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00:00 Good morning everybody. Before we start
00:06 the message, there is an important announcement that I have to make on behalf of the church
00:15 elders and it's an important serious matter. So let me read out a statement.
00:21 He has come to the attention of the leaders of FBC
00:27 that there have been unsubstantiated slanderous accusations
00:33 of sexual impropriy against two innocent worshippers in this church in the last
00:40 fourth night. This came via WhatsApp messages cloaked
00:45 by the hijacking of a WhatsApp account of a nonBC worshipper
00:51 to send out these defamatory messages. The fact that the perpetrator of this
00:57 crime had access to the handphone numbers of church members will lead us to the shocking conclusion that this
01:04 person is currently worshiping with us in this church. The reckless slander has deeply saddened
01:12 and outraged the leaders of ABC who in no uncertain terms absolutely
01:18 condemn such ungodly behavior. Such messages have caused untold anguish
01:25 and pain to the victims of this slander. Paul wrote, "If one member suffers, all
01:31 suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together." uh 1
01:36 Corinthians 12:26. This action has hurt us all as a church, but we stand resolutely behind the
01:44 victims of this crime. Please know the elders of ABC wish to advise if anyone receives such messages,
01:51 please bring it to the attention of the elders or you may bring it to me because
01:56 I have been tasked uh by the church leadership to investigate this matter.
02:02 Importantly after that please delete the message and above all do not forward it or talk about it. This is exactly what
02:09 the perpetrator wishes to create an atmosphere of gossip and lies
02:15 to the individual who has been sending out these messages. We urge you to privately come forward
02:22 and discuss with us why you've been sending out these messages. Our Lord has said, "If your brother sins against you,
02:29 go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. He does not
02:35 listen, take one or two others with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses."
02:41 Matthew 18:15-16. Please note also, your actions are criminal in nature and in violation of
02:48 section 500 and 5001 of the penal code. The church elders may have no choice but
02:54 to initiate police investigations into this matter. Therefore then we implore
02:59 you. We urge you to repent for your sake and the sake of the body of Christ. And we implore you to come forward to
03:06 discuss this matter in the private setting before this happens. Let me just close with a little thing. Uh I I've
03:13 gone and investigated this. I've contacted the number. It's a is a defunct number. Let me tell you and we
03:19 view this very seriously. And we urge if you have any information on this case, please talk to me. If I don't get
03:26 anything within one week, I will be going to the police. Then we will be getting the master list from the from
03:34 the handphone telco company and from that we will track that number down.
03:39 Please note this is a very serious matter and we will not tolerate it in this church. I'm sorry that this morning
03:45 we have to do this to you on a Sunday morning, but we as a church safeguard one another and we protect one another.
03:52 Okay, let's come before God in prayer. Lord God is uh
03:59 on this morning that we have to come over such a serious burden matter but Lord uh we are as a body we as a church
04:06 we are as a community and we that is how you want us to function for you oh Lord in itself
04:13 the fatherhood the son and spirit is a community. So teach us to to behave as
04:19 one act as one and to reach out in love as one. So we ask for your spirit to be
04:25 with us this morning. We ask right now more importantly that we concentrate on
04:31 your word oh lord and not let our mind uh wander to other things and
04:36 speculations and unhealthy controversies. We ask right now Lord that truly you just quieten our souls to
04:44 hear the word of God and that we not only be hearers but doers and we say this in Jesus name. Amen. We are coming
04:52 now to the close of the book of James.
04:58 And as you can tell, today's topic is on prayer.
05:04 There are many ways you can pray. Some very well, some very good, some not that
05:10 good. In fact, in James 4:3, he says, "When you ask, you do not receive
05:17 because you ask with wrong motives." What is this? This is a prayer. You ask
05:22 and do not receive. So there is a wrong way of praying.
05:28 And here you get this on the net. You know they call this the abundant prayer. And this is not as unusual as you think.
05:35 In fact, I had the misfortune of sitting through this prayer meetings. I've been
05:41 through at least three meetings of this where I've been invited and people pray this kind of things. Now what's the
05:48 danger of a prayer like what you see up here? It doesn't see greed
05:54 and in fact that is really the context of what uh James is saying in chapter 4.
05:59 He talks about coveting and that coveting comes into prayer.
06:04 So how then should we pray? And let me just look at the text we just read today. You must understand we're looking
06:11 at the end of book of James. And the way to appreciate it is the content of your prayer is what? The book of James. And
06:19 in in the earlier five chapters, James brings us through what? He brings us
06:24 through faith. He brings us through suffering. He brings us through wisdom.
06:32 And at the end of it, after five chapters of going through out so much
06:37 discourse about faith and works, about suffering in the hands of unjust people,
06:42 about trials and tribulations, of perseverance, of wisdom that is seen in
06:47 our ethical lives, he tells us pray. And this morning, we're going to look at prayer. And there are four types of
06:54 prayer I'd like us to look at. Number one, pray for yourself.
06:60 Then pray by the elders, praying for each other. And lastly, praying
07:06 powerfully and powerfully and effectively. And let's look at the first verse. The first verse is interesting
07:12 because it's a pair. And what we have here is he basically asks two questions
07:17 and they're both extremes of emotions. Is any one of you in trouble? The ESG
07:23 has the word suffering. Or is anyone happy? Now, it's interesting, isn't it?
07:29 Because what is God telling us in prayer? God is telling me and you meet him in
07:37 the midst of what you feel. Meet him in the midst of a good day.
07:47 Meet him in the midst of a bad day. Meet him on all occasions of your life.
07:55 Whether you're feeling happy, down, sad, and Ephesians says, "Pray in the spirit
08:01 on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." We can almost put
08:07 it this way. When life is rough, pray. When life is great, pray.
08:15 Why? Because the importance of being with God instead of doing for God. Let
08:22 us take a moment and pause and and and really just look at this simple truth. And let's start off by just really
08:29 looking at my prayer and your prayer life. Now, you're like me, right? Like most
08:34 people, when do we pray the most? When we in trouble.
08:41 When we in trouble, we pray. And what the text is telling you is
08:46 this. You're in trouble if you only come to God when you're in trouble. That's really what they're saying
08:54 because the prayer then becomes a prayer of desperation because life sucks.
08:60 Things are bad. So you pray like you never pray. But when things are good,
09:07 suddenly the intensity of the prayer disappears. When things are going fine in life or
09:14 it's just another normal day at work, you wake up tomorrow and it's not a
09:20 great day, it's not a bad day. Your prayer suddenly becomes 2 minutes.
09:26 And here James goes in the midst of everything, good day, bad day,
09:33 pray. Here's another type of us. The first type of people is the type
09:39 that only comes to God when they're in trouble. The other type is the type that says, "You know what? I'm a Christian.
09:45 My prayer shouldn't be so self-centered. I should pray for other people. I should
09:52 pray for the church. I should pray for this and that and all sorts of stuff."
09:57 And it's a very noble gesture. And here's one of the wonderful things
10:03 of prayer and God. You know what's God telling you?
10:08 That if you sit there and you say, "You know what? I'm unhappy."
10:14 God says, "Pray." Or you sit there and he says, "You know what?
10:21 I had a great day." God says, "Pray."
10:26 It's a wonderful way to start off prayer. In the midst of everything, pray. But let's look at it in a bit more
10:33 in context because James very much talks about suffering.
10:39 He starts off chapter one with suffering. Chapter one verse one verse chapter 1
10:46 verse two. Consider it pure joys my brothers whenever you face trials of
10:51 many kinds. There you have the two things. You have the joy that's the prayer of joy. You have the trials.
10:59 That's the what? when life is rough, it's all there. And then he tells you because the testing your faith develops
11:05 perseverance. And then he goes into verse five. And that's the prayer. If any of you lacks
11:13 wisdom, he should ask God. That's the prayer. Now, let's not start this about
11:19 those of you who are going through difficult times. And we all have it. You're not going to tell me. I'm not
11:24 going to tell you because these are very private things. And you could be sitting there and you could be hurting inside.
11:32 And what is the prayer we should have? I'd like to suggest the first thing James teaches us about praying for
11:38 yourself. And now I'm talking about praying when you're suffering is to have
11:44 a kingdom perspective. You see, pray that we see our sufferings
11:50 through God's kingdom and not ours. Why? Because when things go very bad, the
11:57 problem tends to overwhelm us and we all go through it, right? Whether it's a
12:03 disease you're going through and we're really going to talk about praying for illness later, it could be a family
12:10 problem, you could have a fear and uncertainty and when you wake up every day, that
12:16 thing just is like an what we call an albatross on your back. It just it just hangs over you and you walk out and it
12:25 still hangs over you. So that problem just sings you and the first thing James
12:31 tells us is you know what here's the difficult thing that's why he says pray. We got to pray to look at it through
12:37 God's kingdom. Osw says this we have to pray with our eyes on God
12:45 not on the difficulties. And now it is easier said than done. But
12:51 can I challenge you? If you start to do that at an early stage at at any point in your life, when you have small
12:58 problems and it becomes a culture in you, you will realize that when things
13:05 get really bad, you'll be able to take that problem easier. Some of the most
13:11 saddest people you meet are people who used to be terribly terribly happy
13:16 because life was great. They had a nice house. They had kids were doing well,
13:22 good health, life was good. And then bum
13:27 something happens crash and burn. And then they pray and
13:34 the prayers suddenly have no effect. Why? because they never learned to pray
13:39 when there were small storms. They never learned to pray there when there were small issues and to move that
13:48 perspective to God. So when the big thunderstorm happens, the prayer becomes
13:53 meaningless. So this morning I plead with you. It's a heavy morning. We're going to go a bit lighter later. But
13:60 especially if you're suffering there as a brother, I just want to share with you. Bring it to God. meet God in the midst
14:07 of it and try to have a godly perspective. How do we have a godly perspective? So easy to say that I want
14:14 to suggest three main things. All right? And the last one of course deliverance. Here are three main things we should
14:20 have which James 1 tells us. Number one, wisdom.
14:26 Wisdom. How many of you actually pray for that? You know what we pray for?
14:31 God, get me out of it. Heal me,
14:37 God. Get the lawsuit away. Repair my finances.
14:44 You know, this relationship I have with so and so is is broken. Save me.
14:50 But here, James is very clear. In the midst of trials, verse 5, if any of you
14:55 lacks wisdom, ask. What is that? That's a prayer. Pray for wisdom. Now, here's
15:01 the other thing. When we go into problems, we get desperate. So when we get desperate, anything works. They say
15:08 a lot of people who are who are not religious suddenly become very religious. When they have a problem,
15:14 they start to pray. Pray to anybody also can. So long you pray. Any god also can just pray.
15:20 So long you get out that problem, you're going to pray. Jesus doesn't work for you, you going to pray to Buddha. Buddha
15:26 doesn't work for you, going to pray for Krishna. Krishna doesn't work for you, doesn't matter. I'll pray to any god until it works.
15:32 So here's the next thing he tells you. Not just pray for wisdom. Pray against double-mindedness.
15:38 Double-mindedness. He says this when he asks, he must believe and not doubt. I'm going to just recollect a bit of chapter
15:44 one in the context of prayer. Pray against doublemindedness. This is in
15:49 particular illness. When people get very sick, they get desperate. You know what happens when
15:55 you get desperate, right? try you see a doctor the doctor doesn't work you do alternative medicine alternative
16:02 medicine doesn't work then you go to church and get people to pray that doesn't work then you go to church B to
16:07 pray then you go to a rally where you heard there's this fellow coming down from this country he's really got a good
16:13 track record and you go doesn't work you fly to England and get someone to pray for you that's double-mindedness
16:20 because the focus then isn't on God the focus is get me out of this problem. I
16:26 don't care how you do it. Just get me out. And he said, "Praise against that." And
16:31 here's the last thing we really need. And when you go through this and the the
16:36 the storm still goes on and it gets tiring
16:42 and you say, "Lord, how long you wake up? The hurt is there." He says, "Pray for
16:51 perseverance." And that's so important. James repeats that in chapter 5 and Pastor Mosimo gave
16:58 us a great sermon on that and you wake up and you say Lord I don't
17:03 know whether I can take it and if you if you're in that shoe right now I just
17:09 really want to just beseech you pray to just one more day Lord with your
17:16 strength and at end of it then pray for deliverance.
17:22 Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. We in trouble only we come to
17:28 God when trouble. And first Thessalonians says be joyful always. Pray continually. Notice the same thing.
17:34 Give thanks in all circumstances. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
17:39 And James could be meaning two things. A he could be meaning people who are happy
17:46 despite suffering. And some people have that maturity. Or he could simply be saying
17:53 you're happy. So he hears to the rest of you guys who are happy this morning.
17:59 We can ask you why you're happy. Of course you say, "Oh, as a Christian, I can't say. I have to say my happiness
18:04 is in Jesus Christ." Come on. You're happy because you got money in the bank.
18:11 You're happy because you got good health. You're happy because your kid made it to A levels and got into Cambridge.
18:18 You're happy because your boss said well done and you're finally getting recognition. Come clean.
18:27 You know what is great about James? James doesn't come and try to religiously try to to to rationalize it.
18:33 You're happy. He says something interesting. Sing. Oh, that's interesting. Sing. What? Jesus. God's
18:41 asking you to do karoke. Why? You see, James has a very Jewish
18:48 background to the way he writes. And James is known for that. You find it in the book of Acts. And in a Jewish
18:55 context, when do you sing? Unlike us who sing in the shower or whatever, singing
19:01 is an expression of happiness. But in Jewish culture, singing is an expression
19:07 of thankfulness. And that the language used here actually
19:13 means a psalm. Why? Because I remember one thing. I I I I I
19:20 think back and I think of you know and I I'll be very honest with you right now in my life. My life now is boringly
19:26 mundane. I'm going be very honestly to tell you I wish I could lie to you and say I got some fantastic trouble. You
19:33 know people have to be marters or or or I'm ecstatically happy. No, my life is mundanely boring right now.
19:40 I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for it. Why? Because that mundane boringness
19:47 is from the Lord. And I and it's I take it with grace. I don't deserve this mundane boringness
19:53 because this mundane boringness allows me to do many things. And here's one thing I want to ask for all you mundainely boring people. Oh, that's an
20:01 accusation this morning. Be thankful.
20:08 All you husbands, turn to your wives next to you. Go on, turn to your wives.
20:13 Say thank you. I don't see any of you doing that. Nobody listens to the speaker nowadays.
20:20 Really don't respect. Go home tonight,
20:26 peek into your children's room, say thank you.
20:32 And when you say grace for lunch, dear Lord, thank you for the food. Amen. Can you really mean it for once?
20:39 Christians are thankful people. I thank God for only one simple thing.
20:48 Every day I'm alive. Each day I wake up, the air I breathe,
20:55 the things I do, I thank God. There's an old Catholic prayer called the prayer of
21:01 examine. I've been reading a lot of old prayers that the Orthodox have what they call the Jesus prayer. The prayer
21:08 examine which is a 14th century Catholic prayer. It's a great prayer. The prayer
21:13 teaches you at the end of the day look back on your day. It was an old it was a
21:19 monk who taught at end of the day look back on your day. Try this in the end of
21:24 today and ask yourself when you recollect today what were you thankful for?
21:31 You realize when you make that a habit, you breathe life, you know. So I want to
21:38 teach us this. Be thankful. Okay, let's move on. Okay, praying by
21:44 the elders. And now we're going to go into what we call landmine territory. What you call difficult territory. You
21:51 see the text, we're now shifting from praying for yourself to get the elders to pray for here. So we going to open up
21:58 with a simple question to all of you. When was the last time Peter or Richard
22:03 prayed for you?
22:08 Never mind. That's good news. At the end of today,
22:14 we got to have a prayer. Today, we got discount.
22:19 Mass discount. So, not only uh we have elders, we have
22:25 a whole lot of prayer warriors which we had a debriefing. You're going to stand in front here. I give you a chance to
22:31 redeem yourself. Now, here's what's interesting. Let me give you the context
22:36 first, okay? Before I before you think I'm putting you on a guilt trip, look at the way the verse it says. Is
22:42 any one of you sick? Now, the context of praying for the elders is in the context of illness. He should call the elders of
22:50 the church to pray over him and anoint him with all in the name of the Lord. We'll come to the all bit in a while,
22:56 okay? But what this what the the verse is saying is that here's a person who is so sick he can't come to ABC.
23:05 So he WhatsApp Richard and he tell Richard come over. So Richard brings Peter over and then they pray over him.
23:14 That is the context. Now this is interesting because it shows you how close the early church was. And
23:23 in fact, if you read early church records, Clement Polycarp, I I I've been reading a lot of early what we call the
23:30 Nissen fathers. The church was so close that if you couldn't break bread, the
23:35 elders will bring the communion to you. That was church then.
23:42 Church nowadays is a group of people that meet on Sundays, listen to some boring speaker for 40
23:49 minutes, and says, "Can you hurry up and get it over with? My stomach's hungry. They go out there and talk and then they
23:54 go home and then they repeat the same procedure one week later and pray is a better
23:60 speaker. That's not church in the first century.
24:07 First century church was community. And if anything this morning I want to
24:12 tell you we got to rediscover that. And here the guy was so sick person was
24:18 so sick he caught the elders. and the elders prayed over him. The rest of the
24:23 verse is a real land mine. The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. Oh wow, that's that's a
24:31 loaded statement and the Lord will raise him up and it gives you a whole lot of
24:36 questions. Okay, now we're going into the issue of
24:41 praying for healing. And I want to give you two views. The first view was
24:48 propagated by a man called John Whimber, very popular during my time in the 80s,
24:53 late 80s. And the proposition is this is should we expect that the same kind of
24:59 miraculous healing today as was done by Jesus and the apostles in the book of Acts and in two very landmark books. His
25:07 answer is a resounding yes and that the church has forgotten it.
25:15 And of course he started what was known as power evangelism. The second question is are the gifts of healing in 1
25:21 Corinthian 12:9 and 28 available today. Again resounding yes
25:28 and he has a lot of supporters Nikki Gumble of Alpha Wayne Grudom a lot of
25:34 well-known people who flanked him on this. It became a major thing on opposite end of the spectrum and there
25:40 is this man called John MacArthur who says no all seas all these guys out
25:45 there are charlatans they're all trying to con you all salesmen trying to con people who
25:54 are weakwilled they are rubbish they're magicians and he says there's only three
25:59 ages of it very clear and that the gifts have seized and of it Don't expect it.
26:07 Now, we don't want to waddle into the controversy, but let me just make some uh passing remarks on it. All right.
26:14 Number one, I like to say scripture doesn't give you enough information to make a decisive decision either way.
26:23 There really isn't. Let me break down the text a bit for you, and we're going to spend a few
26:29 minutes. It's a bit heavy, but it's important. Now what's interesting here in the James text is who do you call?
26:35 Not Ghostbusters. You call your elders.
26:42 Does it mean the elders have some supernatural power? No. It's very clear is the mandate of
26:49 the elders as shepherds. Now what is interesting the James text is that it
26:54 takes the argument away from does he have the gift of healing? takes that
27:00 away, you know, and very clearly the text shifts the healing to who? To God
27:09 using the office of the elder. And the the rendering of elder here is prebisto
27:16 meaning it could be pastor, it could be teacher, meaning it could be
27:22 a leader. So long is a leader, a person tasked with shephering a church, God
27:30 will use that person as a channel for healing. Now you got to get how
27:35 important this is because he goes on to link it and say the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
27:43 The context of this goes to the elder. Meaning if you are sick,
27:49 it's your responsibility to call the elders. Why? because God has used the
27:54 elders as a channel for prayer.
27:60 Now, just to wait into the controversy, if you go and look at 1 Corinthians chapter
28:05 12, there's a difference here, you know, and I'll read you verse
28:12 28. 1 Corinthians 12:28. And in the church, God has appointed first of all apostles,
28:21 prophets, teachers. Now whether they apostles today, we're not going to get into that because an apostle at that
28:27 time had a power to move into any church and regulate the church.
28:33 Uh you don't have that nowadays even for those who call themselves apostles. But what's interesting is after that
28:39 then he says apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles and then here comes also those having gifts of
28:47 healing. Now the first Corinthian text puts the healing now instead of an office to
28:55 what? To a gift. It's important to look at the distinction. Okay,
29:03 that's the distinction. It's an important distinction to pick up.
29:10 Now, why? Because my question to you is that if you're sick, should you go for
29:16 something like this? I'm going to pose you four questions today. Number one, when I'm ill, should
29:23 I go to healing rally? Now, secondly, if I'm not healed, does it mean I have no
29:29 faith? Third question, is my illness a result of God punishing me? Number four, should
29:37 churches have healing ministry? Should FBC start a healing ministry? So, we're going to spend a next 10, 15 minutes
29:43 going through these serious issues. All right? And you get this quite a lot happening out there. So, let me just
29:50 wait into this a little bit. Number one, the James text is instructional. you
29:58 know it's instructional it's not a suggestion or record the
30:03 first Corinthian text is a record meaning James is giving a commandment
30:10 now why I'm going to suggest to you that if you go for this let's not talk about whether it's right or wrong and you did
30:16 not ask the elders to pray for you can I humbly suggest to you you're not following scripture
30:23 scriptur is very clear this is an instruction so here I want to challenge you again If you are sick and you
30:29 haven't called the elders who pray for you, you are not following scripture because God has passed the leaders as
30:35 shepherds. But how do we reconcile these two? The simple truth is that God uses elders,
30:43 but God also uses people with gifts. That's the simplest way to reconcile the two. So on one hand there's the office
30:51 of the elder that heals and there are those with the gifts of healing which
30:57 leads to the more difficult question. How do I know whether the guy really has it or not? How do I know he's not a corn
31:03 man? Now I want to give you certain things when you really look at the text you must look at the language. Let me
31:10 read this to you. Verse uh here also those having have you noticed
31:18 it is not gift of healing it is what gifts
31:24 let me just reiterate that in case you didn't get it and to make sure he got it right verse
31:30 30 do all have gifts of healing
31:37 and in case we didn't quite get it verse 9 he says to another faith by the same
31:42 spirit and here again to another gifts of healing.
31:48 Now you notice that it's not is is the plural is deliberate because when he comes to tones he says to another
31:54 speaking different kind of tones to ste another interpretation of tongues that's singular you know now what let me tell
32:01 you this and it's a very important point to pick up for any of you who want to go to things like this every scholar who's
32:09 read 1 Corinthians 12 is telling you is plural meaning what nobody can claim to
32:16 have one gift that can what we call coin Chinese pal every illness you cannot
32:22 it's plural and every scholar who look at 1 Corinthian 12 has said some people have
32:28 the gifts to heal this disease another person has another gift to heal another
32:34 disease maybe another person a specific disease you could say leprosy this guy
32:40 because he's so burning leprosy he has a better success rate with leprosy at that time another person he he looks at
32:48 casting out demons. He has a better success rate at casting out demons. Another person perhaps is just physical
32:55 illnesses. You see where we're going with that? But what do you see there? You see people who are very burdened
33:02 and they are so burdened. They're burdened with certain types of people, certain type of illnesses and then God's
33:09 gives them that power. Now interestingly in that gift if you look the lifts right
33:15 the gifts of healing is followed by this to another faith by the same spirit is
33:20 following it. So have you seen that nowadays sometimes when you see some people they're so burdened by some
33:27 people illnesses they will just pray for that person. I believe the text refers to this.
33:34 So let me give you my my my my two cents. Any rally where a guy claims he
33:41 can heal any kind of disease, I suggest you should be very very careful
33:47 because quite likely it's not biblical because you don't find that in scripture. The only people who could do
33:53 that were the apostles in the book of acts and Jesus in the gospels. But when
33:58 you came to Corinthian, even the Corinthian church didn't have that gift.
34:03 Here's another point. You will find the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 differs from Romans 12 and Ephesians 4.
34:11 No other epistle by Paul picks up a church with such spectacular gifts. So
34:18 it again says you cannot say this is normal. So here's again a short simple
34:23 thing. Number one, should you go to healing rally? Simple answer, go and see Peter and Richard first. That's a simple
34:30 answer. Number two, can I still go after that? Well, here's the thing. Okay, we go back. When you do go, two things you
34:37 should ask yourself. Number one, pray for wisdom and pray against double-mindedness. You know why? Because
34:42 people who go for this normally are desperate. You're so sick.
34:48 You have tried everything. You are just going because you want to get help. Now,
34:54 the danger is that you are taking your focus away from God to your illness.
35:00 And when you do that, I like to humbly ask you, are you honoring God? You
35:06 become like a guy who's trying every form of alternative medicine. One is shitake mushroom, another day is this, another day is that because anything
35:13 try. But faith is not like that. Faith is having wisdom to discern and faith is
35:19 trusting in God. So be very careful of this. And this is a clear sign of
35:24 double-mindedness because some people in these rallies teach you this. This is what Kenneth Hagen says. He says Jesus
35:31 came to redeem us from Satan's power and dominance over us. We are to reign as kings in life. That means we have
35:38 dominance over lives. We are to dominate not to be dominated. Circumstances are not to dominate you. Disease and
35:44 sicknesses are not to rule and reign over you. You are to rule and reign over sickness. We are to rule as kings in
35:50 life by Christ Jesus in whom we have redemption. This is utter rubbish.
35:56 And people who teach you this will then teach you you have to be rich also. And he actually teaches you that. So you
36:01 know what's a model Christian? He's very rich. He's very healthy. So if you're poor, you're not healthy. Oh, you're
36:07 terrible Christian. Utter rubbish. So be very careful
36:12 because it is not just the healing per se, but what do they teach in relation
36:17 to the healing? However, if you go to healing rally and we we really want to
36:23 be open-minded about this and after that you become closer to Christ, you walk
36:29 closer to God, you become more humble, you learn to fight sin, you learn to pray more, you learn to seek a fresh
36:36 encounter with God, then hallelujah, you see, it's not the healing, it's what
36:41 the healing leads to. And what we want is healing that leads us to a closer walk with God. Next question. If I'm not
36:49 healed after being prayed over, does it mean I have insufficient faith? This is a classic caveat. Now, you I don't know
36:55 whether you've been to these rallies. I've been to these rallies. It's really strange. No, you go to these rally, you
37:00 get a lot of black backaches and lot of these things. You see there's one group of people in wheelchairs and really
37:06 severe. They never touch these guys. You know, they will not do it. I've been to few of these at stadiums. But the guy
37:12 who's got a back who will pull in front. Oh, a lot of praying over. So I confess to being quite cynical about it. But
37:18 here's the thing. You don't get healed. What's the simplest thing? You got no faith.
37:24 And here's the text they use. Here's a prayer you get out there. It says, "Father God, your word says the prayer
37:29 of faith heal the sick. We come to you today in faith asking you heal us from every sickness. We receive our healing
37:37 by faith." So the argument is if you don't get healed, you have no faith. Now
37:42 let's go look at the text again. My question to you is very simple. Whose
37:47 faith are we talking about here? The person who is sick or the elder?
37:55 Okay, quite straightforward, right? Whose faith is the elders's faith? So, actually, you should blame the guy
38:00 anyway to blame the faith healer. He should call the elder to pray and the
38:07 prayer offered in faith. The grammar links the faith to the elder. So if you
38:12 go to a bani hin healing or whatever you don't get he blame him he got no faith
38:17 not you see the confusion out there's so much
38:23 rubbish out there so much nonsense and because people are sick they are vulnerable the text puts the faith not
38:32 on the guy who's sick he puts it on the elder now let's not make general remark what
38:38 we trying to say this there's evidence in scripture where The faith is not on the person. Jesus says this or the
38:44 paralytic when Jesus saw their faith, the faith of his friends. And he says something even more interesting. Your
38:50 sins are forgiven. Wow. Now, not only healing is sins or what we calling here, we're calling this the power of
38:58 intercessory prayers. And what I want to urge you at the end
39:03 of today, at the end of this service, come forward for intercessory prayers
39:10 because they are powerful and effective. You don't need to go to some magical faith healer.
39:16 We will have a team in front. I want to urge you now to prepare your hearts. Whatever requests you have, come in
39:22 front to be prayed over. Here's the next question. Is my illness a result of God
39:28 punishing me? And here's a very sad thing. You get this again and again and people would like to have this
39:33 correlation. If I'm you I'm a good Christian, you know what? God should
39:39 bless me with good health. So if I have bad health, gee, I must be
39:44 a really bad Christian. You know, that's the way we sort of link the two together. So the sicker you are, the
39:50 more terrible you are as a Christian. That's what Kenneth Hagen teaches. Anyway, now let's be fair. The first
39:55 thing the text does is the text does connect sin and health. You you can't avoid it because of the grammar. Look at
40:03 the way he says this. He say the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up.
40:09 If he has sin, he'll be forgiven. It's the same flow of the text. So James is
40:15 tying sin and health together. What we want to do this morning is to unlock
40:22 what exactly does he mean. Let me give you a few observations. Number one,
40:27 there's a general connection between your spiritual health and your physical health.
40:33 Irregardless whether you're Christian or a Hindu or a Muslim or a Jew or a Bahigh or whatever religion, the moment you
40:40 have a spiritual nature or inclination, your health is better
40:47 because psychologically you have hope. So people know that. So there's a connection. Now James ties the
40:54 connection between spiritual health and physical health. Now doctors will tell you illnesses are psychosomatically
41:01 linked. Meaning if you're the type that gets stressed very easily, quite likely you
41:06 get sick. If you're the type that loves to go and eat McDonald's burger and chao and
41:13 bakut, you're going to get sick. You're the type that's all very jittery.
41:20 Canton is called you're going to get sick. But here scripture takes it to one step
41:27 further which is really quite interesting about what James says and let me quote you David Garland which is
41:32 a very famous scholar. He says modern society tends to take a mechanistic approach to the problem of illness. When
41:39 a machine malfunctions the mechanic diagnoses what is wrong removes or fixes
41:44 the faulty part. When a physical body breaks down, we expect the doctor to diagnose what is wrong, remove or
41:50 correct the faulty part. After this has been done, the body is supposed to function normally. Again, humans are not
41:56 machines. And a number of factors contribute to hell. And here's something interesting. One of the things that can
42:02 destroy our health is the paralyzing weight of sin. You feel guilty. You feel
42:08 bad. You feel awful. You feel like a rotten human being.
42:14 It doesn't show up about any blood test but is ver and as any physical disease and James is picking that up and let me
42:20 take it to another level. James is taking it on a corporate level
42:27 and we just read just in 1 Corinthians 12 one if one person hurts the whole
42:33 body suffers. If one person is happy the whole body is happy. So let me just wrap
42:39 up a few things. Number one is your illness because God is punishing
42:45 you. Point one, no. Why? Because Jesus says this when the Pharisees asked,
42:50 "Rabbi, who sin? This man or his parents that he was born blind? Neither this man
42:56 nor his parents sin?" No. Here's the second one.
43:02 Can God inflict illness on the church? Yes. We find this first Corinthians. or
43:08 anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drink judgment on himself.
43:15 That is why a number of you are weak and sick and it was so bad a number of you have fallen asleep. Meaning you have
43:22 died. Let me wrap this up. Therefore,
43:27 confess your sins to each other and pray for each other you may be healed. And
43:34 here James uses the word healed. He has two things in mind. Physical healing and
43:41 spiritual healing. The Greek here is tying the two together. So James is linking the two. So let me wrap this up
43:47 for you. Number one, sin directly causes some sickness.
43:54 And if you're the type who's anxious, you're guilty, you're you're depressed,
43:59 you're bitter, I want to ask you come in front and to be prayed
44:05 because that spiritual condition, brothers and sisters, is affecting your physical condition. I want to urge you
44:11 to that at the end of this service. Number two, sin indirectly causes all
44:17 illness. We live in a broken world. We live in a world where sin is
44:23 prevalent. So if you have a bad disease, it's not because God is punishing you. It's
44:29 because this world is sinful. And this is what James teaches. Number one, you pray for yourself for healing.
44:36 Is any one of you in trouble? You pray. If you're sick, pray. After you pray for yourself, he asks you to call the elders
44:42 to pray. And after you ask the elder to pray, he asks you to pray for one another. And I want to ask you at the
44:48 end of this service, get the elders to pray for you, stay back, go into small groups and pray. That's what he's
44:54 saying. So let's go. Should churches have healing ministries? You know, some churches have this. And I just want to
45:01 close this section on this. I'm going to answer this by looking at the issue of the all. What is the function of the
45:07 oil? Because it's the same thing because if you're going to have oil, should you have oil in this room? And what kind of
45:12 oil should you get? Should you get grade A olive oil? should get the oil from Jerusalem. Maybe the oil has to be
45:18 prayed over by Richard. Be sanctified first. You know, Richard not powerful. Ask Peter or maybe Rama. Maybe all the
45:24 pastors better go to be sure pray over it. Then is tinal.
45:30 Okay. Now you see the issue is this is that when you start to move to techniques, you are moving your faith
45:37 away from God and you're being double-minded. You see the function of the oil here is simply consecration.
45:44 Because when you anoint a person or you're reminding him in Jewish culture, you are set aside by God. So what are we
45:52 saying? I not so sure we should have a healing ministry.
45:57 I think it'd be great if we could have a room where people come and are prayed over regularly over everything.
46:05 I think that's great. You know what? It's not this, you know, it's not it's
46:11 is this which is great because this shows love and care. So, which leads us
46:17 to a controversial issue. Should we have outer calls? Because I'm called the outer call guy.
46:23 And some people say, "Oh, they got do outer call." He's playing with emotions. I want to I don't want to go into the
46:28 controversy because that's technique. The issue is not whether you want to come for altercourse or you're not
46:34 comfortable with it or whether we do it or we don't. The issue is I want to just challenge
46:40 you as I wrap up this section. When was the last time
46:45 the elders prayed on you? When was the last time you went into a
46:50 room or a private corner and you shared your heart out?
46:59 Because Christianity is a community faith and if it's not a community faith it's
47:06 not faith at all. So should we have healing ministries? To me no. Should we
47:12 have ministries to reach out to small groups to pray? Yes. Yes. Yes. That's
47:18 what we want. Let me just quickly move on. What happens then? If why is it here
47:24 he says you will be healed. Let me read you the Lord's prayer. And we sang in a
47:30 song just now. It says this then is how you should pray. Our father heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom
47:36 come. Your will be done. Meaning any prayer goes in God's will. So to truly
47:44 pray for is to acknowledge God's sovereignty. And to do this, he quotes
47:50 Elijah. And to remember you're consecrated.
47:55 Meaning we want to ask you when you come forward and you receive prayer and you're not healed and there's a tendency
48:01 to be disappointed. But always understand God has a will. We may not understand that will but God has a will.
48:08 What God wants you to do is bring it before him in prayer. And what God assures you that even though he may not
48:15 heal you, he has listened to your prayer.
48:20 And that prayer is powerful. We see this in the most important in Paul where he prayed for healing for his throne. But
48:27 God's will was not to heal him. Let me end with this. Therefore, confess your
48:33 sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed more. This is another loaded thing. So, here's another
48:39 next question. I asked you, when was the last time the elders prayed for you? Here's the next one. When were the last
48:46 time you confess your sin to someone else in church? Oh, you got I do a
48:52 survey. I think it be 99.9%. No one has done it. Now, this one is difficult because does it mean that
48:58 everyone should find someone to to go and confess your sin and how do I know I can trust that guy? And now what we find
49:06 out in church history that this was often done in a corporate manner publicly everyone comes up and they
49:12 confess it because there is a communal effect to it. But there's a principle here I want to bring up. The principle
49:18 is simply this. How accountable are we to each other? And how much do we
49:24 actually know each other? It's great if all of you could find a prayer partner and share your struggles. But we know in
49:31 a church of this size is difficult. But here the thing what James is encouraging
49:37 you. James is again encouraging you. You and I, we are community.
49:43 And if you have never found a small group to share at least once in your life, I like to suggest that's not
49:48 Christianity. That's Sunday comfort zone ritualistic Christianity.
49:53 It's not Christianity. If if your Christianity is every Sunday you come get some dosage for 2 hours and now it's
49:59 10:30. You say Ann Arnold, can you just hurry up and get it over with? That's not Christianity. Sorry today.
50:06 Christianity is community. And I'm going to plead with you if you
50:11 don't find people you know that you can share with and no one's asking you to sit down there and says, "You know what?
50:17 I'm I I'm a really bad guy. I just cheated the government of $1.2 billion."
50:23 No one's asking you to do that. It's great if you cared. The world will be better place. But to
50:31 say, "Look, I struggle generally with sexual sin, with money,
50:38 with anger." And the other guy says, "You know what? I I struggle too with with hate and unforgiveness." And you
50:46 pray. Wouldn't that be great? Now, what happens if you don't do that? And you
50:51 say, "You know what? I don't like all of this stuff. I like the church the way it is. I like to sit at the back. No one knows me. I come every two hours. I just
50:57 hope the speaker is shorter. Thank you very much. Well, you're going to get this.
51:04 This is Richard Huckle in Bangalore. Look at what this George
51:11 Fernandez in Bangalore says. Special thank to Richard Huckle. Richard a photographer arrived in Bangalore to
51:17 Pastor George. Richard Huckle comes from Kent. He was what he's what you would define
51:24 as a practicing active Christian. He's been in Malaysia for four years and was
51:30 attached to one of the largest Christian mission groups that mission group has shared in our church. Richard Huckle
51:39 is also now known as the worst pedophile in history.
51:46 Go back and Google Richard Huckle Christian today. Christianity today. I
51:51 have it on my handphone. And you know what the the thing is? this
51:57 when you're not accountable. You don't know who sits in your midst.
52:04 He looks Christian, acts Christian, serves like a Christian,
52:12 but anyone who really loves the law, the Lord will not blatantly abuse kids like
52:18 this, post it on the dark web, sells it for Bitcoin.
52:23 And Christianity today carried the article. It says, "What if Richard Huckle was one of us?"
52:33 That was the most struggling difficult thing. And this morning I want to end with this. I know it's a bit depressing,
52:40 but how well do you know each other? How well are you accountable? We may not
52:46 be Richard Huckles, but we may have we we all have our struggles. But if your Christianity is coming once a Sunday
52:55 getting some dose of a message and some music it's not Christianity Christianity is community this is Christianity
53:04 advertising alpha and gamma now come on Wednesday go into small groups
53:12 meet people share eat laugh cry
53:18 and when the day is Right? Find someone and says, "You know what? I struggle. I
53:24 hurt. Would you pray for me, brother?" And then if someone does that to you,
53:29 you know what you should do? You should say, "I hurt too. I struggle too."
53:36 Let's pray for forgiveness. That's community.
53:42 Prayer of a powerful man is powerful, effective. And let me end with this. because of
53:48 time we don't have we really can't go into detail and James says Elijah was a
53:55 man just like who? Like who?
53:60 Sorry. I I'm hearing really bad today. Let's try that again. Elijah was a man
54:08 just like who? Like who? Us.
54:14 Me and you. Elijah was a man just like us.
54:19 He's taking Elijah and saying, "Hey, ABC, every one of you sitting there, you
54:25 are an Elijah." You say, "I don't feel like Elijah." Well, Elijah wasn't very righteous. If
54:31 you really read his history, he wanted to kill himself.
54:36 But the righteousness isn't your moral year. Your righteousness is from Christ who died for you on the cross and put
54:42 that righteousness in you. and that righteousness tells you to be
54:48 community. So, how do we end this morning? That's how we end this morning. We're
54:55 going to ask the worship team to come up and we're going to sing a psalm of God's
55:01 will. I'm going to ask our prayer team to come up. Can I ask our prayer team to
55:06 come up? And can I ask the elders, the deacons, those can y'all please come up?
55:13 You will have a whole group of people standing here and I'm going to encourage you this
55:19 morning and and this morning we ask prayer is about community. I want to ask you if you have any needs would you come
55:25 in front and receive prayer. I would like to humbly suggest this is a
55:31 commandment from God. So would all the leaders please come in front as the music is played. You feel the need to
55:37 come in front would you come in front? Here's the good news because some people are not comfortable
55:43 doing that. If you're not comfortable doing this, because we're not going to end today
55:48 without prayer, then I'm going to suggest this at the end of the service. Let everyone go quietly. Stay back. We
55:54 will come to you because we are community. But can I plead with you today? Don't
56:02 leave without receiving prayer. God has given the resources to you, the resources of the elders to pray for you
56:09 and the resources of each other this morning. You can't preach about praying if you don't pray. It doesn't make
56:15 sense. Receive prayer this morning. Let's close as we prepare our hearts for
56:21 this song. And as the music plays, if you need any prayer, come in front. And if you don't feel comfortable, I'm going
56:28 to be repeating myself again. Stay back where you are. We will come to you. Lord, we just ask for this long morning,
56:34 Lord, and we ask that your spirit just move so powerfully in our midst and that that we will not glorify it, but you
56:41 will glorify it. For without prayer, we can do nothing. We ask and we thank you if you said that we will come to you in
56:48 the midst of our suffering. And Lord, right now, this morning, we ask for those who suffer. They have lost their
56:54 jobs. They are ill. The family marriage life is in tatters. They have bad
57:01 relationship with their children. They have unforgiveness in the past. They can't get off and they sit in our midst
57:07 and they're not happy. We ask Lord that meet them in the midst of their suffering right now, oh Lord.
57:14 And we avail the church here and we ask that the leaders are ready to anoint and
57:19 to consecrate and to intercede. And if you're happy there, we ask Lord share
57:24 your happiness with someone around. Be thankful that your life is good. pray for someone else with the comfort that
57:31 they need. And Lord, above all, we ask, we all here as a church now, as a community, we are
57:37 a community of sinners. And for FBC to move forward, we ask
57:43 right now on this morning, Lord, we repent of our sins communally.
57:49 And perhaps Lord, if we all just turn our heads and and confess our sins like the way the king of Nineve did,
57:60 you will look down on those who are sick in our midst
58:05 and you will heal them. So we are as a body.
58:12 The few in our midst who are sick, baby Aaron, professor, so many,
58:20 we ask, oh Lord, as a body, we confess our sins right now. And we ask, Lord, if that hinders
58:27 healing, we plead with you, remove that, that you'll heal those in our midst.
58:34 And Lord, if we have sin towards one another, we ask for forgiveness. We ask right now
58:40 your spirit just move in a powerful manner and just just prepare our hearts
58:45 as we come before you in prayer. We say this in Jesus name. Amen.
