Prayer Of The Righteous

Righteous person here means:

B. A Renewed Person…

i. Again, until we approach Jesus and ask for our sins to be forgiven…until we repent of our past sins, than our prayers will not be effective or powerful. And if you’re here today and you have never asked God for forgiveness, it really isn’t as difficult as your thinking it is…here’s why:

Have you ever told a lie? No matter how big or how small it was that was a sin…

Have you ever taken something that didn’t belong to you? Than that was a sin…no matter how big or how small.

Have you ever looked at someone judgmentally? That was a sin…

Have you ever had a bad attitude towards another person? That was a sin…

And don’t feel bad, because we have all done everything I just talk about…and the greatest news I could ever tell you is that all you have to do to become a renewed person…to have a new life…to be forgiven of any of that stuff, is to ask for forgiveness, and to begin to seek a relationship with God. Which then takes us to the next thing that a righteous person is…

Righteous person here means:

C. An obedient Person…

i. They serve God with all their heart, they look for opportunities to tell others about His love…and their life style lines up with God’s Word.

Examples of righteous men from the Bible include Abel, Noah, Abraham…

And this all makes sense because:

ii. An unrighteous person does not pray because they have no reason to pray!

Another characteristic of a righteous person is they

D. Are a loving Person

i. The righteous person loves all, not because they are righteous but rather because they have God’s love shinning through them! You hear this every week and I am not going to stop…ever…

Love God, and Love Others! Love is the tool God has equipped us with to reach others…

So if these are the characteristics of a righteous person…than how should someone that lines up with these characteristics pray?

II. How He Prays – “Effectual and fervent”…the NIV says powerful and effective!

A. They pray powerfully…Now I don’t believe this means shouting or carrying on in prayer…but rather the prayer is powerful because of the faith and expectancy that the righteous person has in God, that loves to answer our prayers.

From this point on there is a ton of stuff to explore…

First, lets read the verse over again in its entirety…

13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Let me ask you a question how much more faith can a person show then calling on the elders or leaders of the church for prayer when they are sick? Asking for prayer is faith in action, but that isn’t the only thing worth mentioning here.