Please turn in your Bibles with me to the Book of James chapter
5. Now I'm a little off this
morning because I'm used to. I'm used to Carrie or Karen or
Diane or somebody being able to come up here and do this, be
while I'm sitting there praying and asking the Lord to please
help me to do this. But I didn't get that this
morning. So they're just throwing me
right into the water this morning.
Well, I do want to welcome everybody.
And again, use the carrier or whoever does the announcements
does this, but I do want to welcome everybody.
Thank you so much for coming. New faces, love to see new
faces, and I got a chance to see something this morning on the
way in. Thank you so much for choosing
the warship with us this morning here at Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. And of course, we always have
some old friends who come as well.
And we always thank God when you guys come back to see us here at
Calvary Chapel. If you're listening on Facebook
or YouTube or whatever platform that you chose to listen to us
this morning, we want to welcome you as well.
And of course, all of those who are listening behind prison
walls who have chosen to tune into us this morning, we want to
thank you as well. We're just praying that the Lord
will move as He sees fit this morning.
I do want to say that there's a lot.
Of. Sickness right now going around
a lot of people with flus and different bugs and, and even
more serious conditions. This really has been a season
of, of, of, of illness and medical challenges here at
Calvary Chapel. And I just want to remind you to
please continue to pray for each other during this time.
We really need to pray with and for one another.
Bible tells that we're going to be getting into that a little
bit in James, this section of James, but the Bible tells us to
to do that. But there's a need for us to
pray for one another and to keep each other encouraged,
particularly as we go into this new year to keep each other
encouraged to continue to hold on to the plow.
You know, don't, don't turn to the right or to the left as my
brother prayed this morning. But let us continue to keep our
eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith.
So let's do that. So what I'm going to do, I'm
going to go ahead and read what we're going to cover this
morning, and then I'm going to go back, We're going to pray and
then go back and make comment. OK, so we're in James Chapter 7.
I'm sorry, chapter 5, verse 7. And also before I even start to
read, I do want to mention that Pastor Clark, you might notice
that Pastor Clark is not here this morning.
He's not feeling well. And he and Cindy are both not
feeling well with Cindy's in the hospital and we're we're praying
for her. But Pastor Clark is, is, is
under the weather a little bit this morning.
So please keep him in our prayers as well.
I want to remember to, to do that.
Verse 7. Therefore be patient, brethren,
until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until
it receives the early in the latter rain.
You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one
another, brethren, lest you be condemned.
Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the
Lord, as an example of suffering impatience.
Indeed, we count them blessed who endure.
You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and seen
the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very
compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brethren, do
not swear either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath.
But let your yes be yes and your no no, lest you fall into
judgement. Is anyone among you suffering?
Let them pray. Is anyone cheerful?
Let them sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick?
Let them call for the. Elders of the church.
And let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the
name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will
save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has
committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another
that. You may be healed.
The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed
earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the
land for three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
produced its fruit. Brethren, if anyone among you
wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him
know that he who turns a Sinner from the air of his way will
save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Let's pray, Father, Your word is so precious to us because it's
true, because it comes from the only source which is true.
We thank you, Father, for you giving us your word.
What a gift it is. What a wonder it is to be able
to. Hold the Word of God.
And as we said so many times, this Bible doesn't just contain
God's Word. It is God's Word, everything in
it. So, Father, we thank you for
that. We thank you for the opportunity
to gather, to have fellowship one with another, to worship, to
praise and worship one with another.
But Father, we're grateful to be able to sit under your Word with
another. Lord, speak to us this morning.
Open your mouth from heaven, Lord, and speak to us.
Speak to our hearts directly to each and everyone of us, both
corporately and individually. Lord, you know exactly what it
is that we need to hear this morning.
You know, oh God, what our needs are.
You know where our hearts are. Father, speak to those things.
Even to those darkest things that no one knows, we may not
even realize that they're there ourselves.
Lords unearth those things and speak to us concerning them.
Lord, we pray for healing for one another.
We pray for healing for those who are here and those who are
not here. We pray that your healing hand,
Lord, will come down from heaven, and that you will heal
us from the very crowns of our heads to the very soles of.
Our feet. So we ask you for these things
Lord, in the name of our Savior and our Lord in Jesus name we we
pray, Amen. Amen.
What a blessed time it is to be able to look as we go on into
the new season, going into a new year and we, we do with
anticipation to everyone's wondering what is the new year
going to bring? And, and, and we, and we
celebrated Christmas. We just celebrated Christmas
with each other. And, and I do thank God for
every opportunity that we have to get with our families and to
be able to, to, to eat and have fellowship and laugh and do all
those things that we do over the Christmas season.
But most of all. I pray and I know that because
you are the House of God, you are those who are in Christ
Jesus, that it's more than just the gifts.
It's more than just the the fellowship over food.
It's more than just meeting and greeting and and sitting down
with people. But you are the ones who
understand and carry the message that this is about the birth of
our Lord and Savior. It's about the birth of our Lord
and Savior. And that has to be first and
foremost as we celebrate this this season.
And we can rejoice. Over that.
We can rejoice over that one with another because without
him, where would we be? Where would we be?
And, and it's a matter. It's amazing because even as we
go into this part of the Scripture, it's almost like
James is even anticipating the the, the continuation of that
birth. We we know that Jesus, when he
came into this world, he came into a Dark World just like it
is now. It's a very.
Dark World and then it's a world that was contrary to
righteousness and goodness and and all those things.
He he, he came into a world that was full of sin.
But when the time came. Or, as the Bible says in
Galatians 4, that at the time, at the when the fullness of the
time had come, or when God's perfect timing had come, he sent
his Son into the world. It was his perfect.
Timing. Good morning, brother.
How are you? Good.
Good to see you. He came.
He came into the world, He sent his son into the world at the
perfect time, at the perfect moment, and he came in with the
purpose to redeem men, Pablo says.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with.
God. The Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God, and the Word was made
flesh. Thank God that we had that
birth. The word was made flesh.
And so the people who sat in darkness had seen a great light.
Just like you know when we got saved, we are set in darkness
and we and we and we and we saw a great light.
Those who were sitting in the in the regions and in the valley of
death upon them light had dawned.
So when this life, who was Jesus Christ?
Because if you go back to John one, it literally says that in
him was life, in him was life. And this life was the light of
all men. And it was that light that came
in and, and it shone upon those who were sitting in darkness.
Just like the light that came into my life at one time when I
was sitting in darkness and serving darkness and worshipping
darkness and living in darkness. And then when the word of God
was preached to me, the gospel was preached and the light came
in and it shined upon and the darkness could not overcome it.
We couldn't help but to see the light of Jesus Christ in our
lives. And I thank God for what about
you am I thank God for that moment that that the that the
word of God came into our hearts and and shed light on the place
where it was dark glory to God. So just the other day we
celebrated that birthright. We celebrated that and Pastor
Clark did a wonderful job, you know, presenting that birth with
clarity as he went through those scriptures that we, you know,
we, we, we commonly know that. In fact, it's my favorite story
concerning the Christmas story. And that's in, in Luke 2.
And he went through that with clarity and he began to speak
about it. And I remember a statement that
he made. He said, you know, the Bible
doesn't put a whole lot of emphasis.
It's not about a whole lot of emphasis on the birth, but the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, Amen.
That that is fulfilling. That's the that's the thing that
we, you know, that that that that gives us hope is the thing
that we can count on. And one day we too will be
resurrected like our Lord was resurrected.
So now as we we we now Fast forward all the way to.
James and James being the brother or the half brother of
Jesus Christ. James being the the the son of
Mary as well. And I'm sure he spoke to his
mother and, and had and rehearsed those things over and
over again. Mom, tell me about my Big
Brother Jesus one more time. How is it that you, you, you
found yourself with the birth of, you know, being pregnant
with the by the Holy Spirit and, and when he was born, mom, what
was that like when he was born? What was it like when, when all
the shepherds came and, and what was it like when, you know, when
they, when the, the, the, the, the, the, the moment that the
angels sang and, and, and told the shepherds that your Lord,
your Savior is born and they all came the same Lord.
Mom, what was that like? What was that like?
So I'm sure she rehearsed that with him.
And now James, who now is in, like I said, we're in chapter 5
now and we're going to look at verse 7.
And he says therefore be patient, wait a minute,
therefore be patient. Why?
Therefore, he said be patient.
Because if you remember just a couple weeks ago, we just talked
about how the, the, the, the rich were oppressing the, the,
the poor, the rich were oppressing them and was
mistreating them, was defrauding them.
And it seemed like those who were wicked and those who were
that were rich, they are the ones that were the privilege.
They are the ones that had the advantage.
And James says be patient, be patient.
Same thing he's saying to us. If you're in a situation where
you feel like the, you know, like those who are wicked have
more privilege. Those who are wicked seem to
have the best time. Those who are wicked have the
best things. Those who are wicked seem to be
able to get away with everything.
Be patient, be patient, James said.
Be patient, brother. Until when?
How long until the coming of the Lord?
Amen. One of the things that we should
be thinking about in this year as we move forward going into
26, we should be thinking about the fact that we are.
Closer to the Lord's return than what we were in 25, right?
And if, Lord willing, and we see the end of 26, we'll be even
closer. To the Lord returning be
patient, be patient and he gives an example here about that about
those that that that patient he says look at the farmer, look at
the farmer. Look at how he how he waits for
the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it into it
receives the early in the latter rain.
And the farmer is a very good example of one who patiently
waits. I mean, I don't know if patience
is something I struggle with. I don't know about you, but
patience is something I kind of struggle with.
You know, I'm, I, I guess I'm like a microwave kind of
generation guy, You know, I mean, I want things kind of
quick. You.
Know if I'm working on something because I'm not the most
mechanical. You may not have known this, but
I'm not the most mechanical person.
If you didn't know, just act like you didn't know it.
OK? So if I'm working on something
and it doesn't come together quickly, I get impatient.
I get impatient. So patience is something that I
really, really need. But the farmer James said you
want to see patience? Look.
At the farmer. He has to be patient first of
all. There's a planning process and
then there's the soil prep and then there's the plowing and the
tilling that goes into farming. And then there's the the the
sowing of the seeds. So he cast the seeds and and
then there's the ongoing crop management.
That means taking care of the field and making sure that
there's that the weeds are pulled and making sure that
there's nothing in it that would be able to hinder the growth of
the crops. Nothing that will stop the crops
from growing. Then there's the establishing of
the, of the, of the field and the irrigation process and the
fertilizing and, and then you wait for the germ, you know, for
the, the, the, the sea to germinate.
You wait for the sea to germinate and, and, and then
with time, there's the harvesting.
Once the crop comes, there's the harvesting and they even talk
about the latter rain with that latter the early rain and the
latter rain, the early rain comes around late October, early
November in the Palestine area. And it comes to soften up the
ground so that they can dig into it until it and begin to and,
and to begin to plan on it. And then there's the latter rain
that comes somewhere around April and and, and May that
begins to mature the crop or or helps the crop to come along so
that when it when it's harvest, it'll be ready, it'll be good.
So that's the latter and the early in the latter rain, it
matures the crops. See, we too, as you hear about
it right here in verse 8, it says you also be patient,
establish your heart for the coming of the Lord.
So we too have to be patient as we prepare for his return.
We have to be patient, but in the process of waiting for him
to come, we have to manage our hearts.
We have to manage our lives through the help of the Holy
Spirit. We can keep the weeds out of our
heart and keep the, the, the, the, the things that are not
necessary, the things that are not good that will hinder our
spiritual growth. We get rid of those things.
We manage our hearts, we cleanse our hearts, we cleanse our
hands. We, we cease from doing the
sinful things that will hinder our growth as we wait for the
coming of the Lord. That is our hope.
That is our hope to see the. Coming of the Lord and that hope
is something that we talk about throughout Scripture.
Titus 2 and 13 says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious
appearing of your great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
First Timothy 1 and 10 First, I'm sorry, 1st Thessalonians 1
and 10, he says. And to wait for his Son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers
us from the wrath to come. And then Hebrews 10/30/10 and
35. He says therefore and and and
and. The writer of Hebrews gives us
an encouragement to continue to trust and not castaway.
Don't throw away your confidence.
Keep your confidence. Don't let nothing in this world
prohibit you or hinder you from being confident in what the Word
of God says. Don't let anything turn your
heart away from the scriptures it says.
Therefore, do not castaway your confidence which has great
reward for you have need of endurance, you have need of
patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you may
receive the. Promise.
And yet a little while and he who is coming.
Will come, Amen. He will come and he will not
tarry. That means he, he, he, he.
He will not delay. He will not delay.
He will come at the time. Of God's choosing at the time of
God's choosing. And God is never late.
He's always right on time. Always right on time, Even so,
Lord Jesus come, come, Lord Jesus.
But while he's coming, we got to be careful of some things.
While we're waiting for him to come, we have to be careful of a
few things. And one of the things that James
says we have to be careful of is what he says here in verse 9.
He says, do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you.
Be condemned. Behold, the judges standing at
the door, don't grumble against each other.
When, when, when things get hard, when people experience
hardships, when people experience adversity.
Sometimes if we experience some persecution or oppression,
people can begin to turn on one another, begin to turn on one
another. And it's almost like what he was
talking about back in Chapter 4 when he said do not speak evil
of one another. But when we grumble, we start to
grumble against each other. We start to murmur and start to
complain, just like they did in the wilderness.
When things got hard in the wilderness, the first thing they
want to do was start grumbling and complaining and murmur, Ah,
it's hot, ain't no water, you know, nothing's happening.
Start to complain. But what we have to understand
is that God says, look, they're not complaining about against
you. They're complaining against me.
The complaint is against me. I hear their complaints.
So what? That's why James says here, you
know, lest you be condemned. Because it's it's almost like
when people start grumbling and complaining, they're actually
complaining against God because sometimes God allows those
things to happen so that we can be strengthened and be tested.
So we complain against God. But he says, and you know, but
in this suffering, we don't turn against each other.
That's when we should get closer as a church.
The more challenges we have is, you know, we should get closer,
become closer, to hear each other, to encourage each other,
to pray with each other, to pray for each other as we talked.
About when we first. Started bearing each other's
burdens. Let's be real, true brothers and
sisters and not turn into enemies because the things get
difficult. Let's be there for each other.
Come on, brother, let's pray. I see you having a tough time.
Let's pray, sister. I see you struggling.
I see the stress. Let's pray, let's pray.
Let's cry together if we need to, let's cry together.
And when is the time we'll laugh together?
But whatever we do, we're church, we're family, let's do
it together, let's do it together.
We have to be aware of this because this is what the enemy
would use to try to weaken or to defy, divide the church.
But we're not ignorant of his devices, not at all.
And then in verse 10, then in verse 10, he says, my brother,
take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an
example of suffering in patience. 11 Indeed, we count
them blessed who endure. You have heard of the
perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord.
Yeah, the the, the, the, the, the prophets.
He now goes to them as an example.
First he used the farmers and now he's using the Old Testament
prophets. James is basically saying, look,
go back and do a history lesson. Go back to the Old Testament and
read, read what they did, you know, when they were in
adversity and, and, and we know that the prophets went through a
lot. When you think about the, the,
the, the, the. Task the call that they have,
which is to literally speak the word of God, to share the word
of God and to and to and to talk about that to people who really
didn't want to hear it sometimes oftentimes really didn't want to
hear it. In fact, they didn't want to
hear it so much that they wanted to, and this is where the term
comes from. They wanted to kill the
messenger wanted to kill the messenger.
So when you think about Old Testament prophets like
Zechariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, these men spoke strong words
that came from the mouth of God. And he and he spoke it to the
people about their sin, about their rebellion, about their
adultery, their spiritual adultery.
And they would, and they would give the word of judgment.
They would have to give the word of judgment.
What could have meant their life?
And oftentimes it did. I mean it.
You know, it's said that Zechariah was stoned to death.
Isaiah doesn't say it in the Bible, but and other teach
another writings of the Church of the church history.
They said that Isaiah was actually sawed in half.
Jeremiah was thrown in a dungeon.
I mean, there's been hardships that these men had to go through
being faithful to the things of God.
And we too, we're going to go through some hardships sometimes
when we're doing the will of God.
You know, you would think that if I'm walking in the
righteousness of God and if I'm doing what God tells me to do,
things would be OK. No, through much tribulation,
you can enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Anyone who want to live godly, if you're going to live godly,
you will suffer persecution. So we too, we're going to go
through adversity, but be patient.
Going through this adversity. Be patient, because trouble
won't last. All ways.
Weeping man. Do it for a night.
But in the morning it's going to be all right.
It's going to be all right. Joy comes in the morning.
Joy so we wait on the coming of the Lord 1 encourage you the way
James is encouraging us to be patient as we wait on the Lord
and then in verse 12 I'm. Sorry, let's go to let's let's
go to the bottom of verse 11, because I really like this whole
issue about Job. You know, you know, a lot of
people think or and have said and maybe someone's even said to
you when you're going through a hard time.
I hope not, but sometime these things happen.
When you're going through a hard time, people say, well, there
must be some sin or something in your life, man, what kind of
what kind of sin you dealing with?
You know what you're hiding, You know what kind of sin you're
hiding in your life. And, and this is what Job's
issue was. Now the Bible itself said that
Job was a righteous man. The Bible itself said that he
was a righteous man. But yet what Job didn't know
that we have access to the knowledge we have access to, is
that Satan wanted to test Job, Satan wanted to to attack Job
and and because of God's control and his sovereignty.
He knew just how much leverage he would allow Satan to have.
Yeah, OK, I'll let you go ahead and try him if you want to.
You guys know the story of Job. Job was a rich man.
He was wealthy. He was a man who feared God.
He was a man that was righteous before God.
And then Satan came to, to, to, to, to God and said, look, I
want, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're serving job.
You know, how about him? You know what, what you know, I,
I, I want to test him. I want to see what he's about.
I think I can make him curse you to your face.
I think I can make him that miserable.
So the Lord said, OK, you can, you know, try, but he's a
righteous man. But you can't take his life.
You can't take his life. And eventually, Long story
short, job end up losing his his family.
He end up losing a lot of his wealth, which is in the form of
of of animals, domestic animals and, and food and things of that
nature. He end up.
Losing a lot of those things. So he lost and then of course
his health was attacked. We had boils all over his body
and and and was in pain, suffering, suffering because
Satan wanted him to curse God to his face.
And you know, the Bible says sometimes you know, your enemy
is in your household. It was Job's wife.
Job's wife was the one that was a constituent.
For this, for Satan, why don't you just curse God and die?
Wow, Job then never called her, never called her evil woman or a
wicked woman or a foolish one. But he said you sound like 1, he
said you sound like 1. And of course Job never did,
even though he questions his own existence at one point it was
getting so bad. But he never ever, ever cursed
God, never gave up his faith. In God and the Bible says here
that Job saw. The intended in we all know that
the end of the story, Joe re recovered the wealth.
In fact he was he received double the wealth that he had
before he got family back again. He did keep his wife though he
did keep his wife because he's a righteous man, but it shows
God's compassion and mercy. So Joe was that example of
someone. He wasn't suffering because of
any sin in his life. He was suffering because he was
being tested, but because of his patience and suffering, his
endurance and suffering, which is what we are.
Being encouraged to do is to be patient and to endure.
Persevere, persevere. When you're going through
suffering, hold on. Call on the Holy Spirit for
strength because we need them. We need them.
Some of the things that we're going through, you look at
society and this and, and, and unfortunately, it's probably
just going to get worse. We need the Holy Spirit for
strength. We can't do this in our own
power. And we need each other.
Brother, I need you. Brother, I need you.
I need you. So when you call me sometimes or
we're in a meeting and you pray with me or pray for me, I need
that. I need that.
When you give me a word of encouragement, sometimes I need
that. You never know what someone is
dealing with outside of this building, but we can persevere.
We can persevere through the power of the Holy Spirit.
As we as a family love on one another.
And then in verse verse 12, it's almost like verse 12 is like,
you know, when, when I read it the first time, it's like, where
did that come from you? Know where?
Where was he going with that one?
He says. But above all, my brother, do
not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but
let your yes be yes and your your no no less.
You fall into judgment. Well, what's really interesting
is that when you start thinking about how people can get kind of
desperate when they're going through hard times and they're
going through adversity and they start to make.
Deals with God. Lord, if you Get Me Out of this,
I promise you I won't ever do this again, or I promise you I
won't make that mistake again, or I promise you I won't.
Making these vows and oaths with God.
And sometimes we do it with each other.
We make oaths with each other. And when we're talking about an
oath, he's not talking. He's not when he talks about not
swearing, he's not talking about not using foul language.
He's not talking about profanity.
He's talking about adding extra words for to strengthen whatever
it is that you're saying to try to convince someone that you're
really going to do it. You borrow, you know, you borrow
money from somebody and you promise to pay it back.
Oh, I swear on a stack of Bibles.
I'll pay you back by this date or by that date.
Fact that you got to swear on a stack of Bibles means you might
not be that confident about doing it yourself.
Takes away from the character of the person.
But he said let your yes be yes and your no no.
If you say you're. Going to pay them back.
Just do you don't have to swear about it.
See in the Old Testament Jewish, Jewish tradition, you know when,
when, when someone made an oath in an Old Testament, if that
oath or that vow, if it included the name of God, then it was
binding. If someone made an oath and it
did not include the name of God, it was not binding.
So they called them binding oaths and non binding oaths in
the Jewish tradition. But what James is saying here is
that there does not need to be something considered a binding
or a non binding oath. Your word as a Christian, as a
man of God, as a woman of God, your word should be true.
If you, you know when someone says I'm going to pay this or
you can trust me to go and do this, a task or something that
someone is challenged to do, we should be able to trust that
that will be done. If I say I'm going to come to
your house and I'm going to do this for you, or I'm going to
come and pick you up at a certain time and do that for
you, you should be able to trust that I'm going to do that.
Then I'm going to be a man of my word and me trust that you would
be a man of your word and what and what James is saying here is
that you you don't need to add these extra words to give
strength to what you are saying you're going to do that's making
about he said don't swear by anybody.
Don't swear by God. Don't say I swear to.
God, I'm going to be there or or or swearing by something else on
earth. That you're going to be there.
I swear on my on, on my mother's grave.
You hear people saying all kind of crazy things sometimes when
they when they swear, they make these oaths.
I swear on my life, James said. No, don't do that.
And maybe. Because of what they were going
through, they began to do some of that, make these oaths that
they weren't able to keep. And James says don't do that.
But yet you're let, let you yes be yes, and you're no be no as
we wait for the Lord to come. Verse 13 Is anyone among you
suffering? Let them pray.
Is anyone cheerful? Let them sing psalms.
Is anyone among you sick? Let them call for the elders of
the church and let them pray over him, anointing them with
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Really interesting when you talk about this suffering to hear,
you know, this suffering is not necessarily just someone who was
sick, but they could be suffering from being spiritually
weak, being spiritually weak, being weary.
Bible tell us we should not be weary and well doing.
But sometimes people get weak and they start to suffer.
They they, they just don't feel like they have the that the
strength to continue to go on. And James says, well, let him
pray, Let him pray. Don't start complaining.
Don't start murmuring, you know, don't start speaking evil with
somebody else. Pray if you're suffering, if
you're suffering from some some oppression, or if you're
suffering from somebody misusing, for example, what he
talked about earlier, part of chapter of chapter 5 when he
talked about the rich oppressing the poor.
And you feel yourself suffering because of the at the adversity,
he said. No, pray about those things.
Pray about it. He says if anyone cheerful, then
let them sing psalms. In other words, if you're
suffering, pray if you're if you're, if you're cheerful and
you're in a good mood, you having a mountaintop experience
think he prays and worship to the Lord.
But in everything, whether you're in a mountaintop
experience or rather you're in the valley, we should
acknowledge the Lord. We should acknowledge the Lord.
It's what James is saying here. When I'm on top of my game, I
want to acknowledge him. When I'm under everything and I
feel like the whole world is on my shoulders or something and
I'm just suffering mentally, emotionally I'm suffering.
Then I need to pray and acknowledge the.
Lord. Our first response should be to
the Lord is what James is saying here.
Then he says is any among you sick and again he's talking
about either physically sick, but he's also you can also mean
that you are spiritually sick, but in either way is any among
you sick. He gives us a process here.
He says let them call for the elders of the church and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord. Now some of you we pray for, and
I'm sure you've seen us pray with oil.
We're anointed soil when we and we pray over it and we pray over
the person. Now we don't do the way that
they did in the Old Testament. They just they would just drop
dead to. Pour this whole thing on you,
oil dripping everywhere. We don't do that.
We dab. Put it on your forehead usually,
and we pray over you. The elders of the church, we
call the elders of the church to come together, come up to the
front and we pray. That's what the word God tells
us to do. Now, olive oil, first of all, it
is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, but it also has medicinal
healing properties. So a lot of people have
experienced. In fact, some people actually
get up in the morning and they take a Swiss or two or swallow
of two of oil, of olive oil. I don't do that, but some people
do. Some people do because they feel
that it's a healing, it's an internal healing.
But we also know that the olive, that the olive oil is used to
anoint people. For healing rather someone is
sick or someone is going through issues.
What it says here in Mark chapter 6, verse 13 says, and
they cast out many demons and anointed with oil, many who were
sick and healed them and healed them.
So we knew we do know that it's it's biblical to anoint.
Now I came when I was younger, much younger, probably about
these young men's ages over here about 9:00 or 10:11 or so.
My mother was going to a Pentecostal church, and I mean,
every Sunday I left drenched in oil.
I guess they thought I really needed a whole lot of prayer,
but I was drenched in oil every Sunday, walking out on me, all
over my, my head, my forehead, my hands, everything was
drenched. We ain't going to drench you
with oil, but we will use oil to pray over you because the Bible
tells us that we do that. Amen.
And then in verse over here in verse 15.
It says, and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord
will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven. The prayer of faith, the prayer
of faith will raise up the sick. Now, first of all, when we go
before God in prayer, we go with the faith that He is able.
To do it. First of all, the Bible says
when you come to God, you must believe that he is.
And that he. Is the reward of them who
diligently seek him. So we come to God when we pray,
we put this oil on you and pray or anytime we pray, we pray
believing that God is able to do it.
He's able to do it, but we also submit to the will of God.
We submit to the will of God. I know when Paul prayed those
three times that the thorn would be moved from his flesh.
I'm sure he prayed knowing that God is able to do it.
But he also submitted to the will of God.
If he did not do it, he submitted to the will of God.
And God told him. He said Look, my grace.
Is sufficient for you? We always want the grace of God.
We want the grace of God to be upon your life, regardless of
whether He chooses to heal you right then and there.
Make somebody get up and walk right then and there.
Regardless of that, we want the grace of God, however God
chooses to use. That grace in your life to be
upon you. We want His grace and His will
to be upon you. So then he goes on here, he
says, and if he's, if he committed sins, he will be
forgiven. It's interesting because there
was at least two situations in the word of God, one in Mark 2
and the other one in John 5, where it it was intended.
They, they, they brought this paralytic man to Jesus.
Actually even loading through the.
Through the roof. The paralytic man, they load him
to the roof and they wanted Jesus to heal, Amen.
And, and Jesus said your sins are forgiven you.
And I'm sure the people that brought him said, wait a minute,
we, we want this guy healed. We want him to get up and walk.
But Jesus, he healed the most important need, which is what it
is for us, the most important need that we have is for our
sins to be forgiven us. That's the most important need.
And on 2 occasions he healed with and he it began with the
forgiveness of sins. When he healed the man at the
poor Bethesda, He said your sins have forgiven you, but go back
and sin no more because the next time it may be something worse
that may come upon you. So don't sin no more.
But he also healed the physical condition as well.
Because God knows what we need, just like we prayed it earlier.
God knows what our needs are. He knows the strongest need that
we have. And then here and the bottom he
says that the bottom of this verse 16, he said that the
effective fervent. Prayer of the.
Righteous man avails much. And then he said Elijah was a
man with a nature like ours. And he prayed earnestly that it
would not rain. And it did not rain on the land
for three years and six months. So 3 1/2 years it didn't rain.
And he prayed again, and it rained, and the earth produced
it's it's fruit. So Elijah being this example,
here goes another example of a man who's not perfect.
He's not perfect. In fact, he said he had like
passions, just, you know, like nature, just like ours.
So he had a, a tendency that he could send as well.
But yet he prayed because his heart and his faith that he had
in the Lord Jesus Christ or that he had in God that he could do
it. He prayed it, and the Lord
granted. It didn't rain for three and a
half, 3 1/2 years. Then he prayed again and it
rained. So we are invited to pray and
ask God for the things that we need.
The things. That will help us to.
Serve him more to serve him better.
We can pray for those things and then here in 19 and 20 and we're
going to end here. Praise and worship team, you can
come forth. No, actually, praise and worship
team, you can, you can, you can stay for a minute because I want
to do a, a prayer at the end of this before we bring on the last
song. 19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the
truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who
turns back a Sinner from the. Air of his way will save a soul
from. Death and cover a multitude of
sins. Really interesting here, verse
19 and 20, we're now talking about someone who is saved and
they walk away for whatever reason.
They walk away from Christ, they walk away from the truth, they
walk away from good theology, or they walk away from the true
doctrine of the apostles. They walk away for it from
whatever reason. And he's saying to us, the
church, that we don't just ignore that when someone walks
away from the truth. Now, I'm not talking about
someone who just leaves one church and go to another church.
That person still saved as long as they're going to a church
that preaches the Word. As long as we're going to a
church that believe that Jesus Christ is, you know, you know
that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God and that he is God in
the flesh. As long as they believe all
those things and they're. They're OK, but if someone
walks? Away from the faith.
No longer wants to serve him, no longer wants to, no longer wants
to hear this doctrine that he's encouraging us.
To go and get that person. And to try to bring that person
back to the truth, to bring that person back to love that person
enough to not leave them out there in the wilderness, To not
leave them out there in the deep waters.
To not leave them out there for the enemy to be able to devour,
to love them enough to go get them.
That's what this whole thing is about and we should know that he
who turns 1 and brings them back, they save a soul from
death. Rather be spiritual death,
physical death, or premature death that could result that
could result. From someone sin, bring that
person back because this covers it will cover a multitude of
sins. We know that the Scriptures tell
us that if a man is overtaken in a trespass, that you who are
spiritual, you who are spiritual, not you who are
prideful, not you who are self-righteous, but you who are
spiritual. You.
Are the one that you restore such a one in the spirit of
gentleness, considering yourself, unless you be tempted,
There's nothing that we can say, there's no sin out there that we
can say that we would never do because we really don't know.
Save the power of the Holy Spirit, but the will of God,
God's love and mercy who keeps us.
We don't know what we would do if it were not for him.
I don't know where I would be today if it were not for him.
And I need him every single day, not just some days.
I need them every day. I need them even for the baby
steps, even for the small things, the small decisions.
I need them. They're so quick.
So quick that the enemy can come in and distract us, get us off
course. That can happen so fast.
So I need him every day. The enemy will even bring
something back from your past to distract you.
Someone from your past to distract you.
The enemy knows your flavor. I need the power of the Holy
Spirit working in my heart every day.
Every day and we. All.
Need to live our lives looking for the return of Jesus Christ
every day. Looking for his return.
I'm going to ask if we can do something.
I typically don't do this. I'm going to ask if we could all
stand if you can. And whoever is in your owl,
whoever's next to you, would you please just take their hand?
Whoever is next to you, thank you Jesus.
And I'm going. To ask that you just pray for
that person that's next to you. Just for a couple minutes until
we close this out. Let's pray.
Let's start off praying for one another.
There's somebody's telephone, so I'm going to ask you to bow and
pray for the person that's next to you.
Whoever's hand you're holding, please pray for that person.
We need in here someone is sick, bless them
healing. Lord, someone may be sick in
here today, We ask for healing. Someone may be confused or lost
in here today. We ask that you withdraw them.
Draw them to your truth. Someone may have children who
are wayward today. We ask God that we that you
would draw their children, Lord, if it be Thy will, draw their
children to you, Lord. Bring them out of the darkness.
Bring them out of the wilderness.
Someone may be backslidden today, Lord.
We ask that you would reveal truth to them again.
Bring them back to you Lord, someone may be caught up in a
sin that they just can't seem to get rid of.
Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit will come and give
strength and power to overcome that sin.
Lord we come with 1 accord this morning in Jesus name we pray.
Hey, man, you may be seated, Praise and worship team, you can
come forth and we are going to have our communion, going to
have our communion this morning. All these things that we read
about in James, in the book of James, and all these things that
we hear James talking about, we have to realize that these
things reveal the character of Jesus Christ.
These things reveal the character of Jesus Christ.
It reveals His goodness, His kindness, His mercy.
It reveals His truth. It reveals his perseverance.
As we talked about with the Old Testament probably reveals his
perseverance and through suffering his patience.
It reveals one who walked out what the father told him.
He said only do what the father tells me.
I only say what the Father gives me to say.
All of these. Things in the Word of God reveal
the character and the person of Jesus Christ.
So as we take our communion this morning, let us remember Him.
As we go into this new year, let us remember the sacrifice that
he made. For you and for me.
He became sin for us. If you can wrap your mind around
that. He became sin for us, that we
may become the righteousness of God in Him.
And we have the record of the great exchange.
He gave us His righteousness, and He took all of our sin.
He took it all the way to the cross.
He bore the cross for us. He was our propitiation.
And even now in His resurrection, He's our advocate.
He's everything for us. He's our peace.
He's our righteousness. He's our redemption.
He's our sanctification. He's everything for us.
Someone asks you, Who is Jesus to you?
He's everything. He's everything to me.
So on the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, and
when he had given thanks, he broke it.
And he said, take and eat. This is my body broken for you,
broken for you, not for one sin that I committed.
It's broken for you. And eat this as often as you eat
this in remembrance of me. In the same manner he also took
the cup, and after supper he said, This cup is the new
covenant in my blood, my blood which was shed for the
forgiveness of sins of many. Drink this.
And as often as you drink it, drinking and remembrance of Me,
drinking and remembrance of my sacrifice, drinking and
remembrance of My word, drinking and remembrance of My promises,
drinking and. Remembrance that I'm coming back
as often as you drink it. Drinking and remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do
show the Lord's death until we come.
Amen. The altar is open in case anyone
wants to come up and have some alone time with the Lord.