When Elijah Prayed, James Preached

"At the end of his epistle James adduces the example of Elijah in order to illustrate and exemplify the duty of earnest prayer" Carrick, IP, p126.

Here is an inspired example where a minor point in a particular text (a narrative in this case) may legitimately be a major emphasis of a sermon.

"One of the major problems with the charge made by some within the redemptive-historical school to the effect that an exemplary use of an Old Testament or New Testament passage will inevitably be atomistic, subjectivist, anthropocentric, and moralistic is that this charge actually recoils upon James himself - it recoils upon the Holy Scriptures of God." - p128.

Always a bad thing when we think we are smarter than the Bible.