Respond With Hope

to shouts of joy to shouts of joy you are the light i wanted this part on tape as well and before we actually get into the book of james i've had several people ask me about the southern baptist convention decision to boycott disney and uh want to know what i think and want to know if there's any official position of calvary chapel where this is concerned um i want to challenge you this morning there is a new encouraging bracelet and necklace that's out it's simply and most of the kids are a lot of the kids are wearing them and it simply says wwjd and rather than you know well afr american family radio is doing this so we're going to do it or james dobson says they're doing this so we got to do that or chuck smith is doing this so we got to

do that or mark fry says this so we got to do that or calvary chapel is saying this or the southern baptist they're saying this or the calvary chapel is saying this or the calvary chapel is saying this and so that's what we need to do would you just really take time with any decision that you have to make and just simply ask yourself what would jesus do what would jesus do in this situation what would jesus do faced with the circumstances of today what would jesus say what would jesus want me to do and it's it's in his word i mean he has it in his work i'm not i don't want to condemn anything that the southern baptists have decided we need to pray for god's church

with everything that's going on but as i stop and think about what we're going to do today what jesus would do and look at what jesus did and how jesus was known the bible says that jesus was a friend of sinners that he ate with tax collectors and publican and prostitutes he was called a winebibber person who indulged in wine and he was accused of those things by the religious establishment by the pharisee jesus moved into the darkness because he knew there were people there who needed the light and so he said to zacchaeus come down from that tree because today i'm going to eat and i'm going to tell you about god's grace i'm going to tell you about god's love for you zacchaeus came out of that meeting repentant and restoring the things that he

had stolen from others he gave back four full from that encounter with jesus in the midst of the darkness jesus moved in among the dark without compromising his own righteousness he moved into the darkness to share the gospel to share the love of jesus on may 9th the harvest crusade moved into disneyland pastor chuck was there and introduced different bands the maranatha praise band that does all of the promise keepers meetings was there crystal lewis who is out of calvary chapel was there the cry who are from calvary chapel were there jubilant psych were there lou graham the former lead vocalist with foreigner who is now saved and a member of calvary chapel was there john elefante and then chuck introduced greg laurie and there were some

51 000 people at disneyland park that day the disneyland said it was the most for one day that they've ever recorded 12 000 of them were actually there in the in the amphitheater area where the harvest crusade was presented and over 400 people came forward and made a first-time commitment to the war pastor chuck has always said that god has called us to fish in the pond not to clean it up we've been sent out as light in the midst of darkness we've been told to go out into the world and make disciples jesus did not try to reform his society he didn't tell the disciples Okay, now I want you guys to organize a committee. And when I'm gone, I want you to solicit help. And we're going to picket Herod. Jesus said, go.

And as you go, teach him. Tell him the gospel. I think we can fall into a trap. As believers, I think it's very easy for us, in the name of good, to be sidetracked from the purposes that God has called us to. Again, I am not condemning what the Southern Baptists are doing. I'm asking you to think about what Jesus would do and what your calling is as a disciple.

There's times we can be sidetracked from the focus of sharing life with others and alienating ourselves from them. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, and he said, I wrote to you in my earlier epistle not to keep company with the sexually immoral. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the covetous or extortioners of this world or with idolaters or others like that. Since then, you would need...

to go out of the world. Paul meant, in a disciplining way, to deal with those within the church who call themselves believers and yet were sexually immoral and idolaters and covetous. He said there has to be a discipline that takes place if somebody calls himself a believer and acts like that. He said, certainly I was not meaning those that are in the world.

We're to go out after them to seek to bring them to the light. Now, we are to be aware of Satan's devices, and I want us to be aware of that. If you were to boycott everything that was occultic, Disney is called occultic and perverse. If you were to boycott everything that produces something that is from an occultic and perverse area, you might as well not drive your car anymore because the oil that's used, that we bring in, that we convert to gas is from the occultic Islamic nations that are anti-Jesus, anti-God.

Be aware that Disney is very much steeped in New Age and the things that they produce for children, that the Lion King and all nice little fun movie is steeped in New Age. It spouses New Age theology. Be aware of that, and so direct your funds that God has given you, trust over accordingly. Also remember that those are people that Jesus died for that need to hear about his love.

And you and I have been called the salt of the earth, and the gates of hell will not prevail against us. The gates of hell are in Disneyland. They're not chasing you. Disneyland's not running after you. The gates of hell are in Disneyland, and God wants us to go in and snatch those out as firebrands from the fire. The gates of hell will not prevent you from coming in.

You walk in the power and the authority of the Holy Spirit. Remember your calling. Remember your purpose. And ask, ask, ask, what would Jesus do? Father, help us where that's concerned. Lord, we want to follow you and not get caught up in events and things that seem good and are to a certain extent. But take us away from what you've called us to do. Keep us alert, Lord,

and let us be channels through which your love can flow to the people that are dying and that need to know about Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. Okay, James chapter 5. We're going to finish this morning. We did our first service, and we ran a little over, so I'll still hurry. But we are going to finish this morning, and as I mentioned earlier, we'll start the book of Acts next week.

So if you want to start reading ahead, you can read through. Read your study Bible. Read all the different highlights about Acts and who wrote it and why and when. And read the first couple chapters, and we'll begin that next week. We finished James today, and we finish in chapter 5. And I want to look at verses 13 through 20. We'll actually spend most of our time in 17 through 20,

but just to bring us into context here. James says, Is any of you in trouble, he should pray. Is anyone happy, let him sing songs of praise. Is anyone of you sick, he should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up.

If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land. And again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

My brothers, if one of you should wonder from the truth, and someone should bring him back, remember this. Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. As we finish chapter 5, remember that we're looking at the area of Jesus working in us will cause us to be responding to the situation that we're in. We're going to be responding to the situation that we're in.

We're going to be responding to the situation that we're in. We're going to be responding to the situation that we're in. We're going to be responding to the situations we face with hope. If Jesus is actively working in your life, whatever the circumstances you're facing, whatever the circumstances, refiners fire, my heart's one desire is to be holy, set apart unto you, ready to do your will.

So whatever that is, if I'm truly born again, if Jesus is living and working in my life, then one of the evidences of that, one of the workings of faith in my life will be the fact that I am learning to respond to every situation with hope. Albert Schweitzer. Albert Schweitzer wrote that the tragedy of man is not that he dies, but what dies within him while he still lives. In other words, a tragedy is not that we die.

I mean, that's part of life. That's part of the fall of man in sin. But the tragedy is what dies within us while we're still alive. Now, if we're not saved, if we've not come to the cross of Christ, then we're dead while we live. We're walking dead men. Our spirit's dead. We're already consigned to hell. Just waiting for the physical body to shut down and off we go.

We're there forever. But if we're born again, we're set apart under the Lord. We belong to him. We know our hope is in heaven. Our home is in heaven. It's just a short time until we're going to be there. And if we've lost that hope, for some reason, if we've lost sight of that fact, if we've lost the hope that we can have in Christ, then we are dead within.

We who of all people should have the most hope. And that comes when we're so focused on the circumstances that we fail to set our heart back upon the Lord. And so James has been telling us to rejoice in the hope of the fact of the soon coming of the Son of God, the Lord's soon coming. He is coming so soon. I'm so excited. I can't wait for the next Alien movie to come out.

I can't wait for the cashless cards to be issued. We're that close. I mean, it's just that close. The unrest in Israel I pray for, but with each threat from Syria or from Iraq and from Russia, I just perk up. That's it. We're that close. And we're to wait in the midst of the pressures, in the midst of the pain and the circumstances that we're in. We're to wait expectantly like the farmer.

And man, can we identify with the farmer today, huh? Steve was telling me today that they're bringing in 80 and 90 bushels per acre they're harvesting around here. It's records. We'll talk about that some when we get into the study a little bit. But the farmer, we're told to wait. And then we're given the example in verses 7 through 12 of the farmer who works while he's waiting for the harvest to come in.

We're to wait like the prophets who witnessed, who told others about the Lord. And even though they were condemned, they waited for God to vindicate them, waited for God to go ahead. Declare them righteous before the men. They went ahead and witnessed. They were waiting for the Lord. We're to wait like Job, who even though his family was taken and he was decimated with a health

that seemed to take him almost to death. He worshiped while he waited for God to fulfill whatever his purposes were. That's how we're to wait. While we're waiting for the Lord to come. Waiting for the Lord to take us out. And as we came to verse 13 last time, we saw that James gives us four areas in which we should regularly be praying and for which we should anticipate God's answering.

Now these four areas cover every area of prayer. So it's not like we just have to pray for these four areas because even the first one blankets everything else. Verse 13, he says, Are you troubled? Is anyone troubled? And the word troubled meant afflicted. And that meant pressured or under distress from any source. In trouble from any area. Sickness, relational, financial, whatever.

Whatever the trouble may be. Whatever the source. If you are, then pray. So that covers the first one, which blankets everything else. If you're in trouble, pray, he said. In the midst of those troubles, lift those things to the Lord. And we saw last time that we're to pray asking for wisdom. Asking for God to give us wisdom on how to pray. How to respond in this particular situation.

And then we saw that there are people who aren't in problems. Who aren't having problems. I don't know if I can look out over the congregation today and see anybody that's here today that doesn't have a problem. Then not wrestling with some kind of particular circumstance that's in their life. But if you are, if you're without problems today, praise God. And it says you're to be singing praises to the Lord.

Singing songs of praise. To God. And be an encouragement to us. Be an encouragement to those around you. Matter of fact, we can't get off that easy because we saw last time that if you're being filled with the Spirit, which we are to be doing daily, we're to be singing to each other in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing praise to the Lord. We're to be encouragers.

We have hope. We have hope in the Lord. And we're to be encouraging one another. Not discouraging each other. Not joining in with the woe is me of the world. But encouraging each other with the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Secondly, we're to pray for the sick. Verses 14 through 16. And as we looked at that section there with the area of, calling for the elders and them anointing the person

with the oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith would lift him up, would raise him up. That's not a formula for guaranteed healing. And we talked about that last time. That's something that we are to do is when we're sick, we pray anyhow. That's understood from number one. From verse 13. If you're in trouble and we're sick, we pray. If that doesn't seem to help, then we call for the elders.

We went through all that last time. They anoint in the name of the Lord. And the oil, the anointing that they do, the word actually means to rub vigorously as to massage. And we saw last time that that meant that we apply the message. Medical techniques in conjunction with prayer. There's a balance that happens, that should happen in the life of a Christian who is sick.

We don't forsake one or the other. We don't lean on simply one or the other. God has given both. God brings the healing. We mix the two in prayer, in balance before the Lord. Praying in the name of the Lord, it says, and last time we saw that that means four things. We recognize him as Lord. He's in control. He's in authority. Number two, I submit to that. You are Lord.

I pray in this situation for healing, submitting it unto you, realizing your character, number three, that you are a loving God. You are described as love. God is love. Love is not God. It doesn't work in reverse order. There can be false kinds of love. There can be shallow types of love. But God is absolute and complete and encompassing love. That's his character.

I recognize that as I pray in his name. And then fourthly, I accept his will, whatever his will is in this particular situation. He is Lord. I submit to that, realizing his character and his nature, and I accept his will. I pray in that way. And the prayer offered with faith we saw was the faith of the elders that were praying, not the individual. The individual being prayed for would raise him up.

We saw that the gift of healing is transient. It doesn't always, the spirit doesn't always choose to heal. We yield to the spirit. We saw in verse 16 that there's to be a confession of sin that happens. Now follow me with this. Don't nod off yet. I know it's warm in here, but hang on. I'm just going through a quick review. There's to be a confession of sin.

The sickness could be the result of sin. There could be sin that's happened in our lives and it's caused an anxiety, an anxiousness, a fretting, a guilt, and a shamedness that is just so overwhelming in our lives, it's causing physical malady as a result. We're disobedient to the Lord. We repent and ask his forgiveness and he restores. He'll restore a healthy body.

If you're angry, if you're bitter, it chews you up. Anger is rottenness to the bones. It'll kill you, give you high blood pressure, give you heart disease, osteoporosis, anger destroy. We're to confess that as sin and seek to forsake it and walk with the Lord. And he says as you do this, you're healed, you're restored. Now when we confess our sin, we talked last time

about the fact that that's first of all to the Lord because he's the number one person we offend. When we sin, we don't sin against each other. We sin against the Lord. And the after effects, the fallout affects other people. And so then we seek to go and seek forgiveness from those we've affected by the fallout. Remember that in asking forgiveness. You know, just stand up and confess your sin

in front of a whole body of people that have no idea who you even are. It's those that your sin has affected that you seek to restore and reconcile. Now we come to the third area of prayer and that's the prayer for the nation, verses 17 and 18. Verses 17 and 18 is prayer for the nation. And it's tied into the end of verse 16. The end of verse 16 says, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful

and effective in NIV. In King James it says, The prayer of a righteous man availeth much, gets much done, accomplishes much. And often we just tie that right in with verse 16 and the prayer for the sick and fail to realize he's giving us an example in verses 17 through 20 of the prayer of a righteous man. This is an example. For the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Let me give you an example. Elijah was a man, was such a man. Now I want you to hang on to these few words because we're going to talk about them a lot today. Elijah was a man just like us. That's what it says. Elijah was a man just like us. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed and the heavens gave rain

and the earth produced crops. I want to get some background here on this because he's the righteous man. And God's told us that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. And he's given us that example meaning that's what he expects from us. So hold your finger here or mark that with your bullet and go back with me to 1 Kings chapter 17, Old Testament.

1 Kings, Samuel anointed the kings and wrote about it in the Daily Chronicle. So Samuel's first, Kings is in the middle, Chronicles is last. Did you go to the first and second? 1 Kings chapter 17. You know the story but we're going to look at it a little bit and just see the words. 1 Kings chapter 17. Actually if you're still turning just listen. We're going to go back up into chapter 16

just a couple of verses back to verse 30. Ahab is the king of the northern section of Israel. A, Israel has split. David has died. Solomon has died. Solomon's son came into power. Rather than listening to the wise counsel of the older men, Rehoboam listens to the younger guys who say, man, you got to show them who's boss. And so he comes down with a tight fist and the nation splits.

And so you have the northern kingdom of Israel. It's called Israel. The largest of the tribes in the north is Ephraim. So as you read the Old Testament often it will refer to Ephraim and it means the whole northern section of the nation. Or it will say Israel in the Old Testament and that means the northern section of Israel. The largest tribe of the southern half was Judah.

And so often the Old Testament will refer to Judah. And it means the southern kingdom of Israel, the southern part of the nation of Israel. So you have Ephraim and Judah or Israel and Judah. Ten tribes to the north, two tribes to the south. They had a king right up there at the break off was Jeroboam. He has died. Ahab is in his place. Ahab is the king and it says here in Romans,

verse 30 of chapter 16, that he did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but also married Jezebel daughter of Ephbaal the king of the Sidonians and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Samaria became the capital of the northern kingdom.

The kings of the north were afraid that the Jews, when they had to go worship those three times during the year that we talked about before, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, if they went to Jerusalem, they'd get a soft spot in their heart and want to bring the nations back together. So the kings built an altar in Samaria and one in Dan and had the people of the north go worship there. So Ahab built altars in Samaria unto Baal and he also made, verse 33, an Asherah pole. An Asherah pole is nothing more than a phallic symbol.

They built these Asherah poles. They were to mark the places of fornication, pure and simple. The people went there to fornicate. And they fornicated all over the hills together around these Asherah poles as worship. We talk about perverted. And those were on the hills. And so when you read in the Old Testament about the kings built the altars on the hills,

that's what they were there for. When the different kings came in to clean those things up, to clean up and reform, you read about Asa and Jehoshaphat. Most of them didn't tear down the high places. Those were those places up there with the Asherah poles and all that stuff where they went. And you go, boy, they should have done that. Well, look at us today.

And we'll talk about this a little more. We're really willing to follow God. As long as we can keep our personal things. I'm really willing to be obedient to you, Lord, and follow you as long as I can smoke, though. As long as I can still mess around and live together with this person that we're not really married yet, but we just, you know, it's economically more sound for us to live together.

I'm going to violate your laws, God, in this particular area, but I'm going to worship you. We're no different. That's why it's exciting to read the Old Testament and see how God dealt with the people there because he deals with us the same way. Ahab had all this stuff built. And he did more, it says at the end of verse 33, to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger,

than did all of the kings of Israel before him. And so into this, into this scene now comes Elijah. Verse 1, Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word. And then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, Leave here and turn eastward and hide in the Kirith ravine east of the Jordan, and you will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.

And so God took care of Elijah while the rest of the nation of the northern kingdom of Israel went into famine. Now the southern kingdom was okay. It was all right. It prospered. But the northern kingdom went into three years of drought and subsequent famine. Now, go back in your mind, hang on here. And in your mind, we just read in James chapter 5 verse 17, Elijah was a man just like Ahab.

Very important. Because if you're like me, I tend often to relegate the prophet and the apostle as a different breed, you know. They were a different group. They often walked around with bug eyes in a glade, you know, kind of like the professor in Back to the Future. They walked around like, God said it's not going to rain for three and a half years. You ever do that, you know?

That guy was a prophet. That was Elijah. He was taken up in a chariot. You know, I can't relate. But this says he was a man just like. So we come back here and we find he tells Ahab, it's not going to rain for three and a half years. Did Elijah come walking out and go, oh, the word of God has told me it's not going to rain for three and a half years? I don't think so.

Hold your finger here and go back with me to Deuteronomy chapter 11. Deuteronomy chapter 11. If anything, we should see from the Bible that God uses people just like us to accomplish whatever he wants to accomplish. That means you and I are usable today. Two mighty things that God wants to accomplish. You just have to be available. You just have to believe it.

You just have to have hope. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Now, Deuteronomy is the summation of Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all written by Moses, not by you, not by the Yahweh, but by Moses. Jesus said that. Good enough for me. He said that in the gospel. Moses said that. Moses wrote those first five books of the Bible. In the first four, he gives us a synopsis of things from Genesis to the time that the children of Israel are ready to go into the promised land.

In Deuteronomy, he summarizes that. You get a summation of all of that. It's like he knows he can't go in. He's going to go up on the mountain and die, but you get one last shot at him before you go. It's okay. Here we go. I want you to remember it. So that's what Deuteronomy is. Remember this because I won't be there. Love the Lord your God. Verse 1, chapter 11, Deuteronomy.

Keep his requirements and his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced and disciplined the Lord your God, his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, the signs he had performed, the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his whole country, what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, and how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert. Remember?

All of the adults died. Deuteronomy. They saw the parting of the Red Sea and the Egyptians' ground and the fire by night and the clouds by day and the manna and the quail. They didn't see that. These kids that are standing here ready to go into the land were born after that. And so Moses is saying, hey, listen now, as you go into the land, it's going to be real easy since you didn't see it firsthand to get in there and see all the stuff that's there and the stuff that people are doing in the land and it looks like fun and you want to have fun with them and they're experiencing some neat things and you want to experience some neat things, it's going to be real easy for you to forsake me and go running off after me.

Don't do it. Now in verse 13 he says, So if you faithfully obey the commands I'm giving you today to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart, with all your soul, then I will send rain on your land, and at the evening both autumn and spring rain, so that you may gather in your grain new wine and oil. I'll provide you grass and a field for your cattle, and you'll even be satisfied. Be careful, or you'll be enticed to turn away and to worship other gods and to bow down to them, and then the Lord's anger will burn again.

And he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain, and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord has given you. Now he so wants them to remember this, so look what he says in the next verse. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as symbols on your hands. Bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home and all that. Verse 20. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many. This is what the Lord swore to give to your forefathers as many as the days of the heavens and the days of the earth. Remind. Remember. Write them down. Keep them on your forehead.

Keep them on your hand. Everywhere you look. WWJD. What God promised. What would Jesus do? Because there's going to be a tendency to forget. And if you forget, you're going to go off and worship other gods. You're going to be like the people in the land. You're going to forsake me, and I'm going to shut off the waters. I'm going to turn off the rain. Okay? Here's Elijah.

Not walking around in a super fellowshipping with the Lord. Knows God's word. Read Moses. Knows Moses. Knows the writings of Deuteronomy. Promises of God. Says. Northern kingdom ends in. Northern kingdom turn away from God. Build funny poles on high places. Northern kingdom acting weird. Northern kingdom is not going to have rain. God's going to judge. Those hells.

Northern kingdom. God's going to shut off the water. And God did. Because that's what God's word promised. Now you go to chapter 18. Finally comes to a head. Elijah calls all the prophets of Baal and Ahab up onto Mount Carmel. He has to have a showdown. People come, gather around. He says, listen, you guys. You've wavered too long. Either God is God and you serve him, or Baal is God and you worship him.

You know the way. You go too often. One to God, one to Baal. Two prophets of Baal gather around. They take their sacrifice. They sacrifice their cow. Their ox. They put it on the altar. And they call for Baal to consume it with fire. Of course, Baal's not home. And Elijah makes fun of him. Baal must be on the toilet. That's literally what it says, isn't it?

He's not hearing you. They slice themselves and all that stuff. Baal's not here. All day they do that. Elijah says, okay, you guys. He sacrifices his ox. Puts it on the altar. Tells the guys, dig a hole around the trench. Around the altar. They dig a trench. A good-sized trench. A big trench. He says, now pour a barrel of water on top of my sacrifice. They pour one.

They pour another. They pour another. They pour another. They pour it over so much water that it fills the trench with water. And Elijah just looks at heaven and says, God, get him. God comes down. Fires from heaven. Baal takes the sacrifice. Not only the sacrifice. Sucks up the altar. Burns up the ground. And sucks up all the water off the ground right there.

And people fall on their faces and go, we believe that God is the Lord. Elijah says, okay. Prophets of Baal. Bring them over here one at a time. 450 of them. He kills them all. He kills them all. Right there. People repent. Or put their hands. And turn back to God. Elijah prayed after he came. He goes to his servant. Go off to the edge of the mountain here and look.

Towards the Mediterranean Sea. And comes back. There's nothing. Don't see anything. Prays again. Sends him off. Sends him off seven times. Seven times he goes. And he comes back. And he says, there's a cloud coming about the size of a mansion. Elijah says, go. Because it's going to rain. And tells Ahab to head towards the city. Because it's going to rain. And rain hard.

And the rain comes. And Elijah tucks his robe underneath his belt. And starts running. And it says, he outran Ahab's chariot to the city. Now, I'm not meaning to demean the miracles of the Bible. It's a miracle. And it's great that he did that. But sometimes I think we don't see things that are there. It's raining. Monsoon rain. Ever driven a wagon in the rain?

Ever been out in the rain with a wagon with horses pulling? No rubber rim. No four-wheel drive wagon in the rain. You could probably outrun one of those. Outrun one of those with a lot of mud on the ground. Very possible. See, we tend to separate all of that stuff as out there. And I can't relate to that. Instead of realizing God wrote it so that we'd understand it and relate to it.

Elijah was a man just like us. Who was in fellowship with God. Who was in fellowship with the Lord. And knew the Word of God. So was Daniel. A man just like us. Who was in fellowship with the Lord. And knew the Word of God. Read the prophecies of Jeremiah. Knew that their 70 years of captivity must be about over. What about that? God answered it. See, it's not that hard.

If we have lost hope in prayer, it's because we've forgotten God. And we've forgotten the example that he'd given to us. The people he prayed. Just like God. It says, oh, but back in James it says, He was righteous. Right? Go back to James, chapter 5. It says that, doesn't it? It really says that. Sure. This guy was righteous. That was perfect. I had to say that.

Verse 16. It said he was perfect. Right? The prayers of a perfect man avail of much. It doesn't say that. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Righteous man is powerful. The word righteous simply is one who is obedient. Elijah wasn't perfect. He was obedient to the Word. He trusted God's Word. And he prayed according to God's Word. What did God do about the northern kingdom?

They're in sin. God, you've got to bring them back. You've got to judge them enough to bring them back to you. According to your Word, it says you dry up the heavens in their crop ale. So do that. And God did. Now, in the next few weeks, you're going to hear about how crop growth number 2761, fertilizer and herbicide, was what brought us the biggest harvest this year.

And it's a John Deere or whatever plower that plows the best ground. Maxi treated mongrel seed, you know, with the new hydrogen-fermented whatever dust. They put on them that really brought forth this wonderful crop. The reason God's blessed this year in this area, in Cali County, in this region, it's the whole southern section of the state so far as well. We had a revival in Dodge City.

We had a revival in Arkansas. We had a revival in Hutchinson. And people were called to seek the Lord. People were called as one. The churches came together as one and prayed and called the people to seek the Lord. And the people did. God's blessing, because that's what His Word does, He does. And the people did the same. Period. The moment needs to do that.

And especially the sections of the country that are seeking to do that. He's saying God's hand begins to move and to judge. And we're not exempt from that. We turn away from the Lord here. We can have bumper crops of dandelions and dirt. I'm no prophet. But His Word does. Daniel was a man just like us. Elijah was a man just like us. He obeyed the Lord. He was in fellowship with God.

And he loved Him. He was in fellowship with God through God's Word. He was a righteous man. How effective are righteous men in these days? Let me give you a quick example. Let me give you an example of those that aren't in the church. Just an example of two men. For the third and fourth generation, Max Jukes lived in New York. He did not believe in Christ or in Christian training.

He refused to take his children to church, even when they asked to go. He's had a thousand and twenty-six descendants. Three hundred were sent to prison for an average term of thirteen years. A hundred and ninety were public prostitutes. Six hundred and eighty were admitted alcoholics. His family thus far has cost the state of New York an excess of four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

They made no contribution to society. Jonathan Edwards lived in the same state at the same time as Jukes. He loved the Lord and saw that his children were in church every Sunday as he served the Lord to the best of his ability. He has had nine hundred and twenty-nine descendants. And of these, four hundred and thirty were ministers. Eighty-six became university professors.

Thirteen became university presidents. Seventy-five authored good books. Five were elected to the United States Congress and two to the U.S. Senate. One was vice president of the United States. His family never cost the state of New York. He was one saint. But it has contributed immeasurably to the life of plenty in this land of the one righteous man who prayed and sought the Lord.

And you may be saying, well, I'm the four hundred and fifty-first alcoholic descendant of my great-grandfather. Do you want to know the exciting thing? Jesus loves you and he's already died for you. And my life verse is 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. The old has passed and everything has become new.

You can become the first. In any line of righteous defending. If you put your heart on the Lord. If you trust him, he loves you so much. Because Elijah was a man just like God. And Elijah prayed. And he prayed according to the promises of God. And God answered for the nation. Now verses 17 and 18 here in James 5 tell us that Elijah prayed and continued to pray.

He prayed. God shut it off. He prayed again. And we saw from chapter 18 of the first Kings. He prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. And God finally turned it back on. Matthew chapter 6. Jesus tells us from the Sermon on the Mount that we're to ask and to seek and to knock. The verb tenses of those words are continuous in the Greek. They mean to ask and to keep on asking.

To knock and to keep on knocking. To seek and keep on seeking. Don't quit. Verses 7 through 12. Wait patiently. And ask. To teach him. Come before him. Persistent prayer is different from vain repetition. Vain repetition is superstitious. I've got to say the Lord's Prayer today. If I don't say the Lord's Prayer something bad is going to happen. Or if I didn't ask God to bless my tennis shoes.

And I forgot to pray for that. And I break a shoestring. It's because I forgot to pray for them. Or if I forgot to pray for my child in their particular situation today. And something bad happened. Oh, it's because I forgot to pray. That's a superstitious prayer. And there's a difference between superstitious praying and persistent prayer. He's teaching the Lord.

Praying according to the promises of his word. And we are to pray for our nation. Paul tells Timothy. I encourage men everywhere to pray. Lifting up holy hands and pray for kings. And those in authority. I have to confess to you. Until we have national prayer. And see you at the polls. I can be laughed. And I don't want to use that as an excuse. We're to be doing that regularly.

We complain about the way things are going. Probably more so than we pray. And that's probably true in every situation in life. In our families. At work. In our financial situations. We complain more than we pray. And figure that somehow by complaining the situation is going to be changed. We need to pray. And commit ourselves to prayer. That he prayed earnestly.

Verse 17. That literally means he prayed in prayer. He prayed in prayer. That means his heart was in it. Do you like to pray? Why not? All because I can't pray well. We don't see it as conversation. Talking to God. You can talk to certain people and really get into it. You talk about football scores. You talk about the latest fashion designs. Or the latest place to shop.

Or the nicest place to eat. You can get into that kind of stuff. Imagine you're about the restaurant up here. You know they've got a nice big trick they can offer. Well you get into that. That's what praying is. He prayed earnestly. He got into it. His heart was into praying. Because he saw God answer. He could see God move and answer. He was a man just like God.

We need to pray. We need to pray for our nation. Fourth thing we need to pray for. And we'll close. We need to pray for the wonderer. We need to pray for the wonderer. My brothers if one of you should wonder from the truth. And someone should bring him back. Remember this. Whoever turns the sinner from the error of his way will save him from death. And cover over a multitude of things.

We need to pray for the wonderer. Now I'm assuming you are praying for your unsaved friends and loved ones. I'm assuming that. James is assuming that. The wonderer here. The sinner here in verse 20 is not an unbeliever. It's a believer. Or is it a man? It's a man. It's a man. One of you. One of you. My brothers. My brothers. My brothers. My brothers. One of you as a believer should wonder from the truth.

And someone should bring him or you back. Because you. One of you. Should bring you back. Remember this. Whoever turns a sinner. That's you. Brother. To have wondered from the truth. From the error of his way. Will save him from death. Believers wonder. Believers often wonder. Sadly enough. And so we're to pray for the wonderer. Those we know in our own fellowship.

love the lord who did and now they seem to be kind of caught up in something else and they do not trust in the lord they're off into whatever and they've wandered away from the truth what's the truth john 17 verse 17 jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would believe on him through them that's uh that god would sanctify them and us by his truth and in the end of verse 17 he says thy word is true god's word sanctifies god word god's word sets us apart god's word is truth so when we wonder from the truth we've wondered from jesus christ who is the truth and also the word we've wandered away from him so where are you this morning where's your prayer

life this morning where's your hope in prayer if your hope in prayer has waned it may not really be because you haven't seen answered prayer although a lot of the church is that way today a lot of the church doesn't believe in prayer because they don't see effective prayer answered but they forget what prayer is all about prayer is not so that i can get what i ask for prayer is my communion with him it's my communion with the lord so that i can learn his mind and know his thoughts and know how to pray for the situations at hand because we've got a nation in disobedience we have wonders from the truth within our own fellowship i need to know how to pray i need to know what to

do and i start with prayer asking him about the wonders lord move in their lives and also use me let me be a vessel fit for your use that you can move me in their direction if necessary to help bring them back wonder also timothy that and and in the last eight it's going to be a lot of wonder second timothy chapter four verses three and four he says that the time will come when men will not put up without doctrine the truth of the word instead to suit their own desires and i underline that suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn unto men in the church today and maybe even in the

fellowship this one there are those who want to follow the law but again only so far because i want to keep the truth and i want to keep the truth and i want to keep the truth and i want to keep the my asure of hold i want to keep that situation that i know god really doesn't want me in but i like it and i want to do it i wanna keep that and you look for those who will do that and returning from the truth we found a loophole we've got the high place to set up and it's only a matter of time until the high places draw us away from the truth until we wonder from the truth or to use our own personal thing hebrews tells us that god disciplines those that he loves those that are his children and you are your children that jesus is your wife lose 12

verse 7 that we are to endure hardship as discipline endure hardship as discipline discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? Now, in the world, we will have tribulations. We're going to have some hardships. God uses them to discipline us. Now, if you and I are in fellowship with him and he brings a hardship on, it's easier and quicker

for us to look in and say, okay, I'm sorry. You know, what do I need to learn? What have I been doing that I shouldn't do? I'm ready to learn. Then if we're wandering from the truth and not in that fellowship with him and he brings the hardship on, hardship, right? Hardship, and I'm fighting a hardship, and I've got to do this with a hardship, and I've got to medic you for my

hardship. Why did you cause my hardship? It takes the Lord a little more discipline to finally get us turned around and back to, oh, we are disciplined. He disciplines those that he loves. So the wanderers, those that are wandering, anticipate the hardship because God loves you and he wants to bring you back. Back to what? Back to the truth. Back to a hunger for his word. Back to a desire

to be obedient to his word, to do what he's called us to do. John tells us there is a sin. 1 John chapter 5 tells us there's a sin unto death. I believe that. For believers only. Non-believers are already dead, but there's only, they're waiting for life. Sin unto death is something I believe that only a believer can commit. In the 21, there's from the truth, and God seeks to discipline him, and he still wanders. He still wants his own way. He still

wants to have his own area of whatever, and God's going to bring him out of the pool. Time to come home rather than to profane God's name. You're him. He bought you with the cross, but he's not going to let you defame the name of Christ for your own good. I've used this illustration all the time when I talk about this. Your child is out in the yard, and he's doing something that

is detrimental to himself. You will go out and you're going to go out and you're going to go out there and tell him not to do that. You're not supposed to play with, you know, the neighbor's dog or the phone line or, you know, electric wire, the electric wire coming out. You're not supposed to play with that. If you look out and he's playing with it again, you move him away

from it. And if he still crawls over to that electric wire and starts putting his teeth on it, you go out and bring him in the outboard. You don't do it. If we're willfully going to turn our backs on the Lord and God chastens us and disciplines us, and we're still going to go for the electric wire, he's going to take you home. Wandering is also dangerous to the church. It's

dangerous to the church. As we see others wandering, we're going to go out and we're going to go out and we're going to go under. We are initially not desiring to be the element that's used to bring them back. We just kind of watch them and then we kind of watch what they're doing. And then all of a sudden, our eyes are focused not on the Lord, but on what they're doing. And then

all of a sudden, we can be caught up in what they're doing and kind of walking over here after what they're doing instead of seeking to draw them back into fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with the truth. So verses 19 and 20, we pray not only for the strayers, but that somehow God will use us to bring them back. If any one of you, whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way, will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sin. So we're seeking not only to win the unbelievers to Christ, but we seek to win the wandering believer back to the Lord. A lot to

do, see? A lot to do. Too much to do to be caught up with our own little stuff. There's too many fish in the pond. You think about cleaning up the pond. You've got to get the fish. Time is too short. You're going to help draw the wanderers back to the Lord. If you're a wanderer today, or maybe you have, first of all, maybe you have a wanderer in your family or a wanderer who's

a friend. Somebody who's a wanderer from the church. These are the days when you're going to start praying. Diligently praying. I know. I know you prayed forever and it's just a hopeless situation where you're concerned. Don't lose the hope. Don't lose the hope. Hope and prayer. We'll respond with hope and the opportunities and the blessings of prayer to pray for the wanderer and

the nation and the sick and in the midst of trouble. Don't lose hope in that. Maybe you're here today and you are a wanderer and you kind of wandered into church today and you just don't, you kind of wonder what's going on. Today's the day to stop wondering and wandering and become that generation that starts to turn towards God. Time is short. Father, help us.