Good afternoon! If you heard any rumors about me going to another church this morning resist subtle that it’s okay was invited to speak at the the Jacobite church this morning and so I got the chance to spend some time with them and to give a small message there and so now it’s nice to be back home with you all and to share again from the word of God to double blessing for me and from my perspective related to preach twice missing if you would turn with me to the book of James chapter 5 verses 13 to 18 James chapter 513 to 18 one of you could read that out loud please on the screens integrated quickly and so this Sunday of the theme for this Sunday is compassion and love and I believe it’s tied with healing which is why the the gospel lesson passage that was read was the passage where Jesus heals a deaf and mute person person who can’t hear and who has a speech impediment is ironic that at that point is when I flipped open reading when we said read that passage sets of a fully vested I felt like this is something that I could use and tie and more especially considering that at our last and the commission meeting we were talking about prayer and so how does prayer tie in with healing the so this is a familiar passage to all of you this is the basis for why we have one of the sacraments that we have and what the majority does called unction so when a person is sick we take wailed and we anoint the person with oil and we pray for that’s one of the seven sacraments of the Markkula church based on this passage so it’s not that they pulled out of thin air it’s all biblically-based some that when we read this is something I love about James bring all the books in the Bible are practical but James goes the extra out of his way to be utterly practical and he doesn’t really message theology he doesn’t try to think lofty thoughts he just tries to figure out what can we do is do and so when we get to this passage he tell this basically that there is a power to prayer but what more can we learn about this but just before we begin this a common question that comes up when it comes to prayer and then we talked about this in Ireland mission to the wall answer now realize this other cool stuff that you’re missing out on and so tried to cover up for their permission if you get a chance but one question that was raised is if God knows what I’m going to pray beforehand why do I need to pray if God knows beforehand what I’m going to pray then why do I need to pray devout Christian God knows all he knows the past present and the future of he knows I’m the pray why should I pray for the answer that I could think of is that yeah God knows before we pray what was going to pray but we don’t know what were going to pray until we pray and until we pray we can be assured that God has heard our prayers because they’ve not been done yet so it is very important that we pray because prayer even though it’s known ahead of time to God is part of our making partake it helps to form who we are and mold who we are as people and so when I verbalize my pains in my Greeks when I submit my problems to a higher person to Christ when I admit my faults when I and pray for others and a knowledge a certain level of concern that I know I should have I’m growing and it’s not to make a purely psychological it’s the fact that I believe God has set it up that way so now that we’ve mentioned that now escape extremely practical like Mike James this when you’re sick pray when you happy praise so when you’re sick you call on the elders the something we probably are missing when we read this is anyone sick among you let and let them call the elders of the church that word in Greek sick it’s not just a it’s not I am not having the sniffles as Isaiah Leggett. Here if you stub your toe called the elders to pray over you but I am not like serious illness that prevents you from functioning if you’re not able to to work go about their daily routine which I not that kind of sickness the one that sort of thing happens and overwhelming kind of sickness called people call elders to come and pray over you or wine; there’s an God hears my prayers right a why should I assume that just because another person is here praying to God now going to suddenly take interest it’s a strange a it’s a question I’ve asked myself the question that others have asked me this this thing in the West and I know how would a Ananova we realize how pervasive this ideology is the West but if this ideology of individualism you take care of your self every man is an island unto himself and that ID all that she has come into our Christian faith is why I find it a bit underwhelming when people talk about salvation in terms of their personal sins at so underwhelming salvation is much bigger we didn’t even realize that were settling for this individualistic Western faith realize that when change is speaking is a Jew with a background in Jewish culture and for them community was everything community was someone Porton to them why this community so important well you know the passage of the Matthew chapter 9 verse two where there is a paralytic man being Kadian by his friends and his friends them make a hold on the roof and lower him down NCSS if you read it very carefully Matthew chapter 9 verse two Jesus sees not his faith not singular but Jesus sees they are faith feces they have faith and says to the paralytic your sins are forgiven what about this community aspect I think what we’re missing out on what is it about that there would kind of for some reason don’t feel is so valuable when does it come from I guess Trinity is the basis of where we get the importance of community from we don’t worship of God who is one dimensional they worship one God that is true but this one God has revealed himself in three different clear distinct ways God the father God the son and God the Holy Spirit so within the Godhead itself is this community and this community is so tight and so tightly knit together that it is always considered unity and when we look at that as our God we have to realize the person sitting to the left him in the person sitting to the right of me should not be thought of as something up I shouldn’t think of that person as the other person or some random person or some people think it’s better to think it is my husband is my wife and his my child but the other is the nonfamily member still that’s no better what it why is it so important that we realize that the community element of Christian faith is so crucial is absolutely crucial it helps us as in Galatians chapter 6 verses to says and again we went over this with either the commission members when we study the book of Galatians van each other’s burdens good statement what I love comes after bear each other’s burdens and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ bear each other’s burdens and in doing so you fulfill the law of Christ love Christ is I guess the simplest way to put it is luck Galatians chapter 6 verse two so we have this community because this community is my support is your support you have let others carry your burdens you don’t have to feel like you are doing it all on your own unfortunately I know there are many reasons why sometimes we don’t share our burdens with others and I’m not saying that every reason is valid I’m not saying that every reason is him down when you identify why is it that you don’t want to share your burdens and really see isn’t something that is grounded on the word of God or is it something is grounded on me protecting myself but I can think of one reason why we may not want to share information with others as we we don’t want to see more up you weak we don’t want to expose our weaknesses to others just valid and I won’t probably announce to the entire church if I’m really struggling with something but if I don’t tell even the closest people to me what does that say about myself I have to think am I trying to just preserve my own dignity by not meeting who I really am am I just trying to put up a face and not allow people to realize how broken I really am if that’s the reason indefinitely I need to share with others I need to call others to come and pray for me and the other reasons that you could probably think of some that and some not so violent but you needn’t think you when I don’t tell my parents something is it because I just don’t want them to know that I’m doing something wrong is it because I don’t want them to know that I’ve struggled with a certain issue if that’s the case you need to realize perhaps your parents are here to help you advancer here to lift you up and then you can maybe go and share with them when you don’t tell your spouse something when you don’t tell a coworker something why why do we not share these things with each other within the community of faith I understand why we don’t shared with the public is the public will find out weakness and then will stab us at that point but in the community of faith I should be able to trust enough to let my burdens go and together as the psalmist says we we cast our burdens on the Lord for he cares for us the same way our community should care for each other are looking in verse 16 therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed I was thinking of some of the advantages that could come out of this kind of a strange radical idea an idea that I to know how many of us would be so willing to jump into one of the ideas is so that you don’t struggle alone you have a support group and so that your faith can increase when I know that others are praying for me indefinitely strengthens my faith it makes me more confident in the tacit God has presented me with another thing is so I think it’s very good to prison to confess your sins to each other because it helps you to not get arrogant or it helps you to stop pretending to be better than you or we might alleys we like to appear as prim and proper as he possibly can and and and and that sort of a cultural thing cannot be wiped out overnight and I’m not saying you should just jump overboard and start sharing everything with anyone next to the we need to be able to watch ourselves and I’m not sharing my struggles with other people because I want you all to think that the action has no problems mentioned doesn’t have a struggles I want you all to think that I’m some sort of a superhero and that’s why don’t share my problems with it if that’s my mentality this will help to counter that another reason it’s so that you can no that there others like you who struggle with the same thing I do know how many times I’ve heard him in these youth conferences when we would go and then we would be talking with units from other churches and then they would after you would have break the ice they would start tell us these are the struggles in our youth Fellowship we want to say necessarily first once we found out that they struggled with the same thing we realize that were altered in this together and the not together we come up with ideas on ways of figuring this out but it was sold relieving it was so comforting to know that there are others just like me out there is a this is why we confess our sins with others another very important thing is it’s important for us to confess our sins to others so that you can pray less about yourselves and more about others if I had enough people telling me what their struggles were as that much less that I would pray about myself because I would be busy praying for you and vice versa so the idea of if I just keep everything to myself surely your prayer will only be about yourself but when you share your problems with others now suddenly when they shared back with you if something other than yourself to pray for you not become the center of the universe any longer you realize that the other people other humans with different similar struggles and you now are outwardly minded another thing is it helps us to be united sharing our struggles and also just like he says in the first verse sharing our our joys with each other it’s important because it united us together when I share my joys with you my joy is double what I share my sorrow zippy my sorrows are That’s the beauty of so it’s not that wouldn’t God hear my prayer I pray on my own he dies so goodness he does the beauty of Christian fellowship should never be taken for granted and I would say one of the final things is it’s important to do this to confess our sins and pray for each other because it is effective the end of the verse so that you may be healed sharing our problems with this allowing others to pray for me easy effective is far more effective than you being in Ireland to yourself Elijah was a normal person we reviewed her last verses of this passage Liza was a normal person a normal person who prayed fervently and Gotthard business will key their sometimes the name Ms. the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective who is a righteous person and my righteous are you righteous what does it mean when we say the prayer of a righteous person is effective I think it means quite simply one who aligns himself with the will of God one who aligns himself with the will of God will definitely be a righteous person one who aligns himself with the will of God definitely when he prays when she prays it off after because that’s the will of God so our aim when we do this community being is to help each other to be aligned with the will of God when I go through problem sometimes I need someone else to tell me you know what I think you need this problem because there something in your life but slightly off and this problem will help you get back on track and when I hear him say that I now realize maybe I was out of line maybe maybe I wasn’t thinking the will of God and when we do this in community I have a better perspective of my own life and so we are able to align ourselves with the will of God and act that is powerful things imagine imagine a community of 44 families sharing with each other maybe not the first family with the 44th Senegalese the first semi with a second family Schaper’s but a community that shares its burdens with each other and the community in aligns itself with the will of God and so many things we can do nonscientist about building a church that thinking too small and I am not impacting the community there are so many things that we can pray for and that can be made to happen if we would just practice this the prayer of faith through choirs community when you’re sick pray tell others let others prefer you share your burdens of each other confess your sins with each other why is it that in about, church we have a prayer of confession why don’t we have like other churches of a private confession was just me and the priest why is it that we make it public and why is it that your voice should be heard don’t say quietly undergrad and say out loud we all together our meeting our faults and I do believe that when we do this just for a moment a you probably can go on autopilot and say this prayer they if you would indulge me for a moment and go on autopilot and just listen to the other people saying the same things you and see if that doesn’t encourage your faith see if knowing that the person next to struggles just like you do and see if that doesn’t encourage you to want to pray for them and want to build a sense of unity mix of the community is is is is is a beauty our church it’s it’s all set up for us we just have to plug into it was have to have to do it meaningfully God forgives us we don’t forgive each other God forgives those who this would make I clarified to clarify that when the action says the prayer of absolution and son me who forgives you dislike it’s not an even implied in this passage that the elders of the people who pray that do the forgiving the elders who pray hurts the priesthood knowledges the affirmation that Christ does forgive you when you truly so that affirmation can only be had in community we can say that to yourself and have the same impact good to hear someone else say your sins are forgiven: live: live when the good Lord bless us and challenge us to look into our own prayer life’s to look into how we are praying in community and to see how effective we are and how effective we can be in the future some of the good Lord help us and guys his words.