#309 - When You Cant Take It Anymore - James 5.13-16a

Unknown Speaker (0:03): This message was recorded live at Arvin Assembly of God. What you are about to hear is a sermon preached during one of our regular church services. We pray that as you listen, the word of God strengthens your faith, deepens your understanding, and draws you closer to Jesus. Let's tune in to today's broadcast.

Speaker 1 (0:26): If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to James chapter five. Now it's been a few weeks since we've been in the book of James, and I want you to know where we are because we are very, very close. We are near the end, not just the end times, but the end of the book of James. And we have been walking through this letter together, five chapters. And today, we're gonna be walking through the passage of scripture where James really is bringing everything to a close.

Speaker 1 (1:02): So we're almost done. We're almost home. I think that we're gonna have about two more sermons in the book of James. Now here's what amazes me. In all of the ways that James could have chosen to close the end of his letter, he ends it on prayer.

Speaker 1 (1:23): Now before we get into the text, I want to bring us back, and I wanna remind you of where we have been because this passage really isn't gonna make sense unless we remember what James has been building up on the inside of us over all of this time. And so I don't just mean the last few weeks. We'll cover a little bit of that, but I'm talking about the whole letter. So I want you to look with me at James chapter one and starting in verse number two. He says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let have but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.

Speaker 1 (2:16): Now I want you to notice what James says here because he says that the testing of your faith produces patience. This is the kind of patience that we have learned that endures, that makes it to the end. But now I want you to watch where he actually takes it because he says, let patience have its perfect work. Why? So that you, you, you, you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.

Speaker 1 (2:48): That's the entire purpose of the letter right here. That's the that's the goal that you would be perfect, complete, lacking nothing. And that's the word that we've been learning about. It's the word wholeness. The Bible's word for shalom.

Speaker 1 (3:06): It's not just peace in the sense of the absence of conflict, but it is a life that is whole. A life that is complete. A life that isn't missing anything. And here's what James has been telling us from the very first chapter. That thing that seems like it's pressing down on you, that thing that seems like it is just breaking you, that is the very thing that God wants to use to complete you.

Speaker 1 (3:38): The trial that's in your life, the circumstances that are going on, they are not here to destroy you. The trial is here. But if you let it do its perfect work, it will make you whole. That is God's intention for your life. But it only happens one way.

Speaker 1 (3:59): It only happens if you allow the the the pressure, if you allow the circumstances to drive you towards God instead of running away from him. It only happens if those groanings on the inside of you, instead of spilling over and turning into grumbling and taking it out on those that you love, if they can turn to groans and and be pointed upward directed towards God, he calls that prayer. I want you to hold on to that for a second because that's exactly where we're going this morning in our passage. We'll return to that. But I wanna bring you back to chapter five because it has been several weeks, and we need to refresh our memory.

Speaker 1 (4:47): Now we learned in the first 12 verses of James chapter five, we took four weeks to cover those those 12 verses that there is a judge, and that judge hears. And we heard James speak not necessarily like a pastor, but he transitioned into the voice of a prophet, and he began to name the sin of the wealthy landowners. And he began to expose how they would use their influence and their riches to oppress the laborers who were out in the fields. We heard him say that the Lord of hosts, the commander of the heaven's armies has heard the cry of the reapers. In other words, we learn that God hears, that God sees, that one day God will act.

Speaker 1 (5:44): We ought to thank him for that because he is not an idle God. He records everything, and he will bring justice one day. And then James turns to us, to the church, to the ones who are waiting, to the ones that are in the fire, to the ones that are in the middle of the storm. And he gave us some things that we could do while we wait for the judge who's standing at the door. He told us, one, we could wait with purpose.

Speaker 1 (6:18): That's waiting like the farmer who works and waits and trusts for the early and the latter rain. He told us to watch our words. Don't let the pressure of what's happening to you spill out onto the people that are that are next to you. And then he told us to walk with the witnesses. The prophets held on, and Job held on.

Speaker 1 (6:45): And so James is trying to say, so can you because God saw them through, he can see you through. And God is merciful and God is compassionate. And then he told us to weigh what we say. In other words, let your yes be your yes, your no be your no. Don't go around making promises that you can't keep.

Speaker 1 (7:10): He gave us some things that we should do while we wait. Now here's the thing. Did you notice that two of those four things were about your mouth? James keeps coming back to the mouth. He says, don't grumble.

Speaker 1 (7:30): Don't swear oaths under pressure. Why? Because he knows something about people when they're going through some circumstances, when they're going through some trials. He knows something about people when they are waiting on God and it seems like there's no answer. And so when the waiting gets long, something has to give.

Speaker 1 (7:54): And for most of us, what goes first is usually our mouth. Here's what I want you to see this morning. James has told us very very clear what not to let come out of our mouths. But now, the passage we're about to get into, he's gonna tell us what should come out of our mouths. Now, do you remember, this has been a few weeks, so it's okay if you didn't.

Speaker 1 (8:23): When we talked about that that groan. Look with me at verse number nine. James warned us about grumbling, and I told you that that word that he used here was the word for a deep groan. This is the sound that a person makes when they're when they're being crushed under something that is heavy. It's it's the sound of a person that can't take it anymore.

Speaker 1 (8:53): And we said that there are two directions that that groan can go. It can go sideways and spill over into the people next to you. And when it goes sideways, it becomes grumbling. It poisons, it wounds, and it will never reach up to God. Or that grumbling can also be a groan, and it goes up to God.

Speaker 1 (9:20): And when it goes up to him, it stops being the grumbling, and it begins to turn into prayer. That's what we're looking at this morning. This is what James is after. Because here's the truth. Every single one of us is going to reach a point in our lives where we can't take it anymore.

Speaker 1 (9:48): You will reach the end of yourself, the end of your strength, the end of your patience, the end of your endurance. And here's the beautiful thing about this. That very place, the end of yourself, that's not the place where God gives up on you. They in fact, that is the very place that God does his best work in your life. That is the very place where God intends to make you whole, but it's only if you take it to him.

Speaker 1 (10:28): And so here's the question that I want us to land on this morning. What do you do when you can't take it anymore? That's the question. That's James' intention behind this text, and he's gonna give us the answer. And he's gonna answer this morning, and and it's the same answer in every situation he he names.

Speaker 1 (10:57): If you're suffering, if you're celebrating, if you're sick in bed and you can't even pray for yourself, James has got the answer for all of it. You take it to the Lord. Would you stand for the reading of God's word? We're gonna read James chapter five beginning in verse 13 down to 16. James says, Is anyone among you suffering?

Speaker 1 (11:30): Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him.

Speaker 1 (11:43): Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Let's pray.

Speaker 1 (12:08): Heavenly Father, in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus Christ, we give you thanks this morning. Lord, I ask very, very specifically, not that you would anoint me, but allow your word that is already anointed to overflow through my voice and in my heart and reach the ears of your people this morning. Encourage us and strengthen us. Help us this morning to see the fullness of who you are and the fullness of your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

Unknown Speaker (12:45): You may be seated. So, again, the question that we're asking is what do you do when you can't take it anymore? Here's the first answer. Number one, take it to the Lord. James doesn't waste any time.

Speaker 1 (13:06): He gets right to it. He doesn't even ease into it. He asks one question, and then in the very same breath, he's gonna answer it, and then he'll do it again. Look at verse number 13 with me. He says, is anyone among you suffering?

Speaker 1 (13:23): Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing songs. I wanna focus in on that last phrase. Look at it with me here in verse number 13.

Speaker 1 (13:35): Is anyone among you suffering? Now that particular word suffering is a word that we have already covered. Do you remember it? It's the same word that James used back in verse number 10. Look at that with me.

Speaker 1 (13:54): He used it when he was talking about suffering and the prophets. Two words, but one concept. And we learned that that meant hardship, that it means affliction, that it means going through something that seems like it won't let up. As if somebody has their foot on your neck and it's making it hard for you to breathe. And so, right here in verse number 13, when James asks, he says, is anyone suffering?

Speaker 1 (14:29): He's talking to the person that has been waiting, to the person that is under pressure, to the person that we have been talking about week after week, The person who just can't take it anymore. And now, want you to notice what James tells him to do. Look at the next phrase with me. He says the most profound thing in all of the Bible, in all of psychology, in all of culture, let him pray. Church, we cannot get away from the simplicity of the gospel.

Speaker 1 (15:13): So many Christians today are running around looking for this and that and everything else. And James says, if you're suffering, let him pray. There is no answer in doctor Phil or Oprah or any of these books. I walked into the Christian book store the other day and you look at the shelves and it is full of absolute garbage. We need to open up our word.

Speaker 1 (15:45): We need to pray. But this isn't popular today, is it? Can you imagine? I'm not even talking about the world now. How offensive?

Speaker 1 (15:57): And you say, well, how do you know, pastor? Because I've been doing this long enough, and people come to me and they think I got all the answers. And they say, pastor, what do I do? And I'll say, read the Bible. And then I'll say, have you prayed?

Speaker 1 (16:14): Well, no, I was hoping you were going to do that for me. Well, I could certainly do that for you. I'd love to pray with you, but I ain't talking about that. I'm asking you, have you prayed? It's not popular.

Speaker 1 (16:33): This is the word of God. This is James' answer. Not to let him vent, not to let him grumble and complain, not to let him say, I quit, I throw in the towel. He's not saying take matters into your own hands. Let him pray.

Speaker 1 (17:02): Again, this is important because I wanna bring us back when we talked about that grumbling. We said that the groan or the grumbling can go in two different directions. It can come out sideways and spill out onto other people, or it can go up and it can become prayer. I love that song that we sing because it talked about incense that would rise. Right?

Speaker 1 (17:29): And that's the picture in reality of your prayers because in the Old Testament, God had them set up an altar of incense, and that altar was to be burning continually. And as that incense, the smoke would rise, it was a representation that prayers were going from the altar down here on earth up to the very throne room of God constantly and continually. That's what prayer is. This is what James is talking about. Now, we've seen this concept before in Exodus chapter two.

Speaker 1 (18:11): The children of Israel were slaves. They were being crushed and beaten and whipped and they were at a place where they couldn't take it anymore. And the Bible says that they groaned, that they cried out, and that their cry came up to the Lord of hosts. In other words, it didn't spill out on the people next to them. It went up.

Speaker 1 (18:45): And here's the good gospel news this morning because the Bible says that God heard them.

Speaker 2 (18:55): Go back to verse 13 with me now. When James says, let him pray, this is what he means. Prayer is the

Speaker 1 (19:11): groan that goes up instead of spilling out sideways. Prayer is what you do with the with the weight and the heaviness when you feel like you just can't carry it anymore. You send it up to the God who hears. And here's what I need you to understand about prayer, is because prayer is not passive. We think of prayer as something that we do when there's nothing else that we can do.

Speaker 1 (19:51): We think of prayer as a last result. Well, when all else fails, might as well pray. Church, that isn't how the Bible talks about prayer. Prayer is not surrendering to your circumstances or to the situation. Prayer is taking those things to the only one who can actually do something about it.

Speaker 1 (20:19): You see the farmer, do you remember this, doesn't stop working when he prays for rain. He prays for the rain because he can't make it rain. He's done everything that he can do, and so now he's got to give the rest of it up to God so God can do what only God can do. That's prayer. It means you have your hands on the plow.

Speaker 1 (20:49): It means that you have your hearts and your mouths lifted up. And so this morning, if you're suffering, if you're at the end of yourself, James has got a word for you. Take it to the Lord. But James isn't done because he also understands that suffering isn't the only thing that can pull us away from God. I want you to notice with me now the next part of this verse in verse 13.

Speaker 1 (21:28): He says, is anyone cheerful? Now that's a totally different word. A suffering person, it it it's like they're at rock bottom. Right? This person, a cheerful person, they're doing well.

Speaker 1 (21:44): This is the person whose crops came in, whose harvest wasn't disturbed, who didn't get their wages cheated on them. This is the person that's walking around and saying, God answered my prayers. This is a person that is celebrating, and they're both in the same exact room. Now you might think, well, it seems kind of odd because I don't know why the cheerful person needs any kind of instruction. I mean, that person is fine.

Speaker 1 (22:17): But here's the thing, James knows better because there is a danger that is at the top that is just as real as when you feel like you're at rock bottom. Because when you're cheerful, when life is good, the temptation is different. The temptation is to forget. The temptation is to get comfortable, to start thinking that you did this by yourself, to credit your own hands for the harvest. And a lot of times when we're doing good, and when we're making money, and when things are going just great, we miss out on the Lord.

Speaker 1 (22:59): You know, there's a really good example of that. I don't have this in the on the screen. But in John chapter 21, Peter was in the depths of despair, and he goes out and this is after the resurrection, and this is after but he saw the risen Lord. He just denied Jesus. He was in a very dark place, and he makes a statement in there.

Speaker 1 (23:25): He says he tells the other disciples, I'm going fishing. And he goes out and he begins to fish all night long, and he catches nothing. So the what that tells me is that in Peter's mind, as like any good man would do, right, Things are tough. Things are heavy. Let me just get my mind off of some things.

Unknown Speaker (23:51): Right? I'm gonna go fishing. Catches nothing all night long. And then that very morning, the resurrected king of kings and the Lord of Lords shows up and he yells out from the shore. And he says, hey, have you caught anything?

Speaker 1 (24:12): Peter's like, nope. We've been fishing all night. And then the guy says, hey, throw your net to the other side. And what does Peter do? He throws it out.

Speaker 1 (24:23): He starts catching that the whole net was so full of fish. He was getting blessed. God put those fish there. God brought the blessing. And so he's so busy working, so busy receiving the blessings of God that he doesn't even notice who's standing on the seashore.

Speaker 1 (24:44): But John, the author of the gospel, the author of the book of Revelation, he comes up to Peter and he says, hey, Peter, knock it off, man. That's the Lord.

Speaker 2 (24:57): Peter missed it. Now James understands what can

Speaker 1 (25:04): happen when things are going good. I've seen this so many times. God will bless a couple. God will bless a man. All of a sudden, somebody will come up and they'll say, hey, man.

Speaker 1 (25:17): I just think it's a crazy season right now. And, you know, I've got to work eighty hours a week, and God is blessing me. And I'm like, yeah, maybe he is, but don't you forget about the Lord. And then they'll keep working and working and working, and before you know it, they start to forget about the Lord. They're getting the blessings of God.

Speaker 1 (25:38): They start to neglect the things in the family. This is

Unknown Speaker (25:42): exactly what

Speaker 1 (25:44): James knows and understands. When you're cheerful, the temptation is different. I want you to think about this. When was the last time you cried out to God? Genuinely, seriously, when was the last time that you said, I've got to hit my knees in prayer.

Speaker 1 (26:11): I've got to go to my prayer closet. I need to get a hold of God.

Speaker 2 (26:20): It was probably the last time things fell apart, wasn't it? And when was the last time you forgot to pray altogether? It's

Speaker 1 (26:35): probably when everything was just okay. When everything was just alright. It may not be over the top good. It just may be like, you know what? Things are good, real good in the theology of nacho libre.

Speaker 1 (26:52): Right?

Speaker 2 (26:55): That's oftentimes when we forget about prayer.

Speaker 1 (27:01): So what does James tell the cheerful person to do? Notice this next phrase with me. The cheerful one, the one who's doing well. He says, let him sing psalms. Now that word is where we get the word psalm from, like the book of psalms.

Speaker 1 (27:25): It means to sing praise to God. Now do you see what James just did here? A suffering person prays, a cheerful person sings, and both of them are doing the exact same thing. Both of them are talking to the Lord. The one at the bottom takes his suffering and he brings it up before the throne room in prayer.

Speaker 1 (27:52): The one that's on top, he begins to take his joy, takes his cheerfulness, and he praises God. It all goes up. Because here's the truth. When you're at your lowest point or at your highest point in life, the answer is still the same. Take it to the Lord.

Speaker 1 (28:22): If you're crushed, don't allow it to be grumbles. Pray. If you are blessed, don't you forget who brought those blessings. You need to sing and give God glory and give God praise. Either way, it goes up to the one who's worthy

Speaker 2 (28:45): of it all. Here's the second thing.

Unknown Speaker (28:53): What do you do when you feel like you can't take it anymore? Well, James tells us, tell the elders. Now I want you to remember, who is James writing this

Speaker 2 (29:09): letter to? I want us to go back to the

Speaker 1 (29:12): very first verse of the very first chapter because James is writing to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad. These are people. These are the people he's writing to. They have been driven from their homes, hundreds of miles away from where they had grown up. These are people who are starting over in a foreign hostile land.

Speaker 1 (29:45): People who are working hard and tilling the land in a place that wasn't even theirs. And they're getting taken advantage of by the wealthy. Many of them possibly have lost a very close loved one because of the persecution. And when these things happen in life, it can weigh a person down. I want you to think about what these kinds of things can do to a body and to a soul.

Speaker 1 (30:21): Displacement, starting over from nothing, working a land that's not yours, being cheated out of your wages, waiting on justice that seems like it is never going to come. These things don't just weigh on your spirit. They can settle down in your body, and it can settle into your mind. And so James now asks a third question. Look at it with me in verse number 14.

Unknown Speaker (30:55): He says, is anyone among you

Unknown Speaker (31:00): sick? Now we've got to

Speaker 1 (31:03): be careful here because the word that James uses for sick, it's bigger than what we might think. It is the word for weakness. It is the word for an illness. It literally means to be destitute of strength. It also means to be sick in body, to be faint hearted, or depressed.

Speaker 1 (31:31): Now, this word covers a whole lot of ground. In other words, it is the word that would be used for the person that is worn out. A person that is just depleted. A person that has been carrying this weight for so long that they've run out of strength. It can be in the body.

Speaker 1 (31:57): It could be in the mind, and it could be both at once. Because the pressure that we have been talking about doesn't stay localized into one place. This kind of waiting, this kind of trials and tribulations can wear on a person. The oppression can wear on your mind. The weight wants to press down on you until you reach a place where you say, I can't take it anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:31): Now here is why tell the elders, this is the second answer that James gives us to the question. The first answer is, James told you, take it to the Lord. In other words, you do that yourself to pray, to send those groans up. But what happens now if you say, okay, pastor, I don't even know if I can do that. Then James has got the answer.

Speaker 1 (33:03): What do you do when you're so far down? When you're so worn out, so weak in your body and in your mind that you just can't even pray for yourself. This is the person that James is talking to right now. The one who has hit bottom, the one who can't take it anymore. The one who can't even lift their head up anymore.

Speaker 1 (33:29): James isn't gonna say try harder. He isn't gonna say, alright, you're gonna have to pray more. He doesn't say you're gonna need to have just a little bit more faith. He says, no. In that moment, you have got to call for help.

Speaker 1 (33:46): You need some backup in your situation. Notice the next phrase with me. Let him call for the elders of the church. Now the elders here in the in the strictest biblical sense here are the spiritual leaders that God has placed over his church. These are the ones that have been in charged and entrusted with the watching over your soul, a shepherd.

Speaker 1 (34:25): This is important because in our culture, in our day and age, we seem to think that our faith is something that we just kinda do on our own. That spiritual strength means you handle it all by yourself. Our culture seems to think that asking for help is weakness, but the Bible says just the opposite. Because when you're too weak to handle this situation on your own, when you're too weak to pray even for yourself, the most strongest thing you can do. The most faithful thing you can do is to call for the people that can come pray for you and with you.

Speaker 1 (35:22): Because God never meant for you to carry your burdens alone. Now, want you to look at what the elders do when they come.

Speaker 2 (35:33): Take note of the next phrase. He says, let them pray over him.

Speaker 1 (35:41): They pray over him. They stand in and stand with the one who can't stand. They lift up the one who cannot lift himself. This is the body of Christ doing what the body of Christ is supposed to do. When one member is too weak to carry the weight, to carry the load, others

Speaker 2 (36:09): come alongside to help carry with him. And then

Unknown Speaker (36:13): James adds one more thing. Look at the last phrase of verse 14. He says, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now what exactly is this whole thing about the oil? Well, first of all, the oil is not medicine.

Speaker 1 (36:35): The oil is not magic. The oil is a sign. The oil is a symbol. All throughout the Bible, oil was used to set something or someone apart to God. When they anointed a king in the Old Testament, the oil was the sign that this one was marked out to God and belong to him now.

Speaker 1 (37:05): That they were set apart for God's purpose. And that is what the oil is meant to communicate right here in the scriptures. When an elder comes and anoints somebody in the name of the Lord, they are marking them. They are saying, this one in this moment belongs to God. This one is set apart for God's special attention.

Speaker 1 (37:42): We are placing them in the hands of the Lord. The oil does not heal anybody, but the oil does point to the one who does. And notice what James says here. He says, anoint him in the name of the Lord. Whatever happens after that point is because of who God is.

Speaker 1 (38:13): Not because we anointed correctly, not because we follow some secret formula, and certainly not because we prayed eloquently. And it's not even because an elder did show up. Everything in the end is intended intended to point back to God. Now watch what James promises here in verse number 15. This is one of the most boldest promises in the entire New Testament.

Speaker 1 (38:49): James says, and the prayer of faith will save the sick. I have a couple of things to say about this, and I've gotta be very careful with you. And so I'm going to be absolutely and essentially assembly of God, doctrinally sound for a moment. So if you hear something that doesn't sound like one of those reverend big bottoms that like to talk on TV, you need to understand something for a moment. That we've got to clarify what the Bible actually says about the prayer of faith, what the Bible actually says about healing the sick.

Speaker 1 (39:34): And so I'm going to be absolutely and essentially, doctrinally correct.

Speaker 2 (39:40): Not that I'm not any other time, at least I hope not. And in this particular case, I must tread carefully. So the first thing, the prayer of faith. What is the prayer of faith? Prayer of

Speaker 1 (40:00): faith is not a formula. The prayer of faith is not something that you do when you sow seed into somebody's ministry. A prayer of faith is not a magic phrase that you say correctly to unlock God's power. The prayer of faith is not even a leverage tool to make God do what you tell God to do. The prayer of faith simply is this, it trusts that God hears.

Speaker 1 (40:33): It trusts that God cares, and it trusts that God is able, and it trusts that God is sovereign over the answer. Faith is not believing that God will do what we tell Him to do.

Speaker 2 (40:58): Faith is believing that God will do what is good. The prayer of faith trusts him to do exactly that, and then it leaves the answer in his hands. Because I want

Unknown Speaker (41:17): you to watch what he says next. Notice this phrase,

Speaker 2 (41:21): and the Lord will

Speaker 1 (41:25): raise him up. Now notice here, it's not the oil that raises him up, and it's not even the elder that is gonna raise him up, and it's not even the strength of the sick man's own faith that'll raise him up. It is the Lord himself that will raise him up. That same Lord that one day will split the sky and every grave will open up and we will be raised to meet the Lord in the air. It is God and God

Speaker 2 (41:59): alone that does the raising. And so when the people of God gather around the one and says, I just can't take it anymore. And they

Speaker 1 (42:14): pray in faith, God moves. God heals. God lifts up the one that could not lift themselves. And we are Pentecostal. We believe that God still heals today.

Speaker 1 (42:33): And we believe it because the book tells us that God still heals today. And so if someone in this church and in this body is sick, we don't just sit back and hope and say, oh, I I just hope they get better. No, we gather. We anoint with oil. We pray in faith and we expect the Lord to raise them up.

Speaker 1 (43:00): But church, I've got to be faithful here because there is a lie that wants to attach itself to verses just like this. And the lie says that if you just have enough faith then God has to heal. That you are placing a demand upon God because of your faith. That is a lie. And the lie says that if healing doesn't come, it's because somebody didn't believe hard enough.

Speaker 1 (43:39): And this lie has crushed so many people over the years. It has put guilt on top of grief. It has told a grieving widow that her husband died because she didn't have enough faith. This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ and this is not what James is saying. Listen, the prayer of faith is faith in God, not faith in your own faith.

Unknown Speaker (44:22): Prayer of faith trusts God who is sovereign over how, who is sovereign over when. Sometimes God heals right then and there. Sometimes God heals slowly. And sometimes, He might say something entirely different. Listen to what God said to the Apostle Paul in second Corinthians chapter 12.

Speaker 1 (44:53): Paul had a thorn in the flesh. We don't know exactly what it was, but we do know that it tormented him because that's the language he used. And three times Paul begged God, take it away. And three times God did not remove it. And instead God said, my grace is sufficient for you.

Speaker 1 (45:22): My strength is made perfect in weakness. Now hear me, Paul. How many think Paul had some faith? I mean, he probably, in an exaggerated way, had more faith than any of us in this room.

Unknown Speaker (45:43): But God still said no to the very

Speaker 1 (45:47): thing that Paul was asking for. And so if your healing hasn't come, don't let anybody tell you that it's because you just need a little bit more faith. Don't let anybody tell you that if you just sowed $69.99 into that person's ministry or if you got some special anointing oil that's made from the rivers of Guanajuato itself, God will heal you. Friends, these things sound silly, but you would be amazed how they creep into our theology.

Speaker 2 (46:35): Don't let anybody fool you. Your faith is not too small because the same God

Speaker 1 (46:42): who can heal right then and there is the same God that sometimes just might say my grace is sufficient. And in either way, it doesn't change the character or the nature of God because he is still good all the time. Now, here's what we know for certain. Every single one of us in this room right now will be raised up. If not in this life, it'll be in the next.

Speaker 1 (47:19): The grave doesn't have the last word over the people of God. The Lord will raise us up. He has promised it, and his yes, it's always been yes. And so what do we do? We pray.

Speaker 1 (47:37): We pray bold. We anoint with oil. We still believe. We expect God to move and we trust God with the answer no matter what turns out. Why?

Speaker 1 (47:51): Because we have nothing to do with it. It's not the oil. It's not the prayer. It's not how you prayed. It's all in the

Unknown Speaker (48:00): name of the Lord.

Unknown Speaker (48:04): And if you didn't know it, the name means in the authority. That means it's that's his decision. We put it into his hands and say, God, you know what is best. We don't. Now James adds another phrase, and this is an important one.

Speaker 1 (48:20): I want you to notice this with me. He says, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. I need you to focus in on this little word that's in this sentence. It's the word if. The biggest little word in all of the Bible.

Speaker 1 (48:41): James says, if he has committed sins. Now James is not saying that sickness is always caused by sin. He's being very, very careful here, and he says if. Because there is an old cruel idea that says that if somebody is suffering, that if somebody is going through something, they must have done something to deserve it. And Job's friends believe that.

Speaker 1 (49:07): Do you remember? They sat with this suffering man and they said, Job, this must be your own fault. And God himself had to come in and rebuke these so called friends of Job. And Jesus himself, he rebuked this theology as well. When the disciples saw a man that was born blind and they said, Jesus, whose sin caused this man to be blind?

Speaker 1 (49:35): Was it his parents or was it he himself? And Jesus said, neither this man or his parents sinned. So I want you to hear me clearly on this. If you are going through something this morning, if you are sick in your body or sick in your mind or tormented in your soul, do not assume that God is punishing you. Don't go digging into your life looking for some kind of reason that might have caused it.

Speaker 1 (50:10): Most of the time, listen to me carefully, most of the time sickness and trials and tribulation are caused because we live in a broken world that has not yet been redeemed yet. But

Unknown Speaker (50:30): sometimes there's

Speaker 1 (50:33): something there. Sometimes the weight of what we're carrying could be something that is unconfessed, something that has not been repented of. And so James, like a good pastor, he says if, but he leaves the door open just a little bit. If there is

Speaker 2 (50:56): sin, it'll be forgiven. And so,

Speaker 1 (51:01): when the when the elders gather around that person and prayer goes up, God doesn't just touch the body, He also can cleanse the soul. He can forgive. He can heal. He can set free. He can make a person whole.

Speaker 1 (51:22): That's what we've been looking at. This is actually where James is gonna take us next week. Because in the very next phrase, he's gonna he's gonna widen this out. We'll see here in just a moment from the elders to the whole church. That's that's different.

Unknown Speaker (51:41): For now, here's the second answer to our question. What do you do when you can't take it anymore? When you're so far down,

Speaker 2 (51:49): you can't even pray for yourself. You're not to suffer alone. You tell the elders. You let the people of God gather. You let them anoint you.

Speaker 2 (52:02): You let them pray over you, and you trust the Lord to raise you up. Here's the third thing.

Speaker 1 (52:12): We need to tend one another. Now up to this point, the praying, it's been somebody else's job. In verse 13, you pray for yourself. In verse fourteen and fifteen, you've got an elder that's praying for you. But now James, he opens his whole thing up.

Speaker 1 (52:31): Look at the first part of verse number 16 with me. He says, confess your trespasses to one another. Now the praying isn't just the elder's job anymore. Now it's everybody's job. Is it this is the whole church to one another.

Speaker 1 (52:52): That means you. The person that's sitting next to you, it is the whole body. Now notice what James asks for first, not just prayer, but confession. Confess your trespasses to who? To who?

Speaker 1 (53:10): One another. Now I know that word makes us a little bit nervous and because confession means it means honesty in the simplest form. It means letting somebody else see that thing that you would just rather keep hidden. Now James isn't suggesting that you come up here on a Sunday morning and give a laundry list of everything that you've ever done to everybody. What James is talking about here is accountability.

Speaker 1 (53:39): He's talking about you being open and honest. He's talking about you opening up not just with everybody, but with trusted people who can agree with you in prayer. But hear me, this is now the opposite of what we had talked about several weeks ago in verse nine because again, I bring it up. Remember the groaning and the grumbling. That was using your words to wound the person that was next to you to talk about them to tear them down.

Speaker 1 (54:14): Now confession is Here's the here's the the amazing thing about a confession is the redemption of that. It is using your words with the person next to you to heal instead of wounding. It's saying, here's where I messed up. Here's where I am weak. Here's where I have fallen and here's what I am having a hard time with.

Unknown Speaker (54:45): This is what I'm struggling with. Would you pray with me? This takes a whole lot more strength than grumbling and complaining ever does. Now look what comes next. I want you to notice the next phrase.

Speaker 2 (55:01): He says, pray for one another. And church, this is the whole point.

Speaker 1 (55:09): You were never meant to do this alone. So when you can't take it anymore, the answer is it was never about you. It was never intended to just be you and you alone. It's not even about your own willpower. It's not even about your strength.

Speaker 1 (55:31): It's not about your ego. The answer is the people of God that are around you. Praying for you when you just can't pray. Carrying you when you just can't stand. Confessing alongside of you so you're not hiding in the dark all by yourself.

Speaker 1 (55:52): This is what it means to tend one another. You know, Marcia recently has gotten into gardening. Well, she has for a while, but now we've transitioned from vegetables into some nice flowers. And so we've got a bunch of flowers on our patio. She's gotta go out because we like how good they look.

Unknown Speaker (56:13): No. I no. I don't do it. Pay attention. I ain't saying I do it.

Speaker 1 (56:17): She's gotta go out and she's gotta tend tend those flowers. And these flowers, we got a couple of them were the wrong ones. They are needy little flowers. They want water like twice a day, but they have got to be tended too. Those flowers will not survive in the wild.

Unknown Speaker (56:43): I mean, I was teasing her because she brought home. She went to a yard sale yesterday, a famous yard sale at the Pardo House. One of the best yard sales in all of Arvin. She brought home a succulent, and I saw it. I'm like, those are low maintenance.

Unknown Speaker (57:01): Those, they don't need a whole lot of tending. I mean, you can just give a little water here and there, and

Speaker 2 (57:05): they kinda take care of themselves. See, God didn't make us to be a

Unknown Speaker (57:10): bunch of succulents in the body of Christ. And I'm not trying to say that you need to be needy and whiny and all that kind of stuff, But here's the thing, you must be tended to and you must tend in this particular case and in this particular verse, the tending belongs to the body of Christ. You must pray

Speaker 2 (57:37): for one another. This

Unknown Speaker (57:41): is God's intention for the body of Christ.

Speaker 2 (57:45): This is how God makes us whole. We'll

Speaker 1 (57:49): get into that a little next week because he's gonna point us to a man by the name of Elijah. By the way, he's a man just like us whose prayers shut the sky up and then opened it up again. That's next week. Would you stand to your feet with me?

Unknown Speaker (58:16): I don't know where you're at this morning, but there may come a day when

Unknown Speaker (58:22): you can't take it anymore.

Speaker 2 (58:24): That day, inevitably, it does come for all of us. James has told

Unknown Speaker (58:30): us this morning three things. We take it of the Lord, we tell the elders, and we tend one another. He's given us three things. And I'm not trying to be smart or cute with this, but it's one of the most simplistic things that the Bible could ever tell us. It's all directed to him, and it's all about prayer.

Unknown Speaker (58:54): It's all about us praying for one another. Would you join me as we pray?