Real Faith for Real Life: James Five
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/28/2012
Good morning and welcome to Blooming Grove. Halloween is only a few days away—many of you may be taking your kids trick-or-treating and a few of you may even dress in costume yourself. Truth is—I think Halloween is a reminder we all wear masks at times. We pretend that we’re something we’re not. Maybe you put on a fake smile to hide how you’re really feeling. Maybe you pretend to have your act together so that people don’t see what a mess your life really is. My prayer is that Blooming Grove will be a place where you can take off the mask, just be yourself, let people see your faults, failures and foibles—and know that you will still be loved and accepted for who you are. That’s what the Grove is all about.
A few weeks ago we started this series through the book of James, which is all about real faith for real life. In the first chapter, James talks about how real faith helps us with our burdens, our battles and our Bibles. In chapter two, James goes about defining real faith for real life and he identifies three types of faith—dead faith, demonic faith, and dynamic faith. In chapter three, James talks about how real faith ought to affect the way we talk; the things we say. In chapter four, James explains that covetousness and conflicts can be overcome by drawing close to God in faith.
In the fifth and final chapter, James touches on several areas of life that ought to be affected by our faith—if we have real faith, that is. C.S. Lewis once described faith as “The art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.” That’s the truth, isn’t it? I mean moods change. Life changes. But real faith is something worth hanging onto no matter how we feel or what our circumstances may be.
That’s the kind of faith that we need—faith that weathers the storms of life and stands the test of time. When you’ve got that kind of faith—real faith for real life—not only will it bring your soul to heaven, but it will bring heaven to your soul. In this closing chapter James elaborates on three ways that real faith will affect our lives.
• PATIENCE
First, real faith results in patience. Here’s what James says about that: “Therefore, brothers, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near” (James 5:7-8 HCSB).
There are probably some farmers here today who could testify to the importance of patience. Let me touch on what’s happening here. When we read the words “the Lord’s coming,” our minds automatically jump to the return of Christ, what we call the Second Coming. But that’s not always the case. That phrase is also sometimes used in reference to a coming judgment by God. For instance, Isaiah said that the Pharaoh saw the Lord “coming on clouds” when he unleashed the ten plagues on Egypt (Isaiah 19:1). Of course, Pharaoh didn’t literally see God coming on clouds; rather, this was a judgment metaphor meaning that Pharaoh had witnessed God’s wrath poured out like rain upon the land.
When James wrote this letter, many Christians had been driven from their homes and scattered across the Middle East as a result of Jewish and Roman persecution. Jesus prophesied that God would eventually judge the Jews and Romans for persecuting his people, that the high priest would see him “coming on clouds” heralding the destruction of the temple and the end of the Jewish age of sacrifice. But those things hadn’t happened just yet. These Christians were still being persecuted and they were waiting for God to come to their rescue. They looked forward to the “coming of the Lord” because that meant God was going to show up; that he would make his presences known!
While they were waiting, James’ tells them: “Be patient.”
How about you? Are you waiting for God to show up? Waiting for him to come to your rescue or to take action in some area of your life? Or maybe just waiting for him to give some instruction or guidance?
I think James’ advice would be the same to you—be patient.
Madeline Rockwell once wrote a story for Reader’s Digest: My grandmother was a ball of fire, while my grandpa was slow and deliberate. One night they were awakened by a commotion in the chicken house. Grandma sprang out of bed, ran to the chicken coop and found the cause of the racket, a large black snake. Having nothing to kill it with, she clamped down on its head with her bare foot. There she stood, until Grandpa arrive, a good fifteen minutes later—fully dressed and even his pocket watch in place. “Well,” he said cheerfully to my disheveled and enraged grandma, “If I’d known you had him, I wouldn’t have hurried so much.”
I think God is sometimes like that. We’re always in such a hurry in our culture. We want overnight success; instant gratification. We want microwaves, not slow cookers. Patience is not one of our strong suits and God rarely shows up as fast as we want him to. He shows up in his own time, when he’s ready. But his time is always the right time. And God is worth waiting for. That’s why James goes on to say: “For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord... For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy” (James 5:10-11 NLT). Job did a lot of waiting and wondering, but when God finally showed up Job discovered that God really is worth waiting for.
The Bible says, “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7 NIV). Real faith helps us to do just that—it results in patience.
• PRAYER
Furthermore, real faith results in prayer.
I heard a great prayer the other day: “Dear God, So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help. Amen.”
I think I might make that my new morning prayer.
Here’s what James says about prayer though: “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord… The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:13-16 NLT).
The absolute best measure of your faithfulness is your prayer life.
James gives several circumstances in which to pray. First he says to pray during hardships. When life gets hard, faith will help us to turn to God and trust him to carry us through those tough times.
Then James says to pray when you’re happy! Actually he says to sing praises, but what’s a hymn if not a prayer set to music—a prayer written with rhythm and rhyme. When we’re happy, when life is good, we need to turn to God and praise him. I think Matt Redman captures this concept of praying during hardships and happiness beautifully in the song Blessed Be Your Name:
Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
In addition to praying through hardships and happiness, James also says to pray for healing. Several recent research efforts have clearly demonstrated a relationship between good health and spirituality; especially prayer and worship. Today, 70 of the nation’s 125 medical schools have begun offering courses on spirituality and health. People who pray regularly and are part of a local church tend to live longer and have better overall health.
I’ve always liked the prayer offered by six-year-old Ryan, “Dear God, please take care of my daddy and my mommy and my sister and my brother and my doggy and me. Oh, and please take care of yourself, God. If anything happens to you, we’re gonna be in a big mess.”
But like I’ve said before, prayer isn’t a magic formula to get things from God; rather, it’s primarily about getting God himself. Just as the best part of a journey can be the “getting there,” the sweetest part of prayer is the offering of it. For Christians, prayer should be its own reward. Real faith results in a powerful and purposeful prayer-life.
• PERSEVERANCE
Finally, real faith results in perseverance.
In the very beginning of his letter, James says, “the testing of your faith produces perseverance,” and he ends on a very similar thought. Here’s what he says: “My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins” (James 5:19-20 NLT).
These last two verses highlight a couple of important truths. The first—it is possible for a person to wander from the faith, even lose their faith altogether.
There’s a story about a small boy riding a bus home from church one day. He was very proud of the craft he made in Sunday school, which was a hand-drawn picture with a caption that read: “Have Faith in God.” Then to his dismay the construction-paper craft slipped from his hand and fluttered out the window. “Stop the bus!” he cried. “I’ve lost my faith in God!” All of us would be better off if we were that concerned about our faith.
Unfortunately, all of us aren’t. We have a tendency to wander off. Today there are 320 million people in America and as many as 80% of them identify themselves as Christians, yet only 20% actually attend church from week to week. Clearly, most people who don’t attend church did attend at one time. Record numbers of church-going teenagers quit going to church as soon as they graduate high-school. Some of these people have a dead or dying faith. They are spiritually lost, but that doesn’t mean they’re beyond the reach of a loving God. As James also points out, it’s our responsibility to reach out these wandering Christian—to bring them back, help restore their faith, and reunite them with Jesus.
According to a couple studies (one by LifeWay research and one by Barna Research), 82% of unchurched say they would be at least somewhat likely to attend if invited and 25% say that they would be very likely to attend church if a friend would just take the time or make the effort to invite them! Think about that… that’s 1 in 4 of your unchurched friends who would be willing to come to church if you invited them to go with you. You see, real faith is persistent—it perseveres even during times of wandering, times of spiritual drought. Real faith hangs in there.
For some of these people, all they need is someone to care about them spiritually—to bring them back to church, to Jesus, and their faith will flourish again. One simple question could make all the difference for time and for eternity—will you come to church with me this Sunday?
Conclusion:
What this world needs, perhaps more than anything else, is real faith for real life. Real faith patiently waits on the Lord. Real faith prayfully seeks God in every situation and circumstance. And real faith perseveres even in times of wandering. It isn’t that we all need great faith; but that we all need faith in a great God!
Remember the tightrope walker at Niagara Falls? Like the crowd at Niagara, we all stand at the edge of a great chasm—a vast gulf called sin that separated us from a holy and loving God. We certainly don’t possess the balance or dexterity to cross that chasm on a tightrope, but Jesus does and he did. And he offers to carry each one of us across.
The question is—do you believe he can do it? Do you have enough faith to get into the wheelbarrow?
Invitation:
If you haven’t done so yet, I want to encourage you to do it today. Put your faith in Jesus, and then choose to live your faith every day—patiently, prayerfully, and persistently. Climb into the wheelbarrow and you won’t regret it. If I can help you do that today, please come talk to me while we stand and sing.
