A Righteous Prayer - James 5:13-18

A message by Tyler Sanborn on James 5:13-18.

South Valley Student Ministry is a ministry of Compass Bible Church South Valley located in Kuna, ID. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, please visit compassbiblesv.org.

Transcript

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Well, I don't know about you, but my closet has seen some changes over the past month or so. Uh I haven't touched a jacket or a coat. My thicker socks are put away, and I'm no longer wearing them because I don't like sweaty socks. Um my beanies are put away, and my t-shirts are more commonly used. My long-sleeve flannels, uh, I haven't touched those in weeks, and the weather is changing. The weather is changing. Our spring is starting to get warmer, and we're approaching summer. It's it's just a blessing from the Lord that we get to experience the seasons here in the Treasure Valley, and the God that has created the world, and the God that has made you and I is in control of all the seasons. And uh our our wardrobe might change, our clothing might change as we wear it, as the temperatures get warmer, but um but God does not change. And in James, today, as we look to our text, as we look in the final chapter of James, we have just two more sermons left. We'll be in James chapter 13, uh James chapter 5, verses 13 through 18 this evening. So as you turn there, I want us to be thinking about something that's going to be important. There's gonna be something in your Christian life that does not change with the season. As you are pursuing God, as you're faithfully chasing after him to know him, to understand him, to obey him, there's something that that bridges across every season. You're not gonna you're not gonna put it on a hanger and put it in the coat closet, uh, so to speak. No, this this thing that we're gonna be using, leaning on, trusting God in from season to season, is prayer. And I want us to look to our text today and see James's heart as he's looking to encourage a church that is undergoing persecution, a church that is going through some trials and needs encouragement. And in every season, no matter if you're in a season of great joy, when friendships are just where you want them to be, where your relationships are just right, or if you're in a season where things are kind of rocky, uh, a transitional season where you're not sure what's next, uh, things aren't on the calendar, things are not planned. One thing that James is wanting you to plan on, something that you can put in your calendar month to month, week to week, and day to day, hour to hour, and minute by minute is prayer. He wants us to understand the importance of prayer. So let's look today, uh, starting in verse 13. Turn with me to James chapter 5 and verse 13. We'll begin our time here. In verse 13, it says, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? 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. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Let's listen to the heart of James here. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah, we spoke about him last week. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, human being. And he and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again. And the heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James's James's heart has focus season to season. We gotta be praying. The prayer of faith. You know, prayer is is an interesting thing. It's communication, it's it's drawing near to God. It's letting your requests be known to him, letting him understand your heart, calling out to him, making your plea and your and your cause known to God, who already knows it, by the way. God knows your exact position, your exact condition, your exact mental well-being, the the feelings that are going on inside of you. God is aware of these. He is 100% in tune with how you are doing. And James is is charging his hearers, his listeners, his readers to to pray. Is anyone among you suffering? Now, suffering can come in in many different forms. Suffering, uh, I think one of the most challenging physiological ways that that someone can suffer is is through nerve pain. Maybe you're not uh old enough yet to have experienced it, but maybe one day you will. And when you realize what nerve pain is, you might think to yourself, oh, this is this is a new chapter. This is a whole new a whole new ball game. I have not suffered like this before in my body. Some suffering uh looks like like persecution. You're being you're being mocked. Your reputation is being drugged through the dirts. You are being forced to uh to be treated differently than other people because of your convictions. People around you no longer want to be your friend because uh you won't join in with the crude jokes or the foul language around you. Uh persecution and suffering, suffering can look different from from season to season, from life to life, from year to year, it can look different. But uh, what what should not change? James is calling our attention to here is is let him pray. Let him pray. God, the one who made you, the one who formed you in your mother's womb, is listening, is drawing near to you as you draw near to him. And in James's charge is why delay? Why wait? Why why hold back from the one that is waiting for for you to call out to him? Why delay? Why delay? Why wait and think that you can uh figure it out all on your own. There's a almighty, all-powerful God who is just wanting to take care of his children. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Now it's interesting in the face of opposition, uh, James calls his hearers to consider it pure joy when experiencing trials of various kinds. And the pure joy here is maybe not an outward or external joy, but the the attitude and meditations of the hearts, the internal attitudes. How buoyant is your heart in times of trial, in times of need? Are you are you drowning in the moment? Are you fixing your eyes on God? Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. And today is gonna be a different kind of sermon. The note sheet looks a little different if you're noticing, and we're gonna focus in on praying in a variety of different scenarios and different responses to both external and internal factors. So let's write this down for letter A. Pray in response to problems, problems, trials that you may face in your life, respond to them, not by grumbling, like James is saying, don't do that, don't complain. James is saying, pray, go to the Lord. Let your requests be known to God in the peace that surpasses all understanding that will protect your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. This is for you. Your response in the face of problems reveals where you put your confidence, where you put your trust, where your hope is. When the problems of life roll your way like waves on the ocean, are you going to try to figure out how to build a bigger boat in your own power? Or are you going to look left and look right and see that there's a life raft that God is sending your way? Are you going to cling on to the help that God offers you? Is that going to be your response? Singing, singing through the trials. Is your heart fixed? Is God giving you a heart that is saying, I know you're near. I know that I can praise you through the storm. I know that my situation is dire. I feel worried, but I'm going to choose to put my hope, my trust. I'm going to choose to rest in you, God, and your promises and sing praise to the Lord in those moments. There's an opportunity for us to obey God and to pray if you're suffering, if you're cheerful, go to the Lord. What is your response and problems? Pray. Move on to verse 14. Is anyone among you sick? 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 I can tell you right now, Pastor Josiah does not have oil that he's going to drip or drop on your head. But this verse here, this verse here is drawing our attention to the people who are watching over the flock, the people who are leading the church and letting those requests be known to the leaders, so that they might do what? Pray. That they might pray for you, anointing him with oil. And some commentators would look at this verse and say there might be some medicinal, um, might be some medicinal applications to to oil. Now, when we see different um people in the New Testament um struggling, uh, sometimes wine is prescribed for for stomach issues. If we see the the good Samaritan, uh, wine and oil are used to cleanse wounds and to um and to be a balm to uh someone who has suffered much pain and suffering. And uh this is something that is is debated, but we look here to verse 14 and trust God to heal. God, through every sickness in your life, will bring some kind of healing or restoration to you. And one day you're gonna get so sick that your body, your body's not gonna bounce back, God's not gonna heal you, and then one day you will die. One day you will no longer be made well again after you are sick, but the Lord is answering prayer and the Lord is healing every time you're sick, every time you are not feeling well, and your body is doing what it's designed to do, and God is uh through his power and through his design, your body is going to recover, your body is going to be made well. But in all of that, we have a common grace. We have medical professionals who, through God's grace, have been able to study and understand the human body. What a beautiful, what an amazing gift that is to us. Just a week ago, I was standing here and experiencing some pretty rough neck pain. It was uh it was very distracting. And uh I was able to go and see um uh a PT, a physical therapist, and uh he was just working on my neck area, my trapezius muscle, and was bringing some tears to my eyes because he was he knew what was needed to help me feel better. He knew what was needed to help me have a better posture, and he prescribed some different exercises to help me uh be more in line and help me to have more balance in my my upper back and neck area. And that's a common grace, and I feel much, much better seven days later. Um, and God has been so kind to just now some some of you might be feeling hard, uh feeling sore from disc golf yesterday, but that's a I I don't think I don't know about that. Maybe just some more flexibility uh for you. Maybe you too need to see someone, a medical professional, a chiropractor, a PT. You might need to see someone. But God, through his grace, is healing people. God, through his his power is bringing people from from pain, from suffering physically back into order. And that is a kindness, that is a kindness from uh from the Lord. And in all of that, let's not forget, James is saying, Bring the bring the elders, bring the oil. Pray, pray, pray. Let's write this down for point number two. Pray in response to illnesses. Pray in response to illnesses. You got a stomach bug, you you have a fever, you have um, what else might you have? What did you say? You might have a rash. You might have a rash, you might you might have been stung by a bee and your and your body is swelling up and you have no reason why. You have no idea what's going on. Is it an allergic reaction? Is it a murder hornet that look like a bee? Like what is it? We don't know. We don't know. I don't think there's murder hornets in Idaho. Is there murder hornets in Idaho? Are there? I see some shoulder shrugs. There might be, I don't know. Um but no, God is God is hearing the prayers of his people and is bringing health back to his people, right? Order within their bodies by his power and by his grace, common grace, by um medical professionals that have committed a large chunk of their life to understanding um how the body works and how to how to put it back together again. Uh my father has been through a handful of surgeries in his life, and I've seen him uh break down his body and and surgeons put his body back together. And uh through the through God's grace, he he is still able to continue working and do the things that he likes to do, maybe not in the capacity or the uh the intensity that he once was, but but God is is continuing to heal illnesses, continuing to restore health back to his people in James' time and also in the year 2026 here in Cuna, Idaho. Verse 15. Let's take a look. Let's take a look at let's take a look at what James is calling us to see now. Verse 15. Wait, prayer again. It seems like prayer is really important. 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. Now, as I was looking at this verse, I was connecting it back to the previous verse that talks about those who are sick. And in this verse, saving, this word save is an important one to zoom in on. The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. And I think the the intent here from James is those whose soul is sick, whose soul is sick, whose whose internal being is not well. Have you ever seen someone that is in in more or less good health, but you just see you see them and you're like, something's different, something's off, something's wrong. Something inside of them is not right. And you see you see them, you're like, well, they don't, they don't have a hunch, they're not limping, they they're eating normally, like, but but something's just off. Something inside is bothering, is bothering them. Something is not right. Now, illnesses come in a variety of different forms, but we we need to consider the the inner man as well as the outer man, our flesh, our our blood, our bones, the different connective tissues that we have, uh, the outer man. And as we look to the inner man, going on into verse 16, it says, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Praying for for people who you know something something is not quite right in their life, something is not something is not aligned. Their relationship with God is off. The relationship with God is is not where it normally is or where it once was. And as we go to the Lord in prayer, God, help me, help me to discern, help me to understand what is going on with my brother. Help me to see his need, help me to ask good questions so that if there is sin that's going on, it can be brought to light. When sin hides, uh it festers. Have you ever had a splinter that just didn't come out? One time I was uh working with my dad and I wasn't wearing work gloves like I should have, and I was handling treated lumber, chemicals used to preserve it and kind of keep it from decay and rot. Well, that got inside my skin, and uh I couldn't get the splinter out. And my pa my dad's like, well, I can get it. And I'm like, no, no, no, it's not a big deal. He's like, okay. And it it started to to swell, it started to fester, and some weird colored liquids were starting to like ooze out of this area in my finger, and uh it was not a it was not a fun experience in a similar way. Yeah. Yeah, you're thinking, like, why did you bring that up? I bring that up because when you allow sin to hang out inside of you, inside your life, it's worse. It's worse than a festering splinter that is inside of your skin. It's far worse. Um, and sin likes to grow. Sin likes to grow. Have you ever been to the dentist and your dentist is like, hey, you need to floss more. You need to floss more. All and all the hands should go up. Uh unless all of you guys are flossers. I know there's some flossers in the front row. I can see your teeth are very healthy. They're white, they're shiny. I can't, it's far in the back row, I can't see that far, so I'm not sure about you guys. You might not be flossing. But when oxygen is is sealed out, certain bacteria in your mouth. Uh sometimes you got braces and you're like, well, what do I do? Get a water pick. Get in there. You want to get oxygen in and between your gums because the harmful bacteria in your mouth will start eating away at your teeth. We gotta get in there. You gotta, you gotta expose the chunks of food that are wedged in between your gums up in those crevices. You gotta get those out. In the similar way, James is calling us to see that that parallel here. We need we need not to let the sin kind of hang out. If we if we harbor sin, we kind of hide it, we know about it, like you kind of feel that piece of chicken that's in your mouth from like the barbecue, but you're like, I'll get it later. And the day goes by, I'll get it later. And then a week goes by, like, oh, maybe I'll floss. And you get in there like, oh, that was up in there? That giant chunk of chicken was up in my teeth, and you're thinking to yourself, like, I know what my dentist is gonna say. Hey, you got a spot there we need to look at. We should we should mark that. We we need to do a better job. Flossing up in there. Here, here is here is the concern. Here's the concern. We need to pray. Write this down for a C. Pray in response to the sick soul, the sin that is going on. Your life that is not exposed, or the sin in the lives of your friends, your family members, when when you kind of leave it unattended, unchecked. In a similar, let's do another illustration here. If you let the weeds just keep growing, like, I'll get it later. I'll get it later. I'll get it later. All of a sudden you have six-foot weeds in your background in your backyard, and you're like, How did that happen? Well, you didn't address it when they were little. Sin festers when it's not addressed. Sin festers when it's not confessed, and sin brings on more sin, and you sin to cover your sin, and it just, it's a huge mess. You don't want to do it. Pray in response to the sick soul. Your body can become ill, and because of sin and compounding sins in your life, your soul can become sick, and you can have this inner turmoil within you as well. And that does not please the Lord. Another thing that can happen when sin isn't addressed in relationships. How many of you have kind of like, in other words, like swept something under the rug? You said or did something that you know for a fact offended someone that you care about, and you saw it on their face. You said something, you did something, you had a certain tone, you said it in a certain way, maybe you snubbed someone and you kind of like gave them a certain treatment that you don't normally give them, but there was a response and a reaction that was that was hurtful. You saw it, you noticed it. You noticed it. Don't let those go unchecked too. Follow up. Say, hey, I noticed like when I said that, you your face looked different. There was something off. What's going on? Chances are that you might have said something that you didn't mean to hurt someone, but but you actually did. Our words, as James says, are powerful and they can cause great destruction. The tongue is a small vessel, but it's capable of so much. There's references to the tongue being like a rudder, the tongue being like a fire that sets ablaze, a whole forest. We need to be careful about what we're doing with our tongues. And when we are using our tongues in the right way, we're confessing our sin, when we're using our mouths, our tongues to do the right thing, which would honor the Lord, the sin has no place to grow because it's addressed. Forgiveness is available to you. And I hope you're someone that extends forgiveness as well. I hope that you're not in your heart and in your mind holding on to grudges when someone says, you know, I'm I wronged you, I sinned against you, I messed up. I I please forgive me. There's gonna be a temptation in your heart. There's gonna be a temptation inside to be like, yeah, but they don't mean it. Yeah, I've heard that before. I've seen that before. I've seen how you treat people. This is just another one of those moments, another one of those times. No, this in those moments, think about what Christ has extended to you. Forgiveness of all your sins. All your sins. So forgive. Forgive those who are coming and asking for you to forgive them and to make things right. Find the common ground in Christ and understand that every single human being, if they have faith in Christ, has been forgiven of so much. Has been forgiven of a lifetime of sins. And that doesn't mean that now that we have forgiveness, we just keep on sinning that grace may abound. No. We want to be stewarding our lives and concerning sin. We want to be uh praying that God would reveal it in our hearts, reveal it in our minds so that way we can turn from it and confess those sins and receive forgiveness and have a heart and a mind that's that's well, that's not sick. It's uh certain stomach flipping and turning can happen at times when you know you need to confess something, when you know you need to make something right, but you just choose not to, there's an internal turmoil that happens and sometimes that manifests itself in the way that your body responds. You might have a stomach that's just in knots, you might have a response to being around certain people where you just you're all of a sudden you're anxious, you have these thoughts. But if you are living a life that's above reproach and just confessing your sin to people around you, saying, like, I I sinned again. Like I know I confessed to you last week, but I did it again. Please forgive me again. A good friend that that um that I I treasure so dearly, um I had something in college, I was like, man, I'm just wrestling with this. I I don't it's kind of embarrassing to me that I have to like come to you, but I just need I just need you to help me through this. Like I'm I'm jealous. You're getting to spend a lot of time with my girlfriend at the time I was dating Sadie, and uh we were we were dating, and my my friend who I trust and I I love my brother was a musician, and and so was Sadie. They're in a worship team together and they were just spending so much time together. And I said, Evan, like, hey, I know this is so weird, but I just need to confess to you, like I'm I'm struggling with jealousy because you just get to spend so much time together with with Sadie, and like I can't, and I just confess it to him. And our our relationship grew as a result. Our relationship got even stronger because he he knew that I would be someone that would tell him something if something was off. And if you you are having a reputation about you that's saying, I'm gonna address sin when I notice it, and I'm gonna be faithful to just follow up if I notice something about you. A good friend is going to go out of his way, out of her way, and ask tough questions. Ask tough questions and pray together. Pray together. This this passage in James, it's interesting, it goes from the individual, and then it goes to relationships, and then it goes to the example of the prophets as we looked at last week. Prayer is for individuals, for groups of individuals, and for everyone, past, present, and future. Past, present, and future. Confess your sins to one another. Don't let them fester. Don't sit on sins. A good friend is going to go out of their way to ask a hard question and say, hey, like, are you struggling with this? I notice the way that you're acting, the way that you're interacting with these people over here. You don't normally do that. What's going on? Is there something that's bothering you? Is there something that's wrong? You look off. Be a good friend. Pray. Pray for the friends that you're gonna ask these questions to, and then also be willing to pray with them after you have these tough conversations. Say, hey, I just want to pray. I want to pray with you. I want to make things right. I want to make things right. Now, I'm not gonna delay, I'm not gonna wait, I'm not gonna sweep it under the rug. Uh so let's write this down for point D. Pray in response to damage to relationships. At some point in time, you are going to hurt someone. You are gonna say something that offends someone, you're gonna sin against another human being. And your role and your responsibility is to go and make it right. Go and confess your sin. Be healed. Receive forgiveness that is available to you. The prayer of a righteous person has as great power as it is working. It's God's will for you that you would follow Him and obey Him. And as you're praying, it's helpful. Lord, I don't want my preferred outcome to take place. God, I want your will to be done. God, not my will, but your will. Have it, God, let your name be glorified through whatever happens in this situation. If I gain a friend, if I lose a friend, whatever the situation may be, pray that God's will would be done. Submit to Him. Consider it what God would want you to do. And chances are He's gonna want you to keep praying about it. So do that. Keep praying. The word prayer or praise in this portion of Scripture, and even you might even have a subs uh superscript here, the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith. There's prayers that that trust, that trust in God's grace, that rest in his promises. That those are most of the prayers that that we pray. God, God, be faithful. Do what you say you're going to do. Help me trust you. Help me rest in your promises. I want to follow after you, and sometimes it's hard. Help me believe. God, help me to trust. Help me to trust you. Great power as it is working. And you might be thinking, the righteous person? The prayer of a righteous person. I am pretty messed up. I mess up every day. My parents are on my case. I'm aware of how many mistakes I make, Tyler. I'm aware. I'm not righteous. I'm not I'm not the guy that should be having his prayers answered. No. If you are in Christ, you bring the Lord Jesus Christ your sin. It's nailed to the cross, it's paid for in full, and then he gives you his righteousness, his perfect resume in life, his perfect obedience to the Father. That's what you get. And if you are longing and pursuing after the Lord Jesus Christ to love him, to know him, to obey him, to submit to his rule in your life, God is listening to your prayers. God hears you. God wants to hear from his children like a good father would. So do that. There's great power in calling out to God and saying, God, just continue to be steadfast, continue to be faithful, continue to be true to your promises. God help me believe. There's great power in that prayer. We'll finish here with these last two verses that draw our attention back to last week and the prophets. Elijah was a man. He wasn't a superhero. He wasn't like Team Marvel. He wasn't DC. He wasn't in a he's like not a superhero. He's a guy like you and I. He's a human being. He was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not reign. Now, there is a showdown, if you remember, in the Old Testament in the book of Kings, there are prophets of Baal who are opposing Elijah. These prophets are worshiping and serving this false God, this false ruler. And uh and it's like there's there's just a good old-fashioned showdown. You ever, you ever, you ever watch fake wrestling? You probably don't, because it's because you're wise. They call them showdowns at times. Showdowns. Super slams. It's gonna be an epic event, and that's what's going on in the life of Elijah. He's going head to head with these false, this, this false God's prophets. And and uh he says, you know what? Let's let's put let's put your God to the test. If your God is the one true God, have him send down fire and just consume this altar out of wood. Have him have him bring fire down, this this God of yours. And and uh guess what? No fire. False God. No fire, false God. And this is this is after three and a half years of drought. Three and a half years of no rain. So the people are getting on edge, like, man, like I'm kind of hungry, there's no crops, things aren't growing, like what's going on? God, bring some water, please, bring some rain, bring a harvest for us. And Elijah is going to call on the name of Yahweh, the one true God. And if you know, if you know the story in Kings, jars and jars and jars of water on the altar. Ever try to start a fire with wet wood before? Pretty tough. Especially if you're not even touching it at all. You're just looking at it, expecting it just to be consumed. No flint, no steel, no fire starters, no matches, no, none of that. No. Elijah calls the Lord to bring fire down, and he trusts that he will. And after the fire, after the altar is soaked, the wood is is uh is drenched in water, and and troughs around the altar are filled with water, the Lord rains down fire and it consumes, it can consumes the water and it laps it up. And Elijah was just a man with a nature like ours, but he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again after the showdown, and the Lord brought rain, and the earth bore its fruit. We might see really strange things here in Idaho, like 60 mile an hour winds, but you probably didn't pray for that. You probably didn't pray for branches on your trees to be ripped off to show God's power to your neighbors. You probably didn't do that, right? This is this is a man who was directly opposing a false God and his prophets that would seek to steal glory from the Lord. And the prayer of a righteous man, Elijah, had great power as it was working, and God's glory was ultimately put on display. God's glory was put on display. As we we think about the the righteousness that is ours in Christ Jesus, if you have faith in him to forgive you of sins, uh you've you've prayed a prayer and probably have rejoiced. You probably have rejoiced in what God has done. So let's write this down for letter E. Pray in response to what Christ has accomplished. I know I kind of bounced forward to Elijah, but as we think about the righteousness that is ours, that is available to us in Christ Jesus, we can thank him. We can praise the Lord and thank him for what Christ has accomplished. And we can also be praying for those who have not yet responded to the gospel, for those who are spiritually asleep to be awakened, to have their eyes, scales pulled off, their eyes and their ears open to hear the gospel. We need to pray as a result of what God has done in our lives. God, continue to save. Save again. Save my sibling, save my uncle, save my brother, save my grandpa, save my neighbor. God, do a work in them. We might not call down fire from heaven, but if you're calling out for God to save, to bring salvation, to turn the hearts of stone into the hearts of flesh, God is faithful to answer that prayer. He's doing it every day. He's gonna do it every day until he returns. So continue praying for salvation. Continue to pray for God to work in the hearts of men. Do that. Do that every day. God hears you. God hears you. Something also that we need to be praying. As we read Scripture, as we read God's word, it's going to instruct us. It's going to tell us to do something, to not do something. It's going to call us to have faith, to obey. And it takes a level of courage and faith to do that. But as you're seeking to please God, as you're seeking to walk in the way that would honor Him, to enter the narrow gate that is difficult, that leads to life, we need God's word to guide us. We need it to navigate our lives and our souls. And we need God's very word. So let's write this down for our last point, point F. Pray in response to what you're reading. Pray in response to God's word. Pray in response to God's word. We see people of faith, and we are encouraged in the scriptures. We see God working in the hearts of men. We see God's Spirit doing a great work in calling people to repentance. We need to pray the scriptures out. We need to be looking to God and depending on Him in prayer. If things are going well for you, pray. If things are really tough for you right now, you're going through really hard times at home in your family. Maybe your parents are going through some tough things and you're aware of it, pray for them. Pray for your parents. Pray that God will be glorified. Pray that his will would be done. I know that's a simple prayer, and sometimes you don't know what that means. God, what is your will? Sometimes we can look to scriptures and be like, well, this is a lot. Well, God's will for you in your life is to follow him and obey him. God's will for you is to trust and have faith in him as Lord and Savior and chase after him. That's what God would will for you if you are if you are his. Obey the Lord. Look to the scriptures. Be be led by the Lord Jesus Christ through his word. Pray that you would be faithful and obedient to follow after him. You're not going to do it perfectly. You're not going to do it with all your heart all the time. God is faithful to hear your prayers if you're looking to follow him, if you're looking to obey and bring honor to him. That is his heart. He wants you to grow. He wants your life to bear fruit. In season and out, out of season. In seasons of trial and seasons of plenty and seasons of uncertainty. There's always a season that's coming. There's always a season behind you. But in every season, continue on in prayer. Continue to go to the Lord with your requests in and trust that He hears you, that He is working in your life. Please pray with me. God, we are just we're admitting that we need your help. God, help us to be people that are coming to you with our requests. Sometimes it can feel feeling, we can feel that you don't hear us, but God, your word says that you do. You are drawing near to those who draw nearer to you. And as we draw near to you in our hearts and prayer, God, you meet us. God, you hear us. And God, you are working, you're working to remain steadfast to who you are, to your promises. God, you are a faithful God that is aware of our every need, aware of our every breath. And God, help us to trust you with our lives. Help us to depend on you in prayer. We want to follow you. God, I want these students to know you, these leaders, to continue to call out to you. And God, as a man that needs you every day. God help us to just remember our weakness, remember our frame and trust and depend in you every day. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.