James - Faith Part 3 - Communicative Faith
Date: 4/13/08
Sermon Series: James – Faith, Wisdom and Behavior
Sermon Title: Faith Part 3 - Communicative Faith
Text: James 5:13-18
Theme: This sermon will discuss a faith which is grounded in the sure hope that God listens and acts on our prayers. We will discuss the need for prayer in the Christians life and why we don’t always get what we ask for.
Introduction: A clip from Ghostbusters – who you gonna call – The idea is that we have at our fingertips all of the numbers which are necessary in order to take care of any emergency that comes up.
Transition: As James is closing out his letter to the Christians who have been dispersed throughout the world he is concerned that they have all of the emergency numbers they might need; that they are connected in a very real way to the power which can support them in the case of every life circumstance.
I. Communication in Failing (prayer in suffering)
a. The word for suffering here is kakopatheo it literally means living with bad. It is a general term for suffering of all kinds. James used this word earlier when he was talking about all that the prophets had gone through as a result of their efforts on God’s part.
b. The idea expressed here is that, if you are a follower of God, life is not always going to hand you nice juicy peaches, occasionally you are going to get a really sour lemon.
c. When that is the case you had better be in communication with your Father. The answer to who you gonna call is Dad.
d. Conversely your Father does not only want to hear from you when you are going through a hard time, He also wants to be on speed dial when things are going great. The scripture here tells us to sing praises when we are cheerful Do you ever just break out in song? Occasionally it seems like things are going so well we have to tell someone about it or we are going to bust. Tell God, sing out in joy and laughter. What ever life gives you reflect it back to God.
II. Communication for Fitness (call the elders to pray)
a. This next verse tells us that when we are sick we need to have our prayers extended out by calling to the elders and having them come pray over us.
b. The word used for sickness here is asthenei it literally means without strength. This is specifically talking about those times when a Christian is physically ill.
c. The idea here is that as Christians we need to have lived our lives in such a way that we are so dependent upon God that calling on the Body of Christ to participate in our weakness is almost second nature. The question is not when would we call the elders to pray for us but why wouldn’t we?
III. Communication of Faith ( and the prayer of faith will save)
a. There is an expectation of faith here.
b. One of the questions that this passage urges us to confront is: What is the point of prayer? If we believe God is who He says He is then why don’t we get what we ask of Him? Especially when we are asking for such incredibly unselfish things as healing for people and success of ministries.
c. By the way if you are not getting the answers that you want to your prayers right now you are in good company.
i. Jonah - On his way away from Ninevah
ii. Paul -2 Cor. 12 - His thorn in the flesh
iii. Jesus - Garden of Gethsemane
d. Believe it or not Scripture says a lot about why we don’t always get what we ask for.
i. Unless we have faith we should not expect God to answer our prayers. – Here, Mt 21:22 whatever you ask in prayer you will receive if you ask in faith.
ii. Unless we know and are obedient to God’s word we should not expect God to answer our prayers – Jn 15:7 – “If you abide in Me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” - (this presupposes that what you are asking is in accordance with God’s written Word.
iii. You might not be seeing the answer to your prayers because you are not yet patient and persistent enough. – Luke 11:5ff. the story of the man pounding on his neighbors door. Luke 18: 1 ff the widow who keeps haranguing the judge for mercy.
1. Along with this is the idea that sometimes we don’t receive simply because we don’t ask.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask God for anything and to ask often. He is the merciful Father who knows us best ad even more knows what is best for us.
IV. Communication of Family (Confess your sins and pray for one another)
a. Wrapped up in this idea of communicating with God on every issue there is also the idea that within the body of Christ we need to share community in such a way that we are aware of each others challenges, strengths, faults and situations to such an extent that we when we are confronted by our own sin we seek out other members of the body to talk about it and pray about it together.
b. This kind of openness seems incredible to us. We live in a society where we try to keep everything as secret as possible. The last thing we want is other people saying something negative about us. As I look at the picture that God lays out for the body of Christ this attitude is completely absent. Instead lives are being shared in an incredibly close way. While some of this may be a cultural phenomenon I believe that God’s design for the Church includes the sense that we are really aware of each other in a much more open manner than what we see operating today.
c. Have you ever noticed after they arrest someone on for some hideous crime and the new crews show up to interview all of the neighbors and thy say will I was sure surprise he seemed like such a quiet nice person. There is no excuse for such ignorance within the body of Christ.
V. Communication of Fervency ( Elijah prayed fervently)
a. The way the original language expresses Elijah’s prayer here is different than what we find in the English versions.
b. All of the versions which I checked express the phrase by saying he prayed either earnestly or fervently. In Greek many times emphasis is added by doubling up on the same word. For instance if you want to make an emphatic no in Greek you might pile up a couple or three negatives, which would never work in English. Here James repeats the word for prayer a couple of times to show the character of Elijah’s prayers. Another way to translate it would be to say he prayed and prayed.
c. As Elijah was faced with wicked king Ahab, a man whom scripture describes s the worst of a bad bunch of kings. Elijah didn’t just mention the problem to God in passing; he spent a lot of time pouring out his heart to God.
d. We are such half hearted creatures that we rarely bare our selves to the Lord in prayer much less make a constant habit of it.
e. We have a group in this Church I have called the prayer warriors and they gather and really intercede for people and ministries before God. I wonder what incredible things God will accomplish through the Church as we commit ourselves in fervent prayer to Him: As we pray and pray.
f. For the Elijah the result was a drought that lasted three years followed by rain which nourished the ground supernaturally.
Dr. Helen Roseveare, missionary to Zaire, told the following story. “A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded, ‘Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won’t feel so lonely.’
That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, ‘If God sent that, I’m sure He also sent a doll!’ And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child’s sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies’ group to include both of those specific articles.”
Our Daily Bread.
If you want you can choose to live in a world where God does not answer prayer and interrupt our lives with His providential hand doing mighty miracles. I cannot imagine such a dour existence. Instead I live in world where God is showing me living proof of His intervention all of the time. Teri and I call these God sightings those times when God inserts His divine care in an innocuous way. How will you live?
