putting before us today is that we should confess our sin to one another before we pray for one another.

And by doing this our prayers become more effective

Verse 17 James give us an example of a righteous man praying.

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.

When you hear the name Elijah you are probably thinking, Spiritually speaking Elijah way up there

- He is like one of holiest of holy People

- Man of the cloth

James is telling us in Verse 17that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours”

Elijah was a sinner just like you and me

But because he was a man of repentance and faith

God made his prayers powerful.

In the same way, God blesses the prayers of those who confess their sin and turn from it in faith.  

I want to encourage everybody here this morning to find people to whom you can confess your sin too.

- And I want you to be the kind of person that people are willing to also confess their sin too.

-

By doing this we strengthen one another’s faith and help one another follow Christ

Now lets look at our last two Verse 19-20

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.

One of the most heartbreaking challenges and realities within every local church is that there are people who professed faith in Jesus.

- They stepped into this baptismal and been baptized

- They are on the membership papers today

- They have served along side you in this church in years past

- But today they are wondering from the faith.

They have embraced a life of sin.

- They reject God with their life

- And you honestly can’t tell the difference between them and an unbeliever.

We all know people who fall into this category

And maybe our first thought is maybe they were never really a Christian or maybe they were never really saved.

- Said the right things

- Did the right things – Never truly were believer

- That may be the case

Our first response to these people should not be to immediately assume that they are not Christians.

Our first response is reach out to them and call them back to the truth they have said they believe.

That is what James is teaching us.

Verse 19-20 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.

Let me tell you the Third reason you need the church.

3. The local church guards your soul from wandering.

God has designed the local church to be a people who keep one another from wondering from the truth.

- Just like the song says we are all a people who are prone to wonder.

- If you aren’t a member of a local church

- Then you don’t have someone to hold you accountable

You are like a freelancer in the middle of war

- You are not safe

- You are in an unsafe place spiritually.

- This is one of the reasons why God wants you to be a part of a local church.

Verse 19-20 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.

Wondering from the faith is a serious matter that if not corrected leads to death.

- But if we can call back the wonderer than we become the means by which God rescues their soul from death and all their sins will be covered.

- Brothers and sisters pay attention to those that you know who are wondering and do what you can to help come back to the truth.

This morning, I have given you at least three reasons why you need the local church

1. The local church cares about you during every season of your life.

2. The Local church provides you with people to confess your sin too.

3. The local church guards your soul from wandering.

If you are here this morning, and you are a member of this church

I hope that this message reminded you of how valuable to this community of believers

- As members of this church we all have a certain level of responsibility for one another’s spiritual health

- We should pray for one another

- We should confess sin to one another

- And we should call one another to repentance when someone among us is wandering

- God has given each of us a vital role in the ministry that is taking place here in Centreville.

-

If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus

- I want you to know today that God loves you and he wants to have a relationship with you.

- And even though you are a sinner deserving of hell and eternal separation from God

-  God the Father has sent his son Jesus to pay the penalty for your sin so that you can be made right with God.

- God is calling to you today and offering you forgiveness and entrance into His family.

- If you want to know God today than confess your sin to God and Tell him that you place your trust in him as your Lord and savior.

- Pray that he would help you love and follow Him the rest of your life and into eternity.

If you are  not a member of a local church, I want to encourage you today to take a step of obedience to Christ and pursue membership at a local church.

- If you live here we would love for you to be a part of our family

- If you live somewhere else and you need help finding a good church feel free to reach out to me or brother Gaylin and we can help you find a local church in your area.

- But all of us need the local church

Lets close in a word of prayer