Take It To God

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to James chapter 5. We are wrapping up. This is the final teaching in our study through the book of James. If you have been here every week for the last couple months, we have gone verse by verse through the book of James. Somebody say, “That’s impressive.” Okay, we’ve gone through the entire book of James.

And we love this book, number one, because it is a practical book full of wisdom. Many biblical scholars will equate it to the book of Proverbs, because it’s a lot of short statements, but it’s really identifying for believers what it means to have living faith. And how many of you know that’s really what we want to have? We don’t want to have dead faith. We want to have living faith, where we are walking blameless before the Lord, where we’re not just hearers of the word but we are doers of the word, where we don’t just say one thing with our lips and then do another, but we actually listen to the Lord and follow the Lord.

When things are hard — and when they’re good

And so James is going to continue here in James chapter 5. We’re going to start at verse 13. James is continuing with the idea of enduring in difficult times. Have you guys ever faced difficult times in your life? Everybody’s hands should be flying up, right? Difficult times. And that’s who James is writing to. He’s writing to an early church that has faced a lot of difficulties. There’s a lot of tension. There’s kind of just divisions within the church. And James is saying, listen, this is how as believers we need to walk before the Lord: that we should endure, that we should continue to pray.

And right now James is about to go into this moment about what it means. What do we do when it feels like things are really difficult or heavy in our own lives? When we don’t know what to do — we don’t know if we should post about it on social media, and maybe somebody will reach out to us. We don’t know if we should just try to say, “I’m good. I’ve got it. I’m strong enough.” What do we do when we face difficulties, when things are bad and we don’t know where to turn? Or when things are good and we’re kind of uncertain, like, when’s the shoe going to drop? When are things going to get bad again, right? How do we navigate those things?

And James is writing here. He’s saying, “Take it to God.” Everybody say that with me: “Take it to God.” That’s the title of today’s message. James is writing to people who are going through all kinds of emotional, physical, and spiritual tensions. And as we come into James 5:13, his advice is very simple: take it to the Lord. I don’t know about you, but when I’m not feeling good, sometimes I like to take it everywhere else but to the Lord, right? I want to fix it. I want to Google it. I want to complain about it. I want to vent about it. I want to do all these things. But James is writing, “No, take it to the Lord.” No matter what is going on, James is showing us that God wants to meet us in our difficult situations and in our joyful situations.

Okay. So let’s look at James chapter 5, starting at 13. And can we read this out loud together? You can follow along in your Bibles, but we’re going to have it on screen. It’s the New King James Version. Let’s just fill this atmosphere with the word of God this morning. James chapter 5, starting at verse 13. Ready? Go. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 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.” Oh, we’ll stop there. Yes. Thank you.

And so here is James. He’s talking about how really we should honor God and trust in Him and persevere in difficult times. And James shares three examples of how we are to endure and to put our trust in Him. He says this: “Is anyone suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone sick? Call for the elders of the church to pray over them.”

I find this interesting. The overarching emphasis here is that no matter what you’re facing, no matter what you’re going through, take it to the Lord. If things are good, praise the Lord. If things are bad, call to the Lord. If you are sick, call the elders and let’s bring that to the Lord. Really, in all things, what are we to do? We’re to bring it to the Lord.

I find it interesting that James has the same advice for those who are suffering as those who are cheerful. How many of you know He is the beginning and the end? He’s everything. No matter what is going on, if we are suffering, we’re to take it to the Lord in prayer. But how many of you know when you’re suffering, we should also still be giving praise? Amen. We should be giving thanks, because the Lord is faithful and He is worthy and He is due those things. And if all we ever receive from the Lord is salvation and life with Him, how many of you know that really is everything? So when we’re suffering, we’re to take it to the Lord. And when we’re cheerful, we’re to take it to the Lord in praise. But how many of you know when things are going good, we should not stop praying? We should continue to pray.

Call for the elders

And so James writes in verse 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.” What I love about this is that James writes this assuming, as he’s writing to believers, that these believers are actually a part of a church community. There’s many believers — and it had become a thing; I believe the Lord’s bringing it back — but it had become a thing that “I don’t really need church to be a believer. I don’t really need church to live life holy and blameless before Him.”

But how many of you know it is really expected that if you are a believer in Christ Jesus — yes, it is true that salvation is a personal work. Amen. It’s true that when we come to life with Him and our sins are forgiven, that is a personal moment between us and the Lord. But our faith is not meant to be lived alone. Our faith really is meant to be lived in community with other believers. In fact, you can’t live a life that is holy and blameless the proper way when we are not a part of a community. And so James is writing, and he is assuming that if you are sick and you’re a believer, “I’m expecting that you’re in a church community.”

And so Jesus, the night before He died, prayed this very thing. He said, “Make them one as we are one,” right? So when Jesus died and went to heaven, He wasn’t saying, “All right, I’ve saved you all. Now just go do your thing.” The night before He died, what did He pray? He said, “Lord, make them one as we are one.” And you know what He said right after that? That all might know. How many of you know unity in the church, and the church, should be a sign and a witness of the power of God and the life that He brings? Amen. Really, our unity and our togetherness, caring for one another, loving one another — it should be a sign and a witness to the world that we really do serve the true God, the living God.

And so it is assumed here that believers are in community and that there is structure intended in that community. And notice in verse 14 it says, “Let him call for the elders of the church.” Now notice who the onus is on. It says let him — the sick person — call for the elders of the church. I think sometimes when believers are struggling, we just hope, “Oh, I hope someone just sees me in my suffering. I hope someone sees me in my time of need and they just reach out.” And how many of you know it’s true that we as believers should have our eyes open, and we should be praying for people? We should be reaching out. We should be connecting. But how many of you know the emphasis is, no, if you are sick, you call for the elders of the church to lay hands on you, to pray for you. You see, nothing is wrong with asking someone who is sick if we can pray for them. But too often we wait for people to come and pray for us. And it says, “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.”

Anointing with oil

Now, some of you might wonder, what is it with this oil? Well, oil in Scripture was a representation of the Holy Spirit. In fact, in the Old Testament, when they would pray for kings, they would anoint kings with oil, which was a representation of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon them and filling them. And sometimes we’ll be praying over people and we might have a little oil, and we’ll put a little dab and we’ll pray, right? And that’s a representation that the Holy Spirit would take charge of this moment, of this situation. It is a blessing. It is an anointing. It is a calling forth.

But in the Old Testament, they really went extra with it. They would take a jar of oil and pour the whole thing over the head of the king, so that they were covered from the top of their head, and it would drip all the way down their robes to the bottom of their feet, so that they would be covered with the presence of the Lord.

And so this anointing oil — anointing literally means to put on, right? So I get sunburnt really easily. Like, really easily, right? And so when I want to protect myself from the sun, or prevent myself from getting burned, what do I do? I anoint myself with sunscreen, right? And now — I love my wife and I trust my wife, but she has me using the zinc stuff now, which is white. So I’m that guy now. I put it on and I look like a vampire, right? I’m white all over. But it’s all good. I’m protected, right? So anointing is a putting on. And when we are anointing with oil, it is a representation that we are putting the Holy Spirit on us. Does that make sense? It is anointing with oil, and it is an invitation, a welcoming, an overflow of the Holy Spirit: this belongs to the Lord, right?

Second, anointing oil was also used in biblical times as a medical practice. In fact, the usage here actually refers more to the medical sense, that there is a medicine or a medicinal practice that oil was used for in biblical times. We see this in Luke 10:34, in the parable of the Good Samaritan: oils were used to medicate and to care for someone. Okay? So not only is there this putting on of the Lord, inviting Him into the situation, James is also very practically saying, “Let’s take care of the need. Let’s anoint them. Let’s care for them. Let’s bring soothing to the hurt, to the pain, to the brokenness.”

So there’s this both-and approach, and they really do complement each other: that we are, number one, to invite the overflow, power, and presence of the Holy Spirit as we pray for one another, but we’re also to care for one another practically. Amen.

The prayer of faith

Listen to verse 15. It says, “And the prayer of faith” — everybody say, “Faith” — “will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

There’s a lot in this, okay? But notice verse 15. James is now making this connection between healing and the forgiveness of sins. He says, “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” And so really, when James is saying that the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up, this actually isn’t exclusive to physical healing, right? It also refers to salvation and healing of the soul and the spirit.

In fact, in biblical times it really was understood — you know, when we think of ourselves, oftentimes we just see what’s in the mirror. We see the flesh. We see our attractiveness. We see our shortcomings. We see our faults and our flaws, right? But in biblical times there was an understanding that the person wasn’t just your body. It was really holistically body, soul, and spirit, right? How many of you remember what Jesus said? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” It really is all of yourself, with all of your being. And so healing wasn’t only about the body. It often involved a holistic restoration that included the spirit.

Now, we see this in Scripture: Jesus would often heal and forgive in the same moment. How many of you guys remember that, right? When He healed the paralytic, He said first what? “Your sins are forgiven you.” And so here it says in verse 15, “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” And so there is this connection, that in healing there’s multiple things involved. Not only is it physical healing — because it definitely includes that — but it’s also a spiritual healing. It is a restoration. And the idea here is that when healing comes, your sin will be forgiven.

Now, the question is, does sin cause sickness? It certainly can, but not always, right? How many of you know that until sin entered the world, there was no sickness? There was no death. And so sickness is definitely a symptom of sin, but sin is not necessarily the cause of the physical pain. But it can be. You see, death and sickness did not exist until Adam and Eve sinned. And so it certainly is a symptom, but unconfessed sin can be a spiritual block to healing.

How many of you know what we just did, right? We received communion. And the apostle Paul writes in the letter to the Corinthians, he says, “Listen, do not take this lightly,” right? There are many of you who have actually become sick in your bodies because you have not taken this with the honor or as seriously as you should. There is sin in your heart. There is sin in your life. And so there can be this connection between the sins in our heart and our being physically sick. So healing is a spiritual work as much as it is physical.

Now, how many of you know we should pray for those who are sick? Amen. And when we do, it should be in faith. How many of you have ever said, “I’m going to wake up early, and I’m going to pray in the morning,” right? “I’m going to give my first moments to the Lord.” And you wake up in the morning — maybe you were up a little late or whatever — but you get up in the morning and you start to pray, and you’re like, “Jesus...” and you’re just immediately back asleep, right? We can kind of go through the motions, or try to make ourselves as comfortable as possible when we approach the Lord, especially when we pray.

But this is saying the prayer of faith, right? James talks about it being a fervent prayer. How do we pray fervently? When we pray with all of our heart. It doesn’t mean we force it. It doesn’t mean that we’re trying to convince God of something, right? Prayer is not about convincing God that you should get your way. Prayer is identifying what is the heart of God, and “Let me partner with that.” And when you identify what the heart of God is for your life, or for whatever you’re praying for, all of a sudden, how many of you know you see it differently? And when you see it differently, you begin to pray and you begin to believe differently. Does that make sense?

So let me give you an example. Let’s say you are praying for your marriage. How many of you know we should pray for our marriage? How many of you know that is a holy union before the Lord, a covenant instituted by God Himself? It is holy to the Lord. And so if we are praying for our marriage and we’re praying for our spouse, as we should — we can pray blessing. We can pray grace. Should we pray for those things? Of course. Should we pray protection over our spouse? Yes. Should we pray for healing? Yes. But when we seek the heart of God and say, “Lord, would You show me what You have for my wife? Would You show me what You want to do in her life?” and He begins to show you those things — now what? Now I’m beginning to call those things out. “Lord, yes. Fill her with wisdom, Lord, that You would lead her in every situation,” right?

There is this identifying the heart of God. And when we identify what is the heart of God — what is God speaking about my situation? What are the things that He’s speaking to me as I’m praying, those words that are going through my heart? — and I begin to pray those out, what am I doing? I’m praying the things that God is willing. I’m praying the things that God wants to do in my life and in my situation. And so that is what it means to pray fervently.

And so when we pray for someone who needs to be healed — it is true that when we pray, we can certainly pray with a lack of faith. But so many people will often say, “Well, the reason that person did not get healed is because they weren’t prayed for in faith.” But how many of you know that’s not always the case, right? There are times where we pray for people and we see the physical healing come to pass, and we praise God, and it is wonderful. There’s times where we pray and the healing hasn’t come yet. What are we to do? We’re to praise God and to put our trust in Him, right?

In all things we pray and we believe in faith, because Scripture says what? “By His stripes we are healed,” right? Jesus said, “Lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So there should be this expectation that when we pray for those who are sick, the Lord not only wants to heal them, but that He will heal them. But if we don’t see it in the moment, does that mean we just kind of go our way and stop believing? No. We say in faith, “Yes, Lord. I thank You, Lord, You are the healer. And Lord, I thank You that You not only heal physically, but, Lord, that You heal our spirit, soul, mind.” How many of you know many minds today need to be healed? Trauma, distress, anxiety — these are all things that the Lord has paid for. And these are all things that we should pray for one another. And when we do, it should be in faith, where we believe. Even though we don’t see it, we believe, and we put our trust that God is faithful. Okay?

But we also know that complete healing is truly found in the resurrection. How many of you know we just sang about that? What was it — the song we sang about Him returning in robes of white, and rising among the saints with our gaze fixed on Jesus’ face. How many of you know that is talking about the coming of the Lord, where He will gather all to Himself? And what does it say? We come face to face with Jesus. How wonderful is that?

And listen, not only that, this body that we are in is temporary. It’s not the forever body. We will be given a new body, a perfect body, at the resurrection. Amen. And so that is our ultimate healing. And I’m so thankful that we serve a God who not only has promised us an eternal body, a complete body, a perfect body, but that the Lord even wants to come down right now, where we have pain, where we have brokenness — when we are sick, when we are weak, when things are off on the inside, when we are mentally consumed and just need healing in our minds — that we can call on the name of Jesus, and He brings healing to our bodies right now.

Jesus is the healer. Amen. He says, “In me — I’m the one who brings life.” He is the God of life and not of death. So let us be people who pray and believe that God wants to heal us physically, but also spiritually. And really, how many of you know that’s the bigger thing? To have salvation in Him, to have a spirit that is reconnected to the Spirit of God. That we don’t need to be separate from Him. That we don’t need to walk disconnected from God, but that we can be reunited with Him and walk with Him today.

Confess your sins to one another

And verse 16 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Notice James is reiterating that confession of sin and prayer brings healing, both physically and spiritually. I think this is one of those things that we kind of downplay — that my sins and my faults are really between me and the Lord. And can we confess our sins to God? Yes, we can. But listen, I think we need to normalize confessing our sins to one another. That really is a holy practice.

I’m not talking about the stumbling or the simple mistakes, where it’s like, “I got that wrong, Lord. I confess that as sin. I thank You for forgiving me.” But how many of you know there are those sins where it happens again and again and again, and you try and you say, “I’m going to do better,” and it happens again and again? You see, those are the sins that become strongholds, right? We may use terminology like addictions. We might use terminology like bondage. But it is a part of life that is weighing you down, that is holding you, and really actually hindering you from what God actually intends for you, which is what? Freedom and life.

And so with those sins that are constantly ongoing, James is saying, listen, this is a key to break the bondage that you are in, that heavy yoke where it’s like, no matter how hard I try, I just keep doing the same thing. I keep falling for the same sin, and I confess it, and “I’m going to do better,” but what? I’m still struggling. James is saying, “Listen, if you want the freedom that is available to you in Jesus, confess your trespasses to who? To one another.”

Now, here’s the thing. We need to normalize confessing our sins to one another, but how many of you know we need to do that with wisdom? Does that make sense? We’re not asking people to stand up in the middle of church and tell us everything you did wrong for the week. Okay? That’s not what this is. That’s not helpful to you. That’s not helpful to the people around you. But there should be people, ideally in the community of believers that you are in, that you can go to and say, “Hey, I’m really struggling with this. Can you pray for me?”

We don’t need to go all into the details, like, “Oh yeah, I was really struggling, and my mind was going places that it shouldn’t, and then I opened my computer, I went to this website, I stole my dad’s credit card.” Like, no. What we need is to say, “I’m struggling with this, and I’ve been walking in this sin. Would you pray with me, that God would heal me and bring deliverance to my life?”

And the person that we go to should, number one, be a safe person, someone that we can trust. And when people come to us, it should be a trustworthy response, where we’re not going to go say, “Oh my gosh, do you want to know what so-and-so just said to me?” Right? We’re not spilling the beans.

But how many of you know also, our confession of sin shouldn’t lead others into sin? What I mean by that is, if there is someone that you know is also struggling with a similar sin, that might not be the best person to go to in that moment. If I struggle with being drunk, constantly being drunken, right — Scripture says, “Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” If I am filling myself with the world and with substances and things that are not of God, I am really fellowshipping with things that are not God, which is darkness and the demonic. I’m inviting those things into my life. If I’m struggling with drinking, I shouldn’t go to the person who’s also struggling and be like, “Man, I’m really struggling with this.” Our confession shouldn’t lead other people into sin. Does that make sense? Does this make sense? Okay, come on, we can talk. It’s cool.

And so if we are stuck in the bondage of sin, confession is a powerful thing. In fact, we pray for revival often, right? Revival being a powerful move of God. “Lord, would You bring revival to our city? Would You bring revival to young people? Would You give us a heart that wants more of You?” We pray for revival, but do you want to know what studies show is the most common thing that precedes revival? It is a conviction of sin in a group of people, and a confession of sin. How many of you know the sin and the bondage is often the hindrance that actually keeps us from receiving all that God has for us?

Are we forgiven? Yeah. How many of you are thankful for that? You are forgiven if you have made Jesus Lord of your life, and you confess Him as Lord, and you’ve received what He’s done. How many of you know your sins are forgiven? Somebody say, “Praise Jesus.” That’s great news. But I don’t know if I want to just be forgiven. I want to walk in freedom. And to do that, sometimes it’s very important that we confess our sin.

Not only does He forgive us and break the bondage and the strongholds, whatever is in the darkness — sin likes to keep us in the dark. But how many of you know healing is found in the light? And so we need to bring those things that are in the dark, the secret sins, into the light. What happens when we confess? We are bringing it into the light, where there is life, where there is healing, and the power of sin is broken.

So confession is a powerful thing that has been given to us by God. And not only does it bring forgiveness to us, it brings a breakthrough of power to those around us. How encouraging it is when, with the thing that you’re struggling with, you come into contact with someone that struggled with the same thing but has overcome it, and they begin to encourage you and they begin to pray for you. You see, this is what it means: confess your sins to one another. And not only will He bring healing to your life — it removes all hindrances to Him moving in and through you. And so if you want to see revival, I think we need to start confessing sins in those places that we’ve been struggling with, those things that we hold on to. Just my two cents. I think it’s James’ two cents. I think it’s Scripture’s two cents. I think it’s the Lord’s two cents.

Your prayers are powerful

And it says in verse 16, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James is pointing to the effective nature of prayer. Prayer is effective when it is fervent — when we’re not trying to convince God; we’re trying to capture His heart. And how many of you know prayer is also effective when it is offered by those who are righteous?

And I’m so thankful that my prayers aren’t answered based on my behavior, right? When Jesus died on the cross, He took His righteousness and He gave it to us. And so if you have received the Lord Jesus, how many of you know your prayers are effective? Do not underestimate how powerful your prayers are. Your prayers make a difference. Why? Because He’s given you the name of Jesus.

Jesus said, “Pray in this manner: Our Father.” Who do we pray to? We pray to the Father. We give thanks: “Lord, You are holy. You are worthy.” And then when we pray, we pray in the name of Jesus. And that is why we say, “In Jesus’ name, let Your will be done.” You see, that is the effective, fervent prayer. Your prayers are powerful. Turn to the person next to you and tell them, “Your prayers are powerful.”

Too often we think, I can only be prayed for by the senior pastor. I can only be prayed for by those in leadership. I can only be prayed for by those who are worthy. But our righteousness is not defined based on our behaviors. Our righteousness is defined by the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Verse 17 says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” In other words, Elijah, this mighty man of God who was a prophet — look at this example that James shares. “He prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”

We’re seeing this example of powerful prayer. There was this time in Israel where the people were worshiping false gods. They were worshiping Baal, who was the weather god. And so Elijah captured the heart of God: this is what God wants to do, and He’s going to demonstrate that He’s the true God. “So I’m going to pray it’s not going to rain for three and a half years.” And it did not rain. Why? He wasn’t trying to convince God. He knew what God wanted to do. He had captured the heart of God, and his prayers were powerful. And notice, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. In other words, if Elijah can pray these prayers, you can pray these prayers. Amen.

Turning someone back

We’re going to wrap this up. Verse 19 says this: “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” I need everybody to look at this Scripture right now. This is so important. Look on screen. It says, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

I think sometimes we think what it means to love someone else is to be tolerant. But how many of you know tolerance is not the definition of love? Agreeing with everything that the world puts out, agreeing with whatever someone just wants or says — if we allow people to remain in their error, that is not a loving heart towards that person.

What is love? Let me give you an example. When my kids were younger, if we were playing at the park, and my two-year-old toddler was playing, and we were excited and having fun, and he sees the ball on the other side of the road and begins to run towards the street, and it’s busy traffic — am I just going to allow him to continue to run into that? As a loving father, am I going to allow my child to run into the street to go get his ball? What am I going to do as a loving father? I’m going to run. I’m going to grab him and I’m going to save him. And then we will go get the ball, and I’m going to teach him what it means to look both ways, right? You guys can tell I’m talking from experience. It is not loving if I was to allow my child to — “He’ll figure it out.” That’s not love.

And too often we allow people to go through life wandering aimless, not living in a way that honors the Lord, and it is bringing destruction not only to their life, but it’s bringing destruction to their eternity. Okay? So when we really love someone, what do we do? We speak the truth. But listen, we do it in love. “I need you to know this because I love you. And this is what I’ve been praying. I’ve been seeking the Lord. And this is what the Lord did in me. I know what you’re going through. I know the things that you’re thinking. I know the things that you’re doing. But listen, this is what the Lord did for me. I thought the same thing, but the Lord set me free.” Okay, I’m just using very general examples, but you guys see what I’m saying?

Jesus was full of — the Scripture says He was full of truth and grace. That is a powerful combination, because how many of you know you can speak truth but you can be wrong about it? When we speak truth in grace, it brings healing and life every time. Do you see the difference?

I want to encourage you, church: stand for righteousness. Stand for what is true. Stand for what is right. But when we do, let it be on the backdrop of love, that we say, “Hey, don’t you know how much God loves you? That He really wants to be with you? Listen, I feel like the Lord has shown me some things, and He has saved my soul, and I think He wants to do the same thing for you. I used to have fears. I used to have anxieties, but the Lord brought peace.” Whatever it is. How many of you know your testimony is really one of the most powerful things that God has given you? And how many of you know, if you’ve received Jesus, you have a testimony? Because you were lost, you were dead in your sin, you were broken, and you gave your life to the Lord, and He brings healing to all of that. So if you have received Jesus, you have a testimony, and someone needs to hear it. And that’s what it means to walk in love towards one another.

And that’s what it says. There is a promised reward. Verse 20: “Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” Sin has a way of multiplying. Did you guys know that it will take you further than you thought you would ever go? And it will hold on stronger than you ever thought it could. It has this way of grabbing and holding. But there is a way to save a brother. What? By speaking the truth in love. You see this? Okay. I love you guys. I love you too. No, I’m just playing.

Let’s stand together. I know you do. I know you do. Let’s stand. As we’re talking about this — the fact that God uses people. Let’s close our eyes. God will use you to pull people out of sin, to speak truth in love, and to bring salvation to their souls. What a wonderful mystery it is that God has chosen to use us to love people, to call them out of the dark, that they would walk in the light.

And really, what this speaks to is that restoration is possible with Jesus. People aren’t saved by our performance. And maybe you’re here today and you feel like you’ve sinned so badly that restoration is impossible. But these verses we just read speak so powerfully that restoration for your life is possible, because God is a restorer. And not only can He save a person from a multitude of sins, not only can God save people from death — He loves saving people.

And so James ends the letter with the full intent of the letter. Let us not be people who drift away in our hearts. Let us not be believers who drift away from the truth. Because that’s really what it is: the world has a way of luring us and causing us to drift in our hearts away from the things of God. But that we would be people who have living faith, who not only hear the word of God but do the word of God.

And so, Lord Jesus, we receive Your word. Come on, let’s lift our hands. Lord, we receive Your word to us. Your word is powerful. It is active. It is sharper than any double-edged sword, cutting to the division of soul and spirit. Lord, Your word is so precise. And Lord, we thank You that You are the one who restores. Lord, even though we can find ourselves lost in sin, You have made a way through Your Son Jesus, that not only do we have the forgiveness of sins, but we can have life with You.

And so, Lord, let us not drift away in our hearts. Let us not drift away in our affection. Lord, let us not be dissuaded or cooled by the ways of this world. This world will cool us from a burning heart for You. Lord, let us have hearts that burn for You. Let us have hearts that desire more of You, that call on You, that receive from You, because You are the one. You are a God who restores, and Your heart is to bring life. So, Lord, we choose to receive that today.

And Lord, I pray for those who are struggling in their sin, that You would bring complete liberty in the name of Jesus. Lord, that You would break addictions, that You would break bondages. Lord, even if it is a mindset, something that we think is right but it is not true, it is not right — it is from the dark. It is from hell itself. Lord, break those things in the name of Jesus. And Lord, that You would bring clarity and awakening by the Spirit of the Lord. We give You praise, Lord Jesus. We thank You for freedom. We thank You for Your healing. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Amen. Can we thank the Lord for His word? Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.