The Prayer of Faith

SERMON: 2006-08-20--js0626--the-prayer-of-faith SOURCE DURATION: 00:42:29.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The sermon begins with exposition on James' approach to healing (segment [0]). The main body of the sermon concludes around segment [315], which is a theological application point. Subsequent segments ([316] onwards) transition into post-sermon prayer/thanksgiving, marking the end of the core expository material. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:37:37.740-00:37:42.240, 00:38:33.740-00:42:28.460 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' approach to the subject of healing we saw four weeks ago when last we left off in our study of the book of James is somewhat different from the way that you and I tend to approach the subject of illness. What do we do when we're sick? Well, probably at first you try to shrug it off hoping that it will just go away by itself. If that's not the case what do you do? You reach maybe for the medicine bottle. If that doesn't do it well there's always the doctor or the clinic. Hopefully medical treatment will work and will put us back on our feet. And as I've said many times before I think there's nothing wrong with using the means that God makes available. Typically God uses the means that he makes available instead of just supernaturally speaking or moving into our lives when those means are there. Now that having been said, however, it is significant to note how different James' approach to the subject of illness is from what we typically do. Because what does James say should we do when we are sick? Well, he says if any one of you is 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. There are four elements there that he says we want to be following. We ought to call for the elders of the church. They ought to pray over us. They are to anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord and they ought to offer the prayer of faith. Now I don't know if you remember but for weeks ago when last we looked at this passage we looked at the first three of those. We talked about calling in the elders. We talked about the laying on of hands and praying over people and anointing people with oil. If you are absent or if you want to pursue that in more detail then by all means get the tape or the CD of that service. As a lot of you know we also make DVDs of the services available and they are a great opportunity not only to sort of recapture the dynamics of a service here for yourself but if you have seeker friends or want to try to persuade somebody to pursue the Lord Jesus it's a great opportunity just to let them know what happens within the walls of this church. What I want to do this morning though is pick up on that fourth item where James says the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. Specifically what I want to do is try to answer two questions regarding that prayer of faith. The first is what is it and then the second is how do you get it. So let's begin then with the question what is the prayer of faith. Well the prayer of faith is a prayer made to God in the name of Jesus with a confident assurance that God because of Christ not only hears me but that he will give me whatever it is that I am asking of him. 1 John chapter 5 puts it this way this is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we have asked of him. I think sometimes we forget that one of the purposes of prayer is to get answers to our prayer. It is to encourage God to move on our behalf and all through scripture we are told that one of the keys to getting answers to prayer is having faith that is to say an expectation that God not only can but that he will give us what we have been asking of him. Without faith says the book of Hebrews 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 James you will recall much earlier in the context of asking for wisdom how do I handle the difficult challenges of life he says when we ask for wisdom we must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind that man or that woman should not think that he or she will receive anything from the Lord. And if you look at the ministry of Jesus then you will see that repeatedly awkward as sometimes that is for you and me the role of faith is a key ingredient in whether or not people receive their healing. Time and time again Jesus in the gospel says go your way your faith has made you well and similarly repeatedly the Bible says that he criticizes those who do not have faith. As a matter of fact Mark chapter 6 has the most fascinating passage where the Bible says concerning Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth that he could not do any miracles there and the Bible says except lay his hands on a few sick people and healed them and he was amazed at their lack of faith. It's a fascinating verse because it doesn't say that he wouldn't do any miracles there it said he couldn't and so faith is a critical ingredient in God's movement upon the face of the earth. Think of it as a railroad analogy. Think of faith as the railroad tracks that make the way for the locomotive to go some place. Without faith it is impossible to please God. And the prayer of faith then is that kind of courage that kind of confidence that kind of boldness that says I believe I know what it is that God wants in this situation and I'm going to lay hold of God and not give up until God grants me what he has promised. Now big question of course is immediately if that's what faith is how do you get that kind of faith? How do you get the kind of faith that will move mountains? How do you get the kind of faith that will move heaven and earth? Well let me first tell you how you don't get it. You don't get it by drumming it up inside yourself. You don't get it by the power of positive thinking. You don't even get it simply by memorizing all the promises of scripture. Now I believe memorizing the promises of scripture is of critical importance in the life of the believer and we'll come back to the use of scripture in a few moments. But I discovered in my own youth that simply trying to talk myself into faith, trying to make myself believe the promises of God did not produce in me the kind of faith that could move mountains or the kind of faith that could stand up under the test of unanswered prayer. How do you get that kind of faith that will move mountains? Well here's what I want us to understand. We get it through union with Christ. Now listen to me really carefully if you remember nothing else that I say this morning please remember this. Jesus has the sum total of our inheritance. He has a full degree of faith. A faith that was ultimately tested and survived the test when he hung on the cross and he cried out on the one hand my God my God why have you forsaken me? And on the other hand moments later he can say father into your hand I commend my spirit. In good times and in bad times Jesus knew the father was good and that the father was a rewarder of those who diligently would seek him. Now if Jesus has perfect faith guess what happens when you and I are joined to Jesus. He shares with us his faith that's what union with Christ means. Specifically what it means is that through the power of the Holy Spirit he gives to each believer what the Bible calls a measure of faith. Think of it as the pie. Jesus owns the whole pie. You and I don't get to eat it all but we all get a piece of the pie even as it relates to the issue of faith. Now faith that God gives us through the Holy Spirit is both qualitative and quantitative. Let me explain what I mean by that. Qualitative in the sense that the measure of faith that God gives you is unique to your calling and to God's purpose on your life. And so if you're called to be a businessman God may well through faith in Christ give you a confident expectation that he will meet your needs and that you in turn can meet the needs of other people. You will maybe have the gift of giving. If you're called to leadership God will give you faith to believe that you can hear from God and that as you lead other people into the purposes of God you will not be leading them astray because God will be guiding your processes. Similarly if you're called to evangelism you not only see the opportunities everywhere for people that need to know Jesus there will be something in your heart that has a confident expectation that this man, this woman, this boy, this girl is destined for the kingdom and you're not going to rest until God hears you and answers your prayer. Everybody else may write that person off. Nobody else may believe what you believe concerning them but you have the gift of faith. Similarly about healing. If you're called to a ministry of healing whether physical or emotional or spiritual God will give you a gift of faith and that gift of faith will be unique to who you are and to what your calling is. There are many areas in my life where I cannot say that I am strong in faith but I know that when I meet a broken person, when I see the love that God has for them there is a confidence that God produces in me through the Holy Spirit that no matter who you are, where you come from or what you've done Jesus is big enough to heal you and to redeem you and to restore you and if you're in Christ there will be areas in your life maybe not the same as mine, maybe not the same as the person that you're sitting next to but areas where God in Christ has assigned to you a measure of faith. A measure of faith that is unique to you, that is unique to your calling and that you're called upon as we'll see in a few moments to develop. Do you understand what I'm saying? A measure of faith that is assigned to you sovereignly by God. Now that's qualitative. It's different to some degree for everybody. Everybody has a generic faith. We all have to believe in Jesus, we all have to believe in God but then specifically there are those specific areas where our fire burns and where our faith can shine. Not only qualitatively however but also quantitatively. That is to say our faith has a certain size to it. Some people's faith is this big, some people's cup of faith is this big, some people's cup of faith is this big and again there is nothing that you and I can do about the measure of faith that God has assigned to us sovereignly. He gives us what he knows in his sovereign will is both good for us and good for his kingdom. Our responsibility before God however is to develop that faith to the full. Whether we're one talented Christian or two talented Christian or a five talented Christian when it comes to issues of faith, our job before God is to be everything that we can be so that unhindered God's locomotive can flow through the railroad tracks of our lives to the destination that he is in mind for his kingdom. You with me? You don't drum up faith, you don't manufacture it, it is a gift sovereignly given because you've been joined to Jesus. So how do you get and develop the kind of faith that James is talking about here when he says offer the prayer of faith? Let me give you three very practical suggestions. Number one, abide in Christ. Makes sense doesn't it? If in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, if everything we need has been given to Jesus then if you're smart you're going to hang around Jesus. Because out of his overflow your life and my life will be filled. What does it mean to abide in Jesus? It means we stick close to him, obviously means we spend time with him, we try to get to know him and we learn to do what he wants us to do because through his Holy Spirit he will be guiding us and he will be constantly moving us forward into maturity and into growth, not only in love but faith, not only in faith but love and hope and all the other good things of which scripture speaks. And what will happen then as we abide in Christ is that we grow in our understanding of the character and the nature of God. Now I used to think in the early years of my Christian life that one of the keys to getting God to answer prayer was to appeal to his desire for the glory of his name. I mean haven't you ever thought or prayed something like this in your own life? There's a person who is sick, let's say our son Michael, or you're confronted by a situation or a circumstance which is, you know, just very detrimental to the coming of God's kingdom and you begin to pray and you say to yourself and you say to God, now God this is a great opportunity for you to show your power and for people to get to believe in you. Don't you think God could do much better in public relations than what he does? If you were God, I mean you want people to believe, pull off a few miracles. Now honestly, haven't you ever, haven't you ever thought that? And haven't you ever sort of been a little annoyed with God? Because, you know, if you just give me a little help, I could do some pretty good PR for you. And you have discovered as I have. You have discovered that God's not terribly interested. I think he's so secure in himself that he doesn't think he has to brag or boast or impress anybody else. And while there are times, particularly in evangelistic settings, where God will demonstrate his power to bring people to their knees so they can serve and honor him, I have discovered in my Christian life and in my reading of scripture that appealing to God to demonstrate his glory doesn't particularly move him in the area of making people better. You know, what I discovered instead as I began reading the Gospels, because remember now, Jesus is the very image of God. Jesus is the very reflection of the character of God the Father. What motivates Jesus to heal people when they are in need all in the pages of scripture? It is his compassion. Time and time again we read in scripture Jesus is confronted by broken people. He's confronted by lepers. He's confronted by prostitutes. He's confronted by people who are helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. And the Bible says repeatedly time and time again, he saw the multitudes and he had compassion from them. You want to get answers to prayer? Then appeal to the compassion in the heart of God for a wounded and a broken world. Because counterintuitive as it may seem and contradictory as it may appear to what you actually see happening in the world, scripture says concerning the person of God the Father that his heart aches for those who are broken, those who are wounded, and like a chicken seeks to gather her hens. So our Lord seeks to gather his people into his bosom. Appeal to his compassion, appeal to his compassion, appeal to his compassion and as you grow in relationship with God the Father through Jesus and you begin to understand that part of the heart of God, then you discover compassion emerges in your own heart. To this day one of the ways in which I know that God wants to do something in somebody's life, God drops in my heart a dose of compassion. I don't have equal compassion for everybody and everybody's needs. There are needs that I know are not in my business, there's nothing I can do about them. But every so often I will come across a person, I will come across a situation and the Holy Spirit shines into my heart and there is a compassion that flows forth that I know comes from the heart of God that gives me faith to believe God's going to do something in that person's life no matter how it looks on the outside. How do you get prevailing faith? Well you stick close to Jesus and then secondly you immerse yourself in scripture because scripture is one of the primary means by which God reveals himself. Scripture shows us the character of God. Scripture shows us the person of Jesus. Scripture shows us the values by which God operates, what it is that he is looking for in your life and mine. And as we expose ourselves to the biblical principles of truth as opposed to our experience and what we think and what we feel, then God uses that to produce faith. Faith says the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans, "comes from what is heard and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ." That's why it's so important for you and me to be able to share the person of Jesus. We are all over the place surrounded by people whose problems are bigger than anything that we can shake a stick at. And sometimes you just want to wring your hands and run away from the world because how in the world can these intractable problems ever be resolved? Well the biblical answer is the person of Jesus. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's already overcome and we need to proclaim him in word and in deed because when we do and that meets up with good soil in somebody's life, faith will begin to blossom forth. How do you get faith? You get to know Jesus. You get to know the scriptures and you learn to hang around with God's people. "Let us not give up meeting together," says the writer to the Hebrews, "as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near." I don't know if you've ever thought about this very much, but there's something very unusual that happens when God's people gather together like this. Because the Bible says not only is each one of us individually the temple of the Holy Spirit, we're also the temple of the Holy Spirit collectively. And you may think you just come into this place because we're going to sing songs of praise to God and listen to scripture and have fellowship with each other and all of those are wonderful things but there's a lot more happening. Jesus says we're two or three let alone many more are gathered in my name what happens? I am in the midst of them. You come with Jesus living in you through the Holy Spirit. I come with Jesus living in me through the Holy Spirit. Everybody else does regardless of our level of maturity or the lack thereof. What happens when we come together? Jesus is here. What happens when Jesus is here? Well whatever happens, whatever Jesus is there. The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the poor have goodness proclaimed. Creation is restored. And one of the geniuses of the church, one of the reasons we worship God is because when we're in right relationship with God through faith in Jesus and Jesus shows up in the power of the Holy Spirit, he drives back the darkness and he heals and he restores. And a church like this as many other churches all over the world are filled with stories, filled with stories of how God has come to us in our brokenness and has made us near. Last couple of days, a bunch of us from here had the privilege of attending a leadership summit sponsored by the Willow Creek people. It was a video conference at Ajax. And the featured speaker for the last session was Bill Hybels, senior pastor of the Willow Creek Church. And after proclaiming once again that God has come to us through once again the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ, he had about 35 or 40, maybe even as many as 50 people of his congregation walk on the stage. Each person was carrying a poster. And on one side of the poster, one or two words describing life before Christ. And then on the flip side, describing life after they had met Jesus. And they all prayed it to the front one at a time, showed us one side of the chart, flipped it over, then moved out of the way, and the next person came forward. Powerful. I can't remember all of them, but some of them stood out. One man on one side, big letters, me. Flipped it over, we. Powerful message. Other people, sex, drugs, rock and roll, redemption on the other side, lack of self-esteem on one side for one person, new identity in Christ. And this just went on and on and on. And by the time we came to the end of that, everybody was just ready to stand and cheer because you see, something ought to be happening when Jesus is in the presence of his people. And when he does, we ought to share those stories. That's why next Sunday night when these people make profession of faith, you're gonna hear some stories. You need to be here. You need to be here. Because one of the ways in which faith grows is by hearing what God has done in other people's lives. Listen to how David put it years ago. He said, "I have not hid your saving help within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness in your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation." And then he says, he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see in fear and put their trust in the Lord. How do you get prevailing faith? Well, you stick close to Jesus. You immerse yourselves in the pages of scripture so that you learn to live by God's reality in Christ and not by everything that you see around you or feel or experience. And then you hang around God's people. And you swap stories. And you tell each other the amazing acts of God as he dwells in our midst in the power of the Holy Spirit. And you know what happens when you do that? Faith begins to rise within your heart. And it's a lot like growing up, half the time you won't even notice it until all of a sudden you're confronted by a situation that demands faith. You'll meet some very sick person or some very broken relationship or some clear work of Satan's hands. And instead of just showing empathy and wringing your hands and saying, you know, isn't it too bad? Life is so painful. There will be something inside you from deep within your core that rises up and that says, and you'll have to forgive my language, but you cry out and you say, "Hell, no. This is not what God wants." And you begin to cry out to God and you begin to engage God in ways that you have never engaged Him. You find yourself praying things that you never thought you'd have the courage to pray. You are finding yourself declaring things in the kingdom of God that you never ever thought you'd declare. You look back upon yourself later on and you say, "Where in the world did that come from?" Well, that's the gift of prevailing faith. And that's the kind of faith that lays hold of God and that brings down heaven on earth. Now, you may only experience that once in a lifetime, or you may experience that regularly, particularly in the area of your calling. But experience it, you will, because that is the faith that is placed in you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when the situation and the circumstances demand it, all of a sudden it is unleashed. I'll never forget years ago, it was in the early years of our pastorate in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Michelle and I and the kids came back from vacation, came in through the back door as we typically do, and they're all over the hallway with tons and tons of boxes with somebody else's name on them. And we said to ourselves, what in the world is going on? I don't recall that we agreed to take in a border. And I don't remember anybody telling us, "It's time for us to move out. What are these boxes doing here?" Well, it turned out the local Christian school had hired a young female teacher. She had no place yet to call her own, and somebody in their wisdom had decided that our house was a good place to store her stuff. Nobody asked us, but then we weren't around to ask. Well, eventually in the Lord's good time we met this girl. And when I first met her, my heart just really went out to her. Her name was Annette. And Annette suffered from a skin disease in her face that had troubled her all her life. Think of the worst case of acne that you have ever seen, multiply it by 10. And that was Annette. And she had long since tried to come to terms with that. Well, rolled the clock forward a little bit, and Annette and I get to know each other a little bit, and we go to the same Bible study, and so we drive back and forth a lot. And in one of those conversations, the conversation turned towards her face, and it was like the Holy Spirit dropped these words into my heart, and I said to her, "Annette, do you really think that God wants you to live for the rest of your life with your face looking the way that it does?" Now, that sounds bad when I put it that way, but I said it in my pastoral best voice. I really did. Now appreciate the fact that here's a girl that has lived with this condition for a long time, has tried every treatment under the sun without avail, and has long since resigned herself for her own emotional well-being, which was a wise thing to do to the fact that this must be the cross that I have to bear. And I'd be the first to agree there are instances when there are crosses that we have to bear that God is not going to remove. But you know there was something in my heart when I saw that girl and developed a relationship with her that said, "This is not of God." And there was something in me that said, "This is not what God wants," and instead of just falling over and playing dead, we need to prevail with God and say, "God, please move." So that's what we began to do. And over a period of time, wouldn't you know it, her face began to clear up. And today she still shows some of the scars of all the stuff that she's been through, even as Jacob of old limped ever after he wrestled with the Lord. But you know in the course of time she found a wonderful Christian husband and last I heard was doing incredibly well. What happens when we pray the prayer of faith? Remember now we're not talking about manipulating God. We're not talking about making God do something for us that he doesn't want to do. No, we're talking about laying hold of the character of God and moving in keeping with the power of his Holy Spirit. What happens when we pray the prayer of faith? Well, James puts it well, "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well and the Lord will raise him up." I am convinced that no matter how complicated the subject of healing may be, there is much more that is available to the church than often we are ready and prepared to receive from God. And I know all the objections and I know all the realities of the world we live in. But none of those are to blind us to the fact that God is a God who is gracious and who longs to restore us. And many years ago I settled into my own mind this theology of healing that whatever it is that hinders you from accomplishing the purposes of God in your life and in your generation, God will either give you the grace to overcome it or he will give you the power to remove it so that his purposes can be accomplished. And increasingly in this community we have seen evidences of that. We have seen evidences of that not only in terms of spiritual and emotional healing. We've seen evidences that of it more recently in areas of physical healing. Many of you know the story of Noah Virgdienhjem, how he was tested for hearing. Went through three tests in the early stages of that and the conclusion of each of those tests was that he was profoundly deaf, which means that he would never hear, would never be able to speak, short of cochlear ear implants. Well Andy and Christy and David and Sarah have not only sought the Lord themselves but they've gathered together the elders and they have gathered together many other people for prayer as well. And little Noah underwent another test not very long ago and he is no longer categorized as profoundly deaf. His hearing has improved in both ears to the degree that if it stays at the level that it is, by means of hearing aids he'll be able to hear normal speech and will be able to learn to speak. As a matter of fact, if his hearing improves anymore, he will no longer be eligible for his cochlear ear implants. Now that is the [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:37:37.740; remove through 00:42:29.000] work of God. How do you get faith? You get it through union with Christ, by abiding in him, soaking in the scriptures, dwelling in Christian community, discovering that the Holy Spirit will work in us, that amazing gift of faith that emerges just when we need it so that these mountains can move for the glory of God. You don't have to be some brilliantly mature Christian. All you have to do is be a Christian, abide in Christ, and God will use your faith to move mountains so that the world may know that our God is not only alive but he has compassion and he is near to the broken hearted. Thank you. Jesus, I thank you. I gratefully thank you. Thank you. For all that you've done I will thank you. For all that you're going to do. For all that you promised and all that you are. It's all that has carried me through. Jesus, I thank you. And I thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you for loving and setting me free. Thank you for giving your life just for me. Thank you. Jesus, I thank you. I gratefully thank you. Thank you. Thank you for loving and setting me free. Thank you for giving your life just for me. How I thank you. Jesus, I thank you. I gratefully thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:42:29.000; resume after this marked segment]