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Why Pray? - James 5:13-20

By Mike Osborne | May 25, 2007

Introduction: If God is sovereign, why pray?

• If God already has everything planned out in detail, if he’s completely in control, do our prayers really make any difference? Why not just sit back and watch God work all things together for good for those who love Him? (Rom. 8:28)

• Wasn’t James a Calvinist? Didn’t he believe in a sovereign God? How can James say, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful & effective” (vs. 16b)?

I could answer this question by simply saying, “Well, we should pray because the Bible commands us to pray. God says it; I believe it; that does it. Why even bring it up?” And we could all get home a lot earlier today!

But instead of that simple answer, I’d like us to dig a little deeper. I think we need to start with the more basic question, “What is prayer?” (3 things)

I. Prayer is the language of FAITH (vs. 15) . . . faith in a sovereign God to do what He has promised to do.

a. God is indeed SOVEREIGN over all of life, down to the very details.
• Eph. 1:11 – God “works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.”
• Psalm 135:6 – “The Lord does whatever pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth.”
• Matt. 10:29 – “Not one sparrow will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”
• Matt. 10:30 – “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
• Proverbs 16:33 – “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”
• Daniel 4:34-35 – “God does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.”

b. So what is prayer? Prayer is the God-ordained MEANS through which God’s will often comes to pass.
• God ordains the means as well as the ends.
• Did you notice all the “means” mentioned in this passage?
1. Vs. 14 - Elders, oil, the name of the Lord
2. Vs. 15 - the prayer offered in faith
3. Vs. 16 - praying for each other
4. Vs. 18 - the earth
5. Vs. 20 - the person who turns a sinner from the error of his way]
• Object lesson: shovel digging up treasure, spark plug
• If God is going to save that lost friend of yours, the way He’s going to do it is through your prayers…or someone else’s.
• Why? Because God acts in response to prayer, in accordance with His sovereign plan.
• He could have decided to work independently of us, but it glorifies Him more to work in conjunction with our prayers. Our sovereign God chooses to exercise His sovereignty through our partnership in prayer.
• Why is this? It’s because God is not just sovereign; He’s also gracious.
o Illus.: I once bought David a model; we were going to build it together. Instead, I did it all myself. He was crestfallen! I had been a sovereign, but not a gracious father. I rejected partnership, and in so doing lost glory.
• God’s sovereignty and our prayers go hand in hand!

c. Case in point: Elijah (vss. 17-18)
• READ Deut. 11:13-17
• Several hundred years go by…Ahab is now king of Israel. He was one of the worst kings Israel ever had. He “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.” He led Israel into terrible idolatry. He married Jezebel, who was a worshipper of Baal, and led Israel to worship Baal. He even built a temple for Baal in Samaria.
• READ 1 Kings 17:1 – Elijah the prophet prophesies no rain for several years (a fulfillment of God’s threat to curse Israel for disobedience & idolatry).
• READ 1 Kings 18:1 – God promises to send rain. Why would he do that? Because He knew what Israel was going to do in chapter 18: they would repent of their wickedness, repair the altar of the Lord, kill the prophets of Baal, and acknowledge God as the Lord of Israel.
• READ 1 Kings 18:41-45 – the rain falls, in response to Elijah’s prayer
• But was it Elijah’s prayer that caused the rain? No, God sent the rain because He had promised to send rain upon Israel when they lived in repentance and obedience to Him.
• Elijah was simply praying back to God the promise that God had previously made.
• That’s what faith is…taking God at His Word and believing that what God has promised He will also perform.
• Elijah wasn’t some super saint…some mighty prayer warrior. “He was a man just like us” (vs. 17).
• He just used the MEANS God provided…prayer.

d. Other examples: READ Exodus 32:9-14, READ Acts 4:23-31, Ephesians 1:15-23, Romans 10:1 (cf. 9:15)

e. Do you see the symbiotic relationship of prayer and the sovereignty of God? They are in harmony with each other, not contradictory.

• Illus.: Analogies break down, but let me attempt one. Let’s say a father takes his son on an outing to Disney World. He has a Park Hopper Ticket for the two of them. He has a plan in mind for the whole day, a way to cover all 4 parks and take in all the good rides, etc. Along the way, his son says, “Dad, can we go to Pirates of the Caribbean?” And Dad says yes or no according to his plan. “Dad, can we eat now? I’m hungry.” And Dad says yes, or not now. “Dad, I want to ride Space Mountain again!” And Dad says OK or “we’ll come back later.” “Dad, what about Honey I Shrunk the Audience?!”
• The son has freedom to ask what he will, and the father maintains sovereignty. The son implicitly trusts the knowledge and plan of his father while at the same time feeling the freedom to ask for favors.
• Isn’t going to Disney World with a father who is in control better than going there with one who has no idea where to go, who doesn’t know the layout of the parks, etc. Asking a favor from a father in that situation could turn out to be a curse instead of a blessing because it could take you way off track and make the day miserable!
• Really, when you think about it, the question is not, “If God is sovereign, why pray?” but “If God is sovereign, why NOT pray?!”
• Prayer is the language of FAITH.

II. Prayer is the language of DESIRE. (vss. 13-15)

a. WSC #98 – “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.”

b. One of the most important questions God ever asked a human being: Luke 18
• One day Jesus was on his way to Jericho. A big crowd gathered on the street to see Jesus. In the crowd was a blind beggar. He asked those around him what was going on, and they told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
• This beggar suddenly began calling out to Jesus: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
• Jesus heard the beggar and stopped. He called for people to bring the man over to him. And Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” (vs. 41)
• He replied, “Lord, I want to see.”
• “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”

c. Friends, your desires matter to God!

• James 4:2 - “You do not have, because you do not ask God.”
• Psalm 145:19 – “He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.”
• Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
• Illus.: my son David’s proposal to Lindsay - Psalm 20:4 – “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”

d. There is no need too big for God to handle, and no need too small for God to care.

• Francois Fenelon, 17th-century Roman Catholic: “Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell him your troubles, that he may comfort you; tell him your joys, that he may sober them; tell him your longings, that he may purify them; tell him your dislikes, that he may help you conquer them; talk to him of your temptations, that he may shield you from them; show him the wounds of your heart, that he may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say.”

e. So what explains our weak prayers? Our weak desires!
• Illus.: 2 Kings 13 – Jehoash was king of Israel. Their enemy was the Arameans. The Arameans were like Iraqi terrorists. They oppressed Israel, raiding their towns and killing their people. Elisha the prophet was on his deathbed. He prophesied victory for Israel in a battle at Aphek. He told Jehoash to strike the ground with arrows. “He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, ‘You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.’”
• You know, a lot of us are like Jehoash. God tells us to strike the ground with the arrows of prayer. We pray one time, or two, or three…and stop.
• Illus.: My HS football coach in pre-game pep talk: “Do you want to win tonight?! You’ve got to want it!”
• I look at my own prayer life. Sometimes there’s so little life in my prayers I suspect God has got to be yawning when I pray. I wonder, why don’t I pray regularly for what’s going on over in Iraq? Because I don’t really yearn for peace over there. Why aren’t I praying night and day for revival in America…for churches to grow…for my neighbors who don’t know Christ? Because, frankly, these things are not my chief desires.
• You do what you WANT to do.
• Why aren’t some of you praying for your kids more…because you really don’t care enough about them to pray!
• Why aren’t we praying for missionaries more…because we really don’t care enough about what they are going through in the cause of Christ to pray!
• When did you last PRAY (instead of complain) about the state of things in the world… the unrighteousness in America…the upcoming election?
• It’s no wonder more is not happening for the Kingdom of God…we don’t want it badly enough.
• Jesus is saying to you and me, “What do you want me to do for you?”
o Illus.: 5-yr. old child: “Dear God, please wash away all our sins. And wash away everyone’s sins, God. And God just wash away the devil. And just drown him, God. Amen.”
o Illus.: The other day I prayed with another guy for a man about whom we were both concerned. I prayed first…he couldn’t because he was crying.
o Illus.: Example of some in our church who ask for prayer week after week for the same thing.
o That’s desire!

III. Prayer is the language of RELATIONSHIP. (vss. 19-20)

a. Illus.: One summer when I was 15 I was a counselor at a YMCA camp in NC. Everyone was supposed to have a duty. “Who wants to clean the camp director’s house?” I volunteered, reluctantly. I wasn’t looking forward to it. It seemed like it was going to be pure drudgery…. Until I showed up at the camp director’s house the first day and found that he had a 15-year old daughter! A duty had become a delight. It was work, but it was also an opportunity for relationship!

b. Is prayer work? Yeah…but it’s also an opportunity for a relationship.

c. See, God hears you because He LOVES you.
• Luke 11:1-2 – The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father, who art in heaven….”
• Prayer is not about rules, but about relationship.

d. Prayer is not even just about requests; it’s about relationship. It’s conversation with a God who cares about you, who wants to know you.

• Illus.: Let me speak to the teenagers among us. You want to know the hardest thing about parenting you? Somewhere along the way, somewhere between swing sets and car keys, you stopped communicating with us. We still take care of you, but you act like you don’t need us or that we’re even around. (If you talked to us more, we would get you more stuff!)

e. The same thing happens to Christians.
• There was a time, when our salvation was fresh, that we kept short accounts with God. We told Him about everything. We needed Him, and told Him so. We asked Him questions. We told Him we needed His help. We ran everything by Him.
• But eventually, we grew up…or so we thought. We got the idea we could get along OK without Him, at least most of the time.
• And we stopped communicating.
• Oh, we may say a quick prayer as we fly off to work or school in the morning.
• But for many of us, prayer is like a spare tire: we get it out only when we’re in an emergency, and then we hope it will work! But normally we figure we can get along without it.
• Would we treat our best friend that way?

f. Your prayers are His delight because you are.
• READ Proverbs 15:8 – “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
• Jesus died on the cross to bring you into a relationship with Him.
• And He loves to hear your voice!

Conclusion

We have learned 3 things this morning:
• By praying, you participate with God in His sovereign purposes.
• By praying, you express your desires to a God who cares about them.
• By praying, you draw near to a God who cares about YOU.

What would happen if starting today, you began and ended every day with prayer?
• What if you who are married, started praying once a day with your spouse?
• What if you fathers led in family prayer every night at the dinner table?
• What if you students prayed at the beginning of each class for the students around you, for your school, for your own witness?
• What if we as a church remembered to pray every day for UPC, her ministries, her building program, her impact upon Orlando?
• What if after listening to the news or reading the newspaper you lifted up a prayer to God for the problems you just heard about?
• What would happen? No telling!

If you’re God’s child this morning, you are one of His righteous ones…and vs. 16 says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful & effective.”

That’s a promise!

Let’s believe it, and pray to our sovereign God with faith, with desire, and with delight.

Topics: James |

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