SPEAKER_01: If you would open your Bibles to the book of James.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for that, Brother Anthony.
SPEAKER_01: And thank you so much for all your your prayers and support, every single one of you.
SPEAKER_01: I am just uh so humbled truly to uh be your pastor here in one year.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, it feels like it went by pretty fast.
SPEAKER_01: And um man, I'm just so grateful.
SPEAKER_01: I I feel so uh grateful and undeserving of uh this this opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I was uh me and Mariah sometimes will we we'll do a couple times, but she did this the other day where before here serving as a pastor here, we were uh missionaries in South Asia.
SPEAKER_01: And in some of the cities, and maybe you've seen this, they'll have people with cameras as they're kind of walking through the city streets, kind of in front of them, kind of showing like almost like a first-person view, as if you were walking down the city.
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll put that on to reminisce in some of our p favorite places in uh South Asia.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I just think about those moments in those cities, just walking in the streets and just feeling a burden uh just for the lostness there.
SPEAKER_01: And as I was just gazed, like man, 30 minutes, I was just locked in watching this video of the streets that I walk through.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just telling him, Oh, you know, when I look and recall those moments of walking those streets and seeing those people and feeling that burden, he says, I I said, in this moment, you know, I don't really feel that.
SPEAKER_00: But I said, when I walk the streets of this neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: When I drive coming into this church and I see the people, I have that feeling.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Brother Anthony, and I pray with you with that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We can praise the God of what God has done this past year, but he wants to do so much more through his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm supposed to preach now.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 5, starting in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're concluding our series through the book of James actually today, so I hope you guys have been enjoying the series as much as I have, just walking verse by verse through this book, and so we will end here in James chapter 5, verse 13 to 20.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt powerless in your walk with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you were powerless in a moment of suffering, where you were going through a trial, a barrier, the brokenness of this world, you were just felt stuck, you felt trapped.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's what you feel now in this moment, where you felt powerless in the situation that you were in in your walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you felt powerless in sickness and an illness in your body, or something that you're going through, wondering if God will come through, or if he'll heal, or maybe in someone else's life, or maybe you felt powerless in sin in your life.
SPEAKER_01: A habit, an addiction, a sin, a thing you keep within yourself, and no matter how much you try, you fail to win the battle.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it be a battle with lust, with pride, with anxiety, anger, envy.
SPEAKER_01: See, in the Christian life, that the Lord Jesus, He's given us a tool, a weapon, a source of power to overcome the struggles of every season.
SPEAKER_01: And that powerful tool is prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But if we're being honest, prayer for many of us in suffering, in sickness, in sin is not our first response, but our last resort.
SPEAKER_01: We have this power available to us.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like I think of a phone that's about to die, or a dead phone that you have with you could be the newest tack, the newest iPhone, the newest thing, but if it's dead, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: I think Mo was doing this earlier.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure she looked at my phone.
SPEAKER_01: I think she was checking my battery percentage because she knows sometimes I'll just forget to charge my phone because if my phone is dead, I'm gonna be limited in what I can do and calling people, reaching out to people, people reaching out to me, or and same way with our spiritual life in many ways.
SPEAKER_01: Where prayer is the energy, it's the connection to God, prayer is the fuel, it's the gas of the car.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of us are powerless because of our prayerlessness.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the great evangelist Billy Graham, he said when he was asked, if you could do it all over again, if you could do your life over again, what would you do differently?
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things he said is he would preach less and pray more.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I can look back in seasons of my life and even now in my life that I wish I prayed more.
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of us can say that.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when we hear a sermon on prayer, we'll um we'll feel the guilt or all this is this is a prayer, but I I hope that the word today in this message isn't a guilt to prayer, but a guide to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so in our text, James deals exactly with our problem of powerless and prayerless lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so today I want to talk about five marks of a powerful prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: Five marks of a powerful prayer life is what we're gonna be going over.
SPEAKER_01: And so let us stand in a reverence for the word of God as is custom here at our church, where we stand in honor, and this standing is a declaration for those of us who are able to say that God, we're here, we're hungry, that when the Bible is opened, you are speaking and we are here present to listen.
SPEAKER_01: So let us hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 5, starting in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone among you suffering?
SPEAKER_01: Let him pray.
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone cheerful?
SPEAKER_01: Let him sing praise.
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone among you sick?
SPEAKER_01: Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_01: The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
SPEAKER_01: My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Church, don't listen to me, pray.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with me as we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, help us.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, we so struggle with running to ourselves and our own sources and running to you, God, in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so I ask even now that we would just pray to you and say, help.
SPEAKER_01: We are here.
SPEAKER_01: Speak.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You may have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: As stated earlier, we'll come to a close through the book of James.
SPEAKER_01: A common theme that we've seen in the book of James is suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the most famous verse in the book of James is chapter one, there in the beginning, verses two through four, it says, uh, count a joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kind.
SPEAKER_01: So in the very beginning, it talks about trials, the idea of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And last week, if if you remember, James was also talking about suffering.
SPEAKER_01: He was talking about the wealthy who were taking advantage of those within the church who were suffering because of it.
SPEAKER_01: They were being oppressed.
SPEAKER_01: And so we talked about persevering in suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And here, James continues that in verse 13 with the first verse there with a question: Is anyone among you suffering?
SPEAKER_01: Take a moment and pause there.
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone among you suffering?
SPEAKER_01: See some nods?
SPEAKER_01: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_01: It's life, there is suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And God has a word for us.
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone among you suffering?
SPEAKER_01: It says, let him pray.
SPEAKER_01: We could just end the message right there.
SPEAKER_01: Let him pray.
SPEAKER_01: As simple as that.
SPEAKER_01: James here gives the antidote, he gives an answer for a suffering heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And it's often in the very moments of suffering sometimes that before we turn to God, we turn every other way.
SPEAKER_01: We turn to family, to friends, to government, to a podcast, a video book, a resource, something else that can help us other than God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if you're suffering, pray.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the first mark of a powerful, of powerful prayer is this persistent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's the first mark, persistent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to notice that when we read earlier, James, he starts with these three questions.
SPEAKER_01: And he answers these three questions with the same answer.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Is anyone among you suffering?
SPEAKER_01: Let him pray in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone cheerful?
SPEAKER_01: Let him sing praise.
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone among you sick?
SPEAKER_01: Let him call for the elders of the church for what?
SPEAKER_01: And let them pray over him.
SPEAKER_01: And just a reminder, praise, as we see there in verse 13, is another form of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's communication with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's when the disciples they go to Jesus and they ask the question.
SPEAKER_01: This just helps us to see the significance of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples asked this question to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Think if you had the opportunity to ask the question to Jesus, what you would ask.
SPEAKER_01: And they didn't say, Jesus said, teach us how to preach, Jesus, teach us how to cast out the demons, Jesus, teach us how to walk on the water.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Jesus, teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Why did they ask that?
SPEAKER_01: Because they saw that everything that he did flowed from his communication with his Father.
SPEAKER_01: In prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And they asked this question: teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And how does Jesus start?
SPEAKER_01: He starts with praise.
SPEAKER_01: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, holy is your name.
SPEAKER_01: The prayer is praise.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you understand that when we're singing praise in this room, when we sing these songs of worship, we're praying to God.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking to God, we're declaring these things.
SPEAKER_01: And so James here is saying, hey, if you're suffering, pray.
SPEAKER_01: If you're cheerful, if life is going well, pray.
SPEAKER_01: Prayers of praise.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're sick, have others pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: In every season, what James is saying, be persistent in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what's going on, to be persistent in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives two analogies that show us this.
SPEAKER_01: Two parables.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about the judge, the bad judge, and the widow who goes before the judge and asks and asks and asks over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: She pleads her case, and the judge, he's a bad judge, but because his widow continues to ask, the judge gives what she asks for.
SPEAKER_01: We think of the other parable Jesus shares of the neighbor, and this neighbor has guests coming to his house, and he doesn't have any bread.
SPEAKER_01: So he needs bread, and so he goes to his neighbor's house, and what does he do?
SPEAKER_01: He knocks on the door.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Hey, neighbor, I have someone coming over, but I don't have any bread to give them.
SPEAKER_01: Can you give me some bread?
SPEAKER_01: And what does the neighbor say?
SPEAKER_01: He says, It is the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_01: He says, My kids are asleep.
SPEAKER_01: See, now this is a different context now that I under I understand what that means.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we actually had a moment the other day, I'll share this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, should I share this?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so we had put Hadassah down.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for Milo, our cat, um, that we brought from South Asia.
SPEAKER_01: Um he's struggling because for you know almost two years he stayed with us, and now with the baby uh in our room, he can't because he'll meow, he'll go crazy, or he'll try to jump and uh and sleep with her.
SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes he struggles with that.
SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes when we put Hadassah down, Milo will go right to the door and he will just start meowing, and like Hadassah will wake up.
SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes we'll put him out onto the uh the porch.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we did.
SPEAKER_01: We put him out on the porch, we just keep them there for a little bit until we feel like Hadassah's kind of in a deeper sleep.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's meowing about a minute or so ago, a couple minutes go by, and there's a knock on the door.
SPEAKER_01: And uh then the doorbell rings.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I come out and there's this lady there, she's with her dog, and she says, Hey, I don't know if you know this, but your cat, I I don't know if you knew that you left your cat outside and meowing.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't I don't want to judge this lady, but I it could be, you know, that she's got her pet, she loves pets, and thinking, how could they just leave their cat out in the middle of the night and meowing, and maybe he's hungry, they're not, they don't care about their cat.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, actually, we just put our baby down right now, and you could just see her face just like she felt so bad.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, I'm so sorry, because she had just knocked, she rang the doorbell, and anyway, so I have an understanding of this parable.
SPEAKER_01: When the neighbor, he's knocking and he says, My kids are asleep.
SPEAKER_01: Go away, and it says he gives bread because he continues to ask, he continues, it's consistent, it's persistence.
SPEAKER_01: And in that persistency, the neighbor's like, fine, here you go, here's the bread.
SPEAKER_01: And here James is talking about that same thing.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see more of it later within the text, but in every season we're to be persistent in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: James says what?
SPEAKER_01: Or Paul says this to what?
SPEAKER_01: Pray without what?
SPEAKER_01: Ceasing, to continue in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, there is a well, there is a source.
SPEAKER_01: God, the creator of the world, who is not a bad judge, but a heavenly father, not a cranky neighbor, but wants to listen.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants us to pray consistently, to pray persistently to him.
SPEAKER_01: Second mark is this.
SPEAKER_01: First, we saw persistent prayer, second is pastoral prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14, it says, Is anyone among you sick?
SPEAKER_01: Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Here, James gives an instruction for the sick in the church to go to the elders for prayer.
SPEAKER_01: What's an elder?
SPEAKER_01: Elder here, yeah, it sometimes can refer to age, but in the New Testament, when this word is used, it's referring to an office, a status, and it's referring to an elder or pastor or overseer, and the New Testament uses those interchangeably.
SPEAKER_01: It really means the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: So it's saying, bring the pastor, if anyone is sick, to pray over them who is sick.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is so important here.
SPEAKER_01: Because James is implying that the believers he's writing to are connected to a local church.
SPEAKER_01: That there is a pastor who is over them that they can go to in their sickness.
SPEAKER_01: But can I tell you what is such a problem in our culture today?
SPEAKER_01: Is that church is secondary.
SPEAKER_01: Church isn't mandatory, church isn't important.
SPEAKER_01: It's even in the streets when I walking around here, knocking on doors.
SPEAKER_01: There are people say, Oh, I read my Bible and I pray.
SPEAKER_01: And you can tell they know the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then we talk about churches, oh no, I don't do church.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's other places that we can go into the word of God to show that being part of a local church is biblical and godly and necessary.
SPEAKER_01: But we see it right here.
SPEAKER_01: It says, if you're sick, go to the pastor, go to the elder to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And it also says, anoint with oil.
SPEAKER_01: Anoint them with oil.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It can mean two things.
SPEAKER_01: First is medicinally.
SPEAKER_01: We see that in Luke chapter 10, verse 34, with the story of the Good Samaritan, where he uses the wine and oil over the wounds to be used as medicine.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that in other places in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: So it could be for the person who is sick, but secondly, he can also refer to oftentimes the Old Testament oils used as a sense of anointing or a mark of the Holy Spirit or the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so James could be referring to either, and either are fine.
SPEAKER_01: To use oil and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I would say the dangers of this, especially living in a South Asian culture, is what can happen when we use a practice of using oil for prayer, is that hope and faith is put on the substance and not the prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's put on the oil and not the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Where I have to get this special anointed oil, and if I have this special oil, then I'm going to be able to see all these things happen in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what James is referring to here.
SPEAKER_01: We see in verse 15 where the power is.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and the prayer of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It is the prayer of faith who will save the one who is sick.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord will raise him up.
SPEAKER_01: And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: This is such a powerful verse.
SPEAKER_01: But this is where we have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can go to two places here when we see passages like this.
SPEAKER_01: One place that we can go to To is to say if we pray in faith, God will absolutely hundred percent of the time give healing.
SPEAKER_01: And there are many churches that they believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And that if the healing didn't happen, it's because there wasn't any faith.
SPEAKER_01: And can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_01: This is so interesting because you see this in a lot of churches.
SPEAKER_01: They'll put guilt over people and they'll pray for healing, and when the healing doesn't come, they'll say, What?
SPEAKER_01: You had no faith.
SPEAKER_01: And here, James, whose faith is it referring to?
SPEAKER_01: It's not referring to the faith of the sick person, but the faith of the elder who's praying.
SPEAKER_01: So if it is just because of faith, it's not the guilt that should be put on that person, yes, they should have faith, the sick and prayer, but also the one who's praying.
SPEAKER_01: But the other camp we can go where, okay, God will 100% heal all the time if we have faith.
SPEAKER_01: The other place we can go that's dangerous is say, why pray?
SPEAKER_01: And God doesn't do that stuff anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And God doesn't heal, or I'm not right.
SPEAKER_01: There's there's two places that we can go, and we have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01: No, here clearly it says to pray, pray for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: It is biblical and it is right, and we should pray in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Expectantly, just like James 1, that we saw when James says to pray for wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't pray asking in doubt.
SPEAKER_01: Like a wave tossed in the ocean, in the same way for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: We should pray not in doubt, but in believing that God is able and capable to do it.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes, and we don't know why, and we'll never know, is in his will and in his desire, and in a broken will, in a broken world and result of sin, the healing doesn't come.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing is for certain that we need to have as our foundation and our root is no matter the result, when we pray in faith, we're not just praying in faith that we know God can heal.
SPEAKER_01: We are praying in faith that we know God is good.
SPEAKER_01: Always, no matter what, that He is good and He is God.
SPEAKER_01: What does this phrase here mean when it says in the prayer, faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up?
SPEAKER_01: First, it can very well be referring to physical healing, physical sickness, that they will be saved from their sickness or raised up physically, maybe if they weren't able to stand because of their sickness, it can also be referring to a spiritual healing, a spiritual of being saved, or that the Lord will raise us up in the resurrection and the newness of life.
SPEAKER_01: Because we also see the spiritual language here, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: What James can be saying here is that the reason for some sickness is a result of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not always the case, and this is where we have to be cautious here.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we think every time something goes wrong in our life, or wrong in someone else's life, or if there's sickness in others' lives or my life, that it's it's because of sin, well we have to be dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: We have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01: Because we run into the problem of Job.
SPEAKER_01: Who Job, who was living righteously, then went through all this suffering, and his friends come along, and what do they say?
SPEAKER_01: What'd you do?
SPEAKER_01: You did something.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that that wasn't the case.
SPEAKER_01: He did nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01: But, brothers and sisters, whenever we are praying to God for anything, whether it be physical, emotional, a mental, whatever it is, for a physical healing or a spiritual, before we pray, we should always be asking, God, am I a line in your will?
SPEAKER_01: God, is there anywhere I am in sin?
SPEAKER_01: Is there anywhere I am far from you?
SPEAKER_01: Because before we ask for our Father to provide, we want to make sure that we're living rightly as his children.
SPEAKER_01: And to examine ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see the mark of prayer is persistent prayer, it's pastoral prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I'd encourage you, as many of you, we have spent time whether praying together or praying for your needs, to communicate that to me or to Jeff and say, hey, here's how you can be praying for us.
SPEAKER_01: Third mark of prayer is a pure prayer.
SPEAKER_01: A pure prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_01: The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
SPEAKER_01: This is probably one of the most ignored commands in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Confess your sins to one another.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that so hard?
SPEAKER_01: It's shame.
SPEAKER_01: It's guilt.
SPEAKER_01: It's the enemy using those things and weaponizing the shame and guilt and the remorse that we feel to keep our sins secret.
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows if confession happens, then healing happens.
SPEAKER_01: Are you hearing that?
SPEAKER_01: That when confession happens, healing happens in the soul, and he does not want that.
SPEAKER_01: And so he is gonna tell you after you confess your sins to God, hey, you can stop there.
SPEAKER_01: I know you've heard that.
SPEAKER_01: You've had that thought within yourself, hey, you're good.
SPEAKER_01: And can I tell you in my life, that has never worked.
SPEAKER_01: It has never worked, ever.
SPEAKER_01: Where I was in a pattern of sin that I was trying to hide, and I had in true repentance, going to God and confessing to Him, then healing never came when I kept it to myself and didn't tell others.
SPEAKER_01: I was stuck.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to encourage you with us not to listen to the lies of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And that if there's any place anyone can be vulnerable with their brokenness, it's in the church of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the church of God.
SPEAKER_01: That we can understand each other, we can sympathize with each other, we can encourage each other, that this isn't a place that we use uh sin as gossip or use sin to put shame on people.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We speak Christ, we speak of grace and forgiveness and the love of God over each other.
SPEAKER_01: That you may be healed, it says.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us are missing that healing?
SPEAKER_01: This is in my life today.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think Mo left the room, ask her.
SPEAKER_01: I there I have many problems, she'll give you the list.
SPEAKER_01: And I have people in my life I confess sin to, that I have to go to, that hold me accountable, that I say, hey, here's what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: And we need that.
SPEAKER_01: We all need that.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing, at the end of service, we're gonna be taking communion.
SPEAKER_01: I can think of no better time than our preparation of taking communion, taking the Lord's Supper, to just be confessing to the Lord our sin.
SPEAKER_01: But maybe to one another.
SPEAKER_01: And again, sometimes you have to be smart in who that's with and what that looks like, and you have to use discernment, but you need to bring it to the light.
SPEAKER_01: It also says, pray for one another here.
SPEAKER_01: Not just pastoral prayer, but there's communal prayer, praying for one another.
SPEAKER_01: That's my desire for our church.
SPEAKER_01: That this would be a church where we would pray for one another.
SPEAKER_01: We would lift each other's burdens up throughout the week, the day by day on a Sunday morning praying.
SPEAKER_01: And I would encourage you for those of you who haven't come to a first Thursday, where we stop all our programming, we stop all our groups, we get the whole church together and we say, hey, let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: I'd encourage you to come.
SPEAKER_01: Come every first Thursday where we stop and we pray to God.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for one another, we pray for the needs that we have, the needs of our church, the needs of the community, and the needs we have in our own heart.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray for one another.
SPEAKER_01: This is the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
SPEAKER_01: We see pure prayer, pure prayer is coming from confession of pure heart.
SPEAKER_01: So I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do you want powerful prayer?
SPEAKER_01: That pleases the heart of God, that moves the hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's not powerful prayer for your own motive, but to please your heavenly Father, to go to Him.
SPEAKER_01: Do you want that?
SPEAKER_01: It says a righteous person has great power in their prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are righteous under the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Of faith in Christ alone, that he has forgiven us and that we are given the righteousness of Jesus unto us.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible is clear that sin hinders our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: It is clear in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: One great example is it in 1 Peter, or maybe second, but in Peter, where Peter's writing to the husbands of saying, hey, hey, treat your wives with honor and respect, because if you don't, your prayers will be hindered.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Sin hinders prayers.
SPEAKER_01: And so a righteous person, a person who's pure, not perfect, but is in confession of striving towards God, walking with the Lord, has powerful prayers.
SPEAKER_01: And so, James, what does he do earlier?
SPEAKER_01: He pointed to Job, if we remember, about perseverance, and now James points to Elijah to talk about prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so the mark of powerful prayer is persistent prayer, pastoral prayer, pure prayer, and forth passionate prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: It says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
SPEAKER_01: And he prayed fervently that it might not rain.
SPEAKER_01: And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruits.
SPEAKER_01: He said he prayed fervently.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word there is really almost, he's saying prayer twice.
SPEAKER_01: Really, he's saying he prayed with prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't make sense in English, and so it's fervent prayer because when uh in the Hebrew language, it in the culture, yeah, it was written in Greek, but in the culture, they would, when they use words twice, it would be emphasized, it'd be signify intensity.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's showing that Elijah was praying persistently, passionately, fervently.
SPEAKER_01: And it's with faith.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Me and you will not pray passionate and desperate prayers if we don't believe God can provide.
SPEAKER_01: And what does Elijah pray for?
SPEAKER_01: He prays for drought.
SPEAKER_01: He prays for three years and six months that it did not rain on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: As Floridians, we can't.
SPEAKER_01: Three years and six months.
SPEAKER_01: And then he prayed, and it started.
SPEAKER_01: Like it never stopped.
SPEAKER_01: What was Elijah praying for?
SPEAKER_01: We're only seeing a glimpse of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: But if you know the Old Testament story, the nation of Israel had turned from God and they were going to idol worship, and they believed their idols would be able to provide for them.
SPEAKER_01: And Elijah's like, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: God is the provider of all that is good.
SPEAKER_01: And so he prayed with this purpose that God would be glorified, that the nation would turn to God.
SPEAKER_01: And we might think, well, that's Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's an Old Testament prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: I love this verse.
SPEAKER_01: It's so powerful.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, that it says it right there.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
SPEAKER_01: See, James already knows what they're gonna think.
SPEAKER_01: He's going ahead of, oh yeah, well, that's Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: No, we say, He is like us, like you and me.
SPEAKER_01: There is no difference.
SPEAKER_01: Because what?
SPEAKER_01: The power is not in us, but in God.
SPEAKER_01: And it's us going before God and asking and pleading.
SPEAKER_01: And we can see in our life when God has answered prayers.
SPEAKER_01: I know we had an adopt a block.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was the past one, maybe the one before that.
SPEAKER_01: Um when it was raining.
SPEAKER_01: Were you guys, anyone here?
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you're here when it was raining.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh man, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We'll just pray.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: If I'm being honest, I didn't even think about praying.
SPEAKER_01: You can ask the group, I didn't even think about praying and asking God for the rain to stop.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, we'll just take this opportunity and we'll pray.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's great.
SPEAKER_01: We're just gonna pray for the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember we we started praying, we're about five minutes in, and then I stopped and I said, hey guys, we should probably pray for the rain to stop.
SPEAKER_01: And we prayed for the rain to stop.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain stopped, and it did.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, even in not praying there in the beginning, it sometimes it's just a forgetfulness of what God can do.
SPEAKER_01: Because I remember that it came from like as we were praying, I'm like, man, I really want to go out.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, praying is good.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, man, God can make a way.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same thing in our life in sin and in sickness and in suffering, what James is talking about.
SPEAKER_01: To pray passionately, desperately to God.
SPEAKER_01: What would happen in this church and in this community if we prayed like Elijah?
SPEAKER_01: Prayed with passion.
SPEAKER_01: Last point is this a mark of prayers, protective prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19 and 20.
SPEAKER_01: It says, My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_01: I'll ask the band to come up as we're closing here.
SPEAKER_01: James here is talking about some believers who are wandering from the truth that they've known.
SPEAKER_01: They're wandering back into the sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, if anyone brings them back to that truth, you save them from death.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the best ways that we can help those who are wandering is by what?
SPEAKER_01: Praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what James is talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying praying over these people who are in sin and confess your sins so that they might be saved, might be healed.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same thing with those who are wandering from God, that we can pray these prayers to protect them.
SPEAKER_01: I think about Jesus with Peter.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about the enemy has asked for you, right?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, but I have prayed for you.
SPEAKER_01: About John 17, this passage where Jesus actually prays for us.
SPEAKER_01: I'd encourage you to go to it one day, John 17, verse 20 through 22.
SPEAKER_01: And as he prays over us, this prayer of guidance, prayer of protection.
SPEAKER_01: We can pray for others.
SPEAKER_01: That's what powerful prayer is.
SPEAKER_01: When it's not just about ourselves and our needs, but praying for others.
SPEAKER_01: That God would guide them, that God would save them.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, he gives us the ultimate example of prayer in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: When he prays, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what that means?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing Jesus was not afraid of a Roman spear or nails.
SPEAKER_01: He was afraid of the wrath of his father put on him.
SPEAKER_01: That would he would be the lamb, the sacrifice in that moment, and take the punishment for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Father, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, Not my will be done, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus shows his prayers, it's surrender.
SPEAKER_01: It's surrendering to the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Do you need to do that today?
SPEAKER_01: Are you suffering?
SPEAKER_01: Are you sick?
SPEAKER_01: Are you in sin?
SPEAKER_01: We have a heavenly father who is here, who we can call out to.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna sing a song of praise here in a little bit, and it's a song maybe some of us are familiar with, but the first verse says this it says, What a friend we have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All our sins and grief to bear.
SPEAKER_01: What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what peace we often forfeit.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what needless pain we bear.
SPEAKER_01: All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing, church.
SPEAKER_01: We want to see God do some incredible things this year, amen, through our church.
SPEAKER_01: But we need faith-filled prayers, we need righteous men and women who are clean, who can pray powerful prayers.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is opportunity before communion where we get to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would just encourage you to begin to get your hearts ready in confession.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's coming down here.
SPEAKER_01: Talking to me, Pastor Jeff, someone up here, or maybe in a different setting to confess your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We do not need to be carrying the shame, this sin, this burden that we have.
SPEAKER_01: We can give it to you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord God, I pray that you would help us now in this moment to lay aside all, to confess our sin to you, to call out to you, to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Just pray, Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: Just pray that you would even now in this moment bring in our hearts and our minds, but you would want us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: That we wouldn't just listen to this message, but we would just apply it now in this moment and just begin to pray.
SPEAKER_01: So God help us.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand in this moment as we respond and worship, as we prepare our hearts for communion.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're far from God, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you want to receive Jesus today, you can come down here.
SPEAKER_01: If you want prayer, you want confession, whatever it is to come down.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd encourage you, just let the Holy Spirit lead in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's praying with the people around you, maybe it's praying out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's praying here.
SPEAKER_01: Let us just seek God.
SPEAKER_01: The Father who is pursuing us and wants to listen to us.
SPEAKER_01: Let's worship and respond.