Hopeful Prayer and Action

Week 11 of James and last one

James has talked about expecting our faith to be tested

being doers of the word and not hearers only(central theme of letter)

not showing discrimination

good works being an evidence of our faith

having control over our mouths

seeking wisdom from God who gives generously to those who ask

making ourselves distinctly different from the world

and having patience

found on our youtube page that I post on facebook each week if you have missed

wrapping up today

talk about personal journey through the book of James for me

James 5:13–20 ESV

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.

unique role as pastor; not going to answer for having good sermons or for raising money for buildings;

Matthew 28:19 “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” ; this is a command to all Christians

where does the pastor fit into that; Ephesians 4:11–12 “11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”

my duty is to equip the saints; The main way I do this is through the preaching of God's word; I open the bible, I explain the bible, I apply the bible, and then I call you to put the bible into action

James wraps up his letter with that call to action but uses prayer to do that

Home for Hope for All; cannot be that if we are only hearers of God’s word; we will never have community, never have fellowship, never be in each others lives to the point where we can call each other out in sin and point them to the truth; it is all grounded in putting prayer to action

spent more time in prayer this week than I have lately; church things and personal things; being a pastor is the second hardest and second most important thing besides my family; being a foster parent and a parent and a husband has been a great dose of medicine for me this week

our lives should have a focus in prayer; I emphasize scripture reading often; prayer is right up there; it is hard to pray if you don’t know scripture because you don’t know if you are in God’s will if you are out of God’s word

we find instruction in scripture, we grow in grace through scripture, and we grow in hope through scripture; our lives as followers of Jesus should be all about hope

Hope is at the Center of our Prayer

1800’s in England, George Muller operated several orphanages with thousands of children; he was known as a man of great faith and prayer; often criticized because he would not publicize the great needs of the ministry; instead he would go to God in prayer

breakfast one morning, there was no food; instead of panicking, he gathered the children around the table and thanked God for the food they were about to eat(remember there was no food)

knock on the door and a baker had shown up; couldn’t sleep the night before so he began to bake bread; loaded it into a cart and brought it to the orphanage; right behind him was a milk cart; the milk cart broke down right in front of the orphanage; went from nothing to a great meal for the hungry children

Müller didn't pray because he knew exactly how God would provide. He prayed because he knew God Himself. His hope was not in bread, money, or circumstances. His hope was in the character of a faithful God. Because he had hope, he prayed.

shift

in text, we see how we must submit ourselves to prayer and how it will bring us to action

Life Guides our Prayers

ever find it hard to know what to pray?; encourage that it is normal; times when it is obvious but others when we just aren’t sure; James helps us

James 5:13 ESV

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

suffering; tell about spiritual attacks this week; my instinct is to try to solve it myself but my track record is not good;

we have to instinctively go to prayer first; not when it gets worse, but first;

prayer is a way we communicate with God, not to just God; talk about the difference with having a conversation rather than hearing a lecture; do you have that friend that always wants to say something but when it is your time to speak, they stop listening?; prayer is a conversation

Do we audibly hear God? I have not ever, but we have the Holy Spirit in us that will guide us in our journey to honor God and seek righteousness; our conversation is not limited to asking God for things though

when times are good, we give him praise; are we a bunch of miserable people or can someone think of something right now to praise God for?; our songs are songs of praise; I specifically pick songs each week as a means for God to guide our hearts towards a growing admiration for him;

don’t just sing songs of praise at church, do it in private; talk about kids in the car singing praise songs

but it isn’t just with suffering or with joy; we must interact with God in all situations; James gives us another example

James 5:14 ESV

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.

sickness; could be many different kinds; with the anointing oil mentioned, we could make an assumption that it is a physical sickness; oil would be used for cleansing

elders of the church; not the old people; although most churches have a lot of prayer warriors that are advanced in age; but talking about men who hold the office of elder/pastor; the spiritual leaders of the church

you have seen people “lay hands” on people when they are prayer; when we pray over people, this is a way we can do that; you have seen me bring up people during church and pray over them; but you don’t have to be in the presence of them to lift them up; if you are sick and call me, I am going to pray for you

times in life where how we should pray is obvious; situations will dictate prayer, life events will dictate prayer; life will guide our prayer

Prayer Changes Things

we don’t pray just to make us feel good; believe in the power of prayer; believe that it is real and that when we pray along side of God’s will that he will answer

James 5:15 ESV

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.

believe that people are healed through prayer; Use Rovetta and her health issues over the years and how the church has continued to pray for her; And God raises her up;

We must not think that everyone will get healed the same way; sometimes the healing that God gives is not one here on earth but an eternal healing

but it is the prayer of faith; prayer is not of the one who is sick but the one who is praying for them; theirs must be the prayer of faith; and when I am reading this, I see that it is the faith of the one who is praying in correlation to God answering the prayer

not a name it and claim it; I am not sure how to explain it other than if you want to see healing, you need to have people around you with a great amount of faith to be praying for you

Jesus healing the paralyzed man in Mark 2

Jesus preaching in Peters house; the house was completely full; there was a paralyzed man who was carried by his 4 friends because they heard that Jesus could heal

Mark 2:3–4 ESV

3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

they ripped off Peter’s roof to get this man to Jesus; 4 men had the determination that they knew a way for their friend to be healed and they go to the extent of destruction of property to make sure he had this opportunity;

do you have 4 friends that would do this for you; pause and emphasize

Mark 2:5 ESV

5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

who’s faith? all of them; not just the faith of the paralyzed man but all of them; and their faith in Jesus to heal them led to Jesus forgiving his sins; correlates to what James is saying; faithful prayers lead to forgiven sins

talk about back pain; tweaked it this week in softball practice and spent more time on a heating pad this week than normal; often times we focus on our physical wants(want my back pain to go away); but if you put before me two options of no more pain or forgiveness of sins, I can live with pain

the same faith that is required for Jesus to forgive sins is the same faith he answers when he heals the sick, comforts the heartbroken, puts the song of praise in the heart of the one rejoicing

prayer changes things

James 5:16 ESV

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.

talk about confessing sin to each other; uncomfortable; being a follower of Jesus should never be about comfort; so much freedom comes with confessing sins with brothers and sisters in Christ;

accountability; needed in the body; he talks about the prayer of the righteous person having great power; maybe the reason your prayers don’t have the power you expect is because you are not confessing sin

And this isn’t just about the elders/pastors in the church; yes, it is good for the elders to be praying and laying on hands, but James is clear here that we need to be praying for one another;

Do you know how you should be praying for each other in the congregation; easy to just show up at 11 and slip out at 12 and not think about each other till next week; every single one of us need to be finding those mat carriers right here in the church to be lifting us up in prayer, to be holding us accountable, to be checking in and making sure that we are pursuing righteousness, to confess your sins to one another

this isn’t radical christianity, this is normal christianity that the world and even the modern church has told you is weird and you should avoid; they are wrong;

prayer changes things; James uses the example of Elijah who was a man of prayer

James 5:17–18 ESV

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.

Does God hear your prayers?; Elijah was a man of faith; Elijah tells King Ahab that there would be no rain until he prayed to God to make it rain again; went 3 and a half years; Elijah was sustained by God, even had birds bringing him food to eat; then he went back to God and prayed for rain and it happened

stories like this seem out of our comprehension; we have a leg up on Elijah; we have the Holy Spirit in us who guides our prayers;

what is the thing that you have prayed for and it has been years and you feel like you are in that drought instead of God answering it?

Do not give up on prayer; seek righteousness, confess sins to one another, pray in faith, and seek God’s will

Life will guide our prayers and prayer changes things; last thing that we see in James letter

Change Calls For Action

not called to complacency or laziness; Father’s Day; father’s are called to be active; an effective father is not a lazy father; same with us as followers

James 5:19–20 ESV

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.

lazy Christian will sit back and watch a brother or sister drown in their sin; what if we were different; be a mat carrier

it is our job as Christians to be involved with one another; we need to be in each others life so that when I am beginning to stray, someone can come to me and bring me back; this right here would prevent having to bring a soul back from death because it would never get there

doesn’t mean you can be a stranger and come and try to tell me what I am doing; relationships matter;

think about that person you know that made that profession of faith and it seemed real, then they started to slip and sin eventually overtook them; how would that have looked if they had a mat carrier to come and bring them back; a brother or sister who was willing to rip off the roof to take them to Jesus and to bring them back

as much as I like to sit back in a recliner and be lazy, the time for recliner Christians has long past; we don’t need to be sitting back and watching others while we are lazy like it is a sport or a soap opera; change calls for action

conclusion

take it back to hope; all of this centers back on the hope that is only found in Jesus; how can we have hope in our prayers?

1. pray more, 2. let the events and people in your life dictate prayers, 3. live a life of confession, 4. find mat carriers

maybe you don’t have hope; opportunity today to have it

where is hope found, only in Jesus; gospel presentation; 1. created in image, 2. sin separates, 3. Jesus is the answer, 4. surrender yourself to Jesus

have a call to salvation to end it, give a time to repent and believe, maybe even an example of prayer

James has been wonderful; God’s word is timeless and it takes us into his presence when we are in it, and being in the presence of God is amazing; I stand Amazed to end