Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
How often do we hear “My prayers are with you” when something happens?
How often do we not even pray when we say we will?
How often do we think prayer is not enough?
Many times we equate prayer to a trivial almost non essential aspect of our Christian lives.
We forsake prayer when we should be praying all day long.
Paul said we should pray without ceasing.
This means we pray often and daily.
It is like a nagging cough we have.
The cough is with us all day we do not cough every second of the day but we cough all day long.
This is how we should pray.
Martin Luther said, “I have so much to do, I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”
He did not neglect prayer because of his workload, but prayed even more becaasue of his workload.
How often do we neglect prayer because we are so busy?
I would venture to say it is more often than we want to admit.
The same goes for our service in the church, Bible reading, or just time with the Lord in general.
When we get busy and weary from the world the first thing we neglect is prayer and time with the Lord either in service, or Bible study.
James says that we must not do that.
Last week we looked at the power of patience in tribulations and frustrations.
We gain this patience in trials and tests and temptations through prayer and time with the Lord.
Prayer is more important than anything else we can do.
As one man has written about this,
“When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, and so on.
Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.”
(A.C.
Dixon, Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, p. 108).
Neglecting prayer is a bad move and one that will cause us grief.
When we do this we leave God’s power behind and depend on our own.
We will lose patience, we will fail to stay faithful in tests, we will become bitter and desire the things of the world, we will go against everything this letter is working to help us not fail at.
That is why James tells us to pray and go to others for prayer and that we can all pray and know it is heard.
Let us read the text James 5:13-18
We see in this text many wonderful things about prayer and what it does.
The first thing we see in the power of prayer is that we need to
Pray Through All of Life
Right here we see James tell us to pray in every aspect of life.
He does this by saying two parts of life that cover all of life: suffering and cheerfulness.
When we suffer pray.
When we are joyous, pray.
It is that simple and that important.
In Suffering (13a).
What is our first reaction when we suffer?
Usually it is complain.
It should be to pray.
That is what James is telling us.
Pray when it goes bad.
Pray when you are insulted.
Pray when you are struggling.
Pray when everything is falling apart.
Give it to God and do not hold it in.
Take it all to Him and He will help.
Do this daily.
Do this often and it will become natural.
But do not only pray when a tragedy or painful experience happens.
No, we need to pray when the good happens too.
When Cheerful (13b).
This is what is meant when James said “Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing praise.”
Praise to God and cheerful attitudes will help us to stay steady in prayer.
It will give us a new outlook when we give glory to God in all situations.
When we are joyful and happy but we pray to the Lord in that time, we will certainly be able to when things get rough.
The one thing we need to know and take from this verse is that in all of life we need to pray.
We can carry our everything to the Lord and He will respond.
It is not only in cases of bad and suffering that we go to Him but in joy and happiness too.
When we make it a habit of praying to God in everything, then we begin to see that faith is in God to deliver us through trials and not from them.
We have faith in God to carry us through and deliver us to the other side but not out of them.
We trust Him because we are always talking to Him.
Think of it like this.
You have someone that you trust.
You talk to them daily.
You talk to them in the bad and in the happy.
You know you can trust them in things in life.
You know when they tell you I will be there, they will be there.
They can’t carry you out of trials and tests but they are there with you through them.
You know this because you know the relationship you have.
It is the same with prayer.
The more we pray the more we know God.
We only know Him like that friend through prayer and saying in tune with His word.
But there are times when we have extra struggles.
We are beat down and weary.
That is when we must...
Pray Through Special Challenges
Here James uses a word that has been translated as sick but has more of a meaning of weary or weak.
This is saying that if you are worn and weary, if you are ill from the struggles and need help, go to the spiritually strong and faithful people of the church.
They will pray for you and comfort you but the anointing of oil is more of a medicinal aspect than pouring oil on the head.
So this section tells us that when beat down...
Seek Spiritual Leaders (14).
Call the elders and have them pray.
This is most important.
Us in leadership do not have a crystal ball nor do we have telepathy where we can know what is going on in your lives.
We need you to come to us and share what is needed.
I am here for this purpose.
I am here to pray with and for you.
i am here to be the one you can unload problems on and intercede for you with the Lord.
I am here to help you walk this path of life.
But I cannot do anything for you if I do not know what it is you need.
None of us in the leadership can do that.
You must bring the problems to us and allow us to pray with and for you.
This is exactly what James is saying here.
We are here to pray for you and to “anoint” you with oil.
This word anoint does not have the liturgical/spiritual meaning behind it as many other uses do.
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