Believe & Know - James 5 // Nick Serban IV

Message Transcript

I wrestled all week long, uh, with this word, uh, as we end James 5.And if you've read ahead, uh, you already know where we're going and what we're talking about.But for those of you that, that haven't been with us, or you, you've been dipping in and out, it's totally cool.I'm gonna give you a quick recap of what we've experienced so far in the Book of James.The ongoing message of James has been about our hearts, that if we're truly following Jesus in our heart, it should come out in words, actions, and deeds.Amen?Faith alone saves us, but faith is never alone.Faith without works is dead.It's actually really funny.I was, I was reading about this this last week.Apparently Martin Luther, the guy who, you know, started Protestantism, actually wanted to throw James out of the Bible because of that verse, "Faith without works is dead," because he, he felt that it contradicted faith and, uh, salvation and faith alone, and justification by faith.Um, but honestly, I think it strengthens it a whole lot more because how can you know, how is there evidence of your faith if there's not works, right?And I heard it this way: All you need is faith and repentance to follow Jesus and live worthy of the gospel, not obedience, because obedience will be the outcome of true faith and repentance.Amen?There's a fruitfulness to the life of one who goes through trials and difficulties.The burden of obedience is easier because of our faith in knowing God, that we can walk in power, resisting the devil, and he would flee.We've grown in wisdom.We've been talking about wisdom with our silent understanding and, and choosing to sit with people in their mess so that we can guide them to the truth of the gospel, having godly wisdom for all trials.But we're, we're in James 5, and so there's this final shoe that's about to drop, and I would encourage you all to go back and just read all of James.You can reallyYou can read all 5 chapters in 15 minutes.But I want us to understand this.James is a, is a pastor over Jerusalem, and he's in a time where the church is being persecuted, and they're all scattered and isolated, and many of us may feel the same way.So just hold your heart in that way, that God will meet you where you are.They're facing trials, fighting amongst each other, and James has been showing us how to live as Christians just in our day-to-day life.But now he's shifting the conversation towards the obstacles that we have put in our own lives.So read with me in James 5:1-6.It says, "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire."Love the imagery there."You have laid up treasure in the last days.Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.He does not resist you."This is brutal.This is brutal.And I, and I, I'm telling you, I wrestled all week with, with sharing this.I was actuallyI was talking to a pastor who, who did a s- did a teaching in James, and he actually skips over this whole passage.He's like, "No, not in my church.It'll split my church in half."He just skips to the end where everybody, you know, gets the oil out and starts praying for people.It's triggering, and it's offensive to our flesh.It's offensive to our American culture, and it even drives us to comparison, where we're like, "I'm not rich compared to this guy.I'm not wealthy compared to this gal.James, he must be talking about millionaires and wealthy politicians, surely not me."first Timothy six ten says, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."I read this again in the context of James five, and my heart is, is looking for every single reason to Jesus juke my way around this, right?But we, we need to be honest with this text.Riches, wealth, material possessions, high-paying jobs, luxuries, all these different things, they do present a significant obstacle to the kingdom and following Jesus.Can we be honest?Matthew 19, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."Jesus said it.Now, his little brother James is, is saying it, and he's pointing to our hearts, and he's begging the question: What is your faith really in?Because it's natural.It's natural to be dependent on God when you have nothing but God.And it's also natural to be independent and have no need for God when you have everything that you could ever need.Let's be honest.Why pray if all I have is all I need?Why worship when the world praises my wealth, my possessions, my clothing?Why read my Bible if I have all the wisdom that I need to make the money that I need to make to live the life I wanna live?Why give generously to anyone in need?Because when I give, then I'm gonna have less.James is pointing to this idea of complete dependence upon God.And when we're dependent upon anything else other than Him, how is that not an idol?Like, I can't, I can't tell you how many times I've read comments or I've gotten messages from people berating the church because we ask people to give and ask people to tithe.I, I, I remember getting pulled into this debate, debate with a, with a college student about tithing and giving.I did not wanna be in this conversation, I'll just tell you that right now.And he, and he's making the case that tithing is, is an old school, that's an Old Testament deal.Giving generously, all that, that is, that's old covenant, is w- is the case that he was making in this, in this deal.And he started making these very virtuous statements.Don't you love virtuous statements, where someone's like, "Oh, we should be feeding the hungry.You know, we shouldn't be having these Bible studies or these, these big conferences.We should be, we should be feeding the hu- we should be clothing the, the naked.We should be taking care of the orphans and the widows and all these different things, giving our money away, paying people's bills that are in need."And I just like, I just stopped in the moment.I was just like, "Where do you think the money comes from to do those things, if not from a generous church, if not from a generous people?"Again, we, we can look at all these big buildings and big churches and all these things that are, that are built, but it's, it'sThe statistics are, are wild.If everyone in church, the church, the American church specifically, if every one of us gave, there would be no need that we could not fill in this earth.I'm serious.It's, it is astounding.I got, I got the stats.This is incredible.So currently, only 10 to 25% of American Christians actually tithe, and that, that average giving is only 3 to 4%.Can you throw that up, that stat up?There we go.The average giving is only at 3 to 4%.Look at this.If every church member tithed 10% of their income, American churches would have an additional, this is estimated on the low end, $165 billion annually.That'sAnnually.And here's what's, here's what's really fun.I, I, I got all into ChatGPT on this, so I got all the stats right.This is really fun, okay?$165 billion annually would eliminate global hunger.It would give, give fresh drinking water to everyone in the world.We, we could fund massive missions campaigns and send every single person that feels the call to missions.We could plant churches everywhere.We could fund every orphanage, every foster care facility, every homeless housing shelter, even every single mental health institution and facility.All of it would be funded if everyone in the church gave their tithe.It's, it's crazy.And then, of course, I know what you're thinking because I was thinking the same thing.Stats are fun if everyone does the thing in the statistic, right?This isn't accounting for the fact that we're assuming that everyone's not corrupt, that every church, every pastor would actually use the funds for the things that we're talking about.The church in James' day, they were constantly selling their possessions and giving it to one another.Again, feeding the poor, taking care of the widows and the orphans.They were building the kingdom together.But when we keep to ourselves, what are we actually building?James uses this word, he says corrosion.Talks about moth and rust and all these different things.Even our materials being the evidence of our sinful hearts.That word corrosion, another translation if you look at it in the Greek, is actually the word corruption.The corruption of the heart is what pushes us to build for ourselves.And, and here's the thing, like I, I'm pushing back with you.Like, don't, don't think for one second that, that I'm not sitting in this seat with you as I'm talking about this, because when I think about corruption, I, I, I rarely will think of myself.I think about politicians or governments.Politicians on all sides.Don't, don't try to pin it on the Democrats or the Republicans, okay?They're always looking out for their interests, making sure that their agendas are getting pushed, even if it means other people have to hurt.They say one thing to the cameras for their soundbite, and then they do something completely different in policy, making sure that they are profiting along the way.It, it, it's happening across the board.What James is saying in addressing money and materials, again, he's speaking to it as this is, this is an obstacle for you.It saysI, I wrote this, if you wanna take any notes.Don't allow materials and money to be an obstacle to your faith.Like, how many times do we make financial decisions without even thinking about God?Or even, even thinking about going to God for wisdom in this hour, in this moment, or is this the right season to be stepping into this new job or the, these, these different things when it comes to money?And I've heard this said before and, and I've said it as well.When we have to check with anything before we check with God, it's an idol.These idols are, they're obstacles between us and God.And I, I, I also, I heard it this way this last week as I was studying: What makes you offended or angry reveals the god that you're serving.If comfort is your god, inconvenience is gonna offend you and make you angry.If control is your god, change makes you angry.If pride is your god, then correction is gonna offend you.And if politics is your god, the truth will offend you.And if money is your god, I would venture to say that comfort, control, pride, and even your politics all have a say in how you use your money and how you serve God.We had a great question a couple weeks ago in our, in our small group discussions.It said, "If somebody checked your social media, your bank account, your calendar, your credit card statements, would there be evidence of your faith?"Would there be evidence of your faith?Because James is, is, is saying this too.He's not just talking about this being an obstacle, he's also saying, "Hey, don't use your faith and your position for selfish gain."Again, we think about politics, so many politicians, even pastors and, and, and prominent corporate executives, they're thinking about what's in this for me.What am I going to gain in this being a part of this church or this movement or this ministry?Is there some level of influence or, or networking or connection, or is there money, bonuses, power, whatever it looks like?Is there some kind of benefit that I'm gonna receive from this?Again, how are we any, how are we any different?Is it not the corruption of our hearts that takes every single scripture and twists it into something that blesses us?We take scripture constantly, and if we're not, if we're not postured in a place of purity with the Holy Spirit when we read it, we will change that scripture to, to put us in a place where we feel good and don't have to do anything.I know this because I've done it.I didn't wanna preach this word this week.I was like, "God, is there a way that I can soften this?Is there a way that I can change this so that, like, everyone will smile at me when I'm talking about this?"He said, no.No, 'cause it's the truth.We soften the truth because of the corruption in our heart.Rather than seeing that faith, repentance, and following Jesus, it costs us something.It costs you something.We step in and go, "I've gained salvation," and now the rest of your life is gonna cost you everything.Sorry, you signed up.But this is who we're called to be.This is what living worthy of the gospel is all about.That because he laid his life down for us, we lay our lives down again and again and again for him.We gain eternal life, but our hearts and our flesh, we want more.We want deliverance, we want rescue, we want healing, we want comfort, but we won't pick up our Bible and fight as conquerors until we're comfortable.A great example i, is the, the Israelites when they were delivered out of Egypt, and they're getting ready to go into the promised land.I, I'd said it last week and it was kind of the precursor for now.They sent out the 12 spies.10 of them came back and they're just like, "There's giants in the land.We can't do this.We need God to deliver us.He delivered us then, he'll deliver us now."But, but it was Joshua who was just like, "No, we're gonna go.We're gonna take the land.We're gonna be conquerors."See, there needs to be a shift in our hearts from, "God, you've delivered me, you've saved me, you have set me free."In order for me to now walk into the promised land and all that you have for me, I have to be a conqueror.I have to stand on the truth and begin to walk in obedience in what he's calling me to do.But too many people in the church, and myself included, will sit and wait and just say, "God, deliver me.Set me free."He already did it on the cross.He already did it on the cross.We call ourselves sons and daughters, but we treat God like he owes us.I'm following you, it's just like the Israelites.We're following you, God, so we're entitled for the food and the shelter and the promised land.You delivered us.You brought us.God, you brought me here into this place, so I'm just gonna sit here until you take me into the next.The reality is that many of us are missing out on our promised land, missing out on bountiful blessings from God because we're looking at the material miracles rather than the spiritual.Galatians 6:8, my God.For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.Church, what a blessing.What a blessing it is, the grace that we have that covers our sins and transgressions.What a blessing are the mysteries of our faith and sanctification.I don't understand why God chooses to use trials to grow me and sanctify me, but I trust Him 'cause He knows way better than I do.James has shown us it's a blessing to endure trials that grow our character.It's a blessing to carry my cross and die to self so that I may be closer to Christ.See, it's hard toWe know that scripture, draw near to God and He will draw near to you.It's hard to draw near to God when my material and my money is the obstacle in the way.'Cause think about this.J-James has shown us, again, it's a blessing in all these different ways, but it's also a blessing to sit with weeping eyes, watering the seeds that God has planted in your life, and holding fast to His Word and His truth.Think about that.We plant seeds of hope.We make investments in our lives into people, we're waiting on God.And in our waiting, we can't remain idle, but it hurts to wait.And we can cry, we can weep, and it's in our weeping that we actually water the seeds to grow in our lives.But again, when we're so fixated on money and materials, we actually miss the season that God has us in right now.Look at this.This is really cool.All right?I, I, I found this this last week.It's in James 5:5.It says, "You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence."Guilty."And you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter."Notice that it says the word day there.It, it's speaking to a time, a period, a season, and it says, "You've been fattening yourselves in a day when you should be slaughtering.You've been self-indulgent in a time when you should be working."It's speaking to the seasons that you're, you're called to, and many times we're so self-focused that we miss out on the season that God has us in.And many times we can feel like, "Oh, I'm, I'm in a wilderness season right now."Right?Like, "I'm just wandering out in the desert and waiting for God to bring me into my promised land."And God is saying, "No, you're, you're so focused on what you have and, and, and everything in front of you that you can't see that I have you in a place where you need to start planting, where you need to start watering, where you need to start working on the things that God is, is, is leading you into in this next season."And some of us have been in that season for years.Just struggling, trying to grow, trying to get better, but we're remaining idle really in the process because we think that it's the materials and the possessions and the money that we can bring into our lives is gonna make my life better, it's gonna make my life easier, it's gonna make my life more comfortable.But comfort does not make you a conqueror.And here's what's, here's what's wild.Like, this isn't just, like, physical.This is also spiritual.'Cause if, if you really just take a step back and you look at the church of today, not this church, 'cause you guys are perfect and amazing, we're consuming, consuming, consuming material, content, podcasts, teachings, Bible studies, all these things.It's, it-- we have all this Bible knowledge, but we're sitting in comfort, fattening our hearts.It says we're getting fat when we should be slaughtering.We're so focused, again, on our, on our self-indulgence that we miss out on the season that God has us in.Again, there's ebbs and flows to your life.There's seasons for planting, seasons for waiting, seasons for, for harvesting.And I love if itI, I'm not gonna read this verse today, but if you write it down, Ecclesiastes 3:1-11.Read it this week.It's incredible.But there's a time for everything in your life.There's a time and there's a season for every activity under the heavens.Again, we can sit in this place where I've seen so many Christians, and I'm not knocking you if, if, if this is where God has you.God, God may be transitioning you to different places, and that's all good.But like I, I grew up in an era where everybody was chasing after who's the headline speaker at this conference or at this church this weekend.Bouncing from one church to another saying, "I'm not being fed," when they're actually spiritually fat on incredible teaching from the Word and from all these preachers and ministers that they never did anything with.And, and just a fun, fun history lesson for you.Here's what, here's what's happened in the church.Not our church, just the church.If we look at the seasons, 40, 50 years ago, there was revival across our nation.People were mobilized, going out and reaching the lost.All the, all the hippies were just all about Jesus, you know?Some of y'all are in the room.I love it.But then along the way, the church institution became the primary mode of evangelism.We start-- Instead of going out, we all started coming in.And we started building the church, and it's beautiful.But you drive around Franklin, and there's a lot of churches that are empty.Huge buildings, but no one really inside.Again, people in this day and age, the church became the primary mode of evangelism, and so church members slowly stopped reaching the lost, and they started seeing pastors and, and holy leaders as, as having some kind of special power.Is this not like what happened in the Catholic Church?Instead of being equipped to do the work, they marveled at the works of others, and they shifted into this consumer mentality, "I just need a touch from this preacher over here.I just need a word from this prophet over here."And it shifted into this consumer mentality, and then people stopped going to church, stopped giving to the church, and they just started following all these different leaders and ministries, which is why you see so many of the s-- the televangelists and people online with these huge platforms because people are giving, giving, giving to this man or this woman or this ministry and not pouring into the church.They gave to leaders who many of them turned out to be corrupt, because money corrupts the heart.And it started killing people's desire to give or trust in any ministry or any institution.So then we sit, and then we wait for God to move us before we give, rather than moving closer to God.And this is what's killing so many churches right now.Again, you saw the stat.People don't give, people don't serve, people aren't sharing the gospel, and it all depends on the pastor to reach the lost, which is not my job.I do it.But so many pastors and so many preachers are really a called, called to equip the saints to do the work.And if you only have one out of a hundred and fifty people that are in a church actually reaching the lost, the church is not gonna grow.We don't need more bodies in this building, but we need depth, and we need to have a well deep enough to overflow into every part of our lives to touch those that are in need, to sit in understanding and lead people to the cross.That's what He's calling us to do.Not just me, us.James is showing us that if we lean in close to God rather than materials, money, and knowledge, we'll understand the season that we're in.Look at this in James 5:7-11, "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.You also be patient.Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.Behold, the judge is standing at the door.As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."Patience when you're facing trials, patience in the season that God has you in.There's a season for waiting on the Lord, and while we're waiting on the Lord, we're putting in the work, not remaining idle.We love one another.We reject comparison and judgment.And Jam- James, he mentions Job.Job had everything that you could ever want.And just, just to paraphrase this, this verse in Job 1, he had, he had 7 sons, 3 daughters.He had thousands of, of sheep and camels and oxen, and he was one of the greatest man among all in the East.He had greatness, and he was dependent on God.But then God tests him.And in a very short period, Job loses everything, all of his children, all of his possessions, livestock.They're either dead, killed, or stolen by thieves.And it says this in verse 22.It says, "In all this Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing."I don't know about you, but my faith has been shaken many times when God sees fit to take from me.Ag- I get it.Everything I have received is from God.It's His.I get that.But I know that it's an idol in my life when God messes with my comfort in this world, and I feel it.Even, even recently, I'll justI'll, I'll be transparent.Um, I have aI'm a, I'm a pastor.I also have a, a side business that I run, and I'm, I'm very grateful, very blessed, and I, I love getting to do it, media company thing.Don't hire me.Um.I'm too busy.Um, but I started praying some bold prayers recently.I don't know if you ever get really stupid and start praying things bigger than your britches.Um, but I said, "God, I wanna give more to your church.I wanna give more to missions.I wanna give more to your people financially."And, uh, and I said, "God, could I give irrationally 50% of my income to the church and to missions?"I was praying this.I know it's really stupid.I shouldn't have done it.But I just started praying these big prayers, "God, could I, could I live off of 50% and give 50% away?"I mean, we're already, we're already giving a ton.But I had this big check that was supposed tobig project coming up.I'm not gonna tell you the amount of money, but it was a lot of money.And the Lord said, "Give me 90% of that check, and you keep 10.Here's the project that I want you to give it to, and the rest you give to the church, and we'll just, we'll just see how this goes."I'm not gonna tell you how much it was.It was a lot of money, okay?Like, it was, it was, it was, it was wild to me.Like, I'm just like, "God, this might be one of the biggest checks I've ever received in my business, and you want me to give 90 of it away."And it was just like, you know, ruffled my feathers, and I'm just like, "Okay, God, let's, let's just do this.I trust you."And literally 3 days after this, this prayer, I get a, I get an email from a company that I worked with saying that I still owed them money for a job that I had done years ago, and that they were gonna, like, take me to court or whatever if I didn't pay it.And I, I, I honestly, I'd had no knowledge of, of what had happened, and I'm looking into all the different stuff and found out it was a lesser amount, but the exact amount was the exact amount of money that God asked me to give to Him.So not only was I giving the first amount, now I was doubling it.Isn't it like God?Isn't it like God to try to find you faithful, and then He brings in a test?It's like, oh, yeah, sure, it's easy for you to give this amount of money away 'cause you're getting a check.You're getting the money.It's c- I'm, I'm giving it to you.But now it hurts 'cause now it's my money, right?When it's all His.Again, it's so easy to say yes, yes, yes, when it's easy.God, all I have is yours.Yes, I, I, I'll do whatever you want, and then God says, "By the way, you're gonna double that."You're gonna give till it hurts.And this is why James ends this talk about money and faith with integrity.In 5:12 it says, "But above all, 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."He's not just talking about integrity, you know, with an agreement between brothers a-a-and sisters, he's talking about your yes to God being a full yes.Again, we, we, we read it last week about being an adulterous people, being double-minded, you know.You can't say yes to God and say yes to the world.We have to give our, our whole yes.It's God's desire that we would be dependent on Him, that our yes to following Jesus would always be yes no matter what, that our treasure will be where our heart is, that He would be our treasure, and that would be where our heart is.Not in materials, not in, not in wealth, not in comfort or, or being able to control all things.All throughout James, He- God knows what buttons to push.Like raise your hand, if you've been here, God has pushed your buttons this, these last few weeks.Come on.I don't like it.I don't want it.But I trust that God knows what He's doing.I trust that He's pushing things around.He's coming into my heart, and He's making a mess of everything, and He's putting it back where it needs to go.We can't be double-minded in this hour.We can't be sitting, waiting for deliverance and then pretending to be conquerors in our mind.His desire for each and every one of you is that you would become more and more like Jesus, that you would be so pure that you would ha- receive more dreams, more visions, and see more of the miraculous in your life, that there would be greater faith and greater growth.He has a plan and a destiny and a purpose for each and every one of us.But we wanna sit.We wanna be in the, in our comfort.We wanna have all these, these possessions and materials and all the entrapments of the world.And it's holding us.James is the worst because there's no room for misinterpretation.James says, "Give your whole yes."Your whole yes.Give your whole yes with your faith, with the trials, the pain.Give your whole yes with your tongue, with the wisdom, and walking in understanding.Give your whole yes, and let your faith align in your life and lead you into action.Give your whole yes, fully trusting in God.Jose, can you come play?So we get through all of this.We get through all of James.And he says, "I know you're bruised up.I know this.I know you're beaten down.I know this is a hard word."And James shifts it, and he says, "Is anyone among you suffering?Let him pray.Is anyone cheerful?Let him sing praise.Is anyone among you sick?Let him call for the elders of the church, and let him 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 he has, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.Praise God.Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.Again, I'm not, I'm not trying to reinterpret what the scripture says, but if you go into the Greek and you look at the word sick, sickness, it's not talk- it's not just talking about sickness and physical disease.It, it goes so much deeper than that today, church.The word is astheneo.It means being weak.If you're weak, if you have sickness in your heart, if you are weak in your faith, let the elders of the church come and pray.I don't know about you, if, if hands are going up for this, both my hands are up.I'm sick.Yeah.I'm weak.And I need the strength of the Lord so that I can be a conqueror.Because God has already delivered me from so much.And he's calling on us to walk in strength today and take a hold of the promise that he has before you.If you're weakAgain, this is a prayer for all of us.When we're struggling to believe, when we've allowed our hearts to be double-minded, we need strength.We need the strength of the Lord.We need his supernatural power to move in our lives, because I can't do this on my own.This is what I love about Jesus, is the invitation is always open for us to come to him.Draw near to me.Get the obstacles out of the way and just come.Just come, and I will give you rest.I will give you strength, says the Lord.It's not a prayer, "Oh God, would you rescue me from this thing?"It's, "God, I have sinned.I've been weak in my faith.I'm suffering in my trials, and I need your strength.I need strength to be patient and keep praying.I need strength to trust that God is up to something.I need strength to lay down my life, my money, my plans, my control.I need strength to keep the faith and become a conqueror rather than just waiting and waiting and waiting for rescue."It's crazy.'Cause he references Elijah at, at the end of this verse.He says, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours."A nature like ours.You know, when, when Elijah slayed all those prophets and called fire down from heaven, one word from Jezebel put him in a tizzy and he ran off in fear.Has anyone else ever done that before?That's me.But it says, "He prayed fervently that it might not rain."Here's what's funny.If you actually look at the text, Elijah prayed, but really he was just saying what God had already told him.He said, "Hey, there's gonna be a drought."And so he was just telling everybody that there was gonna be a drought.But when he prayed again and heaven gave rain, the earth bore its fruit, that wasn't just one time that he prayed.He didn't just say, "God, let the rains come."No, he prayed it again and again and again.7 times he prayed it.And he kept telling the servant to go out and look for the clouds that were about to come.Sometimes we pray one time, and we're just like, "Okay, God, you got this."But what if we prayed until we saw the Lord move?What if we prayed until we felt his presence?What if we prayed until the miracle came?'Cause this is what Elijah did.Could it be like Elijah that we would contend, that we wouldn't stop praying, that we wouldn't stop contending, that we would pray for strength, and we wouldn't leave until we felt his strength begin to fill our hearts?Repent and be forgiven.Become a conqueror.Take back what the enemy has stolen from you.And here's what I love about Job.He had everything taken from him, and he still was found faithful.And then 41 chapters of him in pain and suffering, and we get to chapter 42.And it says, "The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the former part."And if you, if you remember the numbers, he, basically he doubled all of his earthly possessions, had all of his children back, new children.Nowhere in the land were there found more beautiful women than his daughters.He lived 140 years.He saw his children and their children to the 4th generation, and Job died an old man, full of years.Listen, God restores the faithful, but more than that, He restores those who have wandered.Maybe you're wandering, maybe you haven't always been faithful to God.I haven't.But there's always an invitation to the table of the Lord for those who repent and turn to Jesus, an invitation to live worthy of the gospel.My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and 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.So here's what we're gonna do.Scripture tells us if any of you are sick, sick in body, or as we read, weak in heart, we're gonna call the elders of the church forward and we wanna pray with you.We'll anoint you with oil.And let me just say this.We're Pentecostal, but we're not that Pentecostal.I'm not gonna push you over.I'm not gonna get a, a, a p- a shofar out and blow it in your face or do something weird.I'm just gonna lay hands on you, and God is going to strengthen you.God is going to strengthen you.And so if you need prayer, I'm g- I invite the elders forward.Pops, come on.Jim, you come.Esther.We've got some oil.And I just wanna ask you, where is your faith today?Do you need strength?I need strength.We need the Lord.We need Him today, and this isA- again, I, I don't want us, I don't want anyone to feel like you're being manipulated.Don't come.Don't come up.But if you have faith that's moving you, if the Holy Spirit's moving you and you want somebody to pray with you for strength to actually live out all that James has called us to, then come