Sermon Notes | March 23, 2025 - Grow Up: Prayer is for God’s People (Part 2)
March 23, 2025

Sermon Notes | March 23, 2025 - Grow Up: Prayer is for God’s People (Part 2)

James 5:13-18
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone 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. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Prayer is for the believer who is…

1. Prayer is for the believer who is Hurting.

2. Prayer is for the believer who is Happy.

3. Prayer is for the believer in need of Healing.

4. Prayer is for the believer in seeking Holiness

James 5:15-16
And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

5. Prayer is for the believer who is wanting to be Helpful

James 5:16-18
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

”The potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire. It has bridled the rage of lions, hushed the anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the fates of heavens, assuaged diseases, dispelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. There is in prayer an all-sufficient parade, a treasure undiminished, a mine which has never been exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root fountain and the mother of a thousand blessings.” —John of Antioch

1 Kings 16:32-33
Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

1 Kings 18:4
For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.

1 Kings 17:1
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

1 Kings 18:17-18
Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, ‘Is that you, O troubler of Israel?’ And he answered, ‘I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals.

1 Kings 18:37
Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

1 Kings 18:38
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

1 Kings 18:39
Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”and all the Israelites repent and say, “The Lord is God!”

1 Kings 18:44
Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!”

Two Timeless Truths:
1. All God’s people have access to Him through prayer!
2. Through prayer, all of God’s power is available to His people!

Luke 1:37
For with God nothing will be impossible.

Prerequisites to Powerful Prayer:

a. Biblical Consistency

James 5:16
… The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much

Deuteronomy 11:16-17
Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.”

“The key to effective prayer is ‘catching Christ in His own words” —(A Simple Way to Pray, 1535).

b. Personal Integrity

James 5:16
…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Psalm 66:18
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

c. Persistent Intensity

James 5:16
…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

“Don’t let yesterday’s seemingly unanswered prayers stop you from praying in faith today.” —George Müller