The Power of Prayer part 3 Confession

Well take your Bible and turn with me to the book of James. Like I said earlier, we are nearing the end of our study in James. We will next week finish verse 16 and go on down to verse 18 and then the next week we will finish up verse 19 wrapping up the book of James. And also like I give us some introductory material with the book of James, I will give us some material to wind up the book of James. You know by now the title of the series and that is Good Works Flow From Good Faith. And I think that you see how practical the book of James is.

I think that you've really got a foothold how to study the book and there's plenty of information for you to go back and sermons to listen to and notes to review so that you would make sure that you have true good works that flow from good faith. Now we are still in the subject of prayer. We have been in the subject of prayer starting with verse 13. You know by now that that subject goes all the way down into verse 18. I ran across a certain writer this week. He said talking about prayer, talking about these verses, he said prayer is a high and holy privilege. Now I would add to that.

I would say that prayer is a privilege, yes, but it is a commandment and it is an obligation. Now it is an obligation and it is a commandment, but yet when we love the Lord and we know that the Lord has called us to prayer, it is a privilege. And we're learning a lot about prayer just in these short verses. Now we know that the main subject is prayer, but the subject is prayer within the experiences of certain situations in life. I think we can all relate to these situations. We saw first that James is teaching us about prayer and suffering in verse 13.

Then we saw that James is teaching us about healing, physical healing, dealing with sickness in verse 14 and the beginning of verse 15. There were some that debate whether he's dealing with physical sickness. I happen to believe that he is. And then now we see that James is dealing with prayer in relation to sin starting in verse 15 and coming on into verse 16, excuse me, starting in verse 15 coming on in to verse 16, which will be where we are this morning. Now in introducing sin to the equation, we see this in the end of verse 15. Go back to your passages of scripture that are familiar to you.

Last week we saw that verse 15, he says, and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will rise him up. And notice at the end of verse 15, what does he say? And if, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. James introduces the possibility of sin being a cause of the sickness. Now in the original language, this, this word sin at the end of verse 15, it reads, if he, if he has been sinning, it reads, if he has been constantly sinning, what that means is it's just not a one time sin.

It's a, it's a sin that's really grabbed the whole to the life of the believer, but also notice the transition in dealing with the sin in verse 16. Let me, let me explain what I mean. Verse 15 at the end, he says sin could be the issue because of the, uh, the issue to the sickness, but now he transitions. James does in verse 16 and dealing with the sin that would be in the life of the believer. There's a word there in verse 16 that helps us with that transition. That is the word there for in all of the translations that you have before you have the word there for.

As a matter of fact, in the original language, it reads, confess therefore it has the word confess before the transition word. Therefore what am I showing you? James shows us that there is the issue of sin in some of the lives of believers and he's helping us to know how to pray and what to do with this issue of sin. Now I know that when we get into this one word, this word confess, when we get into verse 16, there are a lot of people that will get nervous. You know, some of us can remember those notorious open microphone nights, maybe at your church. Anybody ever seen that? I have.

I think that when we talk about the subject of confession, when we read this particular verse, verse 16, that we're going to read together in a moment, it makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous.

It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous.

It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes a lot of people nervous. In our study through the book of James, and it is vital to the Christian life. And I think when we get through this morning, you're going to see it in a new and a fresh way. We cannot deny what is taught in these verses. They are there for our benefit. Look, they are there for the benefit of the believer.

And this verse is here for the benefit of the church. Now, let's go to James chapter 5. I've already read verse 15. He talks about this prayer of faith that will heal the sick. And then he says at the end of verse 15, "And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." James introduces the subject of sin in the life of a believer. But then notice verse 16, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed." He moves on to healing of a different nature, dealing with the issue of sin, and also teaching us how to pray about this particular sin.

Now, the title of the message this morning is "The Power of Prayer, Part 3, Confession." "The Power of Prayer, Part 3, Confession." Now, we're going to look at two main truths this morning. I would invite you to write these down. Number one, the confession. Number one, the confession. And then number two, the prayer. This is very simple, and it's right out of the beginning of verse 16. Number one, the confession. And number two, the prayer. And I'm taking a little more time with a short portion of Scripture because I want to be able to explain myself and help us understand it at the end of the message.

So, let's look at main truth number one, the confession, right out of this verse. "Therefore," here's that word that makes us nervous, "confess your sins to one another." Now, all of the translations that I will refer to use the word "confess." As a matter of fact, the word in the original Greek, it means "confess" or "admit." It's no doubt what the meaning is of the word. Now, this very same word is used other places in the Scripture. I'll refer you to one in Mark chapter 1, verse 5.

This is talking about the ministry of John the Baptist, and I'll read you the verse that says, "And all of the country of Judea was going out to him," talking about John, "and all of the people of Jerusalem, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River." Now, here's the word "confessing their sins." Now, it's something also interesting about the construction of the word here and the construction of the verse in the original. The construction of the language implies a full and an open confession. I think that's what we see with the example of John the Baptist.

All of the people in the countryside and all of the people of Jerusalem were coming, repenting, and confessing. That word "confessing" is obvious. It means to confess to admit not just a little bit, but very openly and very fully. Now, I want to take a minute to ask us some questions that help us understand what James is trying to communicate with this confession. I'm going to ask us two questions. Question number one, confess what? Confess what? Go back to the verse. "Therefore, confess your sins." Confess your sins. So it's obvious the confession or the answer to that question, confess what? It revolves around sin.

Now, the King James Version reads faults. Now, every now and then I will read you a different translation because it helps us understand the meaning here. I'm going to read you what the amplified version says, and I think it helps us get our mind around it. The amplified says, "Confess to one another, therefore, your faults, your slips, your fault steps, your offenses, your sins." Why does the amplified reiterate that so many ways? Why does it give us so many different ways to see this? It's obvious what James is trying to say.

He's saying, "Confess your sins, your small sins, your big sins, your slip ups, your faults, yes, even your offenses." What is James saying? He's saying, "Confess your sin." It is obvious that sin is the issue right here. Remember, I've already said it, the last portion of verse 15, James introduces us to the issue of sin in the life of the believer. As a matter of fact, in James chapter 1 verse 5, what is he dealing with? This same word right here, sin. So, the answer to the question is sin. James is saying to confess your sin.

The second question is this, "Confess to who?" Go back to the verse, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another." That's pretty obvious here. All of the translations that I refer to, and you read, and you have in your study, they say the very same thing, to each other or to one another. It's obvious what is being communicated here. Now, we need to be reminded of the context here. James is writing to believers. James is writing to the Christians who were scattered from Jerusalem because of the persecution. He's writing to the church. He's writing to people who love the Lord.

Now, we know through the book of James, he does address lost people at times. But right here, this is a Christian leader writing to other Christians. It is within the context of the church. James is talking to men and women who love God, who love each other, who are a part of the body of Christ. They are a part of the fellowship. So that's who the confession is. That's who it's to. It's to other brothers and sisters in Christ. I ran across something that John MacArthur says. I like it. It helps us understand what we should see here.

He says, "Sin seeks to remain private and secret, but God wants to expose it and to deal with it." Now listen, "within the loving fellowship of other believers." That's key. He doesn't just say that sin needs to be dealt with, but he gives us the context. MacArthur says it is within the context of a loving fellowship with other believers. Another Bible commentary that I refer to sometimes is, it's called the New American commentary. It says this, "The entire fellowship of believers should be characterized by mutual confession of sin.

The confession of sin entails humble honesty about the fact of having committed sin, not a public retelling of the details of the act." What is it talking about? Proper confession. And what is the context? A loving fellowship, brothers and sisters, and a brother or a sister confessing their sin, confessing their sin one to another. And I think that both of those commentators help us understand the context and the heart of this confession. Now I'll be honest with you, this makes us nervous. This makes most people nervous, but we must understand the context, and this needs repeating several times.

The context is the body of Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ, a loving fellowship, a loving fellowship who does desire discipline. They desire discipline from the Word of God, discipline from other brothers and sisters in Christ, discipline from the living Lord that they serve, and the whole atmosphere is permeated with love and with a true honest desire for what's best for each other spiritually. And like I said earlier as I was introducing the message, who does this benefit? It benefits the individual who is struggling in sin. It benefits the entire fellowship.

This is for the purpose, now listen, of holiness in our lives individually and in the life of the fellowship. A great example is probably one of the most famous scripturally confessions in dealing with sin, and that is with Psalm 51. Remember the story of King David? He had committed sin, a terrible sin. He had taken another man's wife and he had had her husband killed. He had committed sin after sin after sin after sin to try to cover it up. And what happened was the man of God, the prophet Nathan, came to him, and the prophet Nathan rebuked him. And Psalm 51 is our record of David's confession.

David is honest, David is true, David is not lying. He's not lying to himself. He's not lying to any man, nor is he lying to God. I want to pause here for a moment because every now and then in our culture we see these high profile so-called Christians, so-called Christian leaders, they will get caught in sin. And I'm going to tell you, 9 out of 10 of them, you know exactly who they are by the way they supposedly repent. I've yet to see one of them stand up on public television or have it on their church website or publish it where they repent the way David repented. David confessed. David repented. And we see his heart was right.

His heart was right before God. His heart was right before his fellow man. His heart was right before the people of Israel. What do we see in that Psalm 51 text? A true confession. Now look, it was good for David and it was good for the people. It was good for the servant and it was good for his fellow soldiers. It was good for Nathan. It was good for everyone involved. Now I know this makes us nervous, but we cannot help but see what James is trying to teach us. And we see that he says, "Therefore, if there's sin in your life," what does he say?

"Confess your sin openly, confess it fully to one another." Within the context of a local body, believers who love one another and who want what's best for each other and the local fellowship. And I want to tell you people, this is rare. A local fellowship where people can honestly let their hair down and be able to be honest about their personal struggles, whether they're small or great, this is rare. Most of the fellowships I've been in, you couldn't do this.

I was recalling a particular time in my life, even with Brother Keith this morning as we were praying about a particular time in my life when I was struggling, when I was burnt out on ministry and I'd been hurt and I was trying to put some pieces back together in my life. And I needed ministers around me and brothers and sisters in Christ to be able to confess some of my shortcomings to and my struggles to and even confess some of the ways where I was fumbling the ball about trying to deal with the position I was in in life, and I did not have it. And that is a very lonely, lonely place. What does he say? Confess. Let's move on.

Let's look at main truth number two. I want us to see the prayer, the prayer. Go back to the verse. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and," and here's where he transitions, "this is the main subject," what does he say? "Pray for one another so that you may be healed." This is the prayer. Now, all of the translations that we refer to use the word prayer. Again, this is one of the seven times where prayer is used. That is the main subject from verse 13 to 18, but yet it deals with many different circumstances that we might face in life. Now, again, remember what we talked about last week. This is intercession.

I talked about intercession with this last week. The fact that we are to intercede for those who need physical healing. And interceding, or intercession, is very simple. It is a simple thing, but hard to understand. Intercession is simply going before God on behalf of another. Now, let that sink in. Intercession is going before God on behalf of another. I gave you the example of Moses in Exodus 32 and chapter 32 and 33. What do we see Moses do? He goes before God on behalf of Israel. That's intercession. He stood between God and the people. That is nothing more than intercession. We see it in verse 15. Now we see it in verse 16.

That's the type of prayer that we see. Go back to the verse. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray," what? "For one another." Now, again, I want to ask us some questions here, but I want to ask us three questions dealing with prayer. Question number one, pray for who? "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another." Now, the new international version, it says, "each other." Most of the other translations say, "one another." Now, this is praying for who? Not just people in the pew. This is praying for brothers and sisters in Christ. This is praying for others who are in the family of God.

This is praying for others who are part of the body of Christ. This is not just praying for each other. This is praying for people that we are related to. They are blood-bought. We are blood-bought. We are within the family. It's just not praying for others. It's praying for those who have made confession about a struggle in their life. We see them in love the way the Lord does with grace and mercy. They are brothers and sisters. We are part of the family. See, that's praying for who? The second question, pray about what? "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another, so that you may be healed." You might miss that.

He says, pray about what? What is James talking about? James is teaching prayer in a certain situation, and that is sin that is in the life of the believer. What are you praying for? The individual? Yes. But you're praying about a particular sin that has come into the life of that believer. You're interceding for that believer, but the issue is a sin. The issue is something that has come into their life, and you're interceding for them about this particular sin. The sin is obvious. The meaning of the word is obvious. That's the problem. That's the issue at hand. That's where the brother or the sister is struggling.

But then third, pray for what? All of the translations use the same word, and that word is healed. Again, the Amplified reads, "That you may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart." I like that. Because what are you praying for? You're praying for a healing, a spiritual healing. They have sin in their life. That means they are not right with God. They are right with God positionally, in that they are blood-bought, but they are not right with God relationally. Because of that sin in their life, they are out of step and out of joint with the God that they serve. So what do we do? We pray for what?

That they would be restored, that they would be forgiven, they would be full repentance, and look, that spring would be back in that step, that joyful countenance would be back on their face, that loving relationship that they need with the Lord would be restored. That is spiritual healing. And that's what you are to be praying for. You're praying about the sin, you're praying for healing, and you're praying for that brother and that sister in Christ. Again, I ran across something that MacArthur said that's very good.

He says, "Maintaining open sharing and praying relationships with other Christians will help believers from bottling out in their spiritual lives. Such relationships help give the spiritual strength that provides victory over sin." That's good. I'm going to say that again. MacArthur says, "Maintaining open sharing and praying relationships with other Christians will help keep believers from bottoming out in their spiritual lives. Such relationships help give the spiritual strength that provides victory over sin." Now, question. Do we pray? Do we intercede for brothers and sisters like this?

Or when they open their mouths in honesty, do we talk about them? In most places, if a brother or sister were to dare to be honest, most people would walk right out the door and they would gossip and they would share and they would talk and they would judge and they would spread their business. Oh, no, no, no, no. The context is loving brothers and sisters in Christ. And I want what's best for you just like I want what's best for me. And I would not dare open my mouth and gossip and spread and talk and judge that brother and sister. Isn't that what James was dealing with previously? Chapter 5, verse 9.

Do not complain, brethren, against one another. Isn't that what he was dealing with? In chapter 3, if you turn your Bible over, what does he say? The little subtitle to that chapter in my Bible says, "The Tongue is a Fire." What does that fire do? It devours. So the question and application is, do we pray for other brothers and sisters? Do we really intercede like this for others that we see that are struggling? Or do we just kind of talk about them? Maybe we don't talk to everybody, but maybe we just talk to our spouse. Do we judge them in our heart? Do we look down on them?

Do we say, "Oh, I would never do that." And actually, we need to get in the trenches with them. Actually, we need to be net deep in it with a "why" in intercession. Rather than leaving and gossiping, we should leave and pray and intercede and lift them up to the Lord. Don't we see that in the life of Paul? I mean, how many letters did he write? Go look at the pastoral epistles where Paul is writing to churches, many of them who were struggling. I think about the 1st and 2nd Corinthians letters, that Corinthian church that was struggling. Sin after sin, problem after problem. The Ephesian church we're talking about on Sunday nights.

Sin after sin, problem after problem. But yet, we get a picture of Paul's heart in the book of Colossians where what does he say to them? He says in verse 3, chapter 1, "I am praying for you always." He says in chapter 1, verse 9, "We have not ceased to pray for you." Paul understood this. He understood praying for believers, interceding for believers. Think about the weightiness of those words because he says, "We have not ceased to pray for you." In other words, Paul didn't just pray for the Colossian church once. He didn't just pray for them on Wednesday night prayer meeting. He never stopped. And he never visited them one time.

Think about the great heart of prayer that he did have for the Ephesian church and for Timothy. Think about the great heart of prayer that he did have for the Corinthian problem and so many other people that he dealt with. What am I trying to show you? This is the prayer. So it's real simple right here. James says, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another." And what does he say?

"Pray for one another so that you may be healed." And that brings us to the title of the message, "The Power of Prayer in Confession, Dealing with Sin." The context is a body, the family of God, the body of Christ, those who are blood-bought and one brother, one sister, one family, struggling with sin, they are able to come, they are able to openly confess, they are able to confess all, and yet those brothers and sisters rally around them, they intercede for them, they pray about that sin, and they pray and continue to pray until there is spiritual victory and there is spiritual healing. And look, there is power in that.

That's what James tells us. And you might say, "You're covering a small amount of Scripture this morning." Yes, I am. And I'm doing it purposefully. Because there are so many misunderstandings with this verse, there are so many fears with this verse, there have been so many abuses with this verse, most of the time when you talk about a verse like this, half the people want to leave and half the people want to crawl into the carpet. Why? Because it makes us fearful. It scares us because we've rarely seen it done right.

So I want to take a little bit more time as I conclude the message to help paint the picture of what this would look like, to help you understand what is in my mind and in my heart as I study a verse like this, and it is, "God has been teaching me." So I want to help you, I want to help us to answer the question, "What does this look like?" Well, I want to give you a word. Setting. Setting. I've said some of this already. The setting would be this. First, a loving body of believers. Isn't that desperately needed today? We need a loving body of believers. Second, humble, honest Christians. How many born-again people can truly be honest?

And then third, a desire for holiness individually and collectively. You get that setting? That's the setting. A loving body of believers. I love you, you love me, we love each other. We are blood-bought. We are connected by the work of God. There is unity in our lives because of the work of God that He is doing in us and through us. We are humble. We have left our pride at the door. We've left our pretense at the door. We are honest with ourselves, honest with God, and honest with one another. And what is in the very bottom of our heart is a desire to live holy lives, as individuals and as a church.

I desire holiness in your life just like I desire holiness in my life. What a beautiful setting. What a wonderful place to be nurtured and to grow and to serve the Lord. So I think that we need to understand the setting. I want to move on from setting to how-to. How to. How to do this. I ran across some information in that New American commentary and I've changed it a bit. I've kept most of it as I read it, but I want to show you how to do this. And I like what He has given. Number one, it is appropriate to name the sin, but no more.

You know, a lot of people when they're in a position, they will name a particular sin that they're dealing with, but they will go into unneeded details. That's not necessary. What does James say? Deal with the sin, not the details. The second thing is follow David's example in Psalm 51. And one might listen, confess personal suffering because of that sin. See, I believe when someone really sees their sin the way God does, they will hurt. They will see the suffering. Third, in confession, there is no room for reliving it in the retelling of it. Haven't we seen that before? I have seen some people as they're trying to quote unquote confess sin.

I think really what they're trying to do is they're trying to relive it by retelling it, and they're retelling it in all kind of ways, and they're painting a graphic picture, and I start to think, are they really confessing sin? Are they just telling us a glorified story? There is no room for reliving it and retelling it. And then four, there should not be anything sensational in the confession. Haven't we seen this with high profile people before?

You know, they've been in the mafia, or they led this particular lifestyle, or they were in the drugs and alcohol and rock and roll, and they quote unquote get saved out of that, and they just sensationalize that life of sin. Look, if you see it the way God sees it, you will not sensationalize it. And there should be no sensationalizing of the sin in the confession. And then five, there should not be anything that feeds the sinful desire. Some people can confess and describe some of the things that they've done, and all it does is stir up sinful desires and thoughts in other people's minds.

I think that's a pretty accurate way to address the how-to. What am I showing you? It's appropriate to just name the sin. Follow David's example and confess personal suffering because of it. There's no room to relive it and retell it. It shouldn't be done that way. There should not be anything that sensationalizes the sin, and there should not be anything that feeds sinful desires or thoughts in other people's lives. Let me continue. Let me give you some instruction. See, we've seen the setting, a little bit of the how-to, but now I want to give you some instruction. What does that look like? First, confess to the appropriate people.

What I mean is there are certain things that men need to confess to other men. There are certain things that women need to confess to other women. I'll never forget in my years of student ministry, a long time there was a young girl came up to me, and she began to talk to me about young girl things, nothing, anything graphic, but she began to talk to me about young girl things, and I said, "Listen, sweetheart," I said, "You see that lady right over there?" I was talking about my wife. I said, "That lady right over there speaks girl real well." I don't speak girl.

Now, that's a little joke, a little funny, but the point of the matter was, I said, "Young lady, you need to go talk to a woman about those issues." I confess to the appropriate people, male to male, female to female. Some issues are best kept in that tight of an area, but also sometimes we confess, look, to the spiritual leaders of the church, we don't just confess right there in the church long. Second, we are to confess in the appropriate setting. There's a lot to say right here. Now, I know I referenced King David earlier. King David's confession was very public, but let me tell you something. King David was king.

He had sinned against not only a man and a woman, but he had sinned against an entire nation. He had sinned publicly. He was a very public figure. Even the pagan nations knew who he was. As a matter of fact, the Scripture says that because of his sin, he made the very pagan nations show contempt for God. They scoffed God. So what am I showing you? A very public figure had to confess in a very public way. And I might sound like a smart aleck, but a lot of people want to confess like King David when they're not the king. What am I showing you? Confess in the appropriate setting.

There are certain things that maybe need to be confessed in the privacy of one or two people in a corner, in private. Third, confess in the appropriate time. You know, there are a lot of big things that people have to work through that need to be worked through for a period of time. I've seen it. I've seen people dealing with big sins, graphic sins, horrific sins, and they want to jump up and confess that immediately. No, no, no, no, no. A lot of times, things like that need to be worked out with the appropriate people over a period of time. And then if the spiritual leadership deem it necessary to be confessed, then it needs to be confessed.

The fourth thing is we should always confess with the right goal in mind. Remember, we desire holiness in our lives, a right relationship with God, and also holiness in the lives of other brothers and sisters. And listen, our goal is for a work in the body for the glory of God. And just that simple list of instruction knocks out about 90% of what we've seen, maybe more. We confess to the appropriate people in the right setting, the appropriate term, with the right goal in mind. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about the work of God that He wants to do in us.

Now, in preparing this message, I've thought about situations like this that I've seen before. I've related one to you. I will tell you about two stories, big stories, one good and one bad. I never forget the life of one of the churches that I was a part of. There was a couple in that church, a high profile couple. The man was in a position of authority and leadership. She was too. She had come to know the Lord later in life, even though that person was in a position of leadership in the life of the church, he led a double life. When he was across state lines, he lived one way, but when he was home, he lived another way.

And lo and behold, through time and the work of God, he came to know the Lord too. And after he was saved, he had to make things right, he had to confess to his wife, and he ended up going to his pastor. And in that appropriate setting with the appropriate person, he began to share how he had lived his life, his wife knew, she suspected, she saw, she understood. And they worked through a lot of pain and a lot of things over a period of time. And then the pastor, because he was a man of God, felt it necessary for them to stand up on the podium, behind the podium, on the platform, and then make confession.

They didn't paint dirty little pictures. They didn't use a lot of descriptive words. They mentioned the sin, they mentioned the repentance, and it was done for the glory of God. It was done in the right way. It was part of the healing. People knew in the life of the church. It communicated full repentance, and it was good, and it was under the leadership of the men of God in the life of the church. And listen, yes, it was spooky. Yes, it was nervous. Yes, it made people uncomfortable, but it was being obedient to what we see in James. But I think about another situation that I know of. There was a man that I know. I don't know him real well.

He was on church staff somewhere. And in the midst of a church meeting, he jumped up, I think, under a lot of guilt. You know, when someone is carrying the weight of sin, especially for a long period of time, they have a lot of guilt. And that person jumped up, and that person took the mic, and he confessed in a very graphic manner. And listen, it did not bring about healing. It did not bring about healing in the pew and in the life of the person. Too much was said. Too many words were used. Too many pictures were painted with words. There were private secret things that were said openly and should have never been said openly.

And it was not good for him. It was not good for his marriage. It was not good for his family. And it was not good for the life of the church. It was not done with the appropriate people. It was not done in the appropriate setting. It was not done in the appropriate time. And it did no good. But you know, I want to dispel a misconception. A lot of times people think that this only goes on in big church. Not the case. Y'all know that Keith and I have been prayer partners for years. In our prayer time together, I can't tell you how many times we've made confession in one another. And you know what it would sound like?

You know, I've just had a terrible time this week reading my Bible as I should. My prayer life has been pretty stale this week. You might think, no big deal. Yes, that is a big deal. It might go like this. You know, I've had a terrible attitude at work. In my mind and in my heart, I've been disrespectful towards my boss. That's confession. We all need brothers and sisters in our life where we can deal with these types of things. These things are sins. And look, we can be honest and we can be open. And we don't have to go into great detail. Because a lot of times we think it's just things of a graphic nature in the big church setting.

That's not always the case. That's our rarity. I was reminded of another setting. Years ago, several years ago, my wife and I were at a church conference. The Grace Life Church in Muscle Shoals, Alabama has a true church conference in February every year. And we were there a couple of years ago and we were in a Sunday school class. And we were in that Sunday school class as visitors. And there was a man teaching the Sunday school class, a very good lesson. And someone had the audacity, praise the Lord, to open up their mouth and confess that they were struggling at home with their children.

They were losing their children and they confessed mistakes. And the man who was leading the class, he was on the money. He set the lesson aside and he began to share about how they had struggles with their children. And the family was confessing faults, confessing things they had done wrong. They didn't let it go too far. There were tears shed. People prayed for them. The issue was dealt with. And it was beautiful. It was glorious. And look, you can tell they were going to follow up with more ministry. And it was this verse lived out in a Sunday school class. I think about another example.

A minister friend of mine that doesn't live here, he had grown a little bitter, angry, he got rude, he turned into a big bully for Jesus. And when God brought that about in his life and showed him that he was wrong, you know what he did? He went to other people. He went to other Christians. He went to people in business. What did he do? He made confession. What am I trying to show you? It's not always the big church graphic sin. And I think that you might see it a little different now than you did when we first started. The power of prayer, confession. Go back to the verse. What does he say?

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you might be healed." And look, when sin comes into our life, who are we going to go to? Yes, we're going to the Lord, but besides going to the Lord, we must go to each other! And a loving fellowship. Brothers and sisters, church ministers, elders who want what's best for you. And our desire is for holiness in you, holiness in me, holiness in this family, in this woman, in this man, in this young person. And listen holiness in the body. And according to what I see in James, remember the main truth, prayer. There is power in this type of prayer. Amen?

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Let me pray for the message that we've looked at. I want to ask you to bow your head, close your eyes. Nobody looking around, please.