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Christianity Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Part 13: Excellent Guidance for Everyday Life (Part 2)
James 5:13-18
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - May 13, 2012
BACKGROUND:
*As we got to the end of James last week, we saw that he closed his letter with excellent guidance for everyday life.
-In vs. 13, seek God’s help for your suffering, and sing God’s praise.
Or as James said: “Is anyone among you suffering?
Let him pray.
Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing psalms.”
-James also told us to share our faults with one another.
In the first part of vs. 16, he simply said, “Confess your trespasses to one another.”
-James also urged us to steer people to God’s truth, and we found this guidance down in vs. 19-20:
19.
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,
20.
let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
*There was one more piece of guidance we didn’t have time to cover last week.
It concerned praying for other people.
As James got to the end of this practical, powerful letter, he stressed prayer more than anything else.
*Let’s take a close look at prayer tonight in vs. 13-18, because in these verses God gives us 4 great reasons to pray.
INTRODUCTION
*On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you believe in prayer?
I’m sure most of us would say 8, 9 or even 10.
But what if the answer to that question was based on how much you actually prayed last week?
*We all need to grow in our prayer life.
But can my prayer make a difference?
-- Does it matter?
-- Without a doubt, the answer is yes!
1.
So pray first of all, because it’s the proper thing to do.
*Over and over in His Word, God tells us to pray.
Here the Lord tells us to pray 3 times in 4 short verses:
-In vs. 13: “Is anyone among you suffering?
Let him pray.”
-In vs. 14: “Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him.”
-And in vs. 16: “Pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
*Many times God tells us to pray, and He teaches us to pray.
[1] Jesus taught us to pray by His example.
*Mark 1:35 lets us look into the Lord’s prayer life and says: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
*Just before Jesus chose His 12 Apostles, Luke 6:12 says: “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.”
[2] So the Lord taught us to pray by His example, but also by His explanation.
*Luke 11 is a great place to hear some of the Lord’s explanation of prayer.
-So let me ask you to keep your place, and please turn to Luke 11.
*Listen to Luke 11:1&2:
1.
And it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.''
2. So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven. .
.”
*God wants us to pray to Him as our Heavenly Father, and you can if you receive His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
*Vs.
2: . . .
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
God wants us to pray with praise and an obedient heart.
*Vs.
3: “Give us day by day our daily bread.”
God doesn’t just care about our spiritual needs.
He cares about our physical needs too, and He wants us to pray about it.
*Vs.
4: “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
God wants you to pray with a heart like His: A forgiving heart, always seeking to do the right thing.
*Next Jesus teaches us to keep praying, and He does this in Luke 11:5-8.
5.
And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;
6. for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him;”
7. and he will answer from within and say, “Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you”?
8.
I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
*God tells us to pray, and He teaches us to pray.
So pray because it’s the proper thing to do.
2. But also pray because the answer has been promised.
*One of the greatest promises for answered prayer is right here in Luke 11.
Listen to the Lord Jesus in vs. 9-13:
9. "And I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11.
If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
12. Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13.
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!''
*God made an amazing prayer promise there in vs. 13.
If you will pray, He will give you the best thing He can possibly give you: He will give you Himself.
*And you know that if God will give you the best thing, He will give you everything else you could possibly need.
-- Through prayer.
*God gives us many other promises of answered prayer.
And we see some of these promises back in James 5. Please listen again to James 5:14&15, where James said:
14.
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.
15.
And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
*Some people see the oil in vs. 14 as a kind of medicine that was often used in that day.
This is the way oil was used in the story of the Good Samaritan.
*Listen to the Lord Jesus in Luke 10:33-34.
33.
“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.
And when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34. and went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
*These verses remind us that God approves of hospitals and medicine.
But oil is also one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit, so its use in James 5:14 can also be symbolic of the presence and power of God.
*And here in vs. 15, God makes 3 strong promises of answered prayer: “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
*James says, “The prayer of faith will save the sick,” but here is an important point:
-Our faith is not in the oil.
-Our faith is not in our prayers.
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