JAMES: PRACTICAL FAITH - The Prayer of Faith (James 5:13-20 NIV) 7-13-25
INTRODUCTION
The joy of perseverance to maturity
True religion
Equality in the church
Faith and works
Taming the tongue
Sowing seeds of peace
Trusting God
Danger of pride
Warning to the rich
Patient perseverance
James 5:13-20 NIV
“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
James 5:13-20 NIV
Prayer - email, congregational, prior to worship, prayer groups, prayer list
"I am so busy now that if I did not spend three hours each day in prayer, I could not get through the day."
Martin Luther
I have had prayers answered--most strangely so sometimes--but I think our heavenly Father’s loving-kindness has been even more evident in what He has refused me.”
Lewis Carroll
I. PRAY
A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
"Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn’t know what to say," the girl replied.
"Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
"Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
Johnny Creasong, Mary, Didn’t You Know?, Sermon Central, April 8, 2008.
James 5:13-16a NIV
“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
James 5:13-16a NIV
A. Trouble
B. Happy
C. Sick
1. Call the elders
a. Pray over them
b. Anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord
2. Prayer offered in faith
a. Will make the sick person well
b. Will forgive their sin
D. Confession and sickness
1. Confess
2. Pray
3. Then healing
II. PRAYER
James 5:16b-18 NIV
“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”
James 5:16b-18 NIV
A. Powerful
B. Effective
The researchers at Columbia University conducted a study with 199 women at an in vitro fertilization clinic in Korea. Unknown to the patients and their doctors, groups of strangers from the US, Canada, and Australia were asked to pray for their success in getting pregnant.
Pictures of patients in the test group were sent to the people praying, and when the women began hormone treatment, prayer continued for the next three weeks. No one knew which group was which until the three weeks were up.
The patients in the study were all undergoing in vitro fertilization, an assisted reproduction technique in which a man’s sperm, and a woman’s eggs are combined in a laboratory dish where fertilization occurs. The resulting embryo is then transferred to the uterus to develop naturally. According to the latest statistics from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the success rate of in vitro fertilization averages 22.8 percent live births per egg retrieval.
To the surprise of the researchers, the women who were prayed for ended up with a significantly higher pregnancy rate than those who were not prayed for. "About 50 percent got pregnant in the prayer group and about 26 percent in the non-prayer group," the lead author of the report, Dr. Roger A. Lobo, Columbia’s chairman of obstetrics and gynecology said on Good Morning America. The study appears in the current Journal of Reproductive Medicine.
David Yarborough, Sermon Central, October 15, 2001. [The study “Does Prayer Influence the Success of In Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer?” was published in the September 2001 issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine (J. Reprod Med. 2001;46:781-7)].
C. Elijah
1. He was a human being, even as we are.
2. He prayed earnestly.
a. It did not rain for 3.5 years.
b. It rained and earth produced its crops.
The Characteristic of the prayer of Elijah was his FERVENCY. He prayed fervently.
He used that particular Hebrew idiom - "praying he prayed." In other words when he prayed he got down to business. Remember that the prayer of a righteous man is of great force when energized - not merely when energized by the Holy Spirit, as every effectual prayer must be; its force comes from the energy that the man or woman themselves throws into it.
So goes that saying, No Prayer - No Power; Little Prayer - Little Power; Much Prayer - Much Power!
Charles Jones, Sermon Central, March 28, 2012.
III. PRAY FOR AN OPPORTUNITY
James 5:19-20 NIV
“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
James 5:19-20 NIV
A. Should you wander from the truth?
B. The wanderer can be brought back.
C. Sinners can be turned.
1. Saved from death
2. Covers a multitude of sins
CONCLUSION
George Muller was born in Prussia on September 27, 1805. His father was a collector of taxes and George seemed to inherit his father’s ability with figures.
When Muller was converted to Christ he was impressed by the many recurring statements of Jesus for us "to ask." At this point in Muller’s life he and his wife launched into a daring experiment. First, they gave away all of their household goods. The next step was even more daring, he refused all regular salary from the small mission he had been serving. He then set out to establish an orphan home to care for the homeless children of England.
The first home was dedicated in a rented building on April 21, 1836. Within a matter of days, 43 orphans were being cared for. Muller and his co-workers decided their experiment would be set up with the following guidelines:
1- No funds would ever be solicited.
2- No debts were ever to be incurred.
3- No money contributed for a specific purpose would ever be used for any other purpose.
4- All accounts would be audited annually.
5- No ego-pandering by the publication of donor’s names.
6- No "names" of prominent people would be sought for the board or to advertise the institution.
7- The success of the orphanage would be measured not by the numbers served or by the amount of money taken in, but by God’s blessing on the work, which Muller expected to be in direct proportion to the time spent in prayer.
When the first building was constructed, Muller and his friends remained true to their convictions. The public was amazed when a second building was opened six months after the first. They kept concentrating on prayer and eventually there were five new buildings, 110 workers, and 2,050 orphans being cared for.
George Muller not only counted on God to provide, but he believed that God would provide abundantly. For over 60 years Muller recorded every specific prayer request and the results. Muller was responsible for the care of 9,500 orphans during his life. These children never went without a meal. Muller never asked for help from anyone but God. $7,500,000 came to him over the course of his life and he vows it was all in answer to believing prayer.
Boyce Mouton, Carl Junction Christian Church Newsletter, January 30, 1980.
Pray! Prayer is effective. Pray for an opportunity to turn a sinner from the error of their ways. Pray!
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
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