I do enjoy the celebration of the holidays, but I'll be honest with you, I like being in a normal routine. So I'll be glad to get back on normal routines here for the next couple of weeks. But today, speaking of normal routines, starting next Sunday we will be back in the book of Deuteronomy, but today I'm going to ask you to join me in the book of James. James chapter 5 is where we'll be today. As the year draws to a close and everybody makes their social media posts about how good or bad their last year has been and all the great and wondrous things they're going to do in the new year, I think it's natural to do that, to assess what's gone before, to be hopeful about what's ahead. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. What I don't know about you is I seek to assess my time, my life in the year that has passed. And it seems every year, my honest assessment of my life points me to one area of shortcoming over and over again. And it is that area of prayer. I don't know that I have ever assessed my prayer life and felt like it was where it ought to be. How much should we pray? Someone once asked me. And I just told them, more. And I think that's the truth. When we understand that prayer is communication between man and the God of the universe through the mediating power of the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood so we would have that privilege, I doubt any of us could stand flat-footed and honestly say that we take advantage of that wonderful privilege enough. Why is it that prayer always seems to fall short of the mark? I think it's because, likely, at least I can speak for myself here, that it's because we're deficient in our understanding of the power of prayer. If we understood the power and the privilege of prayer, I believe our prayers would be more urgent and more frequent. Prayer is appropriate and needed in all situations. There's nothing in our lives that we ought not pray about. There's nothing that's outside of the realm of the children of God bringing it before the Lord. Everything is within the purview of prayer. And so today I want to remind each of us as we look toward the new year about the necessity and the power of prayer. So look with me in chapter 5 of the book of James. There the Bible says, beginning in verse 13, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 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. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven. 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. 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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit." Let's pray. Lord, help us. Help us as we look to this reality of prayer in our own lives, God, that we might understand the great privilege that You've given us. the great cost that was paid to purchase that privilege. Lord, I ask today that you would use this message to strengthen the saints and to call the sinners. Lord, help us this day. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I would begin by pointing you to the reality of this text that prayer brings strength to the suffering. Prayer brings strength to the suffering. James writes and says, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. That seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? For most of us, I would dare say, if we were honest, this is our primary reason to pray. And I think that's all right. We've got a problem. We've got a struggle. We're suffering in one area of our life or another. I would say that all of us, if we look at all of our life, maybe you're just walking on clouds and nothing's touching the darkness, maybe everything's just peaches and cream in your universe, but I would dare say that if we're honest, most of us, even if it's 99% in one, that we all have some struggle. We have some suffering in one area of our life or another. James writes and tells us that when we're suffering, the right response is prayer. Now, is that our go-to response? Or do we just talk to those around us and commiserate and complain? I'll tell you. I mean, again, I can just talk about me. Something's going wrong in my life, my temptation is to talk to everybody about it, and then I'll get around to praying when it's time to pray. I think a good rule of thumb, I don't claim to follow this rule, but I'll give it to you anyways, is don't talk to other people about stuff you hadn't talked to God about yet. God may bring you to some sort of resolution before you got involved with anybody else. And it's just between you and the Lord. James tells us prayer is appropriate. It's needed in times of suffering. If you look back at Psalm 50. In Psalm 50. I thought I had that marked. Now I've got to do Bible drill. In Psalm 50 and verse 15, the Bible says this. I'll get a page-turning assistant up here. Psalm 50 and verse 15 says this, "'Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.'" What's the psalmist say? When trouble comes, call upon the Lord. The Lord is going to hear us. Now this isn't some sort of promise that He's going to answer our prayers in the way that we deem appropriate, but the promise to the people of God is that He will answer. He's going to show up, He's going to do the things that only God will do, and He says, and in light of me promising that I'm going to answer, I'm going to deliver, I'm going to show up, You shall glorify me. Why should we pray in suffering? Because God promises to be there. And through that, God promises to bring glory to himself. Friends, the glory of God is the point. You say, the point of what? And I say, yes, the point of all of it. The point of everything, the point of this world, the point of your life, the point of my life, the point of everything under the sun, is to bring glory to the name of the Lord. Every aspect, every single major confession of faith historically going back tells us that the catechism after catechism and all of these great minds of the church through the ages, when they sought to sum up the wisdom of the Bible, they almost always begin with what is the purpose of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. It is our purpose. to bring glory to God. So the question is, in the midst of suffering, is the glory of God enough for us? Is the promise of God to draw near to us in prayer and to glorify himself in us and through us, is that enough for us? God promises to show up, to be there, to be ever present in our lives. God doesn't always promise to take us out of suffering immediately, but the ultimate promise is that our suffering here is only for a little while. And so when we pray, if we are Christians, if we know God, if we've repented and believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can pray expectantly knowing that our suffering here is, whatever level it takes, is just for a short while, and there is an eternity to be had. in the actual presence of God. God's promise is to draw near to His people. God's promise is to glorify Himself in us, even in the midst of suffering. So are you suffering? It's time to pray. It's time to draw near. It's time to seek to hear from the Lord. You may not hear, here's the way out. You may just hear, I'm going to be right here with you through it. Matter of fact, I think that's what most of us hear during times of struggle and suffering. Prayer is needed and helpful for the sufferer. The text goes on to talk to us about what I would say is rightly called the prayer of praise in the second part of verse 13. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Okay, you're suffering. It's time to pray. He says, things are going well? You're cheerful? It's time to sing. It's time to sing to the Lord. You say, well, he's talking about singing. He's not talking about praying. What is praying? It's talking to God. When you sing the praises to the Lord, who are you aiming that at? I hope you're aiming it at God. Right? And if we're aiming praise at God, I think that qualifies as prayer. We're crying out. We're confessing things through song that are true about God. We're thanking God for the realities of what He has done and who He is. When you feel good, things seem like they're going well, the right response is to praise God. Even to cry out in song. So, when we're suffering, we're supposed to pray. Yeah? When we're cheerful, we're supposed to pray and praise? Yes. I would say, my experience would tell me that this is where most of us struggle. Most of us don't have a problem making time to pray when stuff's hard. Matter of fact, we pray. We pray going down the road. We pray when we're laying in bed at night and can't sleep. We pray when we get up in the morning. We're praying all through the day because it's on our mind, it's on our heart, it's weighing us down. But when things are good, sometimes it's hard to pray. Sometimes it is, because we kind of start thinking, well, it's all right, and things are good, I don't really need to bother God right now, do I? I mean, things are all right, I don't want to mess this up. James tells us that the right response is for us to consistently walk in thanksgiving. We're supposed to be thankful in all things, even when it's not good, but I imagine we ought to be really thankful when things are good. He says, are you cheerful? Sing psalms. Sing unto the Lord. The reason I sing on the front row is so nobody has to hear me. But, singing, it's amazing how singing will perpetuate the flavor of praise, the flavor of thanksgiving in your life. You know how I know that I'm kind of drifting in the right direction, I'm headed in the right direction in my walk with the Lord in the moments when I'm kind of walking around through life and I catch myself singing a song we sang in church or some song that I knew, just not even thinking about it, just kind of coming out. For me, that's just my life, I don't want to speak for you, but that's a place where I know, well, you know what, I might be walking with the Lord pretty good this week, this day. when it's time to pray. It's time to pray when we're suffering, but it's also time to pray, to cry out in worship, to pray a prayer of thanksgiving when things are going well, when we're cheerful. Sing Psalms. The next section, the next verse there, really in verses 14 and 15, the Bible talks about a different kind of prayer. It talks about the pastors praying for the sick. Look what the text says, is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sin, he'll be forgiven. Sickness is a time for prayer to be certain. You can say, well, doesn't that go along with suffering? Yes, it can, but I think if you look at this in this text, it's almost like, well, this has arrived at a point where it's time to get some help in prayer. It's always a good time to get some help in prayer, but this person seems to be pretty sick. And they speak of a time when a person who is sick calls in the leaders of the church to pray. That's a good thing. It's a good thing to do. I get text messages all the time. Hey, can you pray for this? Can you pray for that? Yeah? I'm sure many of you get the same thing. But there is a time when things are getting serious and somebody feels led of the Lord to ask me or me and the deacons of the church or whoever it may be to come and really just pray for them, pray over them. That's a good practice. Talks about anointing with oil. You say, well, nobody's ever anointed me with oil. That's okay. You can. I think here, there's two opinions about what's being talked about here with anointing with oil. There's the idea of a ceremonial anointing when you're praying for someone, because oil typically is a representation of the presence of the Spirit of God. That's how it's pictured off throughout the Bible. And then there's others that think, when this is spoken about here with the oil being applied, that in fact it's being applied medicinally. If someone has a certain kind of problem, they didn't have a ton of options as far as medicine went back then, and so they might actually take some really good olive oil, oil of this kind or ointment of that kind, and actually put it on a wound. Use it in some way, shape, form, or fashion. Whatever the case may be, the idea is this, is that someone has a need and the leadership of the church is called and asked to come and to provide comfort and prayer and strengthening. It's a good thing for the pastor to pray for those who are sick. I'm always willing to do that. There's an interesting piece of this that people get a little confused over, I think. There at the end of verse 15, and it talks about this idea that, really the whole verse 15, the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. If he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven. I like how one commentator put this. I think it was probably John MacArthur. He said this, those who call for the elders, implies, that phrase implies, that they had a contrite, repentant heart. And that part of the time that they would spend together, that person would have been praying, as we all should, when we pray prayers of repentance toward God. Not towards the elders who are there, the pastors who are there, but toward God. You see, when we pray, for the sick, the sick who know Jesus in particular, we do so trusting that either God is going to heal them physically or God is going to heal them ultimately, completely, right? And you say, well, what does that mean? Well, look, I know a lot of people that are faithful, faithful Christians have been sick for a long, long time. And you say, well, why hasn't God healed them? And I can say, well, he's going to. He's going to. I think the language here is even pretty clear toward that. It says, the Lord will raise him up. Is it raise him up from the sickbed? Yes, could be, but it might be raise him all the way up. I want to pray for the sick and I want to see them raised up from their sickbed, but you know what I rejoice to see more is when the believer who has lived the life of faith has been faithful even through some sort of sickness or illness or whatever might have come for them, then they are ultimately in hope, raised up to the presence of God through a glorious death in Christ. Where we can stand at a celebration, memorial service, and we can rightly say, death has no sting. Sickness has not won any victory here. It's been swallowed up by the power and the glory of God. When we pray for the sick who are in Christ, we understand that they are either going to be healed in their body, or they are going to be fully healed based on their faith in Christ. That's that idea. The prayer of faith will save the sick. That's the only thing that will save us. You know that? The prayer of faith. Faith in what? The Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Do I think that we can pray for people who are sick and they can be healed. Of course I believe that. Do I think that people ought to go around sucker-punching sick people and saying they're healing them? No, I do not. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll send you some YouTube links. I'll mention this once in a while, but I'm going to mention it again for those of you who may not have heard me say this. If you want to get mad good and mad this afternoon, Go home and Google the Holy Ghost hokey pokey. And I'm just telling you, you're going to get righteously mad where people are getting healed by doing the hokey pokey. I'm not kidding. And you say, why are you telling us that? I'm telling you because under the cover of some verses like this, misapplied, people get some really strange ideas. And we've got to be careful that we understand that healing is in the hand of God. Right? We can pray and we should pray and God can and does heal people. But He does it according to His own will and in His own time. We should understand and trust that God has it in hand and He's going to take care of His children one way or another. In verse 16, the first part really, in this first part of verse 16, it tells us to do this related to prayer. It says, confess your trespasses to one another. and pray for one another that you may be healed." Oh, to have friends and fellow Christians who pray for you. Not just the pastors, right? Well, the pastors showed up and prayed, yeah. But now it says, hey, you need to be praying for one another. You need to be dealing with one another. There's even a little bit of accountability here in this text. Oh, goodness. You mean that we ought to have enough community? That we ought to have enough knowledge and love and care toward one another that when I'm messing up, Brother John or Brother McElroy might come to me? and confront me a little bit, challenge me, that I might be able to trust someone enough, you might be able to trust someone enough that when you know you have sinned and you need some support, you don't need somebody running their mouth, that you can go to them and say, I'm struggling right here, I've repented toward God and I'm working on this, but would you please pray for me and help me? Would you answer the phone when I call because I'm struggling? That's the picture here. This isn't some picture of some sort of formalized confession. No, this is a picture of Christian community. That we know one another well enough, that we have enough involvement in one another's lives, that we can come together and hold each other accountable and to pray for each other. I challenge you, when somebody asks you to pray for them, and you want to pray for them, just take a minute right then and pray for them so you don't forget. Just pray for them. Maybe that's the simplest way for all of us to work on our prayer life in the new year. When you're talking to somebody and they say, boy, I sure got this going on in your life, maybe they're not really a religious person. Maybe they're somebody you know and you say, hey, would it be alright, would you care if I prayed for you just right now real quick? Who knows what kind of doors that would open. When we come together underneath the banner of Christ, this is what good, solid, supportive Christian communities should look like. Praying for one another. You see, it's a good thing to be on the prayer list at 20 churches. Nothing wrong with that. I think it's a good thing. I want all of God's people, if I've got something going on, get some people to pray for me. But what's better, to have the stranger reading a name off of a list, or having a brother or sister in Christ who's walking with you, who knows you, who knows your struggle, who sees you walking through this situation, maybe knows a little better how to pray for you? Who would you rather have praying for you? I say I'd want the one that has a little more knowledge, right? Because they might pray a little more pointed prayers. You say, well God can do what He wants to do and He will. Sure He will. But I'm just saying, when we know one another's needs better, we can pray more specifically. And the beautiful thing about specific prayers is they get specific answers and we can give some specific glory to God. Powerful prayers for one another are often rooted in deep relationship. So maybe one of the ways to improve our prayer life this year is to deepen our relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ. Think about that. In the second part of that verse 16, I would point you to this truth. How about this? Some preconditions of powerful prayer. There's three Ps. I couldn't come up with a fourth one. Preconditions of powerful prayer. Look at what it says. It says, "...the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, Some of your translations will word that a little differently. But it seems to me, however your translation renders it, that there are some things that if they're in place in our prayer lives, that our prayers have got a little more power to them. First of all, it says the affective. Some of yours will say affectual or maybe even energetic. The affective or the affectual or the energetic The prayer of a righteous man, fervent prayer of a righteous man, avails much. It speaks about having prayer with energy. Right? Not just there in our prayer closet. Look, and I think some prayer, any kind of prayer is better than no prayer. But I'm just sitting there saying, uh, hey God, would you take care of this for me? Right? Kind of ho-hum. Or am I giving my energy to it? You know the difference if you've spent any time praying. You know the difference between kind of going through the motions. And again, sometimes we just got to go through the motions because that's all the strength we got. I've been there. I'm there a lot. And I'm sure you are too. But there are times when we tune in to God and we pray with energy and strength to the point when we stop praying, we're about half way out. That's what it's pictured there. Energetic praying. Prayer that costs us something in strength and in energy. So he's speaking here of this effective or effectual prayer with energy, and I think that rightly can be said to energy that flows from the trust that we have in God that He would answer our prayers. We can pray weak prayers and God can do with them what He will, but prayers full of energy and trust are in view right here in this text. Some would say that the next word there is kind of the same kind of word. My translation renders it fervent. So we go from effective or energetic to fervent. You say, well, isn't that kind of the same thing? Yes and no, it's a little bit, but one has that picture of energy, one has that picture of really strength and perseverance, right? Not only am I praying with energy, but I'm praying, and I'm gonna keep on praying. I'm going to pray until God tells me to quit. Maybe in this specific set of time, I may pray long. Or maybe it's something that I've got to keep praying about over and over and over and over again. That's fervent prayer. That I'm not just giving up on it. I prayed about it once, God didn't do anything, and so I'm just going to be done with it. No. He's talking about praying in a steadfast way. Fervent prayer. Passionate, fervent prayer. Those are two aspects of prayer that seems to be pictured here by the book of James as prayer that has some power to it, has some oomph to it. But I think the third precondition of powerful prayer is the most important one. We have effective or effectual, we have fervent prayer, but it is the prayer of a righteous man or a righteous woman, a righteous person. I think that's the most important precondition of powerful prayer, is that someone is righteous. You say, well, what in the world does that mean? Does that mean I'm perfect? No, it doesn't mean you're perfect, but it means that you're trusting in the One who is perfect. It means you're seeking to live in obedience. It means you're not living in willful, open sin. That you're doing business with God about your own sin. Think about this. Who would you rather have praying for you? The backslidden person who claims to be a Christian who hadn't read their Bible or prayed on their own in six months? Or the faithful saint that gives themselves to the Word of God and prayer of God every single day? I know who I'd rather have praying if I had something important going on in my life. Does it mean that those other person's prayers are meaningless? Absolutely not. But it means, guess what? I just happen to think that if God is looking to answer some prayers, maybe He's looking around and the ones closer to Him get heard a little easier. Just like if I'm standing closer to you, my voice probably gets heard a little easier. You say, well, He's God. I know, it's an illustration. Just walk with me a minute. Friends, the righteous person's prayers are more powerful because they're walking with God. They're spending time in intimate relationship with God. So here's the big improvement for all of us, right? Three simple tips to improve your prayer life. Here's one. Live a more holy life and it'll improve your prayer life. You say, well, that's easy to say, hard to do. I know that. I know half the time when I decide out, when I feel like I don't want to pray, it's because I know I haven't been living the way I ought to live. And if I go to pray, then I'm going to have to deal with that before I can get to some other things. God's going to get after me because He's God and He cares about me enough to bring those things up to my attention. Why do you avoid the prayer closet? Is it because you know you've got some things to deal with before God? I would say most of us are that way from time to time. If you want to have more power in your prayer life in 2026, pretty simple. Live more faithful. Live more holy. Walk with God more. Depend on God more. You say, is this just one of those, you know, tune yourself up and make yourself do it? No. The key, the key to a holy life is not that I've got to check all these boxes. The key to a holy life is to start out understanding that I can't do it and look to Jesus who can. That's it. You say, what does it mean to live a holy life? It means depend on God in every single aspect of your life. More and more and more. Those walking closer to God have more intimacy. They have more closeness and they have more power in prayer. Not only if you need somebody to pray for you, who would you want to ask? The one walking close with God or the one not walking close with God? But how about this? Wouldn't you like to be the kind of person that people can see in your life that you're seeking to live the best you can to the glory of God, and so they want to come and ask you to pray for them? Boy, what a privilege that is. When people look to you as someone, that's somebody I really wish would pray for me in this time in my life. I want to be one of those kind of people that people desire to pray for them, not because I hold a position or office of pastor, but because my life reflects a relationship with Jesus Christ. Finally, we'll finish up the day with the potential for prayer. You say, you keep talking about this powerful prayer. What in the world do you mean? Well, we're given just such an example. How powerful can the prayers of the people of God be in the hand of a mighty God? Well, let's just see about Elijah. What's the potential for prayer? Well, the end of verse 16 says, much. The prayers of a righteous man availeth much. What's much mean? That means a whole lot. What's the potential of powerful prayer devoted to God? There's a lot of potential there. How much so? Well, let's just see about Elijah. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, prayed earnestly that it would not rain, did not rain on the land for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. God used the prayers of Elijah to bring judgment through famine, and then God used the prayers of Elijah to bring relief. through rain and fruit growing. He brought about both ends. Why did Elijah pray that way? He prayed that way because God led him to pray that way. Hey, can I tell you something about Elijah? Elijah wasn't perfect. He wasn't. Elijah, matter of fact, Elijah had one of the greatest victories we see in the Old Testament. He's victorious over all of the prophets of Baal. He's up on the mountaintop making fun of Baal. I mean, you think sarcasm isn't in the Bible. You need to go read about him, about Elijah dealing with the prophets of Baal. They're over there hollering and bouncing around and cutting themselves and saying, oh, they're crying out to the Baals. And Elijah's sitting over there going, hey, maybe he's on a trip. Maybe he's in the bathroom and he can't hear you. That's how Elijah's dealing with them. Anyways, that's an aside. I just appreciate that about Elijah. But after that, after the great victory over all the prophets of Baal, one sorry woman gets after Elijah, and he's scared to death, and he's over there despairing of his life on the riverbank. God, I wish you'd kill me. There's nobody left. It's just me, God. Just me and you. I'm the only faithful person left. Elijah was prone to despair in that time of his life, that moment of his life. And yet, here we have the example of the power of the prayer he has. I'm just here to tell you, just because you've been weak at one point, doesn't mean that God can't use you for mighty and powerful things through your prayers at other times. You hadn't set yourself outside of usefulness for God. I don't care what you've done. You think your prayers have this kind of potential? When you go to pray, when I go to pray, is this kind of thought in our mind? You say, well, I mean, God's not got me controlling the weather. Okay. I hear what you're saying. I'm not talking about fanciful foolishness, alright? That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, do you understand who you're getting in touch with? When we pray, do we understand who we're getting in touch with? What we should really understand is that God is pleased to use the prayers of His people to do great and mighty things. That's the testimony of the Scriptures from front to back. That God is pleased to use the prayers of His people for mighty things. So when you go to pray, Take a moment to understand that you are entering into conversation with the God of the universe who can do as He pleases, and He just might use your prayers to be a catalyst for something. It may be small in the eyes of some, but it may be great in the life of someone around you. Maybe you pray and you have no idea. Maybe you're praying for the salvation of a relative, a friend, a co-worker. And God uses that and His will as the catalyst to bring something about. You say, did you pray and if you hadn't have prayed, God wouldn't have saved him? No, I don't think that. I think God does what He wants to do. But God does use the prayers of His people. as a catalyst. And so that happens, and that domino falls, and you just praise God, because that person you love has come to know Christ, and you may know that that domino falls, and that domino falls, and next thing you know, there may be a thousand people come to Christ down the way that you never have any idea about, and you say, well, I prayed so hard for so long, and that person got saved, and I'm so excited about it. And you praise God for it, and you should, but you don't even know what God has unleashed through the powers of your prayer. I don't think we'll ever understand the impact that our prayers have had this side of glory. I'm not sure we'll understand it on the other side of glory. I don't think necessarily we're going to get a zap into our mind, whatever that means when we're up in heaven, and we're all of a sudden going to know everything that we ever knew, everything we ever touched and how it impacted. I think we're going to be so stirred up with worshiping God that we're not going to care that much. I'm just kind of halfway believe that, but maybe we will. But I'm here to tell you today that your prayers have the potential for great power. And the only thing that we can do, we leave that with God. We cast our cares, we cast our bread upon the water, and we pray fervently, and we pray energetically. The thing that we have some level of control over in this life is that we live righteously so that when we go to pray, I don't have to spend 30 minutes cleaning up everything I've done between now and last time because God's convicting me. No, I can go right into, God, could you do this? God, could you help these folks? God, God, could you save this person? Would you work on their heart? You know what kind of prayer I like to pray for lost people? I pray they won't sleep a wink. I really do. I pray they won't sleep a wink until they deal with God. Maybe God will use that. All I'm telling you today is that I look at my life and the conversations I have with other people, and I hear that everybody says, golly, I just got to get a handle on my prayer life, because it's so easy to set aside. And I'm here to tell you, your prayers have more potential than you have ever understood, because you're getting in touch with the God of the universe. And it is a privilege that has been purchased for you by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. As I close today, I just want to tell you this. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus, I'm here to tell you to start with, there's only one prayer that God will hear from you. And it is the prayer of salvation. Crying out to God in repentance and faith. You see, the privilege of prayer only comes on the backside of salvation because only then do we have a mediator, Jesus Christ. Only then do we belong to Him. Only then has the blood of Christ washed over us and allowed us into the throne room of heaven, as Hebrews says. Boldly approach the throne. But I beg of you today, what a way to start out the new year crying out to God, repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus and His life and His death and His resurrection. Look to Jesus today. Repent and believe on Him. I beg of you today. And Christian, As you think about what's going behind and what comes up next, I want you to meditate long. on the potential power of your prayers and just how God might choose to use your prayer life in 2026. Maybe it's for the loved one that's lost. Maybe it's for some great and grand situation, and you're just piling prayers on top of prayers of other believers, and God's gonna use that. Whatever the case may be, your prayer has great potential, it has great power, and it is greatly necessary in the day in which we live. Let us be a praying people in 2026. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. I thank you so very much. I thank you for the privilege of prayer. I thank You for the shed blood of Jesus that makes it possible that we can come and boldly approach You and lay out our needs, lay out those things that we believe You would have us to pray for. God, I pray for each one here, God, that You would convict each one of us in the areas of our life that are preventing our prayer life from going deeper with You, having a more intimate relationship with You. I pray, God, that You would strengthen us to help us depend on you more. So we might walk closer with you more consistently, more faithfully day by day. Not trusting in our own works, but trusting in your finished work. I pray, God, for the loved ones, the friends, even those here in this room today that might not know Christ, I pray, God, that You would draw their hearts towards that one true crying prayer of salvation. Not that they shed tears necessarily, but that their heart cries out to You in repentance and faith. Lord, I pray for the believer here who needs strengthening. I pray that You would bring it to the minds and hearts of others around them, other believers around them. that we might be a praying people for one another, for our community, for the lost, for our nation, for the world. Lord, I pray that you would use West Park Baptist Church and the prayers of her people to impact your kingdom in the coming year. I pray it in Christ's name. Amen and amen. Please stand as