The Power of Prayer part 1 Suffering

I think that Keith has been true to what he said his heart's desire is not to sing songs to you, but to give you songs. He has done that for me through the years and there are songs that he has given me that have become mine. That is one of them. And that song along with Luke chapter 11, that parable there about prayer, the Lord has used me, used to teach me in prayer how to pray, what real prayer is and the work, the labor of prayer as we walk with God and become the people that God wants us to be. Thank you Keith. That's a fitting introduction to what we're going to look at this morning and also preparation for our hearts.

Now like I said earlier, if you are keeping up with our series and James, you know that we've not been in James together since November the 30th. We are winding down the book of James and I hate to take a break like we did, but it was needed as we got into the Christmas season. There were some messages that I wanted to share with us about the Christmas story and individuals there involved in the Christmas story. But this morning we're back in our series in James and it's called Good Works Flow from Good Faith. Good works flow from good faith and the little book of James has been very practical.

It's been very easy to understand and really I have called it the nuts and bolts of the Christian life and so much of it has spoken to you because of how you have testified to me, shared with me and prayed with me and I have heard your heart and I know that the word is doing its work. Now the next three messages after this morning, really the next four if you include this morning, are going to be a part of one message as a whole. What I mean is we're going to be in verses 13 through 18 and in verses 13 through 18 the subject is prayer.

Now it's pretty obvious if you read these verses you will see that they go together because the word prayer is used seven times in these handful small verses. As a matter of fact in the new American Standard that I read from uses the word prayer in each of the verses, verses 13 through 18. What am I showing you? It is obvious that James from his heart pinning these verses, the subject that is on his mind is prayer.

Now in some of my study I ran across different titles for this portion of scripture and every now and then I like to remember those because it helps us get our mind around what the writer of a particular passage is trying to teach us. One commentator that I read called this effective prayer. Another commentator that I read called this the power of righteous praying. Aaron Weirsby the Bible commentator that I like he says this is he titles this let us pray. Now as we get into these verses, these verses on prayer we're going to see that there have been many different abuses of these verses.

What I mean is we're going to see that there have been people that have taken one or two words or one or two of these verses and they've kind of pulled them out of context. They pull them out of context. There are a lot of misconceptions and also there are some interpretive challenges with these verses. Now let me pause here and give you some instruction on interpretation. Now the key to interpretation is always two things. Biblical context and other scripture. Now when we get into a verse by verse study we break down words, we break down phrases.

But when we break down words and phrases it must be interpreted in light of the context in which it is written and in light of other scripture. If we do not do that, if we violate those principles then what we will do is we will make the mistake that some make. We will take a word, take a verse, we will yank it out of context, we will yank it out and we will contradict other scripture and that will be an abuse of the scriptures. Let me give you a good example of what I mean. Many of you have heard this but in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20, John writes these words, "Behold I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and I will dine with him and he with me." Some of you have heard this used in an evangelistic setting. You know a traveling evangelist or preacher preaches and at the end he gives an invitation and he gives this verse, he says, "Behold, talking about Jesus, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and an invitation will be given." Now that might sound good and it might produce numbers to put on a card but the only problem with that is that is an abuse of the scripture. It is taken out of context.

That verse was not written to an individual, that verse was written to a church. As a matter of fact the church at Laodicea. So if I take that verse and I apply it in an evangelistic setting just to an individual, the problem is it's taken out of context. Jesus had rebuked the church at Laodicea and the picture is Christ standing at the door of a church and he's saying, "If you will repent and if you will adhere to what I say, I will come in, I will dine with you, you will dine with me." Context.

And see a lot of people make the mistake of taking some of these verses and they pull them out and they might exaggerate them and that turns into an abuse. As a matter of fact in some of my reading I ran across a list of questions that kind of emphasize the fact that some of these can present, some of these verses can present interpretive challenges. The Bible commentator that I read most of the time, he gives us some questions, his name is John MacArthur, just listen to these. He poses questions about these verses. He says, "What kind of suffering does James have in view in verse 13? What kind of sicknesses in view in verse 14?

Why are the prayers of the elders different from those of the believers in verses 14 and 15? What is the anointing of oil described in verse 14? Does the prayer of faith in verse 15 always restore the sick? How does sickness relate to sin in verse 15? What type of healing is in view in verse 16 and why does James insert an illustration about rain from verses 17 and 18 into the middle of a discussion on healing? What am I showing you with those questions? These verses can be a little tricky. They can be a little tough. Now I want to give you my approach as we get into these verses. My approach is going to be simple.

I want to just deal with the wording because when you get down to an understanding what a particular word and a particular phrase means, that's where you start. We're going to get down with some of the wording. We're going to look at the context and then we're going to look at other examples in scripture. And I don't want us to move too far away from James. The context, the interpretation of the word and the scripture references that we can go to that will help us understand. Now I'm going to do like I normally do. I'm going to put on the screen the title of the message. The title of the message is the power of prayer, part one, suffering.

The power of prayer, part one, and that is suffering. Now I've already said that these verses, they all go together, verses 13 through 18, but we are going to be this morning just in verse 13. I'm going to read them all together, but then we will focus on verse 13 in the message. That's what the scripture says, "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let him pray over them. Let them pray over them, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he is committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

And he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit." Now like I said, this is some passages of scripture that can be difficult, but we're going to take it verse by verse and we're going to see the power of prayer. Now we're going to be right here in verse 13 and I put on the screen for you to see our two main truths and that is prayer and suffering and then that is praise and suffering. And we're going to stay in verse 13 because verse 13 really lays the groundwork for the remaining verses that we will look at to get all the way to verse 18. Let me read verse 13 again.

James introduces the subject of prayer by questions. He says, "If anyone among you is anyone among you suffering, let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises." A rather short verse, but it is power packed. So if you have your pen in hand and I trust you do and something to write with, I want you to take notes and I want us to see truth number one, prayer in suffering. Prayer in suffering. He says, "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray." One question and one short sentence following.

Now obviously the subject of prayer is prayer because it's right here in this verse and I've already said the word prayer is found all the way through verse 18. But what I want to tell you in introducing this truth is prayer is very misunderstood. It's overlooked and it is ignored. Some see no need for prayer because of poor theology. Let me explain what I mean. There are some, they will say, "Well, you know God, he's going to do what he's going to do. God is sovereign, he is Lord and he is going to do what he is going to do and I'm afraid a lot of those people have a poor theology in dealing with prayer.

These people would say that, "Well, I pray because I'm commanded to pray." Well, that's poor theology that causes us to have a misunderstanding of prayer and it can cause us to overlook and ignore prayer. There are some that they see no need to pray because they are just too talented and sometimes they are very, very educated. Now I'm not against talent. The Lord knows I need a little more but I'm satisfied with what he's given me and I'm not against education. I have sought to be educated and I have desired at times in my ministry and life to be more educated as the Lord would will. So I'm not against talent nor am I against education.

But there are some, they are talented enough and educated enough that they don't seem to need prayer. I'll never forget I was talking about laboring in prayer and pursuing God in prayer and waiting on God in prayer and there was a particular young man that I knew. He says, "Well, you know God doesn't work that way in me. I just simply ask and he does it and I go on." And I knew he was young and I knew he was rather in the tour in his ministry. But that attitude can call some people to misunderstand and overlook and even ignore prayer. But you know also prayer is abused. There are those, they might have this little funny prayer language.

I never have understood that. I need to learn how to pray in English a little more before I can learn how to pray in some other language that I don't know. But what I'm showing you is a lot of times prayer is abused. There are some people, they will just pray in all of their emotions. I was talking to another young man that I know that loves the Lord and he was talking about problems in the life of his church and he was talking about the music and where it goes and he went on and he said, "You know, I just can't follow spontaneous worship." And I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "All this just hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Glory to the Lamb, glory to the Lamb." And what he was saying is all that emotional gibberish, all that rhetoric that does not mean anything, I can't follow it because really what he was saying it was it doesn't mean anything to them either. And a lot of people pray that way. They just pray in their emotions and that is an abuse of prayer. Now I've taken a little time right here to introduce prayer, the fact that it is misunderstood, overlooked, ignored. But yet James is saying that we must pray in suffering. But you know, suffering is misunderstood too. As a matter of fact, we Americans really don't want it. You know, we have the good life.

We've been blessed. We have two cars in the garage and plenty of money in the bank and plenty of food in the freezer and refrigerator. We have good jobs. As a matter of fact, if we're not careful, we will think that suffering is for the Christian that lives in another country, you know. They might live under communism or they might have to hide in an Islamic nation and we think that we're immune to suffering, but that's not the case. It's just that we happen to be living in a time and a place where we do not have to experience that although that might change. But what is James saying? He's saying there is prayer in suffering.

Now I want to break this verse down and I want us to see two things. First, write this down. First, the type of suffering. The type of suffering is anyone among you suffering. Now the new American standard says suffering. The King James uses the word afflicted. Now the new international version uses the word trouble. All those words mean the same thing. Now this word suffering is in the verb form. That means it's an action. But it comes from the noun form of the word in verse 10. Earlier in verse 10, what does he say? As an example, brethren of suffering.

See that is the same word, but it is in the noun form in verse 10 and now in verse 13, it's in the verb form which means an action. What do we see? These words are found together. That's what biblical interpretation does. It goes back to the same words that are used within the scripture. But what does this word mean? This word means to endure evil treatment from people. But it can also refer to circumstances, but the context of those circumstances point to what they point to people. This has nothing to do with sickness. This is conflict. This is struggle. This is suffering. This is affliction. This is trouble as it relates to other people.

I've said this before. I need to say it again. There are a lot of people that have a misconception of suffering. What they've done is they've gone out and they've sowed their wild oats and they've made poor choices and they've done dumb things in life. But what happens is the ramifications of those decisions come back on them and they'll come in the life of the church and say, "Woe is me. Woe is me. I'm just a suffering servant of the Lord." Really what they've done is they've brought all that on themselves. I heard an older preacher say it like this one time. A lot of people will go out and sow wild oats and then they pray for crop failure.

It's the truth. That's not what James is talking about. This is not self-induced suffering. Second, I want you to notice the type of prayer. Is anyone among you suffering? Question and then notice that small statement. Let him pray. Now every translation that I look at basically says the same thing. I'm reading from the New American. But the construction of the verb here, it is in the present tense meaning a continual pleading in prayer. This is not a one-time prayer or a two-time prayer. This isn't just a few times of prayer, but the construction tells us it is a continual ongoing prayer. I like what John MacArthur says about this.

He says prayer is an antidote to suffering and essential to enduring affliction. In other words, it is the medicine that you need for suffering and that's just what James is trying to say. But let me give you some explanation. Prayer like this is learned. Prayer like this is learned and much of the time prayer like this is learned because of difficult circumstances that force believers into this type of prayer. This is learned. This is not something that you can learn just in a single Sunday school class or a single conference. This is rolling up your sleeves. This is calluses on your knees. This is shedding a lot of tears.

This is a lot of heartache because this word suffering indicates that it is a struggle. And what is James saying? There is prayer in suffering and this prayer is learned. It is ongoing. If it is just one day, one week, one month, that is not what James is talking about. That is trivial. That is right. You don't necessarily have to turn there but I do want you to write this down. I have referred to this before and I reserve the right to refer to it again in the future. It is one of the greatest examples of this type of prayer in James. This is the story of Hannah. First Samuel chapter 1, chapter 2. All of you need to know that passage.

All of you need to study it. All of you need to know it and meditate on it and learn it. All of you need to understand it is one of the greatest examples and models of true prayer that we see right here in verse 13. Now what is the story of Hannah? Hannah had a husband that was godly. Alkana was his name. He had two wives. Now just a little side note, god never desired that men have two wives. It was a worldly practice that they had adopted and he never blessed it. But he had two wives and one wife could have children and one wife could not.

Hannah could not have children and the scripture says that her rival, she would provoke her day in and day out. Verse 5. Hannah, but Hannah, this is her husband, he would give a double portion when they went up to sacrifice for he loved Hannah but the Lord had closed her womb and her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb.

So the setting is a man of God with two wives, one wife was blessed with children, Hannah is not blessed with children, so they would go to Shiloh to sacrifice to worship the Lord and she would be broken as she came and all along that rival, all along that other wife would just irritate her and provoke her and jeer her and ride her and the scripture says it went on year after year after year after year after year after year.

But in this story we see a wonderful picture of prayer because if you keep going, verse 7, "And it happened year after year as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her so she wept and she would not eat." Verse 8, "Then Elkanah, her husband said to her, 'Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?'" Then the rest of the story finds her in the house of God there at Shiloh and it says that Eli the priest of God saw her.

Verse 10, "And she was greatly distressed and she prayed to the Lord and she wept bitterly and she made a vow and said, 'O Lord of hosts, if thou would not indeed look on my affliction and thy maidservant and remember me and not forget thy maidservant but will give thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord.'" Then a little later on, verse 13 and 14, it says that Eli saw her, saw that she was praying and her mouth was not moving and Eli, verse 13, thought she was drunk.

"And Eli said to her, 'How long will you make yourself drunk?'" Verse 14, "Put away your wine." Verse 15, "But Hannah answered and says, 'No, my Lord, I am a woman of oppressed in spirit.'" What am I showing you? A picture of prayer in suffering. Suffering brought on by circumstances involving people. And in looking at Hannah's example, number one, I want you to notice her suffering. It was from without and it was from within. She had a rival that jeered her and provoked her and aggravated her and sneered at her and scoffed at her. And what did verse 8 say? Year after year after year.

Every time they went to the house of God, I could just hear her rival saying, "Oh, I thought you were a woman of God, but God hadn't given you a son like He's given me." So her suffering was from without, but it was also from within because she desired to have a child. She desired to have that baby in her arms. But then I want you to notice her prayer because verse 7 says that her prayer was continual. Verse 8 says that her prayer was sacrificial. Verse 10 says that her prayer was in brokenness. Verse 11 says that her prayer was God-centered. And verse 27 and 28 says that her prayer was life-changing. Let me explain what I mean.

It says that she went up year after year. It was continual. It says that she would not eat. It was sacrificial. It says that she wept bitterly. She wept for all to see. That was out of brokenness. It says that in verse 11 it was God-centered because what did she say? "God, if you'll just give me a son, I'll give him to you." And then it was life-changing. Why? Because verse 27 and 28 shows that Hannah was completely changed because of the work that God had done in her.

She was changed because of her barrenness, because of her prayer, because of her arrival, because of her husband, because of Eli, because of the time that she waited, because of the prayer and the bitterness and the weeping and the fasting, she was changed. And finally she got to the point where she said, "God, I'll give him. If you'll give me a son, I'll give him to you." And I believe that's when God said, "I got you right where I want you." I've changed you from the inside out because we know the back story. We know the full story. Eli's sons, Hophni and Phineas were not men of God.

And that little boy, boy and a Hannah, was to become the man of God that God would use. See, we see the whole story. But when we wade neck deep in it, we see a woman who was suffering and we see her prayer. And that is the finest example of prayer and suffering. See before I move on, I want to tell you people, in this type of situation, there are no shortcuts. There are no easy way out. Most of the time, God does not remove you from the storm that you were in, but he gives you grace for the storm. God didn't remove that storm. He gave her grace for the storm because the storm lasted what? Year after year, year after year. How many times?

Year after year and all along her rival kept provoking her. That's grace for the storm. And see, we want the easy way out. We want a shortcut. We want to mention it on a Wednesday night prayer meeting about three times and then boom it's changed, boom the circumstance is gone. But that's not what James is talking about. He's saying that we must have continual prayer even in suffering. I was reminded of a particular person that my wife and I ministered to years ago. This particular person had come to know the Lord and this particular person had a spouse that was not Christian.

This particular person had a spouse that didn't love God and although they were in the church and they sat on the pew and they served in certain circumstances, they were known and they were well liked. This particular person had gotten saved but their spouse, they lived that secret double life. You know they came in the church and they smiled and they played the part but yet when they went out and they lived their life and their vocation took them in certain places and see that particular person began to notice all that and begin to see all that and they begin to realize how their spouse was living and let me tell you, it was hell.

In that they had to learn how to pray and they did not ask God to get them out of the storm. They prayed and they waited on God to work and God gave them grace through the storm. That's what James is talking about. Prayer and suffering. The second thing I want us to see or the main truth number two is I want us to see that there is praise in the suffering. What does he say? Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray and it almost seems like he's changing subjects here but he's not. What does he say? Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. Now the circumstance is still prayer and it is still suffering.

But see, most people do not realize that in the midst of suffering we should maintain a heart and an attitude of praise. Most people don't realize that. This is the one area that many people stumble in interpretation. What I mean is they will take that verse, that second portion of verse 13 and they will split it away from the beginning of verse 13 but they go together. And what James is saying is the context. The context is suffering, the urging is to pray but how? James has told them to continue in prayer but now he is telling them the attitude and the disposition that they should maintain. And look, this is very pastoral.

This is very personal and a lot of people don't get this. What James is saying is, "Oh, it's tough but you must have an attitude and a heart of praise." So, taking some notes, write this down. First, he says, "Maintain a cheerful heart." Maintain a cheerful heart. What does he say? Is anyone cheerful? Now the King James says, "Mary," most of the modern translations use the word cheerful. The Amplified that I like to look at sometimes says, "Glad at heart." Now this simply means to be well in spirit and notice having a joyful attitude. Well in spirit, having a joyful attitude. You might say, "Wait a minute.

How could we be in the midst of a storm and be well in spirit and have a joyful attitude?" See it's important to see something here. This is not happiness. This is joy. And there is a tremendous difference in happiness. Happiness depends on circumstances. Happiness depends on temporal things. We get a good gift for Christmas and we're happy. But then it breaks the next day and we're sad. I never forget when I was a little boy, I would get all those little toys that little boys get and it was inevitable. We always got those race tracks with the cars that go round and round and you press the button and plug them up.

I think they lasted probably 12 hours. Man, we were happy in the morning but we were sad by the evening. Isn't that right? We begged Dad to fix them. That's happiness. That's not what James is talking about. He's talking about joy. And see, this is an inner work. This is a being well in spirit. This is having a joyful attitude. And see, in suffering, most people, they turn gloomy, they turn defeated and look, some people even get mad. I've seen it. They will be in the midst of suffering and they will get mad and you will poke them and that situation will bring that out and they will just be mad.

They'll be mad at God, mad at the people around them, mad at what the word says. They'll just be mad. Some will just be gloomy and some will be defeated. Woe is me. Woe is me. That's reacting in the flat. James is saying you got to maintain a cheerful heart. But then second, he says maintain a worshipful heart. What does he say? Does anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. Now the King James says sing psalms. All of the modern translations, they read sing praise or sing songs of praise. Now this phrase sing praises, it comes from the word psalm. And it simply means sing psalms or sing songs of praise. That's what the word psalms means.

It just means songs of praise. As a matter of fact, in the Hebrews day, the book of psalms was their song book. And that's all he's saying. Now there is a little bit of an interpretive challenge here because see there are psalm that believe that we should only sing the psalms. I don't adhere to that. I think we should sing the psalms and other psalms. There are places in the New Testament where they refer to hymns and other psalms. I don't have a problem with that. But what he is saying is we are to maintain a worshipful heart. We have that we're well in spirit. We're joyful in our attitude. And out of that comes this worshipful heart.

And we sing songs of praise. We sing the word of God. We sing, why? Because we worship God in the storm. Now what's the point? We're to maintain that worshipful heart in suffering. And look, our lips will reflect it. We praise God anyway. I like what Warren Wiersby says. The mature Christian knows how to sing while he is suffering. But then it gets better. He says anybody can sing after the trouble has passed. Let me say that again. Warren Wiersby says the mature Christian knows how to sing while he is in suffering. And then he goes on to say because this is where he really hit you in the gut. Anybody can sing after the trouble has passed.

Isn't that what James is saying? He is saying in the midst of the storm have a cheerful heart. Be well in spirit. And what will come out through all that will be nothing more than words and songs of praise. And see it is important to understand this because this, now look, this runs contrary to the flesh. This runs contrary to your feelings. Your flesh wants to get mad. Your flesh wants to lash out. Your flesh wants to become bitter. Our flesh wants to feel sorry for ourselves. We want to seek consolation from others. But listen, praise and suffering take self out of the center of it and puts God right in the center of the entire thing.

You get that? The one who is cheerful, they are well in spirit, they are joyful in attitude and they are able to sing, they are able to open up their mouth and praise God. That is the one who has taken self. They might have to take self out of the middle of that thing minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. But they know God must be in the center. Another example that I have referred to that illustrates this, again scriptural, I reserve the right to use it again, it was in Revelation chapter 1. I hope you do know the story of John. In Revelation, John was the last remaining apostle. He was old.

He had a very successful ministry there in Asia Minor. I mean he was the man. I mean he was respected. He was honored. He was the last one alive who had walked and talked with Christ. As a matter of fact, he was the one that the scripture says he was the disciple that the Lord loved. He had a unique relationship with the Lord. Somehow, someway, because of the work of God, he was arrested and he was put on the island of Patmos which was a place of exile. It was basically the Alcatraz of that day. But what does verse 9 say?

Chapter 1, "I, John, your brother, and fellow partaker," now notice, "in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Christ Jesus, I was on the island of Patmos." Notice, "because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." He was in exile, in prison. Why? Because of the testimony and the work of God. But then verse 10, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." What do we see there? John in personal difficult circumstances. How did he react? He was well in spirit, joyful in attitude, and worshipful. Because what does verse 10 say? "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." He didn't look out. He looked up.

I heard a preacher say it like this. If he would have looked out, what would he have said? If he would have looked around him, what would he have written down? He would have noticed the circumstances. He would have written about the hateful guards. He would have written about the conditions in his cell. He would have written about the food that he was eating or not getting to eat. He would have written about his feelings. But he didn't look out. He looked up. And that tells us that he had praise in the suffering. That tells us the condition of his heart. And look, I want you to notice. We understand his suffering.

Verse 9, "He understood his suffering." Then in verse 10, "His reaction in the suffering." He was in the Lord's day. But notice because he did this right, what happened? This is the big picture. Verse 10 says that he heard. Verse 12 says that he saw. And then verse 19 says that he wrote it down. What did he hear? He heard in verse 10 what? The voice of God. The living Lord Jesus. And what did he see in verse 12? He turned around and he saw the resurrected Christ. And what did he write down? In verse 19, he wrote down the book of the Revelation for us. I know that I had mentioned my friend Ray a lot who lost his wife to cancer.

And I check on him from time to time. But just the other day I talked to him and when I talked to him I knew he was doing well. Now he did tell me there were days he got up, ate breakfast, and got back in the bed. The church where he serves has been very gracious and told him, "You take your time that you need." See, he and his wife fought cancer for 10 years. Not only is there a void of his wife, I mean he lost the love of his life, but for 10 years all they did was fight cancer and that's gone. There's just a tremendous adjustment period.

But when I was talking to my friend Ray the other day, he was telling me something that made me see that he's getting it. A particular friend of his had been inviting him to go, "Dear honey." He's been saying, "Ray, you need to get away. You need to get on a deer stand. You need to just get out and breathe some fresh air." And this is what he told me. He said, "I love him." And he means well. But he said, "I don't need to go deer hunting." He said, "I don't need any idle time. I do not need an idle mind." He said, "I take all of my time and all of my energy when I'm not serving and I've got to be in the Word and I've got to be in prayer.

I do not need..." He says, "There'll be a day to go deer hunting, but right now in the time that I am in, I need prayer, the Word and him." And I knew that day when I hung up that phone, it'll be fine. Because what do I see in that? There is praise in the suffering because he is well in spirit, joyful in attitude. He is accepting the work that God's doing in him in this time of suffering. He is very worshipful in heart. Why? Because what does he need? He knows that he just needs the Lord. That is praise and suffering.

He might look at you and say, "Oh, I'm having a bad day." But, and when he says but, look out because he's going to say but God, and let me tell you what God... Let me tell you about the Word and he's going to say, "Well, I'm having a tough week, but..." That's that praise and suffering. Now as I close, I want to give you what I call keys, keys to prayer and praise in suffering. Keys to prayer and praise in suffering. Now our technology is not cooperating, so you'll just have to write them down as I give them. But I'm going to give you five things, and I really want you to get these.

If you have trouble writing them down, I will give them to you after the service. But these are keys to prayer and praise and suffering. First of all, number one, you must know who you are. You must know who you are. For those of us who are born again believers, we are children of the King. For those of us who are born again, God has saved us. We belong to Him. Now look, we are dirty, low-down, rotten sinners. We are nothing more than the wretch that God saved us, but we are adopted heirs. We are co-heirs with Christ. We are His. We belong to Him. I really in my notes wrote this phrase down. I called it situational awareness.

A lot of times people that are Christian, when a storm comes, they lose sight of the situational awareness that they should have. When a storm comes, they need to look up and say, "Well, God, I belong to You, and I don't understand, but You knew the storm was coming way before I ever did." See, that's situational awareness. But a lot of times what happens is the storm comes and they look down and they start molly-grubbing and crying and complaining, and they beg God and they don't understand, and they whine and they go to other people, and it's about being mad and bitter. They don't have situational awareness. We must know who we are.

Number two, we must have, listen, understanding. Understanding and what we're looking at this morning gives us understanding. Looking at Hannah gives us understanding. Looking at John in Revelation. Just study the life of Paul, how many times he endured suffering and how he dealt with it. You can take all of those examples, and they apply to everything that we looked at this morning. That is understanding. Understanding what the Scripture says. Because when we get into the Scriptures and the Spirit of God applies it to our life, that's when we step back and scratch our head and we start saying, "Wow, now I see." The third thing is vision.

We must have vision. What I mean by vision is, is when a cloud comes, when a storm comes, we know that we're a child of God and we understand what the Scriptures say. When we have vision, we know that it is just an opportunity for God to do a work. That's vision. Because, see, what we do is we step back and say, "Well, Lord, I love you. You love me. You save me. I'm your child, and I understand that these types of circumstances come." But see, to have vision is when you look through the dark cloud for the good. You look through the dark cloud for God. You look through your feelings for what God is trying to do in you. That is vision.

And there are times when I've had suffering in my life and all I could see was flesh and my feelings, the way I wanted things to be. But by faith, I could cut through the fog of the way I felt and I could see because I knew that God was in the darkness. The fourth thing that we must do is welcome the work. See, when we have situational awareness, none of this sneaks up on God. I mean, it doesn't matter. It nothing sneaks up on God. Do you think the idol of Patmos tricked God? You think God said, "Oh, man, John is in jail. What am I going to do?" No. God put him there for a reason.

I don't believe he would have ever had time to get the book of the Revelation if he was out traveling and preaching and traveling and preaching. See, that is the work of God. We welcome the work of God. See when a cloud or a storm comes, we look up and say, "God, you're up to something. Bring it on." It doesn't matter how dark it gets. See our flesh is no, no, no. But our spirit says, "Yes, yes, yes." And we welcome the work of God. And then the fifth thing is we anticipate a work in us and through us. We anticipate a work in us because God first changes us, and then after he changes us, he uses us. Isn't that what he did with Hannah?

First she said, "I want a child." And then she said, "I want a son." And then she said, "Well, Lord, give me a son. I'll give him to you." And that's when God said, "Yeah, I've changed you just the way I want you to be, and you are a part of my plan." See that's anticipating the work. And although we might not see it, see it's around the corner, we see it and welcome it by faith. We might not know what it is, but what we do is we say, "Lord, where I'm in a storm, you're going to do something, and I just anticipate you doing that. I can remember some of the most difficult storms of my life.

I knew that there was something that God was up to, and I didn't know. I didn't understand. I didn't like it." But I said, "Lord, you're up to something. I just want it." And sometimes I couldn't understand it nor see it, but I could listen to a man preach. I could listen to a man articulate that going on in their life, and I would say, "God, if you did it in them, you can do it in me." So what is the title of the message this morning? The Power of Prayer, Part 1, Suffering. Go back to the verse, or listen to the verse, verse 13. "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing songs of praise." Isn't that good?

That's good. I'm going to pray, and then after I pray, Keith's going to lead us into closing him, and I'm going to get our men to take up our offering, but not worried about that right now. Let's bow our heads and let's close our eyes. Let's just take some time to respond to what we've heard and what the Lord has said.