James 5:13-18

all right well good morning good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this morning we are at James chapter 51 13-17 Nathan and I were watching a little bit of I don't know YouTube shorts or something the other day and somebody had this little short every time you open up the Book of James and then she turns a page and then a hand comes up out of nowhere and looks at another passage and a hand comes up out of nowhere it's like a smack in the face so just let's go ahead and have some coffee we'll pray and we'll see what we get smacked in the face with by the Holy Spirit today you got some coffee no okay let's pray father thank you so much for this day thank you for the opportunity that you have given us to read your word God we pray that we would read it and understand it we pray that your Holy Spirit would apply it to our lives in Jesus's name amen all right James chapter 5 13-17 why don't you read 13 14 and 15 and I'll read 16 through 18 is anyone among you suffering let him pray is anyone cheerful let him sing songs 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 well we need to ask ourselves there are three questions a what's this about B what's the and C what are we called to do all right so what's this about um not letting if you're sick if you're like down Trot to pray and you're joyful you should sing Psalms okay yeah good so right so either way if you're if you're in the depths of Despair and sickness you can pray to God and he'll hear if you're doing well and things are going great you can pray you can sing Psalms so in all of life our Focus are we nasal gazing or gazing are we just looking at our belly buttons all the time Y no right where do we look at heaven right we look up we look up to God right so and he gives some very specific examples right if you're suffering what do you do pray if you're cheerful I think for that like I think for both contexts it's like really hard to just like not do that cuz you're like well I'm like I'm so sad like I can't pray right now oh wi the most cheerful now you might forget about God sometimes just forget about it yeah right so it's saying no no no all of life is to be before the face of God right so yeah and so he says if anyone's sick right call the Elders the elders right anoint and what should they do pray for pray right I remembered just recently there was a pastor that I know who there's a baby really sick on like on the deathbed type sick and the parents just just asked very humbly right they they took these words and they they called this pastor and they said hey could you just come and pray for a baby and and put oil on the baby and the pastor thought yeah let's do it he got one of the other elders and they drove to the hospital and they they prayed over that baby put oil on the baby not because of a special oil it's just straight out of the cabinet right just oil uh and they prayed for the baby pleaded with God to save the baby's life and God was gracious enough like go it was according to God's will that baby was healed right that's not like mystical crazy like you know this isn't giv us some formula oh if you're sick we just put some oil on and pray and boom you're going to be right now that's not that's not what this is saying um but that's what the Lord said says here right and notice also if if we're caught in sin what are we supposed to do 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 oh now this is interesting verse 16 confess your trespasses to who one another to one another and then what are you supposed to do and pray for one another that you may be healed pray for one another right so this is one of the things that I'll regular do with guys right like we'll get together and we'll meet we'll talk and we'll sometimes it's hey man I've been really struggling with this sin right and then working through it with each other and praying with one another the Lord uses that often to as a source of accountability of Integrity being built up you and so looking up to heaven for that and notice what he's he goes on here in this second half of verse uh 16 into verse 17 um the effective forent prayer of righteous man of MCH Elijah was a man with inra like ours and he prayed honestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for 3 years and 6 months and he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the Earth produced its food yeah right so he's uses Elijah as a example right of a righteous man who fervently prayed to God and was the Lord pleased to answer that prayer yeah right that was according to his well so uh this whole section what do you think it's about um I think it's one about it's kind of like the chief and Dem man is to glorify God and a joy for so we should always some sometimes it's hard to think like well like like sometimes you think like well like mourning to God like is that bringing him glory but you have to think like some you you like when you're father you when you're child gets hard you normally when they come to you does it bring you glory like they trust you and be Cared by you MH and so that's what I just like got gets Glory from if we do anything for him yeah yeah good yeah I I take this as like a life filled with prayer right so um Paul would write right pray constantly and without ceasing ceasing I mean it's it's it's just life given over to prayer in good times and in bad times fervently eagerly praying not with self-righteousness right but even confessing our sins to one another and praying with and for one another right so Elijah wasn't a perfect dude I'm not a perfect dude but we can confess our sins to God confess our sins to each other when someone is sick we can go and we can pray with them right so just praying praying in the good times singing the Psalms of prayers in the in the in the the good times praying when it's hard and bad right why because our heavenly father gives wisdom and the good times and in the bad cares for us well what do you think is the best first us to summarize this section probably was thinking about 13 to 18 but then I thought it was too broad so now I'm thinking about 16 to 17 or maybe 16 through 18 okay so you like the idea of of the fervent prayer and Elijah's example okay yeah I would say 13 and for or 13 would be mine but yeah that's fine uh okay so let's talk about C calling what are we called to do but also how does it show us Jesus Christ um called the pray to God K okay yeah so I think yeah you're right we're definitely pray to call to God continually or called to pray to God continually yeah absolutely we are yeah um so one of the things I think it's beautiful right it's both the example of Jesus Christ right I mean he's praying all the time it seems like uh but also uh prayer is trinitarian do you know what I mean by that um it takes the whole Trinity to pray well think about it we pray to the father in in the name of the son through the Holy Spirit yeah right or by the Holy Spirit right so the holy spirit is the one who actually takes our prayers brings them to the sun and the Sun as our high priest makes them perfect mediates for us and and so this why we pray in the name of Jesus right so it's it's very much a trinitarian prayer so when we're praying it's a Ministry of the Holy Spirit we get to approach the throne of grace boldly Beyond the Veil which is Christ's flesh right like the the Beautiful thing that Jesus has done for us and so uh what a blessing we have in prayer it's it's sad there's many people even today who will kind of poo poo and Think Like H it just doesn't I don't know what it's doing some of the most some of the people I know who have gone through the hardest trials and have the deepest sense of peace and joy are filled with prayer I wish I was more like them you ready to pray MH all right God we pray that we would be people of prayer as we are suffering Lord maybe there's somebody watching today who's suffering Lord we pray that you would bring the perfect peace that surpasses all understanding Lord when we are filled with joy we pray that we would come before you with Thanksgiving God we thank you that you have not held us away at an arms distance that you are our heavenly father father willing and able to help us and so God we pray that we would follow after you that we would trust you all of our lives in Jesus's name amen well may the Lord bless you may you enjoy the peace that surpasses all understanding by following Jesus Christ your Chief Shepherd and I'll see you next time bye bye