Well, we’ve been through a trying time – we all know. And each week that passes, we watch the news. We wonder what is going to happen next. It seems like there is always something new that is happening. We see, as the country begins to reopen, as they call it, protests for, other people against. We see a lot of division. We see new studies that come out. Some that say everything is okay and we have to go ahead and study. And others that have the doom and gloom of what happens if we continue down the path we’re on and everyone goes back to work and things begin to return to normal.

You can look at it, and you can kind of scratch your head, and think, “Who do we believe?” Because everyone’s got their story. It all sounds good. They all have a basis for it. And we look at the time, and we see America kind of in a time unlike any before, of course, but even in this phase, where we just see confusion and chaos everywhere. It reminds me, as I listen to the news and see this side and that side…I can listen to one station, and it has one opinion, and another station has another opinion, and read one article – it goes one way – another article leads me another way. Kind of reminds me of tohu and bohu at the time of the creation of the earth, when the whole world was chaotic and confused. And so, we know that Satan is the god of chaos. God is the God of order and the God of certainty. And so we have a world that is in chaos today. Chaos – they don’t know what to do. They don’t know what to turn to. They don’t know where the truth is. They don’t know who to believe. And so, they try – well, they don’t even try – to keep everyone happy. They just battle it out with words and have this constant consternation. For you and I, who have remained calm through this period of time that we’re in, and we’re using it as a time that we could reflect and begin to understand some of the things that God wants us to learn as we move closer and closer to the return of Jesus Christ, we don’t find ourselves all dependent on what this one says or that one says. We rely on God and we know that He is in control, and we know that certainly things are going to come about exactly the way He said. This is just part of the way man has done things, and the way man has wanted to govern himself, and they don’t have the answers. The only answers to the mess that we are in is God. And for us, that should be even clearer. To the world it isn’t yet, but one day – maybe far down the line – they will realize that Jesus Christ is the only answer.

You know over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about some things dealing with spiritual maturity. We’ve covered some subjects, as we look at ourselves and we examine ourselves in the light of what’s going on, and recognizing that, indeed, we are living in the end time. No one knows how long it will be before the return of Jesus Christ, or the next set of prophetic events occurs, but we know that we have to have a sense of urgency. We need to be becoming who God wants us to become. So, we’ve talked about making changes, and living in a state of repentance for the rest of our lives, and denying self, and choosing God, and making ourselves live that way. We talked about sighing and crying, and not glorying in the troubles that the world is in, but learning to mourn for the world because of the troubles, the travails, the suffering, the pain, the death that results from not having lived God’s way. And if mankind had just embraced God and His way rather than choosing their own way, all of the suffering and all of this death and all of this chaos could have been avoided.

We’ve talked about some other things, too, as we’ve gone through our local Bible studies. In the book of James, we learned things about spiritual maturity. As James points us, when we think that we are standing, when we think that we’re very religious and we’re worshipping God the way He wants to be worshipped, He’s pointed us to some elements that we have to look at and say, “Well, am I to the stature of Jesus Christ? Do I have the faith of Jesus Christ? Am I impartial in the way Jesus Christ was impartial? Do I have faith? And is my faith displayed by the works that I do? Am I becoming and am I going to that higher level?”

So, there are things that we think about, and there are things that we talk about. But as we talk about all that, and as we look at where we are, today I want to step back for a moment, and I want to look at something that we all must do – and that we must do from the very time that we begin to follow God – when He opens our minds to His truth – until the day we die. And, if we don’t do this very basic thing, and if we don’t do it increasingly well, as God defines increasingly well, over the course of our lives, we will fail. We will fail. If we don’t do this thing, and if we don’t have it as part of our lives, and how we operate, and who we are, as we’re led by God’s Holy Spirit, we will certainly drift away. We will certainly take things for granted. We will certainly coast through life. And we will be – maybe not sighing and crying – but that group that has weeping and gnashing of teeth – if we don’t pay attention to what we’re doing and understand how God wants us to relate to Him.

That basic – that very basic – thing that we need to have in our lives, and always keep in the forefront of it, is we must be a praying people. We must pray. You know, like you, there are times I feel my prayer life is good and I feel very close to God, and then another day I can feel like I have to make myself pray. And there are times I feel a little distant from God, and I have to stop and think, “I don’t like this feeling. I don’t like feeling not as close to God as I should.” And I have to stop and think, “What have I been praying? How have I been praying? Have I been praying just to fill in the time? Or, “Have other things taken precedent over it?” And then, I have to realize, “It’s the prayer. It’s the prayer. When I drift from God, or when I feel apart from Him and I feel uneasy or unstable, it’s the prayer that’s lacking.” It’s not the belief. It’s not the knowledge. It’s the prayer and the communication and the relationship with God, because that comes through prayer. Through it all, we simply have to pray.

You know, we live in America and America was founded on Christian principles. There are so many people today who don’t want to believe America was founded on Christian principles. But you read some of the statements of the founding fathers and you know, they knew the Bible. They believed in God.

This week I came across something about a statue of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. And I hadn’t really heard of that anymore. It was in a little article. It was just kind of a forethought. What is this? I didn’t know there was any kind of statute like that. So I looked it up and, indeed, there is a statute of George Washington praying before that battle. So I said, “Is this a literal thing?” And of course, there’s no permanent, or no iron-clad, documentation that he knelt with his troops, or in private, before that battle. But, when you look at his life, you can see where he would have done that. He did believe in God. He didn’t have the truth of God – the whole truth of God that we have today – but they believed in God. And America, as it was founded, it was a praying nation. They believed in God. And, as they believed in God – in the only way God allowed them to and opened their minds to at that time – America became great. It grew and it grew and it grew.

But, as America became stronger and stronger and stronger, and more and more wealthy, you could see America pulling away from God. America today is no longer a praying nation. America today no longer looks to God for anything. In fact, they would like to forget that He is even there, except that there is a body of voters out there who do believe in God. And the politicians and the government, once in a while, have to acknowledge them. You know, today, looking at God by our nation is something like a prayer breakfast. Every once in a while, you hear about a prayer breakfast that’s going on in Washington. And it’s really just a show, right? It’s just there for someone to say, “Oh yes, we’re going to acknowledge this group.” And it’s almost like, “We’ve got all these other things going on. Oh yeah, we need to include God too. Let’s go ahead and check that box off. We’ve included God, along with all these other things we do, and we’ve satisfied this group of people and everyone else.”

And as I look at the prayer days that are proclaimed, and the prayer breakfasts that are there, I have to wonder sometimes, “Could we kind of become a prayer breakfast mentality as well? That along with all our lives, we go through everything, and we just have God there as one of the options that we look at. He’s there to help, but He’s not really there to do it. We can look to Him for His guidance, but we have all these other things as well.”

Could our prayers become something that is just like the modern day National Prayer Breakfast – that we just do it, but there really isn’t any oomph in it, and we just spend our 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes, 60 minutes – whatever it is – in prayer, but our minds wander, and we’re looking at this and looking at that? You know, if that’s our prayers, we’re in danger. Because a praying people get stronger and stronger and stronger and closer and closer to God. A person individually, and at church, and the nation, collectively, that doesn’t pray is going to get weaker and weaker and weaker, and they will fall – and their fall will be great. If you’ll turn with me over to Hebrews 2…. We never want to be people – and it’s so easy to do in the world we live in – we can get caught up in so many things. Before the coronavirus shut down and everything, we were all very busy people with so much going on. We had kids that had to go there. We had work. We had all these things that were going on, and it would be so easy to put God in a box – “Well, we’ll reserve Saturdays for Him. We’ll reserve the Sabbath day, and maybe we’ll reserve a little bit of time for Him in the morning, but we could even be doing those things and still neglecting God. Here in Hebrews 2:1-3, it gives us quite a warning about neglecting God, and how we can do that, even if we may be going through the motions. But, is it really something that is important to us? Hebrews 2:1 -

Hebrews 2:1-3 – “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” Notice what the author says there? We must give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. We can’t get comfortable in what we know. We can’t get lulled to sleep. It’s times like this when God wakes us up, when God is showing us what is going to happen in a very mild form of what we’re going through now, the harbinger of what will be down the road. “We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him?” What will happen to us if we neglect it? We may study our Bibles. We may fellowship. We may call people. We may do everything. If we’re not a praying people – if we are not a praying people – we are neglecting our relationship with God and a key – a key that we must have in order to continue on the road to the Kingdom and be part of it. And I’m not going to talk about Philadelphians and Laodiceans. Everyone who has ever been a part of the church understands what Philadelphian and Laodicean attitudes are. It might just be that the difference between the Philadelphians and the Laodiceans is the way the people in those groups pray and their attitudes toward prayer.

Let’s go back a few books here to the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians, Paul talks about many things. He talks about the church. And in chapter 6, as he wraps up his letter to the church at Ephesus, he talks about the armor of God and the things that we need to put on every single day if we’re going to survive through the battle you and I go through every day – the battle for our minds, the battle for our attention, the battle for what we focus on. Let’s pick it up in verse 13 of Ephesians 6. Paul writes:

Ephesians 6:13-18 – “Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” You know, we may look at today as an evil day, but there’s a more evil day coming. Right? But he says, you’re going to have to do this. This is the key to being able to stand through the times that you and I will go through and be close to God and using His strength to see us through. Verse 14: “Stand therefore…” and then he goes through seven things – seven elements of our armor – “stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth” – something that we can’t find today. Pontius Pilate asked, “What is truth?” We could ask that too, as we look at the world around us – “Where is the truth?” Well, the truth is with God. “Stand therefore having girded your word with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness” – walking the walk, and talking the talk, making yourself do what’s right, denying self, sacrificing your own will, your own ideas, your own desires to do what God wants, obeying Him, trusting in Him, having faith in Him – “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Walk and believe in that gospel. “Above all, taking the shield of faith” – we talked a little bit about faith in the Bible study on Wednesday. Having the shield of faith – it’s so important that we believe and believe the way the Bible defines believe –
“above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” And there will be plenty of darts fired at you and me. We’ve probably already felt some – nothing like what will come. We have to be prepared. “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” Take those six things. But the anchor of all of those is in verse 18: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” In all those things you do – as you put on each one of those elements of the armor – pray always. That’s the anchor. We must pray. We must do all these other things too, but we must pray, and we must be reminded – we must be reminded – to pray.

Prayer is so basic – probably as you hear it, you think, “Don’t need a sermon on that.” But you know, I needed a sermon on prayer. And I needed, as I went through this, to refresh my mind, to be reminded how important prayer is, and what a key element it is in our spiritual lives – in our relationship with God – and that with it, everything else comes into focus. Without it, we begin to fade and we begin to lose our zeal. We begin to lose our interest. We kind of find ourselves, individually, maybe drifting away a little bit, maybe taking things a little bit easy, as we don’t have the things that we have to do. Maybe we don’t have the same schedule as we did back at the beginning of March, and we’ve had to adjust our lives to include all these things in, and set them as priorities and make ourselves do them. But you know, we have to pray, individually and collectively. The Bible tells us, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Prayer is something you and I do. You don’t know how I pray. I don’t know how you pray. And that’s not our jobs to think about what each other are doing. But God knows. It’s the one thing we do with Him – with some others as well, with study – but how do we relate to Him? Where is our heart?  We talked about Romans 8:23 last week. I had it in my Friday morning letter yesterday – Romans 8:23. The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray. God in us – well, the groaning in us – we don’t even know how to pray, it says, until God’s Spirit is in us. And God’s not going to teach us that if He sees we’re really not interested in it. It comes by practice. It comes by doing. It comes by making ourselves do it, and realizing how important it is, and asking God – asking God – to teach us to pray.

Earlier this week, I was talking to a member – probably listening here right now – and he was commenting on Jesus Christ and the time when the disciples asked Him to pray. And as he said it, and as it sunk in my mind – I had another topic I was going to talk about this week – but I couldn’t get prayer out of my mind. But you know, when you look through the Bible, when you look at Jesus Christ, you look at the disciples who walked with Him, they saw Him do absolutely magnificent things. They saw Him turn water into wine. They saw Him heal the sick. They saw Him raise the dead. They saw Him feed 5,000 with just a handful of fish and just a loaf or two of bread. They saw all these magnificent things that Jesus Christ did. What did they ask Him to do? They asked Him, “Teach us to pray.” Teach us to pray. They knew that Jesus Christ, when He prayed, there was a relationship and a link with God that had to be there before any of these other things that He worked – that He could do.

Let’s just look at a few of the times when Jesus Christ – of the many times that we read in the gospels – that He departed from the disciples and took the time to pray. He’s the Son of God. He had the Holy Spirit, right? He was born of the Holy Spirit. He was the Holy Spirit and flesh, and yet, He took the time to pray. It was extremely important to Him. We’re not going to look at them all, but let’s look at a couple of them here in Mark. Mark 1:32. It was right after He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of the fever that she had. In verse 32, it says:

Mark 1:32-37 – “That evening, when the sun had set, they” – that’s the people – “they brought to Christ all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door.” Verse 34: “Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.” They knew who Christ was and He didn’t even allow them to speak. 35: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place and there He prayed.” Now, if anyone had a relationship with God, it was Jesus Christ. He prayed. He prayed. And as He set the example for us, and we are to set Him as the standard, do we have the faith that Jesus Christ had? Do we, or are we learning to pray the way that Jesus Christ prayed? “And Simon and those that were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ ” But Christ knew, “I have to go away. I have to pray. I have to pray. And then, He came out and He had a plan in mind as He did it. Let’s go forward to Mark 6. This is… He had just fed the 5,000, and verse 44 of Mark 6, wraps up that story. It says:

Mark 6:44 – “Those who had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men. And immediately Christ made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. Now when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.” “I’ve done what I needed to do. Here’s a great thing that has happened. I need to go back and I need to talk to God. I need that anchor time that I have. I’ve completed this task. It’s time to pray to God.”

Let’s go over to the book of Luke – Luke 5:15. Here He’s healed a leper – a miracle, a miracle. Leprosy wasn’t something you just took a pill for. It was a miracle if you got healed of that. After that, Christ commanded the man, “Don’t go out and tell anyone about this,” but in verse 15, it says:

Luke 5:15 – “The report went around concerning Christ all the more, and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So, He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” Of course, they’re going to come to Him. Of course, if we know that God is there, and He can heal the diseases that can’t be healed any other way, they’re going to come to Him. But He often withdrew Himself and He prayed. Not just once in a while, but often, the Son of God went to pray to His Father.

Chapter 6:11 – a confrontation with the Pharisees. He’s healed someone on the Sabbath. The Pharisees are all incensed that He did that. They were really incensed that He could heal and they couldn’t. And it says in verse 11 here, of chapter 6 of Luke:

Luke 6:11 – “They were filled” – the Pharisees – “with rage and they discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.” Well, we know they wanted to kill Him. “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray….” Here’s the thing that He had done. How would we react if we had said something, and they were filled with rage, and all they wanted to do was kill us? Well, Christ, His response was, “He continued all night” – it says in verse 12 – “continued all night in prayer to God.” What was He asking God? What was He seeking God for? Why did He pray? Didn’t He just know these things on His own? Didn’t He know His mission?

Chapter 9 of Luke, verse 18 – this is Luke’s account of feeding the 5,000. And Luke has an extra added little tidbit about the prayer that Christ offered after that feeding of the 5,000. In verse 18, it says:

Luke 9:18 – “And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ ” Isn’t it interesting that they find Him, they interrupt Him in prayer, and the response He has to them is, “Who do the crowds say I am?” Then of course, they answer, “Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say others.” And then, He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” And of course, it is revealed to Peter – the Son of Man. The Son of Man. It came on the heels of Christ praying.

Luke 21 – Luke 21:41. Well, there is no verse 41. Let me look here for a moment. Ah, Luke 22:41 – this is before He is arrested on that night after Passover. Verse 41:

Luke 22:41-46 – “He was withdrawn from them” – the disciples – “about a stone’s throw. And He knelt down and prayed.” There’s a night. He’s going to go through a tremendous trial. He knew exactly what the trial was going to be. He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him and He knew it was going to be a horrible experience for a flesh and blood man. “He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw. And He knelt down and prayed, and He said, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless not My will but Yours be done.” “Father, can we do this another way? This is really difficult to think about what is going to happen the next several hours. Can we do this a different way?” Notice that He said, “If it is Your will. If it is Your will. But if it’s not, that’s okay.” And during that prayer: “Then an angel” – verse 43 – “appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer and He came to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.” We talked about this in a Bible Study – a couple Bible studies ago – and what they were feeling at the time, what they might have been feeling. Verse 46: “And He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.’ ”

Keep prayer constantly. You might not know what’s going on, but be constantly attentive to God. Jesus Christ, as He went about and talked to the disciples or great throngs of people who came to listen to Him, they were astonished at His teaching. Remember those verses: “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Where did He learn all these things? How can He speak with such authority? How does He know these things to say? Why is He looking at these scriptures and we haven’t heard the things that He said before? But they were right there in front of them, if they wanted to listen. Where did Jesus Christ get those messages? Did He know all that? Well, He tells us in John 12:49. Again, as He’s speaking to the disciples, this time before the Passover, He says:

John 12:49 – “I have not spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command what I should say and what I should speak, and I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

Where did Christ get those words? It might bring to mind what He tells us – and I think it’s Luke 21, where He says, “In that day, when you’re brought before magistrates and kings, and you have to answer for what you’re doing when you’re defying their orders and obeying God, He says, don’t prepare ahead of time. God will give you the words. God will give you the words to speak. Just trust in Him. Jesus Christ had such a close relationship with God, if God whispered something in His ear, Jesus Christ spoke it. Could that have happened through prayer? Could that have happened when Jesus Christ was talking with God in prayer – that He knew what to do next? He knew what the next step of the plan was?

It tells us in John 5:19 that He didn’t do anything without the Father telling Him what to do. He didn’t do things on His own. He did what the Father told Him to do. In Matthew 10 – an interesting verse – in Matthew 10:27, Christ, as He is sending His disciples out, and He’s giving them the power to heal and to cast out demons and all these things. In verse 27, He says:

Matthew 10:27 – “ ‘Whatever I tell you in the dark” – now He wasn’t going to be with those disciples as He sent them out to the various towns – “whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and whatever you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.’ ”

Sometimes – I know you’ve had the experience – that as you pray, thoughts come into your mind – answers to questions you might have had. Maybe you’ve been trying to understand a Bible verse, and you’ve asked over and over again. And then in prayer, your mind starts filling with it, and it’s like, “Oh, that’s what all that means.” Maybe there are things you don’t know how to deal with, and you don’t know how to deal with a relationship problem, or this or that or whatever, but when we take it to God, and we’re earnestly seeking His will, what would He do, sometimes those answers come. “Ah, this is how I have to handle this situation. This is what’s going on in this situation.”

God will give us the answers that we need when we’re doing the things and praying in the way He wants us to pray. And sometimes those answers come through prayer. Sometimes the words we need to speak come as a result of prayer. And what we’re hearing in the dark, we say in the light, and what He says in our ears when we pray, we shout it from the housetops. You know, maybe at the time of the end, when the two witnesses are witnessing to the whole world, I don’t picture them sitting at home the night before they’re going to give a message and writing all the things. They’re going to be very close to God. And you know what? They’re going to be saying exactly what God tells them to say – exactly what God tells them to say, because they’re that close. And that comes from prayer – and study and meditation and all those other things. I’m not discounting any of those other spiritual tools we have to have – but prayer has to be there. It’s where God’s Spirit and our spirit unite, and, as it says in Romans 8:23, we learn how to pray the way God wants us to pray.

Let’s look in Mark 11, when the apostles asked – they didn’t ask Him, “Teach us to heal. Teach us to turn water to wine” – “Teach us to pray.” And Christ gave them the model prayer. He said, “After this manner, pray.” We’ve talked about that in the past. You can go back and listen to sermons on that. You can read things on that. You can pray about that. He taught them how to pray. He said, “After this manner, pray. Of course the first few words of that is, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” – words that introduce the rest of the prayer. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” In Mark 11:21 – another time when Christ worked a miracle. They were walking along and Christ saw a fig tree, and He cursed the fig tree and said that because it had no fruit on the fig tree – no fruit on the fig tree – He said, “Die,” basically. And the next day they came by, and in verse 20, we see of Mark 11, that fig tree was all dried up. And Peter, in verse 21, remembering, said to Christ:

Mark 11:21 – “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed is withered away.” Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For surely I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that those things that He says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses. But if you don’t forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Now the world will look at those verses, and there are televangelists who have made a living out of saying, “Just believe.” “If you just believe God’s going to give you wealth, it’s going to happen. If you just believe God’s going to give you good health, it’s going to happen. If you just believe…all you have to do is believe.” They almost treat God like a genie here, don’t they? If you just believe, then God has to do it. After all, He said that in these verses and in other places in the Bible too – “Whatever you ask, just use the magic name, and it will be yours.” Is that what God meant? Is that man praying in the manner that Jesus Christ said to pray and the manner that His people pray? Well, maybe that was going around at the time that James was on earth as well. Let’s go back – or forward – to the book of James – James 4. If we pray and ask God, “Give me wealth, give me health, You promised to do it. I’m asking in Jesus’s name, why hasn’t it happening?” James 4:1, it says:

James 4:1-3 – “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Don’t they come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.” Now Christ does say, and even though God knows what needs to happen and what God’s will is, He still expects us to ask. Christ said, “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.” It’s up to us to show God we are interested in it. He’s not going to automatically do these things for us. “You ask” – verse 3 – “and don’t receive” – why? – “because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures.” You’re asking for your will to be done. You’re asking for your desires to be fulfilled. You’re not asking God, “What is Your will? Will You help me? And will You give me your Holy Spirit that I can submit to Your will – that my will becomes Your will? And then when we pray for things that are in God’s will, He will do them in His time. Even Jesus Christ – Jesus Christ, right? We just read back in Luke 22 – here’s Jesus Christ asking God, “Can this cup pass from Me?” Did He feel like, “Well, God’s not listening to Me?” God said, “No, it can’t. My will is” – the will that Jesus Christ was part of before the foundation of the earth – “My will is that You suffer as it was planned to suffer.” He wasn’t minimizing Jesus Christ, and He wasn’t saying, “No,” to Him. And Jesus Christ…He knew, “Nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.”

Part of our prayer, as we grow in prayer and as we grow in the Christian life, God’s will has to become what our will is. And that only happens – through the course of our life – that only happens as we pray. That only happens as we use God’s Holy Spirit, and allow Him to urge us, and encourage us and push us forward in the way that He wants us to be. “Thy will be done.”

There are so many types of prayers in the Bible. We could give probably a sermonette and a sermon for the next month on every type of prayer. I think one time in the past I said – if I remember correctly – there is something like 650 prayers in the Bible. So there is an endless number of prayers where people in the Old Testament and the New Testament prayed to God. We can learn from each one of those prayers. There are some pretty meaningful and fervent prayers that are recorded for us in the Bible. We can look at those and we can study them and, “What was this man like? What was he asking for? How did he ask? How did he approach God?”

We could talk about intercessory prayers where we pray for each other. We could talk about fervent prayers. We can talk about conversational prayers, because some of our prayers with God are just conversational, right? They’re not always intense prayers, where we’re in pain, or suffering, or in a trial. But we’re just talking – like talking to our Father – trying to learn, wanting to know what He wants us to do, what we need to become. What is it that we need to work on? Just sometimes listening to Him in prayer, as His Spirit interacts with the Spirit of His that is in us.

So many things that we could talk about. But you know, the bottom line is, as I’ve said before, we have to pray. We have to pray individually, if we’re going to be in the Kingdom of God. And we’ve got to be praying as a church too. A long time ago, I remember a pastor standing up in the front of the congregation, and he made the comment that kind of startled me. He said, “I don’t think this church” – we weren’t living here. We weren’t living here at the time this happened – “I don’t think this church is a praying church!” And it caught my attention, because I thought, “What do you mean, this church isn’t a praying church?” Because you know what? He could see that there wasn’t the intense interest that there should be. There wasn’t the spirit of bonding. There wasn’t the interest and the urgency that there should be. And that comes from prayer, and staying close to God, and letting Him give us the zeal, and the urgency, and the encouragement we need, and that we give it to each other too. It’s a part of being the body – a body that God has put us into. Individually, we pray. If we neglect, we’re going to drift away. As a body of Christ, we need to be a praying church, and we need to be looking to Him, and realizing how important and vital that is in our lives.

Well we’re in the book of James. Let’s just turn over to James 5 here – one chapter from where we are – and let’s spend just a little bit of time. I’m not going to do an exhaustive thing on prayer, as its mentioned here in James 5. As we’ve talked about James, it’s kind of a treatise on becoming spiritually mature – these are the type of things we need to adhere to. Have you thought about this? If you think you’re perfect in worship, if you think you’re blameless, if you think you’re mature, have you thought about this? Remember that James will caution us, as we’re talking weekly about those things. He never mentions prayer until we get to chapter 5. And we’ll be, in our local studies, here in chapter 5 in a couple weeks, and I just want to talk about this today a little bit and have you be thinking. I’m not going to give every answer. I’m not going to spend an hour on James 5:13, on down to verse 18, because in those six verses, James mentions praying, seven times. Seven times in six verses. And we’re all familiar with these verses, because I guess we talk about them often. And we practice them often as well when we’re sick. But let’s look at some of what James here says – James 5, and verse 13:

James 5:13-15 – “Is anyone among you suffering?” Are you suffering? He gives a simple thing: “Let him pray.” He doesn’t give a laundry list: Do this, and this, and this. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” Praise God. Glorify God. Verse 14: “Is any among you sick?” Now we could stop at that word sick for a moment, and look at what the Greek word says. Let me read…the Greek word here translated as sick means weak, feeble, diseased, in a weakened state, or simply, sick. These were sick people. If you read through the times and the people that Jesus healed, these were people who had diseases. These were people who were blind. These were people who were crippled. These were people who had things that their diseases was so significantly affecting their life – leprosy. And it says: “Is any among you sick?” If you’re sick, if you have any of these things, if you’re weak, feeble, diseased, if you’re made weak by something that’s going on in life – and we have those same diseases by different names that are among us today…. You know, we’re not a healthy society. We are a sick society. And we have any number of maladies that can confront us. “Is any among you sick?” James’s response, inspired by God is: “Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him.” First thing you do if you’re sick, call on an elder of the church, or the elders of the church, and let them pray over him. And so, almost everyone has been sick at some time in their lives. And that’s exactly what should happen. When you’re sick, don’t have God far down the list. Sometimes people will tell me, “Well, I don’t have a diagnosis yet. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” And my response always is, “God doesn’t need a diagnosis to heal you. He’s not, ‘Oh, well, I’d do this if you’re having heart problems, or heart palpitations. Or, I’d do this if you have cancer. I’d do this if you have the flu or whatever it is.’” Put God first on the list. “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” The things that all…everyone at least knows someone in their family who has been anointed and you know exactly what that is. It’s a special ceremony, as we come before God. And the person who is afflicted and the elder or elders – if there are two or more in the room – pray over that person. And we recognize that that oil is the Spirit of God – a symbol of the Spirit of God – and what we’re doing there is not just a ritual – not just something that is there as a checkbox. We should be approaching that elder and afflicted person alike with the sanctity and the reverence that it symbolizes. We are coming before the living God and asking Him to heal us – or the elders are asking to heal this person. We need to believe that He can and that He alone can – that He doesn’t need help. Sometimes I hear, “Well, God will help us get well.” God doesn’t need help. God is our help. God is our rock. God is our salvation, God is the one who heals. “Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him.” And we look at that Holy Spirit, and we know – you know that Holy Spirit…Jesus Christ, when He died, we know, when we talked about it at Passover, He died that our physical diseases, and our physical ailments could be healed. And He was interested in the whole body being made well – spiritually and physically – that we have the two together when we take the bread and we take the wine. So He says in Verse 14: “Pray….” Now we could all say, “Hey, you know what? God knows I’m sick. I don’t need to ask Him. I don’t need to do that.” Well, if anyone is suffering, you know what? When you’re home suffering, pray. Ask God, “Help me with my suffering. Heal me.” Ask Him. But then call on the elders. And don’t just think, “God knows I need to be healed.” Well, He knows you need to be healed, but He says, “Ask.” Are we trying to do what He says? We look to Him. We come to Him and we believe that whatever His will is – again, with His will at the forefront of our prayers – whatever His will is, because He knows what’s best for us. Sometimes it’s best to be healed immediately. Sometimes, it’s best for our eternal life, and the perseverance, and the endurance, and the character we develop, to suffer a little while. Let’s go on to verse 15. And it says: “And the prayer of faith” – notice that? The prayer of faith. Of the many types of prayers that we can offer, there is a prayer of faith. “And the prayer of faith” – we believe in God, we trust Him, we know He can do this, we know who He is, we know what Jesus Christ did, we know how that is – “the prayer of faith will save the sick.” We can look at that and we can say – it says: “the Lord will raise him up.” Now again, sometimes it’s interesting, when you look at the Greek word and you see what it means – and the Greek words can be used in many different ways. They’re not always used in exactly the same way. But it’s interesting, as the Bible is inspired, when a word save here – “the prayer of faith will save the sick” – where else that same word is used? Again, saved here is Greek 4982, and it’s used – and keep your finger there in James 5. Let’s go back to John 3, because that same Greek word is used in a very well-known verse.

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world” – we can do this by heart, right? – “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him” – every time you read the word believe in the Bible, remember, it’s believe the way the Bible defines belief – a changing you to the core of who you are belief – “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Verse 17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” – same Greek word that we find in James 5:15. He made whole…”that the world may be made whole.” Certainly, physical healing we need, because we’ve departed from God’s way. Sometimes, He uses sickness as a trial on us to build our faith. Other times, it’s a result of something we’ve done that, maybe, has caused it.

Let’s go back to verse 15. Well, we know in John 3:16 and 17, He’s talking about saved as in, He wants to preserve, and people can have eternal life – saved the way the world thinks of the word saved, which is appropriate in that context.

James 5:15 – “And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise Him up.” God will raise him up, right? But sometimes, if our healing doesn’t come immediately, we think God hasn’t heard, or we think that God’s no longer there, or the people in the church aren’t praying hard enough, or the elder didn’t have enough faith – or whatever the case is and if we don’t get healed immediately – then God must not be there, because He promises that He will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.

We could look at a few things – certainly the apostle Paul, right? The apostle Paul…who could say that he wasn’t close to God? Who could say that the apostle Paul, the things that he wrote, the things that he said, how he approached himself in the very many situations that he was in, that he wasn’t close to God, and God wasn’t giving him the words that he should inspire? As we read every book of the Bible, and these writers…they didn’t sit down and plan this out. They didn’t get their little typewriters out, and think, “I’m going to say it this way and this way.” God flowed through them. They were men that were close to God. And God gave them the words to write. So we have the apostle Paul. But what do we read? Well, we can go back to 2 Corinthians. Certainly, if God’s going to heal anyone, He would heal Paul immediately. 2 Corinthians 12:8…well, let’s look at verse 7, because we can kind of see – Paul understood what the malady or the problem that he was having – what the purpose of it was – chapter 12, 2 Corinthians, verse 7:

2 Corinthians 12:7 – “And lest I should be exalted” – he writes – “above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me – a messenger of Satan – to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” “God, heal me, I know you can heal me. Please heal me” – three times. But the response from God was: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Live in My grace. I will give you the things that you need” – we’ve talked about grace before – “but you will gain strength by this weakness that’s in you. You will suffer for this” – and apparently, for the rest of his life, he did. Did Paul lose faith? No, he didn’t. And neither should we, if God doesn’t immediately heal. Because He’s interested in not only saving us from our illness, but saving the whole person. Right? He always has the end in mind. What do we need to develop? What do we need to go through? Where - how does our character become the character that will see us through, as He leads us to the return of Jesus Christ, and the character that He can use for the rest of eternity – however He chooses to use us. So in verse 15, we see the sense that God will heal, and we know Jesus Christ healed, and we know God has healed us. We’ve all been healed, or heard of people who have been healed, and we know that God heals, and sometimes it takes a while. “The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. Everyone will be healed – might not be in our time, might not even be in this life. Right? But look at the spiritual element that He puts in here in verse 15: “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” The prayer of faith – in this instance, in healing – but the prayer of faith will save the sick – some immediately, some after a little while, some not until they’re resurrected when there is no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow and no more of those things that can affect us.

Let’s go into verse 16. Notice how he then transitions from sick and physical illnesses when he talks about, if they’ve committed sins, he will be forgiven – certainly can be the physical sins that we do – whatever we might do to cause those things – but sometimes sickness comes as a result of spiritual sins as well. Verse 16. That’s why He says, “If…,” because we don’t know. We don’t ever make judgments on…this person is sick because of this and that and whatever. That’s why it says, “If…” there – “If he has committed sins he will be forgiven,” - because we don’t know why a person’s sick. God works with us, as we say, in different ways. So, then he goes on and He tells us:

2 Corinthians 12:16 – “Confess your trespasses to one another….” I’m not going to run around and tell you, “You know what? I had a Coke this week! I had a donut this week – or whatever it is.” No, He’s talking about work with one another. You have to pray with one another. “Confess your trespasses” – and that doesn’t mean we need to open up, and say every time we slip up, and every sin that we committed during the week. But you know, if we’ve got a problem, if we got something that we could use help with, and we could use prayer with, we find that individual prayer is great. We call the elders over sickness. That’s good to get other people involved. It’s even good to have a wide array of people involved, right? For sicknesses – just this week we sent out prayer requests for people that not only are being asked the prayer of faith by an elder, but asking the congregation to join with them in prayer that God would heal them. But He says here – I’m getting ahead of myself – “Confess your trespasses” – work with one another. You’re a body. God’s going to help, but we’re here to help each other too. We all have the same purpose in mind – please God – and we’re here to encourage each other. And, as it says in Hebrews 10:24, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together and encouraging each other even more so as the day approaches” – even more so as the day approaches. So he says: “Confess your trespasses and pray for one another” – and pray for one another – “that you may be healed” – that you may be healed. When we send the prayer request out, it’s all our responsibility to pray for that person and pray a prayer of faith and ask God to heal. Now we’re talking about physical illness here, but if someone confides in you, and says, “I have this problem that I’m trying to overcome. I just can’t seem to get it. I need strength and I ask you to pray for me.” We need to take that seriously. They’ve asked us to go before God and ask, on this person’s behalf, to give him the strength, or give him the healing, or give him the insight, or give him the ability to heal a relationship, or whatever it is. We need to take that seriously – we’re going before God – and not just flippantly toss it off, and say, “Yes, I will,” but never think about it again. I know we’ve all done that. We see prayer requests, and sometimes we can forget. Sometimes, there are so many of them that we just have to keep a list of people, and when we come before God, maybe not pray every single time we pray, but keep a list, and sometimes just pray for those people that need praying for and have asked for it. Because it is faith. And I hope, when people are asking for a prayer request, they realize what they’re asking for and not just a check list – not just a checklist – “If I have a hundred people praying for me, God is more likely to hear than if I have just three or four people praying for me.” God doesn’t operate that way. He says that in the next one: “The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” The effective fervent prayer avails much. We have to put effort into it. God has to see what’s in our hearts when we’re asking – not just a casual “Oh, by the way, heal so and so please.” The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man – one who is living God’s way, one who is striving to live God’s way, one who is striving to build into his life God’s will – not his will, not a double minded man, as we talked about in a Bible study a couple weeks ago, but a single-minded man, and one who is striving to become a single-minded man. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

And then in verses 17 and 18, he gives the example of what he’s talking about when he talks about Elijah. He throws this example from the Old Testament in there to show what the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man is. Because he says in verse 17:

2 Corinthians 12:17-18 – “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” – he was like us, right? Elijah became Elijah not on day one, but because he worked with God, and he followed God, and he yielded to God, and he learned to trust in God, and he prayed to God, and he kept close to Him, and he did what God told him to do. He wasn’t afraid to stand before kings and be threatened to have his life taken. “He was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn’t rain and it didn’t rain on the land for three years and six months.” Well, that’s kind of a miracle, right? That’s kind of a miracle. Elijah prayed and then it didn’t rain for 3 ½ years. And verse 18 says: “And then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”

Let’s ask a question: Did Elijah come up with that plan? Did Elijah, when he was standing before King Ahab say, “You know what? Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to just ask God not to rain on you for 3 ½ years.” Think God just answered that prayer? Well, let’s go back, for just a few minutes, to 1 Kings and just look at what Elijah’s life was like, because that was quite a dramatic prayer – that if we would ask God, “Don’t let it rain for 3 ½ years.” When we read of the two witnesses – we know there is a time ahead of us – they pray prayers to God, and you know what? God responds to them. How are they? Who are they – not who are they - what are they like? What have they done? How is God working with whoever those people might be? 1 Kings 17 – just as we’re there in verse 1, all of a sudden, we have Elijah, and he’s standing there in front of Ahab and it says there in verse 1:

1 Kings 17:1-9 – “And Elijah…said, ‘As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.’ ” This chapter just starts that way. “Ahab, this is what’s going to happen.” It’s like, “Okay, was that Elijah’s idea?” Well, I think if we read down through chapter 17, we can see how Elijah operated. In verse 2, after he said that: “Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Get away from here, turn eastward and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And stay there and I’ll feed you there.’ ” Well, there was Elijah, and God said, “Elijah, leave and go here.” Elijah went and left there. In verse 5, it says: “So he went and did according to the word of the LORD.” And he was fed there while he was there. Verse 8 says: “Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. I commanded a widow there to provide for you.” “Here’s what you do next, Elijah” – maybe in a time of prayer, maybe as God spoke to him – however He did. It’s like, “This is what you need to do, Elijah. I’m telling you in the night, you do it in the day.” And he did that. And as you go through chapter 17, you see Elijah doing God’s will every step of the way. God tells Elijah what it is he needs to do, and Elijah does it. It wasn’t Elijah’s will. It was God’s will. And Elijah had come to the point where his will was God’s will. His will was defined by what God’s will was.

That’s part of our transformation. Over the course of our lives, as we grow closer to God, and as we pray, and as we study, and as we develop this relationship with God, and as His Spirit interacts with the Spirit He puts in us, and He teaches us to pray, there comes a point as we develop, that we begin to do things and God will direct our steps. God will direct our words, just like He did for Jesus Christ, just like He did for Elijah. We can go to chapter 18 here, and we see the end of this saga of 3 ½ years of no rain on Israel. Chapter 18, verse 1, it says:

I Kings 18:1-2 – “And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah” – how did that come to Elijah? Did God appear to him as he was praying? Did God speak to him in the night so he would speak it in the day? “And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth.” It was God’s idea – God’s will. So “Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.”

And in verse 42, you see after he did all the stuff with the prophets of Baal, and slew those people, that Ahab went to the top of Carmel, bowed down to God, put his face between his knees, and apparently prayed to God, and said, “Let the rain come.” God said, “The rain will come.” The rain will come, but Elijah asked anyway. Elijah asked anyway. There’s a lesson for us in that. We have to ask. God wants us to develop into people whose will is the same as His will. We never get to that, if we don’t pray, if we’re not a praying people, if we don’t take the things to God in prayer, if we’re not communicating with Him on all sorts of levels about all the things that go on in life, and we’re not seeking His will – and not just saying we’re seeking His will – but, if we’re really seeking His will, if we’re really seeking His guidance, if we’re really seeking His direction, if we really are asking Him – and we mean it – “Order my steps, establish my steps” – if we really mean it, God will do it. But if we’re just saying it, thinking we have to say it, He won’t. God will provide what we ask when it’s His will, and when His will and our will are perfectly aligned. Right? It will happen along the way as well, but what He’s looking for is that ultimate thing that Jesus Christ said in His final prayer before He was arrested that Passover night: “My will Father is that they become one with You and I and that they become one with one another.”

The way we become one is certainly through the truth – we’re separated by truth – but we have to be a praying people – individually and collectively – and recognize Who we’re coming before and understand the magnitude and the power and the vital importance of prayer in our lives. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s something that takes a lifetime to develop. But with God’s Spirit, and us using His Spirit, we can develop that relationship with Him that will make us become one with Him and each other.