Untitled Sermon (2)

James 5:13-20

MIT - God has given his people the gift of Prayer and Confession to navigate all of life’s circumstances.

MIS - Wholehearted Faith is demonstrated through Prayer and Confession

Intro:

Go ahead and turn to James 5:13-20

Ending the series on James

Who has enjoyed this series so far?

What is prayer? - Prayer is simply conversing with God

What causes prayerlessness? - Pride. JT definition “Pride is trading God’s definition of you and others, for your definition of you and others.”

2 sides of the Pride Coin: Arrogance and Insecurity

Read James 5:13

Prayer Is God's Prescription For The Human Condition

What is the human condition? - We live in a fallen world and our temptation is to view our lives through our circumstances

Is anyone among you suffering (in trouble), let them pray

Anxiety about the future, Isolation, Academic pressure and burnout, Financials, Relationship pain, Comparison, Spiritual dryness.

Is anyone cheerful (happy), let them praise

James 1:17 - Every good and perfect gift is from above

Both words “pray” and “sing praise” convey an ongoing active seeking of the Lord. Not a one time action to elicit a response.

Prayer keeps us in God's story

Healing Begins Where Secrecy Ends v14-15

Bringing sickness to light, admitting you can’t handle it on your own

Elders bring spiritual maturity, wisdom, and order to the church community

Not all sickness is caused by sin, but there are sins that lead to sickness

Complete healing will ultimately come in eternity. We will always experience some level of brokenness on this side of heaven.

Tension between hope and reality

What I know:

God heals people and it rarely looks like what we expect

Confession is admitting to and waging war with the sin in our lives v16-18

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Confession kills the temptation to live in secret

Haunted house example

Righteousness (right standing with God) is only obtained through Jesus

Elijah as an example of righteous, fervent prayer

Perseverance Is A Community Responsibility

“If one of YOU should wander” - this is someone within the community…”and SOMEONE should should bring them back” - again someone in the community

We are all prone to wander - Come Thou Fount “prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

Some wanderings are inadvertent, others are evidence

Our responsibility is not to judge but rather, in love, hold people accountable to the faith they profess and win people for Jesus. Believing that only God ultimately knows whose faith is genuine and whose is false.

Preach Christ in all these areas!

Believing in gods power while trusting in his will

So why is this so important? Tonight we have talked about prayer, confession, healing, and community.