We'll be in 1 John 5 today, and we'll be looking specifically at verse 16, but I want to kind of come at it with the verses preceding that, really starting in verse 14 and leading up to 16. The reason for choosing this passage is it's about prayer, and it's dealing with confident prayer and you know, effectual prayer. And I think anytime, at least speaking for myself here, anytime we're dealing with prayer in general, just period, we want effectual prayer, we want to be on track, we want to be praying for the kinds of things that God will give and not asking for all kinds of things that He won't. And I think that's probably fairly safe to assume that's universal sentiment amongst God's people. And this does speak to that. It also does speak, I believe, to the issue of the unforgivable sin. And so I kind of have to touch on that, although I won't spend much time on there. That's a long subject and a large one, and that could get us clear a field of the purpose, at least that I have this morning. would require a whole lot more time than we have really to give to that. But I'll just briefly touch on that. Starting in verse 14, this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. So just to stop there, before we get to verse 16, you can see the emphasis there on confidence in prayer, asking according to His will. And then if we do that, we know that He hears us. And then verse 15, if He hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have the request that we've asked from Him. So that's effectual prayer. I'm asking in confidence and I am getting yes answers. God is answering my prayers, and it's all based on asking according to His will. And I believe that that means there's a twofold aspect of that. One is that we are looking in the scriptures themselves to see what is the will of God, to know what kinds of things could we pray for, rather than just sort of tacking on the end of our prayers, if it be according to your will, O Lord. You know, there's sometimes when we just don't know whether it's the will of God or not, because Scripture doesn't give us a lot of clarity for sure on that. We might pray in that way because we're uncertain, but that's not what this is talking about. This is talking about certainty and confidence and getting what we ask and not an uncertainty whereby we say, Lord, this is what I really want, but I'm not sure if that's your will. Whatever will be done, I'll be resigned to that. But there's also this realm of when we're talking about asking according to God's will, not just specific prayer requests like, pray that the Lord send more labors into the harvest. We know that is his will because he told us to pray for those things. We know that the Lord's prayer, as we call it, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and so on. We know that those are according to the will of God, that we can pray those with full confidence because he put those in our mouth to pray. And so there should be no doubt whatsoever on praying requests like that and any other thing we find in the Bible like that. But then there's these things that have to do with the character of God. And so knowing who God is and knowing his character, that we have a confidence in asking for certain things that aren't explicitly spelled out for us, like the Lord's Prayer is, but which we are so confident because we know who God is and we know what he delights to do. And that there is a number of requests that we can ask within that realm. But in then verse 16, we have following right on the heels of that, a very specific request given to us, which would then be something that we would know confidently. This is the will of God that we pray for this. And I, I, uh, those things really get my attention because I don't want to be sort of wasting my time in prayer. Um, When I say wasting time, I just mean I don't want to be spending the time in prayer asking for the wrong things, asking for something that God has no intention of giving. I would rather spend that time focusing on things that He has revealed that are His will and that are according to His own desires. So verse 16, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin, not leading to death, I think that's the unforgivable sin. He shall ask God, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin, not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make requests for this. So let me just deal briefly with the unforgivable sin and then get really at the heart of what I'm wanting to focus on here. Just very, very briefly, very simply, the things that I think we can take away from here is that there is an unforgivable sin. We all know that. And John expects us to know what it is because he says here, I don't say that he should make requests for this. Well, if I don't know what the unforgivable sin is, how am I supposed to avoid praying about that? if I don't even know what it is. The passage would be nonsensical here if we didn't know what the unforgivable sin was. Jesus in the Gospels calls it the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which in the context was Pharisees attributing to Christ's work, which he said was done in the power of the Holy Spirit. He was casting out demons by the Spirit of God. And then they said he did it by the devil, an evil spirit. And so they're blaspheming the Holy Spirit by which he cast out the demons, and they're attributing that to the work of the evil spirit, the devil. In Hebrews, there seems to be an unforgivable sin spoken of there, which is the sin of apostasy, which would mean then that at its core, apostasy is very similar to what, if not identical to what was happening there in the Gospels with the Pharisees blaspheming the Holy Spirit, that they are in a sense one and the same, although they look differently. But so then as we come back to this, we say, okay, verse 16, I shouldn't be praying concerning someone who has blasphemed the Holy Spirit. There is simply no point in it. God has already declared he will not forgive it. And for me to try to get God to change his mind on that, is a waste of time. He is very clear on it. He's firm on that point. He's not going to forgive it. So I shouldn't waste my time there. But now let's look positively at what the verse does encourage us to pray for. Any brother, meaning at this point we are giving a judgment of charity that this is a person who is a Christian, any brother Committing a sin, you know, Christians do sin. I sin. Every day, I fall short of the glory of God. I wish it wasn't so, but it is. If any brother you see committing a sin not leading to death, it's not this sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which would then cause us to conclude, well, this is not really a brother, actually. After all, it's a false brother, false brethren. If you see someone who is a brother, he's a Christian, and he's committing a sin, but it's not the unforgivable one, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. So there is a promise that God will answer that kind of prayer. We see another Christian and we see them caught in a sin. We see them committing a sin. But we know that it is not the unforgivable sin, which is a wide latitude then of other possibilities. And they are committing a sin, not leading to death. He shall ask, he shall pray for that brother or sister, and God will for him give life to that person. Now, what does it mean to give life to him? Well, if he's already a brother, it doesn't mean the life of regeneration of being saved. We're not talking about praying for a non-Christian here or an unbeliever. It's a brother. He's a brother committing a sin. So this is a prayer for fellow Christians, a prayer for each other. We have a time of silent prayer on our Wednesday night prayer meetings. And I read this verse. And I encourage us to pray for one another silently with respect to each other's sins that we see. Anytime you spend time around people, if you spend very much time at all, eventually you're going to see their sins. They may not see them, but you do. You know where they stumble. You know what their weaknesses are. And you can see those things that do is to encourage the body of Christ to be praying for each other, for our fellow brothers and sisters, and those sins that we see our brothers and sisters committing, pray that God give them life. And since they're already Christians, it must not be talking about the life of regeneration, where a soul passes from being dead in sin to alive in Christ Jesus. It must mean sanctifying life. which must mean a victory over that sin. And so to encourage us here on the prayer call, just as we do in our own church, to be praying for each other with respect to that. Now, I know that on the prayer call here, we have an hour on Zoom and we're not, most of us are not in each other's homes, and we're not going to the same churches for the most part. And so we're not a fly on the wall, so to speak, and see what's going on in the lives and so forth. So there may not be things that are as apparent to us with respect to each other, but you can also apply this generally to each other. We just know that we all sin and that we all have issues that we need to repent of and things that we need to overcome. And then there's people in our church fellowships, perhaps other believing family members, friends, and so forth. This is an encouragement based on a promise that God will give life. When you pray for that fellow brother or sister that you see caught in a sin, pray. with confidence, not that you have to drum up, but it's based on God's promise there, verses 14 through 15. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we've asked from Him. So if you think about this, if we were doing this and our churches were doing this, how different might our churches look? are praying for revival, partly because we see the church in a very weak state. And part of that, of course, is probably a lot of false conversions in churches and, you know, unbelievers that simply don't have the life of Christ in them, that they're professing to be, and they're in the church, and so that has a drag down effect. But just also, there's a sluggishness amongst Christians in general, and a weakness, and a a sense of, you know, lukewarmness. And so I bring this up today to, you know, to bolster our faith and bolster our confidence as we pray for the church. We pray for each other. We pray for those around us who we believe to be born again Christians, but struggling and pray that God will give them life. And the promise is, is that he will, he will. give life to those who commit sin, not leading to death.