WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.065 And that's why anytime we pray, we say, father, thank you for this day in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told us to pray in his name. Because Dallas doesn't have any real power. Jesus does. 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:40.025 Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community. 00:00:40.425 --> 00:00:44.985 Be sure to follow and share with a friend. We hope you enjoy today's message. 00:00:44.985 --> 00:01:01.360 So if you have your bibles again, to James chapter five. We'll be in verses 13 through 18. Only two weeks left in James. Is everybody ready to be on to another book? Are y'all good? 00:01:02.080 --> 00:01:09.355 Need a little something different? Y'all enjoy James. Do it again? Kenny said do it again. We didn't get it. 00:01:09.355 --> 00:01:17.755 Let's run it back. Okay. There might be a bouncy house. Yep. So let's... 00:01:17.755 --> 00:01:23.990 Simi, let's sit. Hey, Simi, let's listen. Okay? Alrighty. James five thirteen through 18. 00:01:26.390 --> 00:01:41.935 My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 00:01:42.415 --> 00:01:59.560 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with the oil in the name of the Lord. 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. 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:24.470 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. 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. Again, he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops. 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:49.705 My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me this morning? Lord, thank you for for the time to gather under your word today. Lord, I admit I feel I feel weak today. And, Lord, I just ask you to give me the strength that I need to communicate your word to your people so that we may be built up and whole equipped to do the work of the ministry. 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:58.910 Lord, we love you and thank you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. The topic of this section in James five thirteen through 18, it's crystal clear. 00:02:58.910 --> 00:03:13.245 The topic is prayer. Look at your neighbor and say prayer. No no no question about it. And specifically it's about faith filled prayer and that's really the only type of prayer that we should be offering. There should be no faithless prayer, only faith filled prayer. 00:03:13.245 --> 00:03:36.835 Earlier this year, back in February when we had that weird ice and snowstorm, we did a four week sermon series on the topic of prayer. I don't know if you remember this. And we learned four things. We learned how to talk to God, how to talk with God, how to hear from God, and how to be with God. Do you remember that service David and Adrian were sitting back there, we're talking about hearing from God, and David's like, I got something to say. 00:03:36.835 --> 00:03:49.900 And I was like, yes, sir. God just spoke to me. And and so that that's something that we went over in February. But here's the absolute honest truth. Even though we did that sermon series, I can guarantee that none of us here are masters in prayer yet. 00:03:49.900 --> 00:04:23.565 Anybody a master in prayer yet? Have you arrived in prayer? Actually, you think about that, even though that we've done a sermon series and we talk about prayer and we pray every week and you hear podcasts on prayer, listen to sermons on prayer, none of us, almost none of us feel confident in our prayer lives. There's only a few people I've ran into in my short twenty eight years here on earth that feel highly confident in their their their their prayer and communion with Jesus, with with God. Most of us are pretty insecure about the subject. 00:04:23.565 --> 00:04:38.340 Even though we know it is one of the most essential parts of our Christian life. I mean, Jesus talked about prayer a lot. Jesus says, not if you pray. Jesus says, when you pray. Jesus expected his disciples to pray and to pray often as he did. 00:04:38.340 --> 00:05:10.360 And prayers are found all throughout the scriptures. I mean, lot of what this book is is just people offering prayers to God. And we have a whole book. It's called the book of Psalms, the biggest book in the Bible that is just a 150 different prayers to God in the form of praise, and they would be sung as a form of of sung prayer. And so it's no surprise that James, who has clearly derived much of his source material from Jesus, is bringing up the topic of prayer. 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:28.175 I mean, you remember Jesus in the most important part of the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter six. It's building to this point, and after this, everything comes after that. But the the the climax of the Lord's... Is the Lord's prayer in Matthew six. It's our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 00:05:28.255 --> 00:05:50.475 Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom, the power and glory forever. Amen. Lord's prayer. 00:05:50.555 --> 00:06:06.940 Prayer. Even though we know all these things, we all can can learn to grow a little bit more in it. Amen? We talked about this a little bit at JC's this past Wednesday, and I think that was very helpful in preparing this sermon. And so here's something though. 00:06:06.940 --> 00:06:34.170 I'm not gonna lie. Like out of all the texts, out of all the things, this is like week 18 of James. This is the week I was most nervous for. I felt really sick all week about it. And that's not because I'm nervous and I don't know how to dig into God's word to understand what it means, but rather there's something that James says in this text that really has a hard time with me to accept and that is this. 00:06:34.170 --> 00:06:45.130 Look at verse 15. It says, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up. You see it says, will make, say will make. Will make. 00:06:45.215 --> 00:07:04.780 Unfortunately though, there's been so many times where I've prayed for somebody, I've laid hands on somebody, and they were not made well in the way I thought they would be. And that's been discouraging. I don't know about you. All of us have done this. We prayed for somebody and that God doesn't heal them or do the thing in like we're asking him to do. 00:07:04.940 --> 00:07:15.735 And that can discourage us. And you're like, does God not hear my prayers? Is something wrong with me? Do I not have enough faith? But the Bible says, will make the person well. 00:07:15.895 --> 00:07:38.570 And here's the beautiful part though. And here's what we have to hold on to brother Glenn. Regardless of my experience in prayer, my limited experience, I can't stop praying just because I didn't see breakthrough a few times. The Bible teaches me to continue to pray, to continue to ask in the name of Jesus. So I don't bring my level of faith and expectation expectation down to my limited experience. 00:07:38.715 --> 00:07:55.880 No. I base my experience or I'm I'm gonna base my prayer life off God's word. And that's what we're gonna try to do today. Because if we try to do it based off experience, there's a lot of things that we're not gonna do. But today, we're gonna rebuild on that foundation that we already have as we learn to grow in faith. 00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:11.285 Because our journey in prayer and through prayer and with prayer is based on God's word and God's character. So let us look back to James five thirteen. James five thirteen. I'll read it for you again. It says, is anyone among you in trouble? 00:08:11.605 --> 00:08:21.700 Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of pray. Look at your neighbor and say trouble. Trouble trouble trouble. 00:08:21.940 --> 00:08:31.220 I used to play trouble with my grandmother growing up. The little board game, the little pop around top. That was such a fun game. And you knew you were in trouble if, well, you know, the little dots are coming after you. Trouble. 00:08:31.380 --> 00:08:54.570 This topic of trouble or suffering is not something James has shied away from. Really, the whole book in one part is about enduring through suffering. That's how we open up this thing. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you go through trials and sufferings or troubles of many kinds. He has brought up the topic of trouble and suffering suffering over and over and over and over. 00:08:54.970 --> 00:09:09.975 And he just simply reminds the brothers and sisters in faith, if you are suffering, if you're going through a hard time, if you are in trouble, you need to call upon God. Or is anyone in trouble? They should pray. And we all know this. Right? 00:09:09.975 --> 00:09:22.060 I think this is the probably the the prayer muscle that all of us have flexed the most. Something's going bad in your life. Your friend or your daughter or someone in your family gets a diagnosis. What do you do? You call upon God. 00:09:22.060 --> 00:09:31.340 We get that. I think we do that very well. And I'm glad we do that very well. And we don't have to run to the world or run to something else or some other little g god that doesn't exist. No. 00:09:31.340 --> 00:09:50.360 We run to god with all of our trouble. Right? And it's not just about running to god in our trouble for him to fix it. It's just at least telling him what's going on. Because what I found in my life, there's a big difference, sister Brenda, than just thinking I'm praying to God when I'm just thinking in my own mind and actually having conversation with God about what I'm going through, there's a difference. 00:09:50.440 --> 00:10:04.555 Just thinking about your problems is not the same thing. And so James very simply just reminds us, you're going through a hard time, you're going through trouble, just pray. Talk to God. Give your requests and supplications to him. He wants to hear you. 00:10:04.635 --> 00:10:22.290 So if anyone in trouble today, if you're in trouble today, you feel like you're going through something, if you're suffering, let them pray. You should pray today. Secondly, look at what he says. He says, is anyone happy? Look at your neighbor and say happy. 00:10:23.490 --> 00:10:28.530 Happy. Happy Sunday. Yeah. Y'all ever met somebody like that? Just, hey. 00:10:28.905 --> 00:10:34.185 How you doing? I'm so happy all the time. You know? No troubles ever come on me. Yeah. 00:10:34.345 --> 00:10:44.080 Happy. Is anyone happy? He says, let them sing songs of praise. I think we often miss this one. We get the first one right. 00:10:44.160 --> 00:11:15.220 We're going through trouble of many kinds, and we call on God. Great. But sometimes, when things are well, when we're happy, when we're feeling confident in God and confident in life, we have the tendency to not call on God and thank him. Actually, was somebody in JC's the other day who just simply shared from their heart when we're talking about this topic of prayer and they said, hey, I've been feeling really convicted that when I pray, I'm only coming to God when something's wrong. I'm not just coming to him to talk to him, to thank him about what's going on. 00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:41.380 Just to thank him and praise him for our lives. And this is something actually the Bible warns us against. In Deuteronomy chapters one through eight, if you remember towards the beginning of the Bible, the nation of Israel is getting ready to take the promised land. God's giving his last commands to Moses. And one of the things he tells Moses that he needs to tell the people before Joshua and the people would move into the promised land is this. 00:11:41.540 --> 00:11:54.365 He's saying, look, people, before you go into the land, you need to remember. And as you take the land, do not forget the Lord your God. Don't forget me. This is what it says in Deuteronomy eight ten. I love this. 00:11:54.365 --> 00:12:19.645 He says, when you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he's given you. This is picture. God's given them this land and has an abundance of food, and they filled their bellies. And the problem is once you get your belly full, you kind of forget because you already got what you need. This is actually why one of my best friends named Ryan, he challenged me. 00:12:19.645 --> 00:12:27.965 He said, why do you pray before your meal? I'm like, because that's just what you're supposed to do. That's what a good Christian does, Ryan. Why are you questioning me on that? He says, no. 00:12:27.965 --> 00:12:33.990 No. No. That's good. But have you ever read Deuteronomy eight ten? He says, it's easy to thank God for your food before you have it. 00:12:33.990 --> 00:12:46.275 But will you thank God for the food you had after your belly's full? Because there's a tendency to forget what God has done once you have already an... He's answered your prayer. God gives you what you want, and then you... We just go on our merry ways. 00:12:46.515 --> 00:13:11.865 Sometimes we just offer a kind of a thank you, but the idea is that we're not really expressing gratitude. And when we're not expressing gratitude, as again, we talked about in JC's, that can leave a void in our faith, in our love, and in our prayer life with God. So it's easy once God's answered prayer to forget him. And so that is something that James, I think, is trying to get us on the other side of. Because there's plenty of Christians who are suffering. 00:13:11.865 --> 00:13:33.750 There's plenty of people who are in trouble, but he's like, for those of you all here who are happy, who are feeling good, feeling confident in God's promises, you need to praise him. Look at your neighbor and say, praise him. That's the opportunity that we get to do each week within within service. The first thing we do in our in our gatherings together is... What do we do? 00:13:33.910 --> 00:13:51.365 We stand together, we lift up our voices, and we lift up our hearts in one accord, and we sing praises unto God. Why? Because he's worthy. He is worthy of our praises. Even when we're having a bad day, sister Jamie, and we're not happy and feeling confident, we still give him praises. 00:13:51.365 --> 00:14:16.915 But even more so, when we are feeling away, feeling glad about life, we just had to give it back to him. That's what we get to do each week, and that's why I wanna exhort you to just continue to sing with us and lift your hands and praise him like he's done something. This is the command of scripture over and over and over because we're not just singing songs. We're not just singing lyrics on a screens. No. 00:14:16.915 --> 00:14:24.630 No. No. We are remembering that we have eaten in the land and been satisfied, and God's been good to us. Amen? You raise your hand if God's been good to you. 00:14:25.350 --> 00:14:47.545 We all have a reason to praise in this room. Even if nothing else happened good in your life, you have enough reason to lift your lungs and praise the Lord. And even when things are bad, like I said, we just praise him for who he is. We should take time to sing songs of praise to God. And it's no surprise that we should act excited when we're singing praises to him. 00:14:47.545 --> 00:15:12.385 Yes. We sing a lot of slower songs that are reverent, that call us to God's holiness, that cause us to reflect in our hearts. But a lot of the songs we sing, the more upbeat songs that we sing are invitations for us to just get excited before God. But I feel like some of us are embarrassed to get excited before God. Not to put sister Debbie on the spot, but sister Debbie's confessed this to us multiple times that she doesn't wanna grieve God. 00:15:12.385 --> 00:15:23.060 And when God moves, she wants to move with him. But sometimes we're just too concerned what people think. Well, if I start running around this church, pastor Dallas is gonna kick me out. I ain't gonna kick you out. Just don't run into somebody. 00:15:23.060 --> 00:15:42.035 You just run around the chairs. Right? If you get loud and you scream and you clap, you know, that's fine. If you get out of control, we can we can reign it back. But but I think what I've learned is is two things is that as Pentecostals, we've become afraid of being Pentecostal and charismatic because we don't wanna be seen as charismaniacs. 00:15:42.275 --> 00:15:53.000 Because we've all seen... We all know those char... They're just weird folks. They just ruin it for everybody else. But there is a special invitation when we just kinda let go and let God. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:01.960 And it's not just us. This is one thing I would just love this past week. As I was studying, I was going through some of these books I have. The church history books. This one's called Pentecost to the present. 00:16:02.325 --> 00:16:21.060 And there's something that the early church used to do, specifically the Catholic church. And when you think of the Catholic church, what do you think about? You think of, like, Latin and Gregorian chant and cathedrals. You probably don't think of charismatic tongues and worship, do you? But there is this thing that Catholics did for a long time called jubilation. 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:42.305 What a cool word. Jubilation means to express jubilee to God. And there was oftentimes that these wonderful Catholics who love God, who worship differently than us, they would just burst out in spontaneous song. They would burst out in tongues and they would just begin to jubilate before the Lord. Sometimes they would laugh. 00:16:42.305 --> 00:16:55.800 Sometimes they would cry. Sometimes they lay on the ground. Sometimes they shout and clap with their hands. Sometimes they run around the place. And this was an often incurrence in church history that people got a little jubilant, got a little juice to them, and they just gave God some praise. 00:16:57.160 --> 00:17:15.565 And so my encouragement to you is like, do not be afraid to do that. Look, I know some of our bones don't look the way they used to or work the way they used to. Right? But however you can, just let go and let God. Sister Brenda has done such a good job exemplifying this for me in my life. 00:17:15.860 --> 00:17:21.860 She loves God. Right? We know you do. And she lets you... She raises her voice. 00:17:21.860 --> 00:17:31.655 And I... And and when she raises her his voice, it does something in my heart. I'm like, wow. She's praising God for what he's done. And this woman has been through so many things. 00:17:31.655 --> 00:17:36.935 This sister in Christ has battled cancer. I don't know how many times. This sister... Times. Okay. 00:17:36.935 --> 00:17:51.440 This sister has lost dear family members yet. She's still saying, God, thank you. There's something to that. There's some power in that. And it's not just for you getting your blessing, brother Glenn. 00:17:51.440 --> 00:18:05.015 Because if sister Brenda's shouting down, shouting the Lord down for what he's done, you're gonna get blessed. I can almost guarantee it if you let it happen. We'd let it out. It's a blessing to us. It's a blessing to others. 00:18:05.015 --> 00:18:14.695 And let's not forget this. It's a blessing to God. God likes it when we praise him. He likes it when we get a little excited about him. There's nothing wrong with that. 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:34.045 He deserves it. The Bible says he enthrones himself on the praises of his people. So when we praise him and we get excited, it's like he come and sits down and hangs out with us in a special way. And so let this word illuminate in your heart. Is anyone happy? 00:18:34.125 --> 00:18:45.460 Let them sing songs of praise. Let me tell you the story to just kinda paint this a little better. I listened to a devotion this week. Story of a guy, this happened like five years ago. There's a young... 00:18:45.460 --> 00:19:10.345 There's a guy who's a pastor in Texas, him and his wife hanging out and he was feeling dehydrated. And so his wife took him to the ER or to the urgent care. And within like ten minutes, doctor pulls the wife aside and says, I just wanna let you know your husband's not dehydrated. He has a brain tumor and we have to operate tonight or he's going to die. Get your kids because this might be the last time they ever see him. 00:19:12.360 --> 00:19:22.760 Just like that. They get... We're able to get him stable. And a couple weeks later, they were able to perform brain surgery. And they basically had to remove the left side of his brain. 00:19:22.840 --> 00:19:37.385 The whole thing. They said, you're not gonna be able to sing, talk, play guitar, preach, can't do none of that anymore. But you know what's really interesting? While they were operating on him, he was awake. Don't ask me why, but he was. 00:19:38.210 --> 00:19:56.615 And while they're removing the left side of his brain, do you know what he was doing awake? He was praising and singing God. He was in that OR singing, oh, victory is mine. Victory is mine. Victory today is mine. 00:19:57.495 --> 00:20:20.445 While he's getting his brain taken out. And he would go on to live for six more years, continuing to pastor and to lead at the church where they are. And here's the crazy part. And unfortunately, his story ends in death even though he will be resurrected. But in that time, those years he had, he slowly began to lose all his other abilities. 00:20:20.445 --> 00:20:30.365 He was a guitar player. He first lost that. He couldn't play guitar anymore. Then he lost his ability to speak and to preach. But you know what he lost last? 00:20:30.605 --> 00:20:56.205 His ability to sing. Do you know why? Because the part of your brain that tells your mouth to talk is different than the part of your brain that tells your mouth to sing. They're separated. This is why people who have dementia or Alzheimer's, when you see them in the nursing home, you might not have a real conversation with them, but you put some Johnny Cash on or Elvis, and all of a sudden, they're like, they come alive, you're like, woah, where'd that come from? 00:20:56.205 --> 00:21:18.385 Because it's a different part of our brain. I wonder if our beautiful and wonderful holy God, just a good enough designer to know that if I put this in the different part of the brain, they're gonna be able to praise me no matter what they're going through. Yes. Give God some praise. And so I tell you people of God, as a form of prayer and obedience to God, sing praises to him. 00:21:18.385 --> 00:21:31.665 Get excited before him. Amen? Amen. Sing songs of praise to him because he is worthy of it. Amen. 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:40.760 Amen. Woo. Amen. Amen. You're in trouble, you should pray. 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:56.165 You're feeling confident in God and you're feeling good and you're just reminded of his promises, you sing praises to him. Then he says something else. Look at verse 14. He says, is anyone among you sick? Look at your neighbor and say sick. 00:21:56.485 --> 00:22:03.950 Sick season's coming upon us. So a reminder, wash your hands. K? You know, blow your nose properly in your elbow. It's that seasons upon us. 00:22:04.030 --> 00:22:22.975 But this is not the type of sick he's talking about. He's talking about real sickness. He's talking about sickness that could lead to death. This is a diagnosis, a cancer diagnosis, or a crippling injury that is going to lead unto death. And James is saying, is anyone among you sick? 00:22:23.055 --> 00:22:33.130 Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. Hold up. Wait. Where's my oil? Oh, there it is. 00:22:34.170 --> 00:22:41.875 Forgot where my oil was. Alright. He says, anyone in trouble, pray. Feeling good? Sing praises. 00:22:41.875 --> 00:23:02.150 But if you're sick, you need to pray too. But you're not just praying for yourself, and that's something that we're doing anyways, because we're... If we're in trouble, we're praying for ourselves. But if there's a real sickness, he's saying, you need to call the elders of the church to come pray for you, to lay hands on you and anoint you with oil. There's a power in that. 00:23:02.550 --> 00:23:20.925 The elders of the church is not necessarily just the older folks in the church. There's translations and commentators think differently, but the idea is the spiritually mature leaders in the church. For example, I said this before, I'll embarrass her again because she's really good at what she does. When you need prayer, who do you go to? Dreamer. 00:23:21.005 --> 00:23:28.830 When you need prayer, who do you go to? Sister Tino and Brenda. Why? Because you know they're elders. They've walked with God. 00:23:29.150 --> 00:23:48.685 And when they pray, it's like heaven works with them. And he's saying, if anyone's sick, you need to partner with those in your community and you need to get them to pray for you. Again, that word sick means... Literally means dying or unwell. And if you're dying or unwell, you're invited to have the elders pray for you. 00:23:49.085 --> 00:23:55.730 And so let's talk about the anointing. Everybody say the anointing or that oil. If you're from Arkansas, call it oil. Right? Oil. 00:23:55.890 --> 00:24:03.570 It's the oil. Right? Let me just say this. There's no power in this oil. This is just frankincense from Africa. 00:24:03.570 --> 00:24:10.425 Okay? Smells great. There's no power in the oil. It's not special. I didn't have to buy extra money for it. 00:24:10.425 --> 00:24:27.800 Okay? What's powerful is is when you place oil on something. You pay... Place oil on a sick person. It's not just symbolic, but there's something that happens in the spiritual realm that's saying, hey, God, this is your kid who's sick, and I'm giving it to you. 00:24:27.800 --> 00:24:47.205 We are consecrating this person to you in their body, we're lifting them up to you saying, pay attention closely to this. That's what the anointing is. To anoint with oils, to just lift up in a specific way before God. So if you are sick, you partner with others. Ask them to come pray for you. 00:24:47.205 --> 00:24:58.870 Put oil on you so that you would be made well. But here's the thing though. He says, it's the prayer offered in faith. Look at your neighbor and say, faith. Faith. 00:24:59.350 --> 00:25:20.490 This should remind us of what James said earlier in the book. James one six through eight says this, but when you ask, when you pray, you must believe and not doubt. Because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. The person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double minded and unstable than all they do. 00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:40.835 And Matthew twenty one twenty twenty one twenty one through 22 basically says the same thing. If you ask in my name, pray and don't doubt. If you say to this mountain, move and it will be picked up and thrown to the sea. But the idea is that we're praying in faith and not doubting. That seems to be the bit that changes everything. 00:25:41.955 --> 00:25:50.810 Jesus also... Because he also says, you're not just praying and putting no oil. He says, you're praying in the name of who? The Lord. Why do we pray in the name of the Lord? 00:25:50.810 --> 00:26:08.025 Just as a reminder, John fourteen thirteen says, I will do. This is Jesus speaking. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the father may be glorified in the son. That's why anytime we pray, we say, father, thank you for this day in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told us to pray in his name. 00:26:08.905 --> 00:26:24.750 Because Dallas doesn't have any real power. Jesus does. And so I call upon his name, and his name is stamped on my forehead in blood. And so when I call on his name and I say, hey, father, I need you to do this. He's like, oh, he's covered with my son's blood. 00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:29.230 I remember. And he's praying in the name. Got it. Answered. It's in the mail. 00:26:30.145 --> 00:26:50.080 So he's asking us to pray the prayer of faith so that they may be made well. And that word there, look at it. It says, and the Lord will raise them up. And so again, commentators disagree here. Some are saying, hey, you know what? 00:26:50.240 --> 00:27:10.885 Sometimes healing doesn't happen. And what God means is is that the prayer of the faith will make the person well. And another translation says, will save them. It will save them, and the Lord will raise them up. And then makes you think of at the end of days, when we die and we go into the ground, that God is going to save us and resurrect us, and the Lord's gonna raise us up in the last day. 00:27:10.885 --> 00:27:23.580 That's the truth of scripture. That no matter what happens in life, that we're going to be raised with Jesus, and we are going to be saved eternally. Amen? But that's actually not what James is saying. He's speaking specifically. 00:27:23.580 --> 00:27:46.280 He says, I will make this sick person in front of you well, and I will raise them up. Why is it important that he said, I will raise them up? Mark one thirty one, for example, says this. Jesus, praying for this lady says, so he went to her, took her hand and helped her up, and the fever left her, and she began to wait on them. That's what he means, to raise them up. 00:27:46.360 --> 00:28:01.065 So you get the image, someone laying on their bed, sick, getting ready to die. They call on the elders to come pray for them. The elders pray. They anoint with oil. They pray with faith in the name of Jesus, and the person gets up because they're made well. 00:28:01.785 --> 00:28:26.110 That is what James is talking about. And again, though, I told you I was very insecure about this message. I have prayed for that so many times and it hasn't happened. But again, I'm gonna base it off scripture, not just my experience, but I want to read you a small snippet of someone else's experience. There's a guy named Martin Luther, church history, one of the most important guys in our history. 00:28:26.110 --> 00:28:35.755 Started the reformation, and it... This is really funny. He had a colleague who was sick, and this was a letter that went between them. It was really funny. This is what it says. 00:28:35.755 --> 00:29:10.830 It says, Frederick Myconis, another of Martin Luther's colleagues, was dying of tuberculosis when Martin Luther wrote him, saying, I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need for you in the work of reforming the church. The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done because I seek only to glorify the name of God. And Miconius was not only healed, but he outlived Luther by two months. What a beautiful story. 00:29:10.830 --> 00:29:32.655 He says, you can't die yet. We got work to do. I asked God and God answered. There's something about that prayer of faith that he must have offered where heaven heard and it sent the request in. And so, now we encounter something in this text as we're working through thinking about healing. 00:29:33.535 --> 00:29:50.450 And we see something here that kinda makes us feel uncomfortable. Look at the end of verse 15 with me. It says, if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. 00:29:50.530 --> 00:30:06.185 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. He's been speaking about trouble, about singing praises to God. But if we're sick, we gotta call them the elders of the church. Things are gonna get better because we're praying in the name of the Lord. And faith, it says, we'll make. 00:30:06.185 --> 00:30:25.840 You're gonna be raised up. Then he says, if you confess your sins, they will be forgiven. Here's the idea. There was a idea in the ancient world that sickness was connected to sinfulness. So if you had sickness in your body, it is because you sinned at somewhere in your life. 00:30:26.015 --> 00:30:36.255 This happened to the blind man that one time in the gospels. There's this blind guy where we get the famous song, like, Grace. Right? I was blind, but now I see... That that's inspired from the story. 00:30:36.495 --> 00:30:48.820 This man's blind and everybody's asking him, hey, like, who sinned? Like, does his mom or dad or him, you know, like, who did it? Because the idea was that someone sinned here and this is the consequence of the sin. He is sick. He is blind. 00:30:48.820 --> 00:30:59.655 He is lame. He's paralyzed. Whatever it is. And I think I think that can go overboard because it's not always somebody sinned. But a lot of times it is still. 00:31:01.015 --> 00:31:31.645 A lot of the times it would bring on bring on our own sickness by our sinfulness. And I can't like get a medical journey, a journal out and like explain this to you. But there's actually something that he's communicating between our healing and our confession of sin. Saying, if you confess your sin, you'll be healed. Then he exhorts him, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. 00:31:32.350 --> 00:31:51.345 My friends, if you've never done this, I think we probably all have for the most part. There is such a power in confessing your sin to somebody. When I was in college, Keaton and I were roommates. And and when I would sin, I'd do something stupid. I'd sin against God. 00:31:51.345 --> 00:32:04.990 I'd tell him or he'd already know. But I would confess to him often. And there's such a power in confession. It just doesn't make me feel good. There's something in my body, in my whole self that's happening when I'm confessing sin. 00:32:05.070 --> 00:32:25.895 Because when you have unconfessed sin, you might have confessed it to God. Yes. But when you're not asking your brothers and sisters as James is telling us to, Like you're missing out on the blessing. All of us have sinned and we haven't told others and it just eats us alive. Yet he's saying healing is connected to the confession of your sins. 00:32:27.420 --> 00:32:46.305 And that's another form of prayer. To remember, he told us, if you're in trouble, you should lament and cry out to God. Another form of prayer, singing praises to God. Another form of prayer is the intercessory prayer team coming to your house to anoint you with oil. And the fourth type of prayer that he reveals to us is confession of sin. 00:32:46.945 --> 00:33:02.820 Now look in the Catholic church, Orthodox world, they have confession. Was anybody grew up in the Catholic church here actually? Anybody? No? Basically, like once a week or often hopefully, you'd go you'd go to the house, the house of the Lord, and you would confess your sins to the priest. 00:33:03.540 --> 00:33:14.745 Some... You get that, you know, the old school box and you're in, you know, in between the wood and you're father, I've sinned, you know, I stole a, you know, a candy bar this week. Would you, know, just wanna let you know. Right? That's the idea. 00:33:14.745 --> 00:33:36.460 And so look, part of my job as a pastor is for you to come to me and to confess things that you've sinned. And there's been lots of people here and lots of people I've counseled in the past years that have come to me just confessing sin. And they're able to come to me simply just because they feel safe. They know what they confess is gonna stay here. And I'm gonna give it to God and I forget it. 00:33:36.460 --> 00:33:45.225 A lot of times I forget what they did. And I'm like, thank you so much for sharing. But you don't just have to come to me. He says to confess to what? One another. 00:33:46.585 --> 00:33:55.790 Now, obviously you might not feel comfortable confessing the sins that you're committing with everybody. And you shouldn't. And you definitely don't put them on Facebook. Don't do that. Okay? 00:33:55.870 --> 00:34:11.295 Right? But you should be able to have some people in your life where you can say, hey, I gotta talk to you. I was being so rude to this person last week. I gotta confess it before you and before God right now. And hopefully, that person's not like, hey, you suck. 00:34:11.295 --> 00:34:19.295 You're going to hell in a handbasket. That's not the type of friend you want. You wanna type of friend that says, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I appreciate that. Let's pray. 00:34:20.250 --> 00:34:34.170 Right? And then sometimes your friends, if you keep doing the same sin over and over and they might hit you over the head a little bit. But the idea is that we are partnering with one another. We're humbling ourselves before one another. And when we do that, it invites healing into our bodies and our lives. 00:34:35.145 --> 00:34:49.305 It's not easy. This is something very uncomfortable. But I invite you this week. If there's unconfessed sin, get with somebody you trust and confess it. Now, as Keaton comes, here's where the rubber meets the road in this whole text. 00:34:49.305 --> 00:35:05.945 Are you ready? This is where it all takes off or it all stops. What does he say at the end of verse 16? He says, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Then he gives us an example. 00:35:06.345 --> 00:35:35.825 He says, Elijah, who's a prophet in the Old Testament. He was a human being even as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. And again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. Now, this seems to be the key that unlocks everything. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 00:35:36.145 --> 00:35:54.110 Therefore, the prayer of a unrighteous person is unpowerful and ineffective. And so if we want our prayers to be powerful and effective, raise your hand if you want your prayers to be powerful and effective, come on somebody. That was quick. If you want your prayers to be power and effective, you must be a righteous person. That's what the word says. 00:35:55.390 --> 00:36:11.245 Two things here. Number one, how do you become righteous? By the blood of Christ. That is the main righteousness we're talking about. Through the body and the blood of Christ, we can become the righteousness of God as Paul says. 00:36:13.005 --> 00:36:31.065 And so if you want a prayer light that's effective, your friends and family want a prayer life that's effective, you gotta be in alignment with Jesus, and you have to be saved, filled with the holy spirit, and covered by his blood. That's the first prerequisite of being righteous. He makes us righteous. We don't have to try to be righteous, be good enough before God. I I... 00:36:31.065 --> 00:36:37.305 I've done the right things enough. Hopefully, I'm righteous now. No. He makes us righteous. He calls us saints. 00:36:37.945 --> 00:36:50.210 But then there's another dimension to this. It's not just becoming a righteous person. We become righteous through the blood of Jesus. But now in the power of the spirit, we must walk in righteousness. There's a difference. 00:36:50.690 --> 00:37:13.120 And this is what sister Brenda pointed out to us at JC's on Wednesday. Because when you look at Elijah, Elijah, who seems superhuman, and it's funny, James had to remind us here that he's a human being. Because one day, Elijah partnering with God said, you know what? Stop that rain. Amen. 00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:29.445 And it worked a three and a half year drought. How does that work? He's told the rain to stop and it didn't, it didn't rain. And then when it was time, the Lord's like, it's cool if it rains now, like, you know, we're, let's do a thing. He's like, all right, bring the rains. 00:37:29.445 --> 00:37:42.325 And it happened. Like what? But we look at Elijah and we think he's superhuman. We look at any of the heroes of faith that done great things for God. And we think that could it be us? 00:37:43.970 --> 00:37:58.205 We look at the life of Jesus and we'll say, well, he's Jesus. I'm not Jesus. Jesus was able to do all those things because he's God. Well, yes and no. Jesus was fully God and fully man. 00:37:58.205 --> 00:38:15.390 But when Jesus became a man, brother Glenn, it said that he set his divinity to the side, and he was born as a human being. And guess what? Until Jesus is baptized in the power of the spirit, do you see Jesus doing any miracles? No. You don't. 00:38:15.630 --> 00:38:49.100 And it's not until he is baptized in the holy spirit, in the power of the holy spirit, and he goes into the wilderness to pray and to fast for forty days. It is after that that he comes back on the scene performing miracles and healing everybody who needs it. The point of what I'm trying to tell you is you don't have to be superhuman for your prayers to work like this. What I've learned is that superhuman people just do super boring things. You know what Elijah and Jesus did? 00:38:49.100 --> 00:39:13.190 You know what they had in common? They spent lots of time in the quiet praying with God. You don't have to muster this thing up. You don't have to get louder and beat the ground and say, God, if you answer this prayer and you make a rash vow, you know, if you answer this, I'll never smoke cigarettes again. I'll never do that again. 00:39:13.190 --> 00:39:34.795 You don't have to do all that. That's what the pagans did. That's what... When Elijah's on the mountain of God, and he's defeating the prophets of Baal, the prophets of Baal are cutting themselves, and they're bleeding their blood to try to get their god's attention to answer their prayers, and Elijah just makes fun of them. Elijah doesn't have to do any of that because he knew God. 00:39:35.115 --> 00:40:05.485 He was in such close communion with God because he frequently withdrew into the wilderness to just be with God. And that's what Jesus said. It says, Jesus frequently withdrew to lonely places to what? Pray. So if you want more power in your prayer life, if you want your your prayers to be powerful and effective, if you wanna grow in that righteousness, then you must draw close to God. 00:40:06.750 --> 00:40:23.225 You must find some time to get alone with him and to grow in your intimacy with him. You get alone with God and you just talk to him. Don't even ask him for nothing. As my dad said, how you doing, God? How you doing, Lord? 00:40:23.465 --> 00:40:36.745 What'd you have for breakfast, God? You know, just talk to him. You talk to him. And as you grow in intimacy, then you get in alignment. So as you grow in intimacy with God, you get in alignment with what? 00:40:36.745 --> 00:41:10.940 God's heart. So as you spend time in the secret place, my friends, and you grow to hear that voice and you know it more and more and more and more, he's gonna begin revealing his heart's desires to you. And once you get in alignment with him, and he's he's ridded you of your own desires, and now your desires are his desires, then you get supernatural movement where heaven's coming to earth. That's the righteousness that all of us could grow in. All of us here have been made righteous by the blood of Christ. 00:41:12.380 --> 00:41:36.675 But if we want powerful and effective prayers, we must simply trust in God and who he is, and we must be willing to draw close to him and sacrifice what we have to. Because I wanna be like Elijah. I I mean, we are we're in a drought right now. I would love to be able to say, hey, Lord, just like send rain for the next sixty days. Like one inch increments so that, you know, everything fills back up. 00:41:38.320 --> 00:41:49.760 Right? Or I wanna be able to... When when one of you all or anybody in my life says, Dallas, I'm not well. I need you to pray. And God does it. 00:41:50.320 --> 00:42:19.130 Right? Like, I wanna be that type of prayer warrior, if you will. I want my prayers to be powerful and effective. Here's the last part though, as we wrap this up. At the end of the day, we have to accept this, that God is God, and he is sovereign. 00:42:20.435 --> 00:42:33.700 And sometimes you're gonna pray for something, and what you prayed for is not gonna happen because it's not in God's will. We know that. But we had... Like, but, like, we know that, but then we get frustrated about it. Well, he didn't answer the prayer. 00:42:33.700 --> 00:42:49.125 Well, he did probably in some way that you didn't expect. But we had to accept that no matter when we pray, when we pray in the name of Jesus, we're not praying our will. We're praying the father's will would be done. We have to accept that reality. Okay? 00:42:50.725 --> 00:43:03.780 Because not every person I pray for to be healed and raised up will be raised up then. Some of them are gonna go on to death because that's the Lord's will. But here's what I also know, sister Brenda, and this is where all of us need to... Everybody show me your muscles. On, Connie. 00:43:03.780 --> 00:43:11.860 Show me the muscles back there. Awesome. This is what we need to grow in here. Hey, God. It's me. 00:43:12.020 --> 00:43:23.955 Yeah. I need you to do this thing because it aligns with your heart and your word. Let it be done. Yes, sir. Remember that one time nation of Israel, God was getting ready to kill all of them. 00:43:24.035 --> 00:43:33.740 And Moses interceded. He said, God, don't kill them. Like, this is gonna look really bad on us. Don't do it. God's like, alright. 00:43:33.740 --> 00:43:43.580 I'll listen to you. I won't do it. We can get God's attention like that. You can get God's attention like that. You can call on heaven like that. 00:43:44.555 --> 00:43:57.115 We accept his will is gonna be done, but we also just pray in alignment with his word. So if you see healing in this book, you pray like that. Right? That's why I pray for healing. I see healing all over this thing. 00:43:57.115 --> 00:44:13.940 So I'm a lay hands, put some oil on that thing, and we're gonna pray for healing. Because I wanna be a prayer that moves heaven. Not just prayers that move. I want to be a prayer that moves heaven. Let that be our desire in our city. 00:44:14.575 --> 00:44:39.750 As, Kalen, I don't mean to put you on the spot as well. When you when you were in the waters last week, that was so powerful. And I was just reminded of the need for so many other people in our city to experience that. And if we want to see that, if we need to get a new baptismal to fit the amount of people that need to come in here, that's fine. But what we need to do is partner with God and call on heaven to come down. 00:44:39.910 --> 00:44:47.424 That's what it's gonna take. Prayers of righteous people who are powerful and effective. Would you stand with me this morning?