Wonderful to see you tonight, folks.
Thank you so much, Hannah, for reading and for Al for praying for us as we set into this passage.
I just think you'll agree this is a non-controversial passage.
I'm sure you'll see as we've read it there.
But if we've got years to listen tonight, this is a fantastic passage.
It will challenge us, it will confront us, and I hope it will encourage us as well.
So tune in if you can tonight.
We'll bring this home, this whole series.
We've been in this letter of James for a while.
Let's finish it.
Together as we get into chapter 5 then.
So we're definitely going to need our Bibles tonight.
So please make every effort to get God's Word in front of you.
We'll be in James chapter 5.
Heads up, we'll also be in 1 Kings chapter 16 and 17.
And 18 as well, I think.
You might want to turn there.
Just as we're setting off tonight.
We'll get to it in maybe 15 or so minutes time.
But there's just a heads up so you're not frantically looking for 1 Kings at that point in the sermon.
But, okay, let me level with you.
Here is the song that has been in my head over the last couple of weeks of being James chapter 5.
See if you recognise it.
Okay, here's the lyrics go like this.
So sad.
And see if you can get the song right.
So sad.
It's a sad, sad situation.
And it's getting more and more absurd.
So sad.
Why can't we just talk it over?
Sorry seems to be, sorry seems to be the hardest word.
Okay, yeah.
Hardest word.
Vintage Elton John wasn't it back in the day if you remember it.
If you're my age, you remember there was a dodgy boy band called Blue that sang a cover of it back in the 90s.
The less said about that, the better.
But there's the song that's been in my head all week.
I wish I had something more spiritual for you, but I don't.
It's just how my brain works.
But it's a sad, sad situation.
Why have those words been in my head all week?
Because those words could have easily been penned by James as he thinks about the Christians that he's writing to.
Okay.
Now if James was a TV show, again this is how my mind works.
James was a TV show, this letter, this would be called Christians Behaving Badly.
Right.
This would be world's deadliest Christians.
This would be church uncut.
Now if you remember this way back at the start, we thought about the context of this letter who he's writing to.
These people, as a church, are all over the shop.
All the way through this letter, James has exposed the visible symptoms of their life together.
And man alive is ugly.
Okay.
If you've been tracking with us, we've seen this over the weeks.
We've seen quarrels.
We've seen fights, fisty cuffs.
We've seen disputes.
We've seen conflicts.
And we've seen rage.
And if this church had a website, right, and it was honest, you wouldn't see people hugging one another on the front page.
You would see people having each other in a headlock on the front page, wouldn't you?
This is what we've seen is going on in this church.
Now it was Albert Einstein, I think, who said famously, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
You heard that quote?
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Here's what I want us to notice is that James the pastor has not just said, be better.
Right?
I can tell you for free as a parent, that never works.
Okay?
Just saying, be better.
Because if James had just said that, if this book was all about morals, then how long do you think that would have lasted?
We know our own hearts well enough to know, don't we, how long that would have lasted.
It wouldn't have lasted long.
But James' pastoral heart shines through in this letter.
He is not content simply with labeling and identifying the symptoms that he wants them to see.
He goes way deeper than that.
Okay?
He's got them to think about why these things are happening.
It's a great question in our own lives when we see things.
Know my own heart.
Lord, asking me often when I'm angry, why are you angry?
He says it to Cain, doesn't he?
Genesis 4.
Why are you angry?
Chapter 4, verse 1.
Have you got James there?
Give you an example of this.
What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Why?
Why does this stuff happen in your hearts?
What's going on?
Don't they come from the desires that battle within you?
Do you see it?
So this is not search for the hero inside yourself.
This is be honest about the Frankenstein inside yourself.
That's what he's gone for, isn't it?
The problem is a heart problem.
So he's gone from the symptoms to the heart.
He's talked about the pride and the jealousy and the envy and the rage which goes on in their lives.
What does he encourage?
He encourages them to know who God is.
That's the solution, isn't it?
To know who this God is and to know and to savour the gospel of his free grace.
So if anyone's got a heart transplant going on, if these are the things that are going on in their hearts, pride, jealousy, envy, rage, what he wants to be going on in their hearts.
And this can only happen by grace.
The fruit of the Spirit.
Some of the words that he's used.
Grace.
Humility.
Meekness.
Prayer.
And prayer is everywhere in this letter, particularly the beginning, the middle and the end.
And patience.
It's only going to come by God's work of grace through his indwelling Spirit.
As you cast yourselves upon the Lord.
But James goes even deeper than that.
What has been the big issue that's been right at the heart of everything that James has been saying is this issue of double-mindedness.
Double-mindedness.
Now let me just try and illustrate again.
So what I've been thinking of this week.
What's double-mindedness?
Now if you've ever been to a sports event, right?
You get these at rugby grounds all the time.
Football grounds as well.
People outside the grounds and they're selling 50-50 scarves.
You ever seen that before?
50-50 scarves.
Right?
See when I was growing up going to football games, that was not a thing.
Okay?
A 50-50 scarf.
If you'd ever done that, I don't think you would have made it out to tell the tale.
Okay?
A 50-50 scarf.
Half of the scarf that you've got, half is for one team.
And half is for the other team.
Blue and red.
Blue and green.
Whatever colours you want of the two teams that are playing.
One team scores a goal, you're cheering.
The other team scores a goal, you're cheering.
How does that work?
This doesn't work.
And that's these people.
With a 50-50 scarves.
Right?
They're trying to love the world and they're trying to love God.
And they think that they can do both at the same time.
Track with me.
Okay?
Chapter 1, verse 7.
Such a person.
It's from a prayer.
Such a person is double-minded.
There's a phrase.
Double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Chapter 4, verse 4.
Just showing you a few of these.
He calls them.
See it?
You adulterous people.
Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?
So you cannot be holding up the 50-50 scarf in the Christian life.
Okay?
So Jesus says, isn't it?
You can't serve two masters.
This doesn't work.
You'll love the one and hate the other.
Or you'll hate the other and love the other one.
Right?
But what is James' pastoral heart then?
It's that these people who he knows and who he loves would rededicate themselves wholly to the Lord.
And be restored to one another.
Okay?
And so here's what I want to suggest as we make our way through this passage.
With all its rabbit holes, with all its peculiarities, and potentially all its speculations.
Here's what I want to suggest.
That these are not some random verses about healing that have come out of nowhere.
And he's tagged on to the end of his letter to cover his bases.
Just in case at some point in the future these prove useful.
What I'm suggesting is that James is very much thinking about the sad, sad situation.
To these Christians behaving badly.
And he's not changed his tune when it comes to the thrust of the issue of double-mindedness.
Right?
That 50-50 scarf.
Just keep that in your mind.
That's what he's going after.
Now let's just deal with Dumbo.
Okay?
Watch Dumbo with the kids just there.
Okay?
Deal with Dumbo.
The elephant in the room.
The Dumbo.
Right?
Let's deal with Dumbo.
Come with me to verse 15 of chapter 5.
Here's probably the question you're asking.
All of us has read this through.
James writes, okay?
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.
And the Lord will raise them up.
Now what is that all about?
Right?
What is that all about?
Now there's a verse that at its best is potentially confusing.
And I think at its worst is potentially open to horrendous abuse.
And it's a verse that's loved by faith healers all over the world.
Remember my time in Malawi.
This guy called TB Joshua.
Huge in Nigeria.
They all...
Everyone was talking about him.
All on the radios as you walked around people's houses.
This guy was into faith healing.
It's horrendous using this verse for that.
Because if you take it that way, then you run into all sorts of thorny questions, do you not?
What does it mean to be healed?
What level of healing can I expect?
What if I'm not healed?
What counts as a healing?
How much faith do I need?
What does my faith need to be in?
It's confusing.
But also it's potentially hugely psychologically, spiritually, and maybe even physically damaging for us to take it that way.
Of course, friends, even someone is ill in our church.
We pray.
Of course we pray.
Right?
We do it every single Sunday.
We'll be doing it tomorrow night and Monday.
People in our church family who are sick.
We will pray for them.
Why will we pray for them?
Because we love them.
Right?
We love one another.
When part of the body is hurting, we are there in presence.
But we are there in prayer.
Because we love one another.
We're praying more, aren't we, than just that they'll get physically better.
We're praying that God's presence would be with them.
That they would know Jesus as their all-in-all, as we were singing just there, in their situation.
And that the thought, the hope of heaven and what's ahead when Christ comes to make all things new.
We're praying that people would know that.
By God's Spirit at work in us.
We pray for people that might get better, that people would get better.
Of course we do that.
But I don't think the general call to praying for the sick is what James is primarily encouraging here.
There's way more to it than that, I think.
And I think the key is seeing the Old Testament incident that James draws upon to make his case.
Do you see how James brings in Elijah to illustrate his point in verse 17?
And at this point, why don't you turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings 17?
I'll give you just a few moments to do that.
I think it's crucial that we see this just to get it right.
1 Kings 17.
So why is he brought in Elijah?
That's the question, isn't it?
Why is he brought in Elijah?
Now, if James did have catch-all physical healing of the sick in his mind,
and he wanted to use Elijah as an example,
surely he would have gone for that wonderful moment in Elijah's life that you can read about,
we can read about in 1 Kings 17, right?
Hopefully you've got it right there in front of you.
What happens there?
Verses 21 and 22, God working through Elijah.
He's his prophet.
Elijah raises a widow's son back to life.
It's an incredible story.
Incredible story.
He cries out to the Lord in prayer, and God hears him,
and the child's life came into him again.
That's the way the author puts it there.
It's a wonderful story.
It's an incredible miracle.
And here's the point, I think.
If the point, if you were James,
if the point you were making was about general physical healing,
then surely the book he's favourite for a passage that you would go to in Elijah's life
would be this one, would it not?
It would be this one.
If you were trying to rally the troops for a big prayer meeting,
for the sick to be cured, that's the one that you would go for.
But that's not the example that James draws upon.
The example he uses is the time in Israel's history
when they were apathetically drifting along spiritually as God's people,
and they were sliding into rebellion.
Okay, what were the nation marked by?
You can read about this in just the next chapter.
What was the defining feature of their life as a nation?
Double-mindedness.
As a nation, Israel drifting along.
Remember, they're meant to be the light to the nations,
that the nations of the world look in and say,
isn't Israel's God great?
Surely he is the true God.
Well, Israel at this point are holding their 50-50 scarves, right?
Thinking it was perfectly fine to worship Yahweh at the weekend
and in Baal during the week.
And all the while, the nation at this point in the story,
first king's story, are led by King Ahab,
who is heavily influenced by Queen Jezebel,
who has fallen into disastrous idolatry and rebellion himself.
This is a dark, dark moment for God's people.
That's what's going on.
And so in order to rouse them at this point in the story,
first kings, from their double-mindedness,
chapter 17, verse 1 of first kings,
Elijah prophesies that God would send a drought on Israel
as a judgment on them, right?
This is what God is going to do.
So it's almost like a wake-up call
to arouse them from their spiritual half-heartedness.
This is what God is doing, okay?
And God does so for three years.
Jump into chapter 18 if you've got it there.
You'll see it, okay?
Three years this goes on for.
Until that is, and this is one of my favorite chapters
in the whole of the Bible, right?
If you're wanting a serious chapter to read
when you go home, a thrilling bit of narrative and drama,
get into the first kings 17, 18, 19 chapters, okay?
What happens in chapter 18 is that they have a show,
there's a showdown in Mount Carmel
between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, right?
And Elijah challenges them, the prophets,
it's in 1 Kings, the people, sorry,
1 Kings 18, verse 21.
Here's what he says.
What's this all about?
How long will you waver between two opinions?
This is Elijah challenging Israel, right?
How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the Lord is God, follow him,
but if Baal is God, follow him.
In other words, make up your mind.
Stop wearing the 50-50 scarf.
It doesn't work.
And so what does he say?
The God who answers by fire is the true God.
So Baal and his prophets,
Baal and his prophets,
they should win this one easy, right?
They're on their home turf.
It's all going for them.
And they do their thing for ages and ages and ages.
Does Baal answer by fire?
No, he doesn't.
There's nothing that goes on.
And Elijah mocks him sarcastically.
Again, we said that this morning, right?
So there's sarcasm in the Bible.
You will notice it there in that chapter.
But he turns to Elijah.
Elijah prays to Yahweh.
And verse 38, the fire of the Lord falls.
And the whole chapter, the whole scene is about God
being declared, vindicated in front of all the people watching on,
that he is the true God.
And the whole scene ends with the people of Israel
rededicating themselves to the Lord.
Elijah prays again.
Verse 45, if you've got it there.
And behold, the rains come,
and the land bears fruit once more.
Now, back to James.
Isn't it interesting that the example that James picks
isn't an example of how prayer can heal the generally physically sicks,
although he could have easily opted for that one.
Isn't it interesting that the incident that he opts for in Elijah's life
is all about the power of prayer
to restore the spiritually rebellious and wayward
who have, as a result, come under God's judgment?
And so could it be that as he thinks,
remember this, he's the pastor,
pastor, sorry,
as he thinks about the sad, sad situation
into which he is writing,
is it that James is strongly implying
that something similar to what was happening
with the nation of Israel in the first kings
is happening to the people in James' church?
Could it be that some people in this church
have fallen seriously sick
as a direct result of their bad behavior towards God
and more particularly because of their bad behavior
towards others in the church?
It's sad, so sad.
It's a sad, sad situation,
and it's getting more and more absurd.
It's sad, so sad.
Why can't we talk it over?
Oh, it seems to me,
sorry seems to be the hardest word.
James' pastoral heart here for this people,
whom he knows, whom he loves,
is that they would rededicate themselves wholly to the Lord
and they would get right with one another.
So let's just take that interpretive lens
that I've just presented this with
and let's just read the verses
and let's see if they begin to make a little bit more sense
in that context.
Okay, verse 14, James chapter 5.
Is anyone among you sick?
Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them
and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.
Now I take it here,
James is calling for the elders,
again I take it just as the representatives
of the church as a whole,
to be the ones who go after those
who are falling into sickness
because of their disobedience
and are leading them in repentance
and seeking to restore them relationally
to the church family.
Now perhaps the oil is symbolically representing
that person being set aside
and rededicated themselves to the Lord.
Could it be that the hands on them
are just again,
just that symbolic identifying
on behalf of the church
what's going on in this situation, right?
Verse 15,
And the prayer offered in faith
will make the sick person well.
The Lord will raise them up.
If they have sinned,
they will be forgiven.
Again, could it be
that the prayer of faith
that James has in mind
is the one of repentance,
of knowing forgiveness,
and of rededication to the Lord?
Two more of these.
Okay, verse 16,
Therefore confess your sins to each other
and pray for each other
that you might be healed.
Could it be
that there are individuals
in this church family
and you'll begin to see
where the application of this is going, okay?
Who have fallen out badly.
And it is influencing the church
in negative ways
and they are suffering as a result.
And what is James encouraging?
He's encouraging that they humble themselves
to the point that individuals
are willing to get together,
confess,
repent,
hug it out,
and forgive one another.
Because the prayer of the righteous person,
I take it,
just all that stuff,
is powerful and effective.
Culminating in verse 19,
my brothers and sisters,
if one of you should wander from the truth
and someone should bring that person back,
remember this,
whoever turns a sinner
from the error of their way
will save them from death
and cover a multitude of sins.
Friends,
and of course,
what is the heart of the gospel?
What is the heart of our faith?
Reconciliation.
Isn't it?
Being right with God,
our creator,
and being right reconciled
with one another.
When we looked at Ephesians
not so long ago,
it was the wonderful heart
of Paul's understanding
of the gospel,
wasn't it?
That by his blood
you have peace with one another.
The walls of hostility
broken down
because of what Jesus has
on the cross.
Two parties,
Jew and Gentile,
who would never come
under the same roof,
yet in Jesus,
united,
and more than playing happy families,
united in the same family
by his blood.
How powerful a witness
is it to the world
when our community
defies logic?
It can only be explained
because of what Jesus has done.
It's the very heartbeat
of our God.
The very heartbeat
of the gospel.
Reconciliation.
Friends, let me just say
the Bible never encourages us.
Remember this is a specific situation.
The Bible never encourages us,
never,
to draw straight lines
between sickness
and our sin, right?
Everything we've been thinking about
in Job, isn't it,
in the mornings.
The Bible never encourages us
to draw a straight line
between those things.
Okay, so I think
the application of this,
if somebody we know
in the church family
is sick, right,
we've not to go
mm-hmm to one another,
right, that's not the application
of this passage.
And yet,
I still think
there are two big principles
very close to God's heart
that we as a congregation
can learn from
this specific situation.
And with this,
I'm just going to try
and give us two
really quick things
and maybe pull a lot
of the strands
of the letter together
as we leave this tonight
and as we feel the challenge
that God makes us
as a church congregation
as we respond
to the letter of James
as a whole.
Right?
Two of these really quickly.
Here's the first one.
Here's what I think
what we need to take
really seriously.
Number one,
and it's the call
to single-mindedness.
How much of this letter
has been James
helping them see
how serious a thing
it is in the Lord's sight
when we try and wear
the two halves,
two halves,
50-50 scarf.
And how damaging
a thing that is
to our own hearts
and souls as well.
But what is it then
that James has consistently
brought his congregation
back to see
all the time,
all the way through
this letter,
is the very character
of God.
Remember what we said,
this is not just
trying to be better.
Right?
Be better.
Why can't you be better?
No, no, no.
We've got to have
an encounter
with the living God
who loves us.
That's what's going
to change our hearts.
The indwelling spirit.
It's why he's brought it out,
hasn't he,
in chapter four.
God yearns jealously
for the spirit
that he has made
to dwell where?
In us.
He's brought them back
to the very character
of God, right?
The all-wise,
generous,
and unchanging
father
of chapter one.
God
whose implanted word,
and I love that phrase,
the implanted word
at work in us
has the power
to save our souls
and has the power
to transform us.
The God who,
chapter four,
longs to give
more grace.
Longs to give
more grace.
Love that image.
Just longs to give it,
longs to bestow it
upon his people.
The merciful
and compassionate
God of chapter five.
Again,
do you see it?
He's just brought them
back to the character
of God.
And so when we,
when the call comes
for complete devotion
to him,
the call is not
to come begrudgingly
to a headmaster,
right?
You ever had that experience
of your headmaster
at school?
I remember mine.
I knew the power
he had.
I knew who he was.
I saw him coming
up the corridor
and didn't stop
for a chat.
I legged it
into another classroom,
right?
But that's not
the image of God
that James is
describing here
as a compassionate
father.
Our sins,
friends,
we shouldn't run
from him.
We should run
to him knowing
that he will
bestow grace
upon us.
And this God
does not share
the throne
of his people's
hearts with anyone.
And let me just say
it's for our joy
that God
is like that.
This letter
is a call
to single-mindedness.
And flowing
from that,
secondly,
this letter
is a call
to relational
oneness.
In other words,
our relationships
with one another.
One of the big
challenges
that's laid out
in this letter
is the challenge
to have a serious
think
in all of
every area
of our lives.
Have a think
about the way
in which we view
and we treat
other people.
And to see
how seriously
God takes that.
It was Francis Schaeffer,
famous American
evangelical thinker
back in the day
who famously said
that with God
there are no
little people.
right?
And what he meant
was that
every human being
has been made
in the image
of God.
Every single
human being
made in the image
of God.
And therefore,
friends,
we have not to do,
and he's outed this
in this church,
hasn't he,
all the way
through the letter,
we're not to play
favorites
with who we love.
We're not to pick
and choose
who we're kind to,
who we consider.
It's why,
and I love it
as you read
through the Gospels,
it's why the disciples
find it so baffling
that Jesus would
encourage the little
children to come to him.
You ever read that bit
in the Gospels
and you thought,
what's going on there?
Of course,
it's a very different
cultural setting,
isn't it?
Children in our day
treated very differently
from children in that day.
Children,
people who had nothing
to offer you in return,
people who were considered
not high up
in the social ladder,
and yet Jesus
uses them,
welcomes the children,
and uses it
as an opportunity
to show his followers
that how we treat
the least in our society
is a measure
of greatness,
according to him.
He just flips it
on his head,
doesn't he,
his definition of greatness.
How we treat
and how we view
other people
matters to God.
And I take it now,
just as we're speaking here,
that God's Spirit
will be moving amongst us.
Maybe, friends,
there's something
that we need to do
in response to this tonight.
Was there a harsh word
that we said?
You know,
I think about it
all the time sometimes.
When you're going to Tesco
to buy your groceries,
or you're at cost
to buy your coffee,
whatever it is you're doing,
right,
you're speaking to people.
Friends,
do we stop and consider
that this person
is made in the image
of God?
Right?
We don't just take it
for granted.
They're not just there
to serve us.
No, no, no.
We are there
to serve them.
How about tomorrow
when you go about
your business?
You ask people
how they're doing.
How was your day?
Right?
Always love it when I,
you know you've got
the name badges
with the names on it.
Always kind of freaks people
out when you use
their names, right?
But it's that way
of doing it.
I'm actually interested
in who you are
because you are a human being
made in the image of God.
Christ died for you.
I want to get to know you.
But just call and courtesy
in the way that we go
about our lives.
Jesus says,
how we treat the least
is the very definition
of greatness.
Our willingness
to get involved
and really care
for those
who have,
so to speak,
nothing to offer us
in return.
How counter-cultural
is that?
You know,
I get emails all the time.
Do you know who from?
I've never signed up
for it.
LinkedIn.
All the time.
Would you like to?
This person wants
to be your friend.
LinkedIn.
What is LinkedIn
all about, right?
It's this website
where you're actively
encouraged to put
yourselves out there.
Remember when the law
firm I worked for
down south,
business cards,
on your desk,
packets of them.
Just give them
out to everybody.
What are we encouraged
to do in this world?
Promote ourselves, right?
Always use people
to get ahead.
Climb the pole.
Advance yourselves.
See how Jesus
just flips it
on its head.
Maybe in particular
in the context
of this letter
as we think about it,
how we treat
one another
in the church.
How we use
our words.
You know,
I've got a friend
who says we should
have a license
for our words.
You've got a license
because there's just
so much harm
can come from our words
and particularly
how we use them
when we're thinking
about our brothers
and sisters.
Right?
Friends,
it would do well
to remember
that we are in
a spiritual battle.
And would the devil
not just love it
if he could somehow
get in between
our relationships
with one another?
Wouldn't he love it
if for the next
number of years
that you were
in this church family
that one person
sat over there,
one person sat over there
and never spoke
to one another?
And that rift
that existed
between them,
it went unchallenged,
it went undealt with
for years and years
and years and years.
We are in a spiritual battle
but we need to see
that damaged relationships
are a big thing
in the eyes of the Lord.
I take it, friends,
is there someone,
as we think about it
just now,
in our lives,
is there someone tonight
that we need to make
the first move towards?
You know,
let me just ask,
I ask myself this
all the time,
when was the last time
you said sorry?
Right?
Just, you said,
put your hands up,
I'm so sorry
I got it wrong.
When was the last time
we did that
with one another?
You know,
are there people
in this church family
who we need to get
right with?
You know,
that niggling thought
about somebody
that's been lingering
in the bottom of your heart,
this passage tonight
says deal with it.
Deal with it.
Who do you need
to text tonight?
Who do you need
to ring later in the week?
Who do you need
to visit?
Who do you need
to go out your way
for to make sure
that you are
right with one another?
You know,
it was D.A. Carson
and I love this quote,
he said,
all of us would be wiser
if we would resolve
never to put people down
except to put them down
in our prayer lists.
How many of our disagreements,
our misunderstandings,
our feelings of bitterness
and lack of forgiveness
in the body of Christ,
friends,
would disappear
if we looked at our conflict
in light of eternity?
Does it really matter?
What are we getting
all tight about,
thinking about
what is ahead of us,
what Christ has accomplished
for us on the cross?
James' pastoral heart here
is that these people
who he knows
and who he loves
would rededicate themselves
firstly to the Lord,
single-mindedness,
and secondly to one another,
their unity.
You know,
we started with Elton John.
Let me just finish
with Stuart Townend,
right,
to finish on a spiritual note.
As Stuart Townend wrote,
he's written this wonderful song
about the unity
that we're to have
as brothers and sisters
because of stemming
from our unity with God.
Friends,
let me just read these words
to us,
and then we're just going to have
a few moments of silence,
particularly before we
come before the Lord
and take communion
together tonight.
Wonderful thing to,
space for us to reflect
on the challenge
that's come from
God's word tonight.
The words of Stuart Townend,
Oh,
how good it is
when the family of God
dwell together in spirit
in love and unity,
where the bonds of peace,
of acceptance and love,
are the fruits of his presence
here among us.
And so with one voice,
we'll sing to the Lord,
and with one heart,
we'll live out his word,
till the whole world sees
the Redeemer has come,
for he dwells
in the presence of his people.
Why don't we just be silent
for a few moments,
and then I'll lead us in prayer.
Psalm 16.
You show me the path of life.
In your presence,
there is fullness of joy.
In your right hand
are pleasures forevermore.
And so, Father,
I pray tonight for us all,
Lord, as a church family,
Lord, that we would be marked
by a devotion to your son,
the Lord Jesus.
Father, thank you
for that wonderful description
of him in John chapter 1,
that he is one full
of grace and truth.
Father, for some of us
here tonight,
as we've maybe responded
to James chapter 5 this evening,
as we've maybe mulled
on all that James' letter
has contained.
Father, I pray for us,
perhaps tonight,
some of us who have gone cold.
Father, would you,
by your spirit,
ignite that deep love for you
as we grasp more
of the magnitude
of what you have done for us
in sending Jesus.
Father, there is no one like you.
And Father,
I pray for our relationships
with one another as well,
Lord, that you would be
at work in our lives.
Prompt us by your spirit,
challenge us,
put people on our minds.
Father, help us,
mould us,
challenge us,
make us into the people
that you have called us to be.
Thank you, Father,
for your commitment
to us as your people.
And we pray all these things
in Jesus' wonderful
and precious name.
Amen.