Powerful Prayer

James 5:13-20

Introduction

Big Trouble

There were two brothers, 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievous. Whatever went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wits' end trying to control them. Hearing about a priest nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the mother suggested to the father that they ask the priest to talk with the boys. The father agreed.

The mother went to the priest and made her request.

He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first and alone.

So the mother sent him to the priest.

The priest sat the boy down across from him at a huge impressive desk.

For about five minutes they just sat and stared at each other.

Finally, the priest pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"

The boy looked under the desk, in the corners of the room, all around, but said nothing.

Again, louder, the priest pointed at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"

Again the boy looked all around but said nothing.

A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the priest leaned far across the desk and put his forefinger almost to the boy's nose, and asked, "Where is God?"

The boy panicked and ran all the way home.

Finding his older brother, he dragged him upstairs to their room and into the closet, where they usually plotted their mischief.

He finally said, "We are in BIG trouble."

The older boy asked, "What do you mean, 'BIG trouble'?"

His brother replied, "God is missing and they think we did it!"

What happens when we get into trouble - is God the last thing on our minds or the first? I know we say we turn to God but do we really?

James has some good advice for us to follow when trouble strikes as we finish our study of his epistle.

Last week we heard from James on the do NOTS.

o Do not let money be the guiding force of your values or your values will guide you off course.
o Do not grumble with each other
o Do not swear or make deals with God
o Instead be patient, suffering from sources seen or unseen.

The advice was based on the negative and are focused inward on how we do and do not behave. Verses 13 begin advice on what to do proactively - positively and outwardly.

Verse 13 - 16a

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

1. James tells us to pray when we get into trouble - seems obvious enough, but do we? We have a tendency to run FROM God rather than to Him when things go south.

Trouble here means to "undergo hardship" I think part of the message to us is - don't focus on yourself when you are in trouble, instead focus on God - and not just thinking about God but talking to God.

When I ask the question - how often do you pray? Most of us would say that we pray - but not that often. I admit I am in that category as well - but God has been really speaking to me lately about the importance of a continuing dialog with Him.

1 Thess 5:17 "pray continually"

The word "continually" is very interesting. Its root means, in essence, "don't leave the channel" or maybe "leave the channel open" might be a better way to describe it in today's terms. Leave the channel of prayer open all the time. Don't just have set times of prayer - though those are good - but have a life of prayer. Talk to God while you are working or shopping or in class. Now - babbling out loud in front of strangers is probably not the best way to earn friends and influence people - but it can be an interior dialogue - God, you know, hears our thoughts. The point is don't sign off - especially when the going gets rough.

(Story of Billy Graham and Jerry Jenkins)

2. He says when we are happy we should ignore the Lord who brought about the blessing that made us happy. No. We should sing praises. Have you ever really done that? Have you sung a "new song to the Lord" as the Psalms exhort us to do?

The advice here is really very similar to the 1st part of the verse - as we should leave the prayer channel open so too we should leave the praise channel open. Around here we think of worship as "musical prayers to God."

When things go well, we have a tendency to just forget about God and think circumstances came my way - the same when we are hurt we think it was just circumstance so there's no reason to include God.

Happy or sad - we need to communicate with our Father.

Paul goes on in 1 Thess. 5 to say: 1 Thess 5:18
18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So the idea of raising up worship and thanksgiving to the Lord is connected with prayer.

James doesn't stop there - he goes on to encourage us to connect not only with our God but with our family - the body of Christ.

14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

3. When we are sick we should call for the elders to pray instead of isolating ourselves from others not wanting them to see us "looking like this". We also pressure each other to always look and feel GREAT! This is unfortunate because it masks suffering and takes away opportunity for ministry.

Oil in healing. This is interesting in that for a Jew of that day, oil was a means of natural healing. We see it in the story of the good Samaritan - anointing the wounds of the man by the side of the road with oil - and other cases. Oil was used to heal many diseases as well including plague.

What's the point? I may be going out on a limb here, but I am supported by some commentators - the word from James is: pray 1st, last, and always - but don't neglect the natural forms of healing you have around you. I mean - things you can do to remain healthy by lifestyle and diet, and availing yourself of medical help when necessary.

15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

There are some things we need to understand about this verse.

1) Prayer needs faith. There are no magic words or incantations or special "prayers" that if said will create health. We need to understand that God is the healer and it is trust in Him that is the key, not the prayer itself.

2) Just because you pray does not mean that the person will automatically get better. Remember in chapter 4? "If it is the Lord's will?" Everything we pray must be made according to His will. Notice how it says: "The Lord will raise him up." I think sometimes the ultimate healing happens not when the person gets better but when they die. And that leads to the third point.

3) "If he has sinned, he will be forgiven" - forgiveness and salvation often precedes healing - we see it over and over in the New Testament - Jesus healing accompanied by a forgiveness of sin. The point is that what good is it if God heals a person's body but their soul is still headed for destruction? Sometimes the cause for sickness is sin - so we remove the cause before the symptoms are relieved.

4) I guess the point is: Faithful prayer will heal and we shouldn't hesitate to ask for prayer - if sin is involved and confessed, it too will be forgiven.

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

4. James is interested not only in physical health, but also spiritual health. We should be real with each other - not fakey fakey. Being real lets other people be real too and then we can encourage and pray for each other and see healing take place instead of continual bondage to sin.

General Advice

God should be the focus of all life's activities - that sad times, the glad times, the times when circumstances get us down, the times when sin gets us down. You are not alone - you have your Lord, your church, and your brothers and sisters to help you at every turn - so take advantage of it.

Don't just go off and hide so the enemy can divide and conquer. We need each other because God will use the strengths of others to uphold you in your weakness.

And here's an example.

Verse 16b - 17

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

o Its prayer - not words that makes a difference
o Righteousness means the saved are heard by God - not the unsaved
o Powerful and Affective - The KJV says: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." "Effectual fervent" means: active. You must be actively involved in the prayer and you must pray for something. "availeth" means "forceful." Whether you know it or not, prayer is a force that the enemy, and sickness, and circumstance can't stop. It doesn't mean you always get what you pray for - but God always answers.

James uses an example that at first glance doesn't give us much hope of having this kind of prayer.

17 Elijah was a man just like us. 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.

The story of Elijah is found in 1 Kings 17.

An evil king and queen - Jezebel and Ahab. These two were very bad and so God told Elijah to tell Ahab that it wouldn't rain for 7 years - and it didn't. Later he faced off the priests of the demon-god Baal and you remember the story - fire came down from heaven and burned up Elijah's sacrifice and altar and the priests of Baal were destroyed.

Later he prayed again and it rained and rained. We think of Elijah as one of the most powerful prophets that ever lived - and he was. In fact he is one of the two people the records as having never died but simply taken up to heaven.

So you think - if I was Elijah of course when I prayed thunder would roll, fire would come down from heaven and big things would happen - but I'm NOT Elijah.

But I think for us to understand what God is saying we must look a little closer at Elijah.

Turn to 1st Kings 19.

1 Kings 19:1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.

That's right - Elijah, the super-prophet with the big "E" stitched to his tights - ran for his life - much as we probably feel like doing when confronted with bad times or the enemy or someone opposing us.

Elijah ended up hiding in a cave and whining to God that he was the only one in all of Israel that was left for Yahweh. He was wrong, of course - there were 7,000 who had not bent the knee to Baal.

But it shows us something that James is trying to tell us. Elijah was "a man just like us." He put his pants on one leg at a time just like you and me. Elijah had fears - and he had weaknesses.

And yet when he prayed - things happened. What's the key?

I think that perhaps the only thing that set Elijah apart was that he relied on God. It's that simple. God gave him a job - and he did it. He believed he was doing God's will and he stepped out - believing in his heart that he was the ONLY one in the entire nation that still followed Yahweh.

Would you do the same? We need to rely on God to focus our lives, move through us - we need to rely on Him for everything, as if He was the only thing we had left - not our money or our houses or our friends or our country - just God.

Why is this so important - James gives us the clincher - the piece de resistance in the next two verses.

Verse 19 - 20

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

What's our job? What was Elijah's job - what is God about in the world? Saving souls from hell. Changing lives from darkness to light - bringing people into God's family.

The entire book of James - all the talk of learning patience in trials, of not playing favorites, of faith that is active and alive, of knowing truth from false doctrine, then speaking like someone who is redeemed and learning to discern God's wisdom from the world's, and submitting to God in everything like there's nothing else --- all that is so that God can take your life - mold it into His image, then use that life to draw others to Himself because He is compassionate and full of mercy.

So let your life go, let your ideals and wishes and dreams and weaknesses and sins go - give up and let Him rule it all.

Conclusion

You might have come here today and never experienced God's touch on your life. You not know anything of what I'm talking about. Today you can experience God's compassion and mercy first hand - and forever. You can have a foundation that will not crumble no matter what hits it. If not - you simply don't know when the end will come - are you ready?

The only way to do that is for you to let your life go to - to God's Son: Jesus Christ. Christ relied fully on God - and then gave up everything to bring you back to God - forgiving your failures through the blood shed on the cross - so that you can have God's peace and His love.

So right now - pray earnestly - tell God you are sorry that you've lived your life for yourself - tell Him you want Jesus, that you want Him to rule your life from this day on - that's all it takes.

President Bush said this week: "We learn that God's purposes are not always our own."

God's purpose is to know and save you - to provide a foundation that nothing in heaven or on earth can shake.

Paul wrote: Romans 8:38
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

o Be focused
o Be patient
o Be connected
To God
To your family