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Worship


Sermon

James 5:16-18 ESV


(16) Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (17) 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. (18) Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

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[00:00] Before we get started, let's pray and then we'll dig in.
[00:02] Father, just thank you for another day.
[00:07] Every day that we awake and we breathe is your mercy.
[00:13] Your grace poured out on us.
[00:17] And so we thank you for that, Lord.
[00:18] Thank you for this passage.
[00:21] Or do you know my heart?
[00:22] You know, in the beginning I was not,
[00:24] I was not excited about teaching this.
[00:27] And as time has gone on
[00:29] and I've gotten to study more, Lord,
[00:31] I just thank you for giving me some joy in this passage.
[00:35] And now I'm excited about wrapping this up today
[00:39] just because of what it means.
[00:40] So thank you.
[00:42] Father, just as we go through it,
[00:44] open our hearts to what you would have us to learn.
[00:47] Teach us what we do not know.
[00:48] And Father, help us, all of it.
[00:52] May it just draw us closer to you, Lord.
[00:56] Father, we just thank you and praise your holy name,
[00:59] in Jesus' name, amen.
[01:01] All right, well, last week we were in James chapter five,
[01:05] as you know, and I'm just gonna read it, verse 13,
[01:10] James chapter five, verse 13 through 18.
[01:13] So we'll read it again.
[01:14] We're gonna do a very little bit of review,
[01:16] just like, you know, 10 seconds worth, or maybe a little more.
[01:20] But, and then we're gonna get into some of these other,
[01:23] some of these other things today in the scripture.
[01:26] So James chapter five, verse 13 through 18 says this,
[01:30] "Is anyone among you suffering, let him pray.
[01:34] "Is anyone cheerful, let him sing praise."
[01:37] Okay, let's stop there.
[01:38] How do we do on that this week?
[01:40] All right.
[01:41] Pretty good, all right, good.
[01:45] Oh, you know, it's interesting 'cause, you know,
[01:47] really a two-year-old and you have grandkids or little kids,
[01:50] you know this, or had kids, you know this.
[01:53] Their hearts are just full of brains, right?
[01:55] They don't even know, right?
[01:56] And so we were playing, we really liked,
[01:59] what's the one song she liked?
[02:00] Not the new one, no, that's the new one.
[02:03] What's the one that she liked before?
[02:04] - Oh, "Every Move By Me."
[02:05] - "Every Move By Me."
[02:06] ♪ Ah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah ♪
[02:07] That was that song, right?
[02:09] Sings it all the time, your inner crib,
[02:11] when she's taking it out before she goes to bed,
[02:12] we hear her go, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
[02:15] "Oh, hey, hey, quiet down there, go to sleep."
[02:17] No, but, you know, she just loves it.
[02:19] And then there's a new song that we found
[02:21] on YouTube yesterday, and I don't know,
[02:23] Lori Condor or whatever, but I've heard it.
[02:25] Maybe, I think I'm underestimating what I say
[02:27] a thousand times since yesterday afternoon.
[02:30] All right, "Let It Shine."
[02:31] It's a "Let It Shine" song, it's almost done
[02:33] a little different, and Ridley just loves it, right?
[02:36] Just loves it.
[02:37] Her heart is full of praise.
[02:40] She doesn't really know that she's praising it yet,
[02:42] but she just loves to sing it.
[02:43] And so, you know, do you guys get like that ever,
[02:47] during the week?
[02:48] You just are like a maze, right?
[02:50] Sometimes you ever think about all that God has done
[02:53] in your life and just, you know, kind of start singing,
[02:55] maybe put the radio on, start singing along.
[02:57] You know, we talked about that last week.
[03:00] We said, you know, people love to sing in the car
[03:02] and love to sing in the shower,
[03:03] and there's nothing wrong with that.
[03:04] That's a great place to praise, all right?
[03:06] Especially if you don't have a good voice, all right?
[03:09] No, I'm just kidding, that's great.
[03:10] So I hope that we're doing that.
[03:12] I hope that if you're, and when we talk about suffering,
[03:14] it's not necessarily suffering and death or, you know,
[03:17] like severe sickness, we get to that,
[03:18] or I guess it could be, just think about, you know,
[03:22] spiritual suffering, maybe discouragement,
[03:24] you know, those kinds of things, financial, right?
[03:28] Pray.
[03:28] We talked about this whole passage is prayer.
[03:32] Every verse, prayer is mentioned, every verse.
[03:35] We're 13 through 18.
[03:36] So hopefully we are praying.
[03:40] We'll get more of that in a little bit.
[03:41] It says, let him sing praise in verse 14.
[03:44] If anyone among you is sick, or is anyone among you sick,
[03:47] let him call the elders of the church
[03:48] and let them pray over him,
[03:50] anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,
[03:51] and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick
[03:53] and the Lord will raise them up.
[03:55] And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
[03:58] Therefore, confess your sins to one another
[04:00] and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
[04:02] The prayer of a righteous person has great power
[04:04] as it is working.
[04:05] Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,
[04:08] and he prayed fervently that it might not reign,
[04:10] and for three years and six months,
[04:12] it did not reign on the earth.
[04:13] That he prayed again, and heaven gave reign,
[04:17] and the earth for its fruit.
[04:19] All right, great passage.
[04:21] And I feel like, and I think I said this last week,
[04:25] I've read it, you know, I've read through James a few times.
[04:29] It's a passage that I tend to do, all right, okay.
[04:33] And, you know, especially where I can get to verse 16,
[04:35] therefore, confess your sins.
[04:36] I get that part, you know, and then just go from there.
[04:39] You know, verse 14 and 15,
[04:41] I kind of just wanted to get through it.
[04:42] Yeah, yeah, that sounds good, whatever.
[04:45] Wrong, right, wrong.
[04:47] If anything, for me,
[04:48] that's what it's been very convicting on.
[04:50] Like, why would I skip over a passage
[04:53] that God has given me a command, right?
[04:57] 'Cause, you know, instead of digging into it
[04:59] and really trying to figure it out,
[05:00] I'd just rather kind of just pretend that, yeah, okay.
[05:03] 'Cause unlike Chris and Katharina,
[05:05] they were part of a church that did this and obeyed,
[05:07] and were part of this, which is great.
[05:09] I don't think I was part of a church like I may have been,
[05:12] and I just didn't know it.
[05:13] Maybe the elders, you know, we always had elders,
[05:15] and I know they prayed.
[05:16] I just don't know if they were called and prayed.
[05:18] So I don't want to say that we didn't do it,
[05:19] but they didn't make it known if they did it, ever.
[05:21] And I never heard a message on this from many of my pastors,
[05:24] which, you know, I lived in different places,
[05:26] so I was not like at one place for 20 years
[05:28] where you might've heard it.
[05:29] So that may not be that uncommon.
[05:30] But anyway, I just didn't grow up with this.
[05:34] If it happened, I don't know.
[05:35] My mom had cancer, she was part of a good church,
[05:38] and she was dying, I don't know.
[05:40] Steve, do you know if they ever brought the elders in?
[05:42] I know the pastor came in,
[05:43] I don't know if the elders ever came in
[05:45] and prayed over her, don't know.
[05:47] My father-in-law had a massive heart attack,
[05:52] and on the table of surgery he was having,
[05:55] he was having bypass surgery,
[05:56] and he had a massive heart attack on the table
[05:59] while he was in surgery.
[06:00] And so, you know, basically there wasn't much they can do.
[06:03] So I know the pastors were there praying for him,
[06:05] but I don't know if anybody called the elders.
[06:07] Then my mother-in-law got cancer years later,
[06:10] a few years later, and she was sick and dying,
[06:12] and I don't know if anybody ever called the elders for her.
[06:16] All that to say, I don't really have any experience with this.
[06:19] I've never been a part of anybody who's done it,
[06:20] and now I'm kind of ticked.
[06:22] The reason I was like, man,
[06:23] I've had a lot of sick people in my life,
[06:25] should've been, should've been calling elders.
[06:27] And it's not for a magical healing, okay?
[06:29] I don't want you to be thinking,
[06:30] oh, we should've called it,
[06:31] 'cause maybe then her mom would've lived,
[06:32] or her dad would've lived, or my mom would've lived.
[06:34] No, I wish we would've done it because it says to do it.
[06:38] All right, as simple as that.
[06:41] Well, and I'm probably getting ahead of myself,
[06:44] but all I do want to say is there is comfort in that, right?
[06:47] There's other things than just like the elders
[06:50] coming to pray over you.
[06:53] That's comforting, right?
[06:55] Wherever you are, that brings, like, as I said,
[06:58] James has this expectation
[06:59] that we are part of a church family.
[07:02] And as such, that is comforting, right?
[07:04] The church family knowing that they're praying for you,
[07:06] the elders coming and anointing you with oil
[07:09] and praying over you, right?
[07:11] There's comfort in that.
[07:13] I want to talk more about that later.
[07:15] Anyway, anyway, I got off on tangent, sorry.
[07:17] Verse 16, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another,"
[07:19] and I know I read this, but I want to read it again,
[07:20] 'cause we're gonna talk about it.
[07:21] "Therefore, confess your sins to one another
[07:22] "and pray for another that you may be healed.
[07:25] "Pray the righteous person has great power
[07:26] "and it's working."
[07:27] So that's another interesting phrase.
[07:30] I don't think we're very good at that either, huh?
[07:33] Confessing one to another, okay.
[07:35] Anyway, so let's talk about last week, a little bit.
[07:39] We looked at who was involved, right?
[07:41] We just said the church expectation
[07:43] that we are part of a church family.
[07:46] There's an expectation there.
[07:47] And so when you call the elders of the church,
[07:50] the expectation is you are part of that church, right?
[07:52] The elders, right?
[07:55] That's who was involved.
[07:56] And the sick.
[07:57] And we said, what is involved?
[08:00] And it's interesting is that someone's sick
[08:02] calling the elders, right?
[08:04] And I wanted to point that out
[08:05] because sometimes I've been a part of a church
[08:07] where people have a lot of suggestions
[08:11] when you have a church, right?
[08:12] And if you're on any kind of leadership
[08:15] and people feel like, oh, and I love it.
[08:17] So suggest the way.
[08:18] I'm just saying that sometimes people think,
[08:20] oh, suggesting, hey, do you know everybody's needs?
[08:25] Have you gone to every person?
[08:26] I'm like, no, people are adults.
[08:29] They can call with needs.
[08:30] And specifically in this regard, when people are sick,
[08:33] it is their responsibility to call the elders.
[08:36] But the elders' responsibility is necessarily,
[08:38] not if I know, obviously, but if I have no idea,
[08:41] it's your responsibility to call me
[08:43] or somebody from your family call me,
[08:45] but I prefer to be the sick, all right?
[08:47] And so, and then, so you got someone sick calling the elders,
[08:52] you have oil.
[08:52] I talked to a pastor this week.
[08:55] He said, make sure you use extra virgin olive oil.
[08:59] You're trying to be funny.
[08:59] I don't know if that was funny or not, but I thought,
[09:02] okay, I'll tell everybody not.
[09:03] He was only kidding.
[09:04] He was only kidding.
[09:06] And then prayer, obviously, all right, prayer.
[09:08] And that is kind of where I want to focus in on today.
[09:11] That last part, because the whole passage is about prayer.
[09:14] So let's talk about, when we talk about prayer,
[09:18] and when someone is sick, and we're gonna anoint with oil,
[09:20] and then the verse says, right?
[09:22] And let them pray over him, anointing with oil
[09:26] in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith
[09:27] will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him
[09:29] up, and he has committed sins he will be forgiven,
[09:31] therefore confess your sins one to another.
[09:33] And I think reading the whole passage, right,
[09:36] 'cause we always talk about this, don't we?
[09:38] We say there's a passage, and in this case, James,
[09:41] there's this little passage, but we don't just take that.
[09:43] We take that in light of the whole chapter,
[09:46] or in light of even that whole passage,
[09:47] in light of the whole chapter, in light of the whole book,
[09:50] right, in light of the whole New Testament,
[09:51] in light of the whole Bible, right?
[09:55] And man, I mean, you've been around all along,
[09:59] had any kind of theological conversations with people.
[10:03] A lot of people love to zone in on just small sections,
[10:07] and pull that out, right?
[10:08] And then hammer it with it, right?
[10:10] I don't even know you with it,
[10:12] or tell you why you're on, right?
[10:13] Okay, but are you looking at all of scripture?
[10:16] When you should look at all of scripture,
[10:20] then you can look at this passage and you go, oh, okay,
[10:23] all right, so it starts to kinda, you know,
[10:27] one of those things when you color,
[10:28] and it starts to bring out the, you trace it,
[10:30] it starts to bring out the picture more.
[10:32] I think when you look at all of scripture,
[10:34] and all of James, 'cause James has some words to say,
[10:36] even in chapter four, I think in regards to this,
[10:39] that we see the picture much clearer.
[10:42] All right, and so in prayer, I think there are,
[10:44] when we say prayers involved,
[10:46] I think there are two things we wanna remember, right?
[10:50] When we're talking about sick,
[10:52] and when we're talking about, like, if I'm sick,
[10:54] and I'm calling the elders, or you're sick,
[10:55] and you're calling the elders,
[10:56] there's two things that we truly wanna remember.
[10:57] There might be more, but there's definitely two,
[10:59] that you should be writing down,
[11:00] or that you should be keeping a mental note of.
[11:03] One, it is vital to prepare your heart.
[11:07] It is vital to prepare your heart, right?
[11:12] I'm gonna call the elders, have I prepared my heart?
[11:16] Let's say I am sick, very sick,
[11:18] and I'm gonna call the elders, and I called the elders,
[11:22] and I said, would you come over me and pray over me?
[11:25] Have I prepared my heart?
[11:29] And how do we do that?
[11:31] I think number one is confession.
[11:35] We see it, obviously, in a little bit later,
[11:38] where he says, confess one another, you know, your sins,
[11:40] but again, if we take the whole Bible,
[11:42] confession is vital.
[11:44] And if you think about it, right, 'cause he says here,
[11:51] right, and the prayer of faith will save the one who's sick,
[11:55] the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick.
[11:58] If you think about it, is it even possible
[12:02] to have a prayer of faith if you are living in sin?
[12:08] Right?
[12:11] If you're just like, whatever that sin is,
[12:14] it's rampant in your life, and it's allowed to remain.
[12:17] Right?
[12:23] Let's read a couple verses on confession.
[12:25] All right, 1 John 1.9.
[12:27] Many of you know that, right?
[12:31] Anybody want to look it up for me?
[12:33] Real quick, 1 John 1.9.
[12:35] Oh, even better.
[12:36] - I know, you confess your sins, none.
[12:40] - He is. (laughs)
[12:42] - He's fake, correct, yeah, just.
[12:45] - Purify you from all unrighteousness.
[12:46] - Yes, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, right?
[12:50] And it's interesting, 'cause even as you read this,
[12:53] later on he says, the prayer of the righteous person
[12:55] has great power, right?
[12:56] - The prayer of the righteous person has great power.
[13:00] Now, there's a couple of school thoughts.
[13:02] Obviously, those of us in Christ
[13:04] are declared what before God?
[13:06] Righteous.
[13:08] But then there's also, are you living righteously, right?
[13:11] Do we understand the difference there, too?
[13:12] We are all declared if we put our faith in Jesus Christ,
[13:16] we are declared righteous before God.
[13:18] But then there's living righteously in the Lord.
[13:23] Right?
[13:24] If you're a degenerate, (laughs)
[13:26] which, you know, I'm using that term loosely, all right?
[13:29] But let's say you're saved and we've done it,
[13:31] we all sin, we all sin every day.
[13:33] Well, let's say you know the sin of being in your life.
[13:38] Maybe it's lost, maybe it's anger,
[13:40] maybe it's, you know, whatever.
[13:42] Maybe it's gossip, and you let it remain in your life.
[13:47] And you don't just let it, it's just, you know it's sin,
[13:51] you don't get it, and you just don't care,
[13:52] you just kind of live in your life.
[13:53] Where does the prayer of faith come from?
[13:57] Right?
[13:59] Where does the prayer of faith?
[14:00] So, 1 John 1.9, right?
[14:03] If we confess our sins,
[14:04] He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.
[14:06] But then there's another verse.
[14:08] Psalm 19, this is probably one of my favorite chapters
[14:12] in Psalms, Psalms 19, love it, right?
[14:14] But I love it, the whole chapter,
[14:15] but I love definitely the last three verses,
[14:17] but we're just gonna read two.
[14:19] Psalm 19 verse 12 and 13 says this,
[14:21] but who can discern their own errors?
[14:24] Forgive my hidden faults.
[14:28] Keep your servant also from willful sins.
[14:32] May they not rule over me,
[14:34] then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
[14:37] We talk about confession, right?
[14:42] It's both like sins that we don't even know,
[14:46] our hidden sin, our hidden faults,
[14:48] kind of forgive the sins I don't even know I'm doing,
[14:51] 'cause I know Lord, that I'm not acting like you,
[14:56] I'm not being you, I know that I have sinned
[14:58] when I don't even know I have sinned,
[15:00] but also keep me from my willful sins.
[15:02] Right, there's confession in that, Lord,
[15:05] I know that I do this, I know that I have this sin.
[15:09] Then I will be blameless and innocent in transgression,
[15:13] or innocent of great transgression.
[15:17] And then finally Psalm 139,
[15:19] again, pointed to a wonderful passage,
[15:24] with verse 23, you guys all know this.
[15:26] Search me, oh God, and know my heart.
[15:30] Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
[15:32] See if there be any wicked way or offensive way in me,
[15:37] and leave me in the way of everlasting.
[15:39] I call the elders and I start to prepare my heart,
[15:44] and one way I do that is through confession.
[15:46] Right, too many times I know that I think
[15:51] that in this passage many people think
[15:54] I'm just gonna call the elders.
[15:55] You know, come pray over me,
[15:56] and hopefully everything will be okay.
[15:58] And yet there's a responsibility
[16:01] both on the person calling the elders for confession,
[16:03] and the elders to prepare their hearts.
[16:05] This is not just for the person sick,
[16:08] I think this, when you look at all of the,
[16:10] it's for the elders because they are set apart,
[16:13] and they definitely need to come with a heart prepared,
[16:15] not just, all right, I'll show up.
[16:17] Where are we doing this?
[16:18] And already start to pray, right?
[16:23] Confess any sin that they may have,
[16:27] and go before the Lord and understanding
[16:29] that as you going to somebody in desperate need,
[16:32] that your heart is prepared to meet them
[16:34] so that you can speak to them with love,
[16:37] and kindness, and wisdom, and discernment,
[16:40] and your prayer of faith.
[16:43] Now, is real, it's a true prayer of faith.
[16:48] The other thing is this,
[16:53] when we prepare our hearts, and it is part of prayer,
[16:58] all right, it's confession,
[16:59] and understanding the will of the Lord.
[17:04] This one's a hard one, right?
[17:06] In a hardened sense, so it's hard for one,
[17:08] sometimes for all, wanna really grasp this.
[17:10] Father, your will be done, right?
[17:15] Both for the sick person, and for the elders praying.
[17:20] Father, right, we pray over this sick person for healing,
[17:25] and we pray that prayer, but then we say,
[17:27] but your will, Lord, be done.
[17:29] Luke 22, 42, I think this passage is probably
[17:39] my favorite one in regards to kind of
[17:42] bringing in alongside this passage.
[17:44] There's a lot, you know, that we said
[17:45] there's no other really passage that looks like this,
[17:49] but this passage, I love to read it now with this.
[17:52] Luke 22, 42, 'cause there's Jesus in the garden.
[17:55] And he says, Father, if you are willing,
[17:58] remove this cup from me.
[18:00] What was the cup?
[18:01] Anybody remember?
[18:02] - Death. - Yeah, right?
[18:05] - Death, taking on the sins of the world, right?
[18:07] This heaviness where he's just like,
[18:09] he's falling to the ground, remember?
[18:11] Talked about that in Mark.
[18:13] And he says, Father, if you are willing,
[18:17] remove this cup from me, but nevertheless,
[18:19] not my will, but yours be done.
[18:23] We pray that one more second.
[18:29] And we can go even look in James, right?
[18:37] Even James says, chapter four, verse 15.
[18:40] Remember saying, you know, I'm gonna do this,
[18:43] or I'm gonna do that, you know, and he says,
[18:44] you know, instead, you ought to say,
[18:46] if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or do that.
[18:49] Right, this idea that the Lord is sovereign overall,
[18:52] and we recognize your sovereignty, Lord,
[18:54] both in life and in death.
[18:56] We recognize it, and we honor it.
[19:03] In Matthew 6, 9, and 10, we know this, the Lord's Prayer.
[19:07] All right, the example he gives to us
[19:09] is our Father in heaven, hallelujah, thy name.
[19:17] Your kingdom come, you will be done, right?
[19:22] That's the example prayer.
[19:26] Lord, your will be done.
[19:31] So we prepare our hearts through confession,
[19:33] and maybe in that prayer, hoping that God,
[19:37] and praying that God, maybe crying out to God,
[19:40] that he gives us understanding of his will,
[19:43] where we say, yes, Lord.
[19:44] I was telling Ethan another day about a friend of ours.
[19:47] She was young, Kath,
[19:51] remember the friend I told you about that?
[19:56] Daughter died, and Charlotte and drove up.
[19:58] Oh, Karen, Karen Lynch, I don't think in her name.
[20:01] So she was a friend of ours,
[20:02] and she had a son, Ethan's age, roughly,
[20:04] and she was, I think, she died, what, five years ago,
[20:09] seven years ago, I don't know, something like that,
[20:11] but she was young, she was in her forties, in her forties.
[20:15] And, you know, she went through cancer,
[20:17] and she, you know, then it kind of went away for a while,
[20:20] and then, you know, it came back,
[20:21] and then it went away for a while,
[20:22] and then they moved to Charlotte,
[20:24] and then she got, you know, it came back,
[20:26] and it came back with vengeance, like a force.
[20:29] And, man, she wept so hard because she did not want to die.
[20:34] Now, she does, she put her faith in Christ,
[20:39] and I believe her, but man, she didn't want to die.
[20:42] And I'm not saying people are like, oh, I'm gonna die.
[20:43] I'm not saying that.
[20:44] I'm just saying like, like, you're at the end, like,
[20:48] like, you're gonna have to make peace at some point.
[20:50] Like, you're gonna die, right?
[20:51] I mean, I'm not making fun of her.
[20:52] I'm just saying, like, her pain was so palpable
[20:55] because she did not want to die.
[20:59] And she said, I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I'm not ready.
[21:02] She didn't, at that point, when she moved down to Charlotte,
[21:04] she didn't even have a church.
[21:05] And so we had all her friends down there
[21:06] that kind of ministered to her
[21:07] and helped her through some of that, you know?
[21:10] And anyway, they put her in a,
[21:12] she couldn't even, like, walk or move,
[21:13] and her husband put her in the back of his SUV on a mattress
[21:16] and drove her to Pennsylvania
[21:17] 'cause that's where some of her family was and stuff,
[21:19] drove her back to Pennsylvania so that she could die there.
[21:23] And, you know, but the whole time, even before that,
[21:25] when they said, you know, it's, you know,
[21:27] you don't have much time, I don't want to die,
[21:29] I'm not ready, I don't want to die.
[21:31] And I was stuck with them
[21:34] because I think that's not uncommon.
[21:36] We may not express it like she did.
[21:37] She was very expressive.
[21:38] And so there is a prayer, even now,
[21:46] reminding us, helping us, say, Lord, help me, please.
[21:51] Understand that it's your will, not mine.
[21:57] That whatever may come, that it may be your will, not mine.
[22:01] And so a prayer of faith definitely will include confession.
[22:10] A prayer of faith will include not my will,
[22:14] but yours, O Lord.
[22:15] And what's great about those things, right,
[22:20] in light of this passage, right, in light of this passage,
[22:25] and it says, anyone sick, let him call the elders,
[22:27] let them pray over him anointing with oil
[22:29] in the name of the Lord.
[22:30] And the prayer of faith will say the one who is sick
[22:32] and the Lord will raise him up.
[22:32] And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
[22:34] What's great about this
[22:35] is that because of those things,
[22:41] if we are praying in confession,
[22:44] if we are praying, right,
[22:46] for the Lord to give us understanding
[22:49] and acceptance of his will,
[22:53] then we, right, can have a glorious expectation.
[22:57] And I don't use that term lightly.
[23:00] 'Cause I didn't just write, we can have expectation,
[23:04] 'cause we can't have expectation.
[23:05] I mean, you're not a good expectation or whatever.
[23:08] It's glorious expectation.
[23:10] Why?
[23:11] Because either you will be healed of that sickness
[23:13] and raised up.
[23:14] I look at my wife, the doctor said she has no chance.
[23:17] Call your family and friends.
[23:18] You know the story, I tell you all the time.
[23:19] It goes, that is like your faith has an impact on my life.
[23:22] So I use it all the time, right?
[23:24] But men came in and prayed over her.
[23:29] I'll never forget one man.
[23:31] I may have told you historically.
[23:33] Ken Rudolph.
[23:34] We used to go to Camp Lincoln.
[23:35] That's where Holly lives.
[23:36] That's where she works.
[23:37] And he got one of the main speakers there,
[23:39] has been a friend for her
[23:40] since we lived in Pennsylvania years and years ago.
[23:41] The big man, 6'5", 6'6", there's only that.
[23:44] Deep voice, you know?
[23:47] And he stood over her in the hospital
[23:51] with his booming voice
[23:54] and literally cried out for her.
[23:57] And he prayed a prayer of faith.
[23:59] Now, again, I never called the others to come
[24:05] and pray over her
[24:05] because this was not what something I did.
[24:07] I wouldn't have.
[24:08] I would do it now.
[24:09] And he cried tears and he prayed over.
[24:15] And so when I say glorious expectation,
[24:20] my expectation at a hospital,
[24:22] and this is why I wrote it down
[24:23] because I think it's twofold.
[24:26] Either you will be physically healed of the sickness
[24:28] and raised up,
[24:29] or you will be eternally healed
[24:34] and raised up to meet Jesus.
[24:36] It brought me to John chapter 10.
[24:44] You know, John chapter 10,
[24:47] Jesus is talking about him being the good shepherd, right?
[24:52] The good shepherd.
[24:53] And he talks about we are his sheep
[24:57] and he is the shepherd.
[24:58] And in, you know, real shepherds, real sheep,
[25:02] sheep get lost, sheep get killed.
[25:05] Bad things happen to sheep.
[25:07] But Jesus says this about his sheep.
[25:09] "My sheep hear my voice and I know them
[25:15] and they follow me."
[25:17] Oh, did I tell you what?
[25:19] Sorry, we're in John 10 verse 27.
[25:21] I'm sorry, verse 27.
[25:22] John 10 verse 27 through 29.
[25:25] Sorry about that.
[25:26] "My sheep hear my voice and I know them
[25:27] and they follow me.
[25:29] I give them eternal life
[25:31] and they will never perish.
[25:33] And no one, listen, will snatch them out of my hand.
[25:38] My father who has given them to me is greater than all.
[25:43] And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand."
[25:46] Right?
[25:50] And so as we're laying on our death bed
[25:54] and the elders are praying over us,
[25:58] is it this promise that comes to our mind?
[26:01] Because, right?
[26:03] Well, we can go way back and say
[26:06] because we're in the word of God
[26:07] until we know the word.
[26:08] And so when bad things happen
[26:10] and when we're sick and we're dying,
[26:12] what comes to mind is God's voice through Scripture.
[26:15] But also the prayer of faith has now reminded me
[26:22] that I am good one way or the other.
[26:24] And so when James says,
[26:29] go back to James, sorry.
[26:33] When James says, "We'll save the one who is sick
[26:36] and the Lord will raise him up."
[26:38] He's 100% truth.
[26:42] If you wanna get truly technical about it,
[26:44] let's look at 1 Thessalonians 4.13 at 3.18.
[26:48] You wanna read some Gloria's promise, all right?
[26:51] I feel like that's one of the reasons.
[26:52] Read these Gloria's promises to us, all right?
[26:54] So when you leave here encouraged
[26:57] that no matter what, we are good, all right?
[27:02] Listen to what this says.
[27:03] This passage is phenomenal.
[27:05] And maybe you've heard it, hopefully you have.
[27:07] But we do not want you to be uninformed brothers, sisters,
[27:11] about those who are asleep.
[27:14] And he's not talking about people who are napping.
[27:16] And he's talking about people who have died.
[27:18] And I love that they use the term asleep.
[27:20] That has meaning to it, that they're asleep.
[27:23] We don't want you to be uninformed.
[27:27] That you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
[27:31] Doesn't mean you can't grieve,
[27:32] but we don't grieve as people with no hope.
[27:35] For since we believe that Jesus and died and rose again,
[27:39] even so through Jesus, God will bring with him
[27:43] those who have fallen asleep.
[27:45] You get that?
[27:47] God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
[27:51] That's not a maybe, that's not a could be.
[27:53] That's not a hopefully.
[27:54] That is you can take it to the bank, 100% guaranteed.
[27:58] They didn't stop there.
[28:02] He goes, "For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord
[28:05] that we who are alive,
[28:06] who are left until the coming of the Lord
[28:08] will not precede those who have fallen asleep."
[28:12] And then we won't,
[28:12] the person, people who are alive and Lord comes back,
[28:14] won't go before the ones who have fallen asleep,
[28:17] the ones who have died.
[28:18] "For the Lord himself would descend from heaven
[28:22] with a cry of command."
[28:24] Now, I love that verse, cry of command,
[28:26] 'cause everybody's bringing me back to,
[28:28] all right, Lazarus, remember him?
[28:30] Remember Jesus standing out in front of the tomb?
[28:33] What's he say?
[28:34] Everybody remember?
[28:35] Yes, Lazarus, come forth as a cry of command.
[28:38] He comes out in his grave clothes, remember?
[28:41] Let me look in or whatever.
[28:42] I don't know, doesn't really say.
[28:44] He says he comes out in grave clothes.
[28:45] Anyway, "The cry of command with the voice of an archangel
[28:50] and with the sound of the trumpet of God
[28:52] and the dead in Christ will rise first.
[28:57] Those asleep in Christ will be woken."
[29:02] Right?
[29:03] Then we who are alive, who are left,
[29:07] will be caught up together with them in the clouds.
[29:09] Listen, "To meet the Lord in the air,
[29:12] and so we will always be with the Lord."
[29:16] Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
[29:20] And it says this in verse 18, he wraps it up with this,
[29:23] "Therefore, encourage one another with these words."
[29:28] Encourage one another with these words.
[29:32] I was thinking my mother-in-law,
[29:36] when she was dying her cancer, rectia.
[29:39] Everybody, most people know somebody who's died of cancer
[29:42] or had cancer or whatever.
[29:44] And you know that the impact it's had,
[29:47] I mean, especially as it takes them down
[29:50] to before they die.
[29:52] And my mother-in-law was a huge impact on my kid's life.
[29:58] She would babysit once a week, twice a week.
[30:00] I don't remember once, I don't know, something like that.
[30:02] But there was seven of them, seven grandkids.
[30:05] She would have them over.
[30:07] And her husband had died.
[30:08] So it was just the seven, her and the seven.
[30:10] And there was six grandsons and one granddaughter.
[30:14] And they were crazy.
[30:15] And then, you know, but they didn't escape that place
[30:19] until they had Bible story time, right?
[30:21] There was Bible story time.
[30:23] And if you would ask them, I think,
[30:28] who were impactful in their lives,
[30:31] even at young ages, they would say my grandmother.
[30:33] But most of all, they probably don't remember.
[30:37] Ethan's pretty young.
[30:38] Maybe he doesn't have a name that might remember.
[30:39] He's a little bit older.
[30:40] Mike, I don't know.
[30:41] Maybe you remember.
[30:43] She never complained.
[30:44] She was dying and suffering tremendously.
[30:49] And she never complained.
[30:51] And I remember she wouldn't complain in the hospital.
[30:57] She wouldn't complain when she was at the house.
[30:59] And she had said, I want my death.
[31:01] I want this whole thing to be a testimony.
[31:04] And so Lord gave me strength and he did in grace.
[31:10] Raymond would, and I may have told the story
[31:15] and I'm sorry, but Raymond had a collapse long
[31:18] when we first moved here.
[31:19] And he had to go to hospital.
[31:20] Then he had another collapse long and they had surgery.
[31:23] And in the hospital, I was just laying there.
[31:26] And he was in a lot of pain and they were, you know,
[31:28] sticking on him.
[31:29] And he was young, so he's, you know, scared.
[31:31] He said, I just, I wanna do what Grandma did, right?
[31:36] I wanna bring honor to God by how I react here
[31:40] in the hospital.
[31:41] Good news or bad news.
[31:42] 'Cause we were praying that he wouldn't have to have surgery
[31:43] and then God said, no, he's gonna have to have surgery.
[31:46] So the good news or bad news.
[31:49] I wanna honor God in that.
[31:51] And he did.
[31:52] He was kind to all the nurses, right?
[31:54] Kind to everybody that came in.
[31:55] Why?
[31:58] Why could she do it?
[31:59] Because she had a, why could Grandma, her mom,
[32:01] Lori's mom do that?
[32:03] Maybe some of you know this too.
[32:05] People who gone through that and done that.
[32:06] Why could she?
[32:08] She had a great hope.
[32:09] He said, this is the beginning, right?
[32:13] And I think for Christians, this is one of my thing.
[32:15] And for me too, I don't believe you.
[32:16] I'm not trying to put it all on everybody else.
[32:19] Me too.
[32:21] That it's important that we come to terms
[32:23] that we are going to die unless the Lord returns, right?
[32:27] And nobody wants to think about that.
[32:29] I don't want to be able to press it.
[32:30] I don't want to be able to die.
[32:32] I said that, right?
[32:33] Death rate is clicking along 100%.
[32:36] Nobody escapes.
[32:37] What a testimony of a wife when we can die well.
[32:43] When I say die well, die well scripturally.
[32:47] 'Cause of our hope and who we have.
[32:48] Like we truly believe.
[32:50] So our hope comes out, right?
[32:52] When we know there is no tomorrow here on earth.
[32:55] All right, sorry.
[33:00] Yeah, I know that was a little tangent too.
[33:02] So anyway, we prepare through confession.
[33:06] We pray for healing, but in all things,
[33:08] we pray that his will be done, not ours.
[33:11] And we await glorious expectation.
[33:13] And so if you call the elders, because you're sick,
[33:19] we come and anoint you with oil, we pray over you.
[33:22] You should have glorious expectation
[33:26] that you will be healed, whether it's in this life
[33:31] or the next.
[33:33] Last week I read this thing.
[33:37] I know there's churches and people who worry about,
[33:40] and Catherine and I were talking a little bit
[33:41] about this this morning, about failure in this, right?
[33:44] You pray over with the elders and then a person dies.
[33:48] Well, then ultimately, I don't think it's failure, right?
[33:52] Because I think it's a lack of understanding.
[33:55] But even if it was, let's say it was,
[33:57] and I don't think it is, you've done a thing,
[34:01] you've confessed, you've asked, you know, say,
[34:03] Lord, your will be done and she, you know, person dies.
[34:05] Okay, well, Lord's will was done.
[34:07] But let's say you still feel like, man,
[34:09] maybe I didn't, maybe I, you know,
[34:11] I didn't go to God enough.
[34:12] Maybe I didn't pray enough.
[34:13] Maybe we didn't as a church.
[34:17] And I think this quote by R. Ken Hughes,
[34:19] and I read it last week is vital.
[34:21] It says, what if it fails?
[34:23] Well, technically it can't.
[34:25] But won't people think that there's an unspiritualness
[34:27] to it all if somebody dies?
[34:29] Maybe.
[34:30] Remember, greater Christians than us
[34:32] have sought healing and failed.
[34:34] But it is better to fail an attempt to exercise faith
[34:38] than to let it die dormant, lie dormant and fruitless, right?
[34:46] And it's not a failure
[34:48] because you've brought encouragement to the people.
[34:50] You've given truth, right?
[34:53] And most importantly, you've obeyed God, right?
[34:58] In this passage by saying, Lord,
[35:01] I'm going to do what you've told us to do.
[35:04] And we trust you because you're sovereign over all things.
[35:07] He ends up, he goes, he says, James says,
[35:15] therefore, confess your sins to one another,
[35:17] pray for one another that you may be healed.
[35:19] The prayer of the righteous person
[35:20] has a great power as it is working.
[35:22] It's kind of interesting 'cause he shifts now
[35:25] from one person who is sick, kind of to the whole church.
[35:28] And remember, James has the expectation
[35:32] that people are part of a church.
[35:34] And he says to confess again and pray.
[35:37] And so even though I mentioned it
[35:39] with those who call on the elders because they're so sick,
[35:42] and the elders and the person who is sick
[35:45] has responsibility to prepare their hearts,
[35:47] we as a church, James is saying,
[35:51] need to be confessing and praying.
[35:55] But it doesn't just say confess, does it?
[35:57] All right, dad?
[35:59] Okay, confess.
[36:00] Confess your sins one to another.
[36:03] Now, some people say, well,
[36:05] that's if I sin against somebody,
[36:07] and I need to go confess that sin to somebody and say,
[36:09] you know, I wronged you.
[36:10] Yes, that's part of it.
[36:11] But it's also just confessing sins one to another.
[36:13] Why?
[36:15] Why?
[36:16] I think because when we confess sins to one another,
[36:23] and I'm not gonna say to everybody,
[36:24] I don't know if they'll stand up here and go,
[36:25] okay, we'll have a profession time.
[36:27] No, it's an intimate time with somebody
[36:29] that you know in your church or another church,
[36:31] or, you know, another Christian brother or sister,
[36:33] mature Christian sister or brother, I should say,
[36:35] 'cause you haven't got those people.
[36:38] I've had this in my life, you know,
[36:39] you try to tell them something that, you know,
[36:40] that you're really struggling with sin-wise, not sin.
[36:42] I don't even like the word struggle,
[36:43] something that you're sinning in, okay?
[36:46] And you talk to me like, yeah, yeah, me too.
[36:49] I do the same thing, so, you know, me too.
[36:51] I said, I need you to tell me,
[36:53] hey, we're gonna pray about this, right?
[36:55] And I'm gonna pray for you,
[36:56] and I'm gonna text you to see how you're doing,
[36:59] you know, with that sin, not, yeah, me too.
[37:02] But don't worry about it, everybody does that or whatever.
[37:04] That's why it's spiritual, sister or brother,
[37:07] spiritually mature.
[37:11] And it's interesting because in the Bible times,
[37:14] we know this, that sickness was often related to,
[37:17] right, sin, right?
[37:19] Remember the blind man, Jesus comes across,
[37:21] and the disciples are like, oh, who sinned in his life?
[37:24] All right, he's blind, somebody had a sin, right?
[37:26] Mother, father, he's like, nobody sinned, right?
[37:30] He said, neither have sinned,
[37:33] but that the work of God might be displayed in.
[37:35] And so there was this idea that anybody that's sick at sin,
[37:41] and it's not always the case.
[37:42] But God does discipline us per sin.
[37:46] If you look at Hebrews 12 and 1 Corinthians 11, right?
[37:51] 1 Corinthians is, kind of talks about the Lord's supper.
[37:56] And, you know, when you're not, you know,
[38:00] doing what you're supposed to do with that,
[38:01] says this, whoever therefore eats the bread
[38:03] or drinks the cup of the Lord, and it's a long passage,
[38:07] I'm just reading a little section,
[38:08] of the Lord in an unworthy manner
[38:10] will be guilty concerning the body
[38:11] and the blood of the Lord, right?
[38:13] This is the importance of communion and how serious it is.
[38:17] Let a person examine himself then,
[38:19] and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
[38:20] For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body
[38:23] and eats and drinks judgment on himself,
[38:25] that is why many of you are weak and ill,
[38:26] and some have died.
[38:28] But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
[38:32] That's a tough answer, that's a whole nother tough answer.
[38:36] But the idea is that God does discipline us.
[38:39] Hebrews is very clear that God disciplines
[38:41] the one of his children, the ones he loves.
[38:43] And so we see God uses his discipline
[38:48] in our lives to root out sin.
[38:50] And so, but there's also no doubt in the Bible.
[38:56] And when we look at the entirety of the Bible,
[38:58] God uses the confessing of sins to others
[39:01] to help us root out sin,
[39:05] to grant freedom from that sin, to grant freedom
[39:09] from the shame that comes with that sin.
[39:12] And so a couple of quick things to think about
[39:16] is you're thinking about confessing one another,
[39:18] 'cause it's not, we're very private people.
[39:20] Fessing sins to somebody, we're like,
[39:22] "No, I don't, I don't."
[39:24] Yeah, God says, "Do it."
[39:27] And so we confess to one or two others, all right?
[39:34] Somebody who has spiritual discernment,
[39:37] wisdom, spiritually mature.
[39:39] And I would say even confess temptations.
[39:44] Temptation isn't sin, but it can lead to sin, right?
[39:46] And if you know you're being weighed down by temptation,
[39:49] and it is closed, right?
[39:51] You're like, "Man, confess that to somebody."
[39:54] We take sin seriously by not walking alone in temptation.
[40:02] And don't wait, right?
[40:06] Don't wait until sin has just wrapped itself
[40:09] around your heart, right?
[40:11] And you're just smiles down the road.
[40:13] You know you sin, you confess.
[40:18] God says, again, if you confess your sins,
[40:22] see it's faithful and just so we confess to God,
[40:24] but we also wanna bring in a community.
[40:26] And I don't mean the whole church,
[40:27] but somebody in the church can tell them right away, right?
[40:32] 'Cause we confess quickly, it doesn't spread,
[40:34] or it has a chance not to spread.
[40:36] And if we're truly serious about sin.
[40:39] And then be honest about your sin.
[40:43] I'll say, man, I'm struggling, or it's been hard week.
[40:46] Those are nice, and it's good that maybe they lead you
[40:49] to the place where you say you've talked about your sin,
[40:52] but if that's how you're describing your sin,
[40:53] sin with, been hard, I don't know.
[40:57] I don't think that's really calling it out.
[41:00] Say, no, I am sinning.
[41:03] I have an anger issue.
[41:04] And I had just, just lit into my wife multiple times
[41:07] for no reason, or I lit into my husband multiple times
[41:10] for no reason, or my kids or whatever.
[41:12] I have a, I have a lost issue, lost sin problem.
[41:17] Or I have a dishonesty sin problem.
[41:21] And it's interesting 'cause James then goes on
[41:25] and uses Elijah, right?
[41:28] What's he says, you go, and I like James
[41:31] 'cause he used his joke too earlier on.
[41:32] Now he's using Elijah.
[41:33] Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,
[41:36] and he prayed fervently that it might not rain.
[41:38] And for three years and six months,
[41:39] it did not rain on the earth.
[41:40] Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain
[41:42] and the earth bore fruit.
[41:43] Now interesting 'cause he's talking about, right?
[41:45] This idea of a righteous person.
[41:48] And then he kind of gives Elijah as an example
[41:51] of both prayer and a righteous person.
[41:53] And now I'm wrapping up with this, or I was up.
[41:56] All right, back then Elijah was seen, right?
[42:01] As kind of the man, right?
[42:04] Remember Jesus said, "Who do they say I am?"
[42:06] Remember one of the answers?
[42:08] Elijah, that makes sense, right?
[42:12] Elijah did big things.
[42:13] You don't know the story of Elijah.
[42:14] Go to first Kings and read about him.
[42:17] But he took on the prophets of Baal,
[42:18] the false prophets of Baal, right?
[42:20] Called down fire from heaven.
[42:24] He raised the dead boy to life.
[42:26] I mean, God raised the dead boy to life,
[42:28] but he used Elijah to do it.
[42:30] He was fed by ravens.
[42:32] All right, that's pretty weird, but nice, right?
[42:34] If you're starving, you had no food.
[42:36] And he caused the drought, he caused the terrain.
[42:39] He did some other things.
[42:40] And again, all the miracles that Elijah was involved in.
[42:43] And while he's talking to kind of his, you know,
[42:46] replacement, Elisha, hanging out with Elisha,
[42:49] a chariot of fire and horses come and grab him
[42:52] from heaven when he's whipped down and gets on,
[42:54] and up in a world when he goes, "Nice, I want, man.
[42:58] "That's a nice way to go, isn't it, dawg?"
[43:01] I mean, go on, chariot of horses and fire.
[43:03] All right, so they're like, you know,
[43:06] the people at that time were like, "Whoa, Elijah, right?
[43:09] "He is just, man, we can't even."
[43:12] Like, he's, that means they thought Jesus was Elijah, right?
[43:15] Healing people and stuff.
[43:18] And yet James says here, "Here's a man with a nature like ours."
[43:23] But he prayed what?
[43:26] What's the word?
[43:27] Maybe you have a different?
[43:28] - Fervently.
[43:29] - Yeah, I have fervently.
[43:30] Anybody else have a different?
[43:31] - Earnest.
[43:31] - Earnestly, yeah.
[43:33] I looked up fervently, just,
[43:35] I think we have an idea of what it means,
[43:36] but it's exhibiting or marked by great intensity.
[43:39] Fiery, intense, torrid, those are all synonyms.
[43:46] That he prayed fervently.
[43:49] Do you, do we as a church and do you as a people
[43:58] understand that our prayers matter to God?
[44:02] Whether in times of suffering, in times of blessing,
[44:09] in times of sickness, in times of temptation,
[44:13] in times of confession, God wants us to pray.
[44:18] And how many times do we just let it ride?
[44:24] We forget, we don't think.
[44:26] And there's grace for those moments, right?
[44:28] That's another thing that just,
[44:29] when you start to think about all the grace
[44:32] that is poured out for us because we don't do these things,
[44:35] we serve a God who answers our prayer, right?
[44:43] God does heal according to his sovereign will
[44:45] and prayer makes a difference.
[44:48] Prayer is involved in that, right?
[44:53] Scripture affirms that prayer affects change.
[44:57] God in his sovereignty responds to our prayers.
[45:01] Think about that.
[45:03] God in his sovereignty responds to our prayers to him.
[45:09] And so, may we pray, not just,
[45:13] I mean, sometimes we just have time for quick prayers
[45:16] and say, Lord, help me, Lord, thank you, Lord.
[45:18] You know, and we're, but there are moments
[45:22] when we should be praying fervently.
[45:24] So we pray, we confess to God,
[45:33] we confess to one another in our church family,
[45:38] we remember and we believe and have hope
[45:42] that all God does, everything that God does
[45:45] in his sovereign will is for our good and his glory.
[45:50] We believe that.
[45:55] And so as you look at this passage
[45:58] and as you study this passage,
[45:59] do you see it as God looking, right?
[46:04] Rooting for us, saying, what I do is for your good
[46:07] and my glory.
[46:08] Wrap up this passage.
[46:15] I just hope, you know, next week, not next week we're off,
[46:18] but the week after we're gonna talk about the wanderer.
[46:20] And it kind of goes in with this passage.
[46:23] Could've done it all at once,
[46:24] but I think it's better stood up.
[46:26] And I love it because James says, go get the wanderer.
[46:36] But before we get there,
[46:37] I would hope that maybe even if you are a wanderer today,
[46:40] that you would look at this and say,
[46:42] yes, let me, there is confession needed in my life.
[46:45] I've been hiding sin for too long.
[46:48] I've been on the run for too long.
[46:49] And then let us know, tell somebody in your church family,
[46:56] not until they can tell the whole church,
[46:57] just so between you and them, you confess that sin.
[47:00] And last, I wanna say this,
[47:05] we haven't really put this out before
[47:07] because I was ignorant to this passage, to be honest.
[47:10] But there come a time when you need the elders
[47:14] to come and pray for you, call us, right?
[47:18] We will obey scripture.
[47:20] We will come.
[47:21] We will anoint you with oil.
[47:23] We will pray over you.
[47:24] We will prepare our hearts.
[47:26] And that we will have glorious expectation.
[47:33] That's right, Father, thank you for this passage.
[47:36] Thank you for the difficult passages
[47:39] that make us have to dig in and look at all of scripture,
[47:42] both in Old Testament and New Testament.
[47:44] Thank you for the gift that that is.
[47:47] Father, I just ask that you help us do that.
[47:52] Give us the desire to wanna dig into your word.
[47:55] And Father, for passages where we stumble
[48:01] or where we just don't fully understand,
[48:03] we thank you for your grace and your mercy
[48:05] and giving us time to work those things out and to understand.
[48:10] Father, thank you for those who are here to listen
[48:16] to your word, who have a desire to know your word.
[48:19] That brings me joy.
[48:22] I know Lord, more importantly, it brings you joy.
[48:25] And as we leave this passage,
[48:29] Father, help us to remember that you are a gracious God
[48:32] who longs to hear, loves to hear,
[48:35] wants to hear from us in prayer.
[48:37] That our prayers in your sovereignty affect change.
[48:42] May we not forget that word.
[48:45] We love you, we praise you,
[48:50] and we thank you for all that you do, for who you are.
[48:54] We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ.
[48:56] For it is through him and in him that we can come to you.
[49:02] Hallelujah, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.