02 Jun Recap | James | Prayer & Restoration

This past weekend brought an end to our series in James as Matt Williams walked us through the closing verses of the letter, 5:13-20.

While the end of the book may seem to be a random burst of disjointed ideas, it is James’ intention to present these ideas as the products of living out the gospel, which he has been preaching throughout the whole book. James has been helping us self-identify where we stand in light of eternity. This calls us to reconcile our hearts, words, and actions, bringing us to a place of personal and relational confession and repentance.

Verse 13 reminds us that hardships are a part of life, particularly for Christians. The hardships we face lead us to be prayerfully dependent. They effectively humble the strength we would otherwise rely on. Further, stopping to acknowledge God both in good times and in bad should be a regular part of our lives, both individually in prayer and communally through fellowship.

Verses 14-15 bring some tension around how to interpret the ideas of sickness and healing. One role designated to the elders of a church is to intercede for their flock. Elders symbolically anoint people with oil to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and sole ability to bring healing, both physically and spiritually. These verses can be taken to an extreme in either case, but the real message is about giving up control and trusting God to resolve the issue at hand.

James goes on to urge us to stay in a place of confession, prayer, and repentance, particularly in a group setting. As Christians, we are supposed to regularly confess our worst sins to other people so that they can pray to God on our behalf. In the midst of this intercessory process, both people are humbled. James seems to say, in stark contrast to how we so often view it, that church is a place to present the worst of ourselves.

The book concludes with a simple call to shepherd those around us. This looks like a proactive and preventative undertaking to keep people out of trouble, but it also produces corrective shepherding when sin does cause stumbling. The Bible has much more to say about the church caring for its own rather than reaching more people. Shepherding the flock should be the number one priority in order to prevent lives from being destroyed.

This passage should both encourage and challenge us, as we should celebrate the grace God has shown to our church while recognizing the constant need to reevaluate our Christian lives.  We have been able to support a growing need for shepherding our church body both through pastoral staff and individuals who have sacrificed their time and resources for the needs of others. Accordingly, we each have a responsibility to immerse ourselves into the shepherding needs of the church, to not sit back and watch, but to take action. To ask ourselves, “Who do we pray for?” “Who prays for us?” “Who do we confess sin to, not for hopes of comfort, but for the hope of transformation?” The church, when living out the gospel in this authentic way, the way it was created to be, is a magnificent thing that even the gates of hell won’t overcome.

-Nate Emery

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Worship Songs from the Weekend

• You Reign: Psalm 146, Psalm 47:5-9, 1 Chronicles 29:10-20
• You Never Fail: Psalm 73:26, Psalm 27:1, 2 Samuel 7:22
• Our God Will Come: Isaiah 35:3-5
• Worthy, Worthy: Revelation 5:12, 1 Chronicles 16:25, Psalm 146
• Hallelujah What A Savior: Isaiah 53:3, Psalm 13:5, Isaiah 63:9
• I Will Look Up: Psalm 57:7-11, Isaiah 26:1-8, 2 Samuel 22:26-31