Prayer and Praise
Introduction:
1. These questions are asked in a rhetorical sense.
2. James is provoking us to examine our situations.
3. The situation we are in requires that we either pray to God or praise God.
I) Being Afflicted
A) Afflicted literally means to suffer evil
1. This definition embraces every type of affliction
a. It identifies afflictions coming from internal temptations.
b. It describes the external trials we face.
2. Evil does not come from God.
a. Evil is the product of the absence of good.
b. Not doing "good" creates a void.
c. This void represents an absence of the Good, which is God.
d. The absence of God means man will fill that void with whatever he can to try and fill it, to no avail.
B) Sorrow, suffering and pain are burdens of this life.
1. We must recognize that these things happen to all men.
a. God does not protect us from the affairs of this life.
(i) The life of Job teaches us so.
(ii) A righteous man suffered greatly and God's response was greater.
(iii) God says that His knowledge is greater than man's and what he does is not under any question by man.
b. God uses these burdens to increase our faith and reliance upon Him.
(i) In speaking with Job, God asks Job if he could understand the creation.
(ii) Job could not and no other man can.
(iii) We must then rely upon the creator of the world to use what comes upon us for our good.
2. The proper attitude toward these burdens is exhibited in worship.
a. Worship is honor, reverence, to God.
b. Through worship man is able to recognize the power God has over His creation.
c. This recognition allows man to learn the proper submission to God.
d. Thereby we find that suffering evil puts us on bended knee before the throne of God.
3. The proper attitude of worship does not come by vain oaths or profane swearing.
a. We cannot affirm what we do not understand.
b. We are like Job.
c. Suffering will fall upon our shoulders and we must embrace it as a means to grow spiritually rather than speak flippantly or frivolously about God.
II) Overcoming Affliction
A) Let him keep on praying
1. Because affliction is with us in this life we can do two things.
a. We can blame God for it.
b. We can go to God for relief from it.
2. Prayers are the petition for relief.
a. Going before God's throne of mercy prostrates us properly.
b. It is recognition of the might and power of God.
c. As such we plead through Christ for deliverance from our afflictions.
(i) We must pray through Christ because he knows our affliction.
(ii) Christ also understand God.
(iii) Therefore, He is able to express to God our need for relief.
d. It is by God's hand then that we receive that relief.
B) Christians should rejoice in being able to go to God in prayer
1. What a joy it is to know that God will hear us.
a. Imagine a man trying to see the king so he may pass judgment upon an issue of grave importance.
b. Yet that king never hears the case.
c. How will he feel and react?
2. The sinner is like this: he cannot have his prayers heard by God.
a. John 9:31 - Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
b. How will the sinner react if God never heard him?
(i) How will he feel when he does not get the wisdom to cope?
(ii) How will he react when he does not have the strength to overcome?
c. Therefore, it is necessary to rejoice for God's listening to our prayers.
(i) We do receive the wisdom to cope.
(ii) We will obtain the strength to overcome.
C) Remember when all others fail us God will not.
1. God is our refuge.
a. 2 Samuel 22:3 - The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.
b. His security lasts for eternity.
2. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 describes Paul with a "thorn in the flesh."
a. His response teaches us God's presence.
(i) Not only do we know that God is with us but His power is too.
(ii) 2 Corinthians 12:10 - Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
b. He knew that God would never leave him.
c. He knew God made him strong.
(i) Paul was strong because he relied upon God to supply all his needs.
(ii) Romans 8:31 - What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
III) Being Merry/Cheerful
A) What cheer is and what it is not.
1. Cheer is not fun or frivolity.
2. Cheer means friendly, joyful, pleasant, and agreeable.
3. Cheer can also mean that one is in good spirits or Cheer can be defined as freedom from anxiety and disturbing problems.
a. Paul exhorts in both ways.
(i) Acts 27:22 - And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.
(ii) Paul appeals to the cheerfulness of a saved life.
(iii) Acts 27:25 - Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
(iv) Paul explains that cheer in this verse concerns the salvation offered to man as a result of his faith.
B) It is the exact opposite of affliction.
1. James is maybe referring to the same person as he was in the beginning of the verse.
2. He who is suffering must pray to the Father for action: and when it is gone, to be cheerful, and express such in praise and worship.
C) Praise is the natural expression of a content and thankful heart.
1. Actually, we have a need to praise God.
a. We need to be able to reveal our innermost thoughts and feelings.
b. This praise offers us contentment to carry on.
2. Without a doubt praise is the "highest form of prayer."
IV) Expressing Cheer
A) Let him keep on singing.
1. Singing is an overflow if the heart.
2. It is the emotional release of the happy heart.
3. Zephaniah 3:14 - Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
B) Psallo means to sing a hymn.
1. It can also mean to pluck or twang.
a. In many ways we find that it is used for plucking one's hair, plucking a carpenter's string, twang a musical instrument.
b. The twanging or plucking in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 is a command in worship.
c. The verse demands that the instrument we are to pluck or twang is the strings of our hearts.
C) Let me address instrumental music.
1. Since the instrument we are to pluck has been given there is no authority to introduce mechanical instruments of music.
2. The argument made most frequently is that the use of mechanical instruments is a matter of choice.
a. But we cannot replace the instrument God created with one that man created.
b. God punishes those who do; simply ask Nadab and Abihu.
3. Interestingly the Greek Orthodox Church which is made up of Greek speaking individuals who would understand the Greek language have never used mechanical instruments in their worship.
4. Neither can one use the Old Testament to justify the use of mechanical instruments.
a. What proves too much proves nothing.
b. Therefore, if we are allowed to bring in mechanical instruments of music then we could bring in the whole law, like circumcision.
c. Throughout the first century the refutation of bringing in circumcision as a requirement of salvation is a cornerstone of many of books of the New Testament.
d. God neither authorizes the use of mechanical instruments of music nor does he overlook their use.
D) The purpose of worship is two-fold.
1. The primary purpose is to glorify God.
a. John 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
b. We are the actors on the stage before God.
c. Playing out the play which he wrote.
d. This play is our worship giving him glory through it.
2. The secondary purpose is edification of the worshiper.
a. By obeying God and being blessed as a result brings joy and happiness to our hearts.
b. Being among like-minded people encourages us to be faithful.
c. Worship then is exciting and provoking for the worshiper because he is the lead in God's play.
Conclusion:
1. Prayer and praise are the cornerstone of a Christian's life.
2. Using these things we petition and praise God for the events that transpire in our lives.
3. We know there will good times as well as bad.
4. But only every faithful Christian can truly understand the joy of having his prayers and praise heard by God.
5. I want to appeal to the emptiness in your worship.
6. If you have not submitted to the plan of salvation then your prayers for assistance from affliction cannot be answered.
7. If you have not been baptized for the remission of sins then your praise accounts for nothing when God judges your life.
8. Therefore, submit to God's plan right now.
Posted in: Book of James, Praise, Prayer, Sermon Outlines