This morning, if you have God's Word, I want you to be finding the book of James again. Last week we started a, I'll call it a series, what it really amounts to is preachers long winded and can't get it done in one service. We started a series on prayer. And we started talking a lot about the kind of prayers that bring healing, the healing power of prayer. And as I listened to Brother Paul this morning, and he stood up here, and we just talked in passing very briefly about all the prayer concerns. And that was just a very, very brief snapshot of a handful of prayers that I know about. if there ever, ever, ever was a time to understand prayer. If there ever was a time to truly understand what brings healing when we talk about prayer is now. If you remember, last week we started talking about prayer. Started talking about the healing power of prayer and we talked specifically about the confession that precedes it. Y'all remember that? We talked about it. We talked about how a lot of times we'll pray, and we'll spend time in prayer, but our prayers amount to nothing because the Lord don't hear them. And the reason he's not hearing them is because we don't have our life right with the Lord. Well, this morning, we're gonna continue talking about the healing power of prayer, but I'm going to change the focus a little bit. I'm going to change it a little bit, and last week we talked about the confession that should be there. Before you really start lifting up prayer, you ought to have your life right with the Lord, but then there's something else that I want to talk about this morning, and when we talk about the healing power of prayer, there's an intercession that provides it. Take a look at James chapter five, James chapter five, and let's read verse 16. We'll read the first part of it, and then I'm gonna stop for a moment, and then we'll finish it up here. James chapter five and verse 16, here's what the word of God has to say. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray. for one another, so that you may be healed. How many people in here today have somebody they need to be praying for because they need healing? I'd say everybody in this room knows somebody. Everybody in this room knows somebody. Last week when I talked about confession before prayer, I was talking about the confession of fault. It's not a call to criticism. It's a call to prayer, and I want you to understand something. God wants us to pray. God encourages us to pray, but many people have a wrong idea about prayer. First, we need to straighten that out this morning. Many people have a wrong idea about prayer. They believe that prayer is something you do in preparation for some kind of service to God. People believe, well, first I need to go and I need to pray to get right before I decide to serve the Lord. Or you pray in order to prepare for a ministry you're about to carry out for God. But I want you to listen to me now. Prayer is not preparation for service. Listen to this. Prayer is service. And you need to understand that it's not something you bolt on before you serve God. Prayer is serving God. Prayer is not getting ready for ministry. Prayer is ministry in and of itself. If you can pray, you can minister. It's the most valuable service you can render. Now, you say, well, preacher, hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. You trying to tell me that I'm not supposed to pray before I get ready to serve the Lord? I'm not saying that. You know, you may do more than pray. You may do more than pray. You may pray and then you may do something for the Lord after you pray. But you need to understand something. You can't do more than pray until you've prayed. You need to understand that. You can't do more than pray until you've prayed. You know what? I'm going to tell you something this morning. The sick need more than your pity. They need your prayers. There are those who are sinful, there are those who are hurting, and they need more than your compassion. They need your prayer. And the Bible teaches very clearly, it teaches very plainly, that we're supposed to pray for one another. We're supposed to, here's the big word, we're supposed to intercede for one another. Any of y'all ever heard of intercessory prayer? Y'all ever heard that term before, intercessory prayer? We're supposed to intercede. Continue looking with me at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16. I want you to look at this prayer of intercession. What kind of prayer is it supposed to be? Listen to it. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so you may be healed." Now listen to it. Here it is. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. The urgent request of a righteous person. You know, if you actually read that in the Greek, If you actually read that, the Greek literally states the outstretched prayer of a righteous person. That's what it really says in the Greek, the outstretched prayer. Now, when I say that, a lot of people say, okay, well, that means that when I get ready to pray, I'm supposed to get on my knees and I'm supposed to lay prostrate on the floor and I'm supposed to pray that way. All it means is a whole lot more than that. It means a whole lot more than that. The idea of outstretched, when it says the stretched out prayer of a righteous person, the stretched out prayer, stretched out is the idea of a horse running at full gallop. Y'all ever seen a horse run at full gallop? What happens when a horse runs at full gallop? If you ever see Some of you may have seen it on TV. Some of you may have been on the back of a horse running at full gallop. I've been there and been thrown to the side of a barn. But when you see a horse running at full gallop, when he's at full stride, all of his feet are off the ground. When he's at full gallop, his front feet are stretched out in front of him. His back feet are stretched out behind him and that horse is stretched out. Do you know why he's stretched out that way? So that when his feet hit the ground in front of him, he has more power to pull himself forward and when his back feet hit behind him, they can dig in and propel him. He's trying to go faster. He's trying to generate more power. what it means when it talks about the stretched-out prayer. When it talks about the stretched-out prayer, how many of y'all have seen an athlete run in the Olympics? Or just maybe they're running in the college competition. Y'all ever seen marathon runners or people running track? And you see them take off around the track and you know the athletes are so good. You're talking sometimes a hundredth of a second separates the winner from second place. And they come around the track and they're giving it all they got. And as they're coming into the finish line there's that ribbon. And they're trying to hit the ribbon first. They're trying to make contact with it first so that they'll be declared the winner. And you'll see them. And they'll be coming in side by side. And you'll see one athlete running and he will start leaning forward. And he will stretch as far as he can forward without falling so that he can hit that ribbon first. He's trying to propel himself just a little bit more. When James is talking about the stretched out prayer, he's not talking about stretching out on your bed and praying. That's not what he's talking about. When he's talking about prayer, he's talking about praying with intensity. He's talking about praying with urgency. He's talking about praying with ferocity, praying like an athlete with every nerve, every ounce, every inch, every fiber, you're stretching out to lay hold of the presence of God that he would hear your request. That's what James is talking about. You ever notice how a lot of times we'll have prayer requests come in to us? A lot of times, one of the things that we do, and we'll say, well, hey, so I need you to pray for me. I need you to pray for me. I've got this situation going on in my life, and if ever I needed prayer, I need it now, and you say, look, I'll pray for you. I'll pray for you right now, and you turn around and say, Lord, pray for them, and then you keep going. Where's the urgency? Where is the fervency? Where are you stretching out to lay hold to the power of God? You know, I believe that one of the problems in our prayer life today is that we're so lackadaisical when it comes to prayer. We, a lot of times we want to pray and we want to tell somebody we prayed so that we can check the box and we can say, well Lord, I lifted them up to you. Check box, we're good. You know what? Somebody just asked me to pray and I got to be the first one to put an icon on a social media page somewhere. They didn't know I'm there. Nothing wrong with them knowing you there. Nothing wrong with them knowing you're there. Nothing wrong with dropping that message out to say, look, I'm praying for you, but I'm gonna tell you what, you may lift up a quick prayer for them, but at night time, when you get home, oh, you need to lay hope to the power of God for them. You need to lay hope. I'm not talking about laying that, you know, we like to do the now I lay me down to sleep type of prayer. Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to keep me up at night before I wake, pray the Lord my soul to take me to bed, good night, check. Y'all know what I'm talking about. We just throw it out there and check a box. But if you will read in the Bible, you will find out that when God's saints prayed, they stretched themselves out before God and they did it to take hold of him. I'll give you a good example. Most of y'all will recognize this one. In Genesis 32, Jacob break and Jacob was trying to get hope to God He's trying to lay hope to me. He's making his way back to Esau And he knows Esau gonna kill him when he get back home Because he's stolen Esau's book right he'd run off and now he's making his way back home. He knows Esau's gonna kill him He knows he's not right with the Lord and and he's praying before he heads back to Esau and he says oh He says, I will not let you go until you bless me. And he wrestles with God all night long. He's in conversation with him all night long. He's pouring his soul out all night long. He's looking for the hand of God all night long. Folks, I'm going to tell you something. When you get down on your hands and your knees in an effort to take hope of God and His promises, when you do that, when you truly get down there and your purpose is to lay hope to God Almighty, when you get down on your hands and knees, all the forces of hell are going to come against you to try to stop you. You can rest assured of it. You can rest assured of it. How many of y'all ever Got down on your hands and knees when you're sleepy. Y'all ever prayed when you're sleepy? Oh, I have. I have. I've gone through a long day, and I know there's people in my heart and my mind. I've been up 24 hours straight, and I know I've got to get them in touch with the Lord. I've got to lift these people up in prayer. The Lord's laid it on me. I know I have to and I get down there and I get ready to pray and my mind's like a squirrel in a cage. And I'm trying to get all my thoughts, they're just vanishing because I'm sleep-deprived and my eyes are getting heavy and I can't hardly stay awake. And I parse away through a prayer and next thing I know I'm waking up. I said, wait a minute, hold on. And I'm trying to lift these folks up and I say, you know what, I got to get down on my knees and it's going to keep me awake. And I'm down there on my knees and my knees are hurting, my body's aching. I mean, all kinds of things will happen if the devil will let loose all the artillery of hell to keep you from being effective in your prayer, to keep you from being fervent, to keep you from being urgent, to keep you from being outstretched. And that's when we have to say like Jacob, Lord, I'm not gonna let you go. If I die on my knees, I'm going to stay right here until I can feel your presence. I'm going to stay right here until I'm in heaven's throne room. When was the last time y'all prayed like that? It's humbling, isn't it? I told y'all, when I sit before the Lord and I pray and I let him pour the word out on me and I come in and I deliver a sermon, It's not that I wrote the sermon for y'all to hear. It's God told me, Jason, this is what you need to hear. I just share it. You know, I put the sermon on paper like this, and the Lord says, hey, when was the last time you was on your knees like that? When was the last time you prayed like that? When was the last time you took a hope to God like that? Where you been, Jason? It applies to everybody in this room. Where we been? How people sick, how people hurting. Where we been? People lost. People dying, falling off in the hell at an exponential rate. Where we been? Where have we been? Where's that outstretched prayer? Folks, I'm going to tell you something. I heard a pastor say this years ago. A very good pastor friend of mine. And I've never forgotten it to this day. He said, Jason, he said, God does business with people who mean business. That's what he told me. He said, God does business with those that mean business. James says, the urgent request, listen to it, of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. I mean the spirit of God is there when you mean business. You want to see him show up? Get down there and mean business. And don't get up until he shows up. But not only is James talking about the intensity of prayer, he also talks about the integrity of the prayer. The urgent request, the effectual, the fervent prayer of what kind of person? the prayers of a righteous man. That is, a man whose heart is clean before God. Remember what we said last week? A lot of people come to the Lord and they're looking for His blessing. They're looking for His blessing, but we don't want to confess our sins and get our life right with God before we come to Him in prayer. I thought about that this week. How many times has somebody asked me to pray for them, I know I need to pray for them, and I go straight into lifting them up in prayer. Lord, here's what I need. And the Lord says, now hold on a minute. Don't me and you have something to talk about first? Aren't there some things that you need to share that I know about? Let's talk about that work behavior today when your temper flared. Before you bring anything to me, how about me and you have this discussion? How about you get right before me and then you talk to me? You ever wonder why, and I mentioned this last week, why a lot of our prayers never have an answer? We forget we're supposed to be right with him before we start interceding. You can't intercede until you've gotten yourself right before the Lord. But when you get yourself right, you can intercede. The Bible says we're to confess our faults to one another, and then we're supposed to pray for one another. Until there's confession, there can be no intercession. It's the urgent, effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man that develops. But Proverbs 15, 29. Here's what it says. Listen to it now. Anybody in here who thinks they can just throw up a prayer and God's gonna hear it, you really need to listen to these next verses I'm gonna hand out. People don't like hearing it. People don't like me to say what I say when I say you know what, until you get right with the Lord. He's not gonna hear you say, preacher, you don't know what you're talking about. Absolutely I do. Let's read some verses here. Proverbs 15 and 29. The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. If there's sin in your life, don't expect God to listen to you, period. How about Psalm 66, 18? Just in case we didn't get it the first time, Lord, go reiterate. If I regard iniquity in my heart, listen to it, the Lord will not hear me. Y'all see that? Jason Barrett ain't said it. Who said it? God said it. Y'all don't come and talk to me about how mad you are about statements I made in the pulpit. I'm just reading to you. Take it to the author. That's what God's Word says. How about Isaiah 59, verses one and two, listen to this. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear. Here we go. But your iniquities have separated They have built barriers. Your iniquities have separated, built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Wonder why our prayers don't get answered so many times? Can you listen? It's not that he's not listening, but until you get right, he's just gonna wait. It's not that God can't hear you, it's just that he don't want to. Now, I don't know about you, but for me, it's important that God hear my prayers. And I'm going to take the time I need for him to hear them. And I'm not just going to check a box. I do that too much. I check too many boxes. And then I say, well, I did what I said I was going to do. It's important that God hear your prayers. Let me ask y'all, y'all ever heard the illustration about how they catch monkeys in the South Sea Islands? I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. It's not just my old age and I'm rambling. Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this. In the South Sea Islands, when they're going to catch a monkey, they'll take a coconut and they'll strip that coconut down. And they'll strip it off that palm tree and they'll take a little old knife or whatever they can get and they'll hollow a hole right in the top of it. And what they'll do when they hollow that hole out in the top of that coconut They'll do it so that it's just the size of a little bitty monkey. He can straighten his hand out. He'll get his fingers as straight as he can. He'll fold his thumb in there. And it's just big enough that he can put his hand down in the hole in that coconut. You say, well, that's Anderson Preacher-wide monkey sticking his hand in the coconut. Well, he does it because the people trying to capture him will put rice in that hole. They'll put rice on the inside of that coconut. And that monkey, wanting the rice, will slip his hand into that coconut. He'll grab him a big ol' fistful of it, and he'll grab it, and he'll have that rice in his hand, and he'll go pull that hand out of that coconut. Well guess what? It won't come out. Why? Remember, the hole's only big enough for his fingers to be straight, but when he balls his hand up, it won't fit back through the hole. And that monkey will grab a fistful of that rice, and he will sit there, and he can't get his hand out of that coconut, and he will stand there all day long. And when the captor comes along, he will simply walk up, and he'll take a cage, and he'll cage that monkey. Now, you may be thinking, well, that makes absolutely no sense. Why in the world won't that monkey let go of that rice? I'm going to tell you something. It don't make a lick of sense, does it? How much sense does it make? He's gonna stand there and he's gonna scream and he's gonna chatter and he's gonna wiggle and he's gonna do all this stuff, but he will not open his hand to let go of that rice. You say, preacher, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. You know what it is, and we do the exact same thing every day. We will beg and we will plead and we will cry and we will whimper and we will ask God to hear our prayer. But we will absolutely refuse to let go of the sin in our life so that he'll hear us. Just like a monkey. Refuse to let it go. The intensity of our prayer, the integrity of our prayer, the effectual, fervent, urgent, Stretched out prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That's the kind of prayer life we ought to have. A red little poem goes like this. In shadows deep where doubts reside, I seek a light a guiding stride. With trembling hands and hearts aflame, I whisper low your sacred name. Not just a plea, a hollow sound, but a soul that's truly on the ground. With open heart and eyes that weep, I venture forth from slumber deep. For in your grace I find my strength, a boundless love of endless length. I rise above with newfound might and bathe my soul in your pure light. No longer bound by fear or pain, I trust your hand in sun or rain, with every breath A prayer takes flight, a burning beacon ever bright. So let my voice, a humble song, ascend to you where I belong. And in this prayer, I find my way to walk with you, come what may. Folks, when was the last time you got down on your hands and knees and prayed with power? There may be those of you here this morning who know somebody who's hurting. They need you to intercede for them. They need you to pray for them. They need you to lift them up in prayer, and they need you to pray with power. There may be others here this morning who are praying but nothing's happening. And they're praying that nothing's happening because they don't have the right life of the Lord, folks. Let me tell you something. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord, Savior, and King, you need to. You need to get down on your hands and knees, and you need to pray with intensity, you need to pray with urgency, you need to pray with fervency, and you need to pray, Lord, forgive me, a sinner. Lord Jesus, I know you're the son of God and I so desperately need you. You need to pray outstretched. Lord Jesus, please have mercy on me. You need to pray with every ounce, every sinew, every fiber in your body. Lord Jesus, please save me. If you don't know him, That needs to be your prayer, and you need to pray for power. Prayer, pray with integrity. Pray with sincerity. Pray with urgency. You do that, and your prayers will be heard. And your prayers will become prayers of power. Bow your head with me. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for another day. I thank you for your love, for your mercy, for your kindness, Lord, and I, Lord, I ask you to forgive us, Lord, where we failed just to get right with you. Before we even enter prayer, Lord, for others, we ought to be getting right with you, and we fail day in and day out to do it. We forget that we're trying to bring people to Jesus. Lord, a lot of times we're trying to bring them. We're trying to bring them, Lord, not just for physical healing but Lord spiritual healing and and we come to them and and we lift these prayers up to you Lord and we're looking for you to be able to lay your healing hands on them Lord and many times they they may be sinners and they may be lost and they need their souls cleansed and we come to you asking for you to cleanse them and it's we're filthy as dirt forgive us for that although I pray that you would Lay it on our hearts that every time we come in prayer, Lord, we get right with you before we ask anything. And Father, I pray that you would lay those on our hearts, Lord, that are sick, those who are hurting, those who are lost. Lord, those who are in need of your healing hand, you would lay them on our hearts, Lord, that we, once we get right with you, Lord, we would get down on our hands and knees. We would stretch out and we would pray in power for you to take hold of them and take hold of us. That Lord, you would draw them close. They would feel your presence and they would be healed in the ways that you know they need to be healed and you'd be glorified. that we would pray with power. But Lord, that we would pray with power, knowing you're the only one who can give us the power to pray the way we need to, to bring you glory. I pray if there's somebody here that know Jesus as Lord saving king this morning, Lord, I pray with all my heart, Lord, they would come to know him. They would ask to be forgiven. They would ask Lord to be saved. Father, I pray if there's people here that know Jesus, but Lord, maybe they've just walked away. They've just strayed. Lord, I pray you would light them up today. You would bring them home to you. Lord, that you would strike a revival in their soul. That they would catch fire for you again. That they would give you glory. Whatever decision needs to be made this morning, Lord, I pray you would touch hearts and lives. I pray people would make them. For I ask it in Jesus name. Amen.