The Epistle of James: Chapter 5

And we're going to be oriented towards him as we look to the word of the Lord and finish out the book of James. You can be seated. We are going to read the book of James. Not the book. We're going to read Wow.

We're going to read James chapter 5 because that's where we're concluding. And I did not get to Eric and I apologize. I'm going to be reading in the New International Version, the NIV. I apologize, Eric. Eventually, we'll read that entire chapter.

It's just 20 verses. Uh but the Lord um Lord wants to move. I love that we read the actual scripture and we don't just you know talk about it but we read through it because there's such power and and things can be uh illuminated to you and lifted off the the page or lifted off the screen and into your eyeballs and um that it's it's helpful. So I'm I'm happy to to read the word of the Lord together. This series that we've been in in the book of James, this verse by verse really allows us to put some action behind our core value of growth.

We are growing as we're looking at the word of the Lord. And um as believers, of course, the goal of life is transformation to be like Jesus. not just believe in Jesus, but to be like Jesus. It's God's goal for each of us. It's to be a reflection of him.

And the book of James addresses topics that help disciples like us progress towards that goal. All 108 verses confront, convict, challenge, and charge us to perfectly pursue and achieve that objective. And James is, as we have discovered, he is painfully thorough at helping us understand that there is no area of our lives left out or exempt from the expectation of being like Jesus and reflecting his nature. Areas like our relationships with others, how we respond to trials and suffering, our words, our finances, our motives, our conduct under pressure or offense, our worship, all of it matters. And all of it must be governed by the king's royal law.

And that royal law, the highest value of the kingdom is loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. And as I've already mentioned, there is no aspect of our lives that James leaves out. And here in his final chapter of chapter 5, we're going to revisit several topics and principles which James has already woven into the fabric of his letter. As we've looked at it, there's not a linear pattern for this letter. There's this the quilt-like structure that has been pointed out.

And so, the topics for tonight are not new. They have already been discussed, but they're going to be discussed further. And maybe with a little bit different uh twist on them, but things that have already been discussed in his letter, he circles back to in chapter five. his letter seems to have this intense focus on the testing of a person's faithfulness from within rather than from without. Um, if you read other books in the New Testament, other letters, you would see there is this maybe bolstering of faith or encouragement to withstand the persecution that's coming from without.

James, he seems to deal most directly with the the pressure that comes from within the human condition. And it's the greatest battle that we face is the battle within ourselves. And James addresses that. He focuses on the challenges of being lured away from obedience by this double-minded tendency or duplicity of our own desires. It's our internal vulnerability to the desires that derail faith by dividing our focus between God and the world.

And James with pinpoint punch in the gut accuracy just goes after it. And throughout his letter, James like his halfb brotherther Jesus points toward wholeness, singlemindedness, perfection. And that word perfect referring to wholeness, living a completely integrated life where our actions are always consistent with the values and beliefs that that we've received from Jesus. And he promotes this wholeness by discussing some typical challenges facing Christians in which we are presented with an opportunity to either demonstrate or disguise the genuiness of our faith. And he calls these challenges trials.

That one stuck out to me as I read the scholar that I read that that talks about this because I I don't often define challenges or trials as um what I'm facing internally maybe the the the struggles and the temptations. They they are trials but I I would probably define it differently but this stuck out to me. And so he gives some examples. James chapter 2:es 1-13 which we've discussed. He said when the rich person and the poor person enter my con congregation I face a trial.

Will I live out my faith that claims God to be free from partiality that knows Jesus to have favored the poor and that commands me to love my neighbor as myself? poor will I yield to the worldly mind that is attracted to wealth and fancy adornment while being condescending to the homeless and the poor. Another place he introduces this trial by saying this. Will I seek what makes for harmony and peace in human community by denying my own desires? Or will I seek self-gratification with the result that competitiveness, envy, and conflict will continue to characterize my attitude towards and relations with others.

These are the trials that James addresses within this book. And we're going to see some in in verse or chapter 5 rather. There's a couple of different segments and I'll run through these segments really quickly and then we're going to read it together. Verses 1-6 has a discussion about wealth, the the rich and the poor. So, we're going to discuss finances again in verses 1-6.

Verses 7 through 11 there's a he exhorts them to patient endurance. Um he talks about the perseverance uh of Job. we're going to see. And he encourages and admonishes us to be patient with each other in those in those trials. Verse 12 kind of stands alone and it's kind of a hinge point for the for the chapter, but it's a he talks about our speech again, things that we say, specifically oaths or uh swearing and not swear words that we're accustomed to today or hopefully not accustomed to, but swear words as we think of them, but swearing of oaths, promises, those types of things.

And then verses 13- 20, you could really break this up in two different ways. 13 to 18 is kind of a prayer for each other and verses 19 to 20 um in helping each other remain faithful to God. So that whole section kind of restoring the sick and the sinful from verses 13 to 20. So let's get into it and and then we'll talk about the the different topics uh individually. James chapter 5.

Now listen, you rich people. Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.

You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you. I told you he goes straight after it. You've come to expect this from James. Verse seven, he says, "Be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming." See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop. Patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

You too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door. Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered.

And you have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple yes or no. Otherwise, you will be condemned.

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. Amen. James chapter 5, we're going to start back at the top. He begins with this discussion related to wealth. And this is a theme that he's already begun in in James chapter 1:es 9-11.

He continued it in James 2:5. And now he's bringing this final piece to the quilt in chapter 5:es 1-6. And the recipients of this letter were conditioned to view material riches as evidence of God's favorable blessings. Yet James is creating a startling contrast by putting rich, weeping, wailing, and misery all in the same sentence. And he begins this discussion on wealth from the foundation that Jesus laid in the sermon on the mount when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." What this speaks to me is that worldly wisdom would say the rich are the ones who are blessed, but kingdom wisdom says otherwise.

Neither Jesus nor James condemn wealth or riches as evil, but rather the tendency present in humanity to either trust in that wealth rather than God or to oppress the poor with that wealth. And so he goes on, he tells them in verse two, "Your wealth has rotted, moths have eaten your clothes." What we see is that the kingdom of God has a vastly different perspective of wealth and riches than earth does. And James is giving us a glimpse of how a wealthy person might look from God's perspective. If their wealth has been attained by unjust means and if this wealth is simply left to accumulate until the Lord comes rather than to be used to save those in need, which he's already talked about in chapter two. The world treats the wealthy preferentially.

But how might they look from God's perspective? And more importantly then, which perspective should believers embody? In verses 3-5, James presents a kind of a three-pronged attack regarding riches or wealth. He says, "You have hoarded your riches. You have gained them through injustice and violence, and they have been gained for self or they've been kept for self gratification." So, we're going to look at that.

Verse three, he talks about them hoarding their wealth. He rebukes basically he's what he's doing is he's rebuking their trust in riches rather than their trust in God. They've hoarded their wealth as a means this is what's going to save me. This is what's going to help me. This is I'm trusting in my wealth rather than trusting in God.

And and James is correcting that. He's coming directly against that. Now, we know that in and of itself, money is not evil, but love or greed for it is. Timothy, Paul calls it out in 1 Timothy chapter 6:10. The love of money is the root of all evil.

And so, James is also talking about this to to the believers. And he's get driving the point home that trust placed in anything or anyone other than God will surely disappoint us. And so he's calling us again. He's calling us to single-mindedness and wholeness and integrity. said, "Hey, you say that you trust in God, but here you're hoarding your riches so that so that you will have something in the day when you're lacking and you're you're really acting as if you trust in riches rather than trusting in God." Not only have riches been hoarded, but they were gained through economic injustice and violence, basically withholding wages from actual workers.

And this is a direct violation of the law which commanded prompt payment of employees. In Leviticus chapter 19, which his audience would have known, this was one of those hyperlinks. They would have known exactly what he was talking about. Leviticus 19:13 says, "Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight." In other words, pay them immediately.

The worker laborer is worthy of his hire. That that type of mentality. So for the Jewish listener there again this direct link in verse 4 also to Deuteronomy 24:15 which says pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and they're counting on it otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you and you will be guilty of sin. So again, James is addressing this pretense of the wealthy to to look good because they've yeah, they've hired those less fortunate than them, but then they haven't followed through with actual payment. And so again, there's this duplicity, this double-mindedness.

I want to look good to others that to say be able to say, "Oh, I've hired the poor. I'm I'm helping them. I I get given them a job, but then they're they're not paying them. They're stealing their work." And so he's addressing it. He's he's uh this pretense, this idea of saying one thing but doing another.

And he's pointing us towards wholeness and not simply partial obedience. And not only were riches hoarded and they were gained through injustice and violence, but thirdly, they were used for self-gratification. And he rebukes them for living only for themselves and only for today. And really, it's simply a continuation of Jesus's teaching in Matthew uh chapter 6 where he teaches about the proper investment of wealth by laying it up in heaven by laying it up for the future. Um he talks about do not lay up treasure for yourselves.

This is Jesus in Matthew 6. Where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and thieves can't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so the trial of my faith that James is pointing to in these first six verses is this. Will I bring my financial practices in line with my confession of a returning Christ who judges those who have laid up treasures and withheld lifegiving aid?

or will I indulge my desire to seek security in amassing wealth by any means? He's helping us with that trial of our faith, that tendency that we may have to live a double standard in our lives. And he's calling us to fully trust in God with our finances and with our financial practices. And the condemnation that he has done here in chapter 5:es 1-6 of of rich oppressors is really who he was uh combating here. It kind of naturally leads to James's uh exhortation to patience when uh until the Lord's coming when all would be set right which is what he does in verses 7- 11.

James had assumed that his readers or at least a great number of them would be familiar with being oppressed by rich unbelievers. And so these verses become a source of encouragement to persevere in the face of that affliction. He urges poor believers to be patient to endure unjust treatment. And that's quite an urge that he he gives to them. Kind of a tall order really.

And to do that he uses an agricultural metaphor. James reminds them that a farmer once he had done his part, planted the seed, has no power to speed up the harvest. Rather, he must let time produce the desired outcome. And in the same way, now that the oppressed brethren had brought the matter to God in prayer, rather than taking it into their own hands, they must simply wait on God's timing for the results. That's hard to do.

bringing our suffering to the Lord, bringing the the situation to the Lord and then leaving it in his hands, not taking it into our own hands and waiting on his timing. And then not just waiting on his timing, but then he starts in verse 9, wait without grumbling. He says, don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. And so this warning to the rich oppressors in the first six verses now becomes a warning to the rich Christians to be sure that their handling of wealth is in line with their confession that Jesus is Lord when he says to them the judge stands at the door and he shows no partiality. Times of hardship can cause us to be less than loving with our Christian brothers and sisters.

And James reminds us that we cannot become grumblers and complainers in our hardship. We cannot allow hardship to make us unloving towards each other. And I say to that, Jesus, help us. Verses 10 and 11, he's going to he further talks about this patience in the face of suffering. And he says, remember the prophets and remember Job.

He uses two very well-known examples for his audience. In fact, one scholar writes, "I didn't read the whole New Testament to fact check this," but he says, "This is the only reference to Job in the New Testament by James here in chapter 5," which I I find interesting because he's such a central character um at least in modern times. But this is the only reference to Job in the New Testament. If you find another one, come see me because I'm interested. But James reminds us that the prophets of the Old Testament endured hardship yet they practiced this patient endurance.

And we can take them as examples. I think of the prophet Jeremiah as one such example. Someone who endured mistreatment with patience. He was put in stocks. He was thrown into prison.

He was lowered into a muddy pit. Yet he persisted in his ministry. How did he do that? What was what was at work in Jeremiah that I can get a hold of to be at work in me as I go through life and experience mistreatment or other trials with patient endurance. The reality is while it's unpleasant, a trial opens an opportunity to mature in a vital area of character development.

You've heard it said, "Will you allow this trial to make you bitter or make you better?" Because the reality is the trials of our faith have that inherent possibility within them that this can make me better if I will surrender it, if I will allow God to use it, if I will patiently endure and live in alignment with him. And that's what James is calling us to. And then verse 12, he circles back to speech, which he talked about in James chapter 3 a lot and and in other places here in his book, but specifically in James 3, he he says, "Brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple yes or no, otherwise you will be condemned." So, a little bit of context for you. as to why he would say this, what was going on, what is he speaking to in this day.

Many Jewish people in the time that James wrote made a distinction between binding oaths and non-binding oaths. There were oaths that did not include the name of God. Those were considered non-binding. And to use such oath was a way of kind of what we would say as crossing your fingers behind your back as you speak. And it's these kinds of oaths that James is condemning.

Of course, we know the Bible does not forbid the swearing of all oaths only against the swearing of deceptive, unwise or flippant oaths. And James is actually uh echoing the teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:es 34-37. Jesus also addressed this oathkeeping or swearing in his sermon. It was almost as if they need to swear or make oaths beyond a simple clear yes or no. And that is betraying the weakness of one's word.

It demonstrates that there is not enough weight in one's own character to confirm their words. And Jesus was correcting that. James is also correcting that and he said a simple yes and a simple no should suffice and if your lifestyle and if your character cannot be trusted to say a simple yes or a simple no that's an opportunity to come back in alignment with godly character. If if we feel the need to swear by something outside of ourselves, then that's an indication of there needing to be an alignment of our inner self with our our practiced faith with our professed faith. And this lack of character will then be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ.

The the scripture says he says lest you fall into judgment or otherwise you will be condemned it will be eventually exposed. So this motivates us all the more to prepare for that judgment by speaking with integrity speaking with wholeness aligning our words and aligning our character with the character and the nature of God. So again speech then becomes another test by which the genuiness of faith is either manifested or disproved. And I told you verse 12 was kind of the hinge point. And so now this rest of the chapter, we're going to talk about some speech.

He's going to talk a lot about prayer in this um in this passage. He circles back to prayer. It's of course a practice of faithful believers discussed in the early verses of chapter 1. But he seems to use prayer here to restate some of the letter's key themes about trials, community, misuse of the tongue. And in his straightforward punch in the gut way, we're going to see James tell us that the ultimate way to tame one's tongue, which is chapter 3:8 is to pray for one another.

The ultimate way to tame one's tongue is to pray for one another. And so he begins, "Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.

To those who suffer, the right response, James says, is patient prayer. He's just given an example of this when he talked about the poor suffering at the hands of the rich oppressors in verses four and six. And then he demonstrated that right response of those suffering there in verse four, he said the cries of the harvesters, they're praying. They're they're praying. And then he verses 7 through 11, he encourages them and exhorts them to patience while God does the work.

The the right response to those who suffer is patient prayer, not a thirst for vengeance, but to pray and wait on the Lord. I also don't think it's outside the scope of James's intent to talk to the community around those who are in trouble or suffering because he says, "Is anyone among you in trouble? pray. Use the tongue for prayer. Kind of going back to verse nine, don't grumble against one another.

Talk about them behind their back. Use uh the prayer request as a a gossip, a means of gossip. He's he's warning against that. He says, "If there's someone among you that's in trouble, pray for them." Which is what we've done tonight as we take prayer requests. There are some individuals who are afflicted.

They are in trouble. They need the help of the Lord. And what we have done tonight is exactly in line with scripture. We have prayed for them. So I would encourage you as you hear as you're in conversation with your brothers and sisters here in the body of Christ and and they share with you a trial or their suffering or an affliction that they are walking through that is told to you not to to get your advice necessarily or for you to be able to wax eloquent to them with all biblical wisdom and authority.

The one of the purposes for that is in the book of James is to pray for them to help them walk through that trial, that suffering, that grief, that hurt, that angst with prayer, praying for them, holding them up in prayer. And so again, James is pointing us to wholeness, using our tongue to pray for them or to bless them. And as if you remember from chapter three, he said, "Can can sweet waters come from the same fountain that bitter waters come from?" This this ought not to be so. And so allowing and letting our tongues be used for prayer for others when we find out there's an issue going on rather than anything else we might spend time talking about talking to God about that is what James is after here. And this promotes unity and wholeness in the body of Christ in the community of faith.

We can trust God to do the judging, the condemning and the correcting. We can pray for them and we can trust God to do the rest. And he goes on, "Is any 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 and if they have sinned, they will be forgiven." The anointing by the elders described here is a valuable show of support for a sick person. The oil has no magic, nor does the touch of the elders. And James is not saying that Christians should avoid doctors or medicines for God works through those as well. Instead, this anointing ceremony or action focuses on placing complete faith in God. And when a sick person knows that others are praying for them, that person feels supported and loved.

You've been in that position, right? Put in a prayer request and maybe then watched online. You heard your name called and people praying that you feel supported. You feel loved. You know that you are loved in the body of Christ.

If healing is to occur, the Lord will do it. Sometimes he performs a miracle that cannot be explained naturally, like we heard tonight. Sometimes he works through doctors and medicines. Sometimes it's the body's natural God-given healing processes at work. If there's healing to occur, the Lord will do it.

And then there are cases where God performs ultimate healing by taking the person to be with him. The true prayer of faith acknowledges God's sovereignty over each person's life. The prayer offered in faith reveals complete trust in God to do his will. Healing prayer can and should be sought by all those who hurt. I hope we never stop having a prayer request portion of our service because it's biblical.

That's what James is talking about. Present it to the body of Christ and let's hold one another up in prayer. And so that not only comes we have to put it on the service schedule, but if there's nobody in the congregation who submits a need. So, here's my encouragement. If you're sick, ask for prayer.

If you've got a situation that you need an answer to or clarity for, make a prayer request. Reach out for prayer and watch God work through the body of Christ. You'll feel loved and supported. You'll feel strengthened by that. And God will show up and he will do the work in your life.

we can trust him because he's sovereign. And then he he's goes into more prayer for each other in in verse 16. He says, "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." You may be quoting it in the King James in your mind. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avaleth much.

James here talks about confession and he reminds us that mutual confession and prayer bring healing both physically and spiritually. Confession has the power to free us from the heavy burdens physically and spiritually of unresolved sin and it removes hindrances to the work of the Holy Spirit. As I studied this, I found out that the root form of the word for confess means literally to say the same thing. So what I take by that is confession involves saying the same thing as God about our actions, attitudes and ambitions. And in his instruction to confess, he does say confess to one another.

So confession to another in the body of Christ is essential because sin will most often demand secrecy and isolation from others. But confession breaks the power of secret sin. Confession need not be made to a priest or any imagined mediator. We simply confess to one another as appropriate to a trusted friend, a leader, brother and sister in the body of Christ. What James has in mind here is confessing our sin before others and then asking them to pray for you to get it right before God.

Is anybody else uncomfortable with confessing your sins to one another? Just going to call out the elephant in the room. Okay. Confessing to one another. What would that look like?

That's a good question. What would that look like? I think it could look like having a conversation with a friend to say, "I've been struggling with this attitude. I've been struggling with this temptation. Can you help me pray about that?

You don't have to get into the nitty-gritty of everything that you've done that wasn't right. And now with before God, you you probably need to spill that out and spell that out. But talking with a trusted friend and a brother and sister in Christ can expose that sin to the light, which it does not want to see the light. It wants to remain in secrecy. And so what James is calling us to is that confession to a trusted friend, to a spiritual friend, a spiritual leader, a brother and sister in Christ to take the power of that sin away from the sin.

The power that it would hold over us that would keep us from healing perhaps physically but more so spiritually or mentally. and emotionally. And confession is is good and it must be made with discretion because an unwise confession of sin can be the cause of more sin. So again, what would that look like? It could look like just a a conversation with a friend where you speak in generalities about something that you're struggling with and that you would like prayer for.

Now, when the sin involves wrongdoing to another person, I believe confession should be made to the one sinned against. And I don't just believe that. Scripture bears that out as well. We might prefer to confess in secret before God and just let that be the end of it. But the way of the kingdom directs us to go to that individual that we have wronged or that has wronged us and to bring confession.

Confession also must have honesty and integrity. If we confess with no real intention of battling the sin or changing the behavior, then then our confession is lacking and there's that duplicity or that double-mindedness that that James is is talking against. I kind of put it in maybe a flow for us, okay? And I hope this is helpful. If it's not, come see me afterwards and and I'll try to confuse you even more.

There's there's this there's the sin or there's the error. Okay? you you've sinned, you've done wrong, you've made an error. And then there's an awareness that we've missed the mark or we've acted differently from how God would have us to act. And then there's confession, which is we want to say the same thing as God about that sin.

We we say, "God is right. I have not acted properly." Which leads us to repentance, which is a commitment to God and to others to live in obedience to God. And then the prayer of others which is a form of accountability really and that they pray for the strength on us to separate from sinful patterns and perspectives in order to walk in obedience. I want to walk in ob that I have the strength and the knowledge and the wisdom to know how to do that. That's what he has in mind here.

Again, not the spilling of all the nitty-gritty and all of the the mistakes and failures that you've ever had in your life, but there's a very pointed purpose. Hey, I recognize I did wrong. I recognize I I'm missing the mark in this area. I'm repenting before God and before you. I want to walk in this way towards him.

Would you help me pray that I will have the strength and the grace to be able to do that? That's what he has in mind here in this in this verse with this instruction to confess our sins. And then I believe there's also a a instruction for those that hear a confession of sin. We have a great responsibility. Someone comes to us and they confess to us and they ask for prayer.

They're leaning on us for support. Those who hear the confession should have a proper response and that would be a loving intercessory prayer. not human wisdom, not gossiping or sharing the need with others, but there is a loving intercessory prayer that then takes place. I recognize this is a tough topic for us, this confession one to another. And I I wonder there's probably multiple motives for that or or reasons for that.

But I think probably one of them is our our tendency maybe to hide our struggle. I don't want people to know that I struggle with that or I don't want to call that out. I don't want to put that out there and name that here. Here's what I would say about struggle. Struggle means you haven't given up.

Struggle means you're you're still fighting against that. It doesn't mean you're bad and you're worthless and you should be kicked out of the church. It means you're struggling. You you're human and you have there's a temptation that you struggle with that you're fighting against. And why not fight with a brother or sister next to you linking arms arm in arm to combat that struggle?

So, as I prayed in pre-ervice prayer, here was one of my prayers. God, whatever keeps us from reconciliation with others or with you, remove that. If it's fear, if it's shame, if it's the tendency that we just want to hide away our struggle, whatever would keep us from alignment with him, I want that obliterated. I don't want you to privately struggle and potentially succumb to that struggle if I could have prayed for you, if I could have come alongside you. And that's the attitude of this church body.

I feel we want to we want to be there for one another. We want to help and support one another and bear one another's burdens. And we can do that if we will practice this confession. that James is talking about verses 17 and 18. I'm I'm hastening here.

He he switches to not switches but he uh as he's talking about prayer, he reflects onto Jer Elijah rather. He said he was a human being and he prayed and it started to rain and then he or it did not rain rather and then he prayed again and it rained. He includes this example of a righteous person praying and the results of it. And I love that it points out that he was a human being like us. He wasn't any less of a human being.

He wasn't any more of a human being. He was a human like us. And so we have power in prayer. And it's because God has power when when we pray and we pray from his heart. When we align our heart and with the purpose of God as Elijah did and we pray the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much.

And finally verses 19 and 20 he said my brothers and sisters if any 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. It's not a typical epistle ending which usually greets church members, signs off with a signature of some sort, but he leaves us with a picture of the church. And the picture that he paints is this. The church will attend meaningfully to the restoration not only of the ill, but to reclaiming the sinner.

Rather than watch a weward youth continue to move further into the drug scene or allow the overly opinionated, harsh member to fade into oblivion or quietly alienate and drive away the one with different and challenging perspectives. All believers have the responsibility to invest themselves in bringing airing family members back to the safe and sure ways of God. Perhaps the advice in James 5:16, confess your sins and pray, is a necessary prerequisite for the greater challenge of verses 19 and 20. As we seek to make the church a hospital for sinners, beginning with ourselves, and we learn to support one another's recovery with honesty, love, and integrity, that wholeness, we will become more comfortable with and better equipped for those more extreme cases where the danger to the wayward is more apparent. though it's no more deadly than the sin that easily besets us.

And perhaps James concludes with this because that's exactly what he has endeavored to do through this challenging letter is to confront those who have wandered from a living faith. Endeavoring to save their souls from death by demanding that they not only hear the word but that they do it because a living faith will have its proof. Faith without works is dead. Would you stand with me tonight? I would like us to pray as we conclude this wonderful book and perhaps it's a principle from a different chapter that has stuck with you and and been most meaningful for you or maybe it's the revisited topic, one of the revisited topics.

Tonight I would invite us to pray and just ask that the Lord would help us to live with that integrity and that wholeness, aligning ourself with his character and his nature. Can we first pray that prayer? We're going to pray another one, but can we first pray that prayer? Jesus, I thank you for your grace in confronting us with the book of James. I thank you, Lord, for every behavior that's been called out.

I thank you for every uh truth and principle that has been highlighted through this wonderful inspired by you book. God, I pray that you would help me, Lord, to put action to my faith. Lord, to not just profess faith, but I pray that you would help me to practice faith. Lord, I I want to do what you have outlined for me to do. And so, I pray that you would help me to come into alignment, Lord, in any area, in every area, Lord.

Lord, I pray that you would help me, Lord, to come into alignment, Lord, and to uh confess to you and to trusted others and have them pray for me this same prayer that I'm praying for myself right now. Pray that you would help us, Jesus, come into alignment with you in Jesus name. And I wonder if you would also pray with me this time. I I want us to pray for one another. the body of Christ.

And if you want to link up, that's fine. If you just want to to pray in general, that's fine as well. But I would like us to pray a prayer similar to what I mentioned. I was praying in pre-ervice prayer. And that is whatever barrier and whatever hindrance there may be for an individual to be fully reconciled or to be fully redeemed and forgiven and to come to God in repentance.

Whatever that barrier is, let's pray that it be removed and that they would be able to that we would be able to come into alignment with his principles and priorities. Jesus, I pray for APC. I pray in the name of Jesus for every believer, Lord, those that are searching, those that have found, and those that are continuing to seek after their finding, I pray that you would minister right now in the name of Jesus. I pray that you would help us, Lord. God, whatever whatever hindrance, whatever barrier, whether that be fear, whether it be shame, whether it be the tendency to just ignore an issue, I pray that you would help us remove every hindrance, remove every barrier from from us, that we could be able to get to redemption, that we'd be able to get to repentance and reconciliation.

Lord, we want we want to be in alignment with you, Lord. And we want to be a church that that helps others be in alignment with you. And so, I pray that you would help us, Jesus. Help us to live out your word, Lord. Give us your compassion, oh Lord.

Give us your heart for others. Give us your heart for ourselves. And give us your heart and your passion, Lord, for the lost. I thank you, Jesus. I thank you, Jesus, for your goodness to us.

Can we thank him for his word and for his truth to us. Thank you, Lord.