Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's pray. You know, there's a lot of need in our world. You know, last week I concluded my message were, how do you handle suffering? You know what? And basically James says we have to be patient in a time of suffering. How many know Patience doesn't come natural to most of us, right?
[00:00:17] We want to see answers. We want to see God do things quickly. But many times God's more concerned about what he's doing within us and transforming our lives. So let's pray this morning as we open our hearts to Him. I believe God wants to say something very powerful and maybe awaken something inside of us and begin to understand we are the answer. Folks, the Church of Jesus Christ in our nation is really the key to seeing our culture being transformed and changed. And it needs help, believe me. So, Lord, we do come before you and we recognize our poverty apart from you. We are spiritually poor.
[00:00:52] But when we come to you, Jesus, there's something that happens in our lives and we begin to see a transformation and that your design for our lives is to transform us into youo divine image. And Father, we thank youk that yout created each one of us that is listening this morning and maybe in the weeks to come. I don't know when people are going to hear this, but I just pray, Lord, that as they hear this message, that they'll recognize that yout're the Creator of life and you'd're the one that determines the time when you and when we go into youo presence, Lord. So help us to begin to understand your ways. Help us not to be pressured by a culture that's trying to squeeze us into its mold and its way of thinking, Lord. Help us, Lord, to embrace your value system and be sons and daughters of your kingdom and begin to reflect light and hope and joy in a world of brokenness, Lord, and despair and just challenge after challenge, Lord. But we know that even as believers, we experience these things.
[00:01:53] But as we sang this morning, your joy comes to us to strengthen us. Your presence is what brings us hope in hours of difficulty and perplexity. And we thank you today, Lord, that you're going to speak into our current situation as a nation, as individuals, as families, where we may be struggling in our own personal lives. I pray today that we would leave with a deep sense that you are in control and that we need to trust you like never before and need to learn how to pray, to watch what you are about to do in our land. And we thank you for that in Jesus name and God's People said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:34] Well, as I've already said, we're coming to the close of the Book of James, and he's speaking to believers who are experiencing trials. Anybody here ever experienced a trial in their life?
[00:02:48] Every hand should be up.
[00:02:50] If your hand isn't up, I'm questioning whether you're living.
[00:02:54] Your body's here, but I don't know if you're here. But I think we've all experienced trials of many kinds. And in this closing chapter, we looked a little bit at abuse and the exploitation of the poor amongst the affluent and the rich. James is now speaking of developing an attitude of patience when we're going through a time of suffering by encouraging all of us, and particularly the first century people that were getting this message, but for us as well, that God's going to address all injustice. How many are grateful for that? And, you know, I always jokingly say, if it was up to us, you know, we would probably overdo it. You know, we'd get upset if somebody created injustice towards us. We probably wouldn't take an arm for an arm. We'd just take a lot more. You know what I mean? We'd be too upset. But.
[00:03:42] But not always justice is seen in this life. How many recognize that?
[00:03:48] I recognize in Canada we have a legal system, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a justice system.
[00:03:54] And I think there's a big difference. We can have laws that we're trying to keep. And I'm not here to criticize anything. I'm just saying that ultimate justice is going to come one day before the throne of God. And many things that people did that they thought they got away with in that hour, they're going to realize, in trouble now, oh, God knows everything about me and all the stuff that people have done, it will come back to haunt him at that moment. We talked about that last week. So James is now concluding by moving us to what we can do in times of trial and suffering. You know, he tells us to be patient. That's tough sometimes, right? But I'm going to give you one more thing that James tells us to do in times of trial. He said we can communicate with God. We can begin to pray. We can begin to pour out our hearts to God. We can cry out to God. I love the Psalms. This poor man cried and you heard his cry. God listens to the cries of our hearts. God sees the tears in our eyes. He sees the heartache and the disappointment and the heartbreaks in our lives. He is a God, who is concerned about every issue in our life. And it's as we are praying that hope begins to well up within us. And God's presence can strengthen and sustain us. You know, suffering actually moves us beyond ourselves to look to God. I don't know if you realize that. How many know what I'm talking about. You know, a lot of people can continue on in life, but when crisis hits, it's almost like a pause button hits you. And now all of a sudden, you got to do something with the pain and the struggle and the, you know, what am I supposed to do? And it forces some people to turn away from God in anger. We'll look at that in a bit. But others, it forces us to look up and cry out to God. And God hears our word, this suffering, the literal word here, who are experiencing trials of many kind in chapter one, verse two. But he's going to talk about chapter five here. If any of you are in trouble, that word, trouble there, the literal word is translated, you're suffering evil. You know, some of us have suffered evil.
[00:05:58] We have an adversary. He's called the evil one. Actually, in the Lord's Prayer, at the very last petition, it says, deliver us. But you see, in the old days, they said from evil, but actually the literal translation is from the evil one. We're not dealing with people, folks. We're dealing with principalities and powers. We're dealing with spiritual forces of darkness. We need to understand that, never lose sight of that. We're in a major battle. Alec Moyer explains that suffering is a broader concept than simply sickness, because James is going to talk about sickness here, but it's bigger than that. As a matter of fact, he says, Jeremiah suffered opposition. How many of you have suffered persecution and opposition in your life? I'm sure many. And then it goes, Ezekiel suffered bereavement. We have many families in our church suffering bereavement. And I just want you to know my heart breaks for you. I pray for many, many of you.
[00:06:49] Your names are constantly in my thought and heart and mind. And I just. I grieve with you. I'm not. You know, it's really interesting if you be a pastor for a long time and you know, people that are your friends for a journey, and you see the pain that they're in, it affects you. You're not indifferent to that. And I know many of us, not just myself, but many of us in this church feel the pain of your bereavement. And then Hosea suffered marital breakdown, and some of you have suffered that. And I know some people said, pastor, I don't want my marriage to end. And they've wept. But, you know, I've discovered something. It takes two to make a marriage work.
[00:07:27] That's the truth. And if one person checks out, the other person is in pain. And I've seen that over and over again. So, you know, the suffering is not just illness, but we're going to focus primarily on illness today.
[00:07:40] He says, in other words, any trouble that we're faced in our lives that cause physical, emotional, and tormenting spiritual pain, then we ought to pray. Douglas Moose speaks to the attitude we need to have while praying and waiting for God's outcomes, because that's why we need patience. You know, we're praying and God going, I'm working.
[00:07:59] And sometimes we don't see it right away, so we get impatient. Then we make bad decisions. He says the verb for prayer is so general in its meaning and application, and no certainty about the content of the prayer that James calls for here can be attained. Perhaps James would include petition to God to remove the trial. How many have ever prayed that pray, Lord, deliver me.
[00:08:24] I've prayed that many times. Lord, I need help now. Could you get me out of this? And in James, chapter one, verse five, he doesn't necessarily say that. He says, why don't you just ask for wisdom in the midst of the pain? You know, maybe God's trying to do something here. So James concern seems to deal with trials elsewhere to encourage believers to endure the suffering with the right spirit and with the divine perspective on history.
[00:08:48] How many know we can't just focus on ourself and the pain. We got to look beyond that. We got to look up and begin to say, okay, what am I going to learn from this God? What am I supposed to exhibit through this experience?
[00:09:01] Presumably, then, the prayer that he encourages here is for the spiritual strength to endure the trial with a godly spirit. And yet we also see that when God's people start praying God, you know, we start seeing God work inside of people, and we start seeing tremendous spiritual growth if we handle it in the right way. That's what I've noticed. The people that have gone through a lot and they handle it in the right way, all of a sudden, they become spiritual giants.
[00:09:25] Isn't that true? And I look at Trish right now and Nick and what that family's gone through, and let me tell you something, all the trials you guys have gone through, it's made you spiritual giants. Yeah, you guys are my heroes. People like that, you know, yeah, amen.
[00:09:39] And I could pick other people out, but I'm just letting you know.
[00:09:43] And still.
[00:09:44] And I could keep going down the list of all the people that we've walked beside and seen what's going on in their lives. And we recognize when you handle this the right way, you become a better version of yourself. Amen. You do. You just become more godly. That's the goal, guys.
[00:10:02] But when God's people start praying, too, we also see healings, we see reconciliations, we see miracles. We've seen people healed. You know, some of them, we haven't seen that. And yet some of these people have gone to be with the Lord. I don't know. They're okay. Just want you to know that all the people that left the planet, that are believers, they're really doing good right now. I just want to assure you of that.
[00:10:25] They're not dealing with pain, sorrow, death, dying and tears and all the rest of that stuff. You know, they're not worrying about anything. They're just rejoicing. But for us that are left behind, we're still dealing with the fallout. Right? And that's the part we have to address now. James is going to give us direction in two significant areas of our lives. One is physical and the other is spiritual and how to bring us to both physical and spiritual health. And I'm interested in this.
[00:10:51] I do a lot of reading and listening to lectures, and I'm trying to figure out how brains work, how our body works, you know, how our spirits work. I'm trying to understand God, how to help people that are walking through these things in their lives.
[00:11:04] And James is dealing with people who are experiencing trouble in a variety of ways. And we're going to look here primarily at physical and emotional distress. That's point number one. We'll get to the spiritual side in a minute. The right response to life's uncertainties. And what are they?
[00:11:21] Well, James 5:13 says, if anyone of you is in trouble, let them pray, anyone happy, let them sing songs of praise. James now moves from the highs to.
[00:11:31] From the lows of life to the highs of life. You know, aren't you glad that it's not always low?
[00:11:36] You know, and then if it was always high, I think that would be. I'm not going to say boring. Some of you say, bring that boring on, Pastor. I want a few more highs in my life. Yes, that would be great. But, you know, I think God knows the right amount to mix for all of our lives. In James 5:13, he's pointing this out and he moves here. There are moments, I think, when we are cheerful. Life feels full from a human point of view that fosters an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for his mercy and his grace. However, there are difficulties and challenging moments of life when we're in trouble of various kinds. And each season in our life presents inherent danger to our spiritual journey. So Alec Moyer says it this way.
[00:12:23] Here then, in two words are all of life's experiences.
[00:12:27] You know, trouble and joy or cheer.
[00:12:33] Each of them in turn can so easily be an occasion of what he calls spiritual upset. In other words, it can take you down. He says, when trouble gives rise, it can give you an attitude of surly rebellion against God and the abandonment of spiritual practices. You know, sometimes people get so ticked off at God, they just say, I'm throwing in the towel. They just give up.
[00:12:55] And then the devil wins and you lose. That's exactly what he's trying, you know, Remember Job? Wow, there was a lot of stuff going on in Job's life, but he said, even though you slay me, God, I'm just going to keep trusting you. And at the end from the last part of chapter five, beginning part of chapter five, he said, look at Job's example. Look at the patience he went through and look what the final end of his life was.
[00:13:17] He's challenging us to endure.
[00:13:19] He's challenging us to do that.
[00:13:21] But then he goes on here to say this equally, times of ease and affluence begets complacency, laziness, and the assumption that we're able of ourselves to cope with life and God is soon forgotten. How many know that affluence has been an enemy in our nation and now we're losing it.
[00:13:44] That's reality, folks. We're losing affluence.
[00:13:47] And there's a reason for it. You know, our affluence didn't help our nation because eventually people started straying from God and got caught up with the good life, the good earthly life. And they didn't use the resources that God was entrusting to us in the right way. And so therefore, you know, it became, you know, we just started living a life of pleasure and doing our own thing and feeling like we were able to handle life on our own.
[00:14:15] But that's a myth because all it takes is a little illness to come into our lives. And all of a sudden we realize we're not that self sufficient.
[00:14:24] And sometimes that happens. So when life is full, what's the right response? Praise Adoration and thanksgiving to God.
[00:14:33] We acknowledge God's goodness and not our human ingenuity that has brought us to this point. You know, every good and perfect gift comes from where?
[00:14:41] From above. Isn't James practical? He's just saying, hey, this is where it's coming from. Right.
[00:14:45] But in times of trouble, we need to look to God for strength to sustain us and help to walk through that experience, to continue to trust in God's grace, even though it feels like our life is falling apart. And I've noticed in my life trials never used. They never come one at a time.
[00:15:04] They never come. So you just have to solve this one and then you solve that one. No, they kind of overwhelm you. How many have ever experienced that where, you know, all of a sudden it's just overwhelming. It's just all at once. I mean, really.
[00:15:16] Yes, but that's forcing us to do what? Trust God. So how do we deal with sickness? Probably the thing that is the most difficult.
[00:15:23] One of the greatest gifts that we have in life is health. And most of us, when we're healthy, we take it for granted. How many say that's true? We do. We take it for granted until the day we get sick, you know, or unless we're confronted. Like Dr. Joe Every day he's got sick people in front of him. I mean, you've got to be reminded of sickness, right? You know, it's like being a pastor, you know, you're dealing with people that are coming to you. Many times there's some beautiful moments, you know, but a lot of times people are in crisis. So all of a sudden you see life from a crisis lens or people in sickness.
[00:15:55] And sickness challenges us, I think, like no other trial, because we're in a weakened and dependent position in our life. And it strikes at the sense of our self sufficiency like nothing else does. How many know that's true?
[00:16:10] All of a sudden you're weak. You have to depend on other people. Am I going to get through this?
[00:16:15] Is this the end? It reminds us of our frailty and it reminds us of our mortality. Boy, this culture does not want to talk about frailty and mortality.
[00:16:25] No, thank you very much.
[00:16:27] I don't want to talk about the end. But that's a reality we're all faced with.
[00:16:31] So how do we respond in these situations in our lives?
[00:16:36] It would seem like prayer would be an automatic response. And I think it's okay to pray.
[00:16:41] But now James is very specific in telling us how we should pray. Notice what he says here. He's moving us away from our self sufficiency and independence and he's pushing us towards Christian community.
[00:16:55] Watch what he says here. It's very fascinating. He says, is anyone among you sick? Look, let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with 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.
[00:17:15] Who is to call the elders?
[00:17:18] The sick person or people that are working with the sick person?
[00:17:22] In other words, I'm going to say this to you if you, if you're having a problem.
[00:17:27] We're not mind readers on this side.
[00:17:30] We may not know.
[00:17:32] I'll tell you something. When you communicate, it helps us to know. Hey, that's going on, boy. Now if we don't do anything now, we're at fault, right? But you know, we need to have it communicated to us. And we get the impression here that this sick person is pretty sick. As a matter of fact, Douglas Moose says, since the elders are summoned to the sick person, we may assume that the sick person is serious enough to restrict the mobility of the sufferer. And the same conclusion might be suggested by James use of the preposition over after the verb pray. Pray over.
[00:18:09] So what he means by that is he's saying this.
[00:18:12] Only here in the biblical Greek does this combination of pray over occurring. And they might picture the elder standing over a sick person because they're laid, they're in bed sick. However, it might also be a kind of a shorthand for saying they're going to lay hands on the person when they're praying. And I don't know if you notice this in our church, but we lay hands on the sick because laying on of hands is a biblical concept. They laid hands on people to ordain them for ministry. They laid hands on people because they were sick and they prayed for their sickness to be, you know, healed. So we need to understand these are biblical practices. We're just following scriptural practices here. Dan McCartney says these elders are to be called not because they're invested with special powers, but because they represent the church as a whole. I like that. In other words, when the elders are coming, really the whole church is coming.
[00:19:03] They're just coming as the representatives of the whole church. So it's the whole church praying for you. How many? You never thought of it that way? I have to confess, I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's powerful.
[00:19:14] How many go you know, it's one thing for one person to pray for you, it's another thing for a whole church to pray for you. That's powerful stuff. And when the elders come and lay hands on you, the whole church is praying for you at that moment.
[00:19:26] I like that. It's speaking of this idea of community again. And we know from the New Testament the elders are those people who have spiritual oversight over the church.
[00:19:36] Douglas Moo goes on to say, the power to heal is invested in prayer, not the elder. In other words, it's not the elder that has the power.
[00:19:45] That's not what's happening here. It's not like Peter said, you know, the sick man that got healed here, it's not by our holiness or our power that he came back up. It's by the name of Jesus that this man who was lame from birth is now seen walking among you.
[00:20:01] But who gets the credit? Not the elders, but Jesus, the chief elder of the church is the one that's doing it. And we're coming as his representatives. And while it's appropriate that those charged with spiritual oversight of the community should be called to intercede for those who are seriously ill, James makes it clear that all believers have the privilege and responsibility to pray for healing.
[00:20:25] So, you know, listen, you're all ministers. If you're a child of God, you are a minister. And you can pray for anybody at any time, lay hands on them and pray for them and believe for their healing, and God's going to hear these cries.
[00:20:38] But there is a place that James is bringing up here that we call for the elders of the church. Because I'm concerned, and I'm sure it was true in that day. But it seems even more today in our very individualistic culture that a lot of people don't see a need for the church. Well, I can be a Christian. I don't need the church.
[00:20:58] You know, there's an attitude like that. I've met people like that. I'm going wrong.
[00:21:03] I've been a Christian a long time now. I need the church.
[00:21:07] I needed it when I was a brand new baby in Christ. I needed it throughout my whole pilgrimage. I need it today. Actually. I feel like my need for the church is greater today than it's ever been.
[00:21:19] I don't feel. I feel more of an interdependency and a connectedness. As a matter of fact, the Bible says the church is actually the body of Christ. I mean, can you imagine different parts of your body saying, I don't need you anymore. I'm going to leave.
[00:21:34] Hey, leg, get back here.
[00:21:37] Right? I still need you. We don't get along really well without you. I mean, we're part of the body.
[00:21:48] So as mentioned earlier, this call for elders is meant to move us away from our individualistic approach to life, especially when we're sick and struggling. And many people fall into despair during the low points that these illnesses bring. How many can honestly admit when you have been really sick, you were emotionally and spiritually at a low point.
[00:22:08] Isn't that true? We all get there. Let me tell you something. Nobody's that tough and that strong. You can get there.
[00:22:14] I think we're more fragile. How many say, I agree with you, Pastor. We're more fragile when we're sick.
[00:22:19] Yeah, we are. We're more fragile. We're more susceptible to the pressures from our culture to bring our lives to an end.
[00:22:27] Wow. What did you just say? Do you know I was visiting a parishioner who was at the end of life.
[00:22:34] This was a beautiful believer, but now they're sick.
[00:22:37] And they said to me, pastor, is it okay for me to do it? Made. What would God think?
[00:22:43] That was a very challenge. Can you imagine talking to a dying person? This is what they're asking me.
[00:22:48] How would you like to have that conversation?
[00:22:51] So I'm going to talk to you while you're living.
[00:22:54] Okay. And I think this is important because it just happened this week.
[00:22:58] I don't know. It just struck me as this came along. Just at the moment I'm working on the sermon, so I'm going to incorporate it into the sermon, but in a stunning article from a journal. Sage Journals are a bunch of scholarly articles. This journal was entitled Omega Journal of Death and Dying. And it was a researched article published just this year, February 28, 2025.
[00:23:22] And this is the topic that these writers spoke on, by the way. They were actually sharing their deep concerns about the ethical issues. And they wrote this paper, which is quite. It's quite a lengthy paper, but it's worth reading. Government Economics of Expanding Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying to Vulnerable Populations and the Ethical Implications of Allowing the State to Control Death explored various studies, the potential economic savings from expanding Made in Canada and the ethical issues involved. That's a long title they're covering. What are they basically saying? Short.
[00:23:58] How much money can we save the health care system if we bring people to death sooner?
[00:24:06] Okay. Oh, if more people are dying, we don't have to take care of them. And then they go on.
[00:24:13] And this is what you need to know. MAID is now currently the fifth leading cause of death in Canada.
[00:24:19] And there is now a push to include vulnerable groups that currently cost the government more than they contribute.
[00:24:28] So what they're basically saying it's a unitalian philosophy of life. If you cost more to us than you bring to us, then your life isn't worth it.
[00:24:40] I'm just rephrasing it, but that's the way it's going to come across.
[00:24:44] It's very utilitarian.
[00:24:47] And by the way, in the last 10 years the economy in Canada shrunk from being the first, fifth best in the world to 30th. We've been in a decline for 10 years.
[00:24:57] Most of you go, yeah, I realized that these groups include individuals. This is the groups I want to include now in maid. Severe mental health issues, which by the way includes anybody who's ever attempted suicide.
[00:25:09] The homeless, drug abusers, retired elderly and indigenous communities. Talk about prejudice.
[00:25:17] Wow.
[00:25:18] They're talking. When they were doing these.
[00:25:21] These are government groups working on this. Both voluntary made and also non voluntary scenarios were analyzed to project the total savings.
[00:25:33] And this is what they came up with. By the year 2047 and 22 years from now, they figured at the, at the best. And if they outsourced it away from the medical community, in other words, they hired people to take people out.
[00:25:46] They could save $1.273 trillion in the next 22 years.
[00:25:53] They're making it an economic issue.
[00:25:55] Not everybody, but I'm just saying there's people studying this.
[00:26:02] The concern outlined in the article was that the dividing line between voluntary and involuntary end of life will begin to occur because of the economic press pressures in our country.
[00:26:13] There's also a concern I've already mentioned about outsourcing it away from the medical community as a cost saving device.
[00:26:21] Then they go on in the article. I'm just going to quote this one statement. The safeguards to prevent this from happening cannot be made effective.
[00:26:29] For instance, in the Netherlands by the 1990s because they practice euthanasia. More than 50% of euthanasia cases were reported as non voluntary.
[00:26:40] In other words, the people weren't choosing it, it was being done to them.
[00:26:44] This killing of people without their consent has occurred with an almost complete absence of oversight regarding euthanasious practices in the Netherlands.
[00:26:54] The study reveals that if these vulnerable sectors of society that are now included and made the potential lives that could be prematurely ended in the next 22 years. I said 23. The study was done in 2024, could be nearly 17 million Canadians 16.723000.
[00:27:16] Could you imagine a government having this kind of power to eliminate this many people in our country?
[00:27:27] It's a little shocking, isn't it?
[00:27:30] Hey, I wasn't aware of this stuff. I'm not on top of everything. But you know, sometimes things are brought to your attention and I just put, when we develop a strictly utilitarian view of life, the sanctity of life and the sacredness of it disappears and people are seemed, quote, unquote expendable for the good of society.
[00:27:49] Remember, when people are sick, they're vulnerable, they're suffering with the feelings of uselessness, the fear of being a burden, and often reluctant to confront the challenges that aging brings. These are reasons why people might decide, I'm going to choose the day I'm going to die. Wow. Pretty powerful.
[00:28:09] Oh, I tell you, why did I bring all this up?
[00:28:14] Because if you're in isolation, you're more susceptible to every one of these things. But if you're in community and we share a value system together and we're saying, wait a minute, we're opposed to this stuff, we don't agree with this, this isn't healthy, you know, we're going to say something.
[00:28:31] We're going to have courage now. We're going to start saying things and saying, you know what?
[00:28:35] The time for a society that has embraced death needs to come to an end, folks. We need to humble ourselves. Remember I said this a few weeks ago as a church and say, God forgive us, we got death and dying all around us in our nation, and it's painful.
[00:28:54] And help us, Lord, to be the light of the world. Help us to radiate and be the salt of the earth to preserve us from the deterioration that we're witnessing at this moment. Help us, Lord, to be full of your love and joy and bring the good news of Jesus and the hope that he gives and the power of this gospel not only to save people spirit spiritually, but also to even raise them up from their sick beds.
[00:29:21] There is hope in Jesus, folks, and we need to somehow convey that to our culture and not allow them to continue down this hopelessly terrible track that they're moving towards.
[00:29:35] But now James continues to describe the prayer offered on behalf of the sick. They're anointed with oil. And he talks about the prayer of faith. Why anoint with oil? Well, oil was symbolic but also used medicinally in the ancient world of scripture.
[00:29:51] There's a number of viewpoints regarding the anointing with oil. Douglas Moose says James probably viewed the anointing as a physical action symbolizing consecration. As the elders prayed, they are to anoint the sick person in order to symbolize that the person is being set apart for God's special attention and care. In other words, there's a sense, you know, the oil is actually a picture or a symbol of God's presence, and God's presence is there as they're praying, and God himself is the one that's reaching down through these elders, and the spirit of God is raising that person up. This is not just a ritualistic thing, you know, because I feel like sometimes we read something, we become very literalistic, but it can just become a ritual.
[00:30:35] Now, what does James mean by the prayer faith or believing prayer?
[00:30:40] He makes a distinction between, I think, a simply ritualistic approach to prayer. And what I mean by that is the elders coming anointing with people with oil. A prayer is said with the expectation that these actions are the cause of healing. But we know that that's not the case. James is actually saying there must be a condition of heart in the lives of elders when they pray that God will heal. Often the issue of a lack of faith, and many times we hear this preach, is resting squarely on the sick person. If they only had enough faith, they'd be healed. Well, they don't need to hear that at that moment. That's just communicating, you know, well, the fact that the person's not taking responsibility, that's praying.
[00:31:17] Now, I'm not even suggesting.
[00:31:20] See, as I say, it's not going to rest squarely on the sick person. You know, that just adds to their. Adds guilt to their lack of faith upon the sufferer. But rather, this raises the question, if after a reasonable amount of time a person's not well, is this a lack of faith on the part of the elders?
[00:31:36] But I'm going to even move past that.
[00:31:38] Let's just jump in here and talk about this.
[00:31:42] The faith exercise in prayer is faith in the God who sovereignly accomplishes his will. And when we pray, our faith recognizes both explicitly and implicitly the overruling providential purposes of God. What does that really mean, Pastor? It means that when you and I are praying, we have to recognize there's a will of the Father in heaven. And even though we're praying, we can ask the Father to do amazing things. And, you know, God, in his inexplicable will, he knows what's best for that person. We don't. We think we do a lot of our praying is this is what I Want.
[00:32:18] I want this person to be healed. I love this person. I don't want them to go yet. Lord, come on, let's be honest. I mean, I'm selfish. I pray like that. I pray like that for many of you. I go, I love this person. I don't want to see them disappear. It breaks my heart. I can't even imagine this.
[00:32:35] But, you know, God says, paul, you don't know the beginning from the end. You know, I have a better purpose. Where they're going is better. They're going to be with me. I'm looking forward to having my child with me. But I'm also going to tell you that what's happening later on is eventually going to work for good. To the people that are remaining behind, even though you and I are going through bereavement and pain and sorrow and struggle, God goes something. If you handle this right, it's going to do something. In the lives of these people that are remaining behind.
[00:33:02] God knows what's best.
[00:33:04] And so it's not a lack of faith. Let's get out of that equation for a minute. We are praying in faith. We believe God can heal. I believe God can heal. I believe God can do anything he wants to do. He's the creator of the universe, you know, he can do anything he wants.
[00:33:20] He can turn water into wine. He did it once before, no big thing. You know, he can raise a sick person back from the dead. I have no problem with that. God can do that.
[00:33:29] But what he decides to do and when he decides to do it, that's a whole new story.
[00:33:33] I can't predicate that. I think there are moments where God does give us a word of faith. I think there's moments when God comes along and says, this is what I'm going to do. And he puts it in our hearts and we go. I have absolute confidence. I've had moments like that where the gift of faith came upon me. And I knew, this is what's going to happen. And I was able to say with confidence, we're going to do this because God's in it.
[00:33:54] But I can't say that for every situation in life, because I'm not God and nor are you.
[00:33:59] We have to trust him.
[00:34:02] As a matter of fact, I think it's fascinating someone here, you know, like the man, like Paul. Let's pick on Paul for a minute. A man of great faith. How many believe he exercised the gift of healing? I do. I mean, sometimes people even took a cloth from his aprons, from his shop. There where he was making tents and they brought it to the sick and they were healed. I mean, Paul laid hands on people and they were healed. But then there were some people that weren't healed.
[00:34:31] Even Paul had that problem.
[00:34:33] As a matter of fact, he even had trouble in his own body.
[00:34:38] Now, some people would argue, well, there was a thorn in the flesh. You know, some people say, well, that was an annulus, Pastor. That was, you know, opposition. I heard all the arguments, folks, but it was in the flesh.
[00:34:49] So, you know, let's just say it this way. It could have been a physical malady. And I'll tell you why. I think it probably is because Galatians says, as you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.
[00:35:03] What, Paul was sick? Yeah. Do you know, I had a person once tell me that no one should ever, you know, it's not God's will for anybody to ever be sick. Well, I could say, yeah, technically, theologically, you could say sickness came as a result of sin.
[00:35:19] But let me tell you something. I've met a lot of sick people in my days, and they were godly people. And I'll give you one example was Elisha.
[00:35:27] Elisha. How many think Elisha was a godly person? He was a prophet, right? He was able to raise the dead. The Bible said Elisha died of his sickness.
[00:35:36] What?
[00:35:37] This person was arguing with me. I'm a brand new pastor. They're arguing.
[00:35:41] They couldn't hardly handle that verse because they were saying to me, nobody should die of their sickness. I go, well, how do we die just of old age, Pastor? Well, I'm going, well, then why did Elisha die of his illness?
[00:35:54] You know, sometimes our theology gets a little skewed.
[00:35:58] Hey, I can appreciate you're a person. And this person had children that had disabilities. I could see why they wanted to believe that everybody should be healed. But you know what? Let's get real.
[00:36:10] It's got to be consistent.
[00:36:13] He goes on to say, here instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ himself.
[00:36:22] Where then is your blessing of me? Now? How can I testify that if you could have, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
[00:36:31] What does that mean?
[00:36:33] I think Paul was sick. God used his sickness. He had to stop here to get better. And while he was getting better, he was preaching to these people, and they got saved.
[00:36:40] How's that? But God used a bad thing and turned it into a good thing, you know? Did Paul get better? Yeah, he did. But then Paul, you know, he's talking to God about this. He wasn't happy about it. You know, in Second Corinthians, he's having a little conversation. He said, you know, and God speaks to him. He says, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord, take it away from me.
[00:37:06] God says, well, my grace is sufficient for you, Paul. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest upon me. And yes, I know he had all kinds of other weaknesses, but maybe one of them was an affliction. You know, how many know sometimes God uses us in our weakness even more than he does in our strength.
[00:37:26] It's amazing.
[00:37:28] He said, that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then am I strong? Well, let me move on to the second point, because I think the second point is even more important than the physical part. It's the spiritual and eternal aspect of our lives.
[00:37:46] James now connects the physical world to that which affects not only our relationship with God, but also the created world in which we live. He moves into the spiritual and eternal world of how our prayers affect those realms. He begins by acknowledging that our physical world is intertwined some way with the unseen spiritual world and how it affects us physically. And then he brings out this idea of confession of sin. He ties the idea of unconfessed sin and how it impacts not only the spiritual part of our being, but it also affects our emotions and material parts of our bodies.
[00:38:21] I'm going to just say this. If we are sinning, you know, something's happening not just in our spirit, it's affecting your emotions. And eventually if you don't resolve it's going to affect your physical body.
[00:38:34] It can happen.
[00:38:35] You know, they talk about psychosomatic diseases, talk about how these things come about.
[00:38:41] A lot of people are living with unresolved issues in their soul. That's not a healthy place to be.
[00:38:47] Some people are angry, some people are bitter. Some people have unforgiveness, and it eats away at you. You got to resolve that stuff. Now, I'm not saying that all sin is the cause of individual sickness, but there are times when our sin does affect us in a physical way. And Paul, sorry, James says, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, and the Lord will raise them up. And if, if, if, if, if they have sinned, not because they have sinned, if they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
[00:39:18] 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. So for sin and sickness were often closely associated in the ancient world. Certainly the Book of Job as well as Jesus makes it clear that drawing a direct relationship between illness and sin is impossible to do.
[00:39:37] Matter of fact, the man born blind, he said, this is for the glory of God.
[00:39:41] Because the disciples, they said, well, is this man's sin or his parents pretty hard? Born blind? What did he do? You know?
[00:39:49] Anyways, okay, that's how people are.
[00:39:53] But the New Testament continues to recognize that some illnesses are in fact a product of sin.
[00:39:58] The Bible says that recognizing this possible connection, James encourages the sick person to deal with any potential spiritual cause of the illness that he's experiencing. But it's the person, it's not the people praying for them. You don't walk up to somebody going, I see you're sick now, what kind of sin did you commit? You better confess it to me. That's not what we're supposed to be doing now. That's making an assumption that they've sinned. That's the wrong thing to do. You don't know. But I think there's times when people recognize, you know what? I think I know what I've done. And it's affected them to such a degree that they actually need to confess what's happening in their lives.
[00:40:36] Okay, let me move on.
[00:40:39] I've already mentioned the if the power and effectiveness of a righteous person's prayer. The issue is that to pray powerful and effective prayers, our lives must be in a right relationship with God. But it's not our righteousness, it's Christ's righteousness. Thank God for that right.
[00:40:54] And his righteousness is given to us, it's imputed to us.
[00:40:58] And then by faith, we live that righteousness out into our world. And often when we think of righteous people, we forget their humanity. So. So James now brings up to us the example of Elijah, who is noted for extraordinary answers to prayer. How many say that's true?
[00:41:13] I mean, Elijah, he's calling fire down from heaven.
[00:41:16] But this also reminds us of the humanity and struggle. Because I love. He uses Elijah, because how many know that Elijah, the example he uses, is the one for rain. Now, I think there's a reason for that.
[00:41:29] 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 in the heavens gate rain, and the earth produced its crops. So we find the story in First Kings 18, where there's a great confrontation. Prophets of Baal are taken out. And what does Elijah do? He goes up and he gets on the mountain and he starts praying. And eventually, after seven trips by his servant to the coast, looking out, yep, there's a little cloud coming, the size of a man's hand. He said, yep, rain's coming. And it did. Okay, so what's really going on? I think we got to remember the story. We got to put everything in its context. Let's go back and look at it this way.
[00:42:08] We need to remember that Elijah was praying for drought and then for restoration.
[00:42:18] What do you mean? Well, the northern kingdom of Israel was an apostasy. It was an apostate condition.
[00:42:26] And the sins of Jeroboam, the golden calf. The two shrine cities of Bethlehem, Dan, and under Ahab, which was the king he was now working under, he was a BAAL worshipper, and he had married Jezebel. And it was a terrible situation, had evil. It said Ahab introduced more evil in the land than was ever introduced before.
[00:42:48] Sounds similar.
[00:42:50] I think there's echoings of history being played out in Canada.
[00:42:54] Elijah was God's spokesperson. He was reminding the people of their covenant obligations, that if they disobeyed the Lord, drought conditions would exist. As a matter of fact, if you read the book of Deuteronomy, God says, if you don't listen to what I'm telling you, curses will come on you. They will overtake you.
[00:43:10] And one of them, he will cause what?
[00:43:15] Right here. The sky over your head.
[00:43:20] Keep going.
[00:43:23] Inflammation, plague, drought. Okay. Sky over your head will be bronze. The ground beneath you, iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder, and it will come down from the skies and it's, you were destroyed. In other words, God says, I'm going to hold the rain.
[00:43:35] And how many know if you have famine in the land, you got people's attention.
[00:43:40] How many know that's true? You run out of food, you'll be paying attention.
[00:43:44] You'll be crying out. Yeah.
[00:43:47] Elijah was praying for the nation to awaken to God's word and to return to obedience. But after they had repented on Mount Carmel, they said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. Elijah prays and the rain comes. So this is not, you know, Elijah Goes, I want you to know I'm a prophet of God. I can just handle the weather here, you know, no rain.
[00:44:05] No. He's covenant messenger of God, and he's pointing out to the people, you guys have been fallen away from God and God's judgment is now coming upon you. I think God had told Elijah, I'm now going to act on the covenantal agreement. That's what he was dealing with. He was trying to awaken them, to have them return to God. Okay, Was bringing back a wayward nation. But now we. You know, this is so fascinating to me. We get to verses, chapter 5, verse 19 and 20. We just read about Elijah. And then we read these verses and we go, how do they fit? My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this. Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. How does it tie together? It's real simple in my mind.
[00:44:52] It's showing us that Elijah's prayer brought a nation back to God. And if we're going to be speak, the spokespersons for God in our generation, every time we bring back a wayward soul, we're actually doing what Elijah was doing with the nation.
[00:45:09] You see the connection? He's giving us a picture.
[00:45:13] You know, the idea here is someone who has either been led astray or deceived. However the action is willful and that person is endangered. The death here is not just physical death, but an eternal separation from God, which is called in Revelation the second death.
[00:45:30] You know, the nature of sin is unbelief. And if we don't act on God's word, our hearts get hard. And the moment that happens, we're in trouble. As a matter of fact, it was interesting yesterday. I was reading, in our devotional reading, it says, Nikki Gumbel says you always swallow a lie about God before you swallow forbidden fruit.
[00:45:49] You know, it really hit me with impact. In other words, people. The reason why people sin is because they don't really trust that God is a good God, that God knows what's best, that God has life under control, that God is doing what's all of our best interests. We just don't believe that. And therefore we take things into our own hands and it's problematic.
[00:46:13] But let me just close with a story. I'm a few minutes over, but a minute over, but I want to share this story because it was so meaningful years ago, you know, I had the privilege of going to A college in Seattle. And the pastor there was named Roy Johnson. Roy Johnson pastored that church for 30 years, and the college was started under his leadership.
[00:46:32] And he shares, you know, I actually wrote on his life story. We had to do a research paper. So I chose him as a research person. I had him as a teacher. And eventually he passed away in my first year at the college. So I listened to a ton of sermons by him on cassette tapes because I'm doing research on him, because he was a storyteller. And he would tell a lot about his life, and he shares it in one story. He said, the greatest miracle I ever witnessed, he said, happened in a service when he was a Bible college student. So this has got to be way back. We're talking over 100 years ago now. Sure.
[00:47:07] And he said they were doing a service in Texas.
[00:47:11] And the evangelist that he was working with, his name was Richie.
[00:47:15] He was giving testimony that at 55 years old, God restored him from his deathbed. He called him in to preach, and he went into preaching. And God used him in a healing ministry because he had experienced healing firsthand. And while he was telling his testimony, he said there was a woman who had been carried into the meeting, and she was put in a chair.
[00:47:38] And as we were walking, you know, around singing, and the power of God is just the same today. It doesn't matter what people say. Whatever God has promised, he's able to perform. The power of God is the same today.
[00:47:50] And when he said, the evangelist Richie is about 10ft from her. She suddenly leaped out of that chair.
[00:47:55] People carried her in and said, my God, I'm healed, and took off running.
[00:48:01] She was so excited.
[00:48:05] And then he said, she got up on the platform and she began to share her story.
[00:48:11] I mean, he said, she testified, she preached, she exhorted, she rejoiced, she skipped, she jumped. He said, man, if you've had an experience like that, you're going to be emotional. And she was.
[00:48:22] And then she said, I want you to hear the story. She said, my husband and I were youth leaders in this church.
[00:48:29] And she said, we were on our way from a youth meeting, and a man ran into her car and killed my husband, crippled my child and crushed my back and broke my legs.
[00:48:43] And there was absolutely no hope that I'd ever be able to walk again.
[00:48:47] And she said, and then I just felt like people didn't care.
[00:48:51] And I began to turn back to my old ways, and I was lived with bitterness and anger and unforgiveness. I hated the person that did this.
[00:48:58] I had lived at one desire. If I could hurt the person who killed my husband and left me crippled, if I could just get enough strength to get even, I would do it.
[00:49:07] And she said, as they carried me into the meeting and as I sat there listening, all of a sudden something started to break in me. And I said, jesus, I want you to forgive the man that did this to me and my husband and my child.
[00:49:21] And the moment I said that, I felt the power and healing of Almighty God come over my body.
[00:49:28] That's what happened today.
[00:49:30] And I want you to know something. You know, we can talk about these things. These are powerful things. And I'm going to have a stand as we close now.
[00:49:41] It's a very sobering thing, but I think what God's spirit is really trying to get across to us, number one, you and I are not in control.
[00:49:51] Everybody say that's true.
[00:49:53] We have to acknowledge that we are totally dependent on God for every breath we have, that we're here to live, to glorify his name.
[00:50:03] I believe that with all my heart.
[00:50:06] We're not here for ourselves. We're here for Him.
[00:50:09] And his will is what we want to see accomplished.
[00:50:12] But sometimes in this journey of life, God allows things to come into our lives. And we can handle it in a good way or in a bad way. We can learn to trust God despite our problems and continue to praise and enjoy him and rejoice in Him. And if God heals us, that's awesome. And if he doesn't, I'm still gonna praise Him. It doesn't change anything for me. I'm just gonna keep serving God.
[00:50:34] But if we allow pain and anger and bitterness and unforgiveness to begin to fill our hearts and disappointment, and we're upset with God and we're angry at God and we're blaming God. Can I tell you what's going to happen? You're going to struggle like crazy eventually. You're not going to be walking with God. You're going to wander off.
[00:50:52] You're going to buy the lies of the enemy.
[00:50:55] You know, and we've all had those little voices in our head, you know, if God was so good, why did he let that happen? You know, if God is so good, why didn't he provide for you here? If God was so good, why are you struggling right now in your life?
[00:51:08] That's what comes in our minds.
[00:51:10] And that's why I say to you, you got to settle this in your heart and mind. God is good and he is Loving. And what he has in store for you is beyond anything you and I could ever imagine. I believe that.
[00:51:21] And he can even change your present situation.
[00:51:27] But I think what God's looking for in our lives is the right heart attitude.
[00:51:31] And if we'll say, lord, you know, forgive me. I've been angry, I've been blaming, I've been, you know, I've got all the reasons why I'm misbehaving.
[00:51:43] But why do you know, I love how Nicky Gumbel said it. You always swallow a lie about God before you swallow. You bite into the forbidden fruit.
[00:51:53] Why are you sinning? It's because you don't believe God is good and you don't believe God is for you and you don't believe God loves you.
[00:52:02] You're focused on the circumstance.
[00:52:05] And so this morning, let's just open our hearts to him and say, lord, search me. If there's anything in my life, I want to have it. I want to be as clean as a whistle before you. I don't want to have anything impeding my relationship between you and me. And if there's something right now, the spirit of God is saying, I want you to forgive that person. It just comes to your mind right now, a person coming to your mind right now. Just say, lord, I'm going to forgive that person.
[00:52:30] Yes, they wounded me, but I just let it go because you have forgiven me so graciously. I'm just letting it go today. I'm letting go of all my bitterness and anger. I'm just letting it go. I'm not going to make excuses for my behavior.
[00:52:43] I'm going to trust you with all of my heart.
[00:52:46] And Lord, I just thank you this morning, as you're sweeping over our souls today, you want to bring about change in our innermost being that will translate in a change in our life.
[00:52:58] And so we're going to trust you this morning with our hearts, with our lives.
[00:53:05] I want to acknowledge before heaven, you are so good.
[00:53:10] You are so loving and caring, compassionate and kind.
[00:53:16] Would you forgive me, Lord, where I have failed and forgive others who have failed me.
[00:53:25] In Jesus name, amen.
