Before Anything Else | Dan Watson

My little girl, two years old, she's learning how to swim, my youngest. And she goes underwater and I see her come back up for air. She's realizing, oh man, I need air. I can't function without air. She's trying to copy her brothers and her sisters who can go underwater for a longer period of time and she can't do that. She's like, oh my goodness, I forgot how much I need this. Man, this is the same with us and prayer. Prayer is breath to the soul. It's so good to be here at Embrace Church. Listen, I want to let you know, man, this weather, what is happening? This is beautiful. This is beautiful. My flight has been canceled today, so I got the honor of preaching for the next three hours. And so hopefully you buckle in and it's going to be great. I'm just kidding. We're only here for a few minutes. But man, what an honor to be able to preach here. I've got to be able to say that you made it out of your homes and came to church in a blizzard. If Jesus returns today, you are going back first class. You know that? You are going back first class. To everybody who stayed at home and watching online, your main cabin. That's all I'm saying. What an amazing, amazing day. An amazing day to be in church and to get around God's word. I love that you have been in the book of James, just exploring the five chapters of James.

So far, we've done the first four and we're in the fifth chapter. And really, if it comes down to it, I love to summarize the whole book of James by James chapter one, verse 22. It says this. Don't merely listen to the word and deceive yourselves. Do what it says. So don't just be a hearer of the word, because if you're just a hearer of the word and it stays up here, you are deceiving yourself, the scripture tells us. James tells us, do what it says. Live it out. Let your life not just be understanding the word, but living it out. And James just talks about faith and has given us warnings and encouragement across these scriptures. In chapter one, we look at how faith endures and it obeys. In chapter two, we look at faith works and loves impartially. Chapter three, we look at faith controls the tongue and seeks wisdom. In chapter four, we look how faith humbles itself and resists the world. Now we're in chapter five today. And all those chapters, it's kind of broken up into two sections. I want to take us to a second section of chapter five, which is found in verses 13 and 16. It says this in the scripture. It says, is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 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. 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. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. You know, prayer, as James is talking about, is often one of the most talked about practices in the Christian life. Like, people talk about it all the time. Yet, for many believers, it remains one of the least understood and least activated practices in the Christian life. Many people pray just before they have a meal and we go, okay, we're good. That's the day done. People often ask and wonder the questions like, well, does prayer, does it really change anything in my life? Why does some prayers get answered and some prayers don't? What does prayer actually mean when James says pray in faith? And James is right in this and treating prayer not as a theory. He treats it as a normal lifestyle, a normal rhythm of your life. For who? For the believer, for those who believe in Christ. And at the end of his letter, after speaking about suffering, perseverance, faith, and obedience, and even community, he brings everything down to this. People who belong to Jesus pray. People who follow Jesus pray. And James shows us that the prayer is not reserved for the spiritually elite. It's not reserved for one person. to recite something and that's it. Prayer is for the whole church and for every moment of our life. He asked the question in James chapter five, verse 13, he says,

is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. You know, as I was looking out the window and seeing the snow on the ground, it took me back to when I used to snowboard. I was a mean snowboarder, I wanna tell you that. I was pretty good, I was pretty awesome. I haven't done it for many years, so I don't hold that title anymore. But back in the day, I felt like I was okay. And me and my friends, we would go snowboarding from maybe when I was like 19 years old up. And with one trip, this older guy came with us, his name was Dr. Robbie, very smart man, and he was a professional skier and snowboarder. He was so good that he trained some of the royal family on how to ski. And so I could get down the mountain, I was pretty good at getting down the mountain, but every time the day had finished, my body was in agony. And I could see some people around me, their bodies were not in agony. And Dr. Robbie was just having a great time. So I said, hey, Dr. Robbie, can you watch me as I go down this mountain and give me some feedback, please? And so he skis down just a little bit and stops.

He says, all right, Dan, come on down. And so I start skiing, snowboarding down this mountain. And after about 15 seconds of snowboarding, he's like, all right, stop. I said, am I that bad? Is it that bad? He said, no, I can see exactly what you are doing or what you're not doing. He said, Dan, the reason that your body is aching as you finish today is because you're using parts of your body that you do not need to use when you're down the mountain. You're doing all of this and you're making it down, but not in the way that you should. He said, what you simply need to do as you snowboard down the mountain is with your eyes, look in the direction in which you wanna go. And guess what? Your whole body will follow that direction. And so I tried it. I tried it. I got on my board and I just looked. And as I looked, my body began to flow down the mountain. I got down the mountain and at the end of the day, man, I was feeling good. You see, I realized this. Where you look will determine where you end up and how you end up there. James is writing in this scripture and talking about, hey, listen,

we need to look in the right direction, regardless of where you find yourself in life. He's talking of this whole spectrum. Man, are you in trouble? Pray. Is life awesome right now? Pray. Is there joy? Pray. Is there pain? Pray. Is there celebration? Pray. Is there mourning? Pray. That the Christian response, regardless of where you find yourself on the spectrum, should head in the same direction, and that is towards God. The prayer is not a response to crisis. Friends, prayer is our lifestyle. Prayer is what we do as the Christian believer in Jesus. And this passage centers of what James calls the prayer offered in faith. Verse 15 tells us, it says, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, and the Lord will raise them up. And so as I read this, I'm asking the question, well, what is the prayer of faith?

What does it look like? How do we as individuals function in a life of faith? And how do we as a community function in a life of faith? And James shows us three truths in these few verses about the prayer of faith. And if you're taking notes, then just write this down. The prayer of faith turns to God in every situation. Just wanna let you know, if you take notes in church, you're 99% more likely to get to heaven. So you got the snow, making it to church in the blizzard, and taking notes. Man, this is a good day for some of you, I tell you. Man, I don't know if you've ever done this. I'm at that age now where I need a midnight bathroom break. Anybody else like that? No, just me? Okay, yeah, brother, thank you. I thought I was by myself. I just, I need that midnight bathroom break. I fall asleep, I wake up, I need to go to the bathroom. And so I wake up, and it's dark, and I stumble across my bedroom to try and get to the bathroom. the bathroom, and man, I got four kids, so there's stuff all over the place, right? And sometimes I may like stand on one of the kids' Lego pieces, or I may hit my foot against the bed. And let me tell you, as soon as my little toe hits the edge of the bed and gets stubbed, there is a noise that comes out of me. There's, sometimes there's words that come out of me,

and I don't think about these words, I don't strategize about what these words will be, it's just an instinct that when something hits me, ah, you know, or a word comes out, oh, Jesus, I love you, you know, like, something like that, and it's just, it's an instinct. And the truth is this, what is in us comes out. Like, when life hits, what's in us is gonna come out. Sometimes you don't think about it, you don't strategize about it, what's in you comes out. And James, James is saying and assuming that what is in the believer is the first thing to, is to pray, he says, is anyone in trouble? Let them pray, is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. The first instinct for the believer is to pray that what's in us should come out. But what we understand and know that in our society and in our lives, often the first thing in us is not to pray, what is it? When life hits the fan, it's to worry, it's to stress, it's to complain, it's to strategize, it's to control and try and fix stuff, especially for us men, man. But James says, the believer, we're not to be of the world, we're meant to be different. And the first instinct for us is to pray, is to turn towards God, that trouble in life should turn us towards God, not away from Him. So he says, in Matthew, he says,

if anyone is weary and heavy burdened, come to me and I'll give you, I'll give you what? I'll give you rest. Turn to me, don't turn to the things of the world or the ways of the world, don't turn to how society fixes issues. No, James is saying, hey, turn to Jesus because you're only gonna find true rest and true life in Jesus. And at the same time, James also says that when life is good and it's amazing, turn to Jesus, turn to the Lord as well. He says, sing songs of praise. And songs of praise is literally just prayer with melody. It's not prayer with pitch-perfect tone because otherwise I would not be praying because I ain't got pitch-perfect tone like the ladies up here. But praise is prayer with melody and so often, man, we can be on the mountaintop of life and when everything's going great, we forget to praise. We forget to rejoice. Why? Because we think we've got things under control. We think that we've made it. We think that we're God good so we don't need God. And so in other words, what he's saying is whether life is heavy or life is joyful, the believer's orientation should be towards the face of the Lord.

And prayer reminds us that you and I, we are not self-sufficient. We're not people who can manage our own lives and do it in our own strength. The prayer is an act of dependency on God. It's saying, I need you, God. It's saying, I need you, God. And more than that, I want you, God. Like, I want you in my life. I want you to move. I want you leading me. I want you making the way. I want you, God. John Tyson says it this way. God comes where he's wanted. I wanna be a person that lives a life that demonstrates that I need and I want God. And so my life's orientation should be toward God in the good times and in the tough times. That I'm gonna cease praying. And when Paul writes that, to never cease praying, what he's saying is, you don't have to pray 24 seven. Every word that you say is a prayer to the Lord. But what he's saying is like, in that time, it was like a medicine. Like, to never cease was like a medicine. So if you had a cough, when you cough and you say, I've been coughing all day, you haven't literally been coughing from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. There have been spouts of coughing.

intensity of coughing and moments where it's just been, and then you've had a period of break, and that's what he said. He says, let our lives be a life that is like a consistent cough, like we're just in prayer and praying, and there's moments of intensity, and it's not just a two-minute thing in the beginning of our day, but it's a constant communication with the Lord. Man, Luke chapter 5, 16 says this. It says that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places, and Jesus prayed. And so, friends, if the Son of God lived in constant dependence and communication and need of the Father, how much more do you and I need to do that? How much more should you and I wanna be in communication and need and want of the Father? I think of prayer as like breathing for your soul. It's like the breath to your soul. Like, you need it. You don't only breathe when you're thinking about it. You don't breathe when you just go, oh, yes, I forgot to breathe. I need air. No, it's what you do. It's the way that you live. You need it to function. My little girl, two years old,

she's learning how to swim, my youngest, and she goes underwater, and I see her go, come back up for air. She's realizing, oh, man, I need air. I can't function without air. She's trying to copy her brothers and her sisters who can go under the water for a longer period of time, and she can't do that. She's like, oh, my goodness. I forgot how much I need this. And this is the same with us in prayer. Prayer is breath to the soul. You need it. You need to be communion with the Lord. Prayer is the same. Friends, it's not an emergency button when things are going bad. It should be the rhythm of your spiritual life to be in communion with the Father. And so prayer of faith begins with a simple decision to turn towards God first. Are you in trouble? Turn towards God. Is life awesome? Turn towards God. When the pressure rises, turn towards God. When the decisions come, turn towards God. When joy is overflowing, turn towards God. When pain hits your life, turn towards God.

The prayer should be the instinct of the believer. The second thing is this, is the prayer of faith invites the community of faith. The prayer of faith invites the community of faith. So James moves from personal prayer to corporate prayer. Grab it. In verse 14, it says this, 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. Notice the direction of the action. The sick person calls upon the elders to pray. Friends, that is an act of humility and faith. So often we're like, no, I'm good. When we find ourselves in times of trouble, I'm good. I'll figure this out. But the person acknowledges when they call upon someone, they're acknowledging two things. Number one is I need help. I need help. And number two is this, God works through his people. God works through his people. You see it throughout the whole scripture. God is working through people. But we live in a society that thinks isolation is strength and that individualism is the goal. I can do this by myself. I can make it by myself. 2020, we've seen a lot of that. People just go, well, I can do it by myself.

I don't need the community. I'll make it by myself. We've moved from a we society to a me society and a mine society. But the Christian faith is never meant to be lived in isolation. From the very beginning of time, of Adam, God said it is not good for man to be alone. And James, as he's writing this, is assuming and encouraging us that the church should be a praying community. Not just a praying individual, but a praying body that comes around one another, that you can be in a crowd, but never be known. And as Christians, we're not meant to be in a crowd. We're meant to be in a community. And he says, okay, so the elders pray and anoint with oil in the name of the Lord. So oil in the scripture, presents two ideas, two themes. Number one is first, care and healing. In the ancient world, oil was often used as a medicine. And it's secondly, is symbolic dedication. So dedication to God, pointing out the work of the Holy Spirit at work in that moment. And so as James is saying this, friends, the emphasis is not in the oil itself, the emphasis is in the name. Says what, pray in the name of the Lord. The power is not in the ritual.

The power is in the name of the Lord. Man, in Fayetteville, Atlanta, where we live, has had some crazy storms the last few months. There's been some storms, and we're not used to all these storms as Brits, you know, the weather is just rain. Just gray and rainy most of the time. Sun comes out for two weeks a year. It's awesome, two weeks. But it's rain a lot, so we're not used to these storms. But these storms were happening in Fayetteville, and they were like, man, get in the basement if you can get in the basement. And me and the kids are like, no way, we wanna watch the storm. And so we got some trees in our yard, and there's this one tree, big tree, that's by itself, and then there's these other big trees that are in a cluster of trees. I don't know what you call a cluster of trees, but I'm calling it a cluster of trees. There was some trees there. And after the storm, I wake up, and I see that this one big tree had fallen down. But these other trees, there was like a couple of branches, maybe knocked off and fallen down, but every other tree stood the test of the storm. And I went to church the next day and talking to some friends,

and some of my friends are like geeky yard people, and they love it. And I was talking about the trees. If you're a yard person, you're not a geek. But I was talking about the trees. I said, man, this one tree came down, then all these other trees, they were fine. And he said, you know what that was? I said, no, like tell me. He said, well, he said, this cluster of trees, what's happened is, is as they've grown, their roots have got entangled with one another, and their roots are strengthening each other. And so when the storm came, even though maybe one of them was weak, the other person's roots was holding them up. But this tree that was by itself, even though it was as strong as the trees in the community, because it was by itself, it had no one else to hold it up. And so therefore, the tree came down. Man, this is the same for you and I in community, that we're meant to be in community with one another, that your roots can come alongside someone else's roots and hold someone else up. That when you're in isolation, he's going, I'm doing it by myself, with myself, you're more likely to crash and burn and fall down. But when you're in community, there is a body of people that can come alongside you and pray in faith. The prayer of faith, friends, refuses isolation.

And we live in a society that celebrates isolation and individualism. But the prayer of faith in Christianity is going, it's the body of Christ. And we function as a body. And so when suffering comes, the enemy wants to whisper something to you. The enemy wants to say, handle it alone, hide your struggle, don't burden anybody else. But James says the opposite. Call on the church, invite in the power of prayer and community, and let the people of God stand with you in a moment where you're in trouble and in moments where you're rejoicing. This is meant to be community. The third and last thing as I leave you is this, the prayer of faith aligns the heart with God. James says something powerful, in these last few verses. Verse 15, it says, 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. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective. So friends, James is not describing prayer as magic words that force the hand of God

and have to manipulate the Father. The prayer of faith is prayer that is powerful. The prayer of faith is prayer that is powerful. that is aligned with God's heart, with God's will, and with God's righteousness. The prayer of faith is prayer that is powerful. Notice how James in these verse just connects all of these different things. He connects healing, and forgiveness, and confession, and righteousness. So prayer is not only asking God to change external circumstances, it's about allowing God to change us internally as well. Because sometimes, friends, our greatest need is not physical healing, but spiritual restoration. And in our world today, man, we need so much spiritual restoration. And James, man, he introduces this conversation of confession, of confession. Why? Because hidden sin often isolates us from God. What did Adam and Eve do? As soon as they sinned against God, they hid. They were naked and ashamed. And the hidden sin in our life will cause us to hide. Things that we don't want anyone else to know will cause us to hide and stay in nakedness and shame. But James is trying to encourage you. He's trying to encourage me, and encourage the church. Confess to one another.

Confess your sins to one another. It's not saying stand on a platform and shout out your struggles. But no, within the community, you've got a brother, you've got a sister that you can confess to one another. And this is what I'm struggling with. I don't wanna struggle with this anymore. And this is what's got me caught up, and I don't wanna be caught up in this anymore. It's freedom that comes when we confess to one another. You know, John Piper puts it like this. He says, to be caught in secret sin is a horrible thing. There's only one thing worse, not to be caught. To be caught in secret sin is a horrible thing for a moment, like feeling like that shame or feeling that it's all been exposed and it's come out. But now you can walk in freedom, and you can walk in the light. But the worst thing is to never be caught, and to stay in darkness, and to stay in bondage, and to stay in chains for the rest of your days. And we serve a God who came to free you, to give you life and life to the full. And so he says, confess your sin. Psalms 32 verse three says, Friends, confession brings things into the light. And when things come into the light, then the healing takes place. And James gives one of the most encouraging statements

about prayer in the entire New Testament. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective. Notice what he does not say. He doesn't say the prayer of the perfect person. He doesn't say the prayer of just the pastor. He doesn't say the prayer of the person who went to seminary. He says the prayer of the righteous person. The righteous person is simply someone whose life is rightly aligned with God through faith. So how do I become righteous? Because if we know ourselves, we know that we are wretched sinners. The only way we become righteous is because of Christ. That believers stand before God in righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, Romans 3, 22 says this, So it's not just for some elite people. It's not just for some people who have lived a good life. So it's saying it doesn't matter where you've come from, what you've done, what shame you think you can't move on from, what you think you can't get over, what people have said about you, what you have said about yourself, what you have believed about yourself. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, rich, poor, educated or uneducated. It says that for all who believe

can receive the righteousness of Christ through faith. And it's got nothing to do with you. It's got everything to do what Jesus has done. on the cross once and for all. So if you think you're unqualified, we're all unqualified. If you think you've gone too far, we all went too far, but Jesus went ahead of us and made a way where there was no way so that you could have a way and access to the Father, and you could receive the righteousness of God. So that means that when you pray and your faith is in Jesus and you're aligned with God's heart, it says the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. So that your words, they're not empty words as you begin to lift them up as incense to the Lord, the Bible tells us in Revelation. But they're powerful and effective. And James gives us an example of how that can be true. He talks about Elijah. When Elijah prayed for no rain, there was no rain. And when he prayed for rain, there was rain. Because he had faith in God. James is making a crucial point. Just as Elijah was human and flawed, just like we are, he moved powerful. God moved powerful through Elijah's prayers, why? Because Elijah, a human just like you and me, prayed with faith in God's power and alignment with God's purposes.

And the same God who heard Elijah pray, would you stop the rain, would you bring the rain, is the same God that hears you pray, God, protect my family. God, make a way where there was no way. God, help me with this addiction. God, help me break this chain of bondage. God, do this. God, do that. God, do a work inside of me. The same God who heard Elijah is the same God who hears you. So the prayer of faith, friends, is not complicated, but it is powerful. And James in this chapter, man, shows us the prayer of faith is marked by those three realities. The first, turn to God in every single situation, the good, the bad, the ugly, the trouble is gonna lead to prayer, the joy is gonna lead to prayer. The second, invite community into your life to be able to pray. That God designed the church to carry burdens together. The third, it aligns with the heart of God. The prayer brings confession, forgiveness, restoration, and power. And the promise at the center of the passage remains one of the most encouraging statements in Scripture still.

The prayer of the righteous, those who are in Christ Jesus, is powerful and effective. Not because you're powerful or I'm powerful, but because God is powerful. Prayer is not about convincing a reluctant God to act. Prayer is about trusting a faithful God who loves to move when His people call on His name. So today and onwards, let's be people of prayer. In trouble and in good times, let us forever call upon the name of the Lord. Because it's only His power that can move mountains. But it is the prayer of the righteous person that is powerful and effective. Heavenly Father, I thank You for who You are. Lord, I thank You for being with us today. Lord, You know every single person in this place. Lord, again, You know where we're at. You know what we're going through. Lord, You know what prayers are being lifted up to You right now. God, I pray that we would know Your Scripture to be true. That the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Let us call upon the name of the Lord always and forever, knowing that it's only in Your name that things can move. So we love You, we praise You. Be with us today. We love You, we praise You. Be with us now forevermore, in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.