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[0:00] It's a great time to go through this evening but there are some sheets over at the side and you can grab one at the end if you're getting a chance to get them in the morning.

[0:27] Maybe one practical information, I won't police this or enforce this or anything but it seems sensible when we were working out the chair formations and that kind of thing.

[0:38] In the hall what we would have is all the chairs out in the morning and then we would have the chairs taken away in the evening so everybody would sit kind of in the centre section. So what we worked out was that this area here would pretty much take everybody and that would keep us together and give us a big volume in the centre.

[1:00] So if you don't mind, not today but in the future, if we could kind of gravitate into the centre that would be easier to mind then as well. Now you might say, how dare you say that, we've always sat in that seat over there but you've only ever sat in it for one week prior.

[1:17] You know, so that's just not on the table tonight but if that's possible, great. If you feel uneasy about it, don't worry about it, nobody's going to come chasing you.

[1:28] But it just seems like a sensible thing that all the people together would make it more volume in the place.

[1:39] So let's begin our time of worship and let's sing to God's praise. Psalm 100 in Gaelic, verse 2 stands us.

[1:50] Psalm 100 and verses 1 to 3 is marked in English. All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with a cheerful voice and serve with mirth his praise forth to tell.

[2:02] Come ye before him and rejoice. Know that the Lord is God indeed. Without our aid he did us make. We are his flock. He doth us feed. And for his sheep he doth us take.

[2:14] These two stanzas in Galilee. To God's praise. That one is a staat foot.

[2:33] On yourklav glass. Kiss me the Oregon129.

[2:47] These two swami, the Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

[3:28] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

[3:58] Oh, oh, oh, oh.

[4:28] Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh.

[4:40] Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh.

[4:51] Oh, oh. Oh, oh. 푸고 out ugh oh uh uh machine and i will say and sing again to god's face mission page 499 499 and this is please the verses that we're going to be looking at in james one of the verses or within one of the verses it says is anyone happy left of sing songs of praise so we're going to sing uh that uh mission phase 499 that speaks of the happy day that picks their choice when jesus came into our lives so we'll stand to sing in a moment if you could turn in your bibles please to james chapter 5 james chapter 5 and uh we will read from we will read from verse 13 to the end of the chapter last section is anyone of you in trouble he should pray is anyone happy let him sing songs of praise is anyone of you sick he should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint them with oil in the name of the lord and the person 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 of course my brothers if one of you should wonder from the truth that someone should bring him back remember this whoever turns a sinner from the other of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins amen and may god bless that be it of his word to us we're going to sing again to god's praise this time from psalm 98 psalm 98 and we'll sing from verses 1 to verse 6 we'll sing a new song to the lord for wonders he

[8:53] hath done his right hand and his holy arm and victory hath won the lord god his salvation hath caused to be known his justice in the heathen sight he openly hath shown he mindful of his grace and truth to israel's house have been and the salvation of our lord all ends of the earth have seen time to the end of verse 6 to god's his grace let's pray for a moment our heavenly father we thank you for this time that we have together we thank you for your day we thank you for your day and may that it's been set aside from all other days when we are called to stop work and to to find rest in you we thank you lord that the call that was placed upon us that we are responding to even in our being here this evening is a call to worship and we thank you that as we open your word and as we read it as we sing these praises we are reminded of all that is stirring our hearts that causes us to worship we thank you lord that you are our god we thank you that you love us we thank you that you care for us we thank you that you are the one who is ever mindful of your grace and your truth we thank you that you are the god who does not change and we thank you that you are the god who does not remain distant from us but calls us to come and find infamacy in your presence thank you for all that we heard this morning through your servant john lach and for that pointer once more to genius the picture that we saw of me we sat time and time again at the feet of jesus and receive that ministry from our lord and we pray now that each one of us we find ourselves in our hearts at the feet of christ that we would be listening for his voice that we would be looking in faith to him that we would be encouraged by the wonder of of the gospel of jesus christ that when we could do nothing to save ourselves jesus came to seek and to save sinners and we ask lord that each one of us would know that we truly are sinners who are saved by grace and we are sustained by the hand of god you promised lord that you will never leave us not forsake us you have promised that you will never let us go but you hold us in the palm of your hand we pray that each one of us would know that we see exactly that you know us in our lives in our circumstances and even further reminder in the verses that we read that whatever we find ourselves in we are encouraged we are called to come to you in prayer and in praise so father we come now in and through your son jesus christ our savior and we pray for the health of the holy spirit and praying in praising and preaching and then listening to all that you have to say to us to your world we pray for those who are not with us tonight for various reasons some you're sick and some you're in hospital and some you're at home and you're struggling with physical frailty and we ask father that you would reach out and you would touch each one and they would know that the ministry of the holy spirit where they are and father we pray for others who may have no strong desire to come to this place or we ask that you would reach out and draw them we know that we do not

[12:57] decide in ourselves that we are going to turn to you that you are the god who calls us and he draws us to yourself as we pray as he has drawn us in times past and we pray in times present for that you would be drawing those who may be distant from you at this time we ask father that you would continue with us and we pray for others who meet as we meet thank you from wachian the congregation of beaver brother thank you lord for the encouragement that the lucky and those with him work to us this morning we pray that they would be an encouragement this evening in beaver brother and that you would speak your word to we pray for other congregations around us the different denominations the church of scotland and the the peterian church of faith for the the church of cothian and the stalte and the river brother wherever your people gather lord whatever the gospel of jesus christ is preached we ask lord that you would as your blessing you would build your trust to hear us and help us we ask take away from our mind anything that would be a distraction anything and you'd be wearing this a standard with one and help us to know that that we are the peace of god that passes on and we stand okay that's a key with no one for us in the path of james chapter five if you could have that open please some of you know some of you actually gave us our cats but we have two cats we have pop and we have snap we once had a crackle but crackle was gone another story but uh you have two cats at the moment and uh pop is the white one if you came to the house some brown and black marks and pop is it's very loyal snaps it in a brown tortoise shell cat and uh she's a bit more fickle she likes to look for the best deal in the neighborhood so when tisco's um brought to us kitty cat instead of felix for the second time in as many months snap took off snap does not like typical she made that very clear to me in the past well when the second bats came and i poured it into the bowl she just looked at me and i said i've got got nothing else and she just looked at me so i put it down and she walked away in indignation she came back the next day i threw the kitty cat in again she just looked at me again and she walked out of my life and she walked out of the home for about a week i don't know where she went but she obviously went to a house with a nicer cat she came back about a week later looking quite fat quite smug but the point i want to make actually is that when snap was away pop was depressed didn't help but notice pop was depressed she just slept for hour after hour during the day didn't chase any rats she didn't chase any mice she just slept and slothed about the place she walked about because they're sisters snap and pop are sisters they were made to be in relationship with each other so that's why pop was unhappy when snap was away and that i believe is why snap came back to the house even though she was running the risk of having another awful pouch of titty cat because of the relationship and this is a chapter in the book of james where james reminds these believers they're in a relationship

[17:06] with god and they're in a relationship with each other through their relationship with god and just as in any relationship we we communicate with each other we speak to each other and we we listen to each other just as in any relationship we share with each other in the good times and also in the difficult times james is saying the same is true for the christian verse 13 sometimes he says you'll be in trouble sometimes trouble will will be in your life sometimes verse 13 you'll be happy sometimes verse 14 you'll be sick or weak the word to mean both but he says in every instance whatever your circumstances whenever you find yourself in every situation he encourages us to come to god in prayer and in praise and history tells us that james practiced what he preached james had a nickname i think i've told you this but i can't remember those in harris house can't answer this question because they just heard it but um can anyone remember james's nickname i should have told you what is it now you were at harris house faragher the chiefly that was the nickname james's nickname the church historians tell us his nickname by those who knew him best he's called camel knees camel knees have got these horrible scrunched up callous knees and james had these kind of camel knees and the reason he had his camel knees was because he spent so much time on his knees in praise and prayer so he was speaking here as a mature christian he was speaking here as one who was carried along by the holy spirit he was speaking here as one who had many years of experience in the matters that he spoke of so what does he teach us this evening we'll see things but whether we get to the three and seven in the next 20 minutes i'm not sure the first thing that james teaches us here is that we're to pray privately uh the second point that we are taught here is is that we're to praise publicly and the third thing if we get to it is we are to pray for quickly to stay together so first of all pray privately verse 13 is any one of you in trouble you should pray and the word there for trouble is a word which leads to uh calamity or or misfortune you know sometimes we find ourselves we're awake at two o'clock in the morning and we're worried about something there's trouble and it may have been with us for a long time but it may have come suddenly into our lives and and so that's the kind of situation that james is speaking into our god is speaking into it through james is there trouble he says that there is trouble in your life you find yourself struggling to sleep at two in the morning great is any one of you in trouble you should pray and i have to say i just love the use of the singular is any one of you in trouble you should pray god is interested in every one of us he's interested in the individual he's listening for the prayers

[21:07] that come from that one person who struggle that one person who's having a battle at half past two in the morning god is listening for the fear is any one of you in trouble you should pray i remember in the past that i signed an online testing for something somebody sent me away and i sent i signed this this petition online for i can't remember what the cause was but ever since i i signed that i get three or four or five emails a day um from the same company asking to sign petitions forever and as i was preparing the sermon the the email pinged and uh this email came in from from that company and it says this dear david britain's bees need our help now from my back history some of you know this uh if anybody is not of a mind to help these are wasps as me i haven't had a very very bad experience in days past but um anyway this was the plea britain's bees need our help the wild meadows and flower speeds feed on are disappearing fast and that means our buzzy friends could be in for a very tough spring over the last few decades in the uk uh we've lost 97 of us well for our meadows making food scarce for our bees that's where we come in david if thousands of us come together so went on but the whole premise of the email was if thousands of us come together we'll be heard if enough people sign this thing then those who are in power will will have to listen and they have to act on on behalf of our fuzzy friends i didn't sign the petition by the way but i'm telling you this because in this world we can find sometimes that we're in the most severe trouble and yet our experience when we go looking for help there's no one really cares we call out for help and we find no one is listening and that's why we get these petitions in our inbox now the whole the whole gist of this is if you can get 150 000 names all shouting the same thing then maybe those who put in power will listen the email i think said actually we have 130 000 signatures if we can get to 150 000 we'll present this at parliament we'll take this to westminster and those in power they're gonna they're gonna have to listen they're gonna have to help us because there's so many saying the same thing and yet the contrast with with james here is such a striking contrast if any one of you is in trouble if only one person is having a battle in the world when the lord says he says hell i will help remember in mark chapter 10 but let's go to mark 10s for a moment it's warm and here it will keep your way mark chapter 10 and verse 46 they came to then they came to jericho as jesus and his disciples together with a large crowd

[25:10] were leaving the city a blind man barquing us that is the son of the meis was sitting by the roadside begging when he heard that it was jesus of nazareth he began to shout jesus son of david have mercy on many of you and told them to be quiet but he shouted all the more son of david have mercy on the man jesus stopped and said call him so they called the blind man cheer up on your feet he's calling you throwing his cloak aside he jumped his feet and came to jesus what do you want me to do for you what trouble are you in what do you want me to do for you jesus asked the man the blind man said rabbi i want to see go said jesus your faith is healed immediately he received his sight and followed jesus along the road and you know why i read that massive crowd one man shouting he's in trouble the crowd's turned to him and said shush don't you know how important this jesus is why do you ever think he would listen to just you don't you think he's got a thousand other things to to do and other people to see and yet what we see happening here is that jesus hears the cry of the individual jesus goes into the middle of the crowd he picks out the individual he gives him his full attention and he helps him and the wonder of this is that the same the same help the same attention the same deliverance is still available to us tonight and all the time the almighty god the one who sees everything and who has absolute full knowledge in every situation that we we find ourselves in the one for whom nothing is impossible the all-powerful god and he seemed to us through james if you're in trouble and even if it's just you you can't get any more signatures on your position of faith even if it's a singular cry and then i will listen to ask for my help pastor lost of us god seeing this james said i love you i know you i have promised i will care for you so if any one of you is in trouble you should think thinking back just gonna be planting this over for a ectomite of when you were in a school and you were in the class and uh some classes it was just hard to grasp the the lessons and you'd put your hand up if you needed help teacher would come and then you'd get stuck again five minutes later and put your hand up you'd ask for help teacher would come grudging but after a couple of times you think i can't put my hand up again because i just know that i wouldn't be listening to i wouldn't be given that kind of help that i need so you keep your hand up the word is saying to us here whenever keep your hand up whenever whatever ask for my help whenever you're in trouble pray so the encouragement here is to pray

[29:14] in your bedroom in that private place play privately or in your car or on the bus in the digger in the van at your desk on the croft up the hill in the in the office in the classroom whatever it is you can pray you don't need equipment you don't need a special location you can pray anywhere anytime with no time square the services is finished you can pray the trouble is weighing us down and it's like a doll toothache of the heart that we just can't shake and it's been there for months to pray other times when trouble comes like a a dart in the dark and you just didn't see it coming pray because the god of heaven and earth is waiting for us to ask for his help when we're in trouble so pray tribally second point this is all we're going to manage tonight praise publicly pray privately and secondly praise publicly and again let's kind of try and grind this in the whole the whole image of the relationship you know we're in a relationship with god and with each other when we're christians and when we're in a relationship when we're close with someone when we care about someone and value them as a friend we're not ashamed for people to know that we're not ashamed to speak about that i can just about remember teenage years and i know teenage years can be difficult years remember that back in school there's the cool kids and then there's the not quite so cool kids there's the popular bunch and then there's the sort of not quite so so popular bunch and very often what you could see is that the cool kids would be happy enough to play with the less cool kids in their own home with the door closed and nobody else wants them but then if you catch them down the village and the less cool kid comes and wants to spend time with them they don't want to know them they don't want to be seen with them they're ashamed they'll spend time privately but they're ashamed to actually spend time publicly with others who look at and see are we ashamed sometimes to be known and seen and heard as christians we're okay in quiet place we're okay even in the safety of a room like this but out there it's okay today i think when being a christian is such an uncool out of favor in our culture today when the gospel message the the fear message of of sin and salvation and heaven and hell and saved and lost today when that message is so despised in our in our nation i think we're in danger of being shamed into silence i think we're in danger of privatizing a relationship with jesus and trusting him and worshiping in the

[33:21] quietness of our room or our heart but being too ashamed at times the days of moving in public and james addresses that says is anyone happy i am saying songs of things what is it that makes us happy what is it makes us in our souls deeply steadily happy well it's not money and it's not things and it's not popularity and it's not success none of these things give us any sort of lasting happiness i'm having to deal with a question quite a lot just now is can we have a cup wish maria to stop talking about it can we have a coffee can we have a coffee can we have a cup if i just got a coffee then i'd be happy but the reality is i asked all these same questions 25 years ago and i got a puppy but it didn't make me forever happy so what is it that makes us happy i'm reading this week about um bob gelden he came up i don't know how i got to hear a read about bob gelden but uh for those of you who don't know who he is the younger ones probably won't he's a singer songwriter hugely successful singer songwriter he um is also somebody who i suppose is a relatively well respected political activist he made millions in his career he raised millions for charity through very high profile events he's a celebrity he was knighted he's sir bob gelder i think nowadays and yet when he wrote a book about his life an autobiography you know he entitled it is that it he's a celebrity and i think it actually came from a conversation that happened at the end of live aid remember that um uh concert massive concert all around the world huge coverage made an absolute porch for a charity and the story goes i think uh as the whole event drew to a close he turned to the musician who was on stage with him and can't remember who that was and he just quietly said is that it the implication being i thought having achieved all this my life feels satisfied and half and yet all i can see is is that it the only one who can truly make this happy joyful deeply and constant is jesus and things with this world that may give us a slight buzz uh sin it does come with pleasure but it's very fleeting and it leaves an abiding sadness remember the rich young ruler we were just in mark 10 where we think it's mark 10 again for the rich young ruler i've often quoted him because he's been used often in my own life teach me the rich young ruler he has it all he has money he has success he has reputation as loads of prospects comes to jesus but the cost of following jesus was too high so so he walked away sad

[37:24] not happy the sad you know only one that can make us truly lastingly eternally deeply happy is jesus the sin that is the depression of our soul jesus came to save us he just came to take from us that that's so sadness because he came to take from us that sin that's killing us at our heart level and he came to give us the happiness the joy that is found where we are brought into a right relationship so two questions first of all first of all are you in relationship with humans right relationship with humans have we come to as sinners and confessed our sin and asked that he would take our sin from us and give to us that salvation that that joy that peace that eternal life that that he alone can give are we christians are we christ's wants secondly if we are are we willing to see that sing that whatever the lord if we have whatever the lord gives us see if we have salvation if we know tonight that no matter what else has gone on in our lives we have our sins forgiven if we know that Jesus has saved us from hell if we are assured that we are now in a right relationship with the God who made us and who sustains us and who loves us and who will one day return to this world to take us to be with him eternally if we know that we have a whole lot to sing about so sing says James sing publicly, sing openly, sing unashamedly sing songs of praises

[40:22] St. Mac Ferguson says that the most commonly given command in all the Bible is for us to praise God sing it is almost unbelievable that we would need to be commanded to praise God because of all that he's done for us and because of all that he is in himself and yet we need that command we need to obey it day after day after day and we need to obey it day after day after day circumstances will go up and they will go down our lives will go through times with great steadiness and peace and joy and other times our lives will be difficult and marred with all kinds of trouble but as we look to his enemies he is unchanging as we look to the cross and we remember all that he has done for us we remember that everything he has done for us no one can take that from us we have trusted Christ we have saved eternally we have been brought into that position of soul happiness so does anyone have says James let them sing songs of praise

[42:02] I hope if you can Paul you do sing I remember when my sisters were in church one day with myself and my parents and there was a lady sitting next to us and my wee sister when we got home for dinner she said that lady was singing a bit spoiled but she was singing I hope you sing it doesn't matter whether it's in tune or not but it's very important that we sing when I go to wakes here it troubles me up to be honest with you I find it disturbing and I look out how few people actually open their mouths to sing songs of praise and I know in these situations we grieve but as we do with our Bibles looking for Jesus we don't grieve as we have no hope we grieve as those who remember that Jesus came to remove the sting of death we grieve as those who who remember that Jesus came to give the promise of eternal life to those who trust so even at a way even at a funeral in fact especially at a way especially at a funeral we have a whole lot to sing in the so sing the things sing songs and praises praise properly praise privately finally take heart for it but we're not going to do that tonight we'll take this and we'll deal with this very interesting kind of controversial section of Wendby we'll get a break from the sacks and we'll be thinking of this final point about the the prayer of faith and the oil and everything in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the father we thank you for the word and thank you for your promise to us that if anyone of us is in trouble we should pray and you will hear and lord you will help help us we pray to every day in every situation find ourselves praying believing that you are hearing that you are able to help and lord we pray that you would help us also to praise you openly and publicly sometimes in our own hearts we can struggle to sing praises we don't feel always like singing praises sometimes in the storms of life the last thing we want to do is sing praises but we ask lord that you would help us to fix our eyes upon Jesus to remember all that he has done for us and continues to do for us and promises that he will continue eternally to do for us and help us lord as we look to our prayer and pray to

[46:02] Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith to praise the sin praises the songs of praises public and constant forgive us lord when we we lose sight of you and we see nothing but waves crashing and lord we do thank you although you haven't studied this we do thank you for the encouragement of the last point that we are to pray cortically we are to pray together we thank you that when we are brought into relationship with God we are brought into relationship with each other we are brothers and sisters and the same family the same father and Lord we pray for each other and we pray that you would help us to keep on praying for each other especially when we're in trouble especially when we find ourselves sick or weak especially when we find ourselves in real times of difficulty help us to to pray with each other to pray for each other and thank you that we still have the freedom in this place to be able to do so to help us Lord we pray and enable us as we go from here to practice what we preach as James the writer of this epistle theory did or that we would remember and cherish and be active in the relationship that you have brought us in through Christ in his blood and enable us to pray also to encourage others to come to find that peace and that happiness in Jesus the one in whom alone we have that soul satisfaction all we sinned we pray in Jesus name and for us we sing to conclude the words on the screen but not actually in the book bless the Lord for my soul 10 000 reasons to praise the Lord who stands in the name and I may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit give us all both now and forevermore

[48:21]  Amen