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Thanks, George, and thanks for taking those keys away so I don't walk off with them accidentally, because they're not mine. George said he's going to put the water over here in case he got carried away with the singing and started bouncing, but, uh, I promised him I wouldn't do that in my preaching, so. As George mentioned, we've come to the end of our series in, in the, uh, the book of James. Um, very practical book, um, sometimes called the, the Proverbs of the New Testament. It's a very, uh, um, just a very practical book. If I were to, I was thinking of what is an overall theme of James, because sometimes you think of James as being really chopped up, like the book of Proverbs.
He, there's a subject here, he, and he quickly changes subjects and brings in another one, and in some ways it seems kind of jerky, at least in English. Um, not sure how it sounded in Greek. But if I would think of a theme, it would be this. It's the whole idea of getting our act together so that we can be effective servants of the living God. To be effective servants of the living God. And not just our spiritual act. We're talking about body, soul, and spirit. Body, soul, and spirit. Living a whole integrated life. That's really what the book of James is all about. So what we say we believe spiritually is reflected in how we feel, reflected in how we, our emotional life, our soul, and it's also reflected in how we act, our physical life and our body, so that everything works together.
What I say, I believe, is reflected in how I, in, in, in how I control my emotions and in how I control my, my physical life. The book of James really mirrors the Christian life. The, that serving God, in a sense, is a, is a, is a journey of becoming a whole person, um, a, a, a journey of reflecting the glory of God, of as God originally intended us in the garden. Now I'm not, when I say journey to becoming a whole person, I'm not talking about some kind of new age self-help philosophy mumbo jumbo type of, of, of thing, because James is very Christ-centered.
Uh, verse two, uh, chapter two, verse one says, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus. He was very much concerned for the glory of Christ. James is very Christocentric. But what he's saying is if we claim to be Christians, we claim to be Christians, we claim to be those who are saved unto eternal life by the, the glorious death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we recognize our sinful condition, if we've repented, we've recognized the need for a savior, repented of sin and accepted Christ as that savior, if that's what we say we believe, then that spiritual reality needs to be reflected in our attitudes and in our actions, and especially towards one another, especially towards fellow believers.
James summarizes his exhortations to believers in this, in this last half of chapter five, last chapter, with a, with a call to prayer. So let's open our Bibles to James chapter five. This is not a theological explanation about prayer. James here gives three very practical applications of prayer that should character- characterize our lives as Christians. And so we're going to read in, in chapter five, starting at verse thirteen, and just finish off the, the book of James.
James five, starting verse thirteen: Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save him, or literally will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins. James frames this conclusion by asking three simple questions, which I want to look at this morning. And the first one is this: Is any one of you in trouble, or some translations afflicted or suffering?
He should pray. What do we naturally do? What do you and I naturally do when we're suffering or in trouble? Well, most of us, our default position is to see if we can fix it ourselves. Take matters into our own hands, basically. And if it works, we say, well, handled that one well, did all right there. And immediately, little root of pride starts to come up. If it doesn't work well, what do we do? Well, we usually start to complain. We get bitter, we get angry, and we find someone else to blame.
We blame it on the weather, why our car wouldn't start this morning, or whatever it could be. But James, if you go back to chapter one, James chapter one verse nineteen, he says this, my dear, my dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak, slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. A few weeks ago, Luke pointed out when he was taking us through the first half of chapter four, he said that anger only leads to fights and quarrels.
In other words, anger destroys the life of Christ amongst believers. And to quote, uh, Luke, it's stupid. It destroys the life of Christ amongst believers. James says, go to the Lord. Go to the Lord. That should be our, our default position. It doesn't say pray if you can't handle it yourself. Pray as a first response. Pray as a first response to any kind of trouble or affliction or, or, or suffering. Pray as a first response about everything and anything.
Acknowledge that Christ is indeed our life, even in the small things. Even in the small things. Even in the easy things. So whether it's small or big, whether the issue is small or big, whether it's, it's seemingly easy or it's difficult, as a first response, pray. Go to the Lord. That's what James is saying here. The Apostle Paul said the same thing, uh, to the Ephesians. He said, pray in the Spirit on all occasions. This is the, this is the kind of the end of Paul's, um, uh, instructions about spiritual warfare, about living life in the Spirit.
And he says, pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests, with, with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. All occasions. Not just the things that I'm, that I can't handle myself. Not just when I'm not busy doing other things. Not just when I remember, but pray on all occasions. There is no occasion that's not covered under all. It covers everything. Pray. It doesn't mean we all become monks and nuns and we go off into a cloister somewhere and we spend all day and night on our knees.
That's not what it means. But every aspect of daily living, every aspect of our daily lives merits prayer, merits connection with the life giver. So whether it's ordinary, whether it's routine, whether it's profound, whether it's challenging, whether it's exciting, even whether it's boring. Go to God. Every aspect of our life, we go to the life giver, the life sustainer. Do we believe he's the life giver? Do we believe he's the life sustainer? Our emotions, our actions need to follow. They need to come into line with what it is we say we believe, with our spiritual reality. God wants to be a vital part of every aspect of our life.
Do we believe that? If we do, then we need to practice it. We need to practice it. He wants us to be connected with him through prayer. But he also wants us to be connected with each other through prayer. Always keep on praying for all the saints. That's believers. That's you and I. That's the local church. And I'll say a few more, few more things about that in a few minutes. When we stay connected with the Lord daily, things happen.
Things happen. Isaiah twenty six three says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. We learn to trust God, and we start to experience God's perfect peace. Our minds are stayed on God, s- minds are stayed on Christ, we learn- start learning to trust him, and we find that perfect peace, the peace that passes all understanding. So, the question that immediately comes to mind here is how do we keep our minds stayed on God? How do we s- keep them stayed upon the Lord?
Well, in a word, contentment. Contentment. Keep your finger in, in James and go back a couple of, of chapters to the book of Philippians, chapter four. m Philippians chapter four, starting verse ten. Paul says, I greatly rejoice in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you've had no opportunity to show it.
I'm not saying this because I'm in need, for I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. The secret is to be content, no matter what. No matter what your circumstance in life, the secret is to be content. It's not, we're not talking about some kind of a stoic resignation. Oh well, I can't do anything about it anyway, so I might as well just be content.
That's not contentment. That's grumbling. That's stoicism. That's Greek philosophy. That's not what we're talking about here. Rather, a peaceful confidence in the sovereignty of God. We trust that God is in control. We had a great time around the Lord's table this morning, over around that gr- that same, the very theme that God is in control. God was in control of his own death on the cross. God is in control. If he can control the salvation of you and I, he can control our daily circumstances. And that's what the Bible teaches. Be content. As George Bodie pointed out two weeks ago, and it when he took us through the end of chapter four, the God who created and oversees this vast universe that we have only probably even found the just the the smallest part of.
I went and looked up the Great Wall on Google or in the, on Google, uh, after that, and uh, when George was describing the Great Wall of stars that they've discovered, and then I, and then the other wall, even bigger wall, the Sloan Great Wall that's out there, and it just defies imagination. He was right with all those descriptions he was giving us. That God who put all that together, oversees all that, is in control. He's in control. And he's in control of the details of our daily life. So in Philippians, Paul takes his theological understanding that God is in control, the spiritual reality, and he's learned to bring his emotions into line with that.
Okay, this is spiritual reality, emotions get in line with this. Be content. Be content. And then he says, okay, I've got my emotions, we're going to be content. He's made that act of the will. Body, get in line with this. Body wants to do something, body's hungry, body needs, wants shelter. Be content. Get in line with this, with spiritual reality. The integration of body, soul, and spirit. Elsewhere, Paul talks about beating the body into subjection. That's what it means, bringing it into line with spiritual reality. Don't let the body control your life.
Spiritual reality should control our lives. That should control our emotional life, our souls. That should control our bodies. Bring it into line with reality. Paul understood that if God was going to bring trials into his life, then God had a purpose, and he was content with that purpose, even if he didn't understand it at the time. James explained this, if we go back to James chapter one, the purpose for which trials come into our lives. James chapter one, starting at verse 2. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Trials produce perseverance. In chapter five, um, earlier in the first half of chapter five, James gives the example of the prophets, and especially of Job, who persevered and were blessed because of their perseverance. And perseverance produces maturity. And if you jump down to verse twelve of chapter one, James says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. Maturity leads to the crown of life.
Trials, perseverance, maturity, crown of life. That's the purpose. Contentment has a far greater view in mind than our present day convenience. I'll say that again. Contentment has a far greater view in mind than our present day convenience. Okay, having said that, we mustn't get the idea that prayer is just something we do in a ti- in time of trouble. Paul learned to be content, as we read, not just in the hard times, but in the good times as well.
Not just when he was in want, but when he had plenty. He was in content. He was, he was content. In other words, what he did was his mind was stayed on the Lord no matter what. He was in connection with the living God, with the Lord at all times. Christ was his life no matter what, whether it was good or bad, Christ was his life. And so with that in mind, James poses a second question. Is anyone happy or cheerful or merry? Let him sing songs of praise. If anyone's happy, let him sing songs of praise.
God doesn't want to be just the Lord of the desperate times. He wants to be Lord of the joys as well. He wants to be lord of the good times. Christian life is a lot more than just doom and gloom. It's a happy, joyous life. It's a victorious life. It should be. It should be a life that is full of music. And I say that figuratively as well as literally. Music is a uniquely human activity. Now, I wrote that, I thought, well, what about the birds? I enjoy listening to the birds in the, in the springtime. Well, except for the crows and the magpies. They sing beautifully.
I don't think they enjoy it. They sing for communication. They sing for purpose, for attracting a mate. We enjoy music. We compose music. It's a uniquely human activity. And since we're made in the image of God, I don't think it's a far stretch to say, I think that's quite safe to say, that God is a God of music, and that's reflected in the Bible, the book of God. We look at music. Job thirty eight seven, at the creation, and God is basically cha- chiding Job and saying, were you there? And he says, I laid the earth's foundation, marked off its dimensions, stretched a measuring line across it, laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy.
There was music at the creation. When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and, and God parted the sea and the whole nation crossed over and closed it over the armies of Pharaoh. Miriam broke out into a song of praise to the Lord. The Book of Psalms is a hymnal of Israel. hundred and odd songs. It's the hymnal of Israel. First two chapters of Luke record at least four songs of praise in connection with the birth of the Messiah. Again, Paul told the Ephesians this. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the contrast here between the shallow and, and the, the worldly artificial joy of drunkenness. I put joy in quotation marks there. I used to think it was fun. The contrast between that and the real joy of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The real joy. What a contrast. Again, in Colossians, Paul says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God, and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Note the very real connection in these two passages between music and gratitude and fellowship and living for the Lord. This is a joyous faith, a joyous life we are called to. When Diane and I were saved at, um, a number of years ago, I just remember being overwhelmed with the excitement of this new, new life in Christ, and, and kind of the freedom from the old life that we had, and, and not the least of which was this whole world of Christian music that we got introduced to. And, and even the old Christian music, the old hymns, had a whole new meaning and excitement about them all.
All this stuff directed at the worship of God, probably the first time in my life I was really worshiping God, and, and music, this, this whole Christian music idea was, was just an integral part of that. I remember one day we were, um, at we, we'd been to the, to the morning meetings and, and, uh, um, we'd gone after we meet, we had a date to go pick up a friend and, and go out for lunch or something or a hike, and I can't remember where we were going, but we're picking up this friend, and Diane was singing one of these choruses that we'd just learned to herself in the car, and I remember my friend saying to her, you guys must have just come from church because you're singing. He wasn't a believer, but he recognized this connection between this new life we had in Christ and music.
He recognized that. Singing, making music in your hearts. I've recently started to appreciate all over again the, the value, in fact, the need for good music in, in my life, that music that helps keep me focused on Christ rather than focused on myself. I find, especially in the morning, I find more and more I need to listen to some good Christian praise, worship directed towards God. To take this, take the focus off of me. So often I just wake up and I'm thinking, okay, what do I get done today?
What's on my to-do list today? What's on my agenda today? Rather than praising God. And then music is one of those, those gifts that allows us to do that. Music and this whole sense of joy should be characteristics of the Christian life. They should be a normal part of the Christian life, a normal part of church life. And that brings us to James's third point about prayer, his third question. Is any of you sick? Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Now, when I read that passage and the, and the verses that follow it, it raised a lot of questions in my mind. And the first one is, why elders? Why elders? I've been an elder for, for a number of years. I prayed with, with sick people on numerous occasions and in their homes or in the hospital. I've even participated with other elders in, in anointing people, sick people with oil and laying hands on them and praying for, for healing. But I know that elders don't have special hands. There is nothing special about these hands.
And I know there's nothing magical about olive oil from Costco, or even olive oil that comes from the Middle East, from Israel. There is nothing magical about it. It's the same oil that goes into the cooking pot. The point is that what James is doing is he's putting healing, he's putting prayer, he's putting Christian life into the context of the local church. In fact, the whole book of James, if you were to look at it, is in the context of believers in a local assembly.
That's the context that he's writing in. And so he, when he says elders, who are those who are charged with the spiritual oversight, the spiritual leadership of the local church. He's really putting prayer and healing and, and praise and, and Christian life back in that context. He's reminding us of the context that all these things should be happening in. Why is that important? Well, Paul described the local church as God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. God's intention is that Christians should be grounded, supported, cared for, grow in the knowledge of the truth within the context of a local assembly of believers.
That's God's intention, that we are joined together and we work and we, we serve, and we grow up, and we are strengthened, we, and within the context of a, a local church. That is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Turn to First Corinthians chapter twelve. I hesitated to go back here at first because I remember last August we went back to this passage, and uh, in, in a, in another series, but I think it's an important concept, and we can't be reminded of it too often.
So forgive me if it seems repetitious. First Corinthians twelve, starting at verse twelve, the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ, for we are all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part, but many. If the foot should say, because I'm a not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I'm not belong- I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, and the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that seem to be less honor- that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor, and the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.
But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor- honor to the parts that lacked it, so there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. And you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And if you were to look at the context of chapter twelve, it's sandwiched between two expositions on spiritual gifts in a greater, uh, exposition on worship and on love, all within the context of the local body of believers. Every part working together and every part caring for one another.
Every part caring for one another. We are designed to be in community. The first not good in the Bible is that there was no suitable companion for Adam, because Adam was designed to be in community, to be in a, in a local gathering of people. We're designed to be in community. Loneliness is a terrible thing. We cannot be effective servants of God. Remember James's overall theme is to become an effective servant of God. We cannot be an effective servant of God if we are not part of a local church. If we're outside of a local body, you cannot be an effective servant of God.
Even missionaries off on their own need to go out from a local body, need to be supported from a local body of believers, need to be prayed for and cared for by a local body of believers. James gives the examples back in chapter one verse nineteen, Sorry, in the, um, back in chapter five, back in our text. Last two verses, chapters nineteen or verses and twenty. He gives an example here of, who does he identify? A brother who wanders from the faith. A brother, a fellow believer, somebody in the local body, somebody in the family.
And the word brother there is, is a generic term, it's not gender specific. A member of the family. It's the family who should be supporting that person. The family should be seeking to restore that person. It's the family who hurts when one hurts, who suffers when one suffers, who is in agony when one is prodigal. It's the family who should be trying to bring and restore that person back. Elders, as the, as the spiritual leaders of that family, of the spiritual leaders of the local assembly, are really representing the prayers and the concern and the love of the family for the person who is sick.
That's what elders do when they go and pray for somebody. They're bringing with them, they should be bringing with them the prayers and the concern and the love of the whole family, the whole community of that person that they're praying for. So that's why there's elders, why elders are mentioned here. And the second question, another question I have, is why healing? Now, if this were the only passage in the Bible, or even the only passage in the New Testament that discussed healing, we could probably say, well, we have a formula here for how Christians should deal with sickness. We have a formula here.
You call the elders, you put oil on their head, you lay hands on, you pray righteously, and they're healed. They're not healed, somebody didn't have enough, uh, faith, or somebody didn't, wasn't righteous enough, or there's some impediment that we have to... we have a formula. But it's not the only passage that deals with healing. If we were to look at the Gospels and take time to go through all the times that Jesus healed somebody, we'll find that he used a different approach, a different technique almost every time. And sometimes the, the faith and the righteousness of the person being healed was relevant, and sometimes it was not.
Even Paul's prayer for healing of himself was not answered in the way that he asked for. Turn back to second Corinthians chapter twelve. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Starting at verse seven. And Paul's just been talking about these great revelations that God has given him and the blessings he's ha- he's had. And he says in, in verse seven, to keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing, surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in the, in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. In other words, three times I pleaded to be healed. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore will I boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That's why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong. The point is, the Bible does not present us with a formula for healing, for supernatural healing, or or even natural healing. It doesn't give us a a formula for how to pray for healing.
It would be really good if we had time to go into an in-depth study on healing in the Bible, but we don't have that today. Suffice it to know this, that God wants us to come to him. He wants us to come to him constantly. He wants us to come with everything, with our requests, with our concerns, with our fears, with our deepest desires, with our hurts, with our thanksgiving, with our praise, and with our worship. Much like we want our children to come to us with all these things. They want, we want them to come to us with everything, and we want them to trust us with the outcome, and God wants us to do the same thing.
He wants us to bring everything to him and then trust that he knows what he's doing. Trust that him with the outcome. He knows best, and he'll work things out for his purposes and for our greater good. For our greater good. Trust doesn't always mean that we know where we're going, but our children don't always know where we're taking them either. We just ask them to trust that we know best. And if we ask them as, um, as sinful as we are, how much more should we be listening to God, who is perfect? Now, we don't need to be on some, arrive at some special spiritual plateau before we can pray effectively.
And James gives the example in our text of Elijah. Elijah was an ordinary man who saw God do extraordinary things through prayer. Now, the context is important. James is speaking to Hebrew Christians, Jews, familiar with the Old Testament, familiar with the story of Elijah in First Kings chapter seventeen and eighteen, and familiar with the fact that it didn't rain on the land simply because Elijah asked God for it not to rain. That's not why it rained, but rather Elijah, because he earnestly sought God, understood that God was going to bring judgment upon the land, or specifically against the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.
He was going to bring judgment through drought. God simply used his servant Elijah as his herald, or as a prophet. It was exactly what he was called to be, a prophet. Speak the word of God. Thus saith the Lord. And the same when it came time to announce, three and a half years later, the end of the drought after Elijah's dramatic encounter with the, with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. The point is that Elijah was not some super spiritual saint who had some special connection with God that is so far beyond us as to be not even worth considering.
That's not the point. On the contrary, if we were to read First Kings nineteen, we would see this man who had, had watched the power of Almighty God on top of Mount Carmel just crumble before the, the, the, the attack of, of Jezebel and run off into the desert onto Mount Horeb and hide out there. We would see a man just like us, with the same fears, with the same anxieties, with the same doubts, and the same faith. Shaky at times, but still an ultimate trust that God was in control. Even when I'm scared to death, God was in control, trusting in the almighty, infinite, personal God that he'd come to know.
James's point here is that God should so much be a part of our everyday life that we are always in earnest prayer. No matter what we're feeling, whether we are feeling good or bad, we need to be connected with the Lord. If we believe there's a God who answers prayer, a God who wants to talk to us, a God who is a infinite personal God, almighty creator God, we need to bring our emotions, we need to bring our actions into line with that spiritual reality. And so we come to the end of the book of James, our study in James, the servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, is how he introduces himself at the beginning.
James, the servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The most practical and perhaps the least theological book in the New Testament, and yet it's rooted in the same deep theology, deep theological truth as Peter and Paul and all the other Bible writers. It's a theology that shows the almighty eternal creator God who created mankind in his own image for his glory. Who loved his creation so much that he gave us free will because he wanted us to make the choice to obey, to make the choice to be in a free will relationship with him.
He wanted us to choose to be in relationship with him and then with each other. This is a theology that, that shows how mankind exercised that free will to disobey, to break relationship, to embrace sin, and to be eternally lost. This is a theology that explains how God loved us so much that he was willing to take all of that punishment, all of that sin on his own shoulders, in his own body, in the person of Jesus Christ, so that anyone who repented and accepted that free offer would live forever, would have restored relationship with him.
This is a theology that calls us to new life in Christ, not just when we die, but new life right now, life with the connected living God, connected with him, life that reflects what we believe to be spiritually true, a very practical theology that says we ought to live an integrated life, body, soul, and spirit, bringing all into line with the spiritual reality of what we say we believe. This is not a dead faith. This is a vital, living, mature, practical, everyday faith. Everyday faith.
It looks after the needs of, of widows and orphans in their distress. It doesn't show partiality for riches or for worldliness. It meets the needs of the poor and the lonely amongst us. It seeks God. It prays for the sick. It is slow to anger. It is slow to speak. It is quick to lend a hand. It understands what it means to be a member of the household of faith. It's not easily offended, but is very quick to burst into a song of praise. It is not easily overwhelmed by life, but counts it all joy, looking forward to receiving the crown of life from our Savior. That's the practicality of the faith that we have, the faith God calls us to.
This is real faith, real service, real life from a real God. That's the book of James. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that you call us to not a pie in the sky in the great by and by sometime, but you call us to real life as real people right now. And Father, you promise that you'll be with us to live that life in and through us. Father, we are free. You call us to a life of freedom. Freedom to say no to sin. Freedom to say yes to you, to say yes to the spiritual reality of what Christ has done for us.
To say yes to bringing body, soul, and spirit together to live lives that are real and whole. Father, you call us into communities where we can bring each other along and support each other and pray for each other and love each other and serve each other and reach out to a lost and dying world around us. This is the reality of, of life in Christ. Father, we're so thankful for that. So thankful for what it really means in practical terms to be your children, to be those bought with the blood of Christ, those forgiven by the death of Christ into new life through the resurrection of Christ.
Father, we are so thankful for all this, and we want to live that way. We want to live lives that please you. Father, just be with us now as we go from here. May we reflect the reality of what we believe, what your word reveals to us, and may we live lives that please you and honor you and give praise to you with every breath. Father, may we pray to you, stay connected to you. May we sing praises to you, make music in our hearts to you, even as we care for one another. And we look forward to how you will do this through us, because we come to you in Jesus' name.
Amen.