The Action of Prayer.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] If you have kids in here this morning, stop by, especially if you have elementary kids. [0:05] I’m so proud of our team. Stop by the Village Kids after the service and take a look. [0:09] We have got a screen bigger than anything we got up on this stage. They’re having a [0:14] cinematic experience this morning in Village Kids and they’re going to keep having that every week. [0:19] I’m really excited about that. Our volunteers have poured so much energy and love into Village Kids [0:26] and it’s just going, like I told the volunteers earlier, it’s going to a whole other level now,

[0:31] especially where work is concerned. So if you want to volunteer in Village Kids, they could [0:36] definitely use you each and every Sunday or once a month or once a year, however often you want to [0:42] help out back there. Go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of James, chapter five. We’re going [0:47] to finish out the book of James today. James finishes way different than other books in the [0:54] New Testament. If you read the Pauline Epistles, he often finishes with, you know, tell Onesimus [0:59] I said hi, kiss Barnabas on the cheek for me, tell a couple of people to let somebody sleep over

[1:05] or something. And so we just kind of pass over that and it’s like the last chapter is almost [1:10] like something we don’t pay much attention to. James is completely different in the scope of [1:14] how he finishes. It’s almost like he is going full speed and then he turns the nitrous tank on, [1:21] if you know anything about cars, and he just goes a good 50 more miles per hour finishing the book [1:27] off because what he’s going to do is he’s going to summarize the entire book in just eight verses. [1:34] And what I want you to see this morning is really more like a house because if you go to a house

[1:41] right when they’re building it, ah, that’s better, if you go to a house right when they’re building [1:46] it, you’re going to see a lot of plywood in the front yard. You’re going to see a bunch of two by [1:51] fours. You’re going to see a bunch of metal that you’re like, I don’t even know what they do with [1:54] that. You’re going to see maybe a toilet sitting over in the corner of the yard. You’re just going [1:58] to see all this different stuff strewn about and you, if only if you’re an architect or an engineer [2:04] or a construction worker, only then do you really know where every piece is going to fit. But then

[2:11] if you come back in a month or two, you see the finished project and you don’t see those little [2:17] intricate details that you saw before that you didn’t know what to do with because now [2:23] they’re inside of the house. They’re supporting the house. The concrete isn’t in a bag anymore. [2:28] It’s been mixed with water and now it’s a slab that’s holding the whole house up. The wood isn’t [2:33] so much exposed because it has the vinyl siding of the brick covering it. The roof now has shingles [2:39] on it. And when you pan back, oftentimes, especially if it’s a brand new house in this area, you just

[2:46] wow, what a beautiful house completion. But beforehand, you just had a bunch of dirt and [2:56] wood. You know, like construction sites are not that pretty, but when you finish it and they [3:01] lay the side and they put the bushes in, it’s beautiful. The end of the book of James is a lot [3:05] like that. James has been giving us all these different pieces so that we can build a life [3:14] that works for the gospel. And then at the very end of the book, he almost pans back [3:22] and says, look at what the gospel does. Look at the life it builds. And you now see it

[3:30] in completion. Now the passion is full. Now you know what you’re doing, but not only do you know [3:37] what you’re doing, but you understand the foundation that the gospel has laid so that you can now [3:44] work with no regrets, with no condemnation. You can now just live in the truth of the gospel.

[3:55] And he comes together and let’s just, I just want to pan back a little bit over a little bit of what [3:59] he’s been building. If you look back and you read through a couple of the different passages, and [4:03] I’m not going to go through everything. I’m just going to go through a couple of passages [4:06] like James 1, 2 through 8. He says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various [4:12] kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have [4:18] its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks

[4:24] wisdom, what do you do? You ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach. It will be [4:31] given to him, but let him ask in what? Faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave [4:38] of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will [4:44] receive anything from the Lord. He’s a double-minded man, unstable in his ways. So right off the bat, [4:50] James is building this foundation and saying all of your hope, all of your life, everything that you [4:56] do must be put fully into the gospel. If you’re playing Texas Hold’em, which I know Christians

[5:02] don’t do, but if you’re playing that, this is where you go all in. No chips are left on your side. [5:09] They’re all in the center because you know that the hand that you have been dealt is a winner. [5:16] There’s no chance of loss. James says, if you are a double-minded man, you’re thinking you can have [5:22] one foot in the gospel and one foot outside, depending on something else. You say, no, [5:28] that’s not how it works. You will not receive the reward if you’re double-minded. Go all in. [5:34] This is about the gospel. This is about the trueness of God on our behalf and the person

[5:38] of Jesus Christ. And then in verse 22, he says, these great words that we repeat over and over [5:44] again, most of us have no idea what it means, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, [5:49] deceiving yourselves. Then in chapter two, he tells us this. He says, you see that faith was [5:55] active, talking about Abraham, along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. [6:03] So James comes into the New Testament with this thought to the church. He’s saying, [6:07] you’re just giving me all this intellect. You’re just giving me all this academic beliefs that

[6:10] you have, and you’re just sitting and you’re doing nothing or even worse. You’re just going [6:15] into immorality, saying that you have this faith and just claiming this cheap grace, that God’s [6:20] just going to look over everything that you do, even though you haven’t been transformed [6:24] by the truth of the gospel, which shows that you don’t trust in the gospel. [6:29] He says, your faith, absent works. What is it? And then he finishes chapter two in verse 26, [6:36] and he says, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

[6:45] You see the foundation he’s building? He’s saying, faith is shown by your life. [6:51] Live for the gospel, or do you really trust in the gospel?

[6:58] Then in chapter four, skip over, and he starts telling us what this faith that works, [7:05] how it starts to look in our lives, and I guess he’s talking to the church, especially in Antioch [7:12] and in Galilee and all over that part of the world at that point. He’s looking at them, [7:15] and maybe they’re saying, I’m praying, and we’re begging God for relief, and none is coming. [7:19] And then James tells them, he says in chapter four, he says, you desire and do not have, [7:24] so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Listen to this,

[7:30] you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend [7:38] it on your passions. So James is building this house with faith, and they’re beginning to say, [7:48] but this faith, it’s not really working for us. Things aren’t really falling into place the way [7:53] that we thought it would be. And so James exposes the faulty foundations that they’re building it on. [8:00] And they’re saying, you’re blaming God for things that you’re doing in your sin [8:05] because you don’t really trust the gospel. You’re not begging God for financial relief

[8:10] so that you can live for the gospel. You’re doing it because you’re greedy. [8:15] You’re not begging God for healing so that you can live for the gospel. You’re doing it so that [8:20] you won’t experience any pain. And then last week we saw this great dichotomy between the wealthy [8:28] landowners who were persecuting their workers and then the workers. He tells the landowners, [8:35] you’re going to hell. And he tells the workers, be careful or you will too. [8:45] See, he tells the landowners this interesting message. He says, you’re basing your life

[8:49] on nothing but your wealth. Don’t you understand that in the end of your life, you can’t claim [8:54] that wealth because it’s going to rust? Moths will come in and apparently they eat things. I don’t [9:00] know. That’s why you put mothballs. You ever go to an old person’s house, you smell mothballs? [9:03] I’ve never understood that. But apparently it protects from these great ravenous beasts [9:07] that look like ugly butterflies. And they come in and apparently they consume everything. You [9:12] get your pants out of the box and there’s holes everywhere because they were hungry.

[9:16] And he says, moths will come in and they’ll corrupt everything. And these jeans that I’m [9:21] wearing today, I probably won’t have them in 10 years because they’re going to fall apart. [9:25] Because they’re not that nice. And James is saying, when you build your life trusting material wealth,

[9:34] you’ll just die with material wealth. It can’t help you then.

[9:40] So he tells the rich people, your hope’s in vain because your hope is in your riches. But then he [9:46] looks to the poverty stricken who are being mistreated by the poor. And notice what he doesn’t [9:50] say. See, because in our society, what we want to do is we want to start this uprising. You know, [9:54] it’s like the rich, we got to bring them down, bring them down to our level. Yeah. And he says, [10:00] you’re guilty of the same self-indulgent sin as they are, if that is your attitude. [10:04] He says, your hope is not in bringing them down. Your hope must be in the gospel for their sake.

[10:11] Wow. He tells people that are being mistreated. He says, follow the Lord in compassion and mercy. [10:17] And he’s telling them that so that they can be a witness to the landowners who are mistreating them. [10:23] What kind of countercultural life does the gospel give us in this mentality?

[10:30] That’s what it looks like to be all in when you’re persecuted and then you pray for your enemy.

[10:40] But then it’s this interesting kind of segue that James is going to take us on in verse 12. [10:46] Go ahead and look there. Because if just read with no thought, you can almost pass over verse 12 and [10:53] be like, well, that was a nice little tidbit that had nothing to do with anything else. [10:56] Because he finishes the section where he says, follow the Lord, because the Lord is compassionate [11:01] and merciful. And then in verse 12, he says this, he says, but above all my brothers, [11:07] it’s a pretty bold statement above all. So in other words, above everything else that you’re

[11:13] doing, do this. He says, but above all my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by [11:22] any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no so that you may not fall under condemnation.

[11:32] And then he starts talking about prayer. That’s interesting. What does that text have to do with [11:39] anything? Well, I’m just going to sum it up for you real quick. Don’t make promises live differently.

[11:48] I, in my life, have made a lot of promises. I have. I mean, tons of them since I was, I mean, I’m 30. [11:54] Since I was a little kid, I mean, I promised tons of stuff when I was a kid. Do you know that my [11:58] success rate is probably 2%? I mean, and that’s probably being very optimistic about myself.

[12:07] It’s very interesting if you look at my track record and look at yours.

[12:15] There is no human being on earth that 100% of the time comes through on his promises. [12:26] It doesn’t exist. And James just boom right in your face says, well, the answer is to stop it.

[12:35] Stop making those promises. But he’s talking on what I guess you would call more of a cosmic [12:42] level here. Because what he’s doing here is he’s connecting verse 11 with verse 13. And we’ll get [12:50] to verse 13 in a second. But in verse 11, he says, behold, we consider those who remain steadfast, [12:59] those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard the steadfastness of Job and you have seen [13:03] the purpose of the Lord, the gospel, to build the church, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. [13:08] And here’s what we do. See, this is why New Testament writers are so great. Here’s what we

[13:12] do after we read this. That’s good stuff. I promise next year when I work all this stuff out [13:23] that I got going on, compassion and mercy, baby. But first, got to get a little bit of revenge. [13:31] Nobody’s perfect.

[13:36] Then a year comes by goes, well, next year, next year. All right. Or how’s this?

[13:48] God, if you’ll just heal me, I promise I’ll start volunteering.

[13:57] Hmm. God, if I can just get a check in the mail that they talk about on the 700 Club all the time, [14:04] I just came out of nowhere. I don’t even know whose check it is, but it goes through.

[14:11] Then I’ll start telling people about the gospel because then I’ll see it works.

[14:16] God, if you’ll just help me with this rebellious hellion that somehow was birthed to me,

[14:24] that’s can be my DNA.

[14:30] Then I’ll join the men’s choir. Luckily for you, we don’t have one of those. [14:37] And it’s on your behalf that we don’t have one of those. No one really likes them. [14:42] There’s someone in the crowd. I do. Not really. I mean, who is going to leave today and pop in [14:49] the men’s choir? Top 100 hits. Come on. God, if you’ll just then I’ll.

[15:01] I’ve done it, man. A couple of years ago, I was sitting in an emergency room, [15:06] had no idea what was wrong with me. I started bargaining. I was like, can I get a lawyer in [15:12] here? I need representation with God. God, if you’ll just heal me, I’ll be the preacher you want me [15:18] to be. We all do it. And guess what? It’s a sin. You’re like, really? What does it say?

[15:29] Why shouldn’t we do that? Well, he gives us some very interesting advice. The very end [15:36] of verse 12, he says, so that you may not fall under condemnation. [15:40] You see, his old saying, it says, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. [15:44] OK, if you live by the law, you die by what? The law. New Testament, the whole thing gives us [15:52] this realization that in the Old Testament, God did not give us or Israel or anyone the law so [15:59] that through it, we may be saved. Galatians, the entire book spells out that God gave the law to

[16:05] show us how sinful we are so that we would understand that we need a savior. All right. [16:13] Here’s how Jesus put it in Matthew, Chapter five, verse thirty seven. He says, let what you say be [16:19] simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from what evil? Why does it come from evil? Why [16:26] will our promises condemn us? Because we will not follow through on one hundred percent of them. [16:31] And when you make an oath either by earth or by heaven and you break it, especially if you make [16:36] a promise to God, what’s going to happen to you? You break it.

[16:45] We’ll be condemned by that very promise. But here’s an interesting thought.

[16:53] Who is the only being that has come through one hundred percent of the time? What is promise? [16:59] God. You see, ultimately, when we make our promises, here’s what we’re really saying. [17:04] We’re revealing something very true about us, and it’s our lack of faith. [17:08] Ultimately, when we make promises to God, we’re bargaining and trying to get him to compromise. [17:13] We’re negotiating. And who negotiates? The only people that have any power to negotiate are people [17:20] that have something worthy to the other party. So when we make these promises to God that if

[17:27] he’ll move, then we’ll do what we’re saying is, God, you need me a little bit.

[17:34] God, you can’t really accomplish everything without me.

[17:44] He doesn’t need us. And our sinfulness all through this book that’s just been exposed [17:51] over and over again. If you’re like me, it has been. You realize I can’t make a promise to God [17:59] because he’ll always keep it and I’ll always fail. That is why it reveals our condemnation. [18:07] It’s not that we get condemned once we break the promise. No, we reveal that we already are. [18:13] We’re born as people that are promise breakers. We’re born that way. We’re born into sin. We’re [18:20] born totally incapable of following God with everything that we have because we’re born with

[18:27] this rebellion of original sin that Adam has passed on to us. Read Romans five. It gives it [18:33] very well. It’s we’re born this way. And so when we make these promises, they’re just foolish.

[18:43] But notice what God does through his promises in second Corinthians, chapter one, for all the [18:51] promises of God find their yes in him. Him is Jesus. That is why it is through him that we utter [19:01] our amen to God for his glory. So let’s compare scripture to scripture. What is James telling us? [19:08] Number one, we can’t keep our promises because we won’t. [19:12] I promised my wife a long time ago I would start being clean.

[19:19] I mean, there you go.

[19:25] But here’s the real reality behind it. God keeps his promises 100% of the time. But here’s more [19:31] than that. God has already revealed how he kept his promises to us in the person and work of [19:37] Jesus Christ, whom today is Palm Sunday when he marches into Jerusalem triumphant and then the [19:42] very soon going to kill him. And we’ll celebrate that this Thursday night. So make sure you come [19:46] to that. But here’s what happens. God, all of the promises he has ever made, Old Testament, [19:51] New Testament, every promise he’s ever made ultimately finds its fulfillment in the person

[19:57] and work of Jesus Christ. So what is James and Jesus in Matthew chapter five? What are they saying? [20:02] No more promises are needed.

[20:06] This isn’t something that you look at, you know, like, oh, man, no rejoice. No more promises [20:12] needed. God doesn’t need us. He’s done it all himself. He’s kept every promise. When Paul [20:19] writes about the future that he has in heaven, we’ve talked about this before. He writes mostly [20:23] in the past tense about his glorification, even though he hasn’t realized yet because of how [20:28] certain it is that he will be glorified through Jesus when he comes into the world. He’s not [20:33] going to be glorified when he gets to heaven and meets God. No more promises. Live, exult the name

[20:43] of God through the work of Jesus. Don’t make promises. Lives. And here’s why we can live in [20:51] Ephesians chapter two, starting in verse three and going through to verse five, I believe it is. It [21:03] be to God in Christ Jesus who has made us alive in him and placed us in the heavenly places.

[21:14] We don’t have to live like the rest of mankind who are condemned. We used to live like that, [21:18] but now we don’t have to make promises. We don’t have to negotiate because in Jesus, [21:23] we have our yes. In Jesus, we have our life. In Jesus, we have everything we’ll ever need. [21:29] And in Jesus, every promise that’s ever been worth anything has been fulfilled. And you can [21:36] just live when we say, if this next year, James tells us we’re revealing that we don’t believe [21:49] the gospel. We’re revealing a lack of faith in what Jesus has already done on our behalf.

[21:59] Do you understand? God does not need you. But Romans five, eight, he loved us in our sins so [22:06] much that Christ died for the sinful. Live differently because of Jesus. Stop sitting there [22:20] and saying that if it works out, might be able to. This is where James kicks it in the passing gear

[22:34] because he jumps from this realization, live for the gospel, and he’s going to spend the next five [22:41] or six verses unpacking prayer. I love that. I love what James has done in this book. It’s [22:48] so beautiful because any time anyone comes into our life, no matter how new of a believer they are, [22:54] even if they’re not believers and they’re like, I’ve got this problem. I’ve got this issue. What [22:59] do we do? We look at them and we say, well, have you prayed about it?

[23:05] No. Center.

[23:12] Here’s what James does. He has for the past five chapters been unpacking prayer for us,

[23:21] saying things like ask God, have faith in God, trust God, believe God, [23:29] live for God, but never once has he said, just pray about it [23:35] because he knows he’s talking to an audience that has no idea what he means.

[23:42] So he unpacks the gospel and life and then at the end he says, now you have the foundation [23:51] to beg God because you know why and you know for what.

[23:59] Have you ever tried to have a dynamic prayer life? I mean, the answer to that inevitably is [24:05] going to be yes. All of us, if you’re spent any time in church, if you spend any time in any real [24:10] type of religion, most of them have prayer in common. They all pray, but have you tried to do [24:16] it outside of living a life trusting fully in the gospel? And before you say no, I’m going to [24:21] go ahead and fill your mouth with a yes, because you have, even if you don’t know that you have. [24:26] Here’s the thing. When you try to pray outside of a lifestyle that is lived fully for the gospel,

[24:33] here’s what’s going to happen. God, if you’ll do this, then I’ll do this.

[24:39] You see verse 12 is starting to unpack prayer for us.

[24:45] Or your prayers are just full of self-indulgence. God, give me. God, give me. God, take away. God, [24:52] do for me. God, money. God, health. God, prosperity. God, kids. God, wife. God, house. God, car. God, [24:59] God, give, give, give, give. God is reduced to Robin Williams in Aladdin, basically.

[25:05] And he just gives. We just want. But what James is unpacking, the reason he’s waited this long [25:12] to give us the specifics about this is because he needed to build a foundation and tear down [25:18] the walls of religion and the lives of the people in the church so that they could begin to see what [25:24] prayer is for. Because if you do not live for the gospel, your prayer life at best will be [25:33] self-indulgent. At worst, maybe not worse, nonexistent.

[25:44] Because you see, when you try to live a life of prayer that impacts you for the gospel outside [25:50] of actively living for the gospel, risking for the gospel, sacrificing for the gospel, [25:56] you very quickly either A, fall asleep or B, start thinking about the next meal.

[26:03] Your mind just wanders. Or there’s nobody in your prayer but you.

[26:13] And you might just start planning your day.

[26:17] See, James does not leave us alone. James keeps pounding. He keeps pounding. He keeps pounding. [26:24] And he says, live for God and his glory through the gospel. Let’s read the passage, starting in [26:31] verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. See how simple? He solves that huge problem. [26:46] One sentence. You’re like, well, that doesn’t sound very caring. Then you haven’t read the [27:02] passage. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray [27:08] over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the

[27:14] one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [27:20] Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. [27:27] You see, James has unpacked this glorious gospel. And he tells us things like, [27:34] count it all joy when you encounter suffering. He tells us things like, use your wealth, [27:38] use your life for the glory of the gospel. He tells us all these things about wisdom coming [27:43] from above. If you lack wisdom, ask God. But believe in God when you ask and he’ll give it

[27:48] generously. And then he says, you ask and don’t have because you did either A, you didn’t ask, [27:53] or B, you asked wrongly so that you could spend it on your passions. Then he gets to the rich and [27:57] he’s like, you’re self-indulgent. So you’re going to hell. Then he gets to the poor and he’s like, [28:01] you just want to be rich. So you’re probably going to go to hell too. And then at the end, [28:04] he’s like, anybody suffering? We’ll just pray about it. Notice he leaves nothing untouched in life. [28:14] He says, if you’re suffering, pray. If you are rejoicing, pray, sing praise to God. If you’re

[28:20] sick, call the elders from among you. Call on the church. So he’s already presupposing that you’re [28:26] in the community of faith, that you’re actively in church, that you’re not, you don’t only know [28:31] people, but you’re known by people. So you can call on the people of the church to come around [28:36] you, to pray for you, to lift you up to God, to take the oil, put it on you. And most people think, [28:41] is there something mystical about oil? Where is this oil? Is it over in the Middle East? Let’s [28:44] go get it. No, this is just basically olive oil that was used for medicinal purposes at that time.

[28:49] They did not have penicillin. Okay. So what the church would do is they didn’t want to defy medicine. [28:55] Not only did they not want to, but they wanted to use it because it’s good stuff. I mean, when [28:58] I’m sick, I take a Tylenol. So what they did is they anointed with oil and they prayed over it, [29:03] redeeming, and God used it to heal. But where was the power? The power was in God. [29:09] Notice that he leaves nothing untouched. He leaves nothing off base. He goes everything. [29:15] Here’s something that you must understand about the early church. The early church understood a

[29:20] concept that we have trouble living with. The early church understood the concept that hope [29:26] is found in living for the gospel. See, here’s what James is doing. He’s summing up everything [29:33] that he has said so far in the book, suffering, sickness, health, wealth, prosperity, everything. [29:39] And he’s saying, ultimately, everything that comes into your life is straight from God [29:46] because he wants to use it for his glory. In the early church, God both used the suffering [29:54] of his people. Look at the apostles. They all died pretty painful deaths. The author of this book,

[30:00] if you were here for week one, I told the story. He was told to deny Jesus. He said, no, they took [30:06] him to the top of the temple, denied Jesus. No, but he was just your brother. No, he’s the son of [30:13] God. They threw him off the top of the temple. He lived. They come down, denied Jesus. No, [30:21] they stoned him to death. God used the suffering of his people to further the gospel.

[30:37] And God used the healing of his people to further the gospel.

[30:48] You see, we have this tendency

[30:53] to take these polarized sides in every issue.

[30:58] You’re a Christian. You’re just gonna suffer. Jesus said, hard’s the road.

[31:04] So if you’re not sick, you don’t love Jesus. Really? In the book of Acts,

[31:13] the shadow of Peter was healing people.

[31:18] And Jesus was here. They were lowering people through roofs so that he could heal them. [31:24] We have story after story of God in Acts. A venomous snake bites Paul and he lives. [31:33] Don’t move to West Virginia. If you’re on the end, you got that.

[31:39] I don’t really want to unpack that. There’s no time.

[31:43] God used the healing of his people, too. But what did he use it for? To further the gospel. [31:50] Angels are breaking people out of jail in the book of Acts. [31:55] The spirits coming down and fire on the book of Acts. People are speaking in Hebrew and [32:00] Africans understand it in their own language. God is doing the miraculous all through the New [32:07] Testament. But the same Peter, whose shadow healed people, died on a cross upside down.

[32:22] You see, God isn’t just either or. God says, yep.

[32:30] If you are suffering,

[32:35] take it to God and trust him with it. See, here’s the thing. When James says, [32:43] count it all joy, brothers. When you enter into suffering,

[32:51] is that just masochistic? No. Count it joy because you look in the face of suffering. [32:59] And they did. These were people that were being beaten to death.

[33:07] James says it because their joy is not in their comfort. Their joy is not in their physical [33:14] well-being. Their joy is in seeing the gospel go into more and more lives. And they say, [33:22] if God wants me to suffer for the gospel, then the worst that can happen is I’m gonna die and I’ll [33:34] have. In India this week, an Acts 29 church planter was exonerated from a three-year trial [33:49] from violent Hindus that said he blasphemed to their God. And he spent three years in and [33:54] out of prison, finally being exonerated. But I’ll tell you, his hope was not in being found not guilty.

[34:03] His hope was in the gospel because two of his accusers came to know Jesus through the trial.

[34:13] We have a long history of people finding their joy in God and saying, I’ve got all the joy I’ll [34:20] ever need. You can take everything. I’ll go to the hard places. I’ll do the hard things. I will [34:25] suffer for the name of Jesus. Missionary after missionary after missionary have died giving [34:31] their lives for the gospel and we can’t even get up on Sunday.

[34:41] Is anyone suffering? Let him pray because where are your prayers going to lead [34:44] if you’re living for the gospel? You see, outside of living for the gospel, prayer [34:51] only makes sense for self-indulgence. Inside of living for the gospel, what is your prayer [34:57] saturated with? Your prayer is saturated with gospel saying, God, take it further. God do. [35:04] What is prayer? Prayer is nothing more than us being used by God to bring about his will.

[35:11] And he uses suffering to do it. Look in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16. Here’s how Paul puts it. [35:19] So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed [35:24] day by day for this light momentary affliction is preparing us an eternal weight of glory beyond [35:32] all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, [35:37] for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

[35:44] Let me tell you a little bit about what he’s calling light and momentary affliction. [35:48] The beating that Jesus endured right before the cross, the 40 lashes minus one, Paul endured it [35:55] twice. Paul was once taken because he was preaching the gospel and he was stoned to death. They [36:04] thought he was dead and it’s against Hebrew law to leave a dead person in the streets. So they [36:08] dragged him out of town, left him outside of the city gates and God miraculously raised him up. [36:14] And Paul dusts himself off, walks right back into the street and preaches. And they’re like,

[36:18] we’re looking at a dead man preaching to us. We’re going to believe this.

[36:24] So when you say God doesn’t heal, you’re not reading the scriptures.

[36:31] But your problem is that you don’t understand why God heals. It’s not so you can feel better. It’s [36:41] for the hope of the gospel.

[36:47] You have not because you ask not. You ask and don’t receive [36:51] because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.

[37:02] Paul suffered shipwrecks. [37:06] Paul suffered friends turning their backs on him. Paul suffered beating after beating. At one [37:13] point he says, it’s as if I die every day because everybody’s threatening to kill me. [37:18] But he never stops. And then look, he says this light and momentary affliction. [37:25] Man, I’m on the B or C team because that’s serious affliction to me. Light and momentary [37:32] is like my light bulbs are dimming in storms. Like I’m going to lose power. No, no.

[37:41] Watching night at the museum. I only have HBO free for the weekend.

[37:49] You see my affliction compared to Paul’s. What’s the difference here? The difference [37:54] is that Paul had a passion for the gospel. And oftentimes I got a passion for Steve.

[38:02] See, his hope was in the gospel. So he says things. He says things like second Thessalonians [38:07] chapter five verse 16. He says, rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all [38:14] circumstances. In all circumstances, all circumstances. Rejoice when always pray without [38:21] ceasing in all circumstances for this is the will of God for Christ Jesus in you. What Paul [38:27] is saying here is when you go into suffering, when you go into prosperity, rejoice, give thanks in [38:33] everything and pray to God about it because everything he brings into your life is his will

[38:38] for your life so that he can redeem your life for the hope of the gospel so that it can be [38:43] in other people’s lives. Pray without ceasing. One of the hardest things. It’s like, what am [38:56] I supposed to stay on my knees all day? No, it’s like, what am I a monk? And so for the longest [39:02] time, that’s how I looked at the verse. But notice how Paul writes around it. He’s talking [39:08] about in all circumstances, praying. What is he talking about? He’s talking about a mindset. [39:12] He’s talking about a posture that your life takes. He’s talking about a person who finds his hope.

[39:17] He’s all in. He’s going for the gospel. And when he’s in prison, when he’s in the hospital, [39:23] when he’s in sickness, his mind is stayed on the things of God because his hope, his joy, [39:30] his love, his passion, his vision is in the gospel. [39:35] But what you are consumed with in your thoughts is where your prayer life will go.

[39:47] So what do you spend most of your life thinking about? See, pray without ceasing is about mindset. [39:53] It’s about a posture that you take in your life. It’s not just about being on your knees in a dark [39:58] closet. Should you set that environment? Absolutely, because prayer won’t get done [40:02] otherwise in most of our lives. We won’t develop that mindset on the freeway.

[40:09] But this is about a frame of mind. This is about a thought process. I got to move.

[40:18] Mission is built on faith-filled prayer. Let’s get to the good stuff. It’s all good stuff.

[40:29] Verse 16, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be [40:34] healed. There are some sicknesses that are in your life because of sin in your life.

[40:44] There are. You’re like, what do you mean? James said it. I have to believe it.

[40:54] But here he goes. He says that you may be healed because ultimately all sickness finds its root in [41:03] sin. But here’s the thing. Some sickness comes in your life, and I’m just going to pass this quick, [41:08] so just track with me for a second because I don’t have much time. Not all sickness is in [41:12] your life because of a specific sin that you did. Some is. And I’m not going to get that adult on [41:18] you. Think about it. Some is. Not all is. But all sickness is ultimately because of sin because [41:28] outside of sin there is no sickness. So you ask people to pray for you. What if you’re not

[41:34] healed in this life? Does it mean you did not have enough faith? No, because God’s still going to [41:38] heal you if you’re his child. How does he heal you? He kills you and then takes you to heaven.

[41:46] So if I go to the doctor tomorrow and I’ve got cancer, I’m going to be healed. I can take God’s [41:54] word for it. He’s going to heal me. He just might have to kill me first before he does it.

[42:01] Straight up have faith. Jesus Christ, Luke chapter 12, I believe it is. I could be totally wrong, [42:06] don’t quote me on that. He says, Do not fear him who after he has killed the body has no authority [42:12] of the soul. I’ll tell you who to fear. He who after he kills you can damn your soul.

[42:21] I’ve got faith for healing. I just might die first. All right.

[42:28] The prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working. [42:33] How am I righteous? Through Jesus. How am I praying for his will in the gospel? Will he heal me? [42:39] If that’s what the gospel will be furthered by.

[42:44] I believe it. Call the elders among you. You’re in community discipleship. You’re learning faith. [42:50] The elders are praying over you. God can heal you through that. God still heals people for his [42:56] glory. I don’t have time to tell you the stories, but I’ve been in prayer meetings where God has [43:01] made people live through the night when they were only given like a 5% chance of living. [43:06] The doctors were baffled. God was not.

[43:12] Look at this. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it might not [43:17] rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and [43:22] heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. Just humor me for a second. We’ll get to lunch, [43:26] but this is too good to pass over. Elijah in the first Kings chapter 17, Elijah goes to Ahab and [43:33] he says, you’re a sinner. Repent. And he says, no. And Elijah says, fine, I’m going to make it stop [43:36] raining. Elijah goes and he prays to God and he says, God, I pray it won’t rain for three years.

[43:41] It doesn’t rain. Then at the end of three years, Elijah, through his faith, calls fire down. I [43:46] mean, reads first Kings chapter 17 and 18. When you have time and you will see what my God is [43:52] capable of. He calls down fire from heaven. The priests of Baal either are killed or they repent [43:59] and they run. And Elijah goes back before Ahab and he says, Hey, I have still not rain. And what’s [44:04] your deal? And he says, I’ll repent. And Elijah says, okay, rain rains.

[44:11] The prayer of a righteous man is mighty. Why? Because of the God behind it. Not because [44:15] faith has power, but the faith that excuse me, the object that the faith is in has power. And that’s [44:19] God. I’ll tell you another story about living for the gospel. Look at the mindset that people had [44:25] throughout scripture in first Samuel chapter 14, looking at verse six, when you have time, [44:30] but Jonathan is going into battle. The son of Saul, the king of Israel is going into battle. [44:35] He brings his armor bearer with him and they leave the army. They cross over just the two of them

[44:41] into enemy lines. I mean, they’re behind enemy lines right now. Two guys, thousands of soldiers. [44:46] And I think the armor bearer probably looked at him because I don’t know why Jonathan would [44:51] say this to him if he hadn’t. And the armor bearer is like, Hey man, what’s going on? [44:55] Just two of us here. Jonathan, you’re crazy. Jonathan looks at him and he says, this is awesome. [45:01] He says in the King James, he says, perhaps the Lord will work mightily on our behalf. [45:08] But if he doesn’t, it’s okay. Because do you not think that God can use a few people just as he

[45:16] can use many people? Jonathan believed fully that God could defeat an army of thousands with just [45:22] two men. And guess what? He goes into battle and guess who comes out living? Jonathan and his [45:28] armor bearer. But look at what he said. He said, perhaps Jonathan believed fully well that he [45:35] could go into battle, catch an arrow in the throat and die. But Jonathan did not want to miss out on [45:41] a mighty move of God. He said, I would rather die risking it all for the glory of God than live [45:49] sitting in my living room, never seeing what God’s capable of doing for his glory.

[45:55] And most of us live every day in our living room saying, I don’t think God does that anymore.

[46:03] He’s not going to do it to you. That’s for sure.

[46:10] Let’s just be honest here, folks. If you’re not risking for the gospel, [46:17] how is God going to show himself mightily to you? What are you doing in your life right now [46:23] for the gospel that only God can fulfill? See, most of you live under your own power, [46:34] live for yourself, live doing things that you can do by yourself and then say, I have faith.

[46:43] What good is faith in a life that you can do without God?

[46:55] We struggle to be optimistic about the power of God. We struggle because what we’ve done is we’ve [47:03] been disappointed by people over even Christians. We’ve been disappointed by people over and over [47:08] and over again. We’ve seen people fail us over and over and over again. And we’ve seen people [47:11] make promises to us that they didn’t fall through on. And then so ultimately what happens is that [47:15] cynicism that we have towards people, we transfer it to God. God isn’t those people. [47:25] God fulfills his promises. He already has in Jesus. Trust him.

[47:33] Faithful mission propels gospel replication. Faithful mission. Look at this. Finish this out.

[47:46] My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, [47:55] let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul [47:59] from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Is that works based salvation? No. [48:06] It’s works proved salvation. Faithful works is dead. See, because when you’re living for the [48:16] gospel, when you are certain of your position with God, I don’t need to do anything to earn [48:22] God’s favor. Nothing. Jesus did it. God loves me. He’s going to take me to heaven when I die.

[48:30] He’s going to take me into his presence. I will see him face to face. He will say, [48:36] well done, now, good and faithful servant to me. And you’re like, how can you be so sure? [48:40] Because it’s not based on me. It’s based on Jesus. He said, well, that sounds pretty optimistic. [48:49] Yeah, it should. So what is James saying here? James is saying when you live in that reality, [49:00] you are free to live for God and you live for faith. It your life isn’t going to go into [49:08] someone else’s life for the hope of the gospel. If you aren’t living for the gospel. James chapter

[49:16] another, James chapter three, verse 11 through 12. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, [49:25] both freshwater and saltwater? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce [49:31] figs? Neither can salt, a salt pond produce fresh water. Some of you aren’t living for the gospel, [49:38] yet you’re like, I don’t know why my unsaved friends won’t come to Jesus.

[49:44] It’s because they have a friend that claims Jesus yet doesn’t live for him.

[49:51] That’s why. Because we mess around with religion. We mess around with tradition. We mess around [50:00] with the pump and circumstance and the world goes to hell around us. Eighteen year olds are fleeing [50:06] from the church in record numbers. And we’re like, what’s the problem? The problem is mom and dad [50:12] don’t believe the gospel enough to start living for it. They just want to put a suit and tie on [50:17] on Sunday morning and go pretend everything’s fine. When their marriage is falling apart, [50:22] they have no faith. They’re not praying. They’re not in the scriptures. They’re not doing anything

[50:27] and they’re reproducing what they’ve been living.

[50:36] Yeah, that.

[50:40] I’m getting hot. I’m getting hyped up up here. That

[50:47] is why the gospel does not go out of our lives. [50:55] See, prayer mirrors the gospel. You see, prayer is ultimately a posture of helplessness.

[51:04] Prayer is a posture of absolute dependence. See, in John 15, Chapter five, Jesus tells us, [51:13] he says, apart from me, you can do nothing.

[51:20] You know what the square root of nothing is? Nothing. See, if you’re not living dependent on [51:28] Jesus, if you’re not living risking for the gospel, if you’re not living with your mind [51:34] saturated with the truth of God’s word, if you’re not living for something that’s bigger for [51:39] yourself, if you’re not trying to form a gospel vision for your life, if you’re not dreaming big [51:45] about what Jesus can do through you, if you’re not living for it, it’s just not going to happen.

[51:54] I just don’t understand why people don’t come to Jesus record numbers.

[52:04] What are your thoughts consumed by? What are your dreams consumed by? What are you living for?

[52:13] It must be intentional. It doesn’t happen by accident. [52:19] People are at times wandering from the truth because there is an incredible lack of power [52:26] in the people who claim to know God. This is not about sensational healing. This is not about [52:35] sensational miracles. This is about gospel living and trusting God in all circumstances. [52:45] When you live that type of life, you don’t have to program and just reinforce and schedule your [52:54] evangelism. No, why? Because your mouth is just peppered with the truth of God’s word. The gospel

[52:59] just sinks out of your pores and you’re trusting God for everything. So you’re talking about all [53:04] the things that God is doing in your life, all the things that God is teaching you, and the people [53:08] around you just will inevitably look and you will tell them about the gospel because that’s all you [53:12] want to talk about. You’re like, but that’s not looked highly upon in culture. Okay, your point.

[53:26] I was saying that’s not a good thought process, by the way. [53:30] All right, if you’re not living for the gospel, you cannot see it reproduced in other people.

[53:38] Okay, it’s not that it’s going to fail. God’s going to do it. He’s just going to do it without you.

[53:44] You have the opportunity to live for God and oftentimes we simply don’t take it. What James [53:49] is telling us here throughout the entire book is this concept. When we trust God for everything, [53:56] we ask him for everything and then live for him in everything.

[54:02] Are you sick? Pray for healing, but trust in the gospel above that. [54:10] Are you suffering? Pray for relief, but not for the sake of relief.

[54:16] Pray for relief for the hope of the gospel and the realization that God’s going to use your suffering [54:21] to show himself mightily so that your faith can be reproduced in others. He finishes this book [54:28] with the point of the whole book. The gospel does not come into your life to stay there. [54:34] The gospel comes into your life so that God can work it out of your life and into other people’s [54:40] lives so that the hope of other people wandering away from God is in you because you’re living for [54:47] the gospel. Now simply get up and do something and please invite someone to church next week so that

[54:57] they can hear and see the gospel work in people’s lives. If you’re not in a community group, [55:05] get in a community group because the elders can’t pray for you if you’re not known by the church.

[55:13] Quit making excuses. Do something and God will reap a harvest on our behalf. [55:23] And if you don’t believe that you don’t have faith and you need to repent and be saved.

[55:30] Father, we love you

[55:34] because you first loved us. My words are inadequate

[55:41] so I beg you Holy Spirit to draw people to yourself right now.

[55:48] Father, if there’s anyone in here this morning suffering, God may you be their hope.

[56:00] Lord, I think about those in here that are sick. God, heal them and bring yourself glory.

[56:08] Above all my prayer, my plea this morning is that you will redeem our lives every piece, [56:14] every point so that we would begin to have the faith to risk it all for the gospel. That we [56:21] would have the faith to believe that you may work mightily on our behalf but even if you don’t,

[56:30] you’re so good we’ve got everything we need anyways.

[56:36] Father, in this time of reflection on your sacrifice for us as we take communion, [56:42] may you be glorified.