"How God Uses Prayer" | Pastor Steve Gaines

take your bibles and turn with me please to james chapter 5 and in just a moment we'll be in verse 13 and following we continue our sermon series in the book of james and this is if you're counting number 19 we have one more sermon after this out of the book of james which will make obviously 20 and i have enjoyed walking through this book back in 2003 18 years ago my brother ed was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer my mother went out to be with him and to take care of him and she stayed with him during and after his surgery and he came home and he was not going to church but while my mother was there she went to a baptist church and she talked to the pastor he was an older man and she asked him if he would pray for her son my brother ed and ed had not gotten a good diagnosis the doctor told him you've got less than one year to live and my mother was distraught and she told the preacher and he prayed the next morning that preacher was knocking on my brother's door at 8 30 in the morning that's not normally the time that preachers go see people but he said that god had gotten hold of him during the night and that he was supposed to be here be there he told my brother that he himself had faced his own mortality he shared the gospel with my brother and my brother prayed to receive christ my brother would do that again with me six years ago to make sure that he was saved but he prayed to receive christ and after that i called my brother and read to him from the passage that i'll be preaching from today about healing my brother i've told you before is the smartest person i've ever met and you might know somebody smarter than him but i doubt it he was just absolutely brilliant off the chart but when i shared james 5 with him he said seems pretty straightforward to me and i said would you come to gardendale and let our staff and let our deacons lay hands on you and pray for you to be healed and anoint you with oil and pray for you to be healed he said i sure will and he came and we prayed for him and i got to baptize my own brother at that time he went back to the doctor and he was totally healed all the lung cancer along [Applause] a year later the doctor examined him and said i have no explanation for why you're still alive i didn't think i'd see you again he said it's a miracle i officiated my brother's memorial service this past june but god granted him 18 more years in our text today james tells us how god used his prayer look with me there in james chapter 5 verse 13. is anyone among you suffering that he must pray is anyone cheerful he is to sing praises is anyone among you sick and he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him the picture is someone lying down on a sick bed and they're circled around him praying over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the lord will raise him up if he has committed sins they will be forgiven him therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed the effective prayer of one literally one righteous man can accomplish much then he gives an example of one righteous man elijah was a man with the nature like us or ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit god is omnipotent he is almighty he is more powerful than you or me or anyone or anything in the entire universe he's omnipotent he's also omniscient and all-knowing god is smarter than you god is smarter than me god is smarter than anyone he's more wise and intelligent than anyone in this universe including the devil and god is omnipresent he's everywhere at the same time the only place god is not is hell and because he's omnipotent omniscient and omnipresent he's absolutely self-sustaining that is he's self-sufficient that is he doesn't need us he doesn't need anything to continue to be god there is no one like our lord no one and yet as awesome as he is in all of his grandeur the lord allows us even though he needs nothing no one he allows us to serve him and amazingly he works sovereignly through redeemed humanity that is christians men and women boys and girls when we preach the gospel when we share the gospel and witnessing the lord uses the sharing of our gospel as the means by which he wins people to faith in christ more people get saved when we share the gospel than when we don't jesus uses our efforts when we read the bible god speaks to us through his word more people get a word from god if they read the bible than if they don't and god uses our prayers to accomplish his will more people see god move in their lives if they pray than if they don't and more people get healed when we pray for people to be healed than when we don't jesus said in matthew 6 10 lord let your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and somehow for some reason i can't figure out god uses my little bitty prayers in a big way that's an ocean full of truth that i'm trying to pour into my pint-sized brain why in the world would almighty god want me to pray and why would he accomplish his will through my prayers all i know is he does and james is trying to tell us that today how does god use your prayers number one he uses prayer to comfort our suffering if you're suffering today one of the best things you can do is to pray and god will use your prayers to comfort that suffering look at verse 13 is anyone among you suffering then he must pray literally he must pray first century christians many of them were suffering the romans were taxing them unfairly disproportionately the jews when they became christians the jews would kick them out of the synagogues and the jews when they became christians many times their own families would disown them and treat them like a stranger i had a pastor friend that i knew and he pastored in west tennessee he was jewish he became a christian and his family totally disowned him and he never was able to speak to them again same thing was going on here many of the jews when they became a christian were losing their jobs simply because they were following jesus as the christ jesus said when you're suffering you must pray suffering christians needed help that only god can give the lord's not your last resort he's your first choice i love what mark batterson says prayer is the difference between the best you can do and the best god can do i can't do very much but god can do anything i want god to work and so i'm going to pray is anyone among you suffering he must pray paul and silas were suffering because they shared the gospel if you read about it in acts chapter 16 and as they were preaching one day in philippi i've been there twice a demonized woman who was a fortune teller came up and started interrupting paul while he was preaching her content was good she was saying these men are bond servants of the most high god who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation nothing wrong with the content but she was interrupting the whole time now if you got up and started shouting out john 3 16 and you did it about 20 times after a while i'd get tired of it i'd say you know god's talking right now and he's talking through me and he does god doesn't interrupt himself so paul got tired of it the bible says he said in the name of the lord jesus he talked to it the demon come out of her and the demon left her demons bow to the name of jesus and all of a sudden when the demon was gone the owner of the fortune teller was angry because now the source of revenue had evaporated and so they took it to the local officials and paul and barnabas were in trouble we read about in acts 16 22 and following the crowd rose up together against them and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods when they had struck them with many blows they threw them into prison commanding the jailer to guard them securely and he the jailer having received such a command threw them into the inner prison and fastening their feet in the stocks and then it says but about midnight this is about as sad as a country music song amen about midnight paul and silas were what said it out loud prayed they weren't complaining they weren't wondering why god wouldn't come through they were praying they weren't just praying they were singing hymns of praise to god and the prisoners were listening to them and guess what somebody else was listening god almighty and suddenly there came a great earthquake the foundations of the prison house were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everybody's chains were unfastened when paul and barnabas suffered they prayed god heard their prayers came to their rescue now they'd already been beaten why didn't god come to the rescue earlier i look i don't claim to know the mind of god and some people when they prayed the doors weren't open and they went on to be martyred god moves in mysterious ways that's not scripture but it is a scriptural thought we don't understand the ways of god that is a scripture his ways are not our ways his thoughts are not our thoughts for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great are his thoughts greater than ours and his ways are beyond our comprehension we don't understand god i don't understand all that he does but i know this if i knew everything about everything there is to know i would agree with him on everything he does god is a good god god has a good plan even when we go through hard times we need to pray god will use prayer to comfort you when you're suffering king david went through times of suffering and he's the one that wrote these words he said that god told him psalm 50 verse 15 call upon me in the day of trouble how many of you have ever had a day of trouble in your life anybody out there okay the ones that didn't raise their hands just keep living just keep breathing well thank you preacher you're welcome call up and by the way you've already had them you just don't want to admit it call upon me in the day of trouble why i shall rescue you and you will what honor me he gets all the glory when we go through a tough time and he pulls us through we give him all the glory and even if we die we give him all the glory psalm 91 9-15 if you make the lord your refuge if you make the most high your shelter no evil will conquer you it may come to you but it won't conquer you no plague will come near your home he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go they'll hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone you say well donna broke her ankle yeah but she didn't fall all the way down the mountain there was a tree that caught her she would have gone 50 feet further god protected her then she was tough enough to walk a mile on a broken ankle hello you will trample upon lions and cobras you'll crush fierce lions serpents under your feet the lord says i will rescue those who love me i'll protect those who trust in my name when they call on me there it is they call on me that's prayer i'll answer i'll be with them in trouble i'll rescue them i'll honor them have you lost your job have you had a devastating diagnosis with your health have you lost a loved one to covet or have you got covet now has someone dear to you died recently are you having difficulties in your family what am i supposed to do pastor when i suffer pray pray god uses prayers to comfort your suffering secondly god uses your prayer to celebrate our savior is on the complete other side of the spectrum look at the last part of verse 13. is anyone among you cheerful he's just saying praises euthamine you're to be cheerful you're to be courageous literally and you're to sing when things go wrong pray when things go right praise the lord sing praises it's the same word used in ephesians 5 19 make melody with your heart and by the way he didn't say make melody with your voice he said make melody with your heart it may not sound that great coming out but go and let it come out because it's just expressing your heart amen some of you all have quit singing because somebody told you you couldn't sing i'm not interested in how pretty you sing i just want you to let your heart loose and praise the lord you say well i can't sing on key then sing in the key of holy ghost amen it's one thing to celebrate in the sunshine it's another thing to celebrate during a storm paul if you continue to read about paul 11 chapters away from acts 16 in acts 27 he's on his way to see nero and to be before the emperor in rome and while he's going his ship that has almost 300 people on it they get in a big storm and they're it sees so long that and it's been so dark and the rain and the and all the trouble was going on and they hadn't seen light for days and they gave up but they better be glad paul was on that boat because he was praying the bible says since neither son nor stars appeared for many days this is acts 27 and no small storm was assailing us from then on all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned when they had gone a long time without food paul stood up in their midst and said men you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from crete and incurred this damage and loss yet now i urge you keep up your courage be cheerful that's the same word used in our text euthanaso for there will be no loss of life among you but only the ship for this very night an angel of the god to whom i belong and whom i serve stood before me saying don't you be afraid paul you must stand before caesar and behold god has granted you all those who are sailing with you they better be glad paul was on that chip that's why it stayed afloat therefore paul says keep up your courage euthamine oh be cheerful take courage men i believe god that it will turn out exactly as i've been told don't you love that well when you pray you think differently don't you everybody else says there's no hope but the person who prays says oh yes there is there's jesus it's all the hope we need god uses your prayers to celebrate our savior some of y'all are letting the world get you down you watch more news then you read the good news and you're all distraught you're all depressed what are we going to do what are we going to tell what i'm going to do i'm going to trust god i'm going to pray things happen when you pray that don't happen when you don't pray worrying doesn't do any good just makes you look older wears you out bogs you down displeases god when should i pray all the time luke 18 1 one of my favorite verses now jesus was telling them a parable to show that at all times everybody say all times at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart you're either praying or you're losing heart you're either praying or you're discouraged you need to pray ephesians 5 19 speaking to one another in psalms hymns spiritual song singing making melody with your heart to the lord all the people on the earth we as christians have more to rejoice about than anybody else doesn't matter how much money you make doesn't matter what kind of house you live in what kind of car you drive what kind of clothes you wear what kind of school your kid goes to i want to tell you something if you know jesus christ you are rich in where it really matters you have the riches of the lord jesus christ you're on your way to heaven celebrate throw up your hands and give god praise don't don't throw up your hands and say oh woe is me and surrender to fear throw up your hands and say my god is on the throne and i'm coming through i'm coming through amen celebrate your savior that's how god uses prayer number three god uses prayer to conquer our sicknesses look at verse 14. is anyone among you sick you must call for the elders of the church there to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the lord will raise him up james said when you get sick call upon the elders elders presbuteros the pastors of the church you say no no no no elders aren't pastors yes they are there's not three offices there's not pastors elders deacons there are only two elders which are pastors deacons which are servants pastors are servants too but they're different offices only two offices pastor and deacon elders and deacon a new testament elder is a pastor it is not a pastor excuse me no he is a pastor i'm sorry an elder is not a super deacon on steroids now bellevue has pastors we don't call them elders we call them pastors i'm the senior pastor and that just means i get more mail than the rest of them all right we have other pastors besides me here at bellevue james was the lead pastor the lead elder at the church of jerusalem there were other pastors along with him and so you call these pastors and you say i want you to pray over us. it's the picture of someone again who's bedridden they're praying over the person they anoint him with oil oil does not refer to a medicinal treatment it's referring to this a symbolic form of the holy spirit the anointing is the anointing of the holy spirit but there's nothing magical in the oil it's just a a place where you you see god moving and they anoint the sick person with the oil in the name of the lord in the name of jesus there's no more powerful name than his name and the bible says in verse 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who's sick and the lord will raise him up prayer was the means that god would use to bring healing to people doesn't mean that they don't go to doctors we'll talk more about that in a minute or take medicine i've been taking medicine for 21 years before that never taken any medicine there were doctors in the first century christians utilized them but the christians also relied on the lord for healing they used medicine used doctors but they also prayed for miracles i remember in my first church in lake dallas texas i was 25 years old i was preaching pastoring for the first time we had a prayer meeting on wednesday night most of the time it seemed like over 50 of our requests were people praying for asking for prayer for people who were sick and so i just finally said okay what are we supposed to pray for them and they gave me that look that only pastors can understand well didn't they teach you that in seminary that's the look they gave me didn't they don't you somebody should have taught you that i said well let's let's explore our options do we want to pray for them that god will just comfort them in their sickness or do we want to pray for them that god will help them not to be in much pain until they die or do we want to pray that god will heal them and then i read to them the text that we just read james 5 14 and 15 is anyone among you sick he must call the elders the pastor of the church there to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who's sick and the lord will raise him up then verse 16. and by the way in verse 16 i only in baptist churches had heard the last part of it quoted you'll know the last part but did you know there's two other parts to it the first part and the middle part here's the first part therefore confess your sins to one another we don't like that because that count that kind of sounds like catholicism don't we we don't want to confess our sins and then the next one pray for one another that you may be healed oh that's the charismatic we don't want that oh we'll take the baptist part the last part the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much how many of you know that all of it's in the bible amen you can't pick and choose what you're going to believe i call this the catholic charismatic baptist verse but we need all of it not just one part of it the bible says to pray in faith for healing don't ever forget what i'm about to say to you it is our job to ask it is god's job to answer say it with me it is our job to ask it is god's job to answer i'm going to ask for healing because the bible tells me to ask for healing and then i'm going to leave the results with god i'm going to take my medicine i'm going to go to the doctor and i'll tell you why in a minute but i'm also going to ask god and i believe more people get saved when we share the gospel with them than they do when we don't share the gospel and i believe more people get healed when we pray for them to be healed than if we don't pray for them to be healed i believe that with all my heart god uses means god uses methods only god knows his perfect will but let's pray in faith i've prayed for sick people to be healed for over 40 years for 21 years i've been praying for god to heal me from my center of gravis i was so sick at one time i couldn't even dress myself my wife had to help me i couldn't preach i could just lay in bed well i'm preaching now and i still take small doses of medicine and i do it because my doctor tells me to but i still every day pray for healing and i will to the day i die or until i'm healed but i'm a lot better than i was and so do i understand any of it no i don't i don't look i i don't understand my car i don't understand it used to be listen donna had a battery go out used to be i could just go in there take two little screws out put the battery now you've got you've got to own so much mechanical stuff you can't even take a battery out of a car anymore it was absolutely unbelievably difficult to even think about it we looked on a video a youtube thing and i said i ain't doing that i don't know how to do that all right that's what i felt like right there that's exactly what i felt like especially when i paid for it amen i don't understand all of this i'm grateful for doctors i'm grateful for medicine jesus said in matthew or luke 5 31 jesus answered and said to them it's not those who are well who need a physician but those who are what sick jesus is fine with medicine he's okay with it but jesus in scripture also tell us to pray for healing the bible says god is the lord our healer exodus 15 26 if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the lord your god do what's right in his sight give ear to his commandments keep all his his statutes i'll put none of these diseases on you which i put on the egyptians for i the lord am your healer god uses prayer to conquer our sicknesses number four god uses prayer to cleanse our sins very quickly look at verse 15 and if he has committed sins they'll be forgiven him therefore confess your sins to one another pray for one another so that you may be healed before the elders would anoint them and pray for them to be healed the sick person needed to repent of any unconfessed unrepentant of sin you know what we do here at bellevue don't you at the lord's supper we we said don't you just take this because the bible says if you take it in an unworthy manner that is with unconfessed sin in your life you can get sick okay i believe that i i believe that there are people that get sick because they take the lord's supper and they've got unconfessed unrepented of sin in their life i believe that that's what the bible says that's why i believe it and so here he's saying now listen you need to pray for one another so that you can be healed and you need to confess your sins if you committed sins you need to to pray about all that is exactly what the bible says confess your sins to one another pray for one another so that you may be healed manasseh was one of the meanest most wicked people in all of judah's history he was their king he killed people he was a sexual pervert he was absolutely terrible he's the reason god said okay that's it that's the final straw i'm not going any farther i'm taking judah down babylonians are coming but he repented and god forgave him listen to this when he was in distress he entreated the lord his god he prayed and humbled himself greatly before the god of his fathers when he prayed to him he was moved by his entreaty heard his supplication brought him again to jerusalem to his kingdom then manasseh knew the lord was god if my if god won't look at me the reason i bring up manasseh some of y'all are saying preacher you don't know what i've done you don't know how bad i am god would never heal me look at me if god will forgive manasseh god will forgive you if you'll repent if you'll repent amen psalm 103 is still in the bible verses one through three bless the lord o my soul all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul forget none of his benefits and two of those benefits are this who pardons all of your iniquities and when he does that then he heals all of your diseases god uses prayer to cleanse our sins and finally god uses prayer to change our society i love verse 16. it says the effective prayer of one righteous person can accomplish much the effective prayer it's the word where we get energy effective a prayer of spiritual energy can accomplish much it doesn't have to be eloquent but it does have to be energized by the holy ghost that kind of prayer changes our environment he gives a great example of how the environment was changed back in elijah's day this is the day of jezebel and ahab all the prophets being killed but the greatest prophet in the old testament was a man with a nature like ours the bible says and elijah was and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain it did not rain on the earth for three years six months then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit elijah was just a guy like you guy like me god called him but he prayed that was the difference that's what made elijah different and that's how you can be a different person you can pray if you will pray god will use you beyond your wildest dreams if you'll pray this last thursday we invited over 50 pastors to come together and we've got the the week almost two-thirds full now of two-thirds of the week every day people praying over memphis we're going to pray over this city we're going to cry out to god we're going to pray over this mid-south area and we want god to open the windows of heaven and he only does it when people start praying and we've got dozens of churches now praying and we're going to get more until we pray over this city and we're going to ask god to save a bunch of people to set a people a bunch of people free from sinful strongholds to help people grow in grace to heal people to do whatever he wants to do that would glorify his name we're going to pray over this city because we believe god changes circumstances and changes society when we pray and seek his face amen [Applause] read this verse with me ii chronicles 7 14. would you read it with me please and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray seek my face turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven will forgive their sin and what's the last part heal their how many of you think our land needs some healing anybody it's not going to happen unless we pray

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

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Keywords: how god uses prayer, healing prayer, book of James, BellevueChurch, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Church Memphis, BellevueMemphis, Bellevue Memphis, Bellevue Church sermons, Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, PastorSteveGaines, Pastor Steve Gaines, Pastor Steve Gains, Steve Gaines Bellevue Church, Steve Gaines Sermons, Steve Gains Sermons, SundaySermon

Id: NmpCW14vCtg

Length: 36min 1sec (2161 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021