Sermon 3/29/04 pm

Jim Huskey, Effective Prayer

We began our study of the book of James this morning as we looked first

at some things James had to say with respect to trials and temptations

that are a common lot of man. God's people are not immuned to them.

They have a source of help, however, of which he mentions, that the

world does not truly in the real sense of the word have access. They

do not have the assurance or the promise that God will hear them, which

God's children do have. So having said "My brethren, count it all joy

when ye fall into divers temptations", he begins in verse 5 of

chapter 1, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth

to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

But let him ask in faih, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is

like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not

that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A

double minded man is unstable in all his ways." James 1:5-7.

So in chapter 1 James introduces the subject; in chapter 5 he concludes

with respect to some additional comments on prayer. In verse 14 of

chapter 5, beginning, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the

elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with

oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the

sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins,

they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and

pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent

prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to

like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not

rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and

six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the

earth brought forth her fruit. You will notice in those last verses

we read there are two different types of illustrations given. The

prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.

Then he uses another illustration and talks about Elijah. Of course,

some people, when we get to that one say 'Well, you know, that was a

miracle.' Well, I guess it probably depends on how you define a

miracle as to whether or not that was miraculous.

But I want us to notice first of all some of the things James says in

the first part of chapter 1 with respect to prayer. Now it's pretty

understandable why, in the light of what he's told them, that he would

next talk to them about praying. It's what we do when we're in over

our heads. We pray. A lot of folks never have prayed in their life

until they're in a circumstance they can't handle, they're facing

death, or they're facing some sort of terrible disaster. I'm told

you don't find any atheist in foxholes. They pray when the shells start

bursting around them. They may have never prayed before, but they pray

then. It is said that one of the "great atheists" who became critically

ill began to pray, 'Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul.' So there

are circumstances that arise when men pray, whether they are

accustomed to praying or not. The point James is making is that they

should be praying all the time anyhow. If you lack wisdom, ask God

for it. Now here's some things we need to remember about prayer.

For one thing, God's not going to do anything for you that you can do

for yourself. You can ask him all you want to. One professor I had

in college used to say 'You need to pray like everything depended

upon God and work like everything depended upon you.' God's not going

to do for you what you're not willing to put forth the effort to do

yourself. James said "...let him ask in faith." You see, I'm

convinced there are a lot of folks who "pray" but they don't really

believe their prayers are going to do any good. In Matthew 17 we find

Jesus talking with his apostles. A child had been brought to them.

Let's begin with verse 14. "And when they were come to the multitude,

there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,

Lord, have mercy on my son; for he is lunatick, and sore vexed; for

ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and off into the water. And I

brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus

answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall

I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him; and the child

was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart,

and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them,

Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith

as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove

hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be

impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer

and fasting." Matt. 17:14-21. Then in Matthew 21, beginning with

verse 20, we find Jesus had withered the fig tree, "And when the

disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree

withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto

you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which

is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain,

Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And

all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall

receive." Matt. 21:20-22. Now I realize Jesus was talking about the

apostles who were empowered with miraculous powers. Someone said if

you wanted that mountain to be moved you'd get a shovel and start

moving it. He was trying to drive home the point to his apostles that

when you pray, you better believe, number one, that your prayer will be

heard, and number two, that God answers prayer. Don't ask, doubting.

Ask, believing. I'm afraid far too many of us are like the old fellow

who was falling down the side of a rather steep place. He had a long

way to go and he was praying "Lord, help me." On his route down, he

past by a tree branch hanging down and he grabbed hold of it and said,

"That's all right Lord, I think this branch will do." That's sort of

like the way a lot of folks are with their prayer. They say, "Well,

I'll pray, but I'm going to have to do something because I don't know

if God will." If something does happen to answer our prayer, we try

to attribute it to some other cause other than God answering it for us.

The next thing we need to understand about prayer is this. God answers

prayer, but he doesn't always answer it the way we want it answered.

That doesn't mean God doesn't answer prayer. Remember what the apostle

Paul said when there was given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger

of satan to buffet his body? He said, 'I besought the Lord thrice

that he might remove it, but the Lord said My grace is sufficient for

you.' So the Lord didn't take it away. The Lord answered his prayer,

he just didn't answer it in the way Paul wanted it answered. Paul

wanted the thing removed. God said, 'I'll give you the grace to deal

with it.' But so much of the time we fail to understand that the

answer to everything is not going to be the way we want it to be.

Sometimes God says "No". Sometimes God says, "Wait". Sometimes God

says "Something else will do better than what you're asking". We need

to understand that when we pray. It's like when your child comes to

you and he says "Mama, I want this." Well, because you told him "No,

you can't have that" doesn't mean you didn't answer him. You answered

him but not the way he wanted him to answer. Remember, God is dealing

with children, too. Then sometimes they come and ask for things they

don't need in the first place and that would do them harm in the

second place. Just because you don't allow them to have those things

doesn't mean you didn't answer their request. It just means the

answer wasn't what they wanted. Remember when Jesus prayed in the

garden, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass.' But the

cup didn't pass, because it was not possible.

Then in the later part of James, chapter 5, he talks about a couple

things regarding prayer. This was during the age of the miraclous,

and the first thing he said was "Is any sick among you? let him call

for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing

him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall

save the sick..." In the first place, most folks never follow any

part of that advice in our generation. When somebody gets sick they

don't call for the elders. In many congregations it wouldn't do them

any good if they did, because they wouldn't come. Again, that tells

you we've drifted a great distance from what the Bible intended the

work of elders is to be, which is shepherding people, not making

business decisions. Then James says they anoint the sick with oil.

That kind of thing is no longer practiced, and the reason is, the age

of miracles has past in that sense of the word. However, when a child

is born it's a miracle. When a plant comes up from a dead see it's

a miracle, if you understand the whol picture.

But James uses an example from the Old Testament. You remember when

Ahab had done so much to infuriate God. God was pretty much fed up

with him. In I Kings 16, verse 30 beginning, we read, "And Ahab, the

son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were

before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for

him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to

wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went

and served Baal, and worshipped him. And reared up an altar for Baal

in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a

grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger

than all the kings of Israel that were before him." I Kings 16:30-32.

Chapter 17 begins, "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants

of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before

whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according

to my word." Now how did he bring that about? I don't know, until I

come to the book of James, chapter 5. "Elias...prayer earnestly that

it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three

years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain,

and the earth brought forth her fruit." Somebody says, "Well, there's

no need of us trying anything like that because that's a miracle."

Well, is it? Let's just go over there and read and find out. In the

18th chapter of I Kings we have recorded the combat on Mt. Carmel

between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Thi is after there's been no

rain for three years and six months. Elijah challenged the people, 'If

Baal, serve him; but if Jehovah be God, then serve him.' The contest

is ended and Elijah told the people, "...Take the prophets of Baal;

let not one of them escape. And they took them; and Elijah brought

them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. And Elijah said

unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of

abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah

went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth,

and put his face between his knees. (What did he do? He prayed. How

do I know? James 5 is a commentary on I Kings 18, because it doesn't

say he prayed there; he got in the posture of prayer for many of the

prophets, but it doesn't specifically say he prayed, but James 5 says

that's what he was doing. He prayed.) And he said to his servant,

Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said,

There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. (Let me ask you

a question. Why did he tell him Go look to the sea? You ever watch

the weather forecast and all those maps they show when we're about to

get rain? What happens? It either comes in off the gulf, or off the

Atlantic or sometimes it comes all way from the Pacific. What happens

is, that front comes in from over a body of water. What happens first?

You see clouds. You can watch them as they give the forecast and

they'll show those clouds streaming up. Usually we get most of our

rain from the gulf of Mexico coming up through there and usually

before it starts raining, it gets cloudy, then it starts raining.

Is that a miracle? Well, not according to the normal definition of

today.) And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said,

Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand.

And he said, Go up, and say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get

thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the

mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds, and wind, and there

was a great rain." I Kings 18:40-45. Elijah's prayer was answered.

How was Elijah's prayer answered? It was answered through the normal

laws God had set in motion. How many times have you ever seen it just

start pouring rain when there's not a cloud in the sky? We see clouds

first. Why? they're bringing the moisture in. When the air gets

sufficiently saturated with that moisture that's brought in by the

clouds, then it starts to rain. So why would James say Elijah was a

man of like passion as we are, then use that illustration? In that

respect, Elijah was just like us. The record says the rain was brought

about because he prayed. Now did God speed up the laws of nature?

I don't know. It doesn't say that. What it says is, the prayer for

rain was answered by the normal process of moisture coming in from the

sea. That would imply then that God could answer an awful lot of

prayers without what would be defined as a miracle, wouldn't it?

How so? Working through the normal laws he has set in motion. You

ever pray for people who are sick? Sure we do. But let me ask you a

question. Do you suppose that if the doctor has given them medication

to take that they will get well if they don't follow the means God has

made available to them? Remember, there has to be that willingness.

God's not going to do for somebody what that person can do for himself.

There's some of that stuff we can't do for ourselves. That's where

God picks up. But what we can do for ourself, God expects us to do.

All you have to do is go back to the story of the ark. God didn't

build the ark for Noah. God told him what was going to happen and what

to do in order to be spared, but he didn't build the ark for him. He

didn't gather the food for him. He didn't put the animals in the ark.

He left that for Noah to do. Now he gave him time to do it. Looks like

about 110 years to get ready. If Noah was anything like I am, it would

take very day of it. The point is, God didn't do for him what he

could do. Noah couldn't have known what was coming or how to prepare

for it. God gave him that information, told him what to do, but he

left it for Noah to do.

Why do you suppose God has allowed us to learn to much about the human

body? Didn't he say way back yonder in creation that he had given

these things for man? Basically, what doctors have learned is what

some of these things actually can be used for and how to use them to

man's benefit. Now as often is the case, we learn something then we

abuse it. Ask in faith, believing that God will answer prayer. That

last illustration in the book of James is one that is hard to call a

miracle. As best I know, that's the way it rains, and that's why it

rains. A cloud comes us, winds blow the clouds in. We don't live up

here where we are on the seacoast, so what happens? The winds move

those clouds up as those fronts move around, then it rains. That's

what's supposed to happen tomorrow night, front coming in from the gulf,

moisture moving up from the gulf, cold front coming in from the west,

and we're supposed to get some thunder-boomers, rain, then the

temperature is going to drop about 25 or 30 degrees. Well, is that

a miracle? No, that's the laws of nature in operation. Elijah prayed

and the heaven gave rain.

Elijah was a man of like passions as we are. I don't think James would

have used that illustration, writing by inspiration, if it wasn't

applicable, and if we couldn't make application of it to our own lives.

The problem is, so often people don't pray and when they do, they don't

believe anything is going to happen. So it's no wonder that sometimes

their prayers don't get answered, because God said if you're going to

ask, ask believing. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Common sense christianity, applied christianity is about all you're

going to find in the book of James. He's going to talk about the

tongue, attitude, they get a lot of people in trouble. It's just

practical christianity. It's one of the richest books, but one of the

most overlooked books in the New Testament.