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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter now. Enjoy the message.
[00:00:24] All right, good morning, everybody. Great to see all of you. Glad you are here today. And I especially want to say thank you to those of you who helped us over the last couple of weeks with the resources we needed for some of the repairs on the building that were just kind of out of budget stuff and you stepped up and we've been able to financially cover those repairs. So thank you so much for your generosity. So grateful to you for giving.
[00:00:49] And I want to thank those of you who just add the church into your budget and give consistently each and every week. We are so grateful. Couldn't do ministry without you.
[00:00:58] So we're so grateful and thankful for your generosity. You know, we've been in a series where we've been talking about the ways whereby we are to respond and react to each other. I mean, the Bible has given us certain guidelines. In fact, when you read the New Testament about 59 times, the Bible gives us instructions about how we are to relate to one another, how we are to respond to one another, how do we react to one another.
[00:01:25] And I mean, all that we need to know, we find in the Bible. So we've been through this series, we've been taking our time, kind of working through a lot of these, one another so that we begin to understand the power of our collective energy within the life of a church and how we care for one another, how we support one another, how we bear one another's burdens, how we love one another, how we forgive, forgive one another. And this morning I want to talk about probably one of the most powerful things we can do for one another. And that is to pray for one another.
[00:02:01] To pray for one another.
[00:02:03] You never have to get to a point in your life when you have a problem or you know, someone with a problem where you say, I don't know what I can do. In fact, I don't think I can help you.
[00:02:15] You never have to have that response, nor do you ever have to feel, feel that way. Because there's always something you can do, there's always something I can do. And that is we can pray.
[00:02:28] We can go to our Heavenly Father on behalf of a person, we can go to our Heavenly Father on behalf of our own problems and we can pray.
[00:02:39] It's amazing because when we pray, it takes the roof off and it connects us with God vertically. When we pray for one another, it takes the walls down and it connects us with one another horizontally.
[00:02:51] There's great power in prayer.
[00:02:54] In fact, Mary Queen of Scots once said she feared the prayers of John Knox more than the armies of Philip.
[00:03:05] When you study history, you see that the prayers of Jonathan Edwards brought about a revival in the country of England.
[00:03:15] When you read about great movements of God that have happened throughout history, all of them, without exception, were preceded with prayer.
[00:03:24] In fact, as we go into a new season in the life of our church, there's nothing more valuable that you and I could do for one another than to pray for one another, to pray for the favor of God and the freedom that God might have to work in and through our life, whatever that looks like. And however he wills to pray for one another.
[00:03:46] Especially we should pray for each other when we're going through a hard time. We should pray for one another when we're going through a difficult time. How many of you now we're just nobody here but us and it's a Sunday morning and we're in church, so we can't lie or shouldn't. How many of you would admit I have at least one problem and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'll raise my hand, my hands up. How about you guys? You have one problem. How many would also admit that you're sitting next to one of those problems this morning? Right, There we go.
[00:04:15] The thing I'm suggesting that you don't have to think about it much and you don't have to go too far to realize we all have something to pray about.
[00:04:23] We all have someone to pray for. And so let's get right into this and kind of look at what the Bible says about prayer. In fact, look in James 5. What I love about James, when you read his little book, it's kind of a hard hitting book, no nonsense book. James was the half brother of Jesus.
[00:04:42] What's interesting about James is he is not converted. He does not become a believer in Christ until after the resurrection of the dead.
[00:04:52] So think about that. The half brother of Jesus never believes that his half brother is the Messiah and and never commits his life to following him until he sees Jesus raised from the dead.
[00:05:06] I've often wondered, well, what is it about James that took him so long to come to that place? Where he could put his faith in Jesus.
[00:05:17] Well, what it couldn't not have been was inconsistencies he saw in the life of Jesus.
[00:05:23] Because Jesus was perfect.
[00:05:25] He was God incarnate. He was the God man. Meaning that Jesus was just as much God as though he never were man, but just as much man as though he were never God.
[00:05:36] The Bible says concerning Jesus he knew no sin.
[00:05:40] Concerning Jesus he did no sin. He never had a thought he shouldn't have had. He never went a place he should not have gone. He never said a thing he shouldn't have said, never did a deed he shouldn't have done. He was perfect in every respect. So I'm saying the hesitancy of James was not based on the fact that he had not seen enough in his brother to be convinced that he's the Messiah and place his trust in him. After studying this and thinking about it a lot, you know what I think it was that caused him to hesitate?
[00:06:11] It was the inconsistency that he saw in those who followed his brother that weren't all in or committed to his brother. And he saw the inconsistency in the life of people who claim to be a Christian and how they live their life.
[00:06:27] That's why his book is kind of like put up or shut up. Loosely translated, in his book he sang like that little song we used to sing in children's church. If you're saved and you know it, then your life will surely show it.
[00:06:41] Well, that's kind of his book is all about that.
[00:06:44] Don't tell me, show me.
[00:06:46] I'm tired of people just telling me they have faith and show me something James is saying, put it on the line. And I think the reason he's so hard hitting in that little letter is because of that inconsistency he saw.
[00:06:57] And so many people who followed his brother but weren't all in.
[00:07:02] You've heard this, that the greatest argument against Christianity is a Christian and the greatest argument for Christianity is a Christian.
[00:07:13] Mahatma Gandhi once famously said, I might have become a Christian if I'd ever seen one.
[00:07:19] So I'm just suggesting to your heart this morning that James, when you read his book, he's challenging Christians to live out their faith not in a hypocritical or a phony way, but an authenticity to be authentic, to be genuine, to be transparent, to live out the faith that you believe.
[00:07:38] Now some people, when you read the writings of James, believe that he contradicts the writings of Paul.
[00:07:44] Because when Paul speaks of matters of faith, Paul will say this in Ephesians 2:8 9. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast.
[00:07:56] So Paul argues that we're saved by faith apart from our works. And I agree with that. James would agree with that.
[00:08:04] James isn't contradicting Paul. James says, paul, I agree. We're saved by faith apart from works. However, we are also saved by faith that will work.
[00:08:16] In other words, if you're a genuine Christ follower, there will be some evidence.
[00:08:21] If the Holy Spirit is living within you, there'll be some fruit that shows the Holy Spirit living within you. The fruit of the Holy Spirit. Right. If there's the root of the Spirit in your heart, there'll be the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
[00:08:35] So all James is saying when you read his writings is he's saying, live it out. Be bold, be courageous. Don't shrink back. There are other people that may make a decision on whether they trust Jesus or not by what they see in you, when. Whether it's real or whether it isn't. Cause James hesitated until after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
[00:08:56] So it's interesting when you read the Challenges of James and when you come up on James, Chapter five, where I wanted to spend a few moments with you this morning, where he's challenging that church that's going through enormous persecution.
[00:09:09] In fact, before you get to chapter five, when you look at how the book of James opens, he says this. He says to the saints who are scattered, it's interesting. It's called the Diaspora.
[00:09:20] After the resurrection of Jesus and the church was launched, there was great persecution within the church and the church was scattered. There was this dispora. And one writer said the effect of the Church being persecuted by Rome, by the government of that day, was it was like taking a campfire and trying to extinguish the campfire by taking a broom and slamming the broom over the top of the fire.
[00:09:46] All that happened in the church is embers went everywhere.
[00:09:50] The church was scattered.
[00:09:53] Christians went everywhere talking about Jesus and how they loved him. And they went to places they would not have gone had they not been scattered, had there not been. Had the spora not taken place.
[00:10:05] So you see James as he's writing, and he's writing to people who are persecuted. And he's basically saying, he, here's the challenge before us. Not only should we support one another and forgive one another and love one another, but hey, we need to pray for one another.
[00:10:19] Look at it in chapter five with me. And down in verse 13, he said, is there anyone among you in trouble? It's interesting how that verse begins. It's kind of.
[00:10:30] It's funny in the sense that he's writing to people who are in all kinds of trouble. So he's kind of writing this rhetorical, and it's kind of like you want to put behind that princely duh. I mean, everybody's in trouble.
[00:10:43] I mean, we talk about that here a lot. I mean, the oldest book of the Bible is the book of job in Job 14:1. It opens this way. Man who's born of woman. That's pretty much all of us. He said, man who's born of woman is of few days. Life is short. And then he describes the shortness of life. This way. Those few days are full of trouble.
[00:11:02] How many times have we talked about, you're either in trouble this morning, you're getting out of trouble this morning, or you're about to get back into trouble this morning.
[00:11:11] And James is writing to people who are scattered, persecuted, they're in trouble.
[00:11:16] So what is he saying? He's saying, look, is there any among you that are in trouble? Let them pray.
[00:11:22] People say, bill, I don't know what I pray about. What are you troubled over?
[00:11:26] I don't know what I should pray about. What do you worry about?
[00:11:29] What should I pray about? What's the stress in your life?
[00:11:32] One of the greatest things you could do is to connect prayer with anything you stress over, worry about or fret about. Anything that bothers you ought to be something you pray about.
[00:11:43] That's why the Bible says, pray without ceasing. The Bible says, maintain the attitude of prayer, man. If you prayed about what you worry about, you'd pray all the time. Some of you have worried down to an art.
[00:11:56] You're good at it.
[00:11:57] I know people who get worried if they're not worried it's going too good, something's gotta be wrong.
[00:12:03] Well, I mean, I would suggest pray about when you're going into something. Like the challenge a moment ago. Pray about when you're in the middle of something. Pray about it on the way out of something. And just say, God, teach me. Help me to learn what you're trying to teach me. When I went through that experience, I'm just saying there's things we could pray about because we're all in all kinds of trouble. And he's saying, connect prayer to trouble.
[00:12:24] So that's the gist of this in this narrative. And then down in verse 16, he says, confess your trespasses to one another.
[00:12:32] Pray for one another. There it is. That you may be healed. Now, he's talking specifically about physical healing. And I'll touch on that in a moment. But it also applies to any kind of trouble. Remember, he said, are you in any trouble? He didn't just talk about physical illness, though. He refers to it here. It could be any kind of trouble.
[00:12:48] It could be emotional challenges. It could be physical challenges. It could be financial challenges. It could be relational challenges. It could be career challenges. I mean, we all got challenges. So it could be any kinds of trouble. And specifically, he's talking about physical healing here. And then he goes on to say, the effective, effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man, of a righteous woman avails much. It accomplishes much. What does it mean, effective, fervent mean?
[00:13:16] It's the idea that is persistent. It is the idea that it is passionate. And I can tell you, nothing will become passionate in your life until it gets personal.
[00:13:26] And once something is personal, it will get passionate. I mean, when you love somebody or you love something and you need something, and you are man, it's personal with you. Then your passion comes into your prayer. So you connect the passion of prayer with the person that you're praying for or the personal issues that you're facing that you're faced with, and that becomes effective, fervent praying.
[00:13:51] It says it accomplished much. And then he gives us this illustration. He said, Elijah. Now he's referring to 1 Kings 17 and 18 here. He said, elijah was a man just like us, with a nature like ours. But Elijah prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain. It didn't rain on the land for three years and six months.
[00:14:10] Then he prays again, and the heavens gave rain and the earth produces fruit. Well, he gives his Old Testament example, and he's saying, remember what Elijah did when he faced Ahab and Jezebel, how they prayed to the God of baal and the God of BAAL was the God of weather. And they believed that their false God was responsible for bringing rain on the crops. And so to get their attention, he just went to the heart of the matter. And he said, man, God is the God of the heavens, and he's the God of the earth. And so, Lord, to prove your power, let's just cut the waterworks off, man. Let's send a drought to get the people's attention. And it did.
[00:14:44] And for three years and six months, Elijah prayed until he faced the false prophets on Mount Carmel and called fire down from heaven. And Shortly thereafter, he prays again and it rains.
[00:14:55] So that little synopsis of what happened in First Kings 17:18 is what James is referring to. He said, here's the illustration.
[00:15:02] I want you to remember God is able to do big things. He's able to do little things. He's able to help in the midst of trouble. He's able to help when your health breaks, that God is an ever present help in trouble.
[00:15:16] It's so important that we understand the simplicity of prayer, because sometimes in religious circles, prayer can become complicated.
[00:15:25] For example, when you study the first century and what Christian life was like in the time of Christ when he first walked the earth, prayer had stagnated.
[00:15:35] People weren't praying. They thought of prayer as something that only the rabbi would do, only the priest could do, only the paid professional can pray. And the average person didn't think they had access to God. They couldn't approach God in prayer.
[00:15:50] And Jesus came on the scene and said in Luke 17, One man, you ought to pray.
[00:15:56] You ought to pray and not faint. In other words, don't quit pray.
[00:16:00] In fact, he made it practical. He said, when you pray, approach my heavenly Father and your heavenly Father as dad Abba, a familiar term, a familial, a family term. He said, when you go to him, approach him like you would your father. You don't approach your dad with cringing, dread or fear.
[00:16:20] If you need something from your father, if you've got a good dad and you have a good relationship with your say, dad, I need this or I need that.
[00:16:27] He doesn't say, you know, well, you're not coming at the right time or you're not taking the right tone. He's gonna say he'll help you if he can. And Jesus is saying, you have a heavenly father that loves you. You don't love your earthly father, and you earthly fathers don't love your children more than God loves you.
[00:16:42] So prayer stagnated because first of all, they complicated it. For example, prayers became very formalistic, people thought, because the rabbis taught that you had to connect a certain prayer with every event that happened in your life. For example, ladies, if you found out you were gonna have a baby, there was a certain prayer that you would pray for the safety and health of the baby and for your safety and health. And you had to pray a certain prayer, a certain way.
[00:17:09] You had to put adjectives in the proper order. One particular prayer the rabbis taught, listen, had 63 adjectives in front of the name of God.
[00:17:18] Gracious, loving, holy, righteous, wah, wah, wah, I mean 63.
[00:17:24] Not only did you have to get the. Not only did you have to get the adjectives correct, you had to get them in the correct order.
[00:17:32] Can you imagine?
[00:17:33] Okay, wait a minute. Am I praying the right prayer for the right event? Am I praying?
[00:17:37] Am I praying it in the right way?
[00:17:39] It was formalistic. Prayers were long. Prayers became ritualistic.
[00:17:46] There were certain prayers you pray at a new moon. There were certain prayers you pray at a harvest moon. There were certain prayers you pray. I mean, when a chicken laid eggs or a prayer. Honestly, I'm not making that up. I mean, there were certain prayers you tied to every event in life. And people were like, holy cow, I can't do it. And the devil is like, exactly. That's right where I want you. And people failed to pray.
[00:18:10] That's why when Jesus gave us the model prayer in Matthew 5, Remember our Father, who art in heaven. Remember what he said before he gave that model prayer. He said, simplify three things to avoid when you pray. Three things. You ready for this? First of all, avoid hypocrisy.
[00:18:27] Just be who you are.
[00:18:28] Don't come into my presence and try to convince me that you're someone you're not or you're something you're not. Be real. Remember, God is sovereign. He knows everything anyway.
[00:18:38] I don't know who you're trying to fool when you go in the presence of God. That's why I tell people who hesitate on praying because they're angry at God about something. I tell them, pray an angry prayer.
[00:18:48] Oh, I can't pray an angry prayer. Like, God doesn't know you're mad.
[00:18:53] I mean, you say, well, I don't understand this. Pray a confused prayer. God knows how confused you are.
[00:19:01] Pray. In other words, he's wanting us to be honest and open. Jesus said, when you pray, just don't be like a hypocrite.
[00:19:09] Don't play act. Don't try to fool me and fool other people. Just keep it real. Just say, God, I don't understand. This is not fair. This just doesn't seem right. And, Lord, I don't know what you're. Where are you? Read the book of Psalm, read the songbook of the Bible, and you see the many times that David and other writers of the Psalms were like, what's going on?
[00:19:30] Where are you, God? What are you doing?
[00:19:32] Are you kidding me right now? I mean, they had all of these questions and what's beautiful about it? And the reason we read about it is they were just open with God.
[00:19:42] And Jesus is saying, Come at me just like you are. Come at me wherever you are however you are.
[00:19:49] One of the great hymns that Billy Graham closed those crusades with were just as I am without one plea but that your blood was shed for me O Lamb of God, I come. That's how you go to Jesus. You just walk into his presence in prayer, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus. You walk in and say, lord, here's who I am and here's what I'm dealing with. It doesn't seem right. It doesn't. I know there's a way. You promised that you can provide. You're a provider.
[00:20:20] You promise you can heal. You're a healer.
[00:20:23] You promise that you can do anything. God, there's nothing to you. I believe all of that.
[00:20:29] And so you just come into his presence without hypocrisy. That's the first thing Jesus said, don't be as a Hypocrite in Matthew 6.
[00:20:36] And then he said, don't be ritualistic.
[00:20:40] Don't come at me the same way all the time, every day.
[00:20:44] It's great when you're teaching your kids how to pray, by the way, to say, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, praise the Lord, my soul to take. Which is kind of strange when you think about it, having kids. Pray. If I should die before I wake. Night, night, kids. You'll be okay.
[00:21:01] Sleep tight.
[00:21:03] But I mean, the point is that, you know, you're teaching them how to pray and they're praying the. You know, they're praying these little prayers. But after you've been a Christian for, like, 30 years, you gotta, you know, you gotta spread. You need to, you know, get your game out there a little better.
[00:21:20] Keep it real. Keep it. Don't be repetitious. Don't pray the same way every day. I mean, change your game up a little bit. When you go to God. Keep it real. Don't be hypocritical. So he said, don't be hypocrites. Don't be ritualistic. Here's the third one. He said, avoid pride.
[00:21:35] Avoid pride.
[00:21:37] Don't come into my presence trying to press me with who you are or what you have or what you can do or what you've done.
[00:21:44] I mean, it is sad to see a proud sinner approach a humble savior.
[00:21:51] Humility, by the way, we get the idea of humility from the word humus, which means dirt.
[00:21:56] Humus, Dirt, meaning that I acknowledge who I am. In the sight of God. It's why when you can kneel, it's appropriate. Cause you're showing humility when you bow your head, that's appropriate. Now, if you're going down I35, I don't suggest the kneel and the bow the head thing. But I'm just saying though, when you have those opportunities, you want to do that because you're demonstrating humility. Now, that's not a prerequisite to have your prayers answered, but it is a posture of the heart when you pray.
[00:22:23] So I'm just suggesting to you that one of the things that turns God away from hearing a prayer is when we come at him with pride. Jesus said, don't come with pride.
[00:22:32] He gave us a beautiful illustration of this. In Luke 18, you have two men who went into the temple. The Bible says they went into the temple to pray.
[00:22:39] One of the men was very educated, very successful, very prominent in the community. And the Bible says when you read Luke 18, he stands before everyone that's in the temple that day. He smites himself on the chest in order to call attention to himself. And he prays this way in front of everybody. I want to thank God that I'm not like all these other people.
[00:23:00] Can you imagine if somebody came up here and prayed that way, how offensive that would be? I mean, got up and just said, first of all, looking around here, I'm just so grateful I'm not like any of these people.
[00:23:11] I mean, how condescending, how arrogant. And that's how he preached in Luke 18.
[00:23:17] And then he goes on to say, he said, I follow the law.
[00:23:23] I'm a doctrinally sound man. I tithe, I do all these good things. And all those things were well and good. In their place. He was just doing the good thing for the wrong reason.
[00:23:33] He was so full of pride.
[00:23:35] That's the story of Luke 18. That's what he's giving the illustration of. He's saying, avoid this.
[00:23:40] And then he contrasts that guy with this man. The Bible just calls him a sinner.
[00:23:47] That's me. That's you.
[00:23:50] The sinner went into the temple to pray. And the Bible said he would not as much as lift his eyes to the heavens. He was so overwhelmed by stuff that had happened into his life, he didn't feel worthy even to look toward the heavens. And here was his prayer. Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.
[00:24:09] And the Bible says, guess whose prayer was heard? That man, the poor man. The Bible says he left the temple that day justified.
[00:24:17] What was Jesus saying? Man, if you approach God, don't be a hypocrite. Keep it real.
[00:24:21] However you're feeling, whatever you're thinking, wherever you are, just go into him just like that. Don't be. Keep.
[00:24:27] Use just common language. Talk to him like, lord, this is not. This doesn't make sense. And don't be proud. Be humble when you approach Him.
[00:24:36] There are some things, though, that can hinder us when we pray for one another, can hinder the prayers being answered. You know what? One of the things is, is sinfulness.
[00:24:45] Isaiah 59 says, you, sins separate you from God. So that. Listen to this. He will not hear.
[00:24:52] Now understand, there's two things that tie us to God.
[00:24:55] Our relationship to Him. That means he's your Father and you're his child. That is forever.
[00:25:01] You can deny that you are your Father's child, but you'll always be your Father's child.
[00:25:07] You carry the DNA. You can change your name, you can never speak with them again.
[00:25:12] You can walk away, but you're always your Father's child. I'm just saying, when you belong to your heavenly Father, you're always your Father's child.
[00:25:20] Jesus said, all that the Father hath given me are in My hand, and no one can pluck them from my hand. You can't even take yourself from his hand first. Peter says, even if we deny him, he will not deny us because he is faithful. So there's relationship that's eternal, but there's fellowship. Fellowship can get broken.
[00:25:40] You can love someone that you're not talking to right now.
[00:25:44] You can be in a relationship with someone and you say, I love this person, but I don't like them right now.
[00:25:50] And I'm just suggesting that happens with your relationship with God. That's what happens when. When sin enters the life. Unconfessed sin.
[00:25:59] When we don't honestly openly admit God. We haven't lived a life that's pleasing to you. So I'm sorry about that. By the way, all the word confession means is agreement.
[00:26:09] That's all the. By definition, that's what the word means. So when you go to confession with God, all you're doing is you're agreeing with God. Here's what confession looks like. You were right. I was wrong. I'm sorry.
[00:26:21] Pretty simple, right?
[00:26:23] I mean, God, you're right. If we confess our sin, 1 John 1:9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So relationship is there, but fellowship gets restored.
[00:26:35] And if I'm in fellowship with God, there's a greater chance of my prayers being answered because fellowship is not broken. He can hear me when I pray. So the sinfulness, sometimes selfishness gets in the way.
[00:26:49] I mean, the Bible says in James 4. Three, sometimes you don't receive because you're asking with the wrong motives.
[00:26:56] Jesus said, when you pray, pray so that God might be glorified through His Son. What does that mean? That means when I pray about something, the determining factor of how God answers my prayer is will Jesus receive greater glory by granting this request or not?
[00:27:15] First Corinthians 10:31. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. What does that expression mean? That expression, the glory of God means to be a reflection of everything that God is.
[00:27:29] God is not going to grant me any request, nor will he, you, nor will he collectively, this church. God will not grant a request that does not ultimately bring him greater glory, that does not ultimately become a bigger reflection of who he is.
[00:27:45] Cause that's what it's all about. You and I are living on this planet today. God hadn't called us home so that we can be a reflection of who he is.
[00:27:53] In Ephesians, he said unto him, be glory in the church, meaning the church should be a reflection of who he is.
[00:27:59] So when I'm selfish in my prayer life, God's gonna say, talk to the hand bud. Not doing it. But when I say, God, if you grant this, greater glory could come to your name as a result of that prayer. I'll be able to do more. I'll be able to give more, I'll be able to serve more. I can make a bigger difference. My company can grow and we'll be able to do more. God, to your honor and glory. He's going, okay, I'm kind of all over that.
[00:28:20] So I'm saying, selfishness and sinfulness will stop the answers to our prayer. Another one thirdly would be faithlessness.
[00:28:29] Faithlessness. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, without faith, you can't please him. Because if you.
[00:28:35] If you're going to expect an answer From God, Hebrews 11:6 says, you must believe that he is, and you must believe that he'll do the thing he said he'd do.
[00:28:44] Hebrews I'm sorry. Matthew 13:58 says, he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
[00:28:53] They didn't believe he would, so he didn't.
[00:28:56] When you go to prayer, and you go to prayer with an unbelieving heart, well, God, I'm gonna say I don't really believe you're gonna do it. He's gonna go, if you don't believe it, then why should I do it?
[00:29:05] I want to pray, but I don't know. I don't think anything's going to happen.
[00:29:09] Here we go. That's faithlessness.
[00:29:11] So selfishness, sinfulness, faithlessness. Here's the fourth one I'd tell you on Keeping your prayers from being forgiven is unforgiveness.
[00:29:19] When we have unforgiveness in our heart, it hinders our prayers. Listen to Matthew 6:14. If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. If you do not forgive others when they sin, your Heavenly Father will not forgive your sins.
[00:29:31] Now wait a minute. Remember, relationship, fellowship. He's not saying you lose your salvation there. He's saying, this affects your fellowship.
[00:29:39] What keeps me from having fellowship with God? Unconfessed sin. I'm back to that. What keeps my prayers from being answered? Unconfessed sin. I'm back to that. He's saying, when I'm not forgiving of other people, that affects my relationship to them, my fellowship with them. When I'm unforgiving, God's saying, it's gonna affect our fellowship.
[00:29:58] If you're not willing to forgive them, then I'm not gonna forgive you. We're not gonna be in a good place if you're not in a good place. So unforgiveness can affect our prayer life.
[00:30:06] So let's look at the text in the few minutes we have left.
[00:30:09] Notice what he said in the verses that we read. The first way I would outline it would be this way. There was a confession that prepared it.
[00:30:16] How do we pray for one another? He talks about a confession that prepares the answer to Our prayer. Verse 16. Confession your sins to one another.
[00:30:26] Would you admit we're a little better at concealing our sin than confessing our sin?
[00:30:30] There's a principle in God's word that anytime I try to cover something, God will uncover it. And conversely, anytime I go before God and uncover something, he'll cover it. He puts the sins as far as the east is from the West. But what does confession. What does that confession of sin? What does that look like?
[00:30:51] Let me give you some principles. The confession of sin. Listen to this. Should be kept within the circle of sin.
[00:30:59] The confession of sin should be kept within the circle of sin. Matthew 7:6 is the principle that you don't cast pearls before swine. The principle is you don't bring people into the problem as A solution when they weren't a part of the problem to begin with. There's three types of confession that I would cover with you versus private.
[00:31:19] Private confession are the sins that we commit that we alone know about, thoughts we have. Maybe some things we've said that weren't kind. Maybe some things that we did were vindictive. I mean, private.
[00:31:32] My private sin should be confessed privately. I should go before God, because when I confess, I name it and nail it and he forgives it.
[00:31:40] So there is private confession of sin, and we sin every day, and we should privately confess those sins daily. Then there's personal confession. That's when you sin against another person.
[00:31:52] Maybe you sin against your spouse. Maybe you sin against a business partner. Maybe you sin against a friend. That confession should be kept within that circle because that's the only person you sinned against. And so the confession of sin, remember, stays within the circle of sin. It's nobody's business.
[00:32:12] You don't have to put it out there and say, you know, you don't have to do that. You're not wearing any scarlet letters or anything. You keep that confession of sin within the circle of sin because that's where the trust was violated. That's where the trust has to be restored.
[00:32:26] So you go to that person. Maybe it's a business decision.
[00:32:30] Maybe you did something, you crossed a line there with a partner or whatever, where you try to make that right and you try to regain trust. But I'm saying you keep that confession of sin within the circle of sin, whether it's private or it's personal. Here's the third one. What about public sin? Public sin has to be dealt with publicly. That's why you've seen the failures in ministry with pastors and church leaders that ought to be dealt with publicly because the public is aware of it. Whether it's political, whether it's, you know, it's in any profession, whether the public attention is on that, you've got to deal with it at that level.
[00:33:03] Now, understand, people have also asked me, what does church discipline look like today?
[00:33:07] Well, when church discipline was instituted in the first century, here's what the church looked like in that day. The church was made up of small groups. You could not gather in a corporate setting like we're in this morning. Rome would not allow that.
[00:33:19] So churches were forced to go underground. So churches were literally small groups. Now, you had the teaching of Jesus on the hillsides there, the feeding of the five thousands.
[00:33:32] But remember, that was Jesus did that while he was just gathering A church. The church hadn't launched yet.
[00:33:38] Because in Matthew 16:18, upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail. He formed the church, but he didn't fill the church until the Holy Spirit came in Acts chapter two.
[00:33:50] So you had the forming of the church, but you didn't have the filling of the church. So the church wasn't functioning like I talked about last week until the Holy Spirit came.
[00:33:58] Because what gives the form life is the filling.
[00:34:01] So the church was structurally in place. Jesus established it, but it wasn't really launched until after Pentecost. Jesus ascended and the Spirit descended, filling the church. Now you have a church.
[00:34:13] So the feeding of the 5,000 was not a large church gathering. It was a crusade. It was an event where thousands of people heard Jesus. And then you fast forward to the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, where you have 3,000 people that were saved that same day and the same day they baptized them.
[00:34:31] Now, again, that was the starting of the church at Jerusalem. But you don't see a corporate gathering like that in all the New Testament for the rest of the New Testament.
[00:34:41] So what is the church at Jerusalem? What was the church at Ephesus? And what was the church at Thyatira? And what was the church at Colossae? And what were those? They were small groups.
[00:34:51] They were. They were gathered under the apostles teaching. And they were located geographically in cities and communities, but they were just meeting in homes. Cause they couldn't legally meet collectively.
[00:35:03] So I'm driving home a point here. I want you to understand the setting. Because church discipline meant it was like dealing with somebody in your small group that was out of line, that had done something wrong. And you're calling them out and you're doing it more or less a spiritual intervention.
[00:35:21] And you're basically. And the reason you're doing that is because you and you alone within that group know what is happening and know how it's affected the dynamics of that group.
[00:35:29] So church discipline looks like that.
[00:35:32] Can you imagine a church like ours of several thousand people?
[00:35:35] And somebody makes a mistake and they're not a public figure, they're just a member. And somebody erroneously looks at that as, well, church discipline. They ought to be brought before the church because they've done work.
[00:35:46] And I bring them up there and go, hey, y' all don't know this guy. You don't know anything about him.
[00:35:52] So you don't know him. So you're not in a relationship. But here's what he did just so everybody will know.
[00:35:57] And he's real sorry about it, but I just want to out him in front of all of y'. All. So everybody. What.
[00:36:03] What does that. Are you kidding me? I mean, Everybody out there, 99 and 9, 10 of you would be going, what did I just see?
[00:36:11] Why was I involved in that? I need to go shower. This was awful. And how humiliating for that person.
[00:36:18] That's not church discipline. That's something very different. Because Galatians 6 says, if a brother's overtaken in the fault, those of you who are spiritual, restore that person. There's a small group surrounding that person that has the spiritual capacity to help them get back on their feet. Restoration means to help reset the bone, to get them healthy and going again, not destroy them.
[00:36:39] That's why someone said, oftentimes a church is the only army that will shoot its wounded.
[00:36:46] So church discipline isn't outing someone. Church discipline isn't exposing someone. That's not it at all. When that discipline happens, it happens within the context of a small group of friends and close people, close to that person who says, man, you need to fix this.
[00:37:01] Your husband is worth it. Your wife is worth it, your children is worth it. Your career is worth it. Your character is worth it. You see what I'm saying? So it's within that, that circle of people, so there can be healing and accountability. That's all it is.
[00:37:16] So when he's saying, if you want your prayers answered before this healing can happen and before these miracles can occur, you gotta get your heart in a good place.
[00:37:24] There is this confession that will prepare it. Look at the second thought. And I'm really going fast now. There is an intercession now that will provide it.
[00:37:34] Pray, verse 16, pray for one another that you may be healed. Now he's talking here about physical healing. And I believe in physical healing. Healing.
[00:37:42] I believe also God heals through medicine.
[00:37:46] We have doctors in the service. We have medical professionals in the service this morning. And I believe God uses their brilliance and he uses their capability and he uses technology to heal people.
[00:37:57] I hear people that get so spiritual, you know, so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good and they just think, oh, it's a lack of faith for me to. I'm gonna pray myself well and not go to the doctor. And I think sometimes those people die early and the first thing God says to them is, you'd have been down there longer if you'd gone to the doctor.
[00:38:15] I'm saying, do both.
[00:38:18] I'm saying, marry your faith with going To a doctor, God gives you a little common sense. So I'm just saying, look, I'm gonna pray while I go to the doctor.
[00:38:27] I'm gonna pray. Cause the Bible uses oil as symbolic of the Holy Spirit. But also oil was used as medicine.
[00:38:33] You remember when the Good Samaritan came upon the man that was beaten and left for dead? Not only did he pay for the man's care and get him to a place where they could care for him, The Bible said he poured oil into his wounds.
[00:38:47] Well, oil was a form of medication.
[00:38:50] So he was praying for the man, and he was doing everything, but he was giving the man some medicine. Sometimes, guys, you just need to take your medicine.
[00:38:59] You go get a checkup. You need to make sure you're good.
[00:39:02] And so this healing is something that God can do supernaturally. I believe he can heal anyone of anything.
[00:39:08] I believe that healing is possible. But listen, it's all in the hands of God.
[00:39:14] Healing is not guaranteed. Sometimes, like in the case of Cindy, sometimes God heals our loved ones by calling them home.
[00:39:20] The ultimate healing.
[00:39:22] But he always heals. He always answers. Maybe not in the way we've prayed and not in the way we hope, but he always answers. And he ties not only healing to this, but he says, trouble. Trouble is to remember. Don't forget that. I started there. He ties trouble with that.
[00:39:36] We intercede. We go to God on behalf of someone else who need healing. Whether we need healing or someone who is in trouble. What does this mean, to intercede? It means to go to God on behalf of someone else. That's all that means.
[00:39:49] Let me give you some examples of that. Acts 12:15. Peter was kept in prison. But listen, earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. That's intercession.
[00:40:01] Peter was in trouble.
[00:40:02] What did the church do? They got together and they prayed for him. What do you do when you email a request to the church? I can tell you what happens. That request is shared with our staff and it goes to anyone else on that prayer team. And I can tell you when I get those prayer requests, I go through each one of them and pray for them individually.
[00:40:17] I do. I take that very seriously. We believe in prayer.
[00:40:21] I'll have people come up to me after the service a lot of times, and they'll share some burden on their heart or something they want me to pray with them about. And nine times out of ten, I'll write then and there, I'll pray for them right there. Because I don't want to forget that.
[00:40:33] Cause I Take it seriously.
[00:40:35] I pray for our church every day. I pray for our staff every day. I pray for the resources necessary to do ministry every day. I pray for the CRC and the families that are affected and that staff and leadership there every day. I'm not bragging on that. I'm just saying that that's intercession.
[00:40:51] I'm interceding to God. And listen. Listen to 1 Samuel 12:23. This is why I do that. Listen to this, Samuel. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.
[00:41:07] Samuel took that so seriously. He said, man, I'm afraid I can sin against God by not praying for you.
[00:41:14] Samuel said, I'm in a position. I have people under me. Listen, if you're a teacher, pray for your students. If you're an employee, pray for your employer, pray for your employees. If you're in leadership, pray for those under you. If you're a dad, mom, pray for your kids, Pray for. I mean, there's so much that. That's intercession.
[00:41:32] That's what he's saying, man. If somebody's sick, we intercede. We go to God on their behalf. He goes to God on our behalf. Listen to Romans chapter 8:34. Christ who died and rose again and is at the right hand of God, makes intercession for us.
[00:41:47] Did you know God is making intercession? Did you know he prays to the Father for us?
[00:41:52] And I love this. Back in Romans 8:26, he said, the Holy Spirit makes intercession. And you know what's beautiful about this? Some people call that. It's a prayer language. It is this idea that when my heart is so confused and my heart is so broken, and when I don't even know how to, I can't put what I'm feeling into words.
[00:42:09] The Holy Spirit moves in and he interprets the confusion of my mind and heart. And he just says he can't put these in words. So here's what he's trying to say.
[00:42:19] The Holy Spirit intercedes from us, the Bible said, with groanings that cannot be uttered, I can't put utterance. I can't put words to what I'm feeling. And the Holy Spirit interprets that moment in my life when I'm so overwhelmed. And he says, this is what he's trying to say. I'm saying, Jesus intercedes. The Holy Spirit intercedes. And we're called upon to intercede for one another.
[00:42:45] By the way, have you ever thought about prayer as spiritual warfare, man. When you read Ephesians 6 where he talks about the armor, the sword, the Bible is the Spirit is the sword of the Spirit. And the next verse says verse 18. Pray in the Spirit at all times, on every occasion. Stay alert, be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. It's spiritual warfare.
[00:43:09] You never engage more in spiritual warfare than when you intercede for your children.
[00:43:14] I pray for my kids and grandbabies every day. Every day. Pray that they're safe. I pray my kids are prosperous and successful. That God protects them through all that they. I pray for them all the time. Sometimes during the day, you know how grandparents are, we worry about them. I pray for them. I'll send Shannon an article I read somewhere about, you know, some kid that was, you know, with a friend and something happened and she going, dad, I'm on it. I don't need to be reminded, you know, so I'm trying to help a sister, I'm trying to help a brother. Her and Rick are doing a great job. Just try to help them along, you know, a little bit. But I'm just saying, as much as the kids are on your mind, that's intercession. One of the things that Job did. Job was the priest over his household. What did that mean? Job prayed for his kids.
[00:43:51] In fact, I love this, I pray this. Cause I know our band and our singers. I pray this, I intercede to God on behalf of them. I say if one of them are not in the spiritual condition that they should be in when they step on this platform on Sunday to lead in worship God, I want to intercede to for them and I wanna ask you to forgive them. Just I wanna intercede for em. I'm not saying that they're that way, but I'm saying in the event that they are, I'm responsible. So I wanna be sure anybody that comes up here is in a place where they can minister to you. And I feel the pressure. So part of the pressure that I feel is the first Samuel 12.
[00:44:24] I don't wanna sin against God in failing to pray for anybody I put in front of you. I wanna pray for them. I pray for them to do well. I'm the most nervous person in the room and I have some guest speaker in here. Cause I'm going, oh, I hope they don't mess this up.
[00:44:37] I don't want to visit or leave. And going, that was terrible.
[00:44:40] I don't want to remember going, what did we just sit there? You know, I want everybody to do their best.
[00:44:45] I want them to be effective. I want them to be anointed. I want them. That's intercession.
[00:44:50] And then he closes with this idea. This is illustration that proves it. He talks about Elijah. He said, don't forget, man, here's what God. God did a big thing, man. He shut down. He brought drought for three years and six months. And then he opened the windows of heaven and he brought an abundance of rain. What is the point there? He's saying God can do little things, like help us in trouble. He can do big things by ending a drought and bringing about a harvest. There's nothing. Listen. That God cannot do.
[00:45:20] There's an old song that said, have you any rivers you think are uncrossable?
[00:45:25] Have you in any mountains you can't tunnel through?
[00:45:29] God specializes in things thought impossible.
[00:45:33] He can do what others cannot do.
[00:45:37] Listen, there's not a sin he can't forgive. There's not a burden he cannot lift. There's not a problem he cannot solve. We need to pray for one another. Let's pray.
[00:45:49] Lord, thank you for the opportunity we've had to be in your house today.
[00:45:54] Thank you, Lord, for the worship we've experienced. Thank you for the time in your word.
[00:45:59] And, Father, I want to lift up everyone in this room and everyone watching online. I want to intercede and I want to pray for them.
[00:46:08] I don't know them individually, not all of them. I don't know what they're dealing with this morning personally.
[00:46:13] I don't know the burdens that they're facing. I don't know the pressures that they're under. But I just know, Father, human nature, we're all going through something.
[00:46:22] I know this morning we're all broken. We're broken in different places, and we're broken over different things.
[00:46:28] So, Father, this morning, as I stand in your presence and before these people and all those watching online, I wanna intercede for everyone.
[00:46:37] I don't want one soul to leave this building today without knowing they were loved and prayed for.
[00:46:44] So, Father, I pray for them.
[00:46:46] I pray for their health, their families, their businesses. I pray for their finances, for their relationships.
[00:46:53] Lord, would you impress on them there is nothing that concerns them that does not concern you.
[00:46:59] Father, help us to walk from this building more committed to praying for one another than we've ever been before.
[00:47:06] Help us, Lord, to stay close to you. Help us, Father, to walk with you each and every day.
[00:47:11] And finally, Lord, I pray for those who may never have trusted you.
[00:47:15] I pray for them.
[00:47:17] I pray that in this moment, right where they are, they'd swallow their pride and they'd pray a simple prayer like this and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life. And I pray this in Jesus name.
[00:47:37] Amen.
[00:47:41] Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
