But if you have a copy
of the scriptures, we're going to be in
James chapter 5 this week, the last chapter of
the Book of James. And he brings up the
subject of prayer. He kind of ends as he began. He began by talking
about prayer, and he ends the same way. And we're going to look at some
verses that powerfully help us have a picture in mind as
we use this gift that God's given to us called prayer. He says in chapter
5, verse 13-- and I'm calling this message, "Honest
to God", "Honest to God." He says, "Is any one
of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the
elders of the church to pray over him and
anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith
will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned,
he 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 man
is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. 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." This past week, we were
trying to solve a mystery. And it's always-- the
journey of being a parent to figure the mystery
of who broke what, who damaged what, where's
that smell coming from? I'm just talking
about stuff that's gone on in our house
in the past few days. But we have this plant. My wife calls
plants, happy plants. She feels happier when
there's plants around. I think, there's probably
good reasons for that. You know, being around
green things that are growing oxygen.
They're giving out, you're giving them
your exhaled air. So it's kind of a nice
symbiotic relationship. But this happy plant, we
noticed was not so happy because a big branch of
it had been broken off and that all the fragments
were lying there. The evidence was not even hid. It was just like
someone had walked by and like with vengeance
just snapped off a leaf and just torn it in half and
then it was just lying there. And we're like who did that? And of course, no one wants
to admit to such a senseless crime. And we knew it's fresh
because, you know, if it was a couple of days,
those things would wither down. But no, there was-- it
was like this thing-- it was like just
moments ago this was happy and living and vibrant. And now it's just--
it's just there. It's not flourishing
anymore, y'all. And so you know the most likely
perpetrator of said heist is of course our
three-year-old, who does not want to wear a
mask on an airplane or ever. And so we said-- we said-- I said Lennox, did you-- did you tear the leaf
off mommy's happy plant? And he looked at me, and was
real cautious, real thoughtful, and he said, Dad, the thing is-- And I'm like, the thing is-- the thing-- like if your
sentence starts with the thing is-- you are guilty, right? And I'm like how does this
three-year-old know how to say, the thing is. And then I realized
he was just saying that so he could
stall while he could think about what to do next. I could actually see
the wheels spinning in his little mind of like,
I don't know what to say. I'm guilty as charged. I don't want to admit it. I don't want to fess up. I just need I need time
to come up with an alibi. So he goes, Dad, the thing is-- and then he was just silent. We're like, yes,
did you fall asleep? Did you power down. He goes, Clover did it. So I said, let's get
Clover down here. And we assumed,
like I just figured the moment I get Clover
down, I'm going to go over, did you tear mom's
plant, Clover? And she's going to go, no
Dad, I did not do that. And then we're going
to be able to just talk to Lennox about lying and
have that conversation with a wooden spoon. And-- and so we get Clover. Clover, get down here. And she's like, am I in trouble? No, you're not in trouble. Did you break that plant? Like I just assumed
she'd immediately go, no, I didn't do that. And she goes, I don't remember. I'm like, don't remember. You would remember if you
were there or not there. And then-- and
then-- now I'm just like I don't know which reaction
I think is more amusing. We can't discipline anybody. We never did get to
the bottom of it. It's a mystery to this day. But honesty with the parent
comes up in the home. And here in James,
we're told not just as parents to think
about the honesty that we're hopefully
getting from our kids, but to think of
ourselves as kids and be the ones giving
honesty to our parent. That's what he's saying. And I think that's a better
image to have in mind when we think about
prayer, because I think we can overthink prayer. And we can over pressure prayer. And when we simplify it down
to just the common denominator, we're kids who want
to talk to our Father. We have a Father who
wants to hear from us. And that's what Jesus said. You see, in His
day, prayer was so messed up and so official
and so formal and so funky that people had built all
this on it, all these systems, tradition, repetition. And prayer became something
it was never meant to be. And so when his disciples
who watched Jesus pray-- now it should tell you something
that the only thing the disciples of Jesus ever
asked him to teach them to do was how to pray. He preached them epic sermons. But you never hear them go,
teach us to preach a sermon. He did some amazing miracles. But we don't ever hear
about them going like, teach us how you
did that miracle. You see the thing
that stood out to them as being the most noteworthy,
the most different, the most shocking, the most
disruptive was the way they watched Him pray. He would get away early. He would get away often. And so one day they said,
could you teach us to do that, because what you do is not how
we have prayer in our heads? And He said, oh, it's
chillier than you think it is. Don't pray using a
ton of words thinking you're going impress God
with your vocabulary. Don't pray, you
know, babbling on. He said, when you pray just say,
dad, in heaven, you're awesome. Your name is wonderful. I want your will to be done. I want your reign to be done in
me on Earth as it is in heaven. Dad, I need stuff today
like food and other things, could you provide it for me? And God I-- Father, I don't want to do
wrong things, but I often do so. Could you please
lead me in a way that doesn't steer me
into temptation, but deliver me from
the evil one who I'm scared of and afraid of? And at the end of
the day, Father, what I want more
than anything is that you would be made famous,
you would receive glory, and that your rule would
be established forever. So could that be what happens? And the disciples were
dumbfounded by how normal prayer was, by
how accessible that was, by how simple, by how they
had complicated something that was meant to be
beautiful, something that was meant to be natural. Every child knows how
to raise up his hands and say, Dad, how to say Mom. It is intuitive in
the essence of a child to cry out for the
provision and protection and comfort of the parent. And Jesus said, that's what
prayer is meant to be for us. And James today in
these verses helps us to see the importance and the
power and the raw energy that flows through God's followers,
the followers of Jesus when we don't neglect or
abuse, but we rather pay attention to
this powerful tool that we've been given
that's called prayer. And there's really
two things that run through these
verses that are sort of a common denominator. And the two themes
that run through it concurrently are
health, vitality, being healthy, and having
a healthy prayer life. And what I want to show you
is that these two things are actually one. They can't be disconnected,
that you actually do become healthier as you pray. That's what James
is talking about. You see it come up again, like
this person could be well. If they're sick,
they could be well. If someone's got this,
you pray for him. He's presenting
prayer as the means by which we walk in wellness. Now it's interesting
because the Bible is not the only place you could
turn to to discover this. I have a friend
named Ben Stewart. And he turned me on-- So shout out Ben and Donna and
all those at Passion City DC, leading the charge in
our nation's capital, building a vibrant,
dynamic church on the part of the
Passion City House. But Ben turned me
on to an article that ran a few years back
in the Huffington Post. And the title of this article,
the headline of this article was, and I quote, "Why People
Who Pray Are Healthier Than Those Who Don't." I could have taken that as
the title of my message. And I'm going to
just read to you an excerpt from this
article, it says, quote, "There is a connection between
body and soul and heart and health. The relationship between
prayer and health has been the subject of
scores of double-blind studies over the past four decades." And then it presented
a number of them. For instance, a study done
at Dartmouth Medical School found that patients with strong
religious beliefs who underwent elective heart surgeries
were three times more likely to recover than those
who were less religious. The National
Institutes of Health funded a study that was done
that found that individuals who prayed daily were 40% less
likely to have high blood pressure than those who
did not pray at all. A study done at
Harvard discovered that there is
something triggered inside the human body called
the relaxation response, which occurs during periods of
prayer and meditation. The body's metabolism decreases. The heart rate slows down. Blood pressure goes down. And your breath even becomes
calmer and more regular. Now you could hear that and
a little bit skeptically think, oh, that it's a placebo. That all makes sense. We long have known if you've
slow down your breathing and come to a more calm state
like you would while you're praying that you're
going to, of course, find positive benefits to it. But you would say
the same can be done doing yoga or any
other sort of meditation. Well, the next
study they pointed to was one conducted at Bowling
Green State University, where they had a group of
people self identify as suffering from migraines. And they took one
group of the people and they didn't
know what they were a part of and they were
asked to spend 20 minutes every single day repeating a
spiritual affirmation like God is good or God is
my peace or God is love, kind of the thing
you would say during prayer. And those people
were in that group. The other group was
a non-spiritual group and they were told to
just mutter something like grass is green and
sand is soft while they were trying to calm themselves down. They were both spending 20
minutes sort of meditating. But one was doing so
giving themselves over to what we would call
prayer and the other group was just sort of just
chanting a mindless mantra. And what they found--
this is so amazing-- the spiritual meditators
at the end of it reported fewer headaches
and more tolerance of pain than those who were just simply
given a benign neutral phrase. So James says, hey, you want to
be well, don't forget to pray. You need to use
this gift of prayer. And so what we're
going to discover as we go through these verses
with the minutes that remain is that there are sort of seven
keys to a powerful prayer life. And I hope you'll
jot these down. We need to understand,
to utilize prayer in the right way. Now in saying all
of that, that's not to suggest that you then
have to put pressure on prayer. You need to do it the right way. But what I am
saying is that there are keys that can unlock
prayer and can make it more powerful in our lives. And that's what James says. And you know, I would even
just say, why should we listen to James on this subject? Don't forget if you were with
us week 1, "Call of the Wild" kick off, we said James
had a couple of nicknames. And one of those nicknames
was old camel knees. He had like built in knee pads
because he spent so much time praying. So he well knew how powerful
prayer could become. And no doubt it was a
journey in his life. And so it can be
for you and for me. So seven keys, we need the keys. We're looking for the keys. We've got to find the keys. Let's discover the keys. So let's go back. What are we looking for? The keys to prayer. Everything comes with keys. To open doors, you've
got to have keys. And James is going to give us
some keys to open up ourselves to a powerful prayer life. Why? Because we're going to discover
where our prayer life is healthy, we will be
healthy in every other way as well, all right. Key number one authenticity. Jot that down. You're going to
collect all seven keys. Authenticity. I'm talking about transparency
or being vulnerable. This is as opposed to facade. This is as opposed to pretending
you have everything together. This is where you're being
honest and authentic in prayer. And that's why he
starts out right away. Are you in trouble? Man, have you thought
about praying about it? And when you pray in
trouble, what should you talk to God about? The thing that's troubling you. You should cast
your care on him. Cast your burden on him. Bring your anxiety to him. You dealing with lust today? Tell God about it. Tell God, I'm tempted. I shouldn't be looking
at these images. I shouldn't be
watching these movies. God, I'm tempted. I'm having this problem. This is a difficulty, even
just speaking those words gives you power. The enemy wants to always
smother you in secrecy, keep you silent
in the dark so we can snuff you out making you
feel just completely alone. But when you're honest
to God, it casts light, it brings light on things
and nothing sanitizes like sunlight. I'm telling you. Nothing healthy
grows in the dark. And when you just tell
God honestly about it, there's a power in that. So tell God about your troubles. Here's the great thing
about walking with Jesus. We have an anchor
for every storm. And I'm convinced
that when we tell God what we're afraid of
about, when we tell God what's going on, it's sort
of like throwing that anchor into the water. The anchor is not going to
do you any good in the boat. But when you throw
it overboard, when you let it go down to
the bottom of the sea, it's able to pull you taut
in the midst of that storm. So right there in the
mist of it, I'm afraid. I'm feeling hopeless. Are you in trouble? Be authentic as you pray. Tell God. Don't put a nice face
on an ugly thing. Tell God, I'm
losing my mind here. I feel like I'm on
my last nerve here. I feel like I'm being
torn in 1,000 pieces here. Some of my most vulnerable
moments of prayer were walks where I just
literally told God, I don't think I can do this. This is more than I can bear. But in doing that,
I was acknowledging I was coming to
the end of myself. And then I found
out I hadn't even come to the beginning
of God's resources, and it tapped me
into his strength and gave me a new breath
and gave me enough to go another round. So if you're in
trouble, be authentic. Tell God all about it. He already knows. But he wants to hear you say it. Then he says, is anybody
having a great day? Is anybody celebrating? Is anybody just
crushing it in life? Is anybody like feeling awesome? Praise God for it. So here's the thing. Your prayer should
match the situation. If you're doing--
if you're doing good and if everything's rosy,
don't forget to pray. I think we would often remember. I think the statistic is
something like 83% of Americans say that when there's some
sort of sickness in their life, they pray about it in
some way or another. But I think we oftentimes
forget to offer the same kind of prayer on good days. But praise or worship is
just a prayer set to music. So what should we be doing? We should sing songs
that are cheerful, sing songs of triumph,
give God glory for the fact that things are going well. It's easy to let the
gas off spiritually in times of blessing. But in those moments, we should
return that praise to God, and sort of like
be laying up praise for the next trial or
difficulty that's going to come. The point is be authentic. There's this little
city in Montana where we're broadcasting this
from and it's called Big Fork. And the nickname of
the city is that it is a city for all
seasons, for all seasons. Now a funny thing about
that is that there is no city near us that
has such wicked shoulder seasons like this city. It seems like it really
comes to life in summer. And then it's a pretty sleepy
place the rest of the season. So it's funny to me that out
of out of all the seasons, out of all the seasons, it's
the city for all seasons, even though it's pretty
well a one season city. Don't send me hate mail
from Big Fork, all right, I don't want it,
or Ferndale or any of the other little
outlying places in Big Fork. these people are
crazy, all right. But the cool thing about
prayer is that prayer really is something for all seasons. Are you in summer? Are you in winter? In fall? Are you in spring? There is a way to express
all of that in prayer. So be authentic. James points to Elijah
as a sort of the-- and we'll kind of come
back to him a few times. Elijah is sort of
the demonstration of what prayer looks like. I love that when
we look to Elijah, we don't see perfectly
put together prayer. There is some raw prayers
up in a Elijah's life. James is like, man, that guy
prayed in the didn't rain, prayed and it didn't rain. It's like, ah,
that's intimidating. You know what I'm saying,
like to hold myself up to prayer like that. But the cool thing
is James goes, don't worry, Elijah was human
like you are, human like I am. He was human. He was frail. He was broken. He just did a really good job
of giving God that brokenness, of giving God his humanity. I brought two examples. This is a really
funny one to me. 1 Kings 19, verse 4. This is after one of the best
ministry days of his life. "He himself went a day's
journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down
under a broom tree. And then he prayed-- here we go-- that he might die,
and said, 'it is enough, Lord, just take my life for I am
no better than my fathers'" I can relate to this so much. Someone asked me how it feels
like if I have an off weekend, if I didn't feel
like I preached good, like is that hard to get over? And I'm like actually, no, it's
awesome because there's nowhere to go but up. You know, what I'm saying? Like, that's not-- The hardest Mondays
for me are the time I feel like it was
an amazing weekend. It just flowed
and God showed up. It was powerful. Sometimes those are the most
challenging Sunday nights, the most difficult Mondays
where I just feel like, how we're going to do that again. And it's just kind
of like sometimes in the moments of blessing,
there's just difficulty. And Elijah sort of
had that a high high, but then it was
like bang, low low. And he wasn't prepared for that. He wasn't he wasn't
ready for it. And he just got
to this low place. And so what did he do? He went to God. God, I feel like I
can't do this anymore. I feel like I've peaked. I feel like I-- how do I top that? I feel like I can't go on. I'm no better than my fathers. And he authentically--
this is the person held up as the image of what
powerful prayer is. And he had low,
low, low, low, lows but he brought
those lows to God. Another one, verse 10
when God said, well, what's the matter, man? Why are you so low. He said, well, "I've been
very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the
children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant,
torn down Your altars, killed Your prophets
for the sword. I alone am left, and they
seek to take my life now." What is this? He is being real and is
honestly articulating self-pity. And I think it's always a
sign that there we're unduly focusing on ourselves as
the hero of the story when we start to feel words
of self-pity coming out. I'm the only one doing this. No one notices this. No one sees the
trouble I've seen. I work so hard and they
don't appreciate this. Everyone around here takes
me for granted, right? And God lets him
speak, lets him talk. God lets him get it all out. And it sort of made
him feel better. And then at the
end, it was like-- God was like, hey, you know
how about that, like, you know, how you thought you were
the only follower I have. So I don't know how
to break this to you. I have 7,000 other
super legit prophets who haven't forsaken me at all. Like I know, you think
you're the only one. The point is God
enlightened him by allowing him to be honest with Him. God can handle your honesty. And a lot of times even just
in the articulating of it, you'll start to see
it for what it is. And you can write that
out and look at it and go, oh, I see
what's going on here. My lens isn't right. I'm not seeing things properly. But it only happens as you
are authentic with God. The second key is unity, unity. One of the reasons that
prayer is so powerful is because it releases unity. And where there is unity,
there is always strength. Where there's division,
there's always weakness. That's why one of
the common statements or creeds during the
Revolutionary War was "united we stand,
divided we fall." It's said that
Benjamin Franklin mused after they signed the
Declaration of Independence that, "brothers if we
don't hang together, we shall all be
hung separately." All hang separately. There's power in unity. And prayer unites
your soul to God. And that unity releases power. But that's something I
think we would expect. I'm united to God. David said give me a heart
that's united give me a single heart for you, right? God's looking for those whose
hearts are loyal or united towards His name. That makes sense that prayer
unites our heart to heaven. But did you know that
prayer also unites yourself within yourself? You are not single. You are like God, the
God who is triune-- Father, Son, Spirit,
three persons, one God has made us in His image. And in His image made, we
have body, we have soul, we have spirit. And sin messes with that unity. Sin messes with that union. When we do things with
our body that we ourselves in our conscience
know not to be right, we are doing something
that is against ourselves, it leads to this
disruption of the unity. So sin always divides. It divides you within yourself. That's what guilt is. I'm conflicted because I
shouldn't have done what I did. What are you doing? You're dividing your own unity. You're sapping your own power. So you walk around and you had
this sense of I'm not whole. I'm not one. I don't feel right. Why? Cause sin divided your power
that connects you to God, and sin also cut you
off from the power of being one with yourself. And that's why James,
earlier on in the book, talked about how we can pray in
a way that is not going to give us what we're praying for. He, in fact, said, it's what? Verse 7, the man that should
not expect to receive anything from God that's praying prayers
that are full of doubt, what? He is a-- look at it-- double minded man, unstable
and all that he does. Now the Greek word
double-minded literally means fracture soul, fracture soul. So your soul's like
kind of fractured. Who you are meant to be
united, united towards God, united within
yourself, it's split. So there's this sense of I'm not
doing what I should be doing. It's almost like I'm
doing things with my body that my soul to God
knows that aren't right, like this toxicity I've
brought in through self-seeking and through things
that I know are wrong, but I did them anyway,
the seeking after myself more than caring
for other people. All these things,
what does it do? It disrupts the unity that's
meant to release power. So what's the solution? Confession. Confession makes you whole. Confession restores the unity. Confession mends what's
broken between you and God and between you and
you by admitting that what God knows to be
true, you recognize to be true. And through what the Bible
describes as repentance, you set your soul against
what was there dividing you and sapping your strength. And it takes away
the instability. It mends what's broken. It sets it right in
a singular direction. And it releases power. There can actually even after
confession or repentance be greater power than
there was beforehand. Come on, a broken
bone that's healed, it can be stronger
than it was before. But only if it's set,
only if it's acknowledged. You can't play hurt, oh,
I'm OK, but on the inside you're divided, you're
unstable, things aren't right. You know there's
a conflict raging. You know there's just things
that are ruining your sleep and taking away your peace
and the sweetness that's meant to be there. And you don't want to show up
at church because this thing in your heart. You don't want to answer
those calls and those texts from people checking in on you. You've kind of gone rogue. And you think, I just got
to work this out myself. But the answer is to get clean. You won't be clean, if
you won't come clean. You've got to
confess those things. You've got to get that out
there to be dealt with. 1 John 9, "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteous." In verse 15 James says, "If
he sins, he will be forgiven." So holding onto these
things, it divides you. It saps your strength. It takes away your vigor. But by confessing it, by getting
it out there into the open, by prayer bringing
it to God, you're receiving the health and
wholeness and forgiveness from what was already
paid for at the cross. You're just allowing
there to be a mending of the relational infraction
that was done in his sight. I know you saw that happen. I hate that. God, I'm sorry. Please forgive me for that. And you're already whole. You're already on your
way towards health. So unity, unity comes when
there's constant confession. One of my favorite ideas is that
the prayer is like a Tide pen, always in the purse. You don't wait to
the washing machine, don't want to laundry day,
just get that Tide pen, deal with that spot as soon as
it happens, just right there. Call it out for what it was. I shouldn't have said that,
shouldn't have done that. God, I ask your
forgiveness for that. And then you can move on. Don't allow there to be that
lack of unity in your heart. It's been said, there can be
no revival without confession. For wherever God does a
great work, there's always-- it's always marked by
the admission of sin, the confession of
sin, people being open about what they need to
be held back from before God. The third key is intensity. Didn't James say that
the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much? Intense prayers. That word "fervent"
literally means, if you look into the
Greek language, metal that's heated until it glows. Fervent, hot prayers. What gives prayers
their fervency? I would say that it
needs to be prayers that are marked by intentionality. Nothing will give your prayer
intensity like intentionality. And why do you--
why do you say that? Here's why. Because when he says pray
earnestly in verse 17, directly translated it's this, put
prayer in your prayers. Put prayer in your prayers. What will make your
prayer glow white hot? You know what would be awesome
is if you were actually praying while you were praying, as
opposed to your mind being checked out and you
being able to babble a prayer in repetition and
rote, like you're saying the words to a nursery
rhyme or a Beatles song that you can just sort of say
it without even thinking about. And how many of the prayers
that you and I have prayed in the past week have
been prayers that are just prayed with repetition? And I'm all for like
the Lord's Prayer. I'm all for the certain prayers
are powerful to pray every day. There are prayers that I pray
by repetition before I preach. There are certain specific
prayers I pray over my children every time I think about them. And prayers I pray for you. I got on my knees, Fresh
Life, for you today. And I prayed for you as you
would hear this message. I prayed for you as
you live this out. I pray for our staff. I pray for my wife. I pray for my great
grandchildren, not yet born. There are certain prayers
I do pray by repetition. But I think there also
has to be an effort made to actually engage your
mind and engage yourself in what are these words that
I'm saying and what do they mean and that they're not just coming
out, like it's just like Alexa saying something-- I hope I just turned
Alexa on in your room. Alexa, download the
Fresh Life app, right? Alexa, follow Fresh
Life on YouTube. I mean, it will help you out. You're like, what, I
don't remember doing this. She's like I took that for
care of you, master, you know. But just that you're thinking,
you see what I'm saying. What will give you intensity? Intentionality. Think about it. And that's why I always
tell you mix it up. If you always pray, you know,
standing, pray kneeling. Take a prayer walk. Write your prayers out,
whatever it takes to disrupt you and to shock you into realizing,
like, I'm talking to God I need to think about
what I'm saying. Do I mean what I'm saying? And ask yourself
this, how would I feel if the roles were reversed
and someone was talking to me the way I'm talking to God? Am I actually
thinking about this? And that will cure of some of
the ills, some of the we're just quoting verses to him
without really even thinking about it, trying to sound
flashy and impressive. And when I was a kid,
it was you always prayed for travel mercies. We always prayed
for travel mercies. Oh, Lord, just travel mercies. Like, what does that--
what does that even mean? Just to be thinking about
what we're actually saying. Intensity. Here's the question. Why should God listen to
you while you're praying if you're not listening to you? So listen to yourself pray. Audit your prayers. Take inventory of your prayers. Who are you praying for? You've been given this
incredible weapon called prayer. What are you using it for? The next key is
responsibility, responsibility. As you pray you have
a responsibility to participate, in my opinion,
in the prayer being answered. So example he says,
if you're sick, you should also get the
church to pray for you. And we love praying for you. I love going to hospital. I love getting to pray when
we hear about someone who's not well, to pray for them. I love, as we have the
opportunity, to use oil, which is a symbol
of the Holy Spirit, to just put a little
dab of olive oil just as a way of saying
like in this situation, I'm believing we need the Holy
Spirit's intervention here for a miraculous healing. We believe that can happen. God still heals today. He can heal in a moment. But the oil also
speaks to the part that we have to play
at in doing everything that we can do to see God answer
that prayer through medicine that he's given to us,
through wise choices that we can make using our
brains and using common sense and good judgment. And if you actually
look into the history of the culture in which
scripture was written, oil was not just a symbol of
the Holy Spirit, which it was. The priest had to
be ceremonially anointed before serving. But there was also a
use of oil and medicine. So you know, the story
of the Good Samaritan. He found the guy on the
ground, battered and beaten. What did he do? This is Luke 10. He went to him,
bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. There was a medicinal-- sounds like he's making
a salad, doesn't it? He poured on oil and
he poured on wine. But no, he was actually
using medicine in that day to treat these wounds. So when James talks about
having anointing with oil done, it's a play on words. He's saying yes let
pastors pray for you that God would and could
miraculously heal you. But also call the doctor,
also get a second opinion, also make wise choices. Around Fresh Life, if
you've been here at all for any length of
time, you've heard us talk about and reference
kind of a cultural value that's called being a snake bird. And that comes from Jesus'
statement in Matthew chapter 10 where he talked
about how we're supposed to be wise as serpents,
but also harmless as doves. And doves, that's a
picture of trusting God. And like doves are not exactly
like the most fierce animal out there, but snakes are. Snakes are cunning and
crafty and hunters. And doves are-- doves are
trusting and unassuming and helpless. And we're sort of always needing
to be between both of those two extremes, meaning we pray
for what only God can do. I'm a dove. But I also do everything
that I can do. So I've prayed for God to work
powerfully through this sermon. But then I also worked hard to
study and to put the message together and research. You see, I'm not just going
to pray for God to give me a great wife one day, I did. I'm also going to-- I don't know, brush my teeth,
and pay down my credit card, and get finances in order. You see what I'm saying? Like are you ready for the
thing God's preparing you for? We need to pray for-- yes. But then also be willing to
take the wise steps to bring those things about. I'm praying for my
neighbor to get saved. You know what I'm
also going to do? I'm also going
invite him to church and tell him that he can
join us for church online. I'm not just going to
ask, oh, there you go God. I'm going to remember there's
a responsibility in it. God, move heaven and
earth through this church. But you know I'm going to
the first time I get paid, the first action is going to be
to get the first and the best to God. When He blesses me, I'm going to
extravagantly give an offering above and beyond that. I'm going to ask always,
how can my resources-- it's a big theme in James-- how can my resource, not
just be laid up for me to die and leave this world
with then not doing something of heavenly good? I'm going to be always paying
for what I'm praying for. James says you have
a responsibility. You have a part to play. Don't just pray, Thy
will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Be about your father's
business every waking day. Elijah, you know,
the epic prayer guy. Yes, he sought God and preached
sermons and did miracles. But guess what? When he was low that day
and feeling hypoglycemic and crashing and I don't want to
live anymore and all the rest, you know what God did? God-- you're like he
probably send him a Bible and had him read it. No, actually, no. Look at first King's 19:7. God sends an angel to say,
hey man, you should arise and eat because this
journey's too great for you. So take a nap, eat something. And when he woke
up, he's like you're still cranky, go back to
bed, and get some more food, like, he literally
was like, you're not taking care of yourself. So we come to God,
help in this way. And God's like how many hours
of sleep are you getting? How many ounces of water
do you drink per day? The point is, God
will not give us a supernatural answer to a
natural problem to something that has its origin in
us just not being wise. So you have a part to
play responsibility. The second to last
key is eternity. In all of this use of prayer,
let's always keep our mind on the bigger picture. Yes, God can use prayer to
miraculously intervene and heal someone. He also can use medicine that
He's given us the ability to figure out to heal someone. But in all of that, it's all
a delaying of the inevitable. If God raises the dead,
if God heals the sick, they're going to move
back towards sickness, back towards the grave. Even Lazarus, who came
out, had to die again. So our biggest agenda isn't
just to see signs and wonders. Jesus considered it a failure
if only miracles and signs were done and there was
not the lasting work of salvation in the soul. And that's what James
seems to be pointing to when he says in verse 15,
"The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well." Underline that word well. And he says, semicolon, "The
Lord will raise him up." That's speaking about
the Resurrection. That's the last day. The greatest
salvation God can do, the greatest wellness
that can happen is not that you're cured of
your chronic pain or cancer, that God can and I pray
he would do that for you. The greatest thing
God could do is do such a work of wellness in
your soul that on the last day you're raised up not just well
physically but well in body, in soul, and in
spirit, made whole by the precious blood
of Jesus Christ shed for you on the cross, that
you're well inside and outside, that you have a promise that
your portion is not just in this life. But your life is hidden
with Christ in God, and that when Christ
who is your life appears that you will
appear with him in glory, not just that you would get
80 years instead of 70 or 90 instead of 80 or 110 instead
of-- listen, we're all going. If it's a car accident or cancer
or COVID, this life is a vapor. It's temporary. Come on, there's
something so much better and it's called eternal life. There's something better,
it's called immortality. That's why Jesus died on the
cross to conquer death for you. So we're not just clinging
to, can I get 7 more minutes 12 more minutes? how do I guard my life here? Can I live inside
of a plastic bubble? Look, do all the things, wear
your seat belt all the stuff. But at the end of
the day, we're all leaving this world through
something called the grave. And the Bible says God
wants you to be well so you can be forever well. And that's what He has
planned for all of us, so keep your mind as
you pray on eternity. Eternity, not just praying
for the safety of our kids, yes, we want our
kids to be safe. But you know what we want? We want our kids to be
saved for our children. Saved, we want people-- keep your mind on
eternity in the prayers that you're praying. I had you under
line the word well. God can make you well, even
when your prayer is not answered like you wish
He would answer it. The man on the screen
is Horatio Spafford. Horatio Spafford
lived in Chicago when the great fire
swept through in 1871. He had already experienced
catastrophic loss when his little boy
died of scarlet fever. He lost a lot of his money
and resource in the fire. And so he decided the
family needed a vacation. So he loaded his wife and
four daughters up on a ship, sent them to England. He was going to join them. The ship encountered
a storm while at sea. And tragically all four of
his daughters died in the-- perished in the ocean. His wife telegrammed
him, letting him know that his daughters--
their daughters had died, asking him what he should
do, what she should do. He immediately boarded
the next ship he could. And as he made his
way to reconnect with his wife, his
grieving wife in England, the captain of the
ship notified him when they were over
the precise location where his daughters
had perished. Horatio went to the
edge of the railing and looked over
at the waters that held his daughter's bodies,
and he wrote the words to a famous hymn. He wrote these words. "When peace like a
river attended my way, when sorrows like sea billows
roll, whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know it is
well, it is well with my soul." God has given us prayer,
not merely so that mountains can be moved, but so that God
can move things inside of us even when the mountains
remain stationary. We can be well because of Jesus. And that wellness
flows through our using this gift of talking
to God through prayer. The final key is longevity. Longevity means to
continue to do something. Longevity means to not give up. We need to pray
prayers with longevity. Jesus said men always ought
to pray and not to lose heart. Elijah demonstrates this. Yeah, he prayed and it didn't
rain; prayed and it rained. But don't forget, when he
prayed for it to begin raining, he prayed and it didn't work. And he prayed and
it didn't work. He prayed and it didn't work. He prayed and it didn't work. He prayed and it didn't work. In verse 43 of 1 Kings 18,
we're told that seven times he prayed with his head down on the
ground and a servant checked. And finally after
the seventh time-- we don't know how
long that lasted-- then finally, the rain
came the point is sometimes when we're praying
for something, we need to just keep
praying and not give up. Daniel prayed for
something for 21 days. And then finally,
he saw the release of what he had been praying
for after that period. I think we need to hold on to
these prayers with longevity. Well, there's your six keys. And you said seven, Levi. Well, the seventh
key is community. Community, I want to
point to you that-- point out to you that two
different times in the passage we read the phrase each
other or one another is used. So prayer is not meant to be
something just used secretly, individually, but
also collectively as we as the body of Christ give
ourselves over to community. The key of community is one
that we find when we're together at a watch party, together
watching church online, together in a small
group, together in a Zoom, together at a Flourish
night, this key is unlocked. This key unlocks that power
and health that God has for us and we all get to
experience it collectively. That study I told you
about has one last finding. And it was a 16 year long
study done at Harvard School of Public Health. And they found that
during this study people who attended religious
services at least once per week were 30% less likely
to die and were at significantly lower risk from
both cardiovascular and cancer related mortality. There is something to be
said for being together. There's something to
be said for having other people praying for you. There's something to be said
for having other people who know your name. I was-- I'm going
to close with this-- fishing with my kids. And we invited a friend to come. And I said I'll pick you up,
pick you and your son up. And that was pretty
decent of me. Went out to the lake to do some
fishing, didn't catch anything. The sun was setting. It was time to go. We went to get in the car. We all loaded up. I pushed the button to start
the engine, nothing happened. The engine just-- the car screen
just said, fob not detected. Fob not detected, that
means I lost my keys. So of course we begin
searching all through the car. Nowhere. With lights and iPhones, we
begin combing the ground. It must have fallen out. We're looking everywhere,
on our hands and knees. Nowhere. Finally, we gave up, called
his wife to come pick us up, left my vehicle
there for the night, planed to get Jennie to
take me back in the morning. And when she agreed
to, I was just about to leave the
house to go and get dropped off with the spare key
and to look for another two hours until I found my stupid-- I refused to get a new
key fob made, right? Anybody else like that,
like I will find-- I had actually rented
a metal detector that I was going to
go pick up on the way. Like, I will find-- I will have my vengeance in
this life or the next, right? You know what I'm saying? And just as I was about
to hop in Jennie's car to get the metal detector
and go back out to the lake, I was walking past
the kitchen table. And thought, oh, that's funny,
my keys are on the table. And I just thought that. That's interesting
that I left them there. I never leave them there. And those were the keys that
we had spent the whole evening looking for at
the lake, the keys that I was about to look
for with a metal detector for the rest of the morning. What are you doing here? Then it all made sense to me. When I stopped to grab
the fishing poles, the girls were
already in the car. I said, stay right
here, I'm going to go grab the fishing poles. But I had brought the keys
in with me, set them down. The car was running
in the driveway, you see where this is going. The moment I turned off
the engine at the lake, we were doomed. From the moment I
shut the car down, there was only one way this
story was going to end. And was with us not leaving
in that vehicle that evening. The keys were never there. All that frustration,
all that looking, all that scrounging around,
the keys were never there. Listen to me, the keys
were always in the house. The keys were in the house. What I was looking
for out there was right in here the whole time. Church, we don't have to go
out there looking for this, looking for that,
why am I not healthy? Why is this broken? God has given us
within each other and with prayer and with our
relationship with him and one another everything we
need to thrive, no matter what the gates of hell
are able to throw at us. Come on, shout it if you hear. The key is in the house. The key is in the house. Thanks be to God for giving
us each other that we might flourish in the midst
of the craziness of this life. Honest to God, It'll
work, I guarantee it. Father, we thank You. We thank You for
what happens when we lean into our relationship
with You and with each other. I pray we would not soon forget
that the key is in the house. That's why You care so
much about the Church. That's why You built it. That's why Your mind is on
it, Your heart is in it. You want us to
thrive and be well. You want it to be
well with our soul. If you're watching
this and you would say, I want to give in to this. I want to put these things into
practice in my prayer life. If that's you I'm describing,
just raise your hand up, raise your hand up. It could be one, two, three,
or all seven that have really touched you and you say I want
to work on this this week. I want to grow and use
this gift called prayer. God sees your hand. He sees your willingness to
watch him work in your story. So I want to pray blessing. Keep your hand up, please. Every single person
who's responding, God, I pray you
would touch them. I pray they would see
change in their life as they put this into practice. But I also pray, God, that
even if they don't, that they would keep at it. I pray with that great
spirit of longevity they would keep
trying and believe that they're being changed
from glory to glory and grace to grace. I pray not only
would You meet them as they meet with
You, knowing You will. I pray You would speak
to them very specifically in unmistakable ways in that
stillness as they listen they would hear you speaking
and singing Your love over them. I pray this in the
mighty name of Jesus. And with every
person still praying, head bowed, eyes closed. If you are watching this
and you haven't entered into a relationship
with God, you're what the Bible calls someone
whose hope is in this world, this life, your job,
your resources, whatever it would be that
you're looking to for your meaning, your
identity, your satisfaction. You could find that in Christ. And you'll never
find what you're looking for on this planet,
because nothing can give you immortality. Nothing can give you
that forgiveness of sins, that rightness on the inside. So I'm going to lead
you in a prayer. And if you're ready to
give your heart to Jesus say this with me. Say this, say, dear God,
I know I'm a sinner. I pray You'd forgive me. I'm empty. I pray You'd fill me. I'm lost. I pray You'd lead me. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you. God bless you,
making that decision. [APPLAUSE] There's a number on the screen. We'd love to have
you send a text message to that number,
97000, and put the words Fresh Life in your text, so
we could just encourage you, we could pray for you this
week, and do that by name. So we'd love to hear from you. Send that text. God bless you. Thanks for joining us
for Fresh Life this week.
