Prayer James 5:13-20

David Johnson

James • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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When Heaven Gives Way

Welcome back to church this morning as we finish our series in the book of James.

James has just been this little treasure of spiritual nuggets

It talks about Suffering, favoritism, the words we say and what we do

But overall a major theme of James is our words and actions.

Do we know people whose words and actions do not match up?

I think the reality is, yes we do

Whether it people in the public eye who seem look like wholesome people and yet live a different life all together or if it is someone we know

We all know people who talk one way and act another

And not only do we know people like this, we are people like this.

We talk and pray one way but we act another way

Words are such a big theme for James that he peppers this theme in 4x in his letter to the church.

And he ends his letter to the church it is no surprise that he ends with words again…But this time it is our words to God.

He ends by talking about prayer.

And I just have to tell you this: If you want Major breakthrough in your life. Then Pray!

A number of years ago now a man who attended here who now lives in Texas named Dan Battles came up to me and said, Pastor Dave. Who prays with you?

I said…well I pray but no one.

And he said, well God told me that he wanted me to pray with you so you tell me a day and a time and I will be there.

That started me off on Mondays at 8:30am...

Every Monday: 8:30am I met him and now I meet with Mike Cochran and we pray

The amount of breakthrough that has come out of that is amazing

So if you are looking for Breakthrough…Then Pray!

So this morning the text that we have with James is so utterly simple and straight forward that I want to tell another story.

This is a story that is behind the James text, living right underneath the surface…And because of this story, James wrote what he wrote about prayer

Elijah

James uses Elijah as an example because to his audience, just saying the name Elijah would have been like saying Michael Jordan to a basketball fan

Instantly a record of all that Elijah had done would come to their minds and they would have

Elijah was one of the great prophets in Israel

In many ways he paved the way for the messiah

He did many miraculous things while he was a prophet.

He raised people from the dead

Called fire down from heaven

He in many ways took this wicked and rebellious culture and restored their faith in God.

And what James gets excited about, and we will see this is that Elisha didn’t fly, he wasn’t magical he was just an ordinary man, just like anyone else.

So by what power does Elijah live his life?

Well he was a man of prayer.

And because of that, he lived his life in the Holy Spirit and had God’s power available to him.

Just an ordinary man, with an extraordinary ability to focus on prayer

So in 1 kings 17-18 Elijah is dealing with kings who have been sinful and rebellious so he announces a great drought in the land. And the drought is symbolic of the people’s relationship with God. It is dry!

So for three and a half years there is no rain or even dew.

And this all culminates in a showdown between these prophets of Baal and Elijah

Of course, you may know the story, the prophets of the false god Baal could not produce fire from heaven but Elijah could through prayer

Then he went and slaughtered all of the false prophets

So what is really interesting is that in this time of intense drought and famine for the whole land, God never stopped doing the miraculous through Elijah

It was a sort of living parable for all the people of Israel

That when you have a living and active relationship with God, even though there is suffering all around you

Even though there is a drought

even though there is a famine

When you are in a living relationship with the Lord then you will never experience a drought in your spiritual life.

So after all of this we pick up the Elijah story in

1 Kings 18:41

The New International Version Chapter 18

41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.

“There is nothing there,” he said.

Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”

44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”

So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”

45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the LORD came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

So Elijah tells the king to Go eat and drink because heavy rain is coming: But it had not rained in 3.5 years ...

Then Elijah goes on top of Mt Carmel to look toward the Mediterranean and pray and when he tells his servant to look for clouds...

The servant goes back 6 times and sees absolutely nothing

The servant must have thought that Elijah was nuts. It hasn't rained for 3.5 years and there is not a cloud in the sky and yet, you say rain is coming? Yeah right!

But on the 7th time he sees a tiny tiny cloud

So Elijah tells him you better hitch up the chariot before the rain gets too bad

And all the sudden it starts pouring

And the phrase that James uses while talking about this rain, is that the “heavens gave way.”

So this is what is going on in James’ head as we read what we are about to read

James has this view that: regular consistent prayer beckons the heavens to break open

Did you catch that?

From James’ Perspective…It didn’t rain for 3.5 years because of Elijah’s prayer life and it started raining because of Elijah’s prayer life

In just the same way the heavens open for Elijah

It is helpful for us to have this story in our minds and we now read from the book of James:

James 5:13-20

The New International Version Chapter 5

The Prayer of Faith

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 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. 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. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

The impossible becomes possible when we bring it to the one one for whom nothing is impossible

James saw Jesus do this for his whole ministry

A life saturated in prayer forms you to seek after the heart of God

A Life bathed in prayer changes the way that you see. It actually makes the impossible seem possible!

A life that is invested in prayer is a life that is invested in what God values

James saw this not only in Elijah’s life but in the life of his brother.

Impossible things become possible when we involve God in them

So here is what James does…He gives a list of when we should pray…Spoiler alert…Its all the time:

Pray when you are in trouble

This is the easiest one right?

It’s like obviously things are not going well for me…Let’s pray

When finances are down

when relationships are not going well

When your really trying to get out of trouble…It is easy to pray when you are in trouble. It is most natural

And Know what, James knows that and God knows that. he wants you to turn to him in trouble

Pray when you are happy

Now if it is easy to pray when you are in trouble, It is actually difficult to pray when you are happy

But what James is saying here is this is when we rejoice, this is when we bring songs to the Lord

This is when we thank the lord and give him praise for all that he has done.

And here is the deal. Being around christians most of my life and leading in the church now for 18 years. I can tell you that chronically happy people pray.

They do. They are happy about something: They praise the lord

They are encouraged by something, they praise the lord

It is precisely because their rejoicing goes to the right place that they are so happy!

Pray in community when your sick

Obviously James was not up to date on all of the social distancing guidelines

But James here sees great power in the elders of the church gathering together to pray over the sick, to anoint them with oil

Why? because God is super natural!

And then James says in this: Confess your sins to one another so you can be healed

Why does James say this?

Confessing your sins brings accountability

It builds cohesion among the church

it increases humility

and guess what it does ultimately?

Confession builds you into a person who is righteous

And you know what? do you want spiritual power?

What I mean by that is the ability to overcome sin and temptation?

Because confessing your sin to God actually free’s God up to work miracles in your life

By confessing your sin you are saying to God that you no longer want that sin in your life to have power over you!

Sin isn't always the reason why we sick but often times we are spiritually sick because sin is ruling us

This is why James says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Then James gives the example that we talked about in the beginning:

James 5:17-18

The New International Version Chapter 5

Elijah is on James’ mind because he is just an ordinary guy who through prayer did extraordinary things

Finally

Pray for those who wander from the truth

The New International Version Chapter 5

These last two verses is how James ends his letter

It is a reminder that sometimes we wander away from the truth of God

But that coming back can happen too

Maybe you have been in this position before, you have wandered from the truth...

Then you know how it is.

Closing:

James had this view that , Through the prayers of Elijah, Heaven gave way

Heaven opened up and God poured out rain

It is a metaphor for prayer...

That the less we pray the more we will feel like we are in the worst drought of our lives

The less frequent we pray the more regular that non prayer becomes.

But when we climb out to mt carmel and pray in faith

which simply means that we believe that God can do all things

when we are patient before God when we seek him

The heavens open up

My kids are growing up, so when they come to me to specifically spend time with me and to snuggle with me…And they just want to be around me because I am their dad

Sometimes they will say, Dad can we go get ice cream?

And I am like, I would have given you my car had you asked but yeah we can go get ice cream...

See God is the same way: James knew it

God has the ability to break open the heavens in your life...

Friends today is Pentecost Sunday. the day that we celebrate the coming of the spirit of God onto his church. The day that we recognize God pouring out the heavens on his church...

He wants to do the same thing today!

What do you need the heavens to open up for today ?

Kids

spouse

someone who has wandered

your own faith?

We are going to practice rejoicing right now...

but in a few moments we are going to have a time of prayer

I have asked pastor Marlia & Pastor Paul and myself to be here to pray with you.

When you pray: Don’t think of how you might look or sound to others, don’t even try and impress God. You already impress him

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