Prayers of the Righteous
James 5:
Over the last few weeks I have spent a great deal of time on the matter of prayer
Two weeks ago we talked about divine healing but the emphasis was on prayer
Sunday we talked about the simple matter of asking
But greater that the position or posture for prayer
The truth is our lifestyle must be a righteous lifestyle if we want God to hear and answer our prayer
So tonight James tells us that the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous availeth much
So just what is James saying to us?
The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].amp
The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Message
God works effectually through prayer, but that prayer must come from a clean, dedicated hear
The Images of Prayer in scripture
It is like incense
The tabernacle- Old Testament
Revelation 5: 1-8
8:1-4
The imagery is all through scripture our prayer comes up to the lord like fragrant incense and it delight heaven
Examples of prayer/intercession
Moses
Exo 32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."
Exo 32:31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.
Exo 32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin--but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written."
Exo 32:33 But the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
Exo 32:34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them."
Deu 9:13 "Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ’I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people.
Deu 9:14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
Deu 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
Deu 9:16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
Deu 9:17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
Deu 9:18 Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger.
Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.
Deu 9:20 And the LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
Deu 9:21 Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.
Deu 9:22 "At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.
Deu 9:23 And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ’Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.
Deu 9:24 You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
Deu 9:25 "So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
Deu 9:26 And I prayed to the LORD, ’O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Deu 9:27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin,
Deu 9:28 lest the land from which you brought us say, "Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness."
Deu 9:29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
Abraham
16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.a 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spareb the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judgec of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
The Example:
a. He gives us an example that eliminates excuses
He says consider Elijah, He was like us
b. He gives an example that highlights Christian responsibility
The implication is the man or woman who belongs to God will pray
Especially when he or she comes to a crisis
c. He gives us an example that demonstrates the power of prayer
He prays that it would not rain and it didn’t for 3.5 years
He prayed again and it did and the earth brought forth fruit
But James says he was a man of passions
What did he mean just like us
He was at times eruptive and volitive, he could be up and down
In a passion of anger he stood before Ahab and Jezebel
In a passion of contempt and scorn he ridiculed the false prophets of Baal and Baal himself
In a passion of fury he destroyed the places of idolatry in Israel
In a passion of intercession and prayer he asked God to rain upon a thirsting earth
In a passion of fear he ran from Mt. Carmel to Jezreel 30 miles
And in a passion of melancholy and despair he ran from Jezebel and had thoughts of death under a juniper tree and later in a cave
But still a man of prayer
He was a mysterious man
He would appear and disappear
Strange but still a man of prayer
His Boldness in Prayer:
It is clear that he was bold in prayer
Persistent Prayer
The events of his life demonstrate that he prayed and listened to God
The Lord told Him to go and hide he listened and obeyed and was fed by ravens
He was told to move he heard and obeyed
This is how prayer and a prayer life works- monologue
But even when a prayer life is established there time when God doesn’t answer
Look at chapter 18: 1
The Command
After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”
The response
2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
The Answer
43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”
45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.
He was persistent he didn’t give up because of what he heard from the Lord
Consistent Prayer:
For the believer prayer must be a habit
The reason Pastor James uses Elijah
Is because he is just like us
The prayer life must be cultivated
We want deliverance
We want breakthroughs
We want to see miracles
It can’t happen it won’t happen without prayer
There are decisions you need to make
There direction that you need to take
And it can’t be done w/o prayer
Let me close with this
He says that the prayers of the righteous man availeth much
The prayer of the righteous in the Greek is much strong
There some matters that work can’t resolve
God hears the prayers of the righteous
