Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
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READ.
I have done many hours of studying of this passage.
I want to share with you that as much joy as I get from teaching you the Bible, I think the most exciting part for me is the studying process.
I started studying this passage 2-3 week ago, and the Lord nourished and fed me spiritually.
I’ve been personally challenged by this passage.
Studying this passage clarified a lot of questions that I had about this passage.
Just to preface the lesson, I have done many hours of studying of this passage.
I want to share with you that as much joy as I get from teaching you the Bible, I think the most exciting part for me is the studying process.
I started studying this passage 2-3 week ago, and the Lord nourished and fed me spiritually.
I’ve been personally challenged by this passage.
Studying this passage clarified a lot of questions that I had about this passage.
The subject that we will deal with is primarily on prayer because the words “pray” and “prayer” together are mentioned 7 times in total, so it must be an important topic, but we will also talk about healing.
Aside from learning Bible stories about Jesus healing people, I think the topic of healing itself in the Bible isn’t taught as much.
So, that’s why I prefer going through books of the Bible verse by verse because it forces us to tackle different topics and passages that are often not talked about in the church.
Let me ask you some questions regarding prayer: Do you pray?
How often?
When do you pray?
Do you have confidence that God hears your prayers?
Do you believe in what you pray for?
Does prayer actually work?
This past week was a difficult week for the Wong Family.
Alethia had her shots and caught a cold, hence she’s been having trouble sleeping through the night.
Alison had a sore throat and I had an extreme pain on my back.
Context
I’ll be honest with you…one of the advice I would tell myself as a new Christian, as a University student and as a seminary student is to spend more time in prayer.
Prayer is not as exciting and thrilling compared to doing something tangible.
Prayer may seem boring.
A lot of Christian theologians, pastors and Bible scholars would agree that one of the spiritual practices that they struggle with is prayer.
If you personally struggle with prayer, then there’s no shame in that because even the godly people have that constant struggle as well.
In the eyes of the world, there is probably nothing more useless, impractical, intangible and unproductive in the Christian life as prayer.
But, God commands us to pray.
Prayer tests our spiritual character.
Prayer tests our trust in God, our patience in waiting upon God and our perseverance in praying the same thing.
Prayer also tests our spiritual character.
Prayer tests our trust in God, our patience in waiting upon God and our perseverance in praying the same thing.
So, in this second last lesson on the letter of James, my hope is that prayer wouldn’t be useless, but that you can have confidence in the God who hears your prayer; thus, encouraging you to pray regularly.
Exposition
1.
In all spectrums of life, we are to pray to and praise God.
(v.13)
James begins in verse 13 with questions.
“Is anyone among you suffering?”
As we studied James, there were Christians who were suffering persecution.
You may remember a couple lessons back, the rich misused their wealth to persecute the poor Christians.
Some of them were taken into court.
Regardless of what kind of suffering James had in mind, James instructs them to pray.
Are you suffering?
Are you going through trials and hardships in your life?
Is there trouble at school?
Is there trouble at home?
Then pray to God.
Tell Him about your problems.
More than just telling God your problems and asking Him to take them away, ask Him to give you the spiritual strength to endure suffering.
Bac
“Is anyone cheerful?”
Answer?
Sing praise to God! Singing praise song to God edifies the soul.
Quite often, when we are in a state of happiness, we can easily forget God.
What James is saying, in good times and in bad times, you are to turn to God.
2. We should pray for others.
(v.14-16)
Instruction for the physically sick
a.
Consider the sick
We don’t know what kind of sickness this is because James doesn’t talk about it.
However, it may be a sickness that caused this person to be bedridden.
Notice that the sick person is to call the elders of the church to pray OVER him.
Whatever this sickness is, it’s very serious and dire.
b.
Consider the responsibility of the elders of the church
James instructs the sick person to summon the elders of the church to pray over him.
Most of you may not be familiar with elders.
The elders of the church are qualified men who shepherd the church.
You can read about their qualifications in and .
Sometimes, elders are called overseer, but they are used interchangably.
The responsibility that they have is to pastor or shepherd God’s people, such as teaching doctrine, protecting the church from false teachers, caring for the congregation, and so forth.
At OBC, Pastor Brad, Pastor Samson, Garry and Sam are the elders of the church.
Most of you may not know them personally, but I strongly encourage all of you to get to know them or remember their faces.
They don’t come to Sunday School, but the best place to know them is Sunday morning services.
Please don’t make it a habit of skipping church on Sunday just because it’s the combined service.
Now, it is interesting that James would tell the sick person to call for the elders instead of other Christians.
Why is that?
Most likely is because the elders are the spiritual leaders of the local church.
To be qualified to be an elder, you must be recognized as men who are spiritually mature in the faith.
It is the elders responsibility to look after the members in the local church.
So, the sick person might be a member of the local church in Jerusalem.
So, the elders visit the sick person and they are to pray over him, implying that the sick person is bedridden with a serious illness.
We understand the importance of prayer.
We lift up the sick person into God’s hands and asking that God would heal this person.
c.
Consider how we should pray for the sick
And then we get into a peculiar part of the verse where it says, “anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
Many theologians and experts of the Bible don’t seem to have a consensus to the meaning of this part of the verse, but I’ll share with you where I land.
First of all, there is no magical power to anointing someone with oil.
Second, anointing sounds like a magical word, but the word could mean “to rub” or “to apply.”
Sometimes, when people are wounded or they have headaches, oil was applied.
In Chinese culture, you apply oil to certain places in your body because it’s aching for the purpose of soothing your pain.
Third, it’s not about the amount of oil the elders are to anoint to the sick person, but it is about the meaning behind it.
James may have the Old Testament background in mind.
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