Help, Hope & Healing

Help, Hope & Healing
James 5:13-20
07-07-24

     One of the most relevant & practical books using the wisdom from heaven in the New Testament.

     Wisdom and faith; two great themes that run James. A book which gives us help, hope and healing. If you have the wisdom of heaven, there should be evidence of you living by it.  We often talk about the dead-ends that come with following after the world’s wisdom & the world’s culture.  But we are called to live by the wisdom above. We are called to be different.

     If your neighbors or co-workers see you no different than their non-believing selves, that’s a problem! If I were to randomly ask folks in your non-Christian circles if you live a different lifestyle because of your faith, what would they say? You have God’s wisdom and faith, it should be seen in your daily lives as faith guides your steps.

James 3:17-18, But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

     Isn’t our lives filled with many ups and downs? So, your faith plays a critical part of that journey. Has your faith guided your steps? Has the word of God provided light to your path?

     In these verses, James connects this journey of faith to the trials, troubles, sicknesses, and difficulties of life. But as you read through the text and understand it, you find the miraculous help, hope and healing given freely to us from our Lord and Savior.

     One of the most significant ways faith is connected to life is through prayer. Some of the greatest lessons on faith come through these verses because these are the practical, everyday challenges of life.

     Is anyone of you suffering? Is anyone of you sick? Is anyone struggling with a sin? These are all part of life, but when you bring faith into life, everything changes.

     Underline the effective prayer in our text…Elijah is our example.  What’s that look like for you?  For me it’s often while I am driving or sitting in traffic or simply throughout the day in my office as needs come to mind or requests are made known to me. It’s an attitude of prayer without ceasing. (1 Thes 5:17)

I. God’s Hand & Favor

God’s hand and favor on your life…

When you talk about having faith through the journey of life, it really means trusting that God’s hand is on you and that, by faith, you trust that His Spirit leads you.

Psalm 139:7, 9-10, Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?… If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.

But how much does God intervene? Does He keep us from all troubles?

John 16:33, These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Does He intervene at all? Absolutely. I can personally attest to the hand of God in my life.

Illus – When my son Jordan was born…

A. Always turn to God

Verse 13 – Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.

In other words, whether you’re suffering or cheerful, turn to God. If you’re suffering, pray. If you’re cheerful, sing praises. Either way, look to God.

Psalm 121:1-2, I will lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

When things start going wrong, many people become discouraged and it’s easy to become depressed; and folks become fixated on how big the troubles are,
but when you pray you’re looking to God.

When you pray in faith, not only will you look for God’s help in the midst of the trouble, you believe that God can use these very troubles to define your life purpose and to reveal Himself in power.

Some ask in the wrong places for help, others trust God and your circumstances to help.

Illus – It’s never to late to trust the Lord

2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

B. Look to God for healing

Verse 14-15 – If anyone is sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

I want to be really clear here – Anointing with oil is just a symbol. It represents the Holy Spirit. If someone is miraculously healed, it was not done by men, it was done by the Holy Spirit.  Communion – again symbols, Baptism is a symbol…

There are some who believe there are certain aspects of the Holy Spirit that are not relevant today, but I don’t see that in scripture.

I am absolutely convinced that God does heal today and we should ask in faith believing that God is able.

That being said, does asking for the elders to anoint with oil and pray in faith guarantee that someone will be healed? No – In other words, why aren’t all people healed when they are prayed over in faith and anointed with oil?

First, God wants us to pray and He wants us to pray in faith believing that our God is able to do amazingly and abundantly beyond all we can ask or even think.

The natural state of this world is corruption. It is broken and evil and sickness and pain prevail. Yet God intervened by sending His Son to seek and to save that which was lost. He is very concerned about our soul and pursues us that we might be reconciled to Himself.

He sent His Son to be light piercing the darkness. Jesus healed the blind and the lame and those who were sick. These miracles were evidences that He was the Messiah, these were the ‘signs of the times’ and He expected them to see and understand.

When John the Baptist heard of the works of Christ, he sent his disciples to ask of Him.

Matthew 11:3-5, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

When God heals today He accomplishes His purpose. God intervenes at His choosing. God heals as evidence of His divine power, God heals to stir up faith, and God may heal to confirm the authority of His servants.

God may also have a purpose He desires to accomplish in a person’s life and so we ask in faith believing that He is able. He wants us to recognize He is able.

C. God heals the soul

Verse 15 – The elders pray in faith over the one who is sick and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Let’s be clear that only God heals the sick miraculously and only God forgives sin.

However, some, and I do emphasize some, sickness is the result of sin. To get right with God and to deal straightforwardly with sin is certainly the point behind these verses.

Sin may cause sickness, but sin most certainly makes the soul sick and the healing of the soul is even of greater significance than the healing of the body.

This body of ours is just a temporary tent to dwell in and the older you get the more war torn and ragged it becomes, but the soul is eternal.

When one of us shakes hands with someone who is sick or we spend time with grandkids who are sick, we are more likely to get sick.  It has nothing to do with sin. Don’t judge, lest you be judged the scripture tells us.

2 Corinthians 4:16, We do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day

2 Corinthians 5:1-2, We know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.

II. Pray Earnestly

Verses 17-18 – Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain;… and he prayed again, and the sky poured rain.

There’s a lot to learn about effective prayer from these verses. Several keys jump out at us. Notice that it says Elijah prayed earnestly…

Illus – A father was trying to help his little three-year-old daughter in her prayers.

A. Faith begins with a word from God

He sent His Son to seek and to save, to pursue sinners and to reconcile them to Himself. God speaks and faith is stirred.

Romans 10:17, Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Faith begins with a word from God, but faith grows when you take hold of that word in your heart.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and his prayers accomplished much.

That story sounds so simple. Elijah prayed and it didn’t rain for three years and six months. He prayed again and the sky poured rain. But looking more deeply into the story, there’s more. Sounds simple but it wasn’t.

1 Kings 18:42-44, Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go back” seven times. It came about on the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you.’”

There’s a great insight there. Many of us would have prayed once and if God didn’t answer, prayer’s stopped. Seven times he told His servant to go back and look toward the sea. He persisted in prayer.

God didn’t need Elijah’s prayer, but God has decided to include us in what He is doing and one way He includes us is through our prayers. God’s wants us to persist.

James 4:2, You do not have, because you do not ask.

Galatians 6:9, Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

B. Don’t strive for grand finale’s

We love grand finale’s but God loves small beginnings.

That actually comes out of the book of Zechariah, but it applies to our story here as well.

The Jews had returned from 70 years of exile in Babylon only to find the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of God a mountain of rubble, and they became
deeply discouraged.

God sent a word through the prophet Zechariah to encourage them.

Zechariah 4:6-10, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts. “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! … “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; and his hands shall also finish it. … Who has despised the day of small beginnings?”

Elijah’s servant looked toward the sea and on the seventh time he saw a cloud as small as a man’s fist. Small beginnings.

We have a tendency to like the grand finale of something and not the beginning of it. But to God, the day of small beginnings is a beautiful thing.

Zechariah 4:10, The eyes of the Lord rejoiced to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

God likes the process. He wanted Elijah to persist in prayer. He wants us to persist in prayer also. Our relationship to God is deeper when we persist.

Illus – parenting process and not just the grand finale

For God, the process is the point. It’s about growing in your faith and it’s about growing in your relationship to Him.

Relationship with God is eternal and He’s preparing you for it right now.