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Hows Your Prayer Life?

James By Jeff Lyle Bible Text: Preached on: James 5:13-20 Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Transforming Truth & Meadow Baptist 1446 Calvin Davis Circle Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Website: Online Sermons: www.transformingtruth.org www.sermonaudio.com/jefflyle

James chapter five. Let me begin at verse 13. And he asks the question: Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 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. 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. 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. 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. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 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.1 How is your prayer life? This evening as we go through this short passage of Scripture, I have five different aspects of prayer that I want to highlight and none of this is original and none of it is new, but all of it is important. And I dont want us to think about this theoretically this evening. I really want you to just ask yourself: How am I? Where am I on the spectrum? What is going on right now? Lets forget about a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. Lets think about how am I in this area right now in my desire to communicate with the Lord and my willingness to be a part of a ministry and interceding for others? Lets speak, first of all about prayers of dependence. And I gain that from verse number 13. Prayers are dependence. And let me just state something I think is self evident. When we find that believers are God conscious during troubled times, listen to James, he asks a question. It is rhetorical. He says:
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James 5:13-20. Page 1 of 17

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.2 Now what is amazing to me is if there is ever a time that we are going to be God conscious, we are going to be seeking him, we are going to be praying, it is usually in the times where life is conditioned by some level of suffering. You know that about your own heart. I know that about mine. We are more prone to seek out an audience with God when things arent going well, more so than when things are going well. There is an aspect of our childhood to our heavenly Father that wants to run to him when trouble implodes. And we can think of all sorts of trouble. We can think about circumstantial trouble with this economy and finances and different things, people losing their homes, losing their jobs. We can think about physical trouble and different types of suffering. Right now we have at least three individuals that are suffering incredibly in our church, some of them even with the potential for the most negative results to test possible, some of them facing cancer, others have been facing undiagnosed maladies that are owning their body. My own wife this evening as we have learned this summer about suffering and how it is a purifying agent and stripping away all of the things that are non essential in life. And the Bible teaches us here that when we suffer, the remedy is very simple. That is when you pray. That is when you go to the Lord. It is from that cauldron that is burning beneath your feet, those circumstances, that suffering, that trouble, that pain that is to propel you forward in speaking to the Lord and listening. So often we want to read a book. We want to talk to a friend. We want to pick up the phone. We want to Google on the internet, whatever might come to our assistance when whatever is ailing us. And Gods Word says here it is still as simple as a child saying, Abba, Father, daddy, help me. And so something very evident that we are God conscious during troubled times, but also this other type of prayer so often that gets bypassed. Believers are God conscious during triumphant times. He says, Is anybody cheerful? Let him sing praise. Let him rehearse in the ears of God songs of praise unto the heavenly Father. You know, it is interesting to me that prayer need not be so narrowly defined to where singing and praising and worshipping in joyful release and celebration of what good is going on in your life and heart is classified as something else. Some of the greatest times in your prayer life can be times where you go before the Lord and you are rejoicing because of who he is and what he has done and other peripheral things that might be going on in your life. And so James, in essence, is saying this. Whether you are in a time of trouble or a time of triumph or expressions are Godward. He says he wants us to think in our God conscious directed thoughts towards the Lord. Dont run from God when you are troubled.
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James 5:13. Page 2 of 17

I have met people often times in counseling that have created their own trouble, created trouble in their home, created trouble in their marriage, created trouble in their finances and they have erroneously believed that they need to clean up their own mess before they can go to God in prayer. My friends, I want to tell you. God is not intimated, nor is he thwarted by the fact that sometimes we create our own trouble from which we need to be extracted. So dont let pride tell you, well, I cant go to God about this trouble because I am the one who created the problem. Whether it is a time of trouble or a time of triumph, let God hear your expressions of dependence. One might ask, Jeff, why is it so important? If things are going well and we are praising God, why, then, do we need to express our dependence? Well, I would just simply say so you dont ever forget it. I want to tell you. I mean, most of us in this place would probably say, you know, one of the most difficult times in our lives during susceptible times, vulnerable times is when things are going great, when we dont have an overwhelming sense of need, where we might be tempted to think we can coast for a little while and we might let some of our discipline slip or we might let some of our commitment slip. And often times when circumstantially the seas are calm, we might be tempted to forget that we are still as dependent upon God in triumph as we are in trouble. Lets get down into verses 14 and 15. And these are some of the, I guess, more contested verses. What does James mean? And I wish I had a nice, neat, tidy answer that could lead you perfectly satisfied when we are talking about prayers for healing. This is such a huge aspect of our prayer lives. I want you to think about this. In your small groups, through the bulletin if there is a miscellaneous bulletin running around here, look down the prayer list. Listen in your small groups or Sunday school classes when people stop you going here or there or call you up on the phone or shoot you an email, the majority of our prayer requests seem to be focused on physical infirmities, sickness and the need for healing and the fear of the consequences of disease coming upon somebody. And we get the negative report from the doctor and immediately we want to tell as many people as we can, please pray because we have heard this about this sickness or this illness. And I want to encourage you just as I have already preached. Run to God with those. Take those to the Lord. But there is a lot of confusion in the church today about what must Gods response be. We probably all heard it preached that, well, God is going to heal. It is never Gods will that anybody ever be sick. And I am going to have to tell you, unfortunately that is not true. Lets look at the problem of illness in the beginning of verse 14. Listen to what James says.
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Is anyone among you sick?3 That is a very benign question. He is just giving leading questions to the counsel is about to give. In essence he is saying, When one of you becomes sick, let me tell you what to do. And lets look at that. There is the process of humbling that needs to be a part of the equation. Listen to what James prescribes here in cases of what I believe to be extreme sickness. Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil.4 Now forgive me if this just gets a little mundane here, but lets talk about this. This is a very specific prescription in the Bible. This is a very specific case. It is the context of an individual being sick enough and perhaps a lingering sickness or an intense sickness to where they realize that they are fearing going through this alone. And listen to what James prescribes. He says there must be the initiative on the part of the sick individual. Please get this. The sick individual, it is incumbent upon them to make contact in this case with the elders of that local gathering. Of course, they didnt have buildings at this time, but he is talking about in a community where there are Christians. There were recognized leaders and elders appointed and it was the responsibility of the ill individual to make some kind of contact requesting that the elders come and visit them. Now when the visit was to take place, here is what was prescribed. There needs to be prayer by that group of leaders, the classified here as the elders. You could call them pastors, bishops, whatever you want to call them. They were the recognized leaders and they were to gather around the sick individual and it is very difficult to tell if the anointing with oil was to take place simultaneously with the prayer or during that occasion. I dont want to get too pedantic with it. I am just saying this. We are here prescribed in this, as elders, that when a request is made upon us to come and pray over a sick individual for healing, if they request us to come, we go as a group, we pray over them and we anoint with oil. Now let me just ask you. How many of you? And I am asking a sincere question. How many of you are comfortable with that concept? Would you raise your hand? There are... there is a slight awkwardness, I think, primarily and my context has been in my Christian life, Baptist churches, that there seems to be some awkwardness. Often times we are asked, Jeff, I know this is a Baptist Church, but if somebody is sick, would you all come and pray and lay hands on them and anoint them with oil?
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James 5:14. Ibid. Page 4 of 17

And I say, Well, of course we would. Why wouldnt we? It is a clear prescription in Scripture. This is what the Word of God says to do. But the reason why I call this the process of humbling is because it is deeper. Because I want to tell you. Well, as a matter of fact, lets get to the next thing. Beyond the problem of the illness and the process of the humbling and think about this. It is a humbling thing for a person to say, I need my spiritual leaders to come to me in my weakest moment. I need them to pray over me. I need them to physically anoint me with oil. That is a very humbling thing. But here is the thing that is the most important. The power for healing. They are coming to pray. They anoint him, the sick one in the name of the Lord. Now let me tell you what we do here at Meadow. We have all probably heard of anointing services or healing services. We don't do that. I dont even believe that that is remotely considered in the context of James chapter five. I believe it is to be an intimate gathering. I believe it should involve the individual who is ill, perhaps those that are closest to him and his family, the elder and the church and any other spiritual people that might be a part of the process. And so what we do is we meet with them in their homes. Now this is very important to me because what we run the risk of in our little paparazzi society is that we take something that is intimate and precious and very fragile, by the way. We are dealing with somebodys physical well being. And many churches... and I cant judge their motives, but I am uncomfortable with the idea of stringing out a bunch of people and going by and a little dab will do you and saying these rote quick rapid fire prayers when I dont think that is exactly what James had in mind. I believe that it is to be something of great intensity. I believe it should be slow, depending and waiting upon the Lord. And when we gather as the elders of Meadow and pastors and deacons, the ordained leaders and we go to somebodys home, we take our time. And we speak with them and we gather and we wait on the Lord to give us compassion to the appropriate level. We read this very text. And then without great fanfare, it is not meant to be exciting. It is not meant to be dramatic. It is very sobering. We recognize how powerless we are. The power is not in the elders. The power is not in the oil. The power, if you want to throw that slide back on the screen, the previous one, the power is in the name of the Lord. And it is not our expressing the name of the Lord, it is the Lord of the name. It is he who is the great physician. It is he who is the healer. And so in those moments, the elders are powerless, the individual who is sick is powerless, but God is still almighty God. And so we call upon him and his name and the oil is merely symbolic. Oil in Scripture was often used in a setting aside process where a priest was anointed or a king was anointed. The oil, I dont believe here, is medicinal. Some authors believe it was for medicinal purposes to take away the sickness. I just believe it is, in essence,
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symbolizing God we set this person apart unto you. They are sick. You are the divine healer and we ask you in the name of Jesus Christ to remove this sickness. Lets think about this for a moment. Look at verse number 15 and this is a bold inspired statement. The praise for restoration after the prayer, after the anointing, after the invocation of the name of the Lord for healing, this is what your Bible says. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.5 Now, brothers and sisters, there is a call for caution here, but not so much caution that you declaw the verse. The verse is not here in the context of James five, is not qualified with anything. It is not, not here in James. However, we find out, of course, earlier in James that the will of God is, of course, the hub of all things when we are petitioning and praying unto the Lord. So we have to recognize that there are times where God will grant unto those that are interceding and praying for the ill the prayer of faith. I honestly believe that God almighty will not only grant the answer to the prayer for healing, but he will give the faith that brings about the prayer that leads to healing. Let me give you a quick, maybe a risky testimony. Many years ago there was an individual in our church that was diagnosed with a condition in their anatomy, in their heart that was going to be fatal. We were heartbroken. We loved this individual. And I was requested to come. It was in the middle of my pastorate. I had been pastoring for a few years. I was requested to come and to pray over this individual. And I am going to tell you, without sounding dramatic or absurd, in the time of the praying over this individual, they were in the hospital. We did not anoint with oil, but we prayed there. I knew in my heart that this individual was not going to die at that time. I knew it and I did something then that I have never felt permission to do since then. I looked the individuals family in the eye and I said, This is not it. He will be coming out of this hospital. I know it. God has shown me that tonight. Now listen. I know that makes some of you uncomfortable. That is not my normal practice, but all I can tell you it was a moment in my life that I knew it was the prayer of faith. An incredible thing happened. That individuals condition in their heart was reversed and they came out of the hospital. Now let me tell you something lest you think that this is a formula. I would say it was six months later diagnosed the same condition, back in the hospital, was called by the family to come and do the exact same thing. Walked into the room and knew in my heart that I could not feign a prayer of faith, did not sense that this was going not be one who would be healed. And I looked the individuals family in the eye, one of the men in the family and I said, Six months ago I knew that he would not die. But I am telling you. I am
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James 5:15. Page 6 of 17

going to pray and I am going to hope, but I am not confident this time that he is going to make it. I did not tell that to the individual. Within about three months he was in glory. Now why do I bother telling that? I believe that God gives the prayer ... excuse me, the faith that motivates the prayer that he answers for healing. But I am going to tell you. It Is not Gods will all the time to heal. How do I know that? Well, let me give you some biblical examples. Did the apostle Paul... did he have or did he not have the gift of healing? He did. Did he not? Did he not raise up people? Did he not raise the dead? Did he not cause the blind to see? Did he not rebuke evil spirits? He had apostolic authority and power and he had the ability and the gift of healing. On two different occasions he mentions co laborers, close partners in the ministry that he was unable to heal. Epaphroditus was so sick right by Pauls side that he nearly died. Dont think for a second that Paul didnt pray for Epaphroditus to be healed. Likely he prayed and prayed and God chose not to heal. There was another man named Trophimus that Paul left in Miletus and he left him sick. Brothers and sisters, this is very important to me because we need to be discerning in an age where there is a lot of ridiculous extremes that people run to. So often we can hear the message, well, if you would only believe strong enough. If you would only have the faith. If you had only called on the name of the Lord and named it and claimed it, then your loved one would have been healed. I have literally counseled people so guilt stricken because they believe the passing of a loved one was due to them not having enough faith. I want to tell you this. It is always and only God who heals. Men and women dont heal people. Men and women can submit themselves and they can be used of God in the process of healing. Do I believe in faith healers? Absolutely not. I do not believe that. And, by the way, I think any reasonable person would also discredit someone who says that they can heal at will. Brothers and sisters, dont you think any reasonable Christian that could heal at will, that is all they would be doing all the time? I would be down at Scottish Right touching every single child I could with cancer. I would be in the burn unit repairing bodies. I would be down at the deaf and the dumb. I would visit the homes with those that are mentally challenged and I would be doing it all the time. We dont have that power, but God does. And let me just say this. I believe that you should always pray for healing. Until God tells you to stop praying for healing, if your love motivates you to pray for physical healing for somebody, then do it with all of your might.

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Now we have got to go further in this. So we have talked about this prayers of dependence in troubled times and triumphant times. We have talked about prayers for healing during illness and trusting the Lord in the process of elders anointing with oil and remember with me that is incumbent upon the sick one to ask the elders. We do not rush in to somebodys situation and say, We are here with our oil to pray over you and heal you. That is something that you must request. Verses 15 at the end and into verse number 16 speak of prayers for forgiveness. And I believe this is closely tied in to the prayer for healing. These are not two completely distinct contexts here. James mentions vertical confession. He is speaking about the prayer of faith saving the one who is sick, the Lord raising him up and then he tags it. He says: And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.6 Now that is strange to us. We move quickly from talking about physical illness and healing and James now brings in this spiritual addendum here about sins and forgiveness. Why the two? Well, I want you to remember something. This is very important. I hope this comes in a way that is helpful, but also a caution to each of us. There is clear indication in Scripture that some illness is as a result of sin. In the Bible we find that at the Church of Corinth, 1 Corinthians chapter number 11 verses 27 through 32 Paul is giving them instructions concerning the observance of the Lords supper and, of course at Corinth they were at times a ghastly group of Christians. They were passionate and didnt know how to temper themselves. And the Lords supper had turned into just a situation of gluttony and the love feast becoming drunkenness. And these sacred elements that were meant to remember Christ in reverence, were now being consumed for the desires of the flesh and they were getting drunk. And they were fighting over food. It was a pathetic scene. And Paul says, For this reason, some of you are sick and some of you have died. Now I want to take a step back from that for a moment. I dont think that Paul was trying to be sensational. I think that Paul was writing under the inspiration of God, God the Spirit and Paul was clearly seeing that Gods chastisement upon some of his children in certain circumstances, was to allow sickness into their life as a disciplinary tool. And in extreme cases, where their hearts apparently had gone hard against repentance, it was as if the Lord says, You are not going to change. I guess I will just have to take you home. And he took them to heaven. What should we do with a statement like that? I am going to tell you what I do every time where sickness gets a hold of me and it wont let go. And it doesnt happen often. Amy and I usually know about once a year I will get hammered with something. It comes out
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Ibid. Page 8 of 17

of nowhere, owns me for a few days and it leaves, but every single time, my first thought is once I know I am down and God is allowing it to happen, I search my heart. I don't know if you all remember this past summer before the car accident, two weeks before the accident, yeah, thank you. I was down in Florida on a long awaited family vacation. I had told you all. You cant find me. You are not going to know where I am. I was just so excited about it. And on the... I was down there a day and a half and of the first time in my life I encountered gout. It is just an ugly name, gout. And it found me in my heel, laid me on the bed for three days while my wife and my kids were at the beach and I watched the History channel for three days. And I remember just sitting there saying, What have I done, God? What did I do? Lord, was it because I told the church they wouldnt be able to find me? Was that arrogant and proud? I am sorry, Lord. I will email my cell phone number to the whole church. Let me up out of this bed. I just knew that I was being chastised for something and I searched my heart. I was repenting of sins I hadn't committed yet. I mean, it was just one of those things where I felt like God has laid me flat. Now whether he did or not, I dont know. But I am going to tell you. Sometimes he can. Lets remember that. I don't think it is always an issue of sin. But sometimes it is. And, bothers and sisters, what a great incentive that God so cares about our holy living that he doesnt mind laying us out for a little while and if we still persist in that unholy living, we can get what might be considered a premature exit from earth and an entrance into heaven. So James says, You need to confess your sins and if you do so you will be forgiven. Isnt that great? I am teaching my children about confession, primarily Landon. And Landon at times has a hard time admitting when he has done something wrong. I know your kids never lie. Mine does. And he doesnt like to admit it. And I am trying to reason with him saying, Son, I already know. I am just wanting you to agree with me. I already know what you have done. And do you know that is what confession is? Confession is not informing God of something he was unaware of. Confession is you saying, God, I know you know it. You know I know it. Lets know it together. I am going to call it what it is, because I want to honor you. And so James says, When you do that... And confession is not simply going through the routine of just saying, Well, I have done this again and please forgive me. I believe inherent in a seed form in confession is repentance. You turn away from that thing. And even if you need that repentance and confession 70 times in a day, Jesus said if you come to him that often that is how often he is going to forgive you. And so please keep short accounts with God and confess and turn from sin as soon as you are convicted.
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So that is the vertical confession, but James now mentions horizontal confession. Look what he also says. He says: Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.7 I think this is very interesting. We are talking about prayers for forgiveness. Part of the equation indicates that there can be sickness and a need for healing within us because we refuse to acknowledge our sins one to another. We refuse to communicate. We refuse to humble ourselves. We refuse to make ourselves accountable to one another. And let me tell you. It is a lot easier to sin and keep sinning when you have no accountability. I have a good friend. He doesn't go to this church. He is a pastor friend of mine, lives in another part of Georgia and about two or three months into this... well, probably about the second month of this challenge our family has been facing he called me and he spent 15, 20 minutes encouraging me and then he got quiet. He said, Jeff, I need to ask you something. And forgive me if this is a little delicate, but we are all grown ups here. He said, The physical condition your wife is in, I know that places some barriers in the marriage. Jeff, I need to ask you about your purity of your eyes. Are you protecting yourself? Are you talking to anybody? And I thought to myself, what a great friend. What a wonderful man that would be so concerned about a delicate matter like that that he loved me enough to give me an opportunity to share my heart with him. Brothers and sisters, you need somebody like that in your life. You need, ladies, a woman or two or three, probably no more than that, that are accountable with you, that care for your soul, that are not proud, that are not self righteous, that are real and genuine to whom you can confess your faults, you can confess your sins. Gentlemen, I want to tell you. It is a very big danger for us because men are not very good at naturally opening up, not as good as the ladies are. But, gentlemen, if you do not have somebody in your life that you trust and you can talk to, chances are, can I go out on a limb here? Chances are you have got hidden sin in your life. Chances are if you dont communicate honestly and openly and lets remember here. There is not a one in here that does not have a sin nature. In our flesh there dwells no good thing and sometimes these sins can go on in our lives and it is easy to confess it to God, but it is very real when you have to look another person in the eye and say, This is an issue in my life. Sometimes that confession of sin means you have sinned against somebody else and you need to confess to them. I have sinned against you and need your forgiveness.
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James 5:16. Page 10 of 17

When there is a barrier, when there is a damn in our hearts and there is no flow of openness, that backed up lack of communication, that backed up confession turns to a stagnancy in our hearts, a bitterness in our lives. And that bitterness.... and I am going to tell you, I believe bitterness creates sickness in people. I believe that what is mental emotional relational and spiritual, if it is toxic, it is going to end up manifesting itself in physicality, in a physiological way. And so James says here: Confess yours ins to one another and pray for one another.8 I dont have time to belabor this. I am looking at the clock and I want to get to the last couple of points. But please can I just put this out there? We have, men, gentlemen, prayer meetings scheduled on a Saturday morning once am month. We have a church side prayer meeting scheduled. One of the biggest grievances in my heart during the last four months is that I have not been able to participate in that Tuesday night prayer meeting and when we come together, I want you to know. That is not just one more thing on the calendar. One of the things that this church needs a renaissance in is our communion with each other, our koinonia, our partnership together in the gospel and a massive part of that is when we come together. Nobody has position. It is not about a position or leadership or influence. It is children coming to talk to Father. Those times are very important and I want to encourage you. Make those a priority. I would on the weeks that we have that Tuesday night prayer meeting. I would rather you skip Wednesday night service and come to Tuesday night prayer meeting if you cant do both. So keep that in mind as those times to pray for one another come up. Let me get down to verses 16, 17 and 18. Prayer for intervention. This is great. I really should have made this two messages. There is an undeniable truth that is given to us at the end of verse number 16. I love James because he is dogmatic. He just throws this at us. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.9 We love the King James on that one, dont we? The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.10 I like that better, but it is saying the same thing. It is the power of a righteous... excuse me, the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Now I want to ask us something. Do we believe that? Do we believe that as those who are not only made positionally righteous, that is part of it, by faith in Jesus Christ, you cant be righteous outside of Jesus Christ. You can be moral. You can be religious. You can be intelligent.
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Ibid. James 5:16. 10 Ibid. Page 11 of 17

You can be educated. If you cant be righteous apart from Jesus Christ. Christ is our righteousness. But I believe it is going beyond that. It is not only talking about a positional righteousness. It is talking about a practical righteousness where you dont have anything in your heart and life that would impede you from hearing God. Remember the Psalm 66:18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.11 That is an amazing verse. That if I am holding on to sin in my heart, God is not acknowledging my prayers. An do when we are talking about a righteous person, it is not only a person in Christ, but a person who has no unconfessed sin ongoing in their lives. Now forgive me if that sounds a little moralistic to you, but I believe that is exactly what is being taught here. James qualifies and says the person praying who is a righteous person, experiences great and effective working power in those prayers. So how is your prayer life? Not an accusation, an opportunity to think. What are you praying about? What have you stopped praying about? What have you forgotten to pray about? What did you pray about for so long and then when it didnt happen in your timetable, you just assumed it wasnt Gods will and you came up short? Brothers and sisters, one of the greatest avenues, if not the greatest avenue we have to seeing things happen in the Christian life is this promise from Gods Word that if we will walk righteously in Jesus Christ, seeking Gods will and praying Gods will, then Gods will is going to come to pass. And that is going to be the flame in our lives. He gives us an unexpected example. Why do I call Elijah an unexpected example? Because of what James says about him. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.12 Now remember. James is writing to Jewish Christians and Elijah was a rock star. Elijah was the prophet. I mean, when people wanted to think of the great prophet in the history of Israel, it was Elijah and James comes in and he says, Listen. Elijah was just like you. You know, we have a tendency to put people up on a pedestal and I am glad the Bible never allow us to get away with it. Elijah was just flesh and blood, but he was a man that learned some incredible things. Lets see what happened. He gave what I call an unprecedented prayer. ... he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.13
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Psalm 66:18. James 5:17. 13 James 5:17-18. Page 12 of 17

Now you know you have got a prayer life when you can mess with the weather. You know, I have seen some great things happen. And, you know, we have seen some... I dont know. I don't think I have ever seen God just shut off the rain and then turn it on the day on the exact days where I am praying for both, but Elijah gets into the presence of God and interestingly enough this is not given in Scripture. In the Old Testament account in 1 Kings we don't see this actually happening, but James says, This is what happened. That Elijah prayed for it not to rain. God commissions Elijah to go announce that it is wasnt going to rain. And then three and a half years later he prays for it to rain again and remember the scene where he is up on a hill. He is tucked into kind of a fetal position and he keeps sending the servant out to look for the cloud and he is praying while that cloud is forming and eventually there is a down pour there. That is a prayer life. And I want to tell you something. That is not spiritual showmanship. It is my personal opinion that God is looking for people that will pray some big hair audacious prayers. Some people that will look up to God and say, God, I read about you in your Word. I see what you do. I dont know too many people around me that are taking you at your Word and wanting you, the great God to do great things, but, Lord, I am just simple enough and I am just going to ask, God, do some great things. I love praying great big crazy prayers that cant be answered any other way except by divine intervention. But, brothers and sisters, do you know why people dont pray those prayers? Because they dont want to experience the let down if it doesnt happen, so they dont even risk praying them. I think one of the things that God meant when he said, Taste and see that the Lord is good, is he is saying, Why dont you put me to the test and see if I wont do that? But most people dont. Dont be a person like that. Some of you believe there are some things that are impossible. And yet you also know that God has put these things on your heart but you cant figure out the Excel spreadsheet on it, so it must to be possible. Brothers and sisters, God doesnt do Excel. He is beyond the spreadsheet, beyond the norm of the natural, beyond the parameters that we throw up. I believe that the Lord is probably waiting for some of you to lift up holy hands to heaven and pray without ceasing and say, God, if you do not intervene we perish on this thing. Dont let all of the wet blankets wrap around your fire and dont believe the lie that that is some kind of spiritual fruitcake that does stuff like that. Look. Elijah was a spiritual fruitcake of his day. He was the man with a plan and God gave it to him. God gave not the powerhouses the plant. God didnt give the prophets of Baal the great fire from heaven. It was Elijah.
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By the way, one of the reasons we know that he is a man just like us, I mean, Elijah got depressed. And do you remember up on the Mount Carmel when they had that big contest? Do you remember how sarcastic Elijah was? He wasnt some spiritual dynamo. He was kind of one of those prophets with an edge and he got sarcastic. He said, Why dont you call out louder to your gods. Maybe he is in the bathroom. That is literally that is what he said. He said, Maybe he is using the bathroom. Call out louder. A little prophet with an edge. Some of us are so interested in maintaining what we consider decorum that we are never going to get real enough with God to find out just how gloriously messy the life of faith is. Please dont bow at the altar of tiny religion and God is calling you and commissioning you to walk in a sometimes messy faith. So then at the end of verse 17 and then I am going to finish. I knew I should have made this two messages. End of verse number 17. I have already said it. The unleashed power. It finally rained when he prayed. Lets get down to verses 19 and 20. And I may end up coming back to this, but let me begin it tonight. This is something very important. Prayers for restoration. Those specifically prayers not mentioned in verses 19 and 20. It takes prayer to be able to accomplish what James is highlighting here. Note our common occurrence. He says: My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth...14 He is talking to Christians about Christians. There is really only two types of wandering that happens among Christians. It is theological wandering and moral wandering and they usually go hand in hand. One can precede the other. Sometimes people stray from the proper doctrine, the err from the truth. They get seduced by somebody who has partial truth and they get sidelined. They get sidetracked. They go chasing after something that God never intended for them. And they get theologically off track. And Gods call upon us is to A) know what sound doctrine is so that we can acknowledge those who are walking away from it and then we go after them with a heart of love that seeks to restore them to the proper path.

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James 4:19. Page 14 of 17

Theological wandering is met with objective truth, bringing truth to people and, of course, this is our truth. This is the truth God has given us. And so I believe theological wandering is often easier to strategize for because you can take somebody who is a professing Christian or a genuine Christian and you can say to them, You are believing this, but what does this say? And you are engaging in this line of doctrine or thought or faith or practice and the Scriptures say this. So you can correct true objective error with objective truth. Now the moral wandering is a little more difficult. Not because it is harder to spot. Sometimes it is much easier to spot, but there is something about the moral wanderings that by the time a person is living in a way that is morally off track, they have somehow permitted themselves to believe that it is ok. And so they have already thought through at least part of the process and if you don't go in circumspectly to try to help that person to come out of that moral straying, what they end up doing is hardening their heart even more in a posture to defend the sin that they have come to cherish. And so, brothers and sisters, James is saying this is common. We have some here in this very room tonight who I believe God has incredibly gifted to go and help individuals who are straying, straying from the flock, straying morally, straying doctrinally. And it takes a very precise and patient heart to do that. So here is something beyond the common occurrence. Look at the uncommon outreach. He says, If this is happening and somebody brings them back, let that one that brings them back know that they have brought back a sinner from his wandering. This is incredible. I want to tell you something we refuse to do here. People come and go. That does happen. We don't own people. You arent property when you join this church. You have made a covenant. You need to have clear direction from the Lord. If you are going to break that covenant and break fellowship and go to a different place. This is not a club to join. You dont get to come and go just on a whim. We don't promote that here and, quite honestly, we dont tolerate that here. If you are going to join, come and make a covenant with this group. That means you come with all of your heart. However, if the time comes and you have got to go, God can lead you in that. But sometimes people just wander off. And there are certain brands of churchianity where we just say... let them go. Who cares. No big deal. We have got more coming in than we have got going out. I want to tell you. May God never allow that spirit to get into this church. It breaks my heart every time I see one go, even when they are leaving mad and they are leaving wrong and they are leaving a mess. There is something in our hearts that should say, There goes one of the family. Lets do everything we can do to make sure that they know they are welcome back.

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And sometimes they choose not to. It is an uncommon outreach. I hope that you dont think that is just the deacons job, the Sunday school teachers job or the pastoral staffs job. That is your job. It is a great relational privilege. And then finally the last thing. You all are so patient. I love you guys. This has not been great preaching tonight, but I certainly hope it has been helpful. Here is the beautiful outcome. When that person goes and brings them back, James says, Make sure they know that they will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Obviously the soul of a Christian cannot die. I believe James is saying you will rescue them from a deathlike existence when you go after them, when they have strayed morally, they have strayed doctrinally. You will know that you have restored them. We have got two choices when people are wandering away. I want you to think of your class. I hope you are part of a small group Sunday school class. If not, you need to be. That is where your accountability is. That is where your friends are made. That is where opportunities to get involved in ministry form. But when people leave your class or when people leave a ministry or when people go off, you really have two choices. You can take the loveless attitude and just cut them off and let them go, or you can restore them. I will close with this illustration. I know I have talked about it a lot. You all just indulge me. When the wreck happened on June 16th and Amys leg was crushed inwardly from the knee down to the toes just crushed, the doctors were amazed because none of the outer skin was broken. None of it. Inwardly, completely destroyed. Outwardly, literally not a nick on the leg. The doctor told us the day of the surgery, said, If there had been an open wound we would have had to amputate that leg. That is how close we were. Today when we were at rehab I watched Amy put a crutch under her right arm and a crutch under her left and for the first time I watched her just about with no assistance whatsoever, walk on that restored leg for about five minutes. She was smiling like a child who had just gotten the best gift on Christmas morning. But here is my thought. That doctor could have cut it off and said, That is the easiest thing to do. It is quick. It is clean. We can take care of that. We can cut it off and then let whatever happens happen. But that doctor had enough care and concern and said, I think we can restore this. I hope that illustration will stay with me the next time somebody strays because it is real easy to get busy occupied, not want to deal with the difficulty and say, Lets just
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amputate it. Lets just let that member of the family just be gone. It is easier. It is quicker. I want to have that vision of the smile on Amys face, because nobody amputated on her. She has been restored. Lets think about that. Prayers for healing, prayers of dependence, prayers for forgiveness, praying for intervention like Elijah when great challenges find us and praying for restoration.

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James 5:13-20

Hows Your Prayer Life?

Preached Wed. PM 10/12/11 at MBC

I. Prayers of Dependence (13) A. Believers are God-conscious during troubled times - Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. B. Believers are God-conscious during triumphant times - Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

II. Prayers for Healing (14-15a) A. The problem of illness (14a) - Is anyone among you sick? B. The process of humbling (14b) - ...Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil... C. The power for healing (14c) - ...in the name of the Lord. D. The praise for restoration (15a) - And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

III. Prayers for Forgiveness (15b - 16a) A. James mentions vertical confession (15b) - And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. B. James mentions horizontal confession (16a) - Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

IV. Prayers for Intervention (16b-18) A. An undeniable truth (16b) - The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. B. An unexpected example (17a) - Elijah was a man with a nature like ours... C. An unprecedented prayer (17b, 18) - ...and he prayed fervently that it might not rain...Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. D. An unleashed power (17c) - ...and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

V. Prayers for Restoration (19-20) A. Our common occurrence (19a) - My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth ... B. Our uncommon outreach (19b-20a) - ... and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering ... C. Our beautiful outcome (20b) - ...will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

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