Sunday 29th September 2024
You are welcome to worship in person this Sunday at 10.15am.
Hand sanitizer and masks are available if you would like to use them.
We are also live streaming of our services. The service can be seen each Sunday morning commencing at 10.15am. Here is the link to our YouTube channel to access the live streaming:
‘The Importance of Prayer’ James 5:13-20
Over the past four Sundays in September, IL-Woong has conducted a series of messages up to and including Chapter 4 in the Book of James. Today I will conclude the series by speaking on Chapter 5. My message is entitled ‘The importance of Prayer’ and this falls on the nineteenth Sunday in the Season of Pentecost.
Firstly, we will look at the importance of prayer and why we pray. I would strongly suggest that it is primarily to build a sound relationship with God. During His time on earth, Jesus was totally reliant on His numerous prayer times with God. I would suggest that our need might well be much greater, due to a multitude of distractions today, which seek to draw us away from God.
Secondly, we will look at faith and discover that, as followers of Jesus, we have all been given a measure of faith, indeed it is the same faith that God used to raise Jesus from the dead. We will see what the Book of Hebrews has to say about faith in Hebrews 1:1 and Hebrews 12:2.
From our reading we will discover that all of us will experience suffering and likely persecution for our faith. Next, we discover that the onus is on the person wanting prayer to request the leaders to pray over them. This is an acknowledgment that the person belongs to a community, the Body of Christ, and the person doesn’t need to rely solely upon their own faith. We need to remember, prayer should be our first choice not our last resort.
We have experienced miraculous answers to prayer by God for some and for others healing didn’t occur. It is beyond our human understanding to explain why God doesn’t choose to heal everyone, who was prayed over, but neither did Jesus choose to heal everyone, who was sick during His earthly ministry either. We should never use this as an excuse to forego prayer for others, particularly if a formal request is made to the leaders. Thankfully we still have a very active prayer ministry at LPUC.
May God’s richest Blessing be with you all, Keith
Our Mission is to
Connect with people in Jesus;
Build each other up in faith; and to
Become Like Jesus.