Restoring the Wanderer (James 5:15-20)

All right, so I grew up in the church, so I was just all around

Christians like my whole life. And I remember a term or like a

phrase growing up, like backsliding Christian.

I don't really hear that word being used a lot anymore to talk

about people. But just when I was younger,

that was just a term that was thrown out a lot like, Oh, he's

a backsliding. Oh, that person backslid.

That's what you don't see in my church anymore.

And it was kind of like a big deal.

And it was kind of like AI don't know, like fodder for gossip to

like, Oh my gosh, did you hear like they're like drinking

again, They're cussing again, like, Oh my gosh, they're

backsliding. And I don't know, like I just

felt like being a backsliding Christian meant like something

really taboo and like untouchable.

And you had like, avoid them and stay away from them.

It's like really bad, right? Well, in today's passage, James

kind of addresses this, this idea of someone who's

backsliding. The phrase that he uses is stray

from the truth, truth being the word of God.

So he talks about people who stray and what we need to do

about it as a church. All right?

So he talks about how to prevent this from happening and also

when it does happen, what can the church do?

Is there anything that we should do or do we just let them be and

just whatever? Bye, bye.

You know, I don't know. Let's find out.

The question today is what should we do when someone

wanders away? What should we do when someone

wanders away? So we're going to read James

James 5:15–20

chapter 5, verses 15 through 20. OK, 15 through 20.

I'm going to just read the whole passage I can.

OK, All right. This is God's word.

The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord

will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he

will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to

one another and pray for one another so that you may be

healed. The prayer of a righteous person

is very powerful in its effect. Elijah was a human being, as we

are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for

three years and six months it did not rain on the land.

Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the land

produced its fruit. My brothers and sisters, if any

among us raised from the truth, and someone turn turns him back,

let that person know that whoever turns a Sinner from the

air of his way will save his soul from death and cover a

multitude of sins. Amen.

So what should we do when someone wanders away?

We need to learn to recognize the signs of wandering, learn to

recognize the signs of wandering.

So I'm going to kind of start from the end of this passage

versus 19 through 20. That's where James mentions if

any among you strays from the truth and, you know, turning him

back, turning a thinner from the era of his way.

So when James talks about straying from the truth, some

people might think like, oh, this must be somebody who has

like turned away from God, like they've rejected God.

They're not Christian anymore. But that's not what James is

talking about. He's addressing Christians here,

brothers and sisters, if any among you right.

So these are Christians who have maybe started to drift away from

living more faithfully as believers, right?

You're not being hostile to God, you're not hating him and

blatantly like rebelling. It's just this kind of gradual

wandering that happens when we start neglecting certain

spiritual disciplines like spending time with God, prayer,

worship, coming to church, fellowship, all these things,

right? And I think this happens for

various reasons in our lives. And this is something that can

happen to all of us. Maybe it has happened to all of

us. We're all capable of drifting

away. It could be because of a sin

that we won't let go of. It could be disappointment or

hurt. I know people who've drifted

away because they were hurt by the church, by their leaders, or

they were unhappy with something that the church did or how

somebody acted in the church. And personally, for me, what

I've struggled with is life just getting busier.

I think a lot of us can relate to that, especially as you move

on in the stages of life, you know, you get married, you have

kids, you do, you just get busier.

And for me, when I became a parent, like, I like, it was a

battle to not drift away. I will be honest.

And if I'm being more honest, I did drift away.

And I feel like I'm still recovering from that.

And I just remember like, you know, you have a newborn baby,

life is crazy. You're not sleeping, you're

cranky, you're like fighting with your spouse more.

And then slowly, you know, but surely like I spend less time

with God. It's just too tiring.

I start praying less until that just became more normal, right?

And then another thing was I started listening to the voice

of the world more instead of God's truth.

I started like living by the truth of the world where like,

you know, the world's, oh, you got to do this, You got to do

that to be a good parent. And I always just felt like I

was failing, right? And the further I drifted from

God, the further I'm drifting from his grace, which is what I

really needed the most during that time, right?

I think another reason why we often, you know, drift away or

wander is maybe because we don't take it seriously enough.

Like, what's the big deal? Like God loves me still.

Oh, God's grace, you know, if I wander for a little bit, it's

fine. You know, I can always go back.

I don't know, I feel like that's kind of taking God's grace for

granted. And I think we need to start by

acknowledging what drifting away actually is.

It is actually sin. It's no worse than any other

sin. It's not like the worst than in

the world, but it is a sin. Because when you start living

this way, drifting away from God, you are choosing to live

the way you want to. You're making decisions based on

what you want to do, what's better for you, what's easier

for you, what's more comfortable for you.

Not what God's word is telling you to do.

You're choosing to be in control instead of letting God be in

control. That's what drifting away is

ultimately, right? And it is a sin.

And now it doesn't just happen overnight.

Like I said, it is a gradual process.

It kind of sneaks up on you. It's just a result of many, many

choices that get piled up on one on top of the other where

eventually you're just so used to just choosing what's easier

and what feels better in the short term.

You know, doing your devotionals or quiet time as some of you

guys might call it, it's, it's hard to do OK.

Just ask any Christian, unless you're like like that rare

person who's super disciplined in life.

I've only met like not even a handful of those people.

And like doing quiet time is just really hard.

And even if I'm being honest, sometimes I'd rather be like

doing something else. Like as a pastor, I'll just be

honest with you, OK? Like, you know, like doing

dishes. Like I don't really like doing

dishes, but if there's like a pile of dishes and it's gross,

then I just I want to deal with it right then and there, right?

But then let's say it's usually my devotional time.

I walk in the kitchen and just see that dirty sink and I'm

like, I have to do the dishes. God, I have to.

And then I start doing the dishes like for an hour and then

I'm tired and then I don't want to do anything after that.

OK, I mean, it satisfied this urging me to like get a clean

home, but then, you know, it was just good for the short term,

right? And for parents, it's so easy to

let our kids become the priority in our lives.

And the world will tell you like your kids are everything, but

the Bible says God is everything.

But, you know, like I, I know, I know the struggle.

Like they're always there. They always want something.

They're always needy. And you're just like, oh, OK,

fine. I'll just, I'll just, you know,

meet your needs instead of spending time with God.

I'll do what you want, not what God wants.

So it's, I understand it's very easy to fall into that.

But in the long run, these things don't bring lasting joy.

They don't bring lasting fruit in our lives.

Lasting joy, lasting fruit only happen when we are walking with

God and in community with his people.

Now I bet some of you can relate.

Maybe you guys experience drifting away during a difficult

season in life. Maybe you were struggling with

something, maybe even after, like I know this happens a lot

after a missions trip, people drift away, you know, missions

high and you come back and you're like, oh, like I miss

missions. And then you start drifting away

from God. So you show up to church flest

you pray less until that becomes your normal right now, what can

we do when we find ourselves in this situation?

Is there anything that we can do?

Of course, that's why James Rice's letter point to is we

have to remember why we need the church community, OK, We need

the church community. I know there's people out there

who feel like they can be the lone wolf Christian just like go

at it by themselves. But the Scripture is so clear,

like we need community, all these commands to do this.

And that is all in the context of the church.

And if you're already plugged in, great.

All right, Do your best by God's grace to stay there.

Stay plugged in. OK?

Community is one of the best defenses against straying from

the truth. And of course, we're talking

about a healthy church community, one that's really

striving to live out the gospel, live by God's words.

And there's two key things that James mentions in verse 16 that

a healthy church does, right? Things that the church does to

really help one another stay on track with God, right?

And that's it's confession and prayer, right?

So verse 16 says, therefore confess your sins to one another

and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

And like we learned last week, this healing is not always just

physical, but it is also spiritual.

That's why we confess our sins to experience spiritual healing.

So again, it says confess to one another, pray for one another.

Now, these are things that we can do on our own as well.

We confess and pray. But there is a specific type of

confession and prayer that happens in community, right?

It's mutual confession, mutual prayer.

That's the key here. So confessing mutual confession,

simply telling somebody at church about your sins,

something that you're struggling with, you know, and you don't

have to go into all the sort of details like you don't have to

be like, Oh my gosh, I did this and this is what happened.

And like, just lay out the whole thing.

Like you don't have to do that. If anything, that could be like

stumbling for others and don't do that unless like you feel

like it's actually going to be helpful.

But like just confess your sin what you did.

And that's enough in the Bible, when people confess their sins,

that's just, hey, I admit to God, I sinned, I did this and I

am sorry, God. And that's that.

God's not like you got to recall every little.

He doesn't do that. OK, Shame is not the goal here.

All right, So we confess our sins to one another.

Some trusted people. It could be your CG, which is

why, hey, CG, right? We have CG at our church, like

the main way to get plugged in. We do that so others can pray

for us, right? Praying for one another in the

in this passage happens because we're confessing sins to one

another and then others are praying for you.

And you know, that's what I really the goal of our CG

ministry is, is where you find a place to belong, to confess your

struggles and have these people around you who can really walk

with you and pray for you through your struggles, right?

It's kind of like having people who can keep an eye on you, not

like, in a creepy way, but like when you know, when you're sick,

like, it's nice to have somebody, like, watch out for

you. Like, if you're a parent with a

child who's really sick, you keep an eye on them to make sure

they don't get any worse, right? And if they do get worse, you

intervene. You take them to the doctor or

whatever. And we're all sick, OK?

Spiritually, we're sick. We're sinners.

We need brothers and sisters to keep an eye on us and to

intervene when you start wandering away.

OK, When you're isolated from community, it is so easy to

stray, right? When you're isolated, it's so

much easier to stray. I remember the first time I went

to missions in college, it was after my first year.

It was during the summer. And then that missions team was

awesome. It was like through a campus

ministry I was part of. It was really great.

But you spend so much time with them, training with them for

months, and then you basically spend like almost a month abroad

with them, overseas with them. And then like, you're with them

every day. They're like your family pretty

much. And then you come back from the

trip. And I was living on campus that

summer because I had a summer session to attend, and I felt so

lonely. I'm an introvert and usually I

like being by myself, But that summer I was like, something was

off. I felt really lonely, OK?

And I, I was just so isolated because even our campus

ministry, it wasn't that active during the summers and I was not

plugged into a church at that time.

All right, So I did go to a church on Sundays, but literally

I did not get involved at all in that church.

I didn't serve. I didn't talk to anybody else,

just see people from my campus ministry who were like, most of

them were gone during the summer.

And so I was very isolated, like, spiritually too, right?

So I spend less time with God because no one's around me,

like, hey, let's quiet time. Like, you know, no one's there

to keep me accountable. And I even start like, a

relationship, OK. And then that was like, even

worse, like, for my spiritual life, distracting me even more.

Bad idea. OK, Looking back, I wish I had

made more of an effort to get plugged into a church.

I really do. I think that would have helped

immensely during that time when I was very isolated.

So This is why, you know, community is so important

because that's where confession and prayer happen.

OK, So challenges, do whatever you guys can, right, To stay

connected to a community. And that means as individuals,

we have to do our part. And that part is to show up.

Are you going to show up, participate actively in the

community? Otherwise, like if someone only

comes out every so often, it's really hard to tell when they

start wandering away. Like they're already not coming

out that often. Wandering away means you've come

out not that often. So it's like, oh, it's just life

as usual for them, I guess. But if you're committed and

you've been coming out regularly and you're going through a

season of hardship and you start drifting, then it becomes very

noticeable, right? You just start coming out less,

you know, you just seem different.

If we know you and we see you often, like we'll notice when

you're wandering, right? So that's our individual

responsibility to show up, confess, so that others can pray

for you. All right.

Now, the community obviously has a responsibility to write as a

whole. We have a responsibility to

those who wander. And that's .3, which is we have

to take steps to restore the wanderer, OK?

Take steps to restore the wanderer, OK?

We've really got to pursue restoration as a community.

And so verses 19 to 20 is like James's conclusion of this

letter and he's really ending with this like, like, I guess

challenge the community to really reach out to those who

are straying from the truth. OK.

It's a little different from like people like Paul and they

and their letters, like this benediction, like, Oh my God

bless you. But James is like this

challenge, do this, pursue the wander, like go save them.

You know, it's like a big deal. Bring someone back into

fellowship, restoring them to the community.

We're not supposed to like shame them or cast them out as I've

seen some churches do with people who like backslide.

But we got to show love and grace and and truth to them,

right? And I feel like James is really

offering hope to those who, you know, they might be hearing this

letter that James wrote. And they're like, man, like I

failed in so many areas, like all these like commands and

instructions that James is giving, Like I'm really not

living up to it. But his conclusion is like, hey,

like, you can always come back. All right.

God has the heart to pursue you and to come to bring you back

into fellowship. And so he is giving us hope that

no matter what, no matter where you're at in your walk with God,

you can always come back, right? James says.

Like when someone brings a wanderer back, it's like saving

their soul. It's like covering a multitude

of sins. And that's because it's a really

big deal spiritually when someone's in community, because

it's in community that you can you receive correction when

you're like, you know, not aligned with God's Word.

You get reminded about God's love.

And like I said, people pray for you and help walk with you so

that you're reminded of the gospel day in and day out.

It really helps us stay true to God's words when we're in

community. I think as a community it really

means we have to have a right heart.

And I know having the right heart is hard.

Heart is hard, OK? That's hard to say.

But we have to have the heart of Jesus, OK?

We must have the heart of Jesus, the heart of Jesus where he was

willing to leave the 99 sheep behind to go after the one lost

sheep. OK, now the point of that, you

know, parable that he tells, it's not about neglecting the

99. Like the reasonable, like

logical person might be like, Oh my gosh, Jesus, like you just

have you, you still have 99 cheap.

Just take care of them. Like, who cares?

Like one lost sheep, Like you're going to spend all your energy

like going after the one, like just, you know, cut your losses.

It's, you know, take care of the 99.

But that's not the point of that parable.

The point is God's heart for the lost, for that one individual

soul that God really loves and cherishes and wants to bring

back. That's the point of that

parable, OK? It's not about neglecting them.

It's about him wanting that one to come back.

So that means every one of us here, wherever you're at, maybe

you've been wandering. Maybe you feel like you've

wandered so far. God still has this heart, the

heart of the shepherd. Who left the 99 to go after that

one lost sheep? He has that heart for you and

that's the heart that he wants his people, the church to have

as well for those who wander. So what does it look like to go

after that one lost sheep? You know, some practical things

that you can do is simply you can start by texting the person

that you feel like, oh, maybe they're not doing so well

spiritually. Where have they been?

Like, I don't know, let's, you know, send them a message or

give them a call and then maybe you could, you know, meet, meet

with them for coffee and then of course, pray for them, right?

I think prayer is really the most important thing.

I know, like, I'll pray for you. It gets like kind of overused

and people say it and they don't even mean it sometimes.

But real prayer when you pray, James says it is very powerful

in its effect. It is powerful and effective.

So the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and

effective. Now, who is this righteous

person? What does that mean?

Now, I think if you recall last week's passage, James talked

about elders like anointing and praying.

He's not talking about elders here.

He's talking about anyone, any Christian.

OK. And he talks about Elijah, like

why is Elijah being mentioned here?

It's because he's saying, yeah, Elijah is this famous prophet,

but he was a man just like us. His prayers were powerful not

because he was powerful, because the God that he was praying to

is powerful, right? The God that he had faith in was

powerful. That's why his prayers were so

effective. And the only thing was that he

was righteous, right? What does righteousness mean?

A commentator says this. The essence of biblical

righteousness is dependence upon God in all one's dealings.

To be righteous is to live a life centered upon the word of

God. Not sinlessness, right?

Not sinlessness, But mercy typifies this life.

So who is this describing? Any of you?

Like, if you're someone who depends on Jesus, you've put

your faith in him. You're a Christian, a follower

of Christ. You're a righteous person.

Your prayers are powerful and effective because of who you're

praying to, because of who you have faith in.

I know. I'm sure like there are those of

you who know people who have drifted away or who are

wandering. Maybe you yourself aren't that

season. And it's not because you know

the wanderer hates God. It's not like they stop

believing in him. But sometimes, yeah, life gets

busy, the motivation dies, and then we just lose the strings to

keep going on our own. When you see people drifting,

how do you normally respond? How do you normally react to

someone like that? So that I think the challenge

for us as SBMCI think, they tend to try to, like, keep our hands

out of people's business. Like, oh, like they're going

through something personal, private.

Let's just you know, I don't want to butt in by the Bibles

like, but in sometimes you should, but in OK, like if you

start noticing something and you're like, oh, I haven't seen

that person in a while. I wonder how they're doing.

Pay attention to that little voice.

That could be the Holy Spirit prompting you to act, prompting

you to reach out. Pay attention when you think

that wonder about somebody. OK, so challenge really is SPMC.

Listen to that voice and reach out.

And I'll be honest with you, like there are more times than I

can count where I've kind of just, oh, they're they're

choosing to go leave the church or not come out.

That's on them. And I'm just going to take care

of my own business because I have my own issues to contend

with. I'm trying not to drift away

myself. So I need people to reach out to

me. You know, like I've, I've done

that. I thought that OK, but God is he

was like rebuking me like Esther, you can't do that.

We are called each of us to reach out and to care for one

another, to keep each other accountable.

And I think in the announcements you guys heard about covenant

membership, right? Shameless plug.

OK, but that's why we have covenant membership.

That's the whole point. If you've been wondering like,

what is this covenant membership?

It sounds so like, I don't know, like this old term of covenant,

Covenant just means like a promise.

So, you know, you take this class and if you choose to

become an official member, a custom member, it just means

you're promising to keep one another accountable and to

commit to this church, right? So those are kind of two

keywords, accountability and commitment, right?

So accountability really is about just hey, like I'm going

to promise to do my best. Like if I see someone wandering

or having a hard time, I'm going to reach out to them now,

message them or meet up with them to not punish or shame

them, but to restore them, to help them heal, to bring them

back to God in the community. And commitment is about us,

right? Our responsibility to show up

and to share and to participate in the community life.

So we have our cover membership, but if not that we have our CGS

and even we have growth groups. There are many ways at least

that Archers that you can get plugged in and receive that

accountability and, you know, participate in community and as

a safeguard from wandering from God, right.

So church, let's be agents of God's grace to those who have

drifted away. Let's reach out to those who are

spiritually sick, who are in need of healing and in need of

restoration. So what should we do?

And someone wanders away. My main point is we need to

pursue the wanderer and restore them back to God and the church

community. Let's pray at this time.

Let's just spend a few moments to pray on our own.

Just reflect on the passage, reflect on the sermon, and

that's got to really reveal to you like, where are you at, you

know, in your relationship with God.

Maybe you are in a season of wandering.

Maybe pray that you would be able to come back, that you

would choose to come back. And maybe you are doing well.

But you know people who are wandering right now, pray for

the heart to reach out, the boldness to pursue them for the

sake of restoration. Let's pray that SPMC would be a

church where confession and prayer happen on a regular

basis. So let's pray.