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Do you know people who just seem to have a special gift and commitment to pray for other people? If you’re like most of us, like me, several names quickly come to mind, and one of them isn’t your own! These are people we turn to, because it just seems they take prayer seriously. Their prayers seem to have power. They always seem to be much more interested in praying for others before they pray for anything for themselves. Why are some people better than others at prayer? Are they just special, more spiritual, more godly than the rest of
us? I have never met someone who has this gift of praying for others that was always angry or fighting with other Christians. I’ve never heard “He/she really loves praying for other people, but man they sure are mean when they aren’t praying!” I haven’t met many people like this who were cocky about their prayers, bragging about how powerful their prayers are. People like this just seem to understand how their prayers don’t start with them. They seem to give God that credit. People with this kind of prayer life are critical to building up the church and healing relationships. We need them! So, what does James have to say about this? How can we all tap into a powerful prayer life? In chapter 5:16-18, James addresses the power of prayer and its connection to our relationships with one another.

(JAMES 5:13–15) IS ANYONE AMONG YOU SUFFERING? LET HIM PRAY. IS ANYONE CHEERFUL? LET HIM SING PRAISE. [14] IS ANYONE AMONG YOU SICK? 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. [15] AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH WILL SAVE THE ONE WHO IS SICK, AND THE LORD WILL RAISE HIM UP. AND IF HE HAS COMMITTED SINS, HE WILL BE FORGIVEN.

Have you ever wondered if your faith is strong enough to endure real persecution & suffering because you follow Jesus? I’m not talking your garden variety 1st world American “bad day”, I’m talking about real suffering. Do you have what it takes to be faithful to Jesus no matter what circumstances life might visit upon you? Have you ever come to a place where you just weren’t sure that your faith was strong enough? Do you wonder if you personally have what it might take if your loyalty to God & His church was really tested? The answer is, no! No, you don’t. In fact, no human who has ever lived has had that kind of faith. So, wait, now what? Yet all through scripture, we’re commanded to have that kind of durable, steadfast faith, no matter what we face. So, what does this mean? What do we do with a seemingly unreasonable command, that’s humanly impossible to keep? That’s precisely the question we’ll wrestle with together, as we explore the next test of our ropes of faith in James.

(JAMES 5:7–11) BE PATIENT, THEREFORE, BROTHERS, UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD. SEE HOW THE FARMER WAITS FOR THE PRECIOUS FRUIT OF THE EARTH, BEING PATIENT ABOUT IT, UNTIL IT RECEIVES THE EARLY AND THE LATE RAINS. [8] YOU ALSO, BE PATIENT. ESTABLISH YOUR HEARTS, FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD IS AT HAND. [9] DO NOT GRUMBLE AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, BROTHERS, SO THAT YOU MAY NOT BE JUDGED; BEHOLD, THE JUDGE IS STANDING AT THE DOOR. [10] AS AN EXAMPLE OF SUFFERING AND PATIENCE, BROTHERS, TAKE THE PROPHETS WHO SPOKE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. [11] BEHOLD, WE CONSIDER THOSE BLESSED WHO REMAINED STEADFAST. YOU HAVE HEARD OF THE STEADFASTNESS OF JOB, AND YOU HAVE SEEN THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD, HOW THE LORD IS COMPASSIONATE AND MERCIFUL. [12] SO ABOVE ALL, MY BROTHERS, DON’T SWEAR, EITHER BY HEAVEN OR EARTH OR OTHER OATH, BUT LET YOUR “YES” BE YES & YOUR “NO” BE NO, SO YOU MAY NOT FALL UNDER CONDEMNATION.

I want to start off today with a warning to any & all the KC chiefs fans out there who may hear this sermon. Something’s been bothering me. I've had enough of your constant bragging about Patrick Mahomes & all your winning. This is a firm warning to all of you, to tone it down, and depart from your arrogance before it’s too late. You always boast about how good your quarterback is, and your Super Bowl rings. You think you’re the king of the NFL. But let me tell you about another group of people who once felt invincible like they owned football—Patriots fans. With Tom Brady & Coach Belichick, they were unstoppable, winning Super Bowls even bending the rules—allegedly. In the end, what happened? Judgment day arrived. Brady left New England, and suddenly, the dynasty crumbled. And where did Tom end up? That's right, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team with the worst all-time winning % in history. And what happened? Oh yeah…. WE WON THE SUPERBOWL THAT YEAR! So, listen up you pompous, smug Chiefs fans. One day, it will be Mahomes jetting off to Tampa, and we'll be the ones celebrating. So, you should prepare for it now. Dispense with your arrogant cheering, and let it turn to weeping and mourning. Judgement day is coming. Your trophies will tarnish. You’ll join Patriots fans in bitter sorrow & jealousy when in the end, we prevail. What you just heard is a modern-day example of a literary tool used often in Jewish wisdom literature, called a diatribe. In a diatribe, the author addresses a hypothetical 3rd -party directly & forcefully to teach a principle to his real audience. My diatribe was directed towards Chiefs fans who aren’t in the room, designed to encourage righteous Bucs fans, like me, to stay loyal, stay faithful, because in the end we will win another Super Bowl. James uses a diatribe to expose the seductive power of wealth & why the faithful can’t allow money to become an idol.

(James 5:1-6) Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

"Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" - Psalm 90:12

Even though Moses tells us to number days. We get comfortable, coast, and we assume our lives will be long, full, & lasting. But really, even a long life is short, maybe 70 years, more if we’re lucky. Many lives are much shorter than that. We don’t have an endless supply of days. Our lives are a vapor. Often, when we make plans, we don’t act like a vapor. Instead, we operate as though we are some kind of immovable concrete pillar. Do your most ambitious plans, personal, professional, or financial, consider the cost or impact on the Kingdom of God? Are most of your professional or financial decisions driven primarily by a spreadsheet?
Or do the values Jesus taught in the SOTM have an equal impact on your calculations as the numbers do? Do you constantly forge ahead with plans, big or small without wise counsel from those within your church family? When you pray, are your prayers primarily that God would pave the way smooth for your plans to be successful? Are you more focused on your comfortable retirement plan than how to be sure you can relentlessly serve God in your
community of believers until the very end? Today’s passage deals with this constant tension between our plans & God's plans, & the humility necessary to honestly pray “your will be done” and truly mean it.

Has someone ever unfairly judged, slandered, or gossiped about you? How did that make you feel? I remember as a member of a church staff being publicly slandered with false accusations. It was devastating for me and my family in ways you can’t even imagine. To this day I still carry baggage from it. Even when someone slanders or gossips about something you actually did wrong, it’s still painful, and makes it even worse. Ok, here’s another question. Have you slandered or passed judgement on a brother or sister in your church? Sadly, I must confess, even though I went through that pain… I have been guilty of doing the same thing. Looking back, I am embarrassed by my hypocrisy. It’s very humbling when this reality hits you isn’t it? If we are all being transparent, we’ve all both given and received slander. Its painful, that moment when you realize you are no better than your accuser, or the one who has accused you. But our willingness to recognize this is an important test of your ropes of faith. So must go there together today. It’s important for us to understand where this all comes from, so that we can be on guard against it. And as we do, it will be easy to think of someone else. Don’t. Focus on yourself…. Ok are we ready?

(James 4:11-12) Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver & judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?