Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 4, 1994
James 5:15-18
POWER IN PRAYER
I. Prayer is centered in faith. 5:15
A. Learning to pray as a child.
1) Kneeling by bed and learning rote prayers.
2) Many never get beyond this.
B. Prayer must come from the heart.
1) Not repetition, instead faith is critical.
2) Without faith we cannot see God, or talk to him.
C. Prayer must come from a cleansed heart. 5:16
1) Sin is pervasive in human life.
a) There is continual need for both spiritual sensitivity.
b) There is continual need for appropriate action where
sin has been committed.
c) Without sensitivity and repentance, our prayers fall flat.
2) Confession must be to the one wronged, both man and God.
Prior to World War II in Nazi Germany, Pastor Dietrich
Bonhoeffer conducted an underground seminary in Pomerania.
The teachers and 25 students shared a common life.
His experience produced a spiritual classic, "Life Together,"
in which he documents the Biblical insights he gained.
In the last chapter of the book he gives some reasons for
the practice of mutual confession.
Primary among them is the isolation that sin brings.
Sin drives Christians apart.
Says Bonhoeffer, "Sin demands to have a man by himself.
It withdraws him from the community.
The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be
the power of sin over him."
But confession to a fellow brother or sister destroys this
deadly isolation.
It pulls down the barrier of hypocrisy and allows the free
flow of God's grace in the community.
The other main benefit of confession is that it brings
healthy humiliation.
Bonhoeffer wrote about how hard it was to confess to another
person.
He felt cut down by it.
Yet he knew it was good for his sinful nature to be exposed
in this way. #2792
D. Prayer should be mutual. 5:16
1) Mutual prayer implies those we confess to are willing to
forgive.
2) Do you pray for your relationships? Friendships?
3) Do you pray WITH them?
a) Don't be isolated: we need each other.
b) Power of "Prayer Triplets." / partners
II. It helps to be righteous. 5:16
A. It matters how you live.
1) God does not need to hear the prayer of sinners. Isa 59:1-2
a) (Does it seem as if your prayers hit ceiling?) Ps 66:18
A story about Norman Vincent Peale:
When Peale was a boy, he found a big, black cigar, slipped
into an alley, and lit it up.
It didn't taste good, but it made him feel very grown up...
until he saw his father coming.
Quickly he put the cigar behind his back and tried to be
casual.
Desperate to divert his father's attention, Norman pointed
to a billboard advertising the circus.
"Can I go, Dad? Please, let's go when it comes to town."
His father's reply taught Norman a lesson he never forgot.
"Son," he answered quietly but firmly, "never make a petition
while at the same time trying to hide a smoldering
disobedience."
#2078
2) He promises to hear the prayer of saints. Prov 15:29
B. Such prayer is powerful and effective.
1) Prayer works.
2) Bishop Fulton Sheen, when confronted by a reporter who
thought answered prayers were just coincidences,
"Maybe, but when I stop praying, the coincidences stop, too."
C. Example: Elijah. 5:17
1) He was just like us.
a) Second only to Moses in esteem with 1st cent. Jews.
1> Mentioned 30 times in NT.
b) Readers had to be reminded he was human like us.
1> Any godly person can pray effectively.
2> It is not a "superman" ability.
2) He prayed for drought, and rain.
a) Related in 1 Kings 17:1, though the prayer is not given.
b) Prophets were understood to make their pronouncements
on the basis of God's instruction, gained from
communion with Him. Cf. 1 Kg 17:1 and 18:42ff
c) Three and a half year drought is not attested in OT.
1> OT says drought was at least three years long.
2> Jesus agrees with James. Luke 4:25
3) He prayed earnestly.
a) Literally, "prayed with prayer." Indicates intensity.
b) We must pray like we mean it.
4) Elijah got results.
a) There was a drought, and there was rain.
b) How effective have your prayers been?
c) What does this indicate about your relationship with God?
D. Modern Elijahs.
In essence, God is not interested in our level of sophistication,
but our level of commitment.
Sang Kyoo Lee and his wife, Young Gum, visited Methodist Bishop
Richard Wilke at his office one day.
Sang Kyoo wanted to start a new church for Koreans.
"We have been praying for one hundred nights -- 1, 2 hours every
night -- asking God to give us power and victory," Sang began.
"Yes," his wife seconded, "every night, faithfully for one
hundred nights.
We have been praying before coming to see you."
"We believe God wants us to begin new work with Koreans in
Arkansas," said Sang Kyoo.
"And we need much power."
Bishop Wilke sensed their dedication and commitment.
But he also knew of their struggle to learn English, as well as
their financial problems in completing seminary.
"We don't have many Koreans in Central Arkansas, do we?" the
bishop asked.
"Oh yes," Sang Kyoo replied. "We think as many as three or four
hundred.
We can travel fifty miles in every direction and make class
meetings in different towns."
Next, Wilke asked if the Arkansas Koreans were Christians.
"No, not most," they answered enthusiastically, "but we must
lead them to Christ.
We will hold Sunday afternoon worship in First Church,
Jacksonville.
Also, we'll have Friday night prayers and Saturday Bible Study."
"Let us know when you hold your first worship service," Wilke
said casually.
"Our first service will be the day we move into the parsonage,"
Sang Kyoo said with a big smile.
"My wife, Young Gum, son, John, daughter, Susan, and I will
kneel down and pray.
We'll have a congregation of four," he said lifting up four
fingers.
"Their spirit was contagious," Wilke writes, "I kept thinking of
practical things, like a refrigerator and clothes for the
children and automobile tires."
He asked them, "Is there anything at all I can do to help you?"
"Oh, yes, there is," this young couple answered in unison.
"Would you pray for us? We will need much power."
The three of them held hands and prayed together.
A few months later this young couple once again visited Bishop
Wilke.
"We have twenty converts," Sang Kyoo said.
"We started three home Bible studies in three different towns,"
added Young Gum.
"We are growing. People are coming from fifty miles away.
God is answering our prayers."
Bishop Wilke concludes with these words of hope: "As they spoke,
I felt the mighty hand of God in the church."
The reason Bishop Wilke felt the mighty hand of God was not this
couple's level of sophistication, but their level of commitment.
They were a living testimony to the power of the cross.
#2779
III. We have an effective God.
A. The power is not in the prayer itself.
B. It is not in the oil, or the person themself.
C. The power comes from the God who answers.
