Preacher: Josh White

Good morning scripture reading this morning is going to be from Psalm thirty four.

Read Psalm thirty four verses four three eighteen.

I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles the angel of the Lord and camps around those who fear him and delivers them Oh taste and see that the Lord is good bless it is the man who takes refuge in him. So fear the Lord you his saints for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer wanton hunger but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Kemo children listen to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth and when the righteous cry for help the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles the Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the Christian spirit let’s pray Heavenly Father thank You for this day thank you for this New Year perfect way to start the new year at church worshipping and learning about you Lord help us not to be afraid to come to you in prayer when we need to you as this passage tells us already love you when we pray that we glorify in our you and all we do and say today and throughout the year and your name Amen.

Well it is a new year and it’s almost like we have a clean slate in front of us right it’s like a blank sheet of paper in and you can be anyone you want to be and you can do anything you want to do right well maybe not so much it doesn’t really work like that.

Some of you I’m sure haven’t made some New Year’s resolutions and how many of you are going to be honest enough to admit that you’ve already broken your New Year’s resolution maybe a couple of you well you know the day is young so maybe maybe that will happen in fact I realize that I have not preached a a New Year’s sermon in a couple of years the last couple of years I’ve been doing a race christens been doing racing so Steve McDonald has been preaching for me he’s actually back with the kids today and maybe he’d rather be up here the preaching for me but so I haven’t done anything with New Year’s resolutions in a while and the sermon is not on New Year’s resolutions so don’t worry but I Googled you know what are the popular New Year’s resolutions and and I came up with a top ten list and as I went through this list I figured this is probably a list that could be fifty years old or five days old this is very common so let me give you the top ten New Year’s resolutions and let’s see if they compare to any of yours if you have a new year’s resolution so the number one New Year’s resolution you already know what it is it’s to lose weight right that’s why everyone’s New Year’s resolution you want to lose five pounds ten pounds whatever second one according to this according to Google is to quit smoking third is to learn something new for us is to eat healthier or to diet it’s always a good New Year’s resolution fifth is to get out of debt or to start saving money the six this to spend more time with family. The seventh is to travel to new places how can you travel to new places and get out of that kind of goes against each other anyway. Number eight is to be less stressed.

Having fewer new year’s resolutions probably will lead to less stress I don’t know about you I number nine is to volunteer and if any of you chose volunteering we’ve got plenty of things for you to do around the church just let me know and number ten ten the top ten is to drink less I’m assuming this is not referring to water and probably something else in fact my new year’s resolution is to drink more coffee maybe some of you have that kind of resolution you know usually when it comes to New Year’s resolutions there are things that maybe we sort of feel guilty about like like there are are things that we are doing and we know that we should stop doing them like if any of you go through a bag of Cheetos and a two liter Mountain Dew every day that would be a good example of a New Year’s resolution you know switch to do read those or something you know kind of mix it up or do something different or or something that you aren’t doing and you know if you started doing this would probably lead to something better in your life now what’s missing from this top ten list I think are the actual real goals that people set for themselves a new year’s resolution like one thing that’s missing on here is and this is probably for all the high school and junior high boys to get better at video games that’s a real New Year’s resolution or or maybe some of your thinking my new year’s resolution is secretly you’re thinking is to post more on Facebook or to get more likes on the posts that you put on Facebook or and some of you might even be thinking you know what I want to have a good New Year’s resolution for two thousand and eighteen so this year I’m going to start a bad habit. So that in two thousand and eighteen I have something that I can stop doing. Well from a serious standpoint I’d say if there were two popular Christian New Year’s resolutions or or maybe not even say New Year’s resolutions but saying two goals that most Christians would say and now I’m being serious I have to actually tell you that it would be. Probably read the Bible. Morning to pray and when you say that’s true in fact one thing you know today is January first and so if any of you say you’d like to read the Bible more even go through the Bible hopefully you noticed that in the bulletins today and we’ve kind of had this on our website Here’s a chronological Bible reading plan and so this this would be a fantastic thing to do and also to pray more and you look at those two things and I think all of us realize life our life would probably be better if we did those things. And the reason why you would be better if we did those things is because if we’re spending more time studying God’s word we’re going to have less stress we’re going to realize that God is in control we’re going to have a better understanding of how God is working in the world and how we can join him and so these are things that we really should be doing whether they are New Year’s resolutions or goals that you make or just what you want to do all the good is is for today we are at the very end of James Arness that’s good news in another itself but today’s sermon is about prayer and today I want to do something a little bit different we’re not just going to talk about prayer but we’re actually going to do it and so this is sort of a our participation sermon and so during the sermon as we go through this James tells us a few things that we should be praying for so we’re actually going to stop in the middle of the sermon and I’m going to give you an opportunity to just spend a couple minutes praying about these things OK And before we we read about prayer what I want you to do is I want you to consider prayer from God’s point of view had John read Psalm thirty four this morning and verse fifteen which is also on the cover of your bulletin look at look at this from God’s perspective this is what we read Psalm thirty four fifteen it says the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.

And so what this verse T.. As US is that our heavenly Father is watching each and every one of us and he is just longing and waiting for us to turn to him and to pray to Him I mean how often do you look forward to hearing from someone that you love whether it’s a text or an email or something like that and you just can’t wait to hear from them just imagine how God feels towards us he is just longing for us to spend time with Him in prayer while Here is our passage for today I’d like you to open to James Chapter five.

James Chapter five what we’re going to do is we’re just going to finish the book of James this morning at least reading this this portion of Scripture and then we’re going to focus on two of the four things that James mentions we should pray about.

Our passage for today is James Chapter five beginning in verse thirteen and we’ll read through the rest of James but then we’re just going to focus on a portion of this James five beginning in verse thirteen. We read.

Is anyone among you suffering. Let him pray is anyone cheerful let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him annoying to him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer a face shall save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working Alijah 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 then he prayed again and Heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers if any among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wanderings will see. Save his soul from guess and cover a multitude of sins.

So here in this brief passage or taught about different things that we should pray about so what are we supposed to pray about you know it’s endless We can pray and we should pray about everything that comes to our mind everything that’s on our heart anything that’s burning and burning in US but here in this passage email us for things and we’re going to focus on two this morning and next week we’ll look at two others but this is what James is encouraging us to pray for and we’re going to begin with number one we are to pray for those who are suffering if anyone is suffering we are to pray for them look at verse thirteen James five thirty that says Is anyone among you suffering let him pray is anyone cheerful let him sing praise and I remember James is writing to believers these are people who are facing Jesus Christ and it’s interesting that just even in as this one verse verse thirteen you can have people in the same group like like we have here today same people the same church some of them life is going fantastic and James says if things are going really well for you then sing praise but if you’re here and you’re suffering make sure that you pray the word for suffering I think all of us kind of have an understanding of what this means it means to be afflicted it means to endure evils or hardship or troubles in fact this is exactly Greek word that’s used here in James is used only three other times in the entire New Testament now the rude word is used several other places but this exact same Greek word is used four times and the other three ironically are all in the second Timothy And so what I want to do is I want to read those passage for you very briefly other not long so that we can kind of have an understanding of what what suffering means when James says if someone is suffering while we suffer for many. Reasons but we look at the other rays that this this word is used and it gives us a better understanding and so Paul is encouraging Timothy and in a manner of ways and in second Timothy he shares these are different kinds of sufferings with him first one is and secondly two through I’ll go ahead and read this for you says Paul says to Timothy share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus and so Paul tells him of the if you are a soldier if you’re a worker of Jesus Christ guess what’s going to happen. You’re going to suffer you’re going to go through hardships and trials in the other place now another one is second only to nine and Paul tells Timothy why he is suffering seventy two nine says whoa remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead the offspring of David is preached in my gospel and the Paul says this for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal but the Word of God is not bound and so Paul tells Timothy that he is suffering in esteem as he is writing this rest Paul is right Mr Timothy he’s in prison and so he is actually suffering for doing the work of the Ministry for Jesus Christ the last one is in second Timothy four.

Verses three through five saying to me four three three five Paul says this to Timothy and this is a timeless truth and we can see how true this is today it says for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you Timothy always be sober minded endure suffering. And do the work of an evangelist to fill your ministry and so you look at these four places these four times where this exact word for suffering is used and it seems to be in some situations a natural cause of living out your faith that’s the bad news if you are living for Jesus. Christ chances are you are going to suffer remember when Jesus said to His disciples He says in John sixteen thirty three I have said these things to you that you may have peace in the world you will have trouble you will have tribulation but I have overcome the world. Have any of you here this morning ever suffered because you were a believer in Jesus Christ. Some of you might say and usually for us here in America maybe up to this point in time and I think the day is coming and if it’s not here already it’s going to get worse but if we suffer for being a Christian it’s usually we get teased by some friends or family members or you really believe that you really believe that there was a flood you really believe that Jonah was swallowed by will you if you really believe all of this you believe that we that we didn’t evolve from from slime and sludge you actually believe those things that’s the kind of suffering that a lot of us here in America go through but other people in different parts of the world suffer greatly severely because of their faith. And so some of the people the genius was writing to work spear and sing some very difficult sufferings because of their face and in that situation he tells us to pray.

Now obviously there are other reasons why we can experience suffering in this life not just because of our faith but these specific kinds of suffering that James is talking about are because of our face and they’re not us suffering because we have inflicted ourselves with suffering Have you ever done that to yourself due to your own fault you have suffered I don’t think James is encouraging us to pray in those situations although it’s it wouldn’t hurt like for instance if if I’m an example of that might be if you didn’t pay taxes for ten years in the I.R.S. is trying to get their money back I don’t think James is saying you should pray to God that God will or get the I.R.S. off your back you need to pay. Taxes that’s what you need to do so sometimes suffering a self-inflicted but whether we experience suffering for a variety of different reasons it’s always good to go to the Lord in prayer but James is really encouraging people when they’re living for God and life responds antagonistically towards them our first response should be to pray. It’s OK now we know that we’re supposed to pray and so we have to ask the practical question OK so what good is prayer going to do if I’m suffering what is God going to do about it well as we look at the Scripture we have basically two options the first option is if you pray to God in your suffering God might put in end to your suffering. And if that’s the case you will have a much greater appreciation for the power of God in your life the second option and sometimes this happens more often than we’d like to admit is this if you prayed to God because you’re suffering for whatever reason and especially if you’re suffering because you’re a Christian or you’re believer it might not mean the immediate removal of your suffering but rather you will start to experience God’s power and His grace in your life in a way that you will endure the suffering and they got ultimately will get the glory for it. That’s why we should pray in fact there are many examples of that all throughout Scripture and I going to give you two of them first example of that someone who is suffering for their face was the apostle Paul second Crimson’s Chapter twelve In fact I’ve read this verse a couple times recently I believe but in second Corinthians Chapter twelve Paul was given this as a messenger of Satan to torment him and he was suffering he was suffering physically suffering and in verse eight of second.

Paul says three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me in verse nine says but God said to me My grace is sufficient for you for my power is. Made perfect in weakness there for oh boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me and so Paul was suffering and he did exactly what James says you should do he prayed and instead of God saying I will remove your suffering instead I’m going to do something better I’m going to give you the power and grace to endure this and that has been an encouragement to thousands and thousands and millions of believers throughout the years another example of this is with Jesus himself this is something that we probably don’t think about too often but you remember when Jesus was in the garden of get somebody before he was crucified remember the pain in the agony that he was going through the emotional pain what did he do he prayed to God that he would remove the suffering from him this is found in Matthew twenty six says Jesus in the garden.

Jesus says to his disciples verse thirty eight then he said to them my soul is very sorrowful even to death remain here and watch with me and going a little further he fell on his face and prayed saying my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as you will. Guess what God didn’t do. He didn’t have the suffering in. Instead he gave Christ the ability to endure it. You know again I mention this before with this being a sermon on prayer I felt it may be best for us to not just allow this to be theoretical or we say I heard a sermon one time about suffering and I guess now I’m suffering now I should pray what I want to do right now is just take a couple minutes and I want to ask all of us to just spend some time praying and you can pray for yourself you can pray for another person and what I’ll do is at the end of the session all close us in prayer and then we’ll go on to the next point but let’s just take just a few minutes couple minutes and you can pray I want you to pray specifically for people who are suffering if you know someone who is. Pray for them if you are suffering pray for yourself and if you can’t think of anyone I’m going to give you a couple options to pray for but the first thing is you can pray for people who are in our church maybe people that you know who are suffering ask that God if it is his will would remove that suffering. So let’s just take a minute lunch about your heads and close your eyes and let’s just take a couple minutes and let’s go to the Lord and pray that God will remove suffering from those who are enduring it let’s pray.

As you continue to pray now pray for people who might be suffering specifically because of their testimony for Christ and their serving in possibly some missionaries maybe missionaries that you know or don’t know pray that if they are enduring hardship ask God to remove it or if it’s as well that he will give them the grace to endure.

Your father God you told us that we will suffer in this world. And so right now we pray for anyone suffering hardship especially for the sake of your name please remove their suffering or as you did with Christ and Paul give them the power to endure so that you might receive the glory. And whenever any of us suffer for any reason father remind us to turn to you that we might find grace in mercy in our time of need we pray this in Christ’s name Amen.

While here in James James tells us to pray for those who are suffering. The next circumstance in which James tells us to pray is to pray for those who are sick. Now this is an interesting passage here as we read through this you might think boy this is sounds very interesting I wonder what he’s going to do with this is James saying that if someone is sick all we need to do is say a little prayer and they will get better that would James is saying it almost kind of appears as if he’s saying that No actually he’s not in fact right now there is a lot of sickness I’m talking about viruses and colds and I got over mine I had no there’s a lot of people in our church who are not here today because they’re sick and they have a cough and it’s just a nasty sick season right now but here are a couple situations that James is talking about here in James Chapter five and he’s describing them there’s two main situations one he’s dealing with common sicknesses common diseases common ailments that that people go through because we are made of flesh wash and blood. And he says to those people if they are sick they can call for the elders and the elders might apply oil to them and this is in a medicinal sense OK there’s nothing special or magical about the soil but in a medicinal sense and if they pray they might get better and the second situation the James is dealing with is someone who is sick because they are caught up in ongoing unrepentant sin Well let’s deal with the common sickness first let’s reverse this fourteen and fifteen again. James five years is fourteen and fifteen.

It says Is any anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him annoying to him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up well usually today if you are sick you probably don’t call for the elders of the church to come annoying to you with oil. You probably go down to Fry’s or safe when you buy Sudafed or Nyquil or something something like that obviously today’s medicine is much better than it was back then but it appears at least in this situation that the elders would call they would respond to someone who is sick and those who would come they would apply some oil in additional cents and they would pray for healing and in verse fifteen it says that the prayer of face will save the one who is sick now is James suggesting that all you need to do is have faith and then you’re going to be feel and they will not be great no he’s not suggesting that and we know firsthand that’s not how it works but if you are praying for something and wanting something and if it is in direct alignment with what God’s will is for that situation he will answer your prayers you know dealing with this and not even necessarily sickness has that ever happened to you or you’re going through a situation and you pray to God God make make this situation turn out to be like this and the next thing you know your prayers are answered that happens from time to time doesn’t it and when it does you think your natural response should be God answered my prayers thank you God If you have this greater appreciation for God and His power that’s a work in your life and the reverse happens probably a lot more often we pray for situation to pass for God to do something and he doesn’t do it and we get frustrated right but then maybe months or years down the line we realize boy I’m sure glad God didn’t answer my prayer the way that I asked him to because there was such a better situation that he has led me into and that’s how God works God knows what is best best for him the best for us according to His will and so that’s how he answers our prayers in fact John teaches us how and when our prayers. Get answered I’m going to leave James here for a minute I’m going to go to first John and then also John you can tour in there as well first John five.

First John five which is just a couple pages away first John Chapter five and this passage John tells us how and when our prayers get answered the way that we pray. First John five beginning in verse thirteen.

John writes in he says First John five thirteen I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life so John is writing to believers they have eternal life and then he says US verse fourteen and this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything and here’s the key according to His will He hears us. And if we know that he hears us and whatever we ask we know that we will have the requests that we have asked of him and so if we are praying and it is in direct alignment with what God’s will is for that situation and what God’s will is is the best possible outcome then he will hear us and you’ll answer or answer our prayers John fourteen Jesus is saying something very specific and I think this kind of gets to the heart of the matter John fourteen thirteen Jesus said whatever you ask in my name and this I will do.

That the father may be glorified in the Son. And so Jesus tells us when we pray and if the result of that prayer is that God will be glorified he will answer our prayers that’s it God’s will that Jesus Christ and the father will be glorified and so sometimes our prayers would not result in Jesus being glorified and in God’s wisdom he does not answer our prayers. Because God is always going to answer our prayers in the way that is best and only he ultimately knows what is best. And along those lines and this is kind of difficult when we’re dealing with people who are sick what is best for a person who is sick ultimately what is best is for them to be completely healed and restored right absolutely that is exactly what is best so Sometimes God will heal a person and he will get the glory and sometimes God won’t heal a person because that’s not what is best and I’m not contradicting myself here he won’t heal a person because that’s not what is best and we wonder well how can that not be what is best if God continued to heal all of us from all of our diseases and sicknesses then you know it would happen we would live forever in these bodies. And that’s not what is best you know it is best. Is the glorified indestructible God body that God has promised to us and so that is what is best for all of us is so at some point in time all of us will succumb to the frailty of our human flesh and his god’s will that he will reward us and give us these glorified indestructible bodies and so sometimes when we pray that someone or we will be healed he want to answer that prayer because he knows that there is something that is better for us and in order to get there the sickness needs to continue. While the second circumstance in which we pray for people who are sick sickness because of sin look at first fifteen again.

Or. Sixteen it says in a prayer a faith will save the one who is sick in the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for another that you may be healed sometimes ongoing unrepentant sins will lead to physical illness and there are many examples throughout Scripture of this and it maybe the best examples are in first Corinthians we went to first Corinthians a while ago and these people needed a lot of help if they were pretty mad. Stop in a couple different places we have examples multiple examples of people sinning me and they were struck with a sickness an illness and sometimes death because of their sins a couple examples verses in First Corinthians a lot of. Prescriptions love and also go to First Corinthians five but in First Corinthians eleven the Apostle Paul is teaching them about how to participate in the Lord’s Supper into communion and some of them were doing it even blasphemously they weren’t taking this seriously and so Paul says to them in verse twenty nine ers there are certain verse twenty first Corinthians eleven twenty eight it says.

Let a person examine himself then so that when he eats the bread in the when so and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself verse thirty that is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. So there were people who were sinning and they were even kind of blasphemy against God and they weren’t taking this seriously and so because of their sins God allowed there to be sickness another time Paul tells the Corinthian church to practice church discipline knowing that the end result for this believer Sin is going to be at the very best physical sickness and at the worse it could possibly even lead to death go to First Corinthians Chapter five. For this example First Corinthians Chapter five.

Verses three thru five.

Persons five three if you’re five and remember as we are reading this this is Paul telling them to practice church discipline on a believer this is a born again true believer who is living in ongoing unrepentant sin and this is what happens first Corinthians five or story.

Paul says for the absent in the body and present in the spirit and as if present I have already pronounce judgment on the one who did such a thing when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my Spirit is present. With the power of our Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord or what is the destruction of his flash it’s going to be this discipline a physical illness and quite possibly even sin or death you know these situations when someone is sick because of sin they are very hard to diagnose Usually when someone is sick it’s because they have some virus they have a cold they have some kind of a chronic condition but let’s not be naive enough to believe that as whole beings body soul and spirit that when something happens to one part of us it affects our entire being and if we are constantly practicing an ongoing unrepentant sin our entire being is going to be affected by this even to the extent that some might be disciplined by God with the ultimate goal of God restoring us and some of you here this morning you might know this full well. There may have been a time in your life and maybe even right now where you were living in ongoing unrepentant sin and you kept ignoring the call of God to repent and turn back to him and you experienced physical problems and maybe even some sickness. King David went through this when King David refused to acknowledge a sin is adultery without Sheba he wrote Psalms thirty two I’ll read for your Psalm thirty two this is King David writing about the situation he says Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven who sin is covered bless it is the man who against whom the Lord counts no inequity and in whose spirit there is no deceit and then he says this about himself in verse three four when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day for day and night your hand was heavy upon. On Me My strength was dried up as the judge is by the heat of summer so David sin caused him physically problems. His sin did this and he knows this and so what David did is what James tells us to do he repented verse five it says I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover up my iniquity and I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the inequity of my sin.

It doesn’t mean that he had to be saved again this is dealing with someone who is saved and their ongoing unrepentant sin causes disfellowshipped disunity with the Holy Spirit and with God And sometimes that results in physical problems and so these are two situations in which James mentions sickness and with both of them we are told to pray Now notice what is not here in James we are not told to try to figure out which is the reason why someone else is sick OK we’re not supposed to look at another person a dog they’re sick because they’re sending That’s not our supposed to do if someone is sick because they are disobeying their living in disobedience to God If someone is a true child of God then we can take comfort in knowing that God will make them uncomfortable in the hope of getting them to turn King David said in verse four says for day and night your hand was heavy upon me so God will deal with people who are sick because of their sins but I want to take another moment right now and pray for this situation and ironically you know these two situations are the two main sources of prayer requests we usually pray when someone is suffering and when someone is sick and next week we’re going to deal with some new situations but let’s take a minute and pray for both situations but first let’s pray for anyone you know who is dealing with their own humanity their bodies are breaking down they’re experiencing physical problems and if you are experiencing that for yourself take a moment and prayed. And if you know someone who is physically going through difficult times pray for them ask that God might kill them if it is His will and if you can’t think of anyone let me give you a few people just even our own congregation Burson Judy camp or the multiple problems that they’re experiencing pray that if it’s God’s will that God will heal them I also think of Rick Scully Scully had a heart attack this last week Rick is Adam’s father and Bess has been on these in the hospital right now and hopefully will have a full recovery but you can pray for Rick Scully You can also pray for a way to ask you I’m he’s not here this morning he’s always going through physical problems but let’s just take a moment and let’s pray and really lift up before the Lord those who are suffering physical illness let’s take a moment to pray.

As you continue to pray take a moment to pray for anyone even if this includes yourself. Who is experiencing problems because possibly like King David God’s hand is upon him urging them to repent and turn from their sin. Or that they would stop running from God but rather turn to him.

Your father’s these prayers are difficult because we will always want to be happy and healthy.

And as we turn into your word we recognize your wisdom.

And it we realize that you allow sickness and disease to exist in physical problems to exist and that is to get our attention where belongs and that is on you and so we come before you and pray for your healing hand to restore those who according to your will who can be restored allow their health to return so that they can serve you wholeheartedly. And for anyone who might be experiencing your hand upon them in the form of discipline we pray that you might open their eyes so that they can see your great love for them and how nothing in this world can possibly be better than having pure fellowship with you so help us as believers also be an encouragement to those who need to repent.

Lord I I pray and I thank you for sickness because sickness sometimes leads us back to you. And also thank you so much for the sweet relief found in healing that comes from your hand Thank you Father for giving us your word here in James which teaches us all these different occasions for which we should pray we pray for those who are suffering we pray for those who are sick and as we come back next week and we pray for different reasons I pray that we will be strengthened in our relationship with you and will continue to serve you wholeheartedly we pray this in Christ name men. Well there are a lot more thing is that we should be praying about and next week we’ll look at two more reasons to pray as we see here in James Chapter five but God wants us to come to him for any and every reason only closed by reading you another passage a very well known passage out of Libyans on prayer and will close with this in Philippians four six and seven it says Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let’s. Requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Amen and now by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all in then.