James 5 and verse 16, and we again this week look at effectual fervent prayer, and we're going to look at the need for effectual prayer. James 5 and verse 16, Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be sure fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rain not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. We began last week to look at this text again. on the subject of effectual fervent prayer and it cannot be exhausted. And we have seen that there is a certain kind of man that can really pray and he is the man of our text, the righteous man of our text, which is Elias or Elijah. And the nature of one praying is a righteous man. He is positionally righteous and he is practically righteous as we saw last week. However, just a man. And I want you to see that. The nature of the one is just a man. He is a man of like passions as we are, he says. And so that emphasizes the fact, and I believe what the Holy Ghost would have us understand from that is, is that Elijah was not a superman. There are no supermen in the Bible except the Lord Jesus Christ. Every other man, every other woman, every other child that is mentioned in the Bible are just common people like we are. And so that encourages us, and what James is doing under inspiration is encouraging us to have the same kind of prayer life that Elijah had so that we can avail in prayer. So he establishes this fact. And we saw last week the nature of effectual prayer. It has power to affect the outcomes of situations. It can avail. It's useful to think with God. And so in the text, the illustration that is used is what Elijah did. Elijah prayed and the rain stopped. And it stopped for three and a half years and then he prayed again and it rained. And so if you can stop up heaven and start up heaven, that is, you can stop up the rain and start the rain through praying, this shows you that you have a mighty access to God through this kind of prayer. Both of these things were directly connected, of course, to Israel's need and to God's glory. And we'll see that, of course, as we go through the study this morning. But if we're going to pray this way as Elijah prayed, we're going to have to invest time in this kind of praying. It must be fervent. It must be prayer that we put some time into to accomplish the great things that Elijah accomplished through prayer. And before we get into the text, I just want to remind us that there are times when the need is greater So the prayer must be more earnest. And we have spoken about prayer in different ways. And I want you to see this fact this morning that we don't pray the same all the time, and nor does the Bible command us to pray the same all the time. But there are some times of urgency that we must give ourselves to more earnest praying. Jesus did this in the garden. In Luke 22, verse 44, in the hour of His agony as He faced the cross, as He's getting ready to die there for the sins of His people, in Luke 22, verse 44, the Bible says, "...and being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. And so the need was urgent. The need was he was going to face the cross. He was going to face crucifixion. And Jesus Christ strengthened himself through prayer. And in the prayer that he prayed, the Bible says that it wasn't just simply praying, but it was praying that had more urgency with it, and so he prayed more earnestly, the text says. There are times that we must put into prayer more than we would normally put into prayer. And I believe that the idea of the text is what is coming across to us if we'll look at it this morning. But in the book of Matthew, we'll go there for just a moment, Matthew 17, to reestablish this point. Matthew 17. When there is drastic situations, there must be drastic praying. It's one thing to give God thanks for your meal, and another thing to pray that you have a meal. You understand what I'm saying? So if you have food on your table, you should be thankful for that. And there is one way to pray about that. But if you have nothing in your house, you have no nothing in your cupboard, nothing in your refrigerator, your freezer, your mill barrel is empty, not just low, but empty. And you have no prospect of having anything that would move you if you are a child of God to do more kind of praying than just simply just simply praying. And that's what James says. He's talking about earnest prayer. He's talking about fervent prayer. And so in Matthew 17 and verse 21, notice what the scripture says concerning those things in the context. It says, how be it this kind goeth not out. but by prayer and fasting, talking about the demonic forces that were in those folks that they were dealing with. The disciples were powerless over the demons, not because they didn't have power, but because they didn't avail the power that they had through prayer. Oft times, and we know that there's dispensational aspects of things, I don't really want to get into that this morning, but I do know this, that often times it's not a lack of what we have available to us because these disciples in Matthew 17, they had power over demons. God had given them power over them. The Lord Jesus Christ had ordained them and sent them out and they were to manifest the power that they had and in the case, in the context, they come upon this case and they couldn't cast out the demon. And Jesus said, well, you have the power, but you're not accessing that power the way I've told you to access it. And he says here, how be it this kind, the kind of demons that they were dealing with, they had to be more earnest in their praying. And not only did they have to be earnest in their praying, but they had to add fasting to this kind of praying. Fasting is where you have the deprivation of self. Remember, David, whenever he was praying for his son, the Lord said he was going to die. He didn't know when he was going to die. We just kind of take it in our mind he's going to die as a baby, but we don't know that until he dies as a baby. And so what happens is, is David does some self-deprivation. He gets on the ground. He gets off the throne, gets on the ground, puts his face on the ground, and he stays in that position for days on end. He fasts. And he prays. Of course, God did not answer that prayer. But in this case, he tells these disciples that this is the kind of praying that it will take to do these kind of things. And so all we're saying is, is that there is a need for effectual prayer. And therefore, the kind of matter at hand, as we look at our life and the things that are going on in our nation, the things that go on in churches, things that go on in families, there are times for us to be engaged in prayer in a more fervent way. And so with that, let's go back to our text. In the book of James 5, we go back to the Scripture here, and we find in James that the need of effectual prayer is established by the command of this Scripture. The need of effectual, fervent prayer is established by this Scripture. For in this Scripture, in two places, we find we are commanded to pray. Twice we're commanded to pray. Verse 13 says, Is any among you afflicted? Let Him pray. And then in verse 16, confess your faults one to another and pray for another. This is not a suggested reaction, but a commanded reaction to the difficulties that these disciples were facing here in James. God gives us divine direction on how to handle these types of situations. God wants us to pray. In the text, you'll find that there are two things that he's dealing with, and I wanted you to see this because we deal with the same kinds of issues that those folks that James is writing to, and of course he's writing to us because it's a living book. There are two things that are mentioned in this text and two commands in relationship to prayer in this text. When afflicted, in the text, God wants us to pray. What we find in verse 13 is, are you afflicted? Are you going through persecution, difficulties, trials, great trials? That's the idea of affliction in the text. And so what we are to do is we are directed to pray. We are directed to do a certain thing whenever we are afflicted. We do all kinds of things when we are afflicted. We complain when we are afflicted. We gripe when we're afflicted. We sulk when we're afflicted. We fight when we're afflicted. We rebel when we're afflicted. But none of those things we are commanded to do. Those are things that we do, that we often do. God, however, wants us to do something different. God wants us, when we are afflicted, not to gripe and complain, and not to sulk, and not to fight, and not to rebel. God wants us, when we're afflicted, to pray. Now you're living in some troublesome times and they can come upon us very rapidly. You're seeing the destruction of the fiber of our country right in your very presence, in your eyes. I mean, after all, we're living in a day where they have announced that this whole month is a month of pride. Homosexual pride. That's the month we're living in. It's been denominated that. And if you go online, you'll see rainbow flags everywhere where people are saying that we should be proud of what we are. We're living in bad times. And if you stand out against those kind of things, of course, you will be afflicted. You will be. But what are we to do in response to all this? Well, I'll tell you what the Scripture says we're to do. We're to pray. We are to pray. And when dealing not only with with being afflicted, and of course, in the context, it seems like the affliction there is an outward affliction being brought upon the believer for the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that the Word of God stands for. But also there is inward conflict among believers. So he tells us how to deal with each other's faults in verse 16. He says, right there in 16, he says, confess your faults one another and pray for another. We often do other things when we're dealing with faults. We gossip. We complain. We fight. We seek revenge. We do those kind of things whenever there are faults with each other. And we have faults all the time with each other. But do you know what God says for us to do when we have faults with each other? He doesn't say, well, gossip when you have faults. Go tell instead of, you know, we have a command to tell your brother if you have aught between each other. But all the time we tell other brothers. But the Bible says in this command to pray. That's what you're to do when you confess your faults to each other, and then you pray for the other. The need is identified in the text. It's established by the command. There is a need for effectual, fervent prayer And God wants us when we're afflicted and whenever we're dealing with each other's faults, He wants us, He demands of us that we pray. Don't think that you're going to be able to go through affliction, nor are you going to be able to deal with faults God's way without prayer. In context, without effectual fervent prayer. And secondly, we find that effectual prayer is the kind of prayer that works in these situations. What will avail? What will accomplish an outcome? What will have a good outcome? What will bring it about? What works? What get answers? What gets intervention and strength? Tell me what that is. Tell me if you will, believer, how complaining and griping and sulking and fighting and rebellion has ever helped anyone. Has it ever helped you? Has it ever helped whenever you're under affliction to lash it or afflicting? Has that ever helped? It might help for a little season, but you'll bring more wrath upon yourself. Has it ever helped? Does it help to sulk or fight? Do you feel better whenever you sit around sulking because you've been afflicted? Does that ever help you? I'm telling you from experience. I know that those things do not help. I'm telling not only from experience, but more importantly, from the authority of the Word of God, those things do not help believers under affliction. How's it working for you in dealing with your brother? in the faults that they have. How does gossip work for you? How does complaining work for you? How does fighting, seeking revenge work for you? How has that ever worked for any believer? The fact is, is it does not work. It just causes more problems, doesn't it? And so, here we have an answer for the situation. And that answer is effectual, fervent, earnest praying. And that's what he says in the text. Think a minute with me. Think about when you think about effectual and fervent and earnest, because those are the words that are used in the text. Think about effort. Think about something that's intense. Think about something that's grueling. Think about something that is time-consuming. Think about someone who's going out and they're exercising, or they're working hard in their yard, or they're putting their back into it. Because that's exactly what we find in the text. Drastic situations call for drastic praying. And don't expect God to work Do not expect God to work. Do not look for God to work if you're not willing to work in prayer. Elijah is the example in our text. Elijah was going through drastic situations. Israel was being led by a wicked woman. by the name of Jezebel. Oh, I know Ahab was king, but he was a panty-laced king who let his wife rule over the kingdom. He had made an allegiance with her and thereby her gods, and had brought in the gods of Baal into the nation of Israel. And so they were ruling in this horrible way, and Israel was steeped in idolatry. It was drastic. The country was in shambles. because of the wickedness of this great man Ahab and this great woman Jezebel. But the kind of praying that worked, the kind of praying that ultimately brought Israel to her knees, and what I mean by her knees is in repentance, what brought her to her knees was the kind of prayer that Elijah prayed. And I said it last week. Elijah did not pray for God to bless Israel. God, Elijah prayed for God to bring a curse upon Israel, not because he hated Israel. And I'm not saying that we can't pray for blessing. What we should be praying for is the blessing of repentance. And we should be praying for and thanking God for the blessings that he still gives us. Because God does bless us. Everybody drove here this morning, didn't you? You didn't have to walk in the rain. That's a blessing from God. And you had a nice place last night, a comfortable bed, and you had, you know, air-conditioned houses to sleep in. That's a blessing from God. Not that we deserve any of that, but God gives us those blessings, and we should be thankful for that. And we should be thankful for the measure of repentance that we see in our nation, and thankful for leaders that lead in the right way. Those are things that we should be thankful for. But in the text, Elijah prayed for famine. In the text, Elijah prayed that the crops would stop. Elijah prayed that little children would go hungry. And that's what you find when he prays for the rain to stop up. And you don't think that would happen. If God did not send rain for three and a half years, your pantry would run dry. That's why you had that woman. Way up in the north country, right on the border where the Gentiles lived, you had a woman there whose mill barrel ran empty. She was going out to get her last little handful, right? And the reason that she was in that condition is because famine had set in. Matter of fact, in the text back over in Elijah's time, the whole city was in such a bad way. They were being besieged. And so not only did they have famine, but they also had war going on. I mean, you're talking about, this is ripe of judgment. God's judgment is going on in the land. And there were women who had, one of them had killed her kid and ate it. That's how bad it was. And in all this, God was working behind the scenes to bring Israel to her senses. And so judgment, judgment had done this. And Elijah was the prophet, the man at the time. This kind of prayer, beloved, is great prayer. That's the emphasis. I want you to see that. Now, he's not telling us to pray in relationship to those things. He's using two other things that he's talking about have great need. The kind of prayer is needed. This kind of effectual, fervent prayer that can stop heaven and start heaven is the kind of prayer that's needed in different situations. And in the text, he mentions two situations. It's so easy for us to look out and say how bad things are out there, and they are. But hard for us to look at ourselves and say how bad things are at home at times. There are two kinds of great needs in the text, afflictions and forgiveness. See those with me this morning. Afflictions, if any man's afflicted, let him pray. Both are extreme. They're drastic. And that's the emphasis here. That's why James brings in Elijah. He's proving a point. He's establishing a fact. He's saying these are drastic, and this was drastic, and this is how the drastic situation was overcome. Notice the affliction if you go back to 7, verse 7, it says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, to the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband will wait for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient. You know what the Bible says, don't you, about patience, it says, Tribulation work is patience. We're waiting for the Lord to come back, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, unless ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth at the door." Just be patient. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. How did the prophets handle... You know, whenever they went out to preach, the prophets, most of the time their message was The people of God had stiffened their hearts and their necks against God. And so what does he say? Be like the prophets. They were patient. They endured affliction. Jeremiah, he's hit out. Elijah's on the run from Jezebel. Be patient in affliction. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Whenever you see the outcome and how God blesses in the end, we say, wow, that was wonderful. You have heard of the patience of Job. Have you heard of that? You heard about how Job dealt with affliction? And have seen the end of the Lord. Did you not see, did you not read the end of the book of Job? How that he was better in the end than he was in the beginning? That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. And then he says in verse 13, is any among you afflicted? Here's how the prophets handled affliction. Here's how Job handled affliction. Here's how you must handle affliction. It's serious matter. It's extreme. It is impossible for you to make it through these kinds of afflictions without this kind of praying. You must pray. You must have effectual, fervent, earnest prayer and affliction. You can't make it without it. This kind of praying is necessary not only in affliction. But in forgiveness. It is impossible to forgive. Without this kind of praying. So I'm going to say, I can forgive, Brother Shepherd. I can forgive. You can. You really can. Do you hold a grudge? Do you bring it up in your mind? Do you bring it up in your heart? Do you bring it up in your arguments when you rehash them? When you get into an argument? And you've forgiven? You really have forgiven? No, you haven't. Oh, I forgive him, but I can never forget it. What if God forgave the way you forgave? You know, when God forgives us our sin, he forgets them. And I can prove that with scripture this morning. He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west. He doesn't keep on throwing them up in our face. It doesn't mean that we do not have consequences for our sin and consequences for our action. But the fact is, is that we have to have the kind of forgiveness. And here we come to our text and verse 16 says, confess your faults one to another and pray for another. You know what you need to have? You need to have some earnest prayer to do that kind of stuff. In Luke 17, not unfamiliar, But Luke 17, I'll draw things to a close. In Luke 17, And when He said unto His disciples, Then said He unto His disciples, It is impossible that all fences will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. Don't offend God's little ones. I'm one of God's little ones. You're one of God's little ones. The brother back there and the sister over there, they're one of God's little ones. You be careful not to offend them. And then, the other point we're preaching about, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn again to thee and say, I repent, thou shalt forgive him, not that you might forgive him or you, you shall. And we've looked at this passage before, but let's look at it again. And the apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith. You know why they said that and why they prayed that way, why they asked that way, because it is impossible. to forgive, especially whenever you are cheated against the second time or the third time or the fourth time or the fifth time or the sixth time or the seventh time. Listen, in a day, not in a week, not in a year, not in a month, not 10 years down the road, but in a day, read the text from the lips of your Savior. So if you want to be able to, to do these great things, then you need to have some earnest, effectual prayer. These are just two examples of the kind of praying that we need to have in relationship to these things. There are other scriptures that teach the same thing in other areas. We can avail much by prayer. And we can pray for our families and our children, our spouses, our nation, our church, evangelism, our health, wisdom, prosperity, where there is a great need. And we have the opportunity to pray the same way Elijah prayed and have the same kind of outcome that Elijah had. but pray this way earnestly, fervently. May God bless us with this. May it convict our hearts and move us to be this kind of people. This kind of people that accomplishes great things for the Lord, in the Lord, and with the Lord. Don't expect the rain to stop or start without this kind of praying. May the Lord bless you is my prayer. Thank you for your attention to God's word.