Faithful Prayer

James 5:13-20 Faithful Prayer Sermon Graham Grove, August 2020 (Slide 1 - Faithful prayer) 1 - If we're like ants and God is like a person, prayer would be pointless - As a kid, I loved to watch ants - (Slide 2 - Ants) - I'm not sure how I learnt the word - I probably heard it from my mum - but when I was 5, my dream in life was to become a naturalist - I would spend hours outside looking at bugs, especially ants - My daughter Annie has inherited this love of bugs, and now she spends countless hours outside looking at bugs - Sometimes I imagine God looking over us, watching us like I used to watch ants - We're these small creatures scurrying around, not aware of this incredible, awesome, huge being watching over us - I think this is a reasonably common way people picture God - And there's a sense that this is true - God is so much bigger, so much more complex than us that we can hardly expect to really understand him any more than a colony of ants can expect to understand us - And yet in a deeper sense, it's probably not a very good analogy - If we are like ants and God is like a person, prayer wouldn't really make much sense, would it? - Why would the dreams and desires of a group of little ants matter to this all powerful being? - And the hopes and aspirations of a single ant, well, they would be no consequence at all - And how could an ant ever hope to hear and understand the voice of this huge and mighty one? - There could never be two-way conversation - At best, the ant could only lift up his voice to the sky and hope that God would hear - There'd be no talking back - No relationship - So perhaps this analogy of us like ants and God like a person just doesn't work when thinking about prayer 2 - But if we're like a child, and God is like a Father, then prayer would be ever-present - (Slide 3 - Father and child) - Perhaps a better analogy is that of child and father - If we're like children and God is like a Father, the prayer, communication with God, looks very different - (Pause) - When I was very little, my father was often present, there in the morning at breakfast, in the evening as I got ready for bed and on the weekends as I played - And I could talk to him whenever I wanted to - I could ask him questions - I could share my thoughts - And he could talk back to me, give me direction in my day and in my life - At first, when I was very young, I wouldn't have understood much of what he said at all - But as I got older, I could talk more clearly to him and he to me - our communication improved with every year - Even when he was away at work, if I really needed to talk to him, I could phone him - As a child, talking to my dad frequently was natural - Communication with him was an ever present reality - Whether I was having a great day, or whether or not I was having a tough day - He was around to talk to 3 - And that's how James described prayer - we should always be at prayer - And that's just how James described prayer - (Slide 4 - James 5:13-16) - Take a look at verses 13 to 16 o 13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. o 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. o If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. - (Pause) - Prayer is meant to be happening in all our lives, all the time - James spoke about communication with God as something that infuses our days and nights - We should be praying when thing are hard and we're in trouble - But we should also be praying when we're happy and things are great - In sickness and in health, prayer should be ever-present - And when we're in the wrong and have hurt another, we should be praying - Just like a child comes to a father at all times no matter what's going on in the child's life, so should our relationship be with our Father God - Is that what things are like for you? - Does prayer infuse your day? - Do you pray in the good as well as the bad moments of life? - Because that is a marker of our relationship with our God - (Pause) - I'm by no means a model child of God - I frequently neglect prayer - It's easy to look very spiritual on the outside - But prayer is a much better marker of spiritual maturity than superficial appearances - And for me personally in all aspects of my life, I know I need deep my relationship through more frequent communication with my heavenly Father, through more constant prayer - (Pause) 4 - And just like the trust in a Father/child relationship, our discussions with God will sometimes be faith/trusting prayers of submission (asking and trusting in His decision) (especially when we're a "young" Christian) - When I was very young, we moved to London for a year - I had never been to school, only kindergarten at that stage - (Slide 5 - First day at school) - And so it was in England that I had my my first day at school - It was a little primary school across the road from our house and my dad walked me me over to the school to enrol me - The principle took me to the year 1 class to meet the teacher - Year 1 in the UK starts before it does in Australia, and there were all these kids at their desks - As the kids worked away, the teacher came over and said hello, and was very friendly to me - And then she said to my dad - why doesn't Graham stay in the class and you can head off - he can start school right now - For little 5 year-old me that was a terrifying moment - And I looked up at my dad and I said in my timid, Donald-duck voice that I had back then - "please take me home and let me start school tomorrow." - (Pause) - That was a prayer to my dad and I didn't know what he would say - I had asked for something that I wasn't in control of; what happened next wasn't my choice - And at that moment, all I could do was trust that he would hear me - But also, as his son, I needed to trust in his decision - (Pause) - That's what prayer is often like - We have our desires, our hopes - But we don't know God's plans for us - And all we can do is share our heart with God, asking him for our desires - But trusting him, as a child trusts, knowing that sometimes he will grant our request, but sometimes he won't - When we pray like this, we submit to God's will - (Slide 6 - Prayer of Submission) - This was talked about earlier in the book of James, in chapter 4 where James wrote o You ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. - When we ask God for something, we usually don't know what his plans are - And in these circumstances, we can ask God for our deepest desire, for healing, for a successful job application, for the purchase of a house, for a safe journey, but like a child we need to submit to whatever the Father gives us, even if it isn't what we've asked for - We can trust he hears us - We know ultimately he has our best interest in mind - But we are not in control - We submit to our creator, the author of life, and we trust in his decision - (Pause) - Prayers like this are seen throughout the Bible - (Slide 7 - Leper scene from the Chosen) - Remember that beautiful scene in Matthew 8 where Jesus healed the leper - The leper came towards Jesus - And Jesus didn't turn away - And with a prayer of faith, the leper knelt before Jesus and said these words o Lord, if you will it, you can make me clean - (Pause) - Notice the prayer of this man with leprosy - His deepest desire was to be cured of his leprosy - But he didn't presume to force God's hand in the matter - He appealed to Jesus recognizing that Jesus could make him clean - But the decision rested with Jesus, not the leper o Lord, if you will it... you can make me clean - This is a prayer of submission to God's will - Many, most of our requests to God are prayers of submission - (Slide 8 - Pistis) - In James 5, verse 15, James wrote about the prayer of faith - Faithful prayer... - The word for faith in ancient Greek is pistis - Pistis is an interesting word because it can be translated in a few ways - One way to translate it, is "trust" - So a faithful prayer is one of trust - Trust in God's goodness, his provision - And just like a little child trusts his Father to take care of his needs without necessarily really understanding his needs, our faithful prayers are often prayers where we submit to God's will, trusting that God will take care of us in the right way 5 - Whereas others will be faithfulness prayers of assurance (knowing His decision and thanking him for it), just like James shows they we're for Elijah (especially as our maturity grows) - (Slide 8 - Prayers of submission and Prayers of Assurance) - But not all prayer is like that - Sometimes we pray and bring our requests to God, feeling absolutely confident that God has already spoken to us about the outcome - One of the best ways I ever heard of understanding this was from a sermon about prayer on YouTube - And the preacher spoke about two types of prayers - He spoke about prayers of submission - prayers where we don't know the outcome - And he contrasted this with another prayer, which he termed prayers of assurance - These are the times we pray when we have felt a real prompting from God - The Holy Spirit has spoken to us in some unanticipated way, and we feel absolutely confident that God has shown us his plan and we know the outcome - And in these cases we can pray loudly and boldly, confidently knowing what is coming - (Pause) - (Slide 9 - Prayer group) - A few years ago after a church service, I was pulled aside by one of the church members and asked to come and pray - He brought me to a group of 5 or 6 people talking with a visitor, Kim - Kim had come to church that day needing prayer - She had been diagnosed with lung cancer; and she had been told it was terminal - She wanted us to pray for her - So we went into the prayer room and laid hands on her and prayed - As each person prayed for her, they called on God with increasing fervour to cure her of her cancer, to bring her complete healing - But I had this increasing sense that God wasn't going to heal her - This niggling thought grew louder and louder in my head, and I felt this deep assurance that today I was not meant to pray for Kim's healing because God was not going to heal her - That instead we were being called by God to pray a different prayer for Kim - And so, compelled by this thought, in a moment of silence, I took the opportunity to pray o "Lord, we know you are the great healer, but sometimes your healing happens in heaven, where you give us eternal life, with a new body, without illness or pain. I pray that you give Kim courage, peace and trust in her resurrection as her life comes to an end." o "Lord, Kim has something on her heart that is important, that she needs to know you are going to sort out, even if she can't. Lord grant her peace about these things and grant her request." - Afterwards I asked Kim what she needed prayer for, what her goals were, what she needed most of all o "I'm worried about my mum. She'll have no-where to live when I die." - (Pause) - Kim died a few months later and I was privileged to lead her funeral - Her mum was there and her mum was okay, having been well provided for with a new place to live, from, no-less than another church member - Someone from church had helped her to find a place to live and paid for it - (Pause) - I very rarely have had these promptings by the Spirit where I knew what to pray because God has let me know the outcome - I wish it happened more often but it doesn't happen often to me... I think perhaps because I still have along way to grow and mature in my faith - I wonder if more mature Christians have this gift from God more frequently - Perhaps it's a bit like a child as he get older - As any child grows up, he begins to understand his father better, and his father begins to share more of his plans - When I was 7 or 8 and my family went camping, I sat in the car, and waited to arrive at the destination, and then I could play - When I got older, in my teens, my dad would tell me where we were going, he'd pass me the map and get me to help navigate - I wonder if it's a bit like this with prayers of assurance too - When we're young in spiritual maturity, it's harder for God to speak to us about his plans because we understand much less - But as we grow in spiritual maturity and as our relationship with God our Father deepens, I think he will speak to us more about his plans and so prayers of assurance will become much more a part of our daily communication with God - So when James is speaking about prayer here in verse 15, when he says that the prayer of faith will heal the sick, do you think that he is perhaps talking about this type of prayer of assurance, where God has spoken to the prayer already? - Could it be that James isn't speaking about prayers of submission, but that he's instead speaking about prayers of assurance? - Well, let's look at the context - (Slide 11 - James 5) - This what James wrote: o Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.... o The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. o Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! o Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. - James wrote that a prayer of faith will heal the sick - And he followed that up describing the sort of person who can pray a prayer of faith - See what he wrote - the prayer of a righteous person has great power - So there are two very important descriptors here about a powerful prayer - (Slide 12 - Faith) - Firstly, the prayer is a prayer of faith - Earlier I spoke about the ancient Greek word for faith, pistis, and said it can also be translated as "trust" - Well that's true, but it can be translated another way too - It's just as valid to translate it as "faithful" and "faithfulness" - Faith makes us think of belief - and when we read a prayer of faith, we can imagine simply a prayer that we really believe is going to happen - In other words, we think, if we could simply believe enough, then by some invisible, magical power, the prayer will come true - We can fall into this trap of simply substituting the word "faith" with the word "belief" - On the other hand, faithfulness makes us think of the way we act and the way we follow-through on obeying God, living his way - And so, in this sense, a prayer of faithfulness should begin to shape in our minds a picture of a person praying who is a strong follower of Jesus, whose life revolves around Jesus, who is faithful to Jesus to the point where everything he does, everything he prays for even, is in line with the will of God - That's a prayer of faithfulness - - And it's a very different image than that of a person who has the magical thinking that if he just believes enough, what he prays for will come true - (Slide 13 - Faith and righteousness) - So the word "faithfulness" associated with prayer should begin to get us to see something about this powerful and effective prayer - (Pause) - The second descriptor to take note of is "righteous" - The prayer of a righteous person has great power - A righteous person - what's that? - Well, someone connected to God, in a good relationship with God, someone who has been forgiven and is justified and is living a blameless life for God - These are all aspects of righteousness - And that's the sort of person whose prayer of assurance is powerful - No wonder my prayers flounder - I don't know if I'm deserving of the title righteous - This verse is enough to humble most of us, isn't it... - (Pause) - (Slide 14 - Elijah) - So that's the immediate context, but James went on, directly after writing about these powerful prayers, to use Elijah as an example of powerful prayer - And that's worth noting - that he used Elijah's story as an example - Do you remember the story of Elijah? - Let me refresh the story for you - Elijah lived 900 years before the birth of Christ - He was one of the greatest prophets to the Northern Kingdom of Israel - He lived during the reign of King Ahab - Ahab was a tyrant who dishonoured God like few others before or after him - He turned the people towards pagan religions and he worshiped Baal - Baal, the fertility and weather god - The people believed Baal brought the rains and grew the crops - And they forgot about the true and living God, Yahweh - Now Elijah didn't follow Baal like King Ahab the people did - And so, as we're told in 1 Kings 17, Elijah went to Ahab and said o As surely as the Lord God lives, there will be no rain during the next few years - God had spoken to Elijah and revealed this to him - And so Elijah, with that assurance of God's word, could go to Ahab and loudly say to the tyrant king - there will be no rain - That was an incredibly brave thing for Elijah to do - He would have looked pretty stupid if it had rained - And God would have looked totally powerless if it had rained - And so Elijah could only go Ahab if he was sure that God would not allow rain to fall in Israel for the next few years - And of course, it came to pass just as God has promised and didn't rain, and Ahab became increasingly enraged and murderous - And Elijah ended up fleeing for his life - But God came back to speak to Elijah again, and he said to him o Go, present yourself to king Ahab and tell him I soon will send rain - And so Elijah went back, and one of the most amazing stories in the Bible unfolded, a story of fire from heaven, followed by rain - (Pause) - Can you see the prayers that Elijah offered here were prayers of assurance - Elijah knew the outcome - God had revealed the outcome to him - And so Elijah could pray powerful prayers with confidence, and drought and rain followed - (Pause) - It's the same for us today - (Slide 15 - Prayers of Submission and Prayers of Assurance) - Many of our prayers are prayers of trust and submission, where we don't know what God will do, and in these cases we can ask our request and submit to God's will - But, as our faithfulness and obedience to Jesus grows, as we become more mature in our faith and learn to communicate with God our Father more and more - And some of our prayers will change as God shares his will with us more, and prompted by the Holy Spirit we will begin to prayer prayers of assurance where we know the outcome - And when that happens, that is special and powerful prayer - I pray that each of us experience this prayer in our lives 6 - So, when you pray, don't allow blame, resentment or disbelief to cloud your view of God when you should be praying a prayer of submission - Understanding these difference between these two types of prayers is crucial to strong faith o Prayers of submission o Prayers of assurance - I've seen too many people falter in their faith when they misunderstand this - (Pause) - Let me tell you two tales of two ladies, both with advanced cancer that I cared for a few years ago - Both were from the same church, a church known for it's charismatic character and strong teaching of faith healing and the prosperity gospel - One woman prayed for healing - She couldn't discuss her illness or her coming death with anyone, including her family because it would be a sign that she didn't have faith and so wouldn't receive feeling - As she got sicker, she became increasingly agitated and distressed, wondering why God wasn't healing her - She had read passages like those in James 5 - She had read the words of Jesus who had said that if she had faith the size of mustard seed she would be able to move a mountain into the sea - So why wasn't God healing her - Perhaps he didn't exist - Perhaps her faith was too weak - When she died, she died in anguish - I don't know if she had abandoned her faith or not - (Pause) - The other woman was calm, at peace - I asked her about this and she said - I used to pray for healing if it was God's will for me, but I've come to accept it's not - Now I pray that God gives me opportunities to share his good news before I die - Although her body became frailer and weaker with each passing day, her faith became stronger and firmer - She spoke powerfully about her hope in Jesus to all she met in hospital - And despite the pain and vomiting that wouldn't stop because of her malignant bowel obstruction, she died with a smile on her face - (Pause) - If we think that powerful prayer means that everything we ask for will happen, then when things don't happen the way we want, what do we do? - We blame ourselves for having faith that is too weak - Or we resent a God who doesn't care enough to hear us - Or worse still, we stop believing that God is real - (Pause) - It is so important that we understand that sometimes our prayers are prayers of submission - We ask our request of God but accept His will and plan whatever that is, even if it's not what we asked for - But sometimes our prayers are prayers of assurance, where led by the Spirit, God has shown us the outcome - We can pray powerfully in these cases - And we will see drought end and illness healed 7 - And become more faithful so that with time the Spirit increasingly prompts you to pray a prayer of assurance - And as we pray more, we grow closer to our heavenly Father - And as we grow closer, we become more mature in our faith - And we hear God more closely - We become more and more attuned to the Holy Spirit in our life - And we learn to hear him when he speaks - That's the life of a faithful Christian - That's the life I want for me and the life I pray you seek too - Because in that life, we can stand tall as children of God who can face all things in the knowledge that nothing can ever separate us from His love - (Pause) - As I come to the end of today's sermon, there is no better way to finish today than to do so with prayer - Stephen will pray for us now - And following prayer, Malcolm will stream two final songs - After these two songs, our formal church service will come to an end, so feel free to log off and spend time talking to the people in your hub site - But for now, can I invite you to come to God in faith, and pray with Stephen...