Prayer in Times of Trials Part-III

 Introduction:

God has been gracious to us in all these days. We have been blessed by God with this life; this is my constant thought in my life. It’s a short life we live in. we don’t know when the Lord will call us home. But as much as life He has given us; we ought to make the most of our life for His glory.

So, with that in mind I greet you in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we are going on and on from the book of James; I believe you are finding much instruction to follow from this great epistle. Just in order to end all curiosity; I have decided to take on the Book of Acts after we have finished preaching from this epistle.

Let’s open our Bibles to James 5:13-18.

(Scripture Reading & Prayer)

Dr. Thomas M. Carter, an ex-convict, tells a thrilling story of his mother who constantly followed him with her prayers.  On one occasion while he was in prison, she received a telegram stating that he was dead and asking what she wanted done with his body.  Stunned by the news, she opened her Bible and laid the message beside it.  "Oh, God," she said, "I have steadfastly believed that You are a rewarder of them who diligently seek You. I felt sure that I would live to see Tom saved and preaching the Gospel; and now this wire says he is dead. Lord, which is true, this telegram or Your promises to me?"  When she rose from her knees, having won the victory, she sent this note to the prison: "You must be wrong.  My boy is not dead!"  And there had been a mistake -- Tom Carter was alive!  He was later converted and lived to preach!

The point of this illustration is that God answers prayers and He answers prayers of the spiritually strong as well as spiritually weak people also. Now, Thomas Carters’ mother must have been like each of us but still God honored her prayers.

So, before we get into the message let me ask a question to you. Do you pray everyday? Do you read God’s Word everyday? These are the most important questions to us as we listen to God’s word.  

In this message I want to challenge you for prayer; fervent prayer. I want to ask you to dare to pray like Elijah prayed. Not because Elijah was somebody great but the Bible tells us that he was a man like you and me.

So, here is the title for the message this morning.

Prayer in Times of Trials: Part-III

1.      The Human Nature of Elijah: vs. 17a

2.      The Fervent Prayer of Elijah: vs. 17b-18

1.      The Human Nature of Elijah: vs. 17a

Last Sunday we learnt from vs. 16. In this one verse we dealt with 2 points. The command for prayer and the purpose of prayer. I am sure you must have been spiritually benefitted from this message. The important thing in this message was the fact that James was writing to the similar group of people, but perhaps they had offended one another. Therefore in vs. 16 he asked his readers to confess their sins to one another. The purpose of such an action was so that they will be restored to one another and they will be restored to God.

Then in vs. 17 & 18 James is continuing with the same subject in his mind. In fact in these 2 verses he is going one step further and giving his readers Elijah as the example of prayer.

Notice vs. 17, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.”

Now, first of all we can see Elijah’s human nature was like ours. James mentions Elijah’s human nature for a purpose. He is actually connecting vs. 16 to vs. 17. In verse 16 he had said that, “…the prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And in vs. 17 James is giving the example of that truth.

And in this verse James is giving the example of Elijah; a righteous man. At the same time he is also giving the example of how much is availed in the prayer of such a man. So much so that he prayed and God stopped the rains for three and a half years, which we will look into the next point.

But we don’t know what specific nature of Elijah James had in his mind. We read the account of Elijah’s life in 1 Kings 17, 18 & 19.

In chapter 17 & 18 we have Elijah the prophet of God confronting King Ahab. What is so amazing about Elijah is that he appears on the pages of Old Testament from nowhere. We do not know the origin of Elijah. We do not have any history of his family. Elijah just appears out of the blue in 1 Kings 17:1. But he appears at a time when the nation of Israel was facing a spiritual darkness. That means the children of God were engaged in worshipping Idols; when they should have been engaged in the worship of Yahweh.

In vs. 1 of chapter 17, Elijah is confronting King Ahab. Notice vs. 1 he says, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” I want you to notice this verse carefully. In it Elijah boldly says, “…“As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand…”

Why would Elijah mention that it is the Lord God of Israel before whom I stand; even when he was actually standing before King Ahab? The reason is even when Elijah was standing before King Ahab, Elijah was not afraid of him. Elijah did not lose sight of the fact that he fears God more; and he does not fear the king. Elijah had such great boldness when he confronted King Ahab.

You might say, what is the big deal about being bold in the presence of a King? It is a big deal because 1 Kings 16:3 & 33 give us the introduction of King Ahab. “And Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.”

Vs. 33, “And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.”

The point of those 2 verses is; it is one thing to be bold in the presence of a King who is good. And it’s absolutely another thing to be bold in the presence of a wicked king. Many people say that King Ahab had a habit of making people tremble in his presence. But Elijah stood bold in the presence of a wicked King. He not only did it once but he did it for once more, in 1 King 18: 17-19.

 It’s because he was always mindful of God and His majesty. Elijah always believed that His God is powerful and Almighty.

E.g . Serena Williams the great Tennis player said this, “You have to win twice in order to prove that the previous one was not a chance.”

And this saying fits Elijah. Purely because he always had his eyes fixed upon His God.

Even though Elijah’s boldness was one side of his nature; there was another aspect of his nature. After Elijah called fire from heaven, and after God heard his prayers and sent rain on Israel. In chapter 19, we see another side of Elijah’s nature. When Jezebel (Ahab’s queen) heard that Elijah had killed all her prophets. She was angry. In 19:2, 3, “Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. Then vs. 4 tells us, “But he himself went a day’s journey into wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

That means Elijah was so afraid of Queen Jezebel that he went as far as possible from her. At one time Elijah was exceedingly bold at another he was absolutely afraid.

Application:

Both of these are two sides of human nature. Sometimes we are bold, sometimes we are afraid. But the point that I want to drive home to you is; God can still use you with your fear and with your boldness. Are you willing to be used by God with your fears and boldness?

Are you willing to conquer your fear with faith in Jesus? If you are bold; do you fear Jesus? I read a caption on a T-Shirt, “Real Men fear Jesus.” In fact I would add to that, men who fear Jesus are the bold ones. Do you know where can you find boldness? It’s on your knees. When you kneel before the all powerful King you will be bold before anybody. The Bible says, we have the boldness to approach to the Throne of Grace through Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters this is a great assurance for us that our prayers are heard by an Almighty God. He not only hears them but He answers them as well. Do you have that assurance in your life? But first of all let me ask you: Do you pray? Do you pray? There are two reasons why we feel prayerlessness; it’s because we think our sins are too heavy for God to deal with. If you think this way, then you are sinning brother and sister. Because the Bible tells us that there is not sin that a person can commit which cannot be forgiven. That means all sins can be forgiven. God forgave David’s sin of adultery; he surely can forgive your sins.

The second reason why we feel prayerless is because we don’t feel the need of prayer because of a lot of knowledge. Because of a lot of knowledge people lose the logic in prayer.

If you are going through this let me warn you to turn away from your sin of prayerlessness. Turn to Jesus Christ and confess your sin to Him.

2.      The Fervent Prayer of Elijah: vs. 17b-18

If you read 1 Kings 17, 18 or 19 we do not find any mention that Elijah prayed fervently. But then why is James saying that Elijah prayed fervently? In total there are only 3 mentions of Elijah’s prayer in those 3 chapters of 1 Kings. In chapter 17:21 Elijah is praying for the life of that widow’s dead son. He is asking God to raise her son from his death. Secondly, in chapter 18:36-37, here  he is praying so that the Lord would consume the offering on the Altar. In chapter 19:4, Elijah is praying to God to take away his life.

Apart from these 3 references we don’t see him praying fervently. But then why is James saying that Elijah was a man of prayer? I struggled with it and Phil Johnson’s book, “Prophet of Fire,” helped me in it. He says, “The prophets of God have to be understood as men of prayer. Whatever revelation or prophesy they gave to the people of Israel; they gave it as a fruit of their prayer.” And I fully agree with his statement. Because we cannot imagine the prophets of God without prayer. Whenever we read the book of any Prophets one common aspect we will find in them, and that is of prayer.

We must understand here that Elijah’s prayer did open heavens and closed the heavens as a fruit of his prayers. Because Elijah prayed according to God’s will.

The spiritual principle that comes out of this is; if we pray according to God’s will God will answer our prayers, just as He answered Elijah’s prayers.

Application:

I have heard many people say that, you have to hear God speak to you in prayer. And I don’t think it’s true. Simply because God has spoken whatever He wants to speak through His Word. Hebrews 1:1, 2,“ Hebrews 1:1-2  God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.”

The question is: do you obey His Word which he has reveled in the Bible? Or do you still seek dreams and visions and completely disregard what God has reveled in His Word? Do you know God’s most important will for your life is that you should be saved? If you are not saved and still claim to have revelations; you might be true. But that revelation is not from God; it’s from the devil. So, first of all ask yourself this question, am I saved? Do I want to be saved? If yes believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He you will be saved.

Greed in Times of Trials-Part-II

Introduction:

Once again, a warm welcome to all of you. As we go through the epistle of James I believe that they are reforming our day to day lives.

Just to remind you that we are going through the Epistle of James. Last Sunday, we dealt with vs. 1-3 of James chapter 5. This morning we will take on vs. 4-6.

Last week we learned about the greed in times of trials. What was phenomenal about that was; greed does not produce happiness. Greed always produces misery. it does not give a bundle of joy; It gives us a bundle of anxieties. If you are a believer today, and think that you are not vulnerable to greed. I think you are in the most dangerous place. The point is, we all are vulnerable to it and because of that we need to protect ourselves from this decease of greed by the medicine of the Word of God.

So, may I invite you to open your Bibles to James 5:1-6?

(Scripture Reading & Prayer)

The folly of human nature is neatly summed up by the case of the middle-aged school teacher who invested her life savings in a business enterprise which had been elaborately explained to her by a swindler.

When her investment disappeared and the wonderful dream was shattered, she went to the office of the Better Business Bureau. "Why on earth," they asked, "didn't you come to us first?  Didn't you know about the Better Business Bureau?"

"Oh, yes," said the lady sadly, "I've always known about you. But I didn't come because I was afraid you'd tell me not to do it."

So, once again the title for the sermon this morning is:

“Greed in Times of Trials.” Part-II

In this message we will look into 3 points.

1.      The Consequence of Greed: Vs. 4

2.      The Indulgence of Greed: vs. 5

3.      The Sinfulness of Greed: vs. 6

1.      The Impact of Greed: vs. 4

In the 2 points that we dealt with last Sunday; we looked into the warning against greed and the futility of Greed. In vs. 1 James warned his rich readers of their greed. And the warning was about the judgment of God that was going to fall upon them because of their greed.

Then in vs. 2 & 3 he showed them the futility of their greed. In other words whatever they had so far accumulated through ungodly means was being wasted away. In both of these verses James exposes their greed of accumulating things for themselves. Perhaps they had become so blind in their greed that they must have forgotten about the things they had accumulated. Because James mentions that their riches had corrupted and their garments were moth-eaten.

Then in vs. 3 James again exposes his reader’s blindness towards their greed. Not only their garments were affected by their greed, but their ornaments were also affected by it; for the fact that they were corroded. Both of the above verses suggest to us that James’ readers had accumulated a lot of wealth but they had never put that wealth in its proper usage. And eventually these things were wasted away uselessly. Because it was not being beneficial to anybody else.  In both of those points we saw that these rich people’s greed did not remain limited to themselves.

Then in vs. 4-6 James explains that these rich people’s greed had affected those who came in their contact. And these people were their laborers.  

Notice vs. 4, “Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

If we look closely in the first part of the verse we notice that these rich people possessed a great amount of farming land. What comes out of this part of the verse is: these rich oppressors had put people to work, but they had not paid their labor charges. Not that they were not able to but because they were not willing to pay it. They wanted their lands to be mowed free of cost.

It’s quite ironical that the people whom James was writing this letter to, were the descendents of those whom God delivered through Moses. Those people were treated as slaves in Egypt; they were given a hard labor. Their affliction was terrible and God called Moses to redeem those people from that slavery.

But the point is: when God brought them to the Promised Land; apart from all the other laws, He also gave them instructions about paying the laborers.

God had strictly forbidden the defrauding of labor. Leviticus 19:13, "'You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.”

In Leviticus God commands His children not to oppress the laborers. But in Deuteronomy 24:14-15 He gives the reason why they were not supposed to oppress these laborers.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15, “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates: in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.”

The conclusion that comes out of the above 2 verses is this: “Your oppression today, is not a guarantee that you will not oppress somebody else tomorrow.” The point is: every single person has the potential to oppress. There is no place for the saying: “Oh he or she is not that kind of a person. I know that they will never oppress anybody like that.”

Secondly, in the second part of the verse James is opening the blind eyes of his rich reader’s; that those whom you have oppressed are crying out. The phrase ‘crying out’ means: ‘to call out loud.’ Now, what James is warning his rich readers is that; the people whom you have oppressed are calling out loud to God. That’s what James is saying in the next sentence. “…and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

When we closely notice this sentence we notice that James is borrowing his language from the book of Exodus.

Exodus 2:23, “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.”

Exodus 3:7, “And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.”

Exodus 3:9, “Now behold the cry of the children of Israel has come up to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”

And the reason why James is borrowing that language is because, he wanted his rich readers to know that, the kind of oppression their ancestors faced, and kind of oppression they were inflicting upon their laborers was the same.

Application:

As a faithful leader James was warning his rich readers about the impact of their greed. Greed has not only affected you but it has affected the people that are in association with you. Greed not only affects us but it affects the people who are close to us. It always affects those who are in our family and those who are in our neighborhood. We cannot say that my greed is hidden from everybody; therefore it’s alright to have that greed. Your greed will be exposed one day. The question is not whether you have any kind of greed or not. We all have some or the other kind of greed. But the question we need to ask ourselves is: are we bringing our greed before the Throne of Grace everyday of our lives? Are we praying about our areas of selfishness? Are we honestly exposing our weaknesses before God in prayer? 

Matthew chapter 18 gives us an example of unforgiving debtor.

The King in this story released the debtor who was not able to pay his debt. But the same debtor after going from the King caught hold of one of his own debtor and vs. 28, “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarius; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat by saying, “Pay me what you owe.” Vs. 29, “So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him.

2.      The Indulgence of Greed: vs. 5

Vs. 4 makes it clear to us that; James’ rich readers had oppressed the poor laborers and had accumulated a lot of wealth.

Then in vs. 5 James says that, “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.”

Now, before we go any further let’s understand that pleasure and luxury in and of itself are not wrong.

The Greek word for ‘pleasure’ is ‘truphao’ it means ‘debaucherous pleasure.’ It has the idea in itself the pleasure drawn from unethical or immoral practices. The word ‘Luxury’ in Greek is ‘spatalao’ it means ‘wanton’ that again means luxury drawn from harming somebody. And the meaning of those words really fit the description of the rich oppressors.

This shows us that life of immoral pleasure and luxury soon becomes out of control.

And this was true of James’ readers. They oppressed their laborers and robbed them of their wages in order to have pleasure and luxury. They were busy in the indulgence of greed.

But in the next half of the verse James again warns them. “…you have fattened yourself in the day of slaughter.”

What James has in his mind is, an animal that is well fed before it is slaughtered.

And truly speaking every animal that is meant to be slaughtered is first of all well fed; so that it would give a good quantity of meat. But the kind of slaughtering James has in his mind is the judgment of God. James’s rich audience had fed themselves with pleasure and luxury. They had become rich with ungodly means and used their riches to indulge in immoral pleasure and luxury paid with the unjust gain.

King Solomon at the end of his life wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. When his eyes are opened he understood one truth, Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, And walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.”

The same was the picture in other churches of the New Testament. Paul also cautioned Timothy about such people in the Church.

2 Timothy 3:1-4, “But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

3.      The Sinfulness of Greed: vs. 6

James 5:6, “You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn't resist you.”

In this verse we can see the progression of these greedy people. First of all they hoarded things; that led to fraud that again led to indulging in sinful pleasure and luxury. And finally they became murderous. Their indulgence had become so sinful that in order to maintain their lifestyle they were willing to go to any degree.

The word ‘condemned’ means ‘sentencing somebody.’ That suggests to us that these greedy people had fraudulently used the courts to sentence these poor people. That is what James says in, James 2:6, “But you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?”

Application:

When we think of the progression of sin we can’t help but think of King David. Let’s go to 2 Samuel 11.

In 2 Samuel 11:1 we are told that, “It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.”

We can easily see that because of major victories in King David’s life he became lazy. His laziness led him to adultery in vs. 2-5. He lusted after Bathsheba.

His lust progressed into adultery and finally that adultery turned into murder.

The point I want to drive home is this: David knew God. The Bible tells us that he was a man after God’s own heart.

Perhaps you might not be living in a gross sin. Perhaps you might be secretly indulging in some sin that is not so serious. But pay heed that a little spark in the forest begins a wild fire. Therefore protect yourself by the power of God’s Word.

It all begins with the gospel. If you know the gospel have you believed it? If you have believed it, have treasured it?