Praying For One Another

We are commanded in scripture to Pray for One Another, but how seriously do we take this command?  Listen in as Pastor Aaron addresses this command.

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Who's glad they came to the house of the Lord? You know, I am so thankful for school starting tomorrow. I'm I I mean, I as a parent, I'm kind of thankful for that, I'll be honest. But summer is almost over. The fair is over today. We can start getting back to our normal lives, ladies and gentlemen. I'm so thrilled about that. I like routine. Who here loves routine? I need it, I thrive off it. I love when my Mondays look always the same. I love it when I can wake up and I know what to expect for the day. And so often that's not the way life goes. But but we need to pray for our kids as they go back to school. And we're gonna be doing that right here at the end. And I I I want to just be in fervent prayer as these kids go to school. I can't imagine the pressures they face versus when I was younger. You we we had that question of the day that said, Hey, what was your favorite subject in grade school? And you know, I I think about the way life was when I was in grade school, and it is so much different today. And I know that nowadays kids do battle with comparison because it's all online for them to see the way that some kids get to live their lives, and so they deal with the pressures of trying to be like the others too, and now they see it on a global scale. And I I can't imagine what our kids are growing up struggling with in their mind because of all these outside pressures of telling them who they should be and who they shouldn't be. And my biggest prayer is that they they discover who God says they are, and so that's that's what I want us to pray as we go forward. But let's go ahead, if you would please turn in your Bibles. We're in James chapter five today. We have just three messages left in our one another series. There are over 100 one another statements in the New Testament, and there are 66 of those, or 66 total, individual commands of how we are to treat one another. And so, you know, you hear some of these messages and you think, oh, that's a throwaway topic. Pastor, we know we should do that. But the reality is we say that we should do these things. It sounds good in practice, but the re the the truth of the matter is that many of us live very busy lives and we have this intention of doing these things, and we say we're gonna do these things, but then we don't do it. And today is one of those that we say we do it in practice all the time, but your commitment, I believe, to it could truly bring rescue to a fellow believer. My grandpa Johnson, he passed away within the first year that we moved down here to Des Moines. And that man, I I love him so much, and he taught me so much about life. And, you know, we were we were raised, my brother and I, we were babysat by my grandparents, and so grandpa, he was a manager down at one of the credit unions downtown, and he would often take me to school, and you know, it was so funny doing life with him. He was handicapped, and there was there were some things that everyone told him he was restricted by, and he was he was just aggravated enough by them telling him he couldn't do it that he proved that he could. And he he loved the Lord, he absolutely loved the Lord, and one of the ways that God used him is he would have these very vivid dreams, and then he would be woken up in the night from these dreams, and he would immediately be prompted to pray for that person that he was dreaming about. I was about seven or eight years old at the time, and one night he woke up in the middle of a dream, and he he he dreamt that I was hit by a car, and he he didn't understand it, and it was tragic in his dream, and so he immediately went to prayer. A few days later, I'm outside. My my parents used to live up here on Morton. You remember the old KFC that was just at the top of the hill on Hubble? And I used to I used to get as much change as I could find in my parents' couch cushions and go up to the KFC and buy chicken littles. And so, like I had this freedom riding up and down the street on my bicycle. That was normal back then for seven or eight-year-olds to be out all day riding bikes in the street. And I was up early one morning and I was riding my bicycle, and there was a car that was delivering newspapers, and it had a passenger that was throwing the newspapers out, and the driver that was riding close to the road, and I was I was hugging the curb as I was riding my bike, and that driver wasn't paying attention. They were too busy talking to the person in the passenger seat. They swerved over, hit my bike. I was thrown from my bike, and she ran it over. And I walked away with just minor scrapes, and we we made sure we said, no big deal, no one's hurt. And if it wasn't for God prompting my grandpa to wake up at 2, 3 in the morning to pray, who knows how it would have turned out? And I know that worldly-minded people, they hear that story and they might dismiss it. They might say, you know, it's just coincidence. Here's the thing with an all-powerful God, there are no coincidences. There's only providence. There's only providence. And we as believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ that believe in a God that is actively involved in our lives today cannot afford to believe in coincidences. We can't. So for us, when people are brought to our mind or you even feel prompted to tell someone you'll pray for them, this is what I encourage. Act on it that very moment. That very moment it comes to your mind, you go to work. That is your duty. That is God trying to work through you and in you. Don't wait, don't hesitate, don't say, well, if you're on the run and you have someone that's telling, telling you a terrible story, and you're prompted to say, Hey, I'll pray for you, or I'll I'll mean to pray for you, I'll add you to my list, whatever it is. I encourage you, stop what you're doing right then. Most likely it's not that important. Take the five minutes to pray with them right then and there. And I am telling you, for some people, that that is so transformative for them to see that you care enough to sacrifice your time, to set everything to set to aside and say, I'm gonna call on the God of the universe to impact your situation. When you speak with boldness, don't speak out of the power that you think is within you. Speak with boldness, believing in the power from above. So today we're gonna focus on the command, pray for one another. And I ask you to turn in your Bibles to James chapter 5. We do have Bibles in the seat in front of you. We don't put our main scripture up on the screen, and the reason we do that is because we want people to actively engage in their Bible. So again, we're James chapter 5, verses 13 through 18. Are any of you suffering hardships, you should pray. Are any of you happy, you should sing praises, or any of you sick, you should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great and powerful, it has great power, excuse me, and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years. Then when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. And Lord, as your words said, Elijah was as human as we are. God, it's so easy for us to prop up people in our lives and say, well, they were they were a prophet, or they were an evangelist, or they were they were a missionary that traveled the world. God, I pray that we realize that you work through your people when we just choose obedience and following out after you. God, may we see us in that story. I thank you in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen. So the question is why should we pray for one another? First off, because it's commanded. I mean, you know, you know, if God says it, and he says it in a way, it's not worded as a suggestion. Last week we discussed the command to serve one another, and the challenge is placing others' needs before ourselves. And that can be so tough. When we feel that we're busy people or we feel that the weight of life is so significant. And once we learn to serve one another, what if we take the next step and we make that same commitment in prayer? Imagine if prayer and praying for each other was the normal life of the church. Would we see, would we see God truly dwelling amongst his people, working in his people and through his people? I think if we're willing to set aside time to pray with one another, to call on the name of the Lord and trust and know that he can make a difference in their situation, you are going to see a powerful church. James cites four examples of praying for one another. And I want you to listen to these. The first one is if anyone is suffering hardships, let him keep praying. So this could mean praying for those who endure evil treatments, affliction, hardship. It's the same word in the Greek James used in James 5.10 for prophets who suffered patiently. But it's broader than physical sickness. And I want us to look at hardships that way. The response is not complaining or cursing, but just choosing to be in continual prayer. The next thing that he listed if anyone is cheerful, let him keep singing praises. Have you ever walked into a party or work or a public setting? And there's that always that one person that is always down, and there's that one person that's always cheerful. And oftentimes we think, I'm gonna choose to hang out over by the cheerful guy. I don't, I, I, I don't need that in my life right now. Well, the church needs to get comfortable with doing both. And I think there are times, there are times also in the church that we feel like we can't be too cheerful. I don't want to be a part of a church like that. I I want to be a part of a church where we know how to celebrate. Amen. Where we know how to celebrate, we know how to rejoice, be cheerful with those who are cheerful, sing praises along with them. And this word cheerful, it's not this outward expression, it is an inner state of being. It's stating what's going on on the inside. In fact, the Greek word used here literally means to pluck a string. How can you be sad when you're plucking a string, guys? And so it means to make melody or sing praises. And I want you to think about this way joy, it's not this self-congratulation, it's it's not that. It is directed praise towards God that is contagious. And so we naturally should want to join in. And that's the role of the church. Listen to Romans 12:15. It says, Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep. The church should be able to do both, even in the same service. Thirdly, if anyone is sick or weak among you, let him call for the elders. This is referring to someone with physical illness, but the original language it points to a wider range of infirmities, and it uses the language of we take the oil to pray, and but it uses language that we are to raise them up, we're to lift them up. It speaks of encouragement, it speaks of like uh like I quote Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2 a lot, where I say we need to lift their eyes toward the realities of heaven, get their eyes for a moment off their situation, focused on God, trusting and knowing that He is with them and He is for them. Because we're to be encouraging in those times. But for us, when we pray with Him, it's presenting their situation to the Lord as the body of Christ. And here's the key to this. Here's the key to this all. Pastor Kelly touched on it. It's the sick person that needs to take the initiative to call on the elders of the church and say, pray for me. Guys, I I I love and appreciate about so many of you that I hear these stories about Pastor, I needed you. I was in the hospital sick with this, and I'm like, Well, I never got a phone call. What am I supposed to do with that? If I don't call you, do do we just hope that I have ESP and I know exactly what you're going through? You have to call on the elders of the church because that is an act of you taking that step of faith of saying, I trust and know that when God's anointed, the leadership of the church comes up here, when I call on them, that they're going to come up in faith and believe with me that God is going to change the outcome of this situation. Then the elders respond to the sick person by praying over them while anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer is the primary of this. The oil is secondary. Fourthly, it's like the last but not the least. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. What I love about the original language, if you if you study language, this is worded as not a one-time event. It uses the present middle imperatives, which tell us that confession and intercession. I want you to hear this. This is so important. Confession and intercession are ongoing. It doesn't stop. There's never a time where it ceases. And so this is a mutual practice that we do with one another. And here's the other key to this it's not one-sided. And it also says, do this so that you may be healed. Do you hear that? So it speaks to a different kind of spickness sickness, excuse me, and it speaks of this inward healing. And what I can't let go of when I read this is it implies that this should never stop. See, here's the thing who is committed to and going to remain sinless the rest of their life. Raise your hand. Okay, because I want to know what you got. If you well, grandma, we're we're not perfect, but I mean we're close to perfect. Here's the thing: I aim to be sinless, but like the apostle Paul, I am the chief of sinners, and there's a good chance I might do something stupid today. There's a good chance, and I am not above confessing sin. None of us are. The danger is you might start covering up dirt on the sin. You might try to hide it, you might want to pretend it doesn't exist. And unconfessed sin can take root in your life. An unconfessed sin without repentance, without confession, might run rampant. And so, what I encourage, this is important, but this next part's important. Find a healthy relationship in the church. Find a healthy relationship. Don't let go of one another and commit to praying for one another through every circumstance. And give each other permission to confess sin without being ostracized for it. Like, yeah, I need correction in my life a hundred percent. I need correction. But I don't need to find a prayer partner or an accountability partner so that I can be condemned. Christ doesn't condemn me, he convicts me. And so we have to understand these relationships need to be healthy, and they need to be relationships that lift up each other and point each other to God. All these instances that I just listed for praying for one another kind of feel like crisis moments. And I want you to note this is not reserved for crisis only moments. We should be in regular practice of praying for one another. The church is great about rising up to the crisis moments, and the the situation is now so severe that we gotta gather together and we feel compelled to buckle down and pray for one another. And those times are needed. And I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not saying those are bad, but what I'm saying is we should be in the regular practice where praying for one another is normal. It should be an everyday practice. The apostle Paul he wrote many books to churches that he he poured a lot of time into these churches. And we can read in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2 Thalonians, we can read in 1st and 2nd Timothy, all mention, every single one mention, I am continually praying for you. He used that statement. And one of the greatest ways that we can pray for other believers, because there are times where one of you might pop into mind, and I'm like, Lord, I don't know how to pray for them. I don't, I don't know what they're going through. And you know what God would tell you to do? Pray in the spirit on all occasions. Pray in the spirit. Listen to Ephesians 6 18. It says, pray in the spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. See, here's what the infilling of the Holy Spirit does it activates us to a place where when we don't know what we need to pray, that God uses us to effectively pray for one another. God knows what they need, and you can be the vessel to petition the Lord. Isn't it weird how God works? Isn't it really weird that God uses you to call on his name so that he can be active in the world? But it's a partnership. The challenges, I might not know what a fellow believer is going through, but here's the thing God does. So I trust him when he says, pray in the spirit. Pray in the spirit on all occasions. And so again, that should be a daily part of our life. Number two, pray for one another because it is powerful and effective. That was right there in Ephesians. The prayer of a righteous person. It accomplishes great results. And it seems pretty prideful to make a statement like as it says here in Ephesians, I am a righteous person. But here's what the statement means to be a righteous person. It's not someone who is in sinless perfection, but someone who is living in right relationship with God. Where you're saying, I do what he commands, I seek to obey God in my life, and I am actively trying to walk with the Lord on a daily basis. Church, if that's you, you are a righteous person. And it is not you that makes yourself righteous, it is Christ in you. So it's not prideful to say I'm a righteous person. The language again implies continual prayers being powerful and effective. And it makes me wonder what are then our ineffective prayers? If those are powerful and effective, what's ineffective? Well, first off, this is what James is saying. There are prayers that are they're working, they're operative, they're also being energized. And it is not prayer that is by human effort, but it's prayer that is at work and energized by God. That's what's powerful and effective. Okay? The KJV, and I actually love this, it uses the phrase effectual, fervent prayer. The effectual fervent prayer. And that implies that when a righteous person's petition is truly operating, it produces great power. But our prayer can be ineffective with unconfessed sin. Listen to Psalm 66, 18. This is so important. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against. So that your father in heaven will forgive your sins too. You know what? If you want to be ineffective in prayer, have unconfessed sin. But when we align our hearts with the Father, when we walk in right relationship with him, when we say, I have pled the blood of Jesus Christ over my life, I am forgiven, I am set free. Guess what? God looks at you and he sees his son. And he sees a life that is honoring him. And so what we start to do is we start to bring our prayers and petitions before God, where what we envision is we're calling on the God of the universe who has the power to do anything. And your prayers, when you choose to step into that role, your prayers are going to be powerful and effective. The early church was put to the test in this, and this is something that I believe we can learn from today. The apostles that were being questioned and killed, and James, the brother of John, one of the original 12 disciples, was just killed by King Herod by Herod King Herod Agrippa for his faith. And so there they are. The early church is seeing that these great men of the faith, these guys who walked with Jesus, are now being killed for what they believe. They feel the pressure. And when King Herod Agrippa killed James, it pleased the Jews who didn't claim Christ. And so Herod, what he did, feeling the power, feeling the support of the people, he arrested Peter. Listen to Acts 12, 3 through 5. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter, and this took place during the Passover celebration. Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squaths and four soldiers each. This was the equivalent of maximum security prison. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. Listen to verse 5. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. I looked up because I was curious because there are translations in James chapter 5 that uses this word earnestly. And here we see it also in Acts chapter 12. And it's actually not the same Greek word that's used, but they have similar meanings where the church was saying, we are going to pray without ceasing for our brother that's in chains. And so what they decide to do, they decide to call on the God of the universe to intervene. And I want us to pick up Acts 12, 6 through 8. It says, the night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, everyone says, suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, Quick, get up. And the chains fell off his wrist. Then the angel told him, Get dressed and put on your sandals, and he did. Now put on your coat and follow me, the angel ordered. If you read the rest of the story, that the angel leads him out of town, and Peter was kind of in a bit of a trance, and when he realized where he's at and he's not in prison anymore, he quickly goes to uh Mary's house, and there they find that the church's prayer was effective. Amen. Imagine a church that is in such a deep walk with the Lord, they won't cease. They won't let go until God answers. Imagine that. That's the kind of church I want to be a part of. Can you say amen to that? That's the kind of church that I don't want them to let go of believing what God can do. And I think I want to be surrounded by people that there are going to be times where I need someone else of that same faith to pick me up and say, I'm calling on the God of the universe on your behalf. That's the kind of church that we need. And I don't want to let go of that. We have a few getting baptized, and Pastor Kelly, I'd ask you to just uh if you're getting baptized today, meet Pastor Kelly at the back. We're gonna be doing that here in a moment, but I want to touch on the third thing that we're praying for. And we have a few of you getting baptized, praise God. Pray for one another practically and persistently. Where it's a regular practice. You know, in James it says, in suffering, you need to pray. In sickness, call the elders, anoint and pray. In sin, confess and pray for one another. Those are just practical things that we should do. In Acts 12, it gives us this corporate picture of prayer. It's earnest and specific, and it's prayer that continues even when the situation looks absolutely hopeless. Calling on the church to pray. You know, in our story, Peter's in the maximum security prison the night before his trial, and the church gathered to pray. So you and I, that if we often feel powerless where we have nothing that we can do, we believe in a God that's all powerful. Here's the problem. I'm not sure we fully believe it. I'm not sure. Because so often we say, but that's reality. And we look at the situation and we dismiss what can be done. Corporately and as individuals, we should be warriors in prayer. Who says yes to that? I mean, I don't want to give up on a God that I believe created the heavens and the earth, can be actively involved in everyone's life, and also authors the end of this life. In Isaiah 56, 7, God describes the church by saying, My house shall be called a house of prayer. And it is that that's a conduit between our connection with God, and so it also activates him to work on our behalf. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16. It says, So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. John 15, 7 says, But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted to you. So, Jared, as you come up. The question remains, how often do we operate in this going forward? How do we do this? How do we achieve this? Do we just snap our fingers and all of a sudden we have this heart for prayer where we just want to pray for everyone we see? I don't think you can get there right away. The Holy Spirit can do that in you, but most people need the discipline of learning to pray. And I believe that you will have a heart to pray for people when you see God moving through your prayer life. I've heard a phrase, the more you pray, the more you pray. Because you see the effective effectiveness of it when you begin to pray and trust to know that God is using you. You don't develop this in your own heart, it's not something that just comes natural. God is doing that inside of you. So you are developing a heart for people by when you are doing life together in the trenches, and when you're seeing God move. And there's something so special about when you commit to pray for someone and and that they've been in just rock bottom, they've been in a terrible place in their life, and all of a sudden you walk through them uh with them through something, and you're seeing God effectively move in their life, and you can say, Man, I didn't give up on them in prayer, and now to see God doing this, it is absolutely amazing. I never thought God could use me like that, but then all of a sudden there's that epiphany. God can use me like that, and that is so good. Implement it as a part of your daily rhythm. Do it daily, and this is just as true, not just praying for one another as believers, but praying for those who are your enemies, those who persecute you, not praying, Lord, I pray that you smite them to ruin or anything like that. God, may they be impacted by your Holy Spirit. May they sense and know that you are the one true God. You know, and I think if we start implementing this in our small groups, or we're calling on the elders regularly when we're sick, or if you're in a text thread with a group and you're like, man, I just need to interject this prayer into this situation. When you and I choose to gather together and pray, we're going to see God move. The last thing, and I think this is probably the most important place I can finish. It doesn't take anyone special. See, so often, this is what happened. When I grew up in the church, I looked at people in the church, and I had this problem of comparing myself to other people. It was it was where I looked at them as holy and I looked at myself as pretty ungodly, and I just thought the Lord can't use me. See, in James chapter 5, he mentioned one of the major prophets of the Old Testament. Well, one of the greatest prophets outside of Christ, Elijah. Elijah was a man who confronted kings, he was protected by God, he prayed for rain after drought, he defeated 450 prophets of Baal, he was sustained by an angel when he was in hiding. A truly remarkable life. Before God called him up to heaven in a chariot of fire. What a way to go, right? And we put people like Elijah up on this huge pedestal and never envision us remotely being as effective. And yet, listen to how James words this again. In verse 17 of chapter 5, Elijah was as human as we are. And yet, when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years. And when the church prayed earnestly for Peter, God changed the situation. And when you pray earnestly for one another, imagine what God can do. See, Elijah had human frailty, but he called on the same God you call on. It can have the same outcome, it can have the same possibility in powerful prayer and powerful results. He was in right relationship with God. That's the key. He was in right relationship with God and he prayed earnestly. So it's not in your power, it's the power of Christ within you. And so you have to trust and know that it is not about your past, it is not about where you feel you're at right now or how you perceive your situation. Are you in right relationship with God? Then you're qualified. That's it. So you have this opportunity to take on this mantle of prayer. Because not only is it your communion with God, but you can call on the kingdom of heaven. You can bind the powers of darkness, and you can trust and know that God can use you. And it is not by your hand, it's by God's. But He wants to walk in this partnership with you. So, what I want you to do is I want you to bow your heads right now. This is not about where you've been or maybe what you've been lacking. This is about what you want to be going forward. If you say, Pastor, I feel challenged in my spirit. And I need to walk in right relationship with God. And I need to take on this mantle of prayer. I see it as the command that it is. And if you are challenged to say, I choose to take on the mantle of prayer, will you stand with me right now? I'm gonna do something I typically don't do. I want you to turn around and I want you to look at each other. To me, this is important. If it's praying for one another, you should know who says, I'm going to stand in prayer with you. I'm committed to this thing. And then not let go and not give up and say, I know that I can go to them and I can pray. Because I want people who are committed to the same thing I am. So I want you to reach out. I want you to grab the hand of the person next to you. You know, if we need to even reach across aisles, that's great. We can move out. But we're gonna pray. Father God, we as the body of Christ are choosing to acknowledge that this is a command that comes from you, where you want us, Lord, to not just commune with you in prayer, but you want us to pray for one another. And God, it needs to be the relationship that needs to be a normal existence here in the church. And so, God, we are trusting and knowing that you are going to use these relationships to do your mighty, powerful, effective work. God, we just need to be in obedience to you. We just need to walk in right relationship with you, and that, God, we can have these amazing stories just like Elijah had when he prayed earnestly for rain and then it came. Or when the church gathered together as they saw their faith under threat, and their leaders held captive, and God, you showed them you're still on the throne. There's still no one more powerful than you. That is the God of the universe that we call on today, and we trust and know that God, you are still moving. We need you, God. We want to walk on that path where we are seeing you move. God, use this body to do amazing things for your kingdom. And Lord, may it start by us aligning our hearts in obedient and right relationship with you. I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Church, who wants to see some baptisms today?