When Times are Good, When Times are Tough

Thanks for the introduction, and thank you for the invitation to share a word from the Scriptures with everyone. So let's just open in prayer as Caleb has mentioned. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we want to return our grateful thanks this evening, or today, for the privilege that we have of having the Scriptures in our own language, of having new life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Father, we want to return our thanks for the privilege it is to have been born again and to have a relationship with the God of heaven. We don't deserve it. We appreciate it so little, and yet we have been so blessed, and despite whatever is happening here on earth, we thank the Father that we are the God who cares and who loves and who has a plan for each one of us.

This evening, our Father, we ask for help. We ask for help as we open the Scriptures to have a clear understanding, to have a clear explanation from thyself of the message that should come. And so, our Father, we leave the meeting now before thee.

We pray for help. We ask for a blessing on every single individual believer who is listening, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, thank you for tuning in and for the opportunity to share a word with you.

I was asked if I wanted to pass on a message, and I did think about it, and just a little word of apology for any believers from Kells who are listening. They have heard a short, miniature version of this just a few weeks ago, because this is a subject I've been thinking about, but it won't be the same, so don't worry. It's maybe not so likely too many are listening, but if you are, don't worry.

It won't just be a repetition, although there will be some common features. Now, the subject I have in my mind is intensely practical for this evening. Ministry is always better when it touches our hearts and when we can really feel that God has something for us that touches us.

And I was just thinking, we've been living in very strange times, haven't we? And I'm sure that you're probably getting a little bit fed up of the fact that every speaker wants to talk about how the pandemic's doing this or that, and we're all in lockdown. Sometimes we just want people to leave that subject alone and talk about something else. But it does affect us.

I don't know how it's affecting you. There are some believers who, during this period of time, they're just losing heart spiritually. They're just finding the fact that they're not with other believers is really a big, big problem, and they're just growing a little bit cold, or they're just losing heart, or they're just getting down about it.

Some I know are even at the point of almost feeling that they just want to give up. They just feel it's too much. There are others who, and this is tragic, but it can happen, there are others who perhaps just have got so used to the fact that Sunday mornings now they do whatever they want that, well, it's become just another routine.

Because in the past, on a Sunday morning, they went to a local church and they worshipped, that was their routine, and now they've got a different routine. And maybe they're not really desperate for things to start up again at all, because the new routine is pretty comfortable as well. And maybe there are others who are down and depressed or struggling just because they're so desperate to get back to fellowship, and they just can't wait, and it seems to be taking forever.

And it just seems that it's going on and on. I know myself, I was pretty sure my naivety right at the start, oh, this will be two or three weeks and it'll all be back to normal, it'll blow past. And months later, it's not two or three weeks and it's still going on, and we're still not able to break bread locally here with too many people for the whole.

And, you know, there are people who are struggling because they're so desperate to get back to the routines that they had in the past. On the other hand, I don't know, maybe there are people listening to me, and you have found that this time of isolation and this time of forced quietness has been a huge blessing to your soul. Maybe it's driven you into the presence of the Lord, and you've spent quality time alone with him, and actually you've found that this has been a huge blessing that the Lord has brought to you.

I don't know. I have no idea how it's affecting nearly everyone who's listening to me. I only know how it's affecting my own soul.

But I was thinking, how can we have something, a meditation from Scripture that speaks to all of those possible scenarios? And there is a passage in the New Testament that I really do believe hits home to every single one of those possible scenarios that we could be in. Now, before we go there, just a little word for any new believers who are still learning how to study their Bibles, because I'm certainly hoping there are some. I'm hoping that there are some listening to me.

And there are one or two little things that you have to keep in mind. If you're just learning out at the beginning, how can I get this book, and how can I learn how to understand what it means, there are some dangers to avoid. And I would just encourage you, always look at the context.

Now, I suspect that the believers in Kells who have only known me for a few months are probably already some of them getting a bit fed up of me repeating this, but it is so important, because so often we've seen people grab a verse, and it just pops out of nowhere, and the verse seems to say whatever the speaker wants it to say, and that's very convenient. But actually, the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures in a logical way, which was constructed. And don't forget that someone in the New Testament times who received the letter, who was reading chapter five, verse 13, had already just two minutes earlier read chapters one, two, three, and four, and the first half of chapter five.

So those other things were already in their minds. They knew exactly where this fitted into the story. And so I think it's very important, always take a step back and have a little look at the context of any passage.

The other little thing I would encourage any new believers that are learning to study their Bibles is, we have at our fingertips a huge number of tools that were just not available to our forefathers. We can dig into Greek words. I don't know any Greek or Hebrew at all, but I can dig in through the Strong's words, and I can start to passages.

And this opens up huge opportunities to mine the gold mines of Scripture. But it also opens up risks. It can become a sterile academic exercise of who can be the smartest in understanding a word.

And so always look at what is the practical application for my life? What is the Holy Spirit saying to me now when I read this passage? What do I have to do? We can't just end the study of Scriptures and be the same as we started. So I hope that with me, you will prayerfully look at what we're going to consider together and see if it can come alive. So on that note, we're going to look at a passage in the Epistle to James, and it's in James chapter 5. And actually, it will be from verse 13 onwards.

So that wasn't a random choice. I said that someone who lands in chapter 5 verse 13. But before we get there, we're going to look at some other verses just to understand a little bit of what James maybe had in his mind.

So let's read together James chapter 1. Let's begin at verse 1, because that's a good place to start right at the beginning of the book. James, a servant and that word means bond slave, a bond slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. Counted all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

I've read that second verse in the ESV. That's easier to understand. If you're not used to English, it's your first language all the time.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness or perseverance. Now, right from the outset, we see, first of all, who's writing the book? It's James. James was the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he doesn't describe himself as that.

He says he's a bond slave. He puts himself in the position of a servant where the objective is to serve Christ as Lord. He also talks about something that's very relevant to us.

You see, he's speaking to Jewish Christians who had been very comfortable in a group of believers with lots of communion and lots of company and lots of contact with each other in Jerusalem. And suddenly something like a bomb comes into their life and they're scattered over the whole world. And when they had been used to being in close contact and in fellowship and having daily contact, in Acts 2, it tells us that they broke bread from day to day, from house to house.

They shared meals. They were in each other's homes every day of the week. And it was great.

They just had so much company and so much fellowship. And wow, at the beginning, wasn't it great to have that community? And suddenly they're scattered abroad and they don't have it now. Suddenly, a bit like us, through no fault of their own, they're not able to just have all of that contact and communion with other believers.

Suddenly they find themselves in a pretty difficult circumstance and James is writing to them to tell them how to handle this. So that's hopefully something that will help us to understand. And notice he says, the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

This is a theme, a form of patience that James is introducing. And it's the idea of patiently not giving up, enduring until the end. So keep that in your minds, please keep that in your heads.

This is a theme that we're going to come back to. And then verse 5, James understands that if you're in difficult circumstances and you need perseverance, well, you're going to need wisdom to know how to deal with this. So he introduces it in verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God.

And the idea there is a continual tense. So keep on asking God. Don't give up.

Just keep on asking God for wisdom. Who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

That person must not suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. Again, I read that in the ESV just for convenience. And for those who are trying to follow my accent, you're probably not used to someone with my accent who speaks at 100 miles an hour, and who gets excited when he's talking about the scriptures, and maybe it's hard to follow.

So I try to choose easy language. Now, this idea of let him ask in faith, this is another critical thing to the book of James. Faith, absolutely critical in James, and it's a very practical faith.

And in chapter four, he says, again, about asking God, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. So we have to keep this in mind. And then down to verse 12 of chapter one, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.

When he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to them who love them. And then verse 22, just other verses for context, be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. So we can already see in the introduction here, what is the context of James? He majors on steadfast perseverance.

He majors on coping in times of difficulty when they've been scattered and they've been persecuted. And he talks about faith and the need to ask in faith and to ask correctly, to put ourselves in a position before God to acknowledge who he is. So keep all of those in mind, because if those themes are in our minds, the things we're going to look at later on in chapter five are going to make a lot more sense to us.

So we're going to go down to chapter five and the verses I'm mostly thinking about are verse 13 to 16. But again, we need to look at the global section. And just a little comment, James chapter five, verse 13 to 16, it's the passage, many of us will have read it, where it tells us if anyone is sick, he should call the elders and they will pray and anoint him and he will be healed.

The prayer of faith shall save the sick. I've heard it misinterpreted in many occasions. I've heard it explained in many, many ways.

And I genuinely think that the lack of actively putting this into practice has been a huge harm in many, many assemblies. And it's something that is a real problem, because God in this epistle has given us something for specific circumstances that come into our lives. And we need to use that resource that he has given us.

So let's just take a step back. We're going to start at verse seven. And in verse seven, we're going to look down through the passage.

And what I want to do, first of all, is to read it, it's going to be a bit difficult, maybe, because I want to pull out the meaning of the words as I go through. So it will be a little bit chunky. As we go through this passage, you have to maybe concentrate a little bit more.

And then I'll summarize it at the end so that we can get the feeling for it. And then I want to try and apply this to our life so that we can understand. So again, at verse seven, James chapter five, verse seven, it says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.

Now, there's two types of patience that James talks about in this passage. This one is very different to the one we're going to see focused on later. This is a patience, which just means stay level headed.

Don't get angry. Don't get upset about people who are annoying you. Don't fly off the handle.

Stay cool, stay level. Keep your calm. Don't get all passionate about things.

Just stay calm as things go through. Unto the coming of the Lord. And, you know, James doesn't say, well, it's for five hours or 10 hours or 10 days or two months.

He doesn't give us a timeline. He just says it's right till the end of the age. This imperative command is to be patient until the end of the age.

But we know it's going to be short because he tells us later, doesn't it? Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience. It's the same word, long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be he also patient, the same word again.

Then we have another word which is really important. Establish your hearts. That means to be solidly grounded, to be steadfast.

And this is an imperative command. This isn't, well, you know, believers, I think it might be a good idea to do something about this. No, no, no, someone has described James as like a sergeant major in the drill ground firing off commands.

I haven't counted them for myself, but apparently there are more than 50 imperative commands in the book of James. It's bang, bang, bang, bang. And he's telling us what to do.

He's a very action driven man. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth. We said that establish your hearts, get solidly grounded.

Here's a command for the coming of the Lord doth nigh. Grudge not, that means don't be grumbling one against another brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience, the same word again. So, so far the patience we've talked about is this, keeping our cool despite the persecution, despite the fact that people are being nasty to us. That's fine.

Behold, we count them happy, which endure. This is another word. This is the other patience.

He says you have heard of the patience of job. It's the same word as endure. This is a new theme he's introducing.

And I've seen the end of the Lord. The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Now this word is important because this word patience means to endure steadfastly until the end without giving up.

This is the patient endurance where you dig in and you don't give up. Despite the fact you've been buffeted, you hold fast until the end, not giving up. This is critical to what we're going to see later.

So patience, keeping your cool, not getting angry, not getting passionate and patience steadfastly establishing your heart, holding fast until the end. So this is a command. This is a command to all of us.

And we see that this patient endurance is seen by the Lord and will be recompensed. And then verse 12. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay, nay, lest you fall into condemnation.

Now that word condemnation is, I can't say these Greek words. I think it's hypocrisies. I don't know how you pronounce it in Greek, but it's just where our word hypocrisy comes from in English.

So I'm not quite sure why it's condemnation really, but lest you fall into hypocrisy is the thought that we're looking at here. And that just made me think of Peter. Do you remember Peter? Peter who, when the Lord was going to Jerusalem, swore, I will go with you.

I will die with you. I will never let you, I would never abandon you, Lord, never. Just some hours later, he denied him three times.

Peter, who after that went out and went bitterly with a broken heart, the same Peter then who, when he realized what he had done in letting the Lord down and that the Lord was risen and he just wanted to give up, he went back to fishing. The fishing boat and the nets that he had left to follow the Lord for those years, he's failed. He's messed up and he falls and he goes back to the fishing.

That's the hypocrisy. And James, who would have seen all of this because he was the half brother of the Lord. This is what he's talking about here.

Then we come on to our core theme. And of course, we know that Peter was restored and this is part of what we're going to look at. So don't feel bad about that.

Every one of us, there's none of us immune from this sense of we've messed up. We feel down and we want to give up and just throw in the towel. And James is telling us not to do that.

Verse 13, is any among you afflicted? That means enduring hardship. Let him pray. Another imperative command.

This isn't an optional thing. There's affliction. Pray.

Is any merry? That means to be of good cheer. So you're in difficult circumstances now, but you know, you're an optimist or you happen to have a fairly good disposition. Well, let them sing Psalms.

And that word's an interesting one. I discovered it as I was studying. It means to twang strings like on a harp or a lute or a stringed instrument, or to sing to the noise of the harp.

It means making melody, praising the Lord with musical melody in our hearts or in our souls or physically, whichever. And so we're getting a very clear command. If we're afflicted, if we're in hard times, we must pray.

If we're still in good spirits, despite that, we should praise the Lord. That's really important. And then verse 14, is any sick? Now, the word sick is an unfortunate translation because the word actually means losing strength or becoming weak.

That's all it means. We'll look at that later in a little minute. It's not specific for physical illness.

Is anyone losing strength or becoming weak or becoming down? Let him, again, an imperative command. It's not an invitation. It's not a suggestion.

He must call for the elders of the church. Again, the word elder is, I don't know how to say it, presbyteros or something like that. It means the mature ones, the ones who have maturity, spiritual maturity.

It would, of course, be primarily the overseers of the assembly in view, but it could also be the idea of just a mature believer in the church. I could imagine a young single woman who needs to discuss something and maybe she would want to call for an older, mature spiritual woman in the assembly to come to her aid. But in any case, it's a command.

You must call for a mature spiritual believer in the assembly capable of helping you to come to your aid. It's a command. And that person, that mature person, must, another imperative command, they must go and pray over him, anointing him.

And again, that word anointing, there's two words for anointing in the scripture. One is the one that you had for, for example, the priest like Aaron was anointed ceremonially and that consecrated him to the service of the Lord. Then you have another word for anointing, which is totally different.

It's just the common secular word for putting oil in your hair, as they did in those days to get up and get out to face the world for another day. I don't put oil on my hair, but maybe some of you in some countries do. I lived in France and there were plenty of people who seemed to like to have a black oily hair in the Italian border.

It's just a cultural thing, isn't it? So anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall, not might, not maybe, shall save or raise up, restore the sick. And again, this word sick is actually nothing to do with physical illness, that last word. We'll come back to that at the end.

Someone who's been down, raised back up again. And the Lord shall raise him up. And if you've committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Confess or acknowledge your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed or made whole. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, righteous man, woman, person, righteous person availeth much. So that's the passage.

I was a bit clunky because I was trying to pull out some of the meaning of the words. Let me let me summarize it more rapidly for you, so that you can try and get the meaning that I've been pulling out of it in a short version. It says this, be patient, don't get angry, don't get despondent.

The Lord is coming. You absolutely must make an effort to get your heart solidly grounded in the faithfulness of God. That's an imperative.

It may take some time during which you have to endure, but the Lord is coming soon. So don't lose heart. Look at the example of the prophets, those that endured to the end and did not give up.

We regard them as blessed and happy people. I'm sure some of them didn't feel so happy at the time. Some of those prophets, you know, when you read their stories, they didn't seem to be very happy.

But looking back at the end, they endured to the end and now we regard them as blessed and happy. Some of you will already be feeling the impact of this affliction, this isolation, this problem. You must pray.

That's what James says. Some of you, despite the affliction, are still in good cheer. You must sing praises to God.

Some of you are already losing hope and becoming weak and are ready to give up. You must call for the elders or a mature believer to come to your aid. And that mature believer must come and pray with you and help you get back up and active again.

The prayer offered in faith will restore that person who has become weak to the giving up and the Lord will pick him back up again. If it was due to sin, it will be forgiven. Acknowledge your shortcomings to each other.

Pray for each other so you can be made whole. Effectual fervent prayer is powerful. That's the kind of summary of this passage.

That's the kind of context and concept that James is presenting to us. Can you see how it flows together? Can you see the way that this passage works? It's a command. This isn't an optional thing.

And sadly, in our circles and in many New Testament churches, I haven't seen this put into practice on a regular basis. I see people who are dying and they've never been taught to call for help, or they're frightened to call for help. And I've seen people who don't know how to go and help them.

And there's a need for us to realise that this is a command and we need to prepare to be able to do this because James is telling us that it's essential in New Testament church practice. Now, that's one thing. Much more challenging is to take a little step back and say, how do I fit into this? How do you fit into this? It's very easy to have the theory and the context and the concepts and the practical stuff in our heads.

But on a real practical level, how do we fit into this story? The scriptures weren't just there to make our heads full of facts. The scriptures were there to change us, to make us more Christ-like, to teach us in the school of God. So let's take a step back.

Are you still in the camp? Does the persecution seem a little bit distant? Is it somehow that you see other believers in other countries who are really suffering, really struggling, but actually things are ticking along relatively okay for you right now? That could be the case. And thank the Lord for that if it is, because it won't last forever. And that's not to depress you.

That's just because the scriptures tell us that all those who live godly will suffer persecution at some point. But if you're still in the camp, what has James told you to do? He tells you, he tells me, you must establish your hearts. You have a responsibility in the times of calm and peace to get your heart founded in the word of God.

It's an imperative command. Now, just from the beginning, can I just say that when I read this, I sometimes want to shrivel in shame. You see, I can remember days as a young man.

I spent some years in Glasgow at university and I had two men, especially David Newell and Stephen R. Buffnut, who taught very well in that assembly to whom I owe a great debt. And I was in a period of relative calm in my life and I had all of the opportunity possible to establish my heart, to really get to grips. And well, to some degree I did a little bit of it, but nothing like enough.

And then I can look at other times in my life later where more difficult times came and challenges came and decisions had to be made. And suddenly, with shame, I realized that I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for the challenge in front of me, not because God hadn't given me the resources, but because I had totally squandered the opportunity to establish my heart during the time that I could have done so.

And so I can look on that personally and just say, I'm not here as some super Christian telling you how it should all be done. I've messed up in every single one of these points that comes down through this passage. And one after the other, I'll admit it to you with no problem.

But James is telling us, if that's where you are today, don't miss the opportunity. Get into the scriptures, spend time in prayer, get to know your God, because the difficult times will come. Now, I don't need to expand on how to do that.

Do you know why? Because if you were here last week and you listened to Stephen, he talked about the life of Asa and he explained to us how in the first part of Asa's life, he built the fortified cities in the time of peace so that when the war came, everything went well. And he also warned us that in the last part of Asa's life, well, he went through another period of peace and he neglected to prepare. And when the difficult time at the end came, he failed.

He messed up big stuff. So if you want a bit more depth on this part, rather than me taking too much time of my time today, just go back and listen to Stephen's message from last week and you'll get all of that. And that saves me another 10 minutes from my message so I can skip on.

It's brilliant, this system of the series of the refuge, because we can bounce off. And I didn't know that Stephen was going to give me this gift of saving me 10 minutes of my message to allow me to talk about other things. So thank you, Stephen, if you're listening.

Now, number two, let's imagine the period of calm has passed and you now find yourself in a difficult place and you're feeling the hardship. This hardship can come from all quarters, can't it? It could come from other believers who have different opinions and there's friction. It can come from our families.

It could come from those we work with. It could come from the outside world. It could come from our health.

It doesn't matter. Hard times come. That's just how life works.

And if we're in the period of hardship, what is the first thing that James says? Pray. You must pray. It's not an option.

It's not, well, if you feel like it. No, you must pray. That's the overarching thing in the times of hardship.

Get on your knees before God. But he says, well, you know, it might be that despite the hardship, you're still feeling pretty good and you must praise in that case. And God gave us the gift of music as a wonderful gift for us so that we could have psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that can remind us and encourage us.

Just a little short word on these singing. I wasn't going to just go there straight away, but let me just, because sometimes when you're thinking that the flow of thoughts come differently. Let's just turn to that verse I quoted, Ephesians chapter five, verse 19.

It says this, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody. Now that bit there where it says making melody, that is the same word as the singing word in James chapter five. To twang on the harp and sing to the harp, making melody in your heart to the Lord.

So there's psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and then singing and making this melody. Look at Romans chapter 15, verse five. Now this is important.

Now the God of patient endurance, the God of patience. That's the theme James is talking about. Staying steadfast, not giving up.

The God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another in Christ Jesus, that you may be with me with one mind and one mouth. Glorify God, even the father of the Lord Jesus, and that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy as it is written. For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name.

The same word, the same word as in James chapter five, singing. So from that we can see that the singing is scriptural. I don't mean it's scriptural to sing.

It is, it is scriptural to sing and don't stop singing. What I mean is the singing you do should be scriptural, as in what you sing should be aligned with what scripture teaches. Because singing is a way for us to teach one another and to remind ourselves of godly truths.

In the time of the New Testament most of them couldn't read. They certainly didn't have the New Testament in their hands and they were taught songs as a way of remembering doctrinal truths which were important and vital to have in their hearts. So when they were scattered across the world and they didn't have the fellowship and they were on their own and those songs were going through their heads, they were reminded the truths of the wonder of our creator, of the wonder of our God, of his mercy, of his grace.

And so if we're still in good cheer, do what Paul and Silas did in the prison. Yeah they were suffering, they were afflicted but they were of good cheer and what did they do? They sung praises to God until midnight and all of the prisoners heard them. What an example.

So I don't need to go on any further because I also had our brother, I think it was, I have his name here, Peter, is it? Yeah Peter Ramsey who spoke about when the singer loses his song. So he's kind of covered singing. So I'm not going to get sidetracked too much on singing because he's done that and then the prayer bit, well Blair Martin, he covered that as well didn't he? Because he asked us what prayer told us about our lives.

So I can go easy on those but the point is no matter if we're in difficulty we must pray. If we're still in good cheer we must sing. And then we come to this last part.

What if despite all of that you've got to the point of just, well, giving up. You see I can think of times when, if I go back, I said I was going to confess and I forgot to do my confession on the last bit. I can think of times where difficult times came and despite the fact the difficult times were there I spent so much effort in my brain racking my head for ways to get through this difficulty, to solve the problem, to resolve it with my own wisdom.

Invariably things just got worse until eventually I was driven to my knees and then I realized that what God was trying to teach me was not how to be super smart and solve all my problems. What he was trying to teach me was I need to speak to him and I need to learn to praise him and to give him the place he deserves in my life and then he can help us make sense of the difficulty of the problem and then he can establish our hearts for us. But you know sometimes things go so far that we lose our song.

Peter mentioned that when the singer loses his song. Sometimes we get to the point even where we're so weak that even praying is a challenge. We just find ourselves so empty, so drained that even the simple act of speaking to our father in prayer is just almost too much.

You know some believers may criticize others for even admitting that they get to that level but it can happen. It does happen. It happens more often than we want to admit and James doesn't shy away from it.

James says well if you're still in the camp get yourself established. If the difficulties have come get praying and if you're still happy make sure you keep singing and praising. But if you've got to the point where things are just so bad that you can't, get help.

Get someone spiritual that you can trust in the assembly to come and pray with you because the last thing you can afford to do is just to say well throw in the tile. That's a disaster waiting to happen. You're not able to pray yourself.

You're not able to sing. You need someone else spiritual to come and sit with you and help you. You know that's not a failure in the Christian life to get to that point.

That's what happens to many of us and it's scriptural to know what to do if that happens because the very act of doing that is obedience. Once we've understood the context of this passage it's obedience. How do we show God we trust him? We do what he says.

You see God has told us that if we're in that position we must call for an elder and maturely come and pray with me. The very act of doing so demonstrates to God that we take him at his word. That although we are struggling ourselves, well if that's what you've asked me to do that's exactly what I'm going to do.

That is faith. Remember those of you who've studied the book of James will know that James majors on the fact that faith without works is dead. You know you can go on about how amazing your faith and how your faith is so important in your life.

I have people who work with me and they keep telling me oh my faith is so important to me because they know that I'm a believer and so they want to impress me about how important their faith is in their life. I'm really sorry but you take one look at their life and you see your faith isn't important at the slightest. In fact it doesn't exist but you see real faith does something and so this demonstrates that this is not someone who professed to be a believer but when the tribulation and trial came and the scorching heat of the sun as James talks about in chapter one, the flower just burning up and the grass burning.

No that's not the kind of person we have here. This is a real believer. A real believer who has got to the point of weakness.

They just can't do it themselves but they still trust God. They still have a real God and so they just obey and they call for help and they ask someone to come. Don't be ashamed to do it.

It's not something I've seen happen very often. I don't know how many of you have done this. I've done it once.

Once in my life. I still remember. I had got to the point of utter weakness.

Only myself and the elder that I called for knew it happened. No one else was aware but he came and he prayed with me and the Lord did restore me back to being able to serve him again because that's the purpose. The purpose is not to get your life back on a nice happy jolly sail down the road life.

No no no no. The purpose is to restore us back to activity to serve the Lord as he asks us to do. But we have to be willing to obey.

Now time is short but I'd really love just for one or two minutes to read you some extracts from Psalm 103 because you see James had obviously read bits of the Old Testament if not all of it. I don't know how much of it he read. He was only saved shortly after the Lord Jesus was was taken back to heaven and James the book was one of the first books in the New Testament so he wasn't really a believer for 40 years when he wrote this book.

He was still only maybe 10 years saved. I don't know something like that but he obviously had read chunks of the Old Testament and I'm pretty sure he must have read Psalm 103. Psalm 103 says bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction.

Verse 5 who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. Restoration of those who are feeling weak. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

Those who are struggling those who are suffering they need that endurance. Verse 14 verse 13 like us a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him for he knoweth our frame he remembereth that we are dust. We have a God who understands that we're just dust.

He understands that we mess up at times. What he wants is for us to show that we trust him and put our faith in him and ask and in Psalm he goes on to say ask for man his days are as grass as the flower of the field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more. That's James chapter 1. The grass and the flower of the grass all gone shortness of life.

Verse 21 bless ye the Lord all ye his hosts ye ministers of his that do his pleasure pleasure bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion bless the Lord oh my soul. It's a lovely psalm worth reading again. So James is encouraging those who are struggling how to handle it call for help.

Just just a moment. I focus mostly on us as individual believers times that are good times that are tough. That was the title of my talk.

How to handle the different scenarios in those. Just an aside some of you listening to me will be overseers in your local assembly. Some of you listening to me have a responsibility for shepherding the people of God.

Some of you as mature believers may if people have understood this passage and actually put it into practice and obey may one day find that you're called to do this. Can I just encourage you. Number one you must do it.

Don't go saying to these people well you know what I'm not really sure that it's a great idea. Moses told God it wasn't a great idea for him to go and lead the people didn't he. God wasn't very happy with that.

He gave him an earnest mouthpiece but it wasn't the right answer. But so often we are reluctant. The imperative command to call for the overseers is in the same tone as the imperative command for the overseers to go and pray.

You have a responsibility to do this. It's not an option. And can I just say that there is another verse that applies to this very clearly.

Galatians chapter 6 verse 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest I also be tempted. You know there's no point in going and being the great guy who has all the answers and well I can tell you from scripture what you must do and this and this and because everything's great with me. That won't help.

Brethren if you're called to do this go with a spirit of meekness and humility. Go with a spirit of understanding that you could just as easily find yourself one day in the same position. You could just as easily one day find yourself so weak that you can hardly pray.

It happens to overseers as much as it happens to anyone else. I remember as a young man an overseer who had all of the answers. No matter what question you asked him from scripture he could have told you the answer.

But I would never have called him in a situation like this. Never because I would have been terrified. So don't be like that brethren.

If this is the role you have shepherd the people of God. Don't beat them up with rods. Shepherd them.

Tend them. Your job is to look after the lost and straying sheep. It's not to beat the old sheep into submission is it? The old sheep are only for mutton anyway.

Some people say but that's not how it works in the assembly. You know I like a bit of lamb but that's not how it works in the assembly. The overseers are not there to eat the mutton and the sheep.

The overseers are there as sheep among the flock to lead the others. So just take that into account. Now time is very short now.

I only really have a few minutes left. Some of you might be saying where does he get this interpretation of the passage from? Let me just very very quickly pull out some of the words that I've interpreted for you just so you can understand where they come from. The first word we had was endurance.

That word endurance pops up in multiple places in the scripture and I want to just this this bit maybe is a bit technical I don't know but it's very practical at the same time. So get your pen and paper if you need to. You can look at these again at the end.

But I'm going to run through some verses where these appear in other places and just pull them out so you can understand what they mean. Romans chapter 12 verse 12 it says rejoicing in hope patient that's a word for perseverance patient and tribulation continuing instant in prayer that means persevering without fainting. So Romans 12 the patience that endures till the end persevering without fainting in prayer.

That's the two things stuck together. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3 consider him Christ that endured that's that verse patient endurance that we saw at the beginning such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind or soul. So again the endurance perseverance of Christ tied to make sure you don't give up don't give up.

And a slightly modified version of the same word in one of the letters and this to the seven churches in Revelation. Revelation 2 verse 3 and has born and has patience that same word patient endurance for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. You haven't given up you haven't thrown in the tile.

You see the connection patient endurance not fainting. James talks about patient endurance and he talks about the sick that will be healed and I interpreted that word sick as not giving up and I'll show you why in a little minute very quickly. Don't worry we're nearly there.

Then we come on to this word sick and James uses the word sick twice. At the beginning he talks about the sick in verse 14 and this word sick yeah it is used for all kinds of weakness in scripture. It's used for the people who are weak because of physical sickness those who were lame those who were infirm those who had issues of blood all these kinds of illnesses but it's used for all the other kinds of weakness as well whether mental or spiritual or physical doesn't matter the word simply just means weak it doesn't actually mean sick it means weak and all kinds of weakness are included but let me just pull out one or two so you can understand it doesn't just mean sickness.

Romans 5 verse 6 for when we were yet without strength that's the word in due time Christ died for the ungodly that's not physical illness that's spiritual weakness of well so weak that you're actually dead you're incapable of doing anything for yourself but in that time Christ died for the ungodly praise him that he did it for us. Second Corinthians 13 verse 4 again speaking of Christ for though he was crucified through weakness that's not sickness he wasn't sick yet he liveth by the of God for we also are weak same word in him but we shall live with him by the power of God. So you can see the word doesn't have to mean physical illness but it can that weakness could come through physical illness it could come through mental illness it could come through spiritual illness it really doesn't matter the point is at the end of it you're weak so James is saying if you're in good times get your heart established if you're in tough times pray and praise if you can and if you've got to the point you're so weak mentally physically spiritually it doesn't matter that you can't do those things call for help you understand the context this is where it's coming from but then of course he comes on to the word sick at the end and he mentions it again that the the prayer of faith shall save the sick and he uses a different word a different word here that's also translated sick in the authorised version and again I'm not totally sure why because it's only used two other times in the new testament and then the two other times it's used it has nothing to do with sickness whatsoever let me read them to you we've already read them just a minute ago but I'm going to read them to you again and see if you can spot where they are Hebrews 12 verse 3 or consider him that endured we mentioned that word patiently endured such contradiction of sinners against himself less gb we read and faint in your minds that's the same word that was translated sick the prayer of faith shall save the sick the one who is wearied fainting in their minds giving up revelation 2 verse 3 and there has borne and has patience for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted you didn't give up that's what the lord says to that church in revelation that he commends them because they didn't give up it's it's exactly the same word as the word translated sick the prayer of faith shall save the the one who was about to give up the one who was so weak they were just throwing the towel in who couldn't go on any longer in the christian path you understand why I'm I'm trying to get away from the idea of physical sickness because I've heard people explain the anointing as well that's paracetamol on our day because it was olive oil on their day because we need to heal the sick and we give them medical assistance yeah you know if you're one of the elders that's called to go to these people they need paracetamol or acetaminophen or whatever you call it in North America um give them it of course you do if they need some decent food well give them that as well or whatever it is that they need to you need to help them get up you give them it we can look at that word anointing I mentioned earlier that the word anointing is not the word of consecration anointing that you do for a priest to set them apart it's just the secular everyday word let me read you a verse that has that word in Matthew 6 verse 17 but thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face now other versions translate the word anoint as perfume your head what does that word what does that verse mean in its context the Lord Jesus was saying don't be like the scribes and pharisees they put white dust on their faces and look peely wally as we say in Scotland and you know try to make it look really like they're really really suffering I probably haven't eaten for a month because I'm so holy and make sure everyone sees it no no no he says if it was today I think it would be have your shower make sure you use some decent shampoo put on a splash of aftershave put your tie up and get out and get on with your day don't let anyone see that you're you're suffering from hunger that's between you and the Lord your fasting is a spiritual exercise before the Lord it's not there for you to to draw attention to your physical suffering and that's the word for anointing it's also the word that was used when Mary anointed the feet of the Lord with perfume she perfumed his feet with that precious perfume that she had saved so the idea is what you would do to just get up and get on and do your daily life now this is a person who's fainting to the point of giving up and the elders coming and praying with them and they're doing whatever is needed to get them back up and ready to get out the door and back into the company of God's people and back into service and working again and if we understand it that way we can see that James is giving us very practical instruction for what to do when things get too much not as an advice not as a nice suggestion from an older believer as a command this is what you must do so I'm going to close now because my time is done let me just wrap it up let me try and apply it to you and to me and there's so much more we could say so many other words in the passage that are fascinating and good to explore and I get distracted because when I start digging into these words I find that because I don't know Greek and Hebrew like I said and you use the Strong's Word on the computer with the online bible it's a great tool and you suddenly discover that they're hidden all over the place and translated differently in the authorizing you know the scriptures are a goldmine and you can lose yourself for hours on tangents when you're doing a study it's maybe dangerous but it's also fascinating we could explore so many other things and if some of you disagree with my interpretation don't don't hesitate to message me and we can certainly discuss and look at what the scriptures really mean for the benefit of both of us but let me wrap it up and try and apply it to you and to me no matter who you are or what circumstance you're in there is an imperative command in this passage for you and I say that again an imperative command if you're a believer what the lord tells you to do isn't a nice optional extra it's an imperative command are things going well establish your heart now before it's too late because the tough times will come and you need that foundation if the tough times are here pray and that prayer of faith I didn't dig into it because we don't have time but it was mentioned in previous sessions but just remember James does say asking to consume it on your own lust or for your own pleasure that's not going to be answered remember that the purpose of the prayer is not so that I can have a really nice life again because it's not nice today that's not what we're asking for I personally find that tough I find it tough to get into the presence of the lord in the difficult times and not say please could you just make that problem go away and I'd really like things to be nice again but to say not my will but thy will be done that's tough but that's the prayer that will be answered because then god gives us strength then we're in a position of accepting god's will and so if you're in the tough times pray and if you can still pray and praise praise the lord do what you can sing praises to him and if you've got to the point that you can't get help don't just throw in the towel pull the doobie over your head or the blanket or whatever you use in your part of the world don't do that call for help get someone to come that you can trust spiritually and if you're called to go go but when you do do it in a spirit of meekness and humility and certainly don't beat the person over the head about their weakness and take them the help that they need practically and take them the help they need spiritually and help that believer back on their feet so that they can become an active servant for the lord it doesn't matter what circumstance you're in what role you have in life there's something in this passage for you and there's something in this passage for me and i really believe that if we were to actively put this into practice in our assemblies today in 2020 it could transform how we honor our god and in this period of lockdown this period where we need that refuge for our souls i really hope and pray that this message has somehow touched your heart and given you something to think of it let's just pray at the ourselves to go our heavenly father we want to return our thanks for the the wisdom that we can have in thy word for the the wonder of having the scriptures which can answer to the very real and practical experiences that we have in our lives father we thank thee for thy love thy care for thy compassion for an understanding god who knows how weak we are and yet who provides the resources and so our father we pray for thy help for thy people those who are struggling would be encouraged and lifted up that each of us would be helped to use the opportunities we have to establish our hearts and to to know thee better we think of how that wonderful encouragement of james reminds us that the coming of the lord is drawing nigh and we thank their father that the lord jesus is coming sooner that the temporary affliction of this life is not the forever it's just for now father we pray for them for thy help my people my blessing that if there's been padding in this message that would be forgotten and at the very least that thy voice would have been heard and that my people would be built up and so we leave it with thee and ask for thy blessing