Before we get started, this may not be the best time for
this but I keep forgetting to give Carol some green tomatoes she has been
asking for. I also have some squash out of my garden that somebody can
have if they want it. All of that came out of my garden just this
morning. That is the squash from one plant on one day. That is the
tomatoes from one plant on one day. I have more I will bring later.
I found a really good fertilizer that I have to tell you
about. I got bored and did a little research and then just kind of
concocted my own little “recipe”. Believe it or not, I started with this
high octane chainsaw fuel that I had left over from a project. And I know
this sounds crazy but I saw this online so I added some powder from a shotgun
shell, a little vinegar, some aspirin, some spice out of the cabinet to make it
smell better, a pinch of salt for some abrasiveness, some soap to help it stay
in place, my left over hydrocodone I had from my surgery and a few other things
I scrounged up.
I mixed it all together and sprayed it on my vegetable
garden and it has grown like crazy. I’ll tell you what else. As I
was spraying it, I got some on my hand and I smelled my hand and it smelled
good so I tasted it and it tasted really good. And where it got on my
hand, I had a small cut and that cut healed amazingly quickly so I knew I was
on to something. But after spraying it and tasting it, I went inside and
drizzled just a little bit of it on my bowl of ice cream. And I can’t
prove that it is my concoction, but I have done that every day this week and I
have lost 5 pounds.
Now I’m using it for all kinds of stuff. I poured some
in the gas tank of my motorcycle and it runs a lot better. It kills fleas
and ticks on my dogs. I have even been rubbing some on my head when I
shower and I’m starting to see just a little bit of peach fuzz hair growing up
there. See it? You don’t see it? You don’t believe me?
I can’t believe you don’t believe me.
I can’t believe you don’t believe that story! But what
if I told you that you already have access to the most powerful force in the
universe? You already have at your disposal a force more powerful than my
concoction; a force more powerful than an atom bomb and more healing than a
medicinal balm. It is a power beyond all others - even Satan
himself. How much would you pay for a helping of that? What would
you give in exchange for that kind of power?
James tells us in his New Testament book that the prayer of
a righteous man is powerful and effective. He gives us the illustration
of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. If you have read anything about
Elijah, you know he did some crazy amazing miracles. And he did it
through the power of prayer. James said that it can make a sick person
well; it can bring rain or even turn a sinner from death. Well, phooey on
my homemade recipe. I want some of that! How about you?
Let’s turn to the 5th chapter of the book of James and see
more about this powerful force and how to harness it. This is the last
installment in our study of the book of James. Part of me is going to
miss it but my toes won’t. They have been stepped on enough by this
pastor of the first church in Jerusalem so many years ago. Throughout the
book, James has given practical advice to mature Christians on how to become
even more mature.
He has been practical as he addresses the most common
problems Christians face including how to deal with problems, how to know you
have real, saving faith, how to control your tongue (we may need to revisit
that one), and how to get what you want. And he has been harsh at times
but through it all you see the heart of a loving pastor to the church that he
loves so much; willing to tell them the truth at risk of offending them.
Let’s read more truth from chapter 5, verses 13-20.
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.
On February 16, 1975, my dad got up to preach on a passage
that included Revelation 3:20 that says, “Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” I
sat there listening and even though I was young and didn’t understand
everything, I knew I was a sinner. I knew my sin would keep me out of
Heaven. And I knew that Jesus was the only One who could forgive my sin
and secure my place in Heaven so I couldn’t imagine NOT opening the door to Him
when He knocked. So later that day I talked to my dad about it and he
prayed with me as I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life.
I grew up knowing that my dad and my mother both prayed earnestly for
me. When I went through a time of rebellion, I knew my parents were
praying for me. I found out later that when I went hunting on Sunday
instead of going to church why it was that I never shot anything. It was
because they were praying that I wouldn’t! They prayed for me during the
bad times. They prayed for me during the good times and I know they
continue to pray for me today. All of my life I have been prayed for.
All of my life I have been prayed for and all of my life I have
prayed. I have heard sermons on prayer. I have preached sermons on
prayer. It is a huge part of my life and yet I have to admit that I do
not know how prayer works. I can’t comprehend how or why the Creator of
the universe would choose to listen to me or anybody much less that He would
answer one of those prayers as if He were a friend of mine.
But how many of you, like me, know that He is our friend and that
prayer does work? And while James doesn’t explain exactly when, how or
why prayer works, he does tell us when, how and why we are to pray. So
let’s look first at when we are to pray. Look again at verses 13 and
14. 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.
It is vital to the rest of the passage that we understand what James
is saying here. I am just as fluent in Greek as I am in Hebrew but
I have books that tell me how James is using these words and what is intention
was in writing them. When he asks if anybody is in trouble, he is asking
if anyone is mentally or emotionally distressed. Are you worried?
Are you bothered? Are you suffering ill, especially in the mind?
Are you troubled?
And then he asks if anyone is sick. And there has been a great
deal of misunderstanding around these verses. While we all know that God
does heal physical problems of all kinds, that is not what James is emphasizing
here. The Greek word asthenei literally means to be weak
or weary. And while it can be used to mean physically weak it is
generally used in the book of Acts and in the Epistles to refer to a weak faith
or a weak conscience. (Bible Knowledge Commentary page 834)
It also goes right along with everything else James has to say.
James is writing to the members of his church who were in danger of growing
morally or spiritually weak. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul
says to that church, “And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who
are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be
patient with everyone.” When he says to help the weak it is the
same word that James uses. And Paul is obviously not saying to help those
who are physically weak necessarily. That’s not the point.
Now the second part of verse 14 says to, “call the elders of
the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the
Lord.” I really did some digging and some studying about this
because I really wanted to know exactly what was being said. We all know
and we have all heard preached or taught that back in those days, oil was as
close to medicine as they had for most things.
And that’s not wrong. That is very true. But it also had
other uses that we might not usually use it for these days. I want you to
look at 2 other verses real quickly to help us know how James uses the term “anoint
with oil”. InMatthew 6:17, Jesus is talking about fasting and
teaches that when you fast you are to put oil on your head and wash your
face. Then in Luke 7 Jesus is having dinner at the house
of a Pharisee and tells him that the Pharisee didn’t put oil on His head.
Now, on neither occasion was medicine needed. The oil was meant
as refreshment and as grooming. Well, how does that help us today?
According to the Centers for Disease Control 10% of the population is
clinically depressed with half the population saying they battle it at one time
or another. And every one of us goes through low periods where we just
don’t want to get out of bed or off the couch. That’s what James means by
weak. And isn’t that an apt description?
But it is our responsibility as elders – and that term just means
mature members of the church – to come along side that person and with prayer,
encourage them to get up off the couch, put on some makeup or shave their face
(hopefully not both) and get back to the business of being the church.
Because the couch is right where Satan wants us to be. He wants us to be
depressed. He wants us to feel weak and weary. We’re not hurting
his agenda when we are on the couch.
But the Bible says to rejoice in the Lord always. (Phil.
4) Paul said, “For when we came into
Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn-conflicts on the
outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the
coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had
given him. (2 Corinthians 7:5-7)
We all need that Titus in our lives, don’t we? And
we all need to be that Titus for someone else. So, when someone is
troubled, we should be there to pray for them. That is when we are to
pray. Now let’s look at how we are to pray. It’s interesting that
James gives us the example of a man who knew all-too-well the power, not only
of prayer, but also of depression.
In verse 17 he talks about Elijah.
He says Elijah was a man just like us. Really, James? That’s hard
to believe when you read how the prayer of Elijah kept the rain from falling
and then caused it to rain. His prayers caused fire to come from Heaven
and life to come back to a dead boy. He parted the Jordan River barely
breaking stride and was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire in a
whirlwind. But, yea, other than that he was a lot like us, right?
I mean if he was just like me then does that mean he was
short, fat and bald and didn’t like vegetables? No, of course not.
But if you want to know how to pray then you should pray as Elijah prayed and
James says here that he prayed earnestly or fervently. Verse 16 goes
right along with this verse and I like the way the King James words it.
It says it is the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man that is powerful and effective.
I have used this illustration before but I always think of it when I
read this passage. I heard Adrian Rogers tell about being a young pastor
in Florida and one night late he got a call from a woman who was very concerned
about her alcoholic husband who had not gotten home yet. So he went over
to the house and was met at the door by the woman’s grown son who was obviously
drunk himself.
He said he comforted them the best that he could and then asked if
they could all pray together and they agreed that would be good. He said
the 3 of them were standing in the living room and he started praying for the
safe return of the father and husband and was going right along when the son
just burst out in the middle of the prayer. “You need to pray,
pastor. You ain’t praying!”
Well, after he got over the shock of being interrupted like that,
Adrian Rogers said he decided he would crank it up a notch and got his big boy
pastor pants on and started praying even harder and louder, using all the big
pastor words he could think of. And this went on for some time until the
young man did it again. “C’mon, pastor. You gotta pray. You
ain’t praying!”
Well, that’s it. He can’t pray with that kind of distraction so he
just stopped for a second and when he did he heard the mother praying.
But she was in another room and so he went to look for her and found her in the
bedroom laying face down on the floor, crying out to God, begging God with all
of her heart and soul and mind. He said he understood why the drunken man
would tell him he wasn’t praying because he had obviously heard his mother
praying.
He had heard her before on her face, doing business with almighty,
holy God, the Creator of the universe. He had heard her praying earnestly
and fervently, praying boldly and with great faith, without ceasing, wrestling
with God until He told her something! That’s the earnest prayer James
speaks about here.
And I hear what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the 3 most
common words that people think when they read through this little book.
“But that’s hard!” And yes, you’re right. It is hard. And do
you know why it’s so hard? Because Satan hates it. It scares him,
and rightfully so. It is the most powerful force in the universe and
Satan will do anything he can to keep you from praying fervently.
Satan would rather you didn’t come to church. He would prefer
that you didn’t read your Bible. And it really bugs him when you say your
nightly prayers. But the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man scares Satan to death. Nothing runs him off or brings
him to his knees like a child of God in direct contact with the Father.
So you can expect to be distracted when you try to pray. You can expect
to not be comfortable or have the phone to ring. You have access to the
most powerful force in the world. The question is how bad do you want it?
When do you pray? When you are troubled. How do you
pray? Fervently. And lastly, why should you pray? Look again
at verses 19-20. 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.
While James does not specifically mention prayer here, the implication
is clear. If we pray for the troubled, surely we must pray for the
brother who wanders from the truth. For us to truly understand this
passage, we need to get into the mindset of a shepherd. Sheep will
wander. The shepherd goes and gets it, and by doing so keeps the sheep
from certain death and all kinds of problems. This is what James eludes
to. (Randy James, 6/14)
Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether
you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you,
saying, "This is the way; walk in it." And yet we all wander off sometimes. Sometimes
some of us go further off than others. Some stay longer than
others. But we all need someone to prayerfully come to us and lovingly
speak the truth to us. But that is not to be done without much fervent prayer.
My brother-in-law Randy tells
the story he heard about a young man who once described going astray from God
“like he was at sea in deep water, deep trouble, and all his friends were on
the shoreline hurling biblical accusations at him about justice, judgment, and
sin. But there was one Christian brother who actually swam out to get me
and would not let me go. Even though I fought him, he pushed aside my fighting,
put a life jacket around me, and took me to shore. By the grace of God, he was the
reason I was restored. He would not let me go.”
Restoring someone, if done
correctly, will cost you something. It will cost you time, money, effort
and much prayer. But the benefits far outweigh the costs. James
says you can save a person from death, implying physical death, and will cover
over, as with a veil, a multitude of sins. Sin in the life of a Christian
is worse than sin for an unbeliever. You expect a lost person to
sin. But the price of sin in a believer is too high not to make the
needed investment of time and prayer.
It's what Jesus was telling
Peter in Luke 22 when He said, “Simon,
Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But
I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you
have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
I wonder if Titus might have heard that story and had been motivated
by it to encourage Paul in Macedonia. I wonder if we have heard this
story and have been motivated to encourage others in our church family and in
our community to stay on the right path and not to turn to the left or right.
Pray when you are troubled. Pray fervently. And pray to
restore your brother, remembering 1 Corinthians 10:12 that
says, “So, if you think you are standing
firm, be careful that you don't fall!”
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