Living in the Real World

SERMON: 2006-07-21--js0625--living-in-the-real-world SOURCE DURATION: 00:37:49.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with theological exposition on the book of James and continues through detailed analysis of scripture passages (James 5:13-16), which constitutes the main sermon content. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:34:54.800-00:37:48.120 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- James, the author of the book of James, is nothing, I think, if not a realist. He knows that even God's people can experience life as a roller coaster with many ups and many downs, good times as well as bad times. And having spent a better part of his letter laying for us the theological foundation of why sometimes bad things happen to God's people, now, as he begins to wind up his book, he gives us practical instruction in how to live in the real world. Listen again to what he says, verses 13 and 14 of James, chapter 5. "Is any one of you in trouble, he should pray. Is anyone happy, let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick, he should call the elders of the church to pray over him." And this morning, as we look at these two verses, I want us to make two observations. Number one, our circumstances in life will vary. That is to say, sometimes we will experience ups, and sometimes we will experience downs. Notice again how in these two verses, he describes three situations in which even as God's children, we will sometimes find ourselves. The first situation that we might find ourselves in is in trouble. "Is any one of you in trouble, he should pray." Now, the word for trouble there in the original language really means to suffer ill, and it can refer to any of the negative effects and circumstances in life that befall us. It can be trouble in our marriage. It can be trouble with our children. It can be trouble at work. It can be trouble financially. It can be trouble relationally with all of our friends, just because you're a Christian. Doesn't mean that you're automatically going to be immune to trouble, as a matter of fact. Sometimes trouble will come and find you, because David says in Psalm 34, verse 19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." Sometimes we'll find ourselves in trouble, but sometimes we'll find ourselves in situations of happiness. "Is anyone happy?" says James. "Let him sing songs of praise." Thank God life is not always filled with trouble. As we'll see a little bit later on, there are also seasons of happiness, times when life is good, when the favor of God shines upon us, and we're blessed by our relationships, we are blessed by our friendships, we are blessed in our work, we are blessed in our coming and in our going, times when we are well-disposed and of good cheer, which is really what the word "happy" there means in the original languages. Sometimes we're in trouble, sometimes we're happy, and then says James, "Sometimes we're going to find ourselves sick." Verse 14, "Is any one of you sick?" He should call the elders of the Church to pray over him. The Greek word for "sick" there literally means "to be weak" or "to be feeble" or "to be ill." And "illness," of course, is really just another form of trouble, but it's more specific in that it focuses on our bodies or our emotional or spiritual state. And sickness can be anything from what we commonly call the 24-hour flu to more extended illnesses or even to long-term disability. Just because we're Christians doesn't mean that we are automatically immune from these things. We live in a fallen world, and because we live in a fallen world, we share a common humanity, and we experience to no small degree the consequences of universal sin. As well, James has been teaching us that sometimes God is preparing us for a greater weight of glory in the future. And so there will be times in your life and in my life, even as God's children, where we go through seasons of trouble or seasons of happiness or seasons of illness. I'm reminded a number of years ago, in our family, we went through a season of car accidents. One year, we got hit three times in a row. And I'm glad to report to you that none of those was our fault. And I said, "Lord, where are our guardian angels? Did we lose them somewhere along the line?" Sheila Rogers, who is the founding host of "Sounds Like Canada" on CBC Radio, tells the story of how her stepfather died. Her mother didn't have enough money to pay for the funeral, and so she decided to pay for her stepdad's funeral, but it wiped out her savings. She knew that her mother would pay her back, but in the meantime, she didn't have enough funds. And at the same time, her CBC union went on strike, and she was reduced to being paid $20 a day for walking the picket line. She went to her landlord and said, "Can you take my rent deposit to pay my next month's rent?" He refused. In order to save money, she took to riding her bike to work instead of the streetcar, wouldn't you know it? She got hit by a car, broke her kneecap, and that finished off her career walking on the picket line. Seasons of trouble. We can all identify with seasons of trouble. And just because you're a Christian, let me say it again, doesn't mean automatically that we're immune to these situations in life. Sometimes we'll be in trouble. Sometimes we will find ourselves filled with happiness, and sometimes we find ourselves filled with illness and pain. Very important to understand that that is a normal and a regular part even of Christian living. Because you see, it is so easy in the back of our minds to have this notion that if God really loves me, I should not only be immune to the bad things that happen to people in this world, I should in fact be happy all the time. And there are many Christians who have this theology that if you're sad or brokenhearted or show somebody else your weakness, then there is something wrong with your Christian life. And I was reminded of that recently as I listened to this Christian song on the radio. Let me read you the chorus, and you fill in for me the last line. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away, it is there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Now let me ask you, are you happy all the day? Do you go around smiling from early morning till late at night, all the time? Well, I'm not. When I find out that my son has cancer, I'm not happy at all. When I find out somebody else's tale of woe and how they struggle with the burdens of life, I'm not happy at all. In fact, there are times when I'm downright miserable and discontent. Am I that way all the time? No, but remember life is a rollercoaster ride. There are moments when the glass is half full and there are moments when the glass feels half empty. There are great times of joy and happiness. There are times of great suffering and pain. And both of those are a regular normal part of the Christian life. And you know why that is so important? You know why it's so important to understand that? Two reasons. Number one, so we can own our own negative feelings. Sometimes some Christians in some circles think it is sinful and defeatist to be sad or to feel negative feelings or to be angry or to be in pain. And if you believe that a good Christian ought not to ever experience those kinds of feelings, then all you can do is try to push them away and you become an artificial Christian who outwardly looks like you've got it all together but inwardly you're full of rotten man's bones and it's only a question of time before somebody catches you at the wrong time and everything that you keep so carefully hidden blows up. And the second reason this is so important is that it's important for Christian community to be a place where you can acknowledge true emotions, where you can weep together and where you can laugh together. And if there's one thing that blesses me in Christ about this community is that we have significantly, I think, learned how to do that, to give each other space to be real, to know that if you're having a bad day that doesn't mean that you're a bad Christian who is failing. If you're going through struggles, that doesn't mean that God is somehow on your case and there must be unspeakable sin in your life that somehow or another has brought forth the judgment of God upon you or upon whoever else. Now, life is a roller coaster. And while we must always be ready to look at our lives and to repent of any sin that God points out to us, the fact remains that we are human beings living in a human world that has fallen. And sometimes we'll be in trouble. And sometimes that trouble will be of our own making, other times it'll be of somebody else's making. Sometimes we'll be in times of great happiness and in great joy. And sometimes we'll even find ourselves sick and we'll be in need of God's redemptive power. Circumstances in life will vary. And there will be seasons of being up and there will be seasons of being down. And in both the good times and the bad times, God's still on his throne and he is still in control. That I think is the first thing that James teaches us here in these two verses. And then I think the second thing that he teaches us is that when these things happen to us, we must learn how to respond appropriately. We must learn how to respond appropriately. Notice again in the text how for each situation that he describes, he has a corresponding prescription that he expects us to follow. Do we find ourselves in trouble? What do we do? We pray. He says, is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. And of course the implication is to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, for Paul goes on to say in Philippians chapter four, have no anxiety about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I can think of two reasons why prayer in times of trouble is very important. The first is because God cares. And Peter says, cast all your burdens upon him because he cares for you. And the second reason of course is because only God is almighty. And the only one who can really walk us through whatever valley sometimes we will find ourselves in. I don't know if it's significant or not, but for some reason the last number of weeks or months, the hymn abide with me has been on my heart and mind. Particularly these words, abide with me, fast falls the even tide. The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless. Oh, abide with me. I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless ills, have no weight and tears, no bitterness. Where is death's sting, where grave thy victory, I triumph still if thou abide with me. Don't know how many of you know the history to that hymn. It was written in the middle 1800s by an English pastor by the name of Henry Light. He pastored for many years at Brixam. In England, he had a lung condition. Deteriorated so badly that when he was 54 years of age, he preached his final sermon in preparation to going to the continent to try to find healing for his lung condition in a more moderate climate. It was shortly after he preached his last sermon that he either composed or rewrote one of the poems that he had worked on with the words abide with me. It subsequently underwent a number of revisions and when he got to the French Riviera, he sent his wife the latest revision of the song abide with me. Unfortunately, it was at that point that his lungs gave out, he died, and his congregation back home under the leadership of his son-in-law held a memorial service and it was that memorial service where for the first time, what has become an incredibly great and popular hymn was sung abide with me. Fast falls the even time. Why does God allow trouble into our lives? Because it drives us to our knees and it makes us lay hold of him in ways that many times otherwise we would not. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, the first chapter, we don't want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of death or even of life. Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. Why are there seasons of trouble? Because it teaches us not only to pray, it helps us to get other people to pray and then when God answers our prayer and brings relief, there are many who can rejoice with us in what God has done. And we often see that in this church as we pray for people or for situations in a congregational prayer and then come back to you and report what God has done and the excitement in this place then is palpable. We can feel it because we share together, not only in the tears but also in the joy. When in trouble, says James, "Pray." And when you're happy, what do you do? Well, he says, "You sing." Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Why songs of praise? Because when things go well and we receive blessings, those are never simply the result of our own cleverness, hard work or what some people would call good luck. If anything good comes our way, it's because God has chosen to favor us with his blessings. And when he does that, the very least that he requires of us is that we return gratitude and praise to him so that other people can be encouraged to put their hope and their faith in God. Scripture puts it this way. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praising God gets us beyond ourselves. It gets us beyond our circumstances. It puts the focus back where it belongs. It puts the focus on God. And sometimes it can even save our lives. I read recently the story of Anne Mullen. She was 22 years of age. She was teaching windsurfing and racing in Collingwood, Ontario, when a thunderstorm struck and blew her into Georgian Bay. At the end of the day, it was nightfall. And she had no way of fighting her way back against the wind. She ran into a racing buoy and draped herself over it and held on for dear life, knowing that the chances of being found out there before hypothermia did her in were pretty slim. And so here's what she decided to do. She decided to sing. And for three hours, she sang at the top of her voice every hymn, every spiritual song that she remembered, every Beatles song, every Joni Mitchell song, every campfire song that she had ever learned, and every Broadway hit that she had ever heard. And she kept it up for three hours until her throat was hoarse. But in the providence of God, somebody heard her and rescued her just in time. What do you do when you're happy? Or even when you're in trouble, you sing songs of praise. Not only that, but when you're sick, says James, what do you do? Well, you call for the elders of the church. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up. A lot of stuff there. Let me try to walk you through some of it as quickly as I can. Notice the emphasis on calling the elders when you're sick. Now I'm willing to bet that most of us don't do that. In fact, most of us when we're sick, particularly if men, we'll wine first. [audience laughs] And complain a lot until our spouses can't handle it anymore and they call the doctor for us. And so generally we appeal to the medical profession for the healing that we need. Is that not true? Now I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing at all, but I emphasize that scripture says our first response when we're faced with sickness ought to be the calling of the elders. Now I don't think the elders in this church want to be called for every sniffle and cold and flu bug that gets you because that's hardly necessary. But at the same time, we need to understand that God's word says that when we are confronted by significant illness, one of the things that we ought to do is call the elders of the church. And just between services today, Sarah and David Regdonhill, parents of little Noah, together with Sarah's parents, invited the elders in for a session of prayer before the young lad goes for further testing on Tuesday. And already on a number of occasions, the boy has been prayed over. And it'll be very interesting to see the correlation between prayer and the test results that we're anxious to hear about. Couple of weeks ago too, Michael, before he went in for his major biopsy, we called together the elders and a number of people on prayer teams. And we prayed because scripture says that's what we ought to do. When we're sick, our first step ought to be calling for the elders. And the elders then are to pray over us. And to pray over us is different from praying for us. Praying over us really implies praying with a laying on of hands. And the laying on of hands biblically has a number of very useful functions. On one level, on a very natural level, it communicates love and affection. One of the problems with illness is that by definition, you tend to close inwardly upon yourself and feel isolated because nobody else can quite step into your space. And the laying on of hands, even if it doesn't produce anything else, produces a sense of solidarity, a sense of we're with you, a sense of encouragement and strength. But more than that, the laying on of hands can also serve as a conduit for the power of the Holy Spirit. Because you see when the Holy Spirit lives in Christian communities, that comes to expression to those who have specifically been called to that ministry of prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit flows from one person and one group of people into the other person. It's not a very reverent example, but it's kind of like boosting a dead battery in your car. You don't have the juice to crank over the engine. So you call your friend over and you get out booster cables and you tie the two batteries together. And remember not to cross polarities or you'll be in big trouble. And then the power flows from the full battery into the battery that is empty. You crank over the engine, hopefully it starts up, the alternator begins to produce electricity and you're back on track, which is what happens when we pray over people. There's not only an emotional and a psychological benefit of the laying on of hands. There's also the very real transfer of spiritual power and spiritual energy. And even if sometimes people are not healed after prayer, in the sense that they're looking for healing physically or emotionally, there will often be an infusion of new energy because the darkness is driven back and God's grace fills those empty spots and those empty places. So we're to call the elders. They are to pray over us, says James, and then they are to anoint us with oil. And it's helpful to understand that there are two schools of thought as to what that oil represents. There is a school of thought that says that oil represents modern medicine. And the argument is that biblically, oil was often used for medicinal purposes and that what scripture is teaching us here, that we are to make use of the medicine and the medical treatment that is available to us. And we are to pray over it, that God will anoint it and to use it for healing. And I don't believe there's anything wrong with that kind of interpretation. Very often in Christian circles, we try to make a dichotomy between God's immediate and direct involvement in our healing process and the use of medicine. And somehow, there are Christians who think it doesn't count if God heals by means of medicine. I think that's making a false dichotomy. Because all through scripture, God not only deals with people directly, but he also often deals with us indirectly. And for most of us, most of the time, our healing is going to come through God blessing the medicine, the medical profession, and letting his healing power flow into our lives. So I think this is a legitimate interpretation. And unless God very strictly makes it clear for the glory of his name, that we ought not to be using regular medical procedures, we are wise to take advantage of the blessings that God has provided for us and gratefully and thankfully receive from him what modern medicine can do. Always understanding it's never the medicine that heals you, it's never the doctor that can heal you. It is only the grace of God through Jesus Christ using those methods who can bring healing about in our lives and in our bodies. So that's one school of thought, but there's another school of thought. And that school of thought says, no, this doesn't really refer to medicine. This is strictly a symbolic usage of the power of God's Holy Spirit. And given the history of the usage of oil in the Old Testament, I think that's probably closer to what James has in mind. That is to say, the anointing with oil is a representation of God's Holy Spirit who comes upon you to bring healing and to bring restoration. And for that reason, many church traditions use anointing oil in obedience to this scripture as a representation of the power of God's Holy Spirit to bring his healing presence into somebody's life, into their body, into their mind, and their soul and their spirit. And in this church too, many times our prayer teams, when they pray for people and when they pray over people, will in fact anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord in keeping with this biblical passage and this biblical instruction. Now that raises another very interesting question. Is the oil symbolic of the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit? Or does the oil actually embody the healing presence and the power of the Holy Spirit? And how you answer that question is determined to a very large degree by your theological background. If you're a Protestant and you have been raised in the Protestant tradition, you will tend to lean towards a symbolic interpretation of the anointing oil. That is to say, the oil represents the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon that person separate from the anointing oil. But if you come out of a sacramentalist tradition, like the Roman Catholic Church or other churches of a similar nature, then you will lean towards an interpretation that says, no, it isn't just symbolic. God's active presence is embodied in this oil and has a power all of itself to heal and to restore. As I said, Protestants are often not very comfortable with that because it could really lead to a great deal of superstition. Think, for example, of the relics of the saints and the relics of the cross. There have been more pieces of the cross sold over the centuries representing the power of Jesus's death and resurrection than you could ever fit together in one cross. But Protestants also need to understand that there is some significant biblical warrant for sacramentalism because you have the story in Acts chapter 19 where Paul is doing ministry in Ephesus, which was a very significant stronghold. And the Bible says concerning Paul in that passage, and I always think that's just so fascinating, that God did extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul. Now, I don't know about you, but I think a miracle is extraordinary enough. But when miracles become so common that you have to talk about extraordinary miracles, then you know God's really on the move. And how did God do extraordinary miracles? Well, handkerchiefs and aprons, you know the story, taken from Paul and laid on somebody else, long distance, so to speak, produced healing in their lives. That, folks, is sacramentalism. That is the power of God resident in an object being carried through and bringing about healing and restoration because of God's great favor. But remember, Scripture calls it an extraordinary miracle. I mean, earlier in the book of Acts, the grace of God was so present with the early apostles that people were laying their sick out on the streets so that when Peter came by, his shadow might fall upon them because there was healing virtue even in his shadow. So what do you do when you're sick? You call for the elders. What do they do? They pray over you. How do they pray over you? They anoint you with oil, and then they need to pray the prayer of faith. Verse 15, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, and the Lord will raise him up. Now, prayer of faith is a very big subject, and I wanna come back to it in much more detail later on, but let me summarize it this way as we draw this service to a close this morning. Faith is incredibly important biblically if we are to receive anything from God. The book of Hebrews says, and without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. And earlier on, James, in the context of praying for wisdom, he says, "When you ask for wisdom, you must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind, and that man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord." And if you look at the healing ministry of Jesus, you'll discover that time and time again, the presence or the absence of faith was critical in whether or not people received their healing from God. The prayer of faith is a prayer that is empowered by faith, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that lays hold of God and that will not let go of God until God accomplishes what he said he would do. The question is, what does that look like and how do you get it? And Lord willing, that's where we're going to pick it up [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:34:54.800; remove through 00:37:49.000] next time when we [CUT] come back to this particular passage. ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Oh God ♪ ♪ The past and my present ♪ ♪ The things yet to come ♪ ♪ Your days are in your hands ♪ ♪ Each and every one ♪ ♪ I know you can handle ♪ ♪ Any challenge that I face ♪ ♪ You promised you'd be there ♪ ♪ Every step that I take ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Oh God ♪ ♪ There's nothing to be ♪ ♪ But you are bigger ♪ ♪ Remind us again, Lord ♪ ♪ That you are in control ♪ ♪ I know you can handle ♪ ♪ Any challenge that we face ♪ ♪ You promised you'd be there ♪ ♪ Every step that we take ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Oh God ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Everything is in your hands ♪ ♪ Oh God ♪ [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:37:49.000; resume after this marked segment]