 With that said, let's look at verse 12 first and then I'm going to pick up at verse 13 and take you to verse 15 But we'll begin with looking just at verse 12 James chapter 5 verse 12 and James says this above all my brethren Do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath Let your yes be yes, and you're no No, lest you fall Into judgment and so as we begin we'll look at that verse by itself Then we'll pick up at verse 13 and take those verses together But what we have here is James giving last instructions to the churches And so he begins to conclude with an exhortation and the exhortation is for them to have something called integrity You see one of the qualities of a believer that has great impact on the world that we live in is the quality of integrity Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles the word integrity has been defined as the state of being whole and Undivided and so he's beginning here in verse 12 as he's concluding to say above all my brother and do not swear Either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Let your yes be yes You're no no lest you fall into judgment. He's beginning with an exhortation for them to have character to have integrity You see he's closing this section with this exhortation because a person's speech clearly reveals their spiritual Condition the things that you say are simply produced by your heart and when you speak you're giving a glimpse of what's going on inside of you In Matthew 12 34 and 35 Jesus said it like this. He said brood of vipers How can you be an evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks a Good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things Jesus simply made it clear. He said what proceeds out of your mouth is revealing your character Now James has already spoken concerning this he alluded to it in in chapter 1 verse 26 When he said if anyone among you thinks he's religious and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart This one's religion is useless So straightforward and honest speech reveals integrity is his word here in verse 12 is Avoid false oaths and avoid evasive speech He says do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath in other words be of such integrity that your word is respected as being true and Dependable let your word stand firm and be careful to keep it when you give it when my mother when my father went to heaven my mother moved to to New Mexico and You know she was an older woman when this all was taking place and it was difficult for her to be uprooted She was born in and raised in California It was difficult for her to be uprooted in the first place the loser husband and then To move into a new state and she moved into New Mexico. Some of you perhaps are from New Mexico Well, I know we have members of our church who are from New Mexico and all or perhaps you have relatives who live there I have relatives to this day who live in New Mexico and also my mom moved over to To New Mexico and and I was asking her how how is your adjustment? Coming along mama. How's it? How is it for you in New Mexico? And she said I'm having a tough time and I said well I'd assume that you are she says well, you know, it's not just the everything that goes into the moving She says it's it's I'm having a tough time getting used to the new Mexican people. I said, oh really in what way? She goes well. She goes, you know that saying mañana. I said, yeah, she says that's real And I go what do you mean? She says She says well, if you tell somebody can you come and work on my house and they'll say yes and She'll say can you come at 10 o'clock and they'll say be there at 10 She says David. She says 10 o'clock comes 11 o'clock comes 12 o'clock comes 1 o'clock comes and they never come She says they they don't keep their word here She says I was used to people from where I'm around if they said they're gonna be there They'd be there she says and I'm having a tough time adjusting to this because it's a very real cultural thing They'll tell you I'll be there and then when you call them and say you were supposed to be here at Nuna and I've been waiting that's oh, you know something came up and I'll be there And then they don't show up then either Well, you know james is talking to us and this is christians. We're not talking about just people We're talking about people who who claim to know the lord Well, james is saying no your yes has to be yes and your no should be no and don't say yes when you intend to say no It's like the guy who calls up the girl and says I'd like to take you out and she says Well, I'd love to go out with you, but I'm I'm gonna wash my hair that night Okay, how about the next night? Well, I think the next night I'm going to have and then she's got all this list of reasons Instead of just saying no, you're ugly. Gee I don't want to go out with you I'll never go out with you ugly No Just be real. Just say no. I don't want to go out with you. Just let your yes be yes and your no be no Have integrity And he says also notice this he goes Um, do not swear verse 12 do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath In other words be of such integrity that your word is respected as being true and dependable In other words, let your word stand firm and be careful to keep it when you give it In matthew 537 jesus said it like this. He said let your yes be yes your no No for whatever is more than these is from the evil one We need to remember god is the god of truth Your word should be good enough if you're a christian Christians of all people are to be the most honest of all people we should have the most integrity Somebody said the pinnacle of a man's greatness is the height of his own character And proverbs 22 one says a good name is more desirable than great riches So there was an old saying it's the same that I don't hear anymore, but They said his word is his bond Our yes in other words is yes And when we say no, we really mean no Because in this world believers are to be known for character and integrity Paul said in romans 12 verse 2 do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world But be transformed by the renewing of your mind Then you will be able to test and approve what god's will is Is good pleasing and perfect will So god's desires for us to have integrity God's desires for us as believers to keep our word Because that reveals that we truly are children of god because our god doesn't lie Warren weirsby an author i've read his devotionals and things over the years Wrote in a book called the integrity crisis something i think is worth repeating at this point Warren weirsby said for centuries The church has been telling the world to admit its sins repent believe the gospel Today the world is telling the church to face up to her sins repent and start being the true church of that gospel We christians boast that we are not ashamed of the gospel of christ But perhaps the gospel of christ is ashamed of us Because of the failure of many christians to be christlike the church is losing credibility And if we lie about little things Then who's going to believe us when we give them the gospel? There are those that say i won't attend church because it's filled with insincerity and hypocrisy So somebody said the church is like Noah's ark If it if it weren't for the judgment on the outside you could never stand the smell on the inside And so as the church need to be the church we need to Be people of integrity. We need to seek the lord. We need to be careful to pursue him daily We need to keep a close watch over our own lives In proverbs 4 23 it says keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life So we pray and we decide we're going to walk closely to the lord and in the psalmist said it like this in psalm 86 11 He said teach me your way. Oh lord, and I will walk in your truth Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name And so he begins here by just saying let your yes be yes and your no no He said lest you fall into judgment you would fall into judgment for making an oath and not keeping it So he says let your yes be yes and let your no be no be people of integrity Keep your word if it's yes send yes then follow through if it's no Then it's no and follow through so just have integrity But now he moves on into verse 13 Is anyone among you suffering let them pray Is anyone cheerful? Let them sing psalms Is anyone among you sick? Let them 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 will save the sick and the lord will raise him up And if he's committed sins He'll be forgiven Now i'm going to preface this portion. We're going to be looking at four things suffering singing sickness and sin That's what we're going to be looking at in verses 13 through 15 But let me preface this let me introduce this by By just sharing something with you that is is rather it's rather personal, but It may help you understand how i'm going to be approaching this and what you may see Emotionally that can come out of me First service was a tough service for me So i thought i'd better explain some things to the second service That way you're not surprised if you see me well up with tears or you hear the emotion that i feel If i'm open with you like i was first service that that very well may happen You know just just this last two weeks my wife and i have have um We've we've gone through emotions with others That that had been Very touching to us and so my heart is is raw to be honest with you We attended the memorial service or for a baby six days old that went to be with jesus We were part we attended that service and And a brother and our fellowship who went on to help to begin a new church in mont clare Served here for 22 years. I attended his memorial service just yesterday He's in the hospital on friday to visit one of the members of our church that has been serving the lord here since 1992 And he's he's not doing well at all and while we were there Somebody approaches my son actually joseph works at this hospital and joseph came and approached me and said dad There's another couple from our church who's here right now just a few places You know a few rooms over and so we're there with somebody very dear to me who's not doing well at all And then we just go to another room and so these things have been happening My heart is raw Forgive me for the emotion. I'm apologizing in advance So this is about sin and sickness and suffering And as i'm going through it My heart is touched by people. I know By people i'm seeing right now hurting And and we we when one person in the body hurts the whole body hurts And as a pastor I would not be a true shepherd that my heart didn't get touched by the pain that I see my sheep in Forgive me because I don't like to come and weep. I get embarrassed that I actually show emotions I I I I don't want to But the word is it's going through me It's revealing myself to me even as I teach to you and i'm broken right now My heart is sad. So forgive me. It's not that I don't have hope God is my hope But we weep with those who weep as well as rejoicing with those who rejoice So I know you didn't come to church to watch the weeping pastor. I know that But i'm just i'm just giving you an announcement This is this is this is one of those messages that has is tearing my heart as I speak So please forgive me for the emotion and i'll do my best to become Tough but i'm not i'm i'm i'm just a weekly and I I show my heart My dad used to say, you know, that's your biggest problem. David You're you you're just too open But it's also my greatest blessing because I don't want to hide from you what god does in my life and so That's who I am You know, thank you. Thank you for your kindness You know friday, I celebrated if you will my 49th anniversary of coming to faith in christ Yeah And i'm i'm so blessed i'm so blessed but over the 49 years Can you imagine the amount of tears and sorrow that that I and my wife marie that we have encountered Together and so sometimes those things come out when I teach sometimes those emotions are raw And I haven't had time yet to let them settle so that I can have control And it's because there's one thing after another After another and it's been waves that are pretty serious and and they deeply affect me And so I say that to you so I can get into this study and blubber like a fool for the next hour Actually, no, I'm just by telling you I feel much better. Let's see what happens now shall we Verse 13 is anyone among you suffering? Let them pray Is anyone cheerful? Let them sing songs And so we're going to look at suffering and singing we're going to look at sickness and we're looking at sin And as we do so notice what he begins with And verse 13 He says is anyone among you suffering and then he says let him pray When he says is anyone among you suffering the word suffering in the original language This new testament was written in greek. It was called koine greek common greek It's the common language at that day the word suffering means to be afflicted in any way It speaks of enduring evil And hardship Now james has already approached this word in verse 10 Of chapter 5 When he said take the prophets who spoke in the name of the lord as an example of suffering And patience so he's already referred to suffering in james 5 verse 10 And so suffering or being afflicted so affliction and suffering undergoing tribulation is part of following christ It's part of being a christian And jesus prepared us for this he he prepared us to go through the afflictions and all In acts chapter 14 verse 22 Paul said we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of god in john 16 verse 33 Jesus said these things i've spoken to you that in me you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation But be of good cheer i have overcome the world So concerning affliction in the life of the believer we know that we go through affliction We know that we go through tough times pressures hardships. We know that but we also know that that god works through it We know that affliction is not pointless But is performing a work in our lives In romans 5 paul said it like this he said in verses 3 through 5 not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation works patience and patience experience and experience hope And hope make hope makes not ashamed because the love of god Is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us And so there's a good thing a thing that occurs as we go through these things and god is working in all of it That's why later in romans 12 verse 12 paul will say rejoicing in hope and patient in tribulation and continuing instant in prayer For the christian times of affliction aren't pointless Because it's the times that we go through affliction that we learn the deep lessons It's the times that we go through affliction that we learn about the lord We see them as as god working to purify our lives and and and through the afflictions and sufferings that we go through And we do go through these things God works and refines us Isaiah 48 10 says i have refined you but not a silver I've tested you in the furnace of affliction Afflictions Afflictions prepare us To minister to others through what god has taught us Have you ever said lord make me like you in any way shape or form? Have you ever prayed and said god i want to be a better christian? I want to be real like i want to be authentic I i want to have a faith that's That that is that is strong and solid Part of the way that that happens is through the the tough times you You endure the things that you go through Have you ever said lord i'd like a heart That cares for others Well part of the way that that takes place is your heart is broken It's not testimony time for me, but i'll share one element of it By the time i was 20 years old just before i got saved I was a pretty hard in person very hard I had gotten arrested for burglarizing a jewelry store when i was 18 and A lawyer my dad hired a lawyer his name was stanley brown He was from beverly hills. He sent me christmas cards for years hoping i'd get in trouble again stanley h brown My dad hired him my dad actually took a second out on our house to pay for this lawyer from beverly hills Because i was going to do some prison time for burglary. I had stolen uh felony Amount of diamond rings and i got arrested And i was i still remember seated being seated in my dad's uh kitchen and stanley Brown was looking at me and he looks at my dad And he says to my dad as he's looking at me this he said this boy Doesn't have a heart this boy is hard He doesn't have any sense of remorse because i was one of those kids I still remember i just would lean back put my head back and That's the way i was and my dad said Well, he's deep. No, i was deep in in sin. It's what it was. I was hardened. I didn't care I didn't care how people cried over me. I didn't care how i hurt them I didn't care if you said something to me that i didn't like it didn't matter I'd let you know i didn't like this, you know And i'd say it in a mean and really rude and brutal way very often and and i actually took Took pride in being unkind i took a certain a certain pride in Using my ability to communicate to make people feel stupid I took a pride in that and I still remember when I was supposed to go into the military I had been drafted and and I had uh supposed to go in august 25th And uh, I went on and partied all night. I I was drinking and Smoking dope and just loaded Very loaded and I came in at three in the morning or so and got up at five And my dad was driving me to the induction center in los angeles And I came walking in two hours of sleep. I was still still still high still a little drunk and my mom was crying My dad was crying my two sisters were crying and and my dad was just standing with his arms folded looking at me And my mom says when your brother frank went into the navy He came and climbed in bed between your dad and me and cried because he was leaving home and you didn't even come home And I said so what I said i'm gone I said i'll be gone for two years I said you won't have to bother with me anymore. So what? That was my attitude and they cried my sister cried my dad was angry. My dad gave me ten dollars back in 1970 Ten dollars was a lot more than than it is now And my dad gave me ten dollars and they dropped me off. He dropped me off at the induction center I still remember just looking at my dad climbing out and I said i'll see you and I walked out I mean had no emotions no feelings no heart nothing and I climbed out and I just went in with his ten dollars And they rejected me that day because of the burglary and I had a friend of my name gary Who was also rejected and he had a lid he had some marijuana and he and I went out and smoked some pot I bought him some breakfast called a friend of mine spent my dad's ten dollars treating him to a meal I went home. I walked into the house and my father looks at me and he said you're supposed to be in the army And I said to my dad even uncle sam doesn't want me and I laughed and I went and slept it off in my room That was me. That's how I was. I was cruel. I was mean. I had no heart At all and if it hurt you I don't care who do I care? Who are you? And that's that was me. What do I care and I got saved And I said god break my heart break my heart and he has For 49 years And I finally have gotten to the place where I weep with those who weep And I rejoice with those who rejoice and I can tell you it's the hard things in my life That have made me into what I am and I wouldn't change a single thing other than I wish I could control my tears I wish I could but I can't I can't but he broke me I am telling you 49 years of experience that affliction It's suffering. They're hurting Changes you and makes you into what you want to be so that you actually care about other people that you actually Want to do good for other people and that's how it works And the lord does that and the afflictions that you go through the suffering that we as church That we as a body of christ go through well when we go through these things the the afflictions prepare us to minister to others Because we have been comforted by god and we can comfort others in the way he comforts us In second corinthians 1 6 that's what paul says He says if we are distressed if we're afflicted it is for your comfort in salvation If we are comforted it's for your comfort which produces a new patient endurance of the same sufferings We suffer we go through things so that we can offer you things that we know god gave to us Do you want to be a comforter to somebody else you will be comforted you will go through hard times It's our our times of difficulty that are the times that actually work to draw us closer to the lord And so i'm 1967 before i was afflicted i went astray But now i keep your word In job 5 17 it says behold Happy as a man whom god corrects therefore do not despise the chastening of the almighty And so that helps us to understand the ways of the lord We go through affliction we go through suffering. But what do we do? We pray we seek the lord We ask god to help us we could we say god strengthen us god deliver us According to verse 9 the natural response is to complain. That's why he had said do not grumble against one another our natural responses to complain But instead of complaining and grumbling what we do is we learn to pray You see prayer reveals our dependence on god and and faith that he hears us as we cry In psalm 50 verse 15 call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me Psalm 9 to 115 he shall call upon me. I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honor him. That's how you learn that so you're going through pain disappointment hurt rejection You're a parent and your kid's not walking with god You're you're married and your marriage isn't doing well You have a tough time on the job Something's going on you went to the doctor for a routine physical and it turns out There are things about you that you didn't realize or there conditions that you're just sitting there As the doctor speaking and you're unable to even process it like when I was sitting at the doctors and and the doctor had given me so many tests and and said Your condition is that if Something doesn't change in seven years. You're going to be dealing with dementia You'll forget everything And I'm sitting there looking at the doctor say that to me a man whose entire life Is built on memory And he's she's telling me in seven years You won't have a memory And I go into my car and I sit there with my hand at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock And I wait for my wife to take care of The business that she has to take care of she climbs in the car and sits next to me and I say put me in a home Put me in a home I'm not going to have you taking care of me. I don't want to be that man. I can't remember The name of his wife Put me in a home They had said in seven years. I was going to lose my memory they had done this testing on my frontal lobes and found calcification The doctor had said you've got seven years That was when I was 58 And I turned 65 I don't have any problems And so I go back to the doctor who had told me that And I'm sitting there waiting for him to give me the final Comments and he says, you know, I don't know what to tell you sometimes we make mistakes And we made a mistake this time. You're okay. There's nothing wrong with you But you live with these things guys You live with these things I live with these things all of us do all of us do All of us the longer you live the more you deal with The more disappointments The more pains The more physical things Know that you go through that's just life. It's not a negative It's reality How do you deal with that? What do you do with it for me? I've asked the lord help me to use whatever it is that is loaded on me To be of help to other people To understand and you want to have compassion You're going to go through a place that's going to help you to have it And so many of you are saying I don't want compassion I just want to be blissed But i'm telling you I wouldn't change anything Because what the lord does through these things is he not only Delivers you but he also equips you so that you can be a word of experience to somebody else I went to a funeral memorial service A little fella who died Within just a few days of his birth And the young pastor got up and shared and Gave a kind of a spiritual pep talk and And i'm an older man and i've been through a lot of a lot of wars a lot of ministry for a long time 46 years Done a lot of funerals Buried stillborn babies Buried suicides I've been there. I've seen that ministered to the families afterwards And i'm watching this And it's a pep talk And marina I get in the car and we're driving. I said he's a great communicator He needs to develop a heart. He needs to develop a compassion Because you're speaking to broken people And they don't need a pep talk They need someone who will weep with them when they weep They need somebody who knows how To journey when your eyes are so wet with tears and you don't know where you're going and your hands are just in front of you You need somebody Who's able to walk with you We're gonna make it We'll be okay. God is with us. We're not lost. He's at the end of this road. Hold on We're gonna make it and that's how you get it guys That's how you get that that's how you learn When you're going through suffering you pray And you say god strengthen me enable me Create in me Your image so I can be a hand of help to somebody So i'm not that person who just comes up and gives a quick scripture and then walks off Because I want to not only rejoice with those who rejoice, but I want to learn to weep with those who weep And and if you want to be deep you go through deep things If you want to be strong you're going to have your strength tested and your body's going to be broken And then you're going to discover that on your own you can't do it But with christ I can do all things and you'll learn that success in christ. That's what you learned That's how it works. And i'm an old man talking to young people. Listen to me It's true You want to be strong you'll be tested You want to help people you're going to need help But you learn the ways of god that way and you become a strong warrior for jesus christ That's how it works. He draws us close to himself in that way. And so he says Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. And so from one place he goes to another You see in the life of a believer Singing and praising god is a response of a joyful faith-filled heart Singing psalms when he speaks of singing psalms a psalm is a song accompanied by a stringed instrument like a harp or a guitar So singing praises to god Have always been part of true worship We love to sing we sing for all occasions. We sing all kinds of songs But of all people christians have the best reason to sing We have the best because we worship and praise our god And and when you read your bible the word praise is is very commonly associated with with our god And and and in the psalms alone the word praise is used 160 times When we speak of praise That speaks of adoration it speaks of thanking god And it's natural for us to do so you see that all through the psalms and through the bible psalm 100 verse 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise Be thankful unto him bless his name He was 1315 by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to god continually That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Ephesians 5 19 speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns spiritual song singing making melody in your heart to the lord Colossians 3 16 let the word of christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual song Singing with grace in your heart to the lord just this morning as I awakened. There's a song in my heart A song that was sung by keith green and and i'm just going over it minute I wake up in the morning It's it's what you do as a christian as you worship and you praise god singing praise to god It is is something we do at all times and it's not simply restricted to when things are going well Think of acts chapter 16 And remember that the apostle paul and his friend silas were were preaching the gospel in a city called filipi And while ministering they encountered a demonized woman and they cast that demon out the scripture says and when they happened it outraged her masters So they had paul and silas arrested for troubling the city So the judges the magistrates ordered them beaten with rods and they threw them in prison And they fastened their feet in the stocks. They secured them so they couldn't escape How did they react to this they were out there preaching they did a work in the name of jesus They set a woman free and now they're just beaten up and they're just the bodies are so open up And they're they're in such pain and they're they're chained in in stocks and well What does this say act 16 25 says at midnight paul and silas were praying and singing hymns to god and the prisoners were listening to them There they are in that condition Their bodies were restricted, but their spirit wasn't And they worshiped god and the people listened and as this was taking place There was a filipian jailer who heard this taking place and and came and began to speak to them and finally said to them What must i do to be saved? They said believe in the lord jesus christ and you shall be saved in your household Because he took them to the to his house and they preached the gospel to his family So by their imprisonment and their praise they were able to preach a gospel that set people free And that's why paul and romans 828 could tell us this We know that all things work together for good to those who love god To those who are the called according to his purpose We know this because paul had gone through that In verse 14 the question is asked 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 And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the lord will raise him up and if he's committed sins He will be forgiven Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders So james now speaks of sickness He's speaking about being weak or feeble to be without strength to be powerless Obviously being a believer doesn't insure us against illnesses. We live in a fallen world We're subject to sicknesses like everybody else In scripture faith-filled believers are mentioned as having to contend with illness in second kings chapter 13 verse verse 14 The prophet elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died In the new testament paul gave instructions to timothy in first timothy 5 23 Said no longer drink only water But use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities In second timothy 4 20 paul said harassed the state in Corinth Petrophimus i have left in my lidas sick paul himself suffered with various ailments in second chrithians 11 30 paul said if i must boast i'll boast in the things Which concern my infirmity the word infirmity is translated illness ailment disease or sickness Many commentators say that paul may have had trouble with his eyesight You see in engolations in 4 chapter 4 verses 14 and 15 where paul said my trial which was in my flesh You didn't despise or reject but you received me as an angel of god even as christ jesus What then was the blessing you enjoyed for i bear you witnessed that if possible you had plucked out your own eyes and given them to me And later in in galatians 6 11 he says see with what large letters I've written to you with my own hand large letters It gives us a clue that he was writing and he couldn't really see the letters that he was forming And so it's commonly believed that he had An eye ailment that caused him to to lose sight He couldn't see properly or clearly It would seem that he he needed a physical healing for his eyesight But it doesn't say that he received it Now I say that just to say that A believer can be sick a believer can be ill But that doesn't mean that we don't ask god to touch our bodies We do we ask the lord and that's what verse 14 tells us It says if anyone is sick let him call for the elders of the church Let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord So when a christian is sick may that christian ask for prayer When a believer has been undergoing affliction in his week They need prayer And notice how james says call for the elders of the church Let them pray over him anointing him So you call you call for one of the church leaders In the doing of that you're demonstrating faith But they do this they pray over him in faith believing that the lord can heal him In hebrews 11 verse 1 it says now faith is being sure of what we hope for and Certain of what we do not see And so they pray in faith trusting the lord And then they anoint him with oil when you read your bible you note that oil represents medicine as well as the holy spirit And so there's a combination of the two thoughts there when you anoint with oil Because in one form medicine oil was looked at as medicine You see that in in luke chapter 10 verse 34 when the samaritan found this person who had been injured on the road and and it says that he had he went to him He bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine and so that was medicinal But you also know that that that the holy spirit is often Spoken of as the the oil it represents the spirit We know that prophets priests and kings were anointed with oil And so when you pray from you pray anointing them Symbolizing medicine but also an awareness of the one who does the healing And he says and the prayer verse 15 of faith will save the sick and the lord will raise him up The prayer of faith is another way of saying prayer offered up in faith Such prayer is evidencing the confidence in god God who who heals and a god who saves now when he says in verse 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick the word save is an interesting word again in the original language The word is sozo Sozio And it speaks of being made whole It speaks of healing or making well and the word sozo can be used also for For salvation as well as for healing and so that's what he's speaking about here He's saying it can heal them And make them well the elders anoint they pray with faith And god is able to heal that person and we leave it in the hands of the lord If there's anybody in in our church that I know for sure Wants to see god heal people I'd have to I'd have to say it would be me My mom when I was four years old My mom suffered an epileptic seizure for the first time My brother was six and I was four. We were playing in a front room My my my dad's house that my parents home in the front room We had a little pocket door. My mom would close it and she I had a sister named Madeline Who was a year old at that time a little over a year My mom would actually bathe her in the kitchen because she could turn the oven on and warm up that small room and so she would bathe her in the sink there and I heard the sound of something crashing and then the pocket door began to vibrate And I was four years old and my brother and I were playing in the front room And I remember sliding the pocket door open and when I did my mother's body fell into the room At my feet So my mom's head was at my feet as my mom was shaking having an epileptic seizure And I remember looking at her as she was vibrating there and shaking and I'd Never seen anything like this and I remember pressing my back against the wall And my mom was there and I started praying. I was four years old My mom had already been teaching me to pray And I I still remember just saying god god help my mommy. That's what I was saying My brother ran out of the room And he ran across the street. He was six years old Crossed a busy street ran and grabbed a neighbor brought her back Isabel came and she came into the house and we didn't know what to do This is this is well. We didn't know what it was. Well, my mom had epilepsy And so I I I saw this From the time I was four and I would pray as a little boy God helped my mom And and and there were many times that I came home from school Five six seven eight years old I'd come home from school My mother would be laying on a couch or on the floor when I walked in the door And she'd be having a seizure. She had it all the time. She had terrible grand mall seizures She had them quite often as I grew up. I ended up trying to raise help my kid My sisters who were younger than me. I would be babysitting them I'd have to usher them in another room when my brother would Take alcohol and rub it on my mother's forehead to we just didn't know what to do So we'd put alcohol on her as she would come out of her seizures And and I went through that for years with my mother when when I was 10 years old My mom who was 30 at the time because they had given her medications for her seizures It had done something to her gums and diseased her gums And she had every one of her teeth pulled at the age of 30 My mom didn't have a single cavity But they pulled all of her teeth and at the age of 30 My mom began to wear dentures from 30 until the day she died And if there's anybody who's ever prayed for healings That god would move it was me It was me And I pray and I would seek god and I'd say god in jesus name I still remember my dad calling me because my mom had my mom got lupus and her body was racked with pain And and I still remember my father calling me and saying son Can you pray for your mom and I could hear my mom in the background screaming and pain And I I carried this in my heart all the time all the time All this pain that I've seen And god in jesus name touched my mama My mom finally fell broke her back stayed in a bed for the last year of her life And finally died in the arms of my sister a few years ago And I prayed for my mom and I prayed for my mom and I prayed for my mom Fervent prayer of a righteous man available as much But it's always in the hands of god God is a healing god He is jojoba the one who heals and I believe that that sometimes he doesn't What does it do My mama would be in bed and she says son I feel so useless in the kingdom of god I said mama you are the most praying woman. I know Don't let this become your prison Mama use your bed as your prayer tower You lift me up you lift my wife up you lift my children up Pray and seek the lord while you're there But I prayed and I prayed and I prayed that mama would be healed if anybody Wanted to see healing it was me and it still is I want to see god heal Because I want people to be relieved from the suffering that they go through But sometimes he doesn't heal is it because he can't no It's because he chooses not to is that make him cruel? No, it makes him wise He knows what he's doing and I trust him God can make us whole and we are to pray for healing But we pray that god will do it according to his will in first john 5 14 This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us And so we pray and we say god in jesus name You are the healing god and we pray and we seek the lord for this, but it's up to him He says in verse 15 interestingly if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven In this context, james makes it clear that that some sins can lead to physical illness We see an example of this in the healing of a man who was brought to jesus by his friends He was paralyzed and remember his friends broke open a roof and they lowered this man before jesus christ on a mat Matthew tells us in chapter 9 verse 2 of his gospel that some men brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a mat When jesus saw their faith, he said to the man take heart son your sins are forgiven you Whatever it was that was related to his illness. There was a root And the root may very well have been something he had practiced that ended up injuring him His greatest need was to be healed in a forgiving way first and that's why jesus forgave him first He may not He may not heal my body But he has healed my soul I may limp until the day I die But I'll walk and jump in heaven And I believe that Because there's walking I'll be leaping and I'll be praising god And I'll be able to see clearly I have glaucoma. I'm losing eyesight in my right eye But guess what my left eye is fine But one day both will be perfect when I behold his face and that's how it is So whatever you go through you hand it to the lord And you say god, I want you to heal me. I want you to touch my body I want to be physically able to do the things that I at one time was able to do without the pain that I feel But lord, you've made me more compassionate and caring through these things I understand some things that I never understood before and lord, I'm fine with that But lord in jesus name if you would touch me. Oh god, I know you can I pray that you will But if you don't thank you for forgiving me of all my sins Because one day I will be with you where there is no pain where there is no sorrow where there is no sickness There's only joy. You will wipe away every tear from our eyes We will behold your face and it will all have been worth it So thank you lord for the worth that you do even through these things Healing is up to the lord But forgiveness of sin is guaranteed one last silly story My mom was quite a dancer My mom could dance She would dance in contests as a young girl And she used to tell me how she'd win these contests and this and that I have no doubt that she could because mama could dance She did the jitterbug and things like that. She was from the 40s And it was quite a kick to watch my mama when she'd get on that That floor and dance my dad couldn't dance My dad had two left feet He met her at a dance He couldn't dance He would move one foot and move the left foot than the right foot and the left foot and he'd just stand like this looked like a robot And my mom literally would dance around him. I can still remember I'd watch my mom and she'd be dancing She'd dance around my dad. My dad would just be doing this thing, you know, it was funny and we'd be like, ah daddy can't dance Well mama got ill. She had lupus her her feet and hands were Were uh gnarled From the prednisone that she she took She couldn't move. She was in a bed Her back was broken My dad had died in 2001 Mama had been without daddy for 12 years and every day she asked My sister, where's daddy and every day because my mom was going through dementia Every day my sister had to relive The story of daddy going to be with jesus Then one day my my mama died in my sister's arms She went to be with jesus and I gave her memorial service and I said something like this. I said, you know I said, I'm just saying something that is Sentimental but not biblical So please don't try and find a place in the bible because it's not there I'm just kind of sharing my heart with you for a moment I said, you know mama used to love to dance And my daddy couldn't I said, but I can't help but hope That mom and dad Are dancing Together Before the throne of god The way david danced with all of his heart I pray that mama and my dad are dancing Before the lord I said and my daddy can finally dance Because he's in heaven You see my hope Is not on earth My hope is in heaven My hope is in heaven I'm just passing through I'm just passing through Every day god gives us this beautiful day. Thank you jesus But one of these days and it won't be long You know Our backs won't hurt anymore Our legs won't hurt anymore. Our shoulders won't hurt anymore Our bodies won't ache anymore you young people you have a lot of good things to look forward to I promise you It won't hurt anymore Will be before the lord will be before the lord before his throne Our hands will be lifted high our voices will be in full Volume and we will sing praise to the lamb of god We took away the sin of the world and brought us to be with him in heaven But until that moment If we're suffering We pray If we're rejoicing We sing We take all of these things to the lord And we thank him For he's taken care of our sin And we will see him face to face And he will wipe those tears from our eyes And we will praise him forever Because our god has loved us and sent his son to dine across for us So that we could be with him and in that we can rejoice Our sins have been taken care of by the lamb Jesus Christ our savior