OK, so we are in James chapter 5.
We're going to finish it today. We're going to conclude James.
Now we'll start in verse 13 and it says if anyone among you is
suffering, let him pray. If anyone is cheerful, let him
sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let him let them
pray over him. Anoint him with oil in the name
of the Lord, and the prayers 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 in the heavens gave rain, and the earth
produced its fruit. Brethren, if anyone among you
wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let let
him be. Let him know that he who turns a
Sinner from the air of his ways will save a soul from death and
cover a multitude of sins. And I will tell you guys that
this, these, these last 7 verses of James are like, it just kept
getting denser and denser and denser.
I was like, I'm going to get through 7 verses.
It's going to be just 7 verses. And the farther I go, I'm like,
OK, Lord. And then I, you can ask Faye,
I've probably redone my study like 3 times because I would get
it done and then go, well, that didn't, that didn't, I was
because I kept trying to rush through it to get to the end.
And, and I, I believe, I believe we ended up where the Lord
wanted me. Verse 13.
It is, is just a great place to start, especially this time of
year. Is anyone among you suffering?
Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?
Let him sing praises. Suffering is, is afflicted
enduring hardness or suffering trouble.
We would just say, like James said in the very beginning of of
his book, we would just say trials, right, Anyone is anyone
is in trials. Let him pray and at the same
time be turning to the Lord, right?
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.
If anyone is cheerful, marry or or of good cheer, let him sing
praises and worship. So it's pray and sing and
suffering and joy, right? When it's that, oh Karen, I just
lost that football analogy. But it's when we when we win, we
praise them and when we lose, we praise them, right?
And if you go to Romans 511 through five, it says,
therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into
the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Not only that, we rejoice in our
suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character
produces hope. And hope does not put put to
shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
So whenever, when my life is going good, I'm excited that I'm
in the Lord and when my life is going bad, I'm excited the Lord
is here with me and that I just continue to to recognize that.
And that is my my funny title for the day of be a Turner.
And what if you if you read the section in James, those all
those verses, it says it, it has pray, pray, prayer, prayer,
pray, prayed. And then turn and all that, all
that praying is whether I'm in a good mood or a bad mood, whether
things are going good or they're going bad, that I'm turning to
the Lord, right? And does this look like anybody
else's plan for their life? Right.
I was going to say, when I turn to the Lord, it's because I
don't know which way I'm supposed to go because I'm not,
I don't know, I don't know what's going on in my life.
A lot of times I, I've shared with you guys more than once
this I love that I get to do this every Sunday, but this was
not not in my list of plans, right?
This wasn't where I thought I was going.
And when we, when we pray and we, we are singing songs and and
that's something he isn't here so I can show.
So Uncle Pat, do you ever just like when you're visiting with
him, he'll just say at least be talking and there's glory,
right? It'll just deal this like he has
a way about him and he's not here so I can kind of like brag
on him. He says a way about him that he
has a joy of the Lord. He knows what the Lord has done
in his life and because of that, he just has that has that song
in his heart and we need that right.
That's something that in all things, a moment in life that
was that that we just get to sing his praises is so Corey Tim
Boom and Betsy Tim Boom were in a concentration camp.
If you don't know the story, it was a hiding place by Corey Tim
Boom and all about her and her family and hiding Jews and then
and then getting arrested and then they ended up in a
concentration camp and Betsy ended up dying in the
concentration camp. But she was kind of Corey's rock
in a lot of times when things weren't going right.
And Corey was always looking at the Lord and Lord, I know you
got this. I know this under control.
Well, they got to, I think it was Barracks 19 was where they
were going to be, or barracks, I don't remember barracks I used
to. Anyway, they went where they
were going to be housed and they got there and there were fleas.
Like not one or two, like it was infested with fleas.
And Corey hit her, hit her point where she's like, I'm done.
I can't, I'm just done. And and Betsy said, now Corey,
God says to thank him in all circumstances.
No, right. You can imagine the, the the two
sisters, right? And they went back and forth and
finally Corey Corey agreed and they thanked God for the fleece
and that that that verse is First Thessalonians 518.
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus. And the the end of that story is
because that barracks was full of fleas, the guards would not
come in there. And because the guards would not
come in there, they were free to share the gospel and have Bible
studies the entire time they were in the concentration camp.
So God, so Corey looked at it and, and saw God's hand in it,
right? So, and that is in all trials in
our lives, right? Can we see that that God is in
it, right? Can we, can we trust that in my
life that he is in charge of my life and when things are going
good that I'm praising him? And I, and I would tell you a
lot of times that's our hardest that, that is anyone cheerful,
let him sing praises. That's harder for us a lot of
times than when things suck, right?
When things suck, I have a tendency to turn to the Lord.
When my life is sunshine and rainbows and everything's great.
Well, I'm running off on my own. And we'll, we'll have a
conversation. We'll have some verses about
that in a little while. But it's, it's remembering to
always be turned to the Lord because you don't know what your
next step is. You don't, you don't know the
future. But we, as Matt said, we serve
an omniscient, omnipresent God that does know the end from the
beginning. So not taking direction from him
on a on a moment to moment, hour to hour basis is, is silly,
right? We should be getting our
marching orders continually from him turn to him because we are I
I compare us a lot of time to to tools and and maybe soldiers.
But guys, the first thing we are to God are his children, right?
He is a good father and the day you gave your life to, to the
Lord, he wants to care for you like a good father, not as a not
as a drill Sergeant that's putting you, that's building you
to put you to work, but as a father who wants to build your
character. Like it says in Romans that that
uses trials and and tribulations to build your character so that
when you are going through storms, you can stand and rescue
those that need rescuing because you are prepared for the storm.
As Christians guys, for for centuries, Christians have been
known to be the ones running into the burning buildings.
They when, when, when the black plague was going on.
Do you know who was who was out ministering to those people that
were dying Christians right. And why?
Because someone needed to do it. Somebody needed to take care of
the people. And if if my time is to die
caring for somebody, then my time is to die.
But if God doesn't want me to die, I can care for as many as
many people with the black plague as there is right.
And that's that's our job is to run into those burning buildings
right as led by the Lord to know that he has a plan, but that
takes us staying turned to him. That's that's that be a Turner
at the end. There's turning someone back to
the Lord, but the idea of prayer and the idea of just asking him
for that guidance is to be turned keeping your face focused
at him and and trusting his plan for my life.
And if you think about in the in all through the Bible, song is a
thing, right? And it and it's a thing for both
sides. Moses sings a whole song in
Exodus 15 about the Lord coming through and wiping out Pharaoh
in the army. Right It is it is it just
declaring his glory? But if you think about the night
before, the night before he wrote this, there was water in
front of him. There was a a big cloud behind
him that was keeping an entire army away from him.
But he was in a dead end. And Moses, as as as big a deal
as Moses is to us for Moses, Moses didn't know God was
parting the sea. He just knew he was on a dead
end and there was an army back there.
So when he's reading this song, when he's singing this song the
next day, this is truly a Lord. You do amazing things.
Last night I was up all night worried about how, how am I
going to get these, these people, I've, I've let these
people down here and the Lord had me.
I think the Lord had me leave him down here.
I mean, you can imagine how Moses was thinking.
And then the Lord parts the sea. They walk through on dry land.
And then he, he ends the Pharaoh's army and just erupts
into song. Do you, is that how your heart
feels? Right.
Do you when the Lord comes through, are you, are you there?
Right? Are you, are you Lord?
Thank you. Yesterday I was praising God for
sunshine, which I imagine some of you are out there doing, but
I had to. So we moved our trailer over to
the fairgrounds. And in doing that, I, we don't
have a, we're not, it isn't a full hookup or anything.
So I have to drain, I have to drain my tanks into a tank.
And then, and yesterday was the first day I had to do that.
And it was a whole process of figuring out what was best and
that I didn't have to do it in the rain or in 30, you know, or
20° weather or what I mean. It was literally like, I didn't
know what the weather was going to be like I knew what my plan
for yesterday was. But then all day it was just a
few. I'm like, this is awesome.
I mean, if I'm going to do this, I mean, you know, you're dealing
with wonderful water and all that stuff while you're figuring
it out. So I, I had that to deal with,
but I didn't have to then be be getting soaked in and cold.
And that so that was a time that I, I just stood back and like,
thank you, Lord, right. And and that's that, that
turning right, That's that Lord, I know that you are in charge of
my life. And how important is that?
And this and this idea of praying and singing is from from
Genesis to Revelation. You can find you can find
everything from Moses singing. You got David obviously in the
in the Psalms. It's Solomon writes
lamentations, which is just him crying out to the Lord, right,
which is also something we can do right.
Lord, I, I don't know how to do this.
I know you're bigger, right? I mean, David, David has in
Psalm 41, it says, answer me when I call, Oh God of my
righteousness, you've given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayers.
And that's a guy that knows God is who God is, right?
And he he just cries out to him. If you read the Psalms, some of
the some of my favorite stuff about the Psalms is as David is
crying out to the Lord of, of you know, this is going horrible
and this is going horrible and this is going horrible.
And then he's like, but you are God and well, you're bigger than
this. And by the end of the, by the
end of the Psalm, David's like and praise be to God because I
know you're in charge, right? And that's, that's supposed to
be our heart. First Thessalonians 516 back to
what Betsy was talking about, but this is that whole section.
It says rejoice always pray without ceasing ceasing give
thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus. And that's that's our job, right
is just to be looking at him. And I mean when you think about
and I love Matt's lead in and it's always fun when God does
that right when you think about God with us and we don't serve.
I don't serve Buddha, I don't have one of the 2000 Hindu gods,
right? We're not, I'm not, I'm not
serving all of that. That may or may not hear
prayers, right? And I'm mocking them.
But all of those are people coming up with a way to get to
God. Christianity is Jesus came down
as a baby as human form learn to walk, learn to talk right and
grew God grew. Now that's a whole I will
explain how that works in in heaven when we all already know
because it'll probably still be bigger than my head can explain.
But when you, when you ponder it, rejoicing always is pretty
easy. The God, the God of the universe
love me enough to come down. And he's, he's in this room with
us right now, right? He's here with us.
James, 514 through 16 says if anyone, anyone among you is
sick, let him call 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 one who is sick, and
the Lord will raise him up. And if he commits sin, he will
forgive. Therefore confess your sins to
one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
And the prayer of the righteous person has great power.
As it is working, so is anyone sick among you.
And, and this is this is something that is throughout the
Bible as far as God is a healer, right?
He heals people. This is this this set of verses.
And I I don't want to get off on a tangent and demote what James
is saying because James is saying if you're sick, come be
prayed for. But we, you know, can't remember
her name. She's in a wheelchair.
She died or she hit her head in a diving accident when she was a
kid. Johnny Eric Centata.
So she read these verses when she was after she was injured
and the, her teaching or the teaching she had on it, if she
had enough faith, God would heal her.
And guys, that is not, that is not what it teaches, right?
So, and, and she went and because God didn't heal it,
right? She's been in a wheelchair her,
her entire life from that day forward.
And it does say, there's the the trick here is there are two
different words for sick used here.
And one of them is, and I'm going to mangle the Greek words,
but athenio. And the other one is Camino.
And astenio means weak, infirmed, feeble sick disease,
which is what we would call sick.
The second one is to grow weary or be weird.
And so then if you look at it and you say in 14, it says is
anyone among you sick? And then in 15, the prayer of
faith will save the one who is weary, right?
And the idea there isn't. I want to be clear, God heals
people and he wants us to pray for each other and he wants us.
He wants elders to pray for the congregation and their their
faith in that right. So but James here is saying that
what prayer does 90 a lot of the time is turn us back to remember
who God is right is You guys have heard the story.
I only have so many stories, so you hear a lot of them.
But my my friend whose dad, dad and mom died in a Buddhist
temple, you know, they they were buried in a Buddhist temple and
he doesn't have hope that he will see them again.
And so when, when I had another friend that was whining and
about everybody saying, well, at least you'll see him in heaven.
Tired of hearing that I, I, I miss him now.
And, and my Nelson turned around and looked at him and said,
never belittle that. Never belittle that.
See, if you're a Christian here today, never belittle the hope
you have right, because you have hope and sickness that the world
doesn't have. Right when the world is
panicked, they should be you. You can walk through sickness
because of the Lord you serve and you know you know that he
has a plan right, and that's that as as we come together and
pray for each other. That is that is part of that
prayer isn't just that we because people get healed,
right? But it isn't it isn't that I
need everybody that is a Christian to be healthy,
wealthy, and wise. I need them focused on the Lord
and what he's doing in their life.
And that's his desire, right? Just like with our children, my,
my girls, I can't, I can't take care of all their needs, but
they can know that their dad is a safe place to run to, right
it. My when I was growing up, my mom
was a single mom and my grandparents lived in Spokane.
And I knew without a shadow of a doubt at all times that we were
safe because I had, I had uncles and I had my grandparents.
And if, if we didn't, if the power was going to get shut off,
if my mom didn't have gas, if whatever the thing was, and my
mom worked three jobs and, and did all of her part, But I knew
that we had a safety net. That was my, my family.
Because you understand that you have that in the Lord.
That's what we, that's, that's what we have.
When you come together and are you know, if you're if you're
sick, if you, if you need prayer and you come to the elders, part
of what the elders are praying for is just God's guidance,
right, Not just not just that you're healed.
And that is something we pray for, but but God's guidance in
your life, right that that he he gives you that that comfort and
knowledge that he's in control and that that leads us to verse
16. That is therefore confess your
sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be
healed and the prayer of a righteous person has great power
as it is working. And so then then this gets into
the whole thing you can listen to This is why this study kept
like I kept redoing it was there are so many like let's go left
field on this and say, OK so if you're sick, you have sin in
your life that would be backwards.
If you have sin in your life, it's going to manifest itself.
If you're a Christian, it's it's going to manifest itself in
sickness, not whether that's stress, whether I mean, if you
anxiety stress, all of that is driven.
And when you have when you have sick sick and when you have sin
in your life, it's going to manifest itself.
Sickness is not being sick doesn't mean you've sinned, but
if you're sinning and trying to hide it, you're going to have,
there's going to be manifestation in your life,
right, of just you're not going to be healthy.
And so then it is important that we're confessing those sins,
right? And and that doesn't mean when
it says confess your sins to one another, that is not hey,
everybody come up and I'll give you a microphone and you can
confess your sins to the congregation and then you're
good. That is not what that you need
to confess to the Lord. And then when you're confessing
to one another, that is if you, if you have, if there, if you've
been sinning against someone else, that person, you and that
person need to have a conversation, not not a in
depth. Hey, I hated your guts and
you're a rotten you were a rotten person and you were all
these awful things. And oh, by the way, I'm sorry,
not that kind of confession, right, right.
But, but truly, if you, if there is a problem between you and
especially another Christian, right?
I mean, we'll get into the world.
But if there's a problem between you and another Christian, you
know, Jesus says that if you find there's something between
you and someone else, what are you supposed to do?
Leave your gift and, and go to them, right?
Matthew, Matthew 18 is go to them and them alone.
If somebody sinned against you, you know, it is not a hidden
thing that we are supposed to be good with each other, right?
That we are supposed to be known by our love for one another.
And I would ask, I would ask and I think this congregation and
I'm I think you guys do a great job, right?
But I would ask you, as a rule in the world, are churches known
is are, is the body of Christ, an American known for its love
for one another, right. And that doesn't that is not
something that gets fixed from here, right?
That's something that gets fixed just like everything as
individuals turn to the Lord and and say, Lord, what do you what
do you have for me? What do you want me to do?
How do you want me to respond? And he's going to guys, I as, as
I say, be a Turner. And if you read James, he's
talking about it from beginning to end is, you know, to be doers
and not hearers only if if you say, Lord, I want to follow you.
I want to be on that road. I want I want to turn when you
want me to turn. I want to go up when you want to
go up. I want to go down when you want
me to go down. I want to be obedient to what
you want me to do. He's going to ask you to do some
hard things when you go through the Word.
And I was just listening to a study the other day and it hit
me to come like, yeah, I never thought of that.
Nowhere in the Bible that that I could find or argue with the guy
about. I haven't done a exhaustive
study, so if you can think of something, I would listen.
But he said I can't find anywhere in the Bible that God
asked somebody to do something easy.
It's always calling you into hard, not calling you into easy,
right? So know that that that is God.
God wants us to grow. I mean, just like, just like our
children. And when you watch our children,
wow, this would be a so we live in America and growing up, I had
I told everybody. So my great grandfather called
my grandfather lazy. My grandfather called my dad
lazy, my dad called me lazy, and I call this generation, this
next generation lazy. And the thing that sucks is we
were all right because compared to my great grandfather, my
grandfather was lazy. Compared to my great
grandfather, I am worse than a slug.
But we have trying to give our kids a better life than we had.
You know, I always, I always say generation X who get online and
say we had it like this and we had it like this and all this
stuff that guys, we caused this. This is our fault.
The world we live in right now. The the generation that's being
raised up, that's us. We did that because instead of
making our kids do hard things, we gave them the easy way out,
right? And I mean, and I'm not, I'm not
looking to eat any of us with, I'm just saying, guys, that's
not the God we serve. He's not looking to hand us a
tablet. He isn't sitting us in front of
ATV screen. He's like, no, no, come on with
me. We got some wood to chop, right?
We got a hill to climb. And why?
Because there's going to come time where you're going to need
to chop some wood and you need to know how there's going to
come a time where you need to, you need to carry somebody up
this hill and you need to know how.
And that's his desire for us, why we need to be turned to him.
Which leads me to Joshua, who is, and you guys will learn this
as you hear about him over and over again.
He is truly like a favorite of just having that heart of he
screwed. Joshua does not live a perfect
life like and he screws up often, but Joshua when he
figured out his screw up, he left Turner which way you want
me to go, Lord. And this is and This is why
right here and this is this should be our heart.
Joshua was Moses, his second right?
He took over for Moses when Moses didn't crossover So so and
Moses and Joshua was the leader of the Lord's army for Moses,
all this stuff. Joshua was an important person.
Exodus 3311 and this is truly my favorite verse about Joshua.
Thus the Lord used used to speak to Moses face to face as a man
speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the
camp, so Moses left his assistant Joshua the son of Nun,
a young man would not depart from the tent.
Do you know who is it? The tent The Lord Joshua knew
that his strength didn't come from Moses.
It didn't come from from being out and being seen.
His strength came from the Lord who was in the tent.
And so Joshua just dwelled with the Lord.
Do we dwell with the Lord right. And that is, that is our guys.
I, I, I wish you could have spent the this study.
I, I, it took me way longer then and I don't know why the Lord
probably just wanted to meet with me and, and spend time with
me, but I had more time this week than I have, I have had
right. And so suddenly now I'm redoing
studies because the Lord on it. I need you to, I need you to
hear what I'm saying. And I mean, that's what I want
to say every week, but that's the it's he just want, and this
goes for all of you guys, right? I mean, he just wants to dwell
with us. And, and how that is isn't just
isn't just sitting still in your chair at home, drinking your
coffee, reading your Bible. It's a great way to start a
morning. But all day long, pray without
ceasing, rejoicing, always having that time with him.
Joshua lost track of that right and found out if, and this is
where this is where it's important that that confession
of sin and saying, Lord, if there's anything in me between
me and you or as a congregation, guys, this goes for us, right as
we're we're getting ready and you guys, you guys are up for it
and you've been up for it. But we're ready to go to go into
a battle that I think the Lord has been preparing you guys for
for years. But if, if there's hidden stuff
in your life, you need to get it right because the Lord will find
it out, right? He and, and I'm not that isn't a
convicting thing. That's I'm, I'm more, I'm giving
you, I'm giving you encouragement.
If there's a chink in your armor, the enemy knows where to
shoot there, right? And Joshua forgets this and gets
to thinking that he that he did something to Jericho, right.
They the walls just fell down at Jericho and Joshua, like we do,
starts thinking that I'm somebody important.
Joshua 7 four through 6 says so about 3000 men went up from the
people and they fled from the men of AI and the men of AI
killed about 36 of their men and chased them before the gates as
far as Chevron and struck them as at the descent and the hearts
of the people melted and became water and Joshua tore his
clothes and fell at the earth on his face before the ark of the
Lord until evening he and the elders of Israel and they put
dust on their heads. Lord, why have you forsaken us
And then the Lord in classic in classic statements in verse 10
says the Lord said to Joshua get up what Why have you fallen on
your face? Israel has sent they have
transgressed my covenant that I commanded them.
They have taken some of the devout things they have stolen
and lied and put them among their own belongings and Israel
is a picture of of congregations.
But as individuals right is if we have sin in the camp right.
God isn't going to bless that He and, and this, this for me is
always one of those moments in Joshua's life that I would
imagine at the end of his life, he regretted this moment.
One of his most 36 men died because Joshua got ahead of the
Lord. There wasn't a redo.
Joshua didn't get ahead of the Lord. 36 men died.
Joshua said, I'm sorry and 36 men came to life.
No, 36 men, 36 families lost their, their husbands, their
fathers, their, their sons, right.
And none of those men were guilty of the sin.
So it's important for us as a congregation to be not focused
on sin as, as as a legalism thing, but saying, Lord, is
there anything between me and you?
Am I holding ill feelings? And, and if I am Lord, first of
all, confess that. But if you got to go make right
with somebody, go make it right with somebody right.
And that doesn't just mean here, that means you got to make it
right with somebody at work, somebody that that is in
another, another congregation, whatever, make it right with
them. The Lord isn't the Lord.
The Lord is not up for his people, his body, his children
to be sitting down on the inside or sitting down and standing up
on the inside isn't into isn't into playing church, right?
We've talked about that. This is a place where we get to
come into and be in a safe, trusted environment, right?
We the, the, the, the church body as a whole, when I asked,
you know, how many in the, in the Western world would you say
we are known for our love? And I'd say unfortunately, and
and that's because bad things get more pressed than good
things. I think there is a lot of love
in a lot of churches. So I am not at all jabbing
fingers and saying we're all a bunch of rotten sinners.
We are, but for different reason.
What I would say, though, that gets the press is in in bodies,
their strife and jealousy, pits of angers, dissensions,
divisions and envy, and that is Galatians 519 the works of the
flesh, right? And if you have any of that in
you, right, if if you and that that is God doesn't want that
for you, right. That, that hurts that that's a
bag you're carrying and that's something that has been going
on. Don't get me.
I mean, just to clarify, it isn't just the Western world.
Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 S chapter 5 of the 1st century
church. It's definitely not around a
long time. And they were already in the
envy department and trying to come up with how we can play
church. It didn't go well for him.
God kind of took that serious. You should read it if you don't
know what I'm talking about. But we need his grace and power,
right? And in order to get his grace
and power right, we need to be completely submitted to his
will. And, and when you look at the,
the works of the flesh, all of those are works of my will,
right? That's all stuff that I want and
I'm doing. And we will if if we try to if
we try to come in here and play church or if we feels like I'm
picking on you guys and I'm not. This is but would you would fall
short if you got if you've got something in your life that
you're not willing to give to the Lord, You're not you're not
taking his his grace and power at their full strength.
And this leads us to elders and and oil and do they have power?
I always just because this can become like a magic trick and
guys, elders and oil are are not magical.
They're elders. Are we?
We have a board of elders here and but there's just
qualifications to be an elder and Titus one versus 6 through
9. And this is the qualifications
they need to be above reproach. A husband of one wife, his
children are believers not open to to a charge of debauchery or
insubordination. They're not arrogant, they're
not quick tempered, they're not drunkard, they're not violent,
they're not greedy, Is hospitable.
A lover of good, self controlled, upright, holy and
disciplined. Holds firm to the trustworthy
word as taught. He may be able to give
instruction and sound doctrine and is able to rebuke those who
contradicted. And I would tell you there's
many in this room that meet that qualification, right?
And elders are God fearing men who are willing and able to
point to Christ as the way, the truth and the life.
Peter and John were just men, right?
They were what what made them what made them who they were was
they spent time with Jesus, right?
They were no, literally that's they're they're, they're in a
trial at one point. And they were amazing the
council because they were, they were fishermen, but they were
speaking wise, wise words. And the reason they were doing
this and that the council gave them credit because they had
spent time with Jesus. That's what we're supposed to be
known as. And guys, I can't pretend.
To be wise because Jesus knows what people need to hear you
know John and James or James and Peter and John were all were
also filled with the Holy Spirit right.
That's something that that each and every one of us today we
gave our lives to the Lord. We were filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit came in and dwells among us.
But but it's something that that can continue.
It's when you look at Pentecost and no, I'm not saying everybody
that gets filled with the Holy Spirit is going to speak in
tongues and and that but in Pentecost it says in John 2022,
it says and when he had said this, he breathed on that.
Oh sorry, that's not the right Acts 20 Acts 2 two through 4 and
suddenly there came from heaven. The sounds like a mighty rushing
wind and filled the entire house where they were sitting and
divided, divided tongues as a fire appeared on them and rested
on each one of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began speaking in other tongues and the Spirit as the
Spirit gave utterance. And the point there is, is that
these guys had received the Holy Spirit from Jesus and then they
were filled with the Holy Spirit.
So this is something that we can ask the Lord for, right?
You can. This is something I asked him
for on a regular basis. Lord especially I would imagine
Luke and Jessica, before they start singing are are asking to
be filled with the Spirit, right?
I, I want him to do the I want him to do the work.
I don't want to be doing it. Elders elders do spend spend
time with Christ and are filled with the Spirit.
Their men, their men turn to Christ.
They keep short accounts, which means as soon as they find out
they are going the wrong direction, they turn right.
They're, they're, they're guys willing to be turned right.
And that's that understanding that I don't have it all figured
out. And the moment, the moment I am,
I am directed by the Lord that I that I turn right and and
they're just those those little turns oil, something we use as
a, as a symbol of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Right, guys, I'm always, I'm always just going to point us to
simple faith, right? Not magic, not not special
words. I picture walking into my mom's
house, into my grandfather's house and saying, Oh, mother who
aren't at the kitchen right after she threw a frying pan at
me. She would say, why are you
talking like that? No, but there aren't special.
There is not guys, God wants our heart that I mean, he wants, he
wants you and you know who you are, right?
And outside of him, you know that you're a Sinner and the
only thing that you can do is fall at his feet, right?
And and that is his desire for us is to be willing to just
submit to him. And and that's a you and him
conversation. And that's James all through
this book, right? He's just continuing to to point
at that, that if we come together praying and singing
praises in the good and the bad times.
And then if we call on the elders and pray that we'll pray
for you when you're sick. If we're struggling and weary or
sick, we can be saved from our weariness.
Philippians 4-6 and seven says be anxious for nothing.
But in everything through prayer and supplication, make your
request be made known to God and the peace of God that surpasses
all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. And that's that's that
weariness, right when you can really truly see that the God of
the universe, and I say that the God of the universe, the guy to
everything that's here dwelling inside you is in this room with
us right now and wants to do above and beyond what we could
ever ask and think. I don't have to be weary.
I don't have to. I get I have that that ability
to just rest in him. And when I and John first John
19, it says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now I'm not going to dwell on the confess that's we've talked
about that, but he is faithful to cleanse us from
unrighteousness. He is faithful to if he cleanse
us from unrighteousness, what does he make us righteous, right
and not not holier than thou righteous because we get to
spend time with him and his power.
Elijah and verse 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not
rain on the land for three, three years and six months.
And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth
produced its fruit. Guys, we are James here says we
are men like Elijah and we are men like Elijah, men and women
like Elijah. And Jesus says that John, John
the Baptist was the greatest and the least in the Kingdom of
heaven is greater than him. Why is that?
Because even unlike Elijah, we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
We we get, we get to have the God that walked among us with us
and God did amazing things to Elijah and he wants to do
amazing things through us in in that.
What amazing things do you want him to do through you?
Right. And that isn't Lord.
I want to be a healer, Lord, I want to be a prophet.
What the Lord wants for you is to be his son or daughter.
And in that you will do amazing things and they'll be amazing
things for your dad, right? And and the most amazing thing,
James concludes it this way. The most amazing thing that that
can be done is, 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 ways will save a soul from
death and cover a multitude of sins.
What in a family do you have a brother or a sister that you
know has walked away? What's What better gift can you
give a father than to to bring a bring one that has has turned
on, turned around, went the wrong way, left the home.
I'm going to have Luke and Jessica come up and sing some
songs. I'm going to around what we're
going to sing, but the elders are going to come up and we'll
just be up here. If you need prayer, we'll pray
with you if you if you're if you're sick.
This isn't anything fancy guys. Spend some time with the Lord in
these songs and just just talk to him.
Say, Lord, is there anything that I need prayer for?
Is there is there anything between me and you?
And, and maybe it's something that's just you and him need to
have a conversation. Have that conversation.
All right, So Lord, I just thank you for this Time Lord, and that
you would be in our midst, Lord, walking up and down, Lord, that
you would fill this place with your light and just your glory,
that you would guide and direct us.
May this in Jesus name, Amen.