Why Our Church Must Be a "House of Prayer"

We have a great desire for God to use us for His glory. The reason that the little band of people who planted this church did it was because they love the gospel and they love the word. And they wanted God to use them to form a lamp stand here, along with all the others. There are many others, but we are so grateful that He planted us here as well. And today we want to look at the reason why our church, along with every other local church that names the name of Christ, and creatures of the gospel, must be a house of prayer. In Luke chapter 19, Jesus goes after the temple and cleanses the temple the second time. He cleanses the temple at the beginning of his public ministry and then he does the same thing at the end.

And it says here, this Luke describes it, it says, Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, it is written, and my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber's den. The temple of God was to be a house of prayer. We now are the temple of God, not made with stones, but made with flesh, leastones, people who are being built into the temple of God in which God dwells, and we are to be a house of prayer. This is one of the things that's to set us apart from all the world. In Genesis 426, I think Frankie mentioned this passage, where it says, then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. That expression is repeated time and time again throughout the book of Genesis to describe those whom God has set his affection upon, that he's called to himself.

This becomes their characteristic, they are those who call upon the name of the Lord. They are people who pray. That's one of the definitions of disciples. They are people who pray. This past week, George Harrison died on Thursday, 58 years old, and I was reading a cell phone because about him, and this one, there was a statement about why he took the other Beatles in 1967 in August to see the Maharishi, because he was becoming so fascinated with Eastern religion and spirituality. And he said this, listen to these words, I got to the point where I thought I would like to meditate. I read about it, I knew I needed a mantra, a password to get through into the other world. One of his songs, My Sweet Lord, it almost sounds like a Christian praise song until you get about halfway through the song, and he begins to praise all the gods of Buddhism.

He was looking for a mantra, a password into the other world. And what we have received is a person. We've received the High Priest. And in his name, we can approach the throne of the living God, the ancient of days, and we can sing praises to him, and it's said if it actually fills us up, it's joy and satisfaction when we praise him. So we have entered into this new sphere of existence as the people of God, and we pray. Primary word used in the New Testament, used in this passage here in James 5 for prayers, for Sukamai. And this word means, listen to this, to affirm out loud, to make a solemn declaration of that which you wish or long for. And this is why the people of God are characterized by those who call upon the name of the Lord.

Prayer is much louder in Israel than it is in most Baptist churches. In most Baptist churches, we're not exactly about the church, but we're so much like them, when you pray, it's never loud unless the person praying happens to get a special exercise. But in the community of faith throughout the centuries, when they pray, they've been fairly loud and calling upon the name of the Lord. When I was in Mexico, every time somebody began to lead and pray, everybody began to pray. And it reminded me of my childhood. That's the way it was. That's what I grew up on. It's just a concert of prayer. We all called upon the name of the Lord. That was just the way we did it. And that's the way it was in Israel.

They called upon the name of the Lord. And that is because that's what prayer is about. It's calling out to God. It is expressing our hearts, deepest desires, our longings, our wishes. You have people you're praying for now that you're interceding for, people that you love, that you want so desperately for them to come to know the living God and you call upon the Lord. That's prayer. That's a privilege that we have. And that's why we are people who call upon the name of the Lord. Listen to what James says in James chapter 5 verses 13 to 16. Is anyone among you suffering? Then he'll just pray. Is anyone cheerful? He has to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must crawl for the elders of the church and they have to pray over him, denying him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will restore him sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, there will be forgiven him. Therefore, James says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another somehow. You may be healed. The word healed like the word saved in the Bible is a word that's used in its broadest sense as synonyms. That's what salvation is. It is making us whole and complete and perfect. We are in the process of being saved. We have been saved from the penalty of sin, we're being saved now from the effects of sin in our eyes and ultimately we're going to be saved from the presence and possession of sin and we're going to enter into perfection, we're going to be conformed to the image of Christ, we're going to be healed completely.

And so, James says, not only physical healing, but spiritual healing as well, comes through when this act of as a congregation, a family of God confesses our sins one to another and pray for one another in response to that confession and as a result, we experience his spiritual healing. The inner buying thing throughout this passage, we're going to spend two weeks on prayer because in verse, the last part of verse 16 down to verse 18 tells us how we can have our prayers answered. In verse 16, we're looking at the dead though, it's a part of that whole context and the inner buying theme of this passage is the place and power of prayer in the believer's life and in the life of the church. What is the place of prayer in the life of the church?

It teaches that prayer is first of all the center of a vital relationship with God. It is at the heart of our relationship with God is our prayer, life. Secondly, it teaches that the prayer is the way to take hold or lay hold on God's power. God has promised us in so many ways in so many different contexts that his power is available to us to give us things such as patience and endurance in difficult times. And that power comes through prayer. It is the purpose of God that he works out of sovereign will through answering the prayers of his people. And finally, the very heart of a vital Christian faith prayer is the heart of a vital Christian faith. You cannot grow in the Christian life without a life of prayer.

And a local church can't grow unless it is a church that prays. It can't grow the way Christ wants it to grow, which is not just numerically but spiritually and vitally. Now look at four things in this passage. The first is that we are the pray in hard times. This is when we have to pray. We have to pray in times of hardship. He says, is anyone among you suffering, then he must pray. If we are going through difficulties, pressures, trials, when things are going right, when things are overwhelming us, James says our reaction ought to be rather than complaining, belly aching, sharing with everybody on the face of the earth, we initially go to the father. Imagine if you spend all the time that you spend and telling other people your problems.

Imagine if you spend all that time going to the father and calling upon his name. There is nothing out of us sharing burdens with each other because that is the only way we can pray for each other. We have to know what is going on in one of those lives. But sharing a difficulties with fellow believers so they can feel that this is different than simply talking about our problems instead of approaching the father. So this is an expression of faith. It is an evidence that we actually believe that God fears and answers prayer. Let him pray. That he uses an expression here that means this is to be the common and normal response to hardship in our lives. It is prayer. Have you prayed about it? I learned a long time ago when people come to you with a problem.

If you simply say to them, have you prayed about it yet? You will discover in those cases that they haven't. That they haven't yet eaten fire by going to the father. He is the one to whom we flee to first of all because we have is here. Jesus Christ has given us something better than a mantra. He has given us something better than a password. He has peered the way into the presence of God. He has passed into the heavens. Now we don't enter into a holy place made with hands, but we enter into the heavenly holy place where God himself dwells. And we go in with boredness and freedom of speech because of Jesus Christ and the fact that he has made a way for us to have the year of the father. He hears our cries.

That is the characteristic of those who know Jesus Christ. Secondly, James says to pray in times of happiness. He says, is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. The word sing praises self-pores the word from which we get the word, Psalms, and it means to sing Psalms of praise to God. It doesn't mean just whistle in the dark. It doesn't mean just sing to make yourself feel better. It means that we pray through singing. That's what Psalming is. When we sing Psalms to God, Psalms of praise to God, it is praises. And it is lifting up our hearts of praise to the father. This is a mark of a spiritual church, according to the Ephesians, probably 18 to 20 pulses to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

You see, this is how we express our gratefulness and our happiness in the blessings of God. Hasn't God blessed us recently? We are such a blessed people. When I think about the people that God has put into my life, like Dewey, that has brought the faith in Christ and made them a brother in Christ for all eternity. Think of that. We are going to spend eternity together. And when your heart gets filled with praise, you have to express it. Even if you have a terrible voice, God loves to hear His saints sing praises to Him. As long as you have no day in your heart, it doesn't matter how it comes back, you throw. If it is really a melody in your heart, if you are expressing the joy that you have in Christ Jesus.

And this is why the meetings of the saints ought to be characterized by joy or singing. It should be the norm, because our hearts have been filled with gratitude for His great work. A Spirit-filled church will be marked by a life of communion with God in times of goodness and sadness. We will pray when we are in hardship and we will sing when we are glad because He has blessed us. And we are the people who call upon the name of the Lord. And then He says, pray in times of helplessness. In verse 14, is anyone among you sick? Then He calls for the others of the church and they are the prayer of Him, anointing Him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore to Him sick and the Lord will raise Him up.

It is an interesting passage, lots of disagreement over this passage. In the Dewey version of the Bible, the Catholic version of the Bible is a frit note that says, be here, upon, of scripture for the sacrament of extreme function, that any controversy against its institution would be against the express words of the sacred texts in the planist terms. And it is interesting that they translate the word elders here, that's beautiful, as priests. The priests are never used of some select group that are separated from the people. I got news for you under the new covenant, you are all priests if you have believed on Christ. There is no such thing as a priesthood, separate from the people in the New Testament.

The word priest is used with every single believer. Priest, a set apart priesthood is under the oil covenant, and we are not on the oil covenant, we are under the new covenant. And so are our priests. Elders are those within the local church that have been set apart for the ministry of the Word in prayer, and so there are the ones who have been called. If elders not priests that are called, in fact the elders are called to pray for one of the priests, because they are having a time of difficulty. And that is because we are all priests, and so this passage isn't talking about getting ready to die, it's talking about how to be raised up from your sick bed, how to be healed. That's what it's about.

It's about healing, because God actually healed. Well, notice the instructions that He gives them. Maybe this is culture bound, maybe God only healed in the first century, and He doesn't heal today, but at least it's interesting to look at this, and then let's see if it does, have something to do with us today. Is this still how we have to do it? We simply say, if anyone is sick, I would call Dr. Habstrand, he'll come over and make him walk. Well, let's see what it says. There is the condition. The condition is the person is sick, well this is this Word is very expressive, it means to be talking about strength, it's a very strong word. It means not just you who are sick, and now you have a sore throat or the flu or broken leg.

But you are on a sickened state to the point that you have no strength whatsoever. The body is rock with pain, the mind is disturbed, and incapacitated, and inarticulate, so that you cannot pray. You are unable to pray. In other words, it's an extreme case of sickness. It's a case where a person has been sick for a while, and they have gone down, down, down until they are hanging on by their fingernails. I remember Describing to us those nights, those long, dark nights when he was in so much pain, and how lonely it was, trying just to endure the night with all the pain. It's that kind of sickness that he's referring to here. And then it's the commandment that the person who is sick must call for the elders of the church.

He used to initiate this. In other words, as Herman Heitz said, I think of it as Herman Heitz said, elders are not rangers out looking for sick people to pray for. Others of us who should respond to the call, and someone calls and said, would you come and pray for me? Or some family members says, would you come and pray? Then they respond, and that is the procedure. They are to pray over him, anointing him in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in faith, will restore them to a sick. Notice that procedure. These steps. First, the elders are called. Secondly, the pastors, and that's what elders are. Their shepherds, undershepherds in the local church, they're not faith-healers. This isn't called a guy in the church who has the gift of healing, called the elders, called the pastors, called the elders who have been sent apart for the purpose of prayer and the word, and called them to come and pray.

And then he says, they are to pray over him. This is very important. In fact, the expression is exactly like what happened in an earlier chapter in Matthew when Jesus came into the house of a Peter, and Peter's mother-in-law was sick under death. He was in bed, and she was very sick. And so they asked Jesus to come and pray for her, and they said, he went in, and he bent over her, and he got very close to her, and he began to pray for her. And so the elders would pray over him. The idea was there was closeness of relationship. In Matthew chapter 8, when a person with leopathy approached Jesus, and he wanted him to heal him. He said, if it is your will, I know you can heal me. The same thing is that Jesus didn't have to touch this man.

In fact, he healed many people without ever coming in physical contact with him. If you remember the Centurion who wanted him to come and pray for one of his servants, and before he even got to his house, he sent messengers and says, you don't have to come to the house, just say the word and he didn't have to. And Jesus said the word, and he was healed, without ever even touching him or seeing him. When this leopathy approached Jesus, it says, Jesus roots out and touched him, and that's a very poignant moment because you don't touch lepers. In fact, he became ceremonially unclean by touching him, except for the fact that the man became a non-lepper the moment Jesus touched him, but he touched him.

And the whole point of this expression is one of closeness and relationship. This isn't a gunslinger from out of town who's got the gift of healing who comes in town and begins to heal people by the dozens. This is about a group of pastors, elders in a local church who are called, and they come to the bedside of a person within the flock, and they pray with him that God would heal him. And then it says, and they, before praying, they annoy him or hurt with oil. When in the world does that mean? This one's used to, I just a few times in the New Testament, it's used to the kind of a nighting that people did in that day, simply like a basic hygiene, like you putting on a moisturizer on your hands, it's used in that way.

It was used, but remember when Jesus went into Simon's house, and he declined the table, and a woman comes in, a woman of the street comes in and she begins to weep over his feet and washes feet with her tears. And then she anoints his head, well that was a common courtesy when you went into the house, if somebody especially was well to do, is that one of the things they would do is they would wash, have your feet washed by the servant, and then they would anoint your head with oil, because of the dryness of the climate. The primary way this word is used is to anoint the sick, and which Jesus, it says his disciples did, they anointed the sick with oil in the Old Testament. This was a common practice to set apart priests, to set apart kings and prophets for the service of God.

It was a picture of something, it was a picture of them being set apart under God. This word was never used in the Bible of giving somebody a massage. Those who believe that's what James is saying, because there were not many doctors around to assume that you call them, and they just come over, bring their little olive oil, and they begin to give a massage, and give some medicinal help, and then they pray over. I think that's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. I cannot imagine one person in this room who would call me over to give them a massage with olive oil, because they were sick. Now, this word is used in its common usage, anointing means that it was a picture, just like baptism as a picture of a person died, been buried, and resurrected in Christ Jesus.

The anointing of oil is simply a picture of us being set apart to God. What is happening here is that the elders recognize, and the man recognizes, a woman recognizes that no one on this earth can help, only God can solve this problem. The elders come, and the anointing of oil, setting apart to God, and to God alone, because he's the only one who can heal. That's still a biblical picture as much as baptism is. We still got thousands of wine, and I think we should still have a night with oil. That's why I have a little jar of olive oil, isn't it? It isn't holy oil. It's just olive oil. Still have the label on it, and I use that olive oil to pray over people. That's what we use, because that's what he told us to do.

It is a magical, it is a mysterious, it's not mystical, it is obedience to the Word of God. And it's amazing how God responds. And then they have to pray the prayer of faith, quite literally. The elders are to a night with oil, and then pray the prayer of faith. The faith here is referring to the faith that's exercised by the elders in their prayer over the sick. That's quite a responsibility, isn't it? That the elders have to pray the prayer of faith. Now, every elder didn't have to get the feeling, obviously, in the early church. I don't think anyone has to get the feeling today, but if they do, certainly every pastor doesn't, in fact, I don't know one that does. Secondly, everyone who is a minor than pray for was not miraculously healed.

So what is this prayer of faith? Well, that's the limiting factor. It's the prayer of faith. He says, when the prayer of faith is prayed over them, they will be raised up by the church. Guy King and his commentary on this passage says, the prayer of faith ever deeply cannot be prayed at will, but it was given of God in certain cases to serve His own loving purposes and in strict accordance with the sovereign will. In other words, God, just as the sovereign by the universe, accomplishes His purposes through the prayers of the saints. In other words, He burdened you for certain things, and you prayed, and He answers your prayer. That's how He works. We saw that in last Sunday night. We saw that in one of the books of a New Testament that I just escaped my memory, but I'll come to him about five minutes.

My brain is at the stage now at my age where all these little side roads have been destroyed and so it takes a long time for the signal to get all the way to the side of the brain, and it'll come to me a minute, and then I'll tell you what it's at. But what we learned was, I forgot what we learned, so let's go up. It's getting embarrassing. No, it's not a curse. That's the procedure, no, it's a result. And the prayer offered in faith where we store the one who is sick, His strength is restored. In fact, I thought it was interesting in the gospel account of Jesus praying over Simon's mother-in-law. What happened? Do you know what happened when He prayed for her and she was healed? What did she do?

She got up and she began to serve them. It sounds almost... That sounds crazy, doesn't it? Jesus Roman has been sick on her sick bed about to die in Jesus' place for her, and instead of getting up and being the center of attention, she gets up and begins to serve them in her house. She begins, she was restored, and she began to function just like she had always functioned. And so there's restoration, the one who is sick has restored, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he was committed sins, there will be forgiven him. This expression, this is a big term, I know. Perfect pathastic. I love that. Say that. A perfect pathastic. There's one person in this room who knows what that is. A perfect pathastic is just like a construction here, and here's the point of it, because it's very particular, it means it is saying, if he is now abiding under the consequences of his sins, in other words, in this person is sick, is because they've been living in sin, and the effect of that sin, in one way or another, sometimes sin causes us to be sick, just because of the natural consequences of a sinful lifestyle.

If you sin by living like a drunkard, you're going to have consequences in your body. And so he says, if this sickness is the consequence of ongoing sin in his life, notice this, Psalm 32. Paul David says, when I kept silent for a second sin, my body wasted away, through my groaning all day long, for this sin, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever he was summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave my guilt of my sin. And he was raised up. See, sin has an effect. It has an emotional effect, it has a physical effect upon our bodies. And so from James is saying, God will not withhold the needed healing because of your past.

He will forgive your sins. Isn't that what Jesus did in Mark chapter 2, when he was in the house teaching, and it was so crowded in that house, nobody else could get in. It says, even if the door people were just piled in, lay upon there, and these four men bring a sick friend of theirs to see Jesus because they want Jesus to heal him, that they can't get in the house. And so they climb up on the roof, and they begin to dig through the roof, because this was in the doggie house, and they begin to dig through the roof. And Jesus looks up, and they begin to lure this man down with ropes, right in front of Jesus. Here's a parody, he can't walk. What did Jesus do? Jesus looks at him, and he looks around at the Pharisees who are there to spy out his liberty, and to condemn him, he makes a wrong move, and he says to the man on the sick bed, your sins are forgiven you, and they're all astonished.

How can Jesus say your sins are forgiven you? He's just a man. Only God can forgive sin. And Jesus responses, what's easier to say? Your sins be forgiven or rise, take up your power and walk. Well, in one sense, it would be easier to say your sins are forgiven, because who could tell whether a sins are forgiven by looking at him? Well, of course, the easier thing to say is rise up and walk. It would be easier for Jesus to heal him, because other men healed, dog used other men besides Jesus to heal the sick, but only Jesus Christ can forgive sins. Jesus is interested not only in healing your body, but forgiving your sins. And he says, even if your sickness is a result of your sin, he is able to deal with your sin as well as your sickness.

Isn't that great? That we have a Savior who can not only deal with your sickness, but with your sin? That's a lot more important, isn't it? That he can forgive sins. That this Jesus that we preach and proclaim and believe in is not just a mantra, he's not just a passageway, so I can speak to God Almighty, He is the Savior who can forgive sins and bring into the presence of God. Is God still here today? Well, remember these two? Dina Flesher and Justin Freyat. Let me read you a letter. This is totally coincidental that unfunny is email from Sandia, who is Dina Flesher's daughter last year, this month, it's been a year in November, actually. There was November, last year, Dina went into the hospital to have that little boy there.

He wasn't that big then. He was very small. She went to the hospital and what seemed like it was going to be a very normal delivery ended up becoming something quite tragic on the appearance, on first appearance. Listen to this little paper that she wrote for her school. Sandia is about 14 years old, and I don't know why she sent this to me, but it just had in the company on Friday, and this is a paper she wrote for school, and she was supposed to write about something, and she was supposed to write about beauty and truth, and this is what she wrote. It was about 7 p.m. while I walked through the door and was unexpectedly greeting with the news. Sandia, daughter, she just called and said, my name was in the operating room.

I didn't believe my little brother. I think you're hearing things. She's probably in the recovery room where he said he'd called back in a few minutes. 10 minutes later, the phone rang, and my grandma answered it. When she hung up, she had a devastated look on her face so she gathered the kids together. That was your dad that just called. He said there were complications during the birth of the baby. The baby spined, but your mom isn't. She's dying, and she was. Your dad couldn't give me any details. He just said, to get on your knees and pray. So that's what we did. All five of us kept on the kitchen floor and prayed for my mom's healing. The baby's out. My dad's strength and the doctor's wisdom and guidance.

He didn't call everyone we could think of and ask them to pray. And about that time of those by 30 or 40 of us at the hospital praying for her, that night my aunt and uncle came and went to the hospital with my grandma. When they came back the next morning, the thousands of prayers had done the miraculous. Actually, God had done the miraculous in response to thousands of prayers. My mom's heartbeat jumped from zero to normal. Her kidneys, which were previously shut down, started functioning again. My mom also didn't have any breathing after losing 35 kinds of blood. That's right. 35 units of blood. When we got to the hospital, there was a taxi cab racing into the parking lot that jumped out, opened the trunk, and began taking in containers of blood.

And as Judy and I were driving up, we were thinking, I hope that's not for Vina. I hope it isn't that serious. And sure enough, it was. All night long, highway patrol, taxi cabs, different people rushing blood from all over the area to get enough blood to her because she was losing blood as fast as they put it into her and they had no way of stopping the bleeding. One astonished doctor said, and he said this to us while we were praying, and while this was going on, he said, I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it because it's working. The power of prayer saved my mom and solved the ever-present question of what to name baby flesher. His name will constantly mind us of the story of his birth, the power of prayer, and the fragility of life, his name is just pray, flesher.

The story of my brother's birth is so beautiful because it's true. It is a fact that the doctors didn't know how to save my mom and somehow her blood pressure went from zero to normal. The condition from very critical to normal, the way this event impacted all the people involved and really, in fact, all the people who read is also truth. These truths are what make the story so beautiful and inspiring. Without them, there would be no story. Truth is beauty and beauty is truth. What a wonderful thing that God still heals. He heals Mary. You have a hole in her eye that she was going to have to have surgery for, and God and his soul and grace closed that hole. Does he do those kind of things? Absolutely.

Because that's the kind of a God he is. We are to pray in times of helplessness. It's not that he always heals. We know that. And aren't you glad that he doesn't? Aren't you glad that sometimes he doesn't heal and he takes his people home? Heaven is inhabited right now with a great host of believers who died and gone to be with Christ. But then finally, James says, we are to pray in times of honesty. I could have, I had to have a fourth eighths there, you see. And I could have said honesty with one another when we confess our sins to one another. He says in verse 16, therefore, since God is, is even able to take care, not only of your health problems, but your sin problems. He says, confess your sins to one another.

And pray for one another so that you may be healed. The idea of confession here means to confess out. This is unique. The word confession normally is used in your confession of your sin to God, first on 1.9. So if we confess our sins, homologale, here it's ex homologale. Not only if we confess our sins, but if we confess our sins to one another, an open, frank, and full confession, an open and full acknowledging of personal guilt. One of the best things that you can do is get into a small group of people that really love Christ and are maturing in the face, faith, and they're willing to read the word with you, saturate their minds with the word of God and meet with them on a regular basis and be totally open about what God's doing in your life and your failures and your sins.

Someone will help you to learn to overcome sin in your life more than that will, when you're challenged to stop hiding from people with God sees painly. One of the words that God said to the nation of Israel was that you actually think that you can come before me and public and worship me and then go home and worship our idols and because you're not in a temple, I don't see you. One of the solutions for that, that's curious to that, is when we have the kind of relationship with each other that we can be open and honest about our failures and our sins and our needs so that we can pray for each other. You see, that's the point. Honest confession has to lead to sympathetic intercession or it's just a gossip.

This isn't me getting with you and confessing my wife's sins. You will never hear me confess my wife's sins. In fact, I don't know of any. I don't remember any, that I would never confess them to you. I would confess my sins to you in the right context. So we get together and we confess our sins to one another, our own sins, and pray for each other in response, God will use that in a powerful way in our lives. Here's the purpose of confession and intercession that you may be healed. I honestly do believe there are a lot of Christians that are stuck. I am convinced that the Bible teaches that sanctification always follows justification. In other words, the Bible teaches that God is going to sanctify every believer that he justifies.

Every person who comes to faith in Christ Jesus is going to be transformed into the image of Christ. That's hard to believe, isn't it? It's hard to believe that because we know each other and sometimes when we see there's so little growth in our own lives and so little growth in other people's lives, sometimes it looks like retrograde, sometimes it looks like they're going backwards and we're going backwards. And yet he has promised to sanctify us and to transform us and conform us in the image of Christ. Well, the purpose of taking seriously our sin and getting into the kind of relationships within the body of Christ that we can be open and honest with each other while we are in the world and our minds are being filled with the word of God.

I meet with a couple of guys and we read 30 chapters from the Bible every week. We get together and we confess our sins to each other and we pray for each other and we let the word of God wash through us into one another's lives. Now, tell you, it is one of the greatest tools that God uses in your life to deal with sin in your life when you start getting honest with someone you can touch. Someone who can look you in the eye. It is an amazing fact and it shouldn't be this way, but it's an amazing fact that you feel a lot more comfortable sitting in the face of Jesus Christ than sitting before fellow Christians. That you will go and hide and sin a sin that you would never sin out in the open and yet guess what, Jesus is there.

And so when we confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, he says the result is you will be healed. That's a great promise. So, in a very good way to fulfill our calling to be a house of prayer, we have to do these things. We have to pray in times of hardship. That would be our knee-jerk reaction. The reason we have a prayer chain is not to get the word out, it is so people can pray. We have a man who wanted to be on the prayer chain and the one I told John she got it. I told her they swallowed her snuff, she had a funny reaction on her face, what do you do with a man on the prayer chain? Well, you just put him on the prayer chain and he gets the word you would pray to, pass it on to some other man.

That's why we have a prayer chain, isn't it? To pray. To pray for each other, that should be our response, to promise. And then we are praying in times of happiness by singing praises. That's why we sing because we are happy. Because he's made us glad. And then we are praying in times of helplessness, when there is sickness, when people fall into the kinds of means where they are absolutely helpless, they cannot help themselves. Our first place to flee to is to prayer. And finally we pray in times of honesty with each other. As we confess things to one another, we pray for each other. If they are not willing to pray, then you shouldn't be listening to anybody's confession. This is different than a confessional birth.

This isn't confessing to a professional priest. This is confessing to a fellow priest who has access to God just as you do. I pray for each other. So I will encourage you, God's calling us to be a house of prayer. Let's pray. Our father is with grateful hearts that we come to you today as people who have called upon the name of the Lord, all of us are aware. There's not one of us here who is not aware of how frail we are in our prayer life. Nothing makes us feel more guilty than when we talk about prayer or evangelism or giving. As we know, we don't measure up as we opt to. And yet you have called us to this great, great assignment of being people who pray. We pray that you would make us a house of prayer.

I pray that you would energize us to pray for those in our families, our friends, our circle of influence that we desperately want to see come to Christ. And I am convinced, Father, that it's more important to talk to you about people than to talk to people about you. And I know it's important to talk to people about you. I pray that we would pray more, trust you more, and experience more of your power, your presence, and Jesus' name, amen.