While watching the sermon embedded below (bottom of the post), my spirit was quickened with an urging to share this to a broader audience. (I’ve shared Pastor Rex’s sermons in the past and I continue to glean from them.) The sermon is based on the verses from the book of James chapter 5, vs 13-16, but I felt it important to include a few more (beginning in v. 7). In this sermon he explains the importance of being intercessory in your walk with the Lord, as well as what can be blocking you from receiving from God.
I pray you receive from this teaching, whether you are 18 or 80:
“7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
At the end, Pastor Rex gave a verse for the next weeks sermon for them to chew on and honestly, I’m going to give it to you as well, and ask you to be truthful with yourself, so you can be honest with a God whom is all-knowing:
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me…” (Psalm 66:18)