The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 14: Saturated Sunday - Prayer and Anointing

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. - The Church of Eleven22™ is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support The Church of Eleven22 and help us continue to reach people around the world, visit https://www.coe22.com/donate

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Good. If you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, James Chapter 5 is where we're going to be. We're at a bit of a crossroads today. You've heard it already. We're finishing up saturated and we're finishing up the book of James. Pretty incredible, all right?

How many of you were in every day of saturated? You made every single day. Praise God for you. This is going to be the best sermon you've ever heard. Not because of the delivery of the sermon, but because of the content of your heart. Because the soil of your heart has been tilled up for the last. last five days so that you will be able to receive the Word of God. Now, if this is your first time here, you have picked a doozy to show up to.

You see, as a part of what we were doing insaturated is we really follow the narrative of Acts Chapter 2, and a bunch of cool stuff happens in Acts chapter 2. That the disciples are doing what Jesus told them to do, that they're waiting in the upper room to receive the power that's only going to come when the Spirit of God comes upon them. And sure enough, the Spirit of God descends on the disciples like tongues of fire, and they speak in different tongues. And then there's songs, sung, and there's sermons, preach, and men and women get saved, and people are baptized, amen? And that's what we did during Saturated. We sang, and the Spirit of God fell upon us, and we preached sermons, and we

baptized people. In fact, over 20,000 people attended live in person for Saturated. Over 20,000 people watched saturated with us online, 49 people got saved, and 242 got baptized or saturated, right? Praise God. And what's very interesting is, I don't know if you know this, but after Acts Chapter 2 comes Acts Chapter 3, not a trick question. You always look at me like I'm, what is it, Pastor? Three. When you get to Acts chapter 3, guess what happens? After the tongues of fire, after sermons are sung, after men and women are saved, after sermons are priests, after people get baptized, you flip over and in the next chapter, miracles happen and somebody gets healed. And so the way we're going to end our service today, according to James chapter 5,

is you have walked into a healing service. We're going to pray and we're going to anoint. If you ever show up here, okay, this is just a little 11-22 hack. If you ever see a little oil up here and then buckle up buttercup, because in about 40 minutes we're going to cast out demons. In about 40 minutes, we're going to pray for healing. in about 40 minutes, we're going to ask that marriages are restored and that life is given and that bodies are healed.

Let me be clear, man, I'm not a faith healer. I'm just a Bible believer. And so, look, and we didn't do the anointing with the old thing when I was growing up. I got saved at a Southern Baptist camp. We anointed biscuits with gravy. That's as far as we went with anointing. But we're just going to study what the book says,

and just like we learned in James, we're not going to be merely hearers of the word and so deceives ourselves, we're just going to do what it says. Now, if this is your first time, again, welcome, but you're at the end of a 14-week study on the book of James. How many of you have loved the book of James?

Yeah, me too, man. And I mean this as nice as possible, okay? Ignore the look on my face when I say this. I'm not trying to be this rude. But I really don't care if it's entertained you. What I really care about has said the word, changed you because that's what James is all about. You see James says there's two kinds of faith. James says there's two kinds of faith. There's one kind of faith that's a fake faith. It's not real

faith. It's the kind of faith that says all the right things, that believes all the right things, but changes nothing. And he says that kind of faith is a worthless faith. It's a dead faith. It's faith without work, so it's dead. But then there's a true faith. And a true faith is that is that the faith that God gives to you changes everything. Not that you're perfect, but you're different. That you're being molded to the image and likeness of God's son, Jesus Christ. James also said that there's two kinds of wisdom. There's the world's wisdom, and then there's godly wisdom.

The world's wisdom is simply summarized this way in our current culture. You do, you boo. That's the world's wisdom. That you are the center of your own universe, and whatever you determine about you is your truth. James would say your truth is dumb. There is no your truth. The truth is in a person.

His name is Jesus Christ. And God's wisdom is when you realize I don't get to do it my way, I need to do it your way, because you are the author of life. And when I do life your way, things go better. That's what godly wisdom is. Godly wisdom is, I don't got this. Worldly wisdom is I totally got this. Godly wisdom is that we say, God, I need you.

We pray this. God, I need you. And then we get this unbelievable invitation. from the almighty sovereign of the universe, the almighty, perfect, holy one of the universe. And he says, if you will just draw near to me. Every single time I promise, because he is a promise-keeping God, if you will draw near to me, I will draw near to you. That's what we'll be doing in the book of James.

That's what we've done insaturated. Now, when you get to the end of James, hopefully you feel kind of messed up. Anybody every week be like, oh no, I've got to change so many things in my life. You see, the reason that we're studying the book of James is because we're in this two-year discipleship journey called the 10-10 life, that the enemy, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He's a thief, and what he wants to do is kill, steal, and destroy. That's all he wants to do.

But Jesus is the good shepherd, and Jesus says, but I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. The next thing he says is, I am the good shepherd. the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep so the abundant life is found in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to say, and my sheep, check this out, my sheep recognize my voice and follow my lead. Here's what this means. Every single time you hear, you recognize the voice of the good shepherd and take a step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd, you're always traveling towards abundant life.

And every single time you're the Lord of your own life and say, forget you, I do what I want. You're always traveling towards death. This is far beyond right and wrong. This is far beyond moral and immoral. This is about life and death. And so everything that we're preaching this year is under the banner of what does an abundant life look like. And so James gets very, very practical.

Because James is like, you got all the feelings? Great. You got all the right beliefs? Great. But if you are not doing what the word says, then you don't actually believe. Listen, man, if James don't light you fire. it could be because your woods wet. You understand?

You people from Palacca. Explain that to the Pont of Eden people what are we talking about, okay? It's very convicting. Anybody else feel convicted as you studied the Book of James? I mean, look, man, I'm preaching it. And I felt like every week

I had to be like, Gretchen, I'm sorry, children, I'm sorry. What do you mean? Well, it seems that I've got to change everything about my life, according to the Book of James. I mean, I got to change my words because I'm careless with them. and with one wrong word, you can set your house on fire. It's clear, I got anger issues.

I got to change the way I do money, according to the last week. Heck, some of you're thinking I've got to change my whole career. Definitely can't do retirement the way I thought I was going to do retirement. I got to quit comparing myself. In fact, James even changes the way we go through trials. James says, he has the audacity to say, take joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds. How many of you know, it's kind of easy to look over your shoulder

and see the reality of Romans 828, that God is at working all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose, that we can look in the rear view and make sense of how God uses it? James says what the true believer does is when they meet trial. Oh, hey, trial, how are you? I'm looking forward to the joy that you're going to bring into my life. Anybody do that?

We look at this and we're like, oh, no, I've got to change it. In fact, the easiest thing we did in the book of James is sponsor a compassion kid. Because you can just write a check for 40-something dollars and get them, you know what I mean? And so in regards to that, in regards to putting your faith to work, James has two concluding thoughts. He says, here's what James is going to leave us with.

He's going to say, all right, folks, if you have been convicted by the spirit of God, there's a big difference between conviction and condemnation. condemnation is you busted. Conviction is that God would love you enough to draw you closer to him, and in that abiding, you'd look more like him. Don't reject the conviction of the Spirit of God in your life. And so, he says, all right, so here's what you're going to need.

You're going to need two things. You're going to need patience, and you're going to need a miraculous work of the Lord. In order to put this thing in action, you're going to need patience, and you're going to need a miraculous work of the Lord. So you go, okay, Lord, I'm ready to get the Lord. work, I'm ready to change my life, what do I do? The Lord says, all right, I'm glad you asked James tell them. Verse seven, here we go.

Number one, be patient. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Listen, I rarely tell you to do this, but look at me, just okay, if you feel the conviction of the spirit over all kind of things from the word, okay, just hold on, just breathe in, breathe out. God says, relax a little bit. Why? He says, because I got this.

I've got this. Do you remember we memorized this verse? Remember we studied Philippians? It feels like 19 years ago. It was January. And I asked you to memorize Philippians 1-6. And it says this, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in me

will bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. That's what he's saying there. Is there like a thousand things in your life that need to change? He's like, yeah, of course there is, okay? because you're in a wretched, black-hearted sinner, and it's actually worse than you think. The gap between you and glory is a long way away. However, can you just be patient?

Because it is God who is at work in you. The reason that you can be confident is because you didn't sign up for this. This wasn't your idea. God chose you, and God adopted you, and God paid for you. And the good news about Philippians 1-6, that I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in me will bring it to completion,

that's not the kind of verse that tells us that we can, and stop trying because God's got this, that's the kind of verse that tells us that we can try harder because God guarantees that the effort is not in vain. Imagine if you signed up for my diet program and it worked every single time.

We would all sign up for that. Obviously it doesn't, but just pretend. What if I have an investment for you and it was a 100% guarantee that you would triple your money? Would you not take that investment? This is what he is saying. Just relax. God is sanctifying you, I promise.

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Then he gives an example. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it? There's the second time he mentions the word patient. Until it receives the early and the late rains. Okay, here, it's like a farmer. Sanctification takes a minute. But it requires daily attention before you get the harvest.

So he's saying, okay, you need to put your faith into action. There's some action steps you want to take. Write this down. Number one is be patient. Number one is be patient. And then every single one of us are like, okay, God, I got it. Number one, be patient. All right.

What's number two? Ready for this? Number two, be patient. I'm not making this up. Verse eight, you also be patient. Do you see the irony here? Because God knows the human heart. All right, be patient.

Oh, I got it. I got it faster than everybody else too. Are you proud of me? Okay, I got it. All right, what's next? And he goes, whoa, whoa, be patient. Three times in two verses, God has said to be patient. How many times do you think he told the world to let there be light?

Do you think he had to say it over and over again? Do you have to say, let it be light? Light. I said light. Let there be light. Alexa, listen. You know what I'm saying? No.

when he spoke, everything obeyed, where the only thing in the creation that doesn't do what he says the first time he says it. And so three times now he has to tell his people, be patient. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord

is at hand. Establish your hearts and quit thinking about now only. Establish your hearts in eternity. Establish your hearts in forever. Set your hearts on what is coming. You gotta get your hearts your eyes up off the horizon, see above the horizon, fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the author

and the perfector of our life. He said, why are you acting like you're gonna live here forever and the things that you're going through in this world are the only thing that matter? In the twinkling of an eye, it's gonna seem like a distant dream one day when we get into his presence. And so we have to quit living like we're gonna live here forever. We've gotta start living as if eternity begins

when we get our eyes on him, amen? So he says, establish your hearts. for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Verse nine, do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. None of us know the day or hour, not even Jesus, but he is standing at the door just awaiting the moment

where his father says, go get my kids and bring them home. And when we grumble, what we do is we totally get our eyes off of eternity and we get them fixed on people around us, on circumstances around us. This is why we complain and this is why we argue because all we are seeing is the thing that is happening right now. And James is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, man, be patient. Be patient. God is at work in you, but he's not at work in you for just what's happening now. He's at work in you forever.

So what if we started living with eternity in our focus? We complain about the dumbest stuff. Charles Spurgeon used to share this illustration. He shared it. He said it was true. Charles Spurgeon was an old dead preacher from like the 1800. in England. He was awesome. And he said that there was a man. He was a peasant. He had nothing.

He had one little shack, one little house. He had one mule. He had one little carriage. And he got word that he had inherited a mansion. He had inherited a kingdom. With staff and with walls and with food and with acreage. He'd inherited his entire kingdom. And all he had to do, he had these relatives that passed away that gave him this kingdom. And all he had to do is leave the place where he lived, pack up whatever he wanted to and travel to the kingdom.

And when he walked through the city gates, that mansion in that kingdom would be his. And Charles Furzen said, this is what you have been guaranteed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And this man puts everything that he has in this one little dinky carriage, and he makes the multi-day journey to go to this kingdom that he had inherited. And can you imagine if he finally makes that last turn and kingdom is in sight, He could see the castle, he could see the walls, he could see the people, he could see all that was in store for him. But then the wagon wheel on the carriage breaks, and he spent the rest of his time standing on the side of the road complaining about the carriage. Meanwhile, there was a kingdom awaiting him.

That's what we sound like to heaven when we're grumbled and complain. That's what we sound like when we fight and we quarrel because we don't get what we want. James says, lift your eyes up off of the temporary and fix them on Jesus, the author, perfected over our faith. in verse 10. Because he says, he's not promising Cadillac and Cotton Candy. He says, as an example of suffering and patient brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. If you do a brief study in the Old Testament of the prophets,

in general, they did the will of God and life did not go their way. But they remain steadfast, not based on circumstances, but based on the faithfulness of God. And then he's going to give us a specific example. He says, Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. And just in case you're unfamiliar with the story of Job in the Old Covenant,

Job was the most blessed man on the planet. The Bible says he was the most righteous man on the planet. And the enemy comes to the Lord and says, the only reason that one blesses you is because you have blessed him. You take away his blessing and he won't bless you anymore. And God says, okay, have at him, but you can't kill him. And so the enemy who only comes to steal, kill, and destroy comes after Job. He takes his kids, he takes his money, takes his livelihood, takes his health. Do you know what the only thing he leaves him with is his wife? Choose wisely, my friend, all right?

She may be a tool in the hand of the devil. I don't know, so good luck with that. And his dumb friends come around him, and they say, listen, listen, you should curse God and die. And you know what Job says? God gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Over and over and over and over.

God gives and takes away, and blessed it be the name of the Lord. In fact, it comes to this culmination towards the end of the book of Job, where Job finally gets together some angst, and he comes to the Lord. and he accuses God, this is a fair, God, this isn't fair. You don't owe me this kind of tribulation because I was faithful to you. You know what God says to Job? God says, gurn up your loins and take this like a man.

That's what he says. And then he begins to ask Job questions. Job, I remember when I was creating everything that is, and you know what? I don't remember seeing you there. I don't, did I ask you where I was going to hold the snow before I let it fall? I don't remember consulting with you

before I decide where a lightning bolt is going to strike. You know what Job? Job, you took, you took two tries at the eighth grade. You can't kiss your own elbow. And there are places under your back and you can't scratch, but you want to stand in judgment on me. That's not exactly word for word. Kind of the message of remix translation. But that's what he's saying.

And so you say, so where was the Lord's compassion and patience? Here's where the Lord's compassion and patience was. All the things that Job went through led him to a deeper understanding of God, and it don't matter whether he's. He blesses us or he breaks us. The greatest thing he can do for us is draw us closer to him. That's what he's talking about. You see, it may be tough now, but we've got to be reminded that the Lord is in control.

You may be walking through circumstances right now and you may be crying out in your heart, God, what are you doing? But just be reminded, you know what he's done. And what he's done is he's demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. It reminds me of what the writer of Hebrews says. In Hebrews 11, 32, and following, it says, What more shall I say?

For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barack and Samson and Jephtha, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quince the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, putting foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection.

And wouldn't it be great if it stopped there? Wouldn't it be great if I could tell you, you just put your faith in Jesus, and you can shut the mouths of lions? You know what the problem with the Bible is? It's true. So it just doesn't even stop. Without any warning, it takes a hard left turn.

Some were tortured. They were like, whoa, what? I thought we were shutting the mouths of lions. Yes, sometimes. But some were torture, refusing to accept release, so they might rise again into a better life. suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned.

They were sown in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. Anybody want to sign up for that ministry? And yet the promise is of whom the world was not worthy. James says, if you feel convicted of the Lord, be patient. Because regardless of your circumstance, the Lord is compassionate and merciful. and the Lord always has the long game in mind,

like the eternally long game for His glory and for your joy. Then he finishes up with this. He says, but above all, and I think about how important it is when the Bible says, but above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Many commentators are like, this verse seems out of place. I don't think it seems out of place at all. In context of the whole book of James, what James is saying is there are two kinds of wisdom. There's the wisdom that says, I got this, which is godly wisdom, I mean, which is earthly wisdom, and then godly wisdom is when we admit,

I ain't got this. I need help. He says, so don't swear. Because on who authority will you swear? When you swear, when you make a promise, when you make an oath, when you say, listen, listen, listen, no matter what, trust me, I got this. Watch out, watch out.

because at the root of that is pride and God opposes the proud. No, no, no. You just let your yes be yes and you know, but no. You don't need to swear by anything because you realize I ain't got this. And the moment you realize you ain't got this, then I got really good news for you.

You are perfectly positioned for a mighty move of God in your life. When you realize, no, no, no, no, no, I need help. And God, I need for you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. And so he says, if faith is going to change your life, you need to be patient. Trust in the Lord. Don't trust in yourself.

And then he says, and you need one more thing. You need God to do a miracle in your life. That's what you need. You want to put to application the things that James has told us about, then God's going to have to show up in a mighty, mighty way. Try harder will never be enough. See, because again, if you feel a little bit overwhelmed right now, if you look, at all of the instructions from James and you feel a little overwhelmed, I got really good news.

When you look at your life and you think, there's no way I can pull this off, then you are perfectly positioned for God to do a miracle in your life. The way Jesus would say it is this, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Poor in spirit is when you realize that you were personally and spiritually bankrupt. And so he says, you're going to need help. You're going to need a miraculous work from the Lord. And so what we're going to do in this next section is we're going to practice it even more than we're going to study it. In about 25 minutes, we are going to end our service with a prayer and anointing, healing service. That's what we're going to do.

And what's great is the Bible has given us instruction on how to do this. Okay? And so listen, man, I know there has been some crazy Christians that have done some weird things in church. and how many of you know in every family there's always some weird ones. Anybody know this? And God bless you when you're like, not in my family. That's cute. You haven't realized.

But just because some weird parts of the family have done some weird stuff with the word, that doesn't mean that the rest of us neglect the word. We're just going to do what the word says. And so James says this. Is anyone among you suffering? Listen, I know. There's some people when you walked in here today, man, and you are on the struggle bus.

I mean, you are suffering. This is, anybody just says, man, I need help. Suffering is when life happens to us. We live in a broken world. Sometimes this broken world, man, it breaks us. There are evil people in this world that do evil things, sometimes against us. Sometimes the suffering that we're going through is at our own hands. How good is our God that he would love us enough that even if the suffering that you're walking through is a self-inflicted wound, he has healing for that wound too.

Anybody's suffering? Yeah. He says, let him pray. Not do better, not try harder, but pray. Listen, prayer is the most powerful thing you can do. Every time some catastrophe happens, the pagan elites of our world say, we need a lot more than prayer. Well, the James says that for sure action accompanies prayer,

but we never need less than prayer because prayer is the most powerful thing a person could do. Amen? Because think about this. You want to know how what a big deal of prayer is? is that when Jesus dies on the cross and he pushes up on his nail-pier's feet and he says it is finished,

an earthquake hits Jerusalem, cracks right through the middle of the temple and it tears the curtain that separated the people of God from the presence of God from the top to the bottom as an invitation from God to enter into his throne room and ask him for what you need because he's a good dad and he loves his kids. I mean, who gets to walk into the king's chamber at 3 a.m. And that's the king for a cup of water?

I'll tell you who to the daughter of the king gets to. That's who gets to walk in. He says, anybody's suffering? Suffering is when life happens to you. Some of you have lost a loved one recently, and it's overwhelming. And you're suffering. Some of you are suffering through a prodigal son

or a prodigal daughter. We talk about this one all the time, right? Ain't no pain like kid pain. Why? Because ain't no love like kid love, amen? I mean my daughter's sitting right here, front row. I like you sitting there, okay? I remember we were having her.

When we found out it was a girl, I was terrified. Terrified. It just takes a little extra from a dad to raise a daughter these days. You understand? And so I knew that I was going to be at war against an enemy who was going to lie to her every single day. And I have confessed this to you before. I don't mind running this place from our Columbia campus, all right?

The guys at Columbia told me I was too old. I might have to run it from Union. I don't care, whatever, all right? I would do whatever it takes to provide and protect for her. But when we were having her, I didn't realize, see, when we had JP, I thought, uh-oh, I may have messed up. I may have messed up because I didn't portion out the love right. I took every bit of love that I have, and even when you have a baby man, he will unlock another, like, section of it. You didn't even know it was there, and I took it all, and I dumped it on that first little thing we had.

Then we found out we having another one, and I was thinking, I legitimately, who do you tell this to? And I thought, oh, no, what if I can't love the second one like I love the first one? one. And then when I met Reagan-Capri, what dawned on me is I still had all the love to give because God is love and love is an inexhaustible resource and he lives in me so you can pour it out on the next one, right? Okay. And then you let them get hurt, you let them get sick. You let him get diagnosed with something. You let them turn away from the Lord. Ain't no pain like kid pain, amen? They ain't a suffering like that on the planet. How many parents have and your kids go through something and you know exactly what it would be like for God to say,

I would take their place. Yeah, that's a little gospel in you right there. So maybe some of you are suffering and you need to come and be prayed for on behalf of your son and daughter. For some of you, it's a financial loss. Some of you are suffering at debilitating depression, suicidal thoughts. Listen to me, man. That is a demonic oppression against you. Sometimes, and I Sometimes we're going to talk about demons around here. Some of you get too excited. You're like, finally, here we go. You know, you got water guns with holy water in it, ready to go.

And I ain't what we're doing. And then some of you, like, hold on, Pastor, 21st century, you believe in demons? You ever talk to somebody? It's depressed? I mean, they will tell you straight up. This ain't me. It's like there's another thing telling me things that I don't want to believe.

I look around at my circumstances and I ought to be able to flip happy on. Got a pretty decent spouse. I got healthy kids. I got money in the bank and a house to live in, I should be overwhelmed gratitude, and for some reason I just can't turn gratitude on what's wrong with me. But be clear, man, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ,

the enemy comes against you to oppress, but he cannot possess you because you are a ball and pay for possession of Jesus Christ. You are not your own, you were bolt at a price. And so we're going to come at war against the enemy in your life between your ears. Some of you are suffering from anxiety. Man, anxiety is brutal.

Anxiety is when you're worried and you're worried and you're worried and you're worried, and you don't even know what you're worried about, and you've got no place to put it, so you put it on the inside of you and it's tearing you down. And the good news of the word is we're to be anxious for nothing. But by prayer and supplication, we were to make our request known to him with Thanksgiving, and then there's this unbelievable promise,

literally unbelievable. And the peace of God that transcends understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Man, I'm walking with some people this week and the circumstances of their life. They shouldn't be able to get out of the bed and somehow they are being able to walk in a peace that doesn't make sense.

And even when you ask them, how are you going through this? I don't know how I'm going through this. But I don't know if you know this, but new mercies come in the morning. This is why you don't worry about tomorrow. Because God hasn't given you the mercy. that you need to deal with tomorrow. He's giving you the mercies for right now, for today,

and if you're suffering because you're going through a trial, you need to pray. And I'm glad it keeps going here. He says, anybody cheerful? Anybody cheerful in here? How are you, Florida State people? You ought to be cheerful. You want to one, two in a row.

It's fun, isn't it? It's great. Well, good. Well, you got a job to do, too. See, because what's going to happen in 13 minutes is we're going to pray and we're going to anoint and chains of addiction are going to fall off, and bodies are going to be healed, and life is going to birth inside of people.

All kind of miracles are going to happen. And meanwhile, there's going to be a whole bunch of people that don't feel necessarily that they're suffering or they're sick or there's some kind of sin struggle that they have. Those are the three categories James gives us. And so you get to pray too. You just get to pray from your seat by singing. Singing is when the church gets together and corporately prays. We're going to sing that amen song.

that we wrote, let it be so. You're gonna be participating in the prayer and anointing because you're gonna be singing over the people unto the Lord and you're gonna be saying, all right Lord, every prayer that's happening up there and in every single campus and online, let it be so. And then after that we're gonna sing goodness of God

and depending on how many people, we might sing six more songs. We ain't gotta know where to go. So is anyone cheerful, cool? Let him sing, praise. Then he goes from suffering. to sick. Anyone among you sick? Now oftentimes we think primarily about physical sickness, which is included here, but it's not limited to physical sickness. You say sickness is anytime we're off, heart, soul, mind, or strength. In fact, the Bible says hope deferred makes the

heart sick. Some of you find yourself in a hopeless situation. You've been trying for three years to have a baby and it feels hopeless. And hope deferts makes the heart sick. Some of you find yourself in a sick marriage and nobody else knows and you need it to be healed. Some of you are struggling with mental illness. And again, you don't have a Christian category for that because somebody at some point told you that if you know Jesus, all you should know is joy in the Lord, you can't quite flip it around and you say, what is wrong with me? Some of you have some soul sickness.

You've been a Christian for a minute, but lately it feels like you're just going through the motions and you feel a million miles from God. or maybe there's this thing that you can't let yourself off the mat on. Even though you know the reality of the gospel and you know theologically that God has forgiven you for some reason, you won't let you forgive you and you're buying into the lies of the enemy that you are unfit for use that you are condemned. And I'm going to pray today that the Spirit of God would unleash in you, Romans 8-1,

that you would know that therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And for some of you, it is physical sickness. and we're going to pray for healing, whether it's cancer or tumor or surgery or whatever it is, is anyone is among you sick. The reason that God would make you whole is that you could love him with all. All your heart or your soul, all your mind,

and all your strength. And so we are going to pray for that. So if you're suffering or if you're sick, he says this, 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. It's nothing magical about this. and it's not the oil that has the power,

it's the blood of Jesus that has the power. So we're just gonna do what it says. Now we've got nine elders and about 19,000 people to come to our church. And so the elders have commissioned pastors and deacons and ministers and care leaders and all kinds of people to pray for you. And then James, I think he could anticipate this coming.

He 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, and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. It is not the person that is praying that has the power. It is the one that we are praying to that has the power.

It doesn't matter who prays for you. It matters in whose name we are praying, and we are praying in the name of Jesus. And then notice here, man, he mentioned sin. So here's who should come and you can pray for. if you're suffering, if you're sick, or if you're a sinner. Turn to the person on your left and say, he's talking to you. Go.

Yeah, that's right. That's it. It's the only people that need prayer tonight. He says, in the prayer of faith, we'll save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. So listen, man, if you're in sin, you need to come and confess. He goes on to say, therefore confess your sins. So maybe, man, maybe the grip of addiction is just wrapped around your neck.

I'm telling you, it is a demonic oppression. Like, should you go to meetings and run the play? For sure. But if you don't deal with this on a spiritual level, then it's over for you. Again, have you ever talked to somebody that has an addiction? Here's what they'll say. They'll say, there's this thing I don't want to do. There's this thing on my own power, I've promised I'll never do it again.

And I know, I know if I go down this road, it's going to kill me and everybody else I love. And yet, at certain times, it's like a voice that's not my voice, bates me down a road that I promise I'd never go down again. What you call that? Poor decision-making? I don't think so. There is no room for the enemy's work in this house. Because this is a blood-bought church. And if you're a believer, you're a blood-bought believer.

So whether it's drugs or alcohol or food or pornography or whatever it is, and some of us need to come and confess our sins because you've got this little pit. that sin that you've been trying to tame. See, here's the thing about sin. Either you kill it or it's going to kill you. I remember my kids were little. They used to watch those when animal attacks videos. Remember those? How does everyone end?

Starts out the same, right? There's a lady in a bikini selling shampoo with a bear because that makes sense. Is anybody surprised when the bear decides not to shampoo but eat the lady's face off? And then they always interview them after it. Well, to the trainer, what happened? I don't know.

Who saw that coming? I want to be like, I saw it coming. But Fluffy's always been gentle. It's a bear. It's just what bears do. They don't eat honey. They don't put out fires. They eat faces off when hungry enough.

A part of what confession is, is you got this little pet sin. You think it's not that big deal. And the enemy has it perfectly positioned to eat your face off right when you don't expect it. You need to come and come and come. confess, say it out loud. Here's something, here's a sin in my life. And I want some victory over this thing. And listen now, listen, listen, and any sexual sin,

because it's just different. It's just different. The Bible says that the sexual sin is in a different category. It says, for all have sinned. But he who sexually sins against his own body. And I know we live in a world that doesn't call it sin, but we're going to call sin what the Bible calls. of sin and we're going to confess our sin.

And let me tell the Catholics something. Listen, Catholics, all right, I ain't trying to beat up on you. Just trying to correct some theology. Listen, we don't confess so that we will be forgiven. We confess that the blood of Jesus has already worked and forgiven us. There's no work that forgives us. It's the blood of Jesus that forgives us. But sometimes you don't walk in the freedom of victory over sin because you keep it to

yourself. And God has given us this avenue called confession and it shines light. And where the light is, darkness has to flee. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Let me tell you two things that will keep you from healing that God has for you today. One is pride, because you begin to think, what will people think if I walk up there? And the Bible says God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. It'll take a humble heart for you to have to walk up here and say, I need help, I ain't got this.

The other one is fear. Fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit, a demonic spirit. My Bible says, Paul says to Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. And the moment you feel this invitation, this warm invitation to come and confess and repent

and be prayed for, the moment you hear another voice telling you not to do that, who do you think that voice is from? You think God is going to say, no, you shouldn't go get prayed for. No, you shouldn't do what the Bible says. That's the enemy trying to steal from you healing that God has in store for you. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed.

And then he says the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Every single person up here that's going to be praying is a righteous person. Not because of right activity, but because the righteousness of Christ has been imputed unto them. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, period. In fact, if we're honest, every single one of the anointers in prayers, at some point ought to hand you the bottle and switch sides to now, okay, it's your turn. Because I need to be prayed for too. And then he gives a specific example. He says, Elijah.

Now listen, man, when James audience, a Jewish audience, when they heard the name Elijah, they were like, ooh, Elijah. It's like when I'm talking about Tebow around here, and you're all like, ooh, okay? Listen to this, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Let me put that and let me translate that for my Dillon people. Elijah was a dude, just a dude, just a regular old dude. Wasn't super spiritual, not super special, but because of who God is,

God decided to use this man. Elijah was a, he's a dude just like the rest of us. He's a man with the nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. And then he prayed again. and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit.

Here's the thing about Elijah. He's just a regular guy. Now, he had some super high highs, pretty cool. He called down fire, he revived a kid from death, he turned off the rain for three years, he outran a chariot, that's all cool. He also had some really low lows. He suffered from a debilitating depression.

He had suicidal ideation. He suffered from loneliness. He had this overwhelming feeling of anxiety and failure. and God used him to do the miraculous because God is in the business of using ordinary men and women just like me and you so that he gets all his glory. And so the way he ends it is this, my brothers, if anyone among you wonders from the truth

that someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. We're just going to try to do what the Bible says. Some of your suffering, some of you're sick, some of you are struggling with some sin. We're going to pray. We have an army of your brothers and sisters,

your 1122 brothers and sisters in Christ. There's some pastors and elders and all the things, man. And we're going to pray for healing. We're going to pray for wholeness. We're going to pray that chains of addiction would be broken. We're going to pray that bodies would be healed. We're going to pray that minds would be made right. And let me just warn you, okay?

You don't have to go into excruciating details of what's going on in your life. The Lord knows. And we ain't praying no little lame Presbyterian prayers up here. I love a good Presby. We hire a bunch of them. They got great theology. But this isn't just going to be like, well, we'll be done. That ain't what we doing.

We're going to call down the fire described in Acts chapter 2 where the Spirit of the Lord is. There is freedom, all right? And we're going to believe, man. We're going to choose to believe that if the tomb is empty, anything as possible. That it's not the prayer that matters. It's the prayer to the one who answers the prayer that he's still a miracle working God. And we're going to put our faith into action saying, Lord, I ain't got this. And I'm struggling. I'm sick. I'm just sin in my life. And sometimes we need to go on behalf of somebody else in our life. Somebody else is sick.

Somebody else is struggling. And you need to come and pray for that person. Sometimes we need to come in twos or threes. Because you're struggling with loneliness, and the last thing that you want to do is walk down here by yourself. Look at the person on your left and say, I'll come with you. Say it out loud, I'll come with you.

And now we're not going to be merely a hearer of the word and so deceive ourselves. We're just to do what it says. I want to invite us at all of our campuses to please stand, and we're going to do what the Bible says. Do what James says. I would invite our prayers and anointers to come forward right now.

And if you know, when the Bible says, is there anyone among you sick or suffering? Or if you know there's confession that you need to make, then why don't you just start coming now? Don't even wait until I get finished. Let's pray and we're going to sing our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us.

Jesus, I thank you that you came, not for the healthy but for the sick. And God, there's a bunch of us right now. Even those of us who have been following you, and God, we're sick in the heart and the head and the relationships in our body. and Lord, I pray that you would unleash the spirit of God in this place. Lord, I pray that you would lavish your children with your love. God, I pray that we would know your mercy, God, we would know your kindness. And God, do you say that we have not because we ask and not?

So, God, we pray that by your stripes, we would be healed for the glory of your name. And Lord, I pray, I pray, that you would let it be so. We prayed in Jesus' name. I want you come and be prayed for? and let's sing. Let's go.