Turn with me over to Psalm 86.
We normally go through Romans, but this morning I want to go
to Psalm 86. I was talking to a very dear lady on the phone this week. a believer who attends a gospel
church. And I was talking to her because
I was trying to get to the bottom of all this allergy sickness
that Hannah's been going through. The doctors had no idea what
was going on. And somebody told me that this
lady in particular had the same symptoms and so I called her. And she goes through something
that has been much more severe than what Hannah was dealing
with. Much more severe, but everything
was very similar. It was very similar. And she was telling me her story.
Telling me about everything that she'd been through and they still
don't know what's wrong with her. And she's been dealing with
this for 10 years. She still has the same flare-ups. To this day, she's been having
them for 10 years, and they still don't know what's wrong with
her. They medicate her. And I told her, as she was sitting
there telling me all this, I said, I am so sorry that you have to
deal with all this. And she said, Oh, it brings me
closer to my Lord. And I thought it does, doesn't
it? That was her immediate response. I said, I'm so sorry. And she
said, Oh, it brings me closer to my Lord. You don't have to
feel sorry for me. Look at verse six, Psalm 86,
verse six, it says, give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer and attend
to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble, I will
call upon thee for thou will answer me. I want us to look
this morning at the preciousness of prayer. It is. It is the preciousness of prayer. Verse six. Again, it says, give
ear, O Lord, unto my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplications
in the day of my trouble. I will call upon thee. For thou
will answer me. You know, we never really do
start praying until we're in trouble. You know that? And once
we're in trouble again, we realized I hadn't been praying all this
time. I mean really praying. Our Lord has given us trouble. And our Lord has given us prayer.
And the two go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. Prayer
is precious. So is trouble. Now I don't want
trouble and I don't pray for trouble. I don't ask for trouble,
but I know God sends it and I know it's precious when he does. Whenever
my mother became sick with cancer, Brother Todd Nybert told me,
he said, one of these days you're going to look back and realize
that that is the closest time you felt to the Lord in your
life. And he was right. He was right. The end of a matter is infinitely
sweeter after trouble than had there
been no trouble at all. It's always infinitely sweeter. Trouble reveals our infirmity. That's what it does. It reveals
our weakness, our helplessness. Whenever everything's going good,
we don't enter into our inability. And it proves to us that we are
nothing without the gracious hand of God on us. That's what it proves. It gets
you down when everybody's scratching their head and nobody knows what
to do and you've tried this one and that one and that one and
that one and then you finally realize we need the hand of God
on us. That's what we need. The strength
that we have We attribute it to our good health until God
takes it from us. And then we start clinging to
His strength. And we start saying, He is my
health and salvation. He is. Sinners are gonna leave
this world one of two ways. They're either gonna leave this
world content in their own ability, Or they're going to leave this
world clinging to Jesus Christ for dear life. Now, which one
is more precious? If it takes trouble to make me
do that, then trouble is a precious thing. It's a precious thing. Turn with me over to James chapter
5. James chapter 5, look at verse 13. It says, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Let him pray. Prayer and trouble
were made for each other. Our Lord said, seek Ask, knock,
and do it with your whole heart. Not with lip service. And we
know the difference. With your whole heart. When do
we do that? When trouble comes. That's when
we do it. There is a purpose for every
trouble. And that purpose is precious
prayer. That's the reason for the trouble
every time. His goodness and his wisdom and
his touch and his voice and his comfort is waiting for every
single one of his people at the end of the trial. It's sitting
there waiting on him. And the trial and the prayer
is what brings us near to him. That's what it does. With each
one of them, it brings us nearer to him. I want to be nearer to
him, nearer my God to thee. Nearer, still nearer. Draw me nearer. It's the trouble that makes us
pray more often. It's the trouble that makes us
pray more earnestly, more earnestly. See if you can find Hosea chapter
five. It's before the book of Amos.
It's after the book of Daniel. If you have a Bible like mine,
it's page 1129. Hosea 5, this is our God speaking. Verse 15. He said, I will go and return
to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face. In their affliction, they will
seek me early. That's the reason. The mercy
of trouble and the grace of trouble and the goodness of trouble is
it brings us back to our God in prayer. It brings us back. We get so caught up in this world
and then it brings us back. It brings us back. Trouble is
made for prayer. And true prayer to God is the
ending glory of trouble. That's what it is. It's the ending
purpose, the ending reason, it's the ending design. David finally
said, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. He finally
said that. Go with me over to Matthew 6. The prayer that's prayed from
a God-sent trial is what comforts a sinner in his or her heart
to believe, I belong to Him. I belong to my Lord. While this
world and while this flesh cries, this is what I want. This is
what I want. And the flesh of a believer does
cry that. I want her to be healed. I want her to be well. The flesh
of a believer does cry that, but there's a spirit in there
too. There's a spirit in there too.
Something in there is crying with sincerity. with honesty. Look at verse 10, Matthew 6 verse
10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done right here in
earth as it is in heaven. That's what I want. A true sinner
is comforted by that prayer. Knowing that has to be of God.
That can't be of me. That has to be of God. Only the
Spirit of God can cause a sinner to say that and mean it. I mean, mean it. You know, we
can say certain things, but mean it in the soul. Trials are never
meaningless. Not a one of them. They're never
meaningless. And prayer is never sweeter.
It's just never sweeter. Go with me over to Psalm 27. When we find ourselves in the
middle of real trouble, and we will again and again and again.
It's around the corner. Could be today, could be tomorrow.
It's around the corner. We get past one and we think,
thankfully all that's over. It's around the corner. Those
moments when it's not going away. You wake up, it's still there.
When trouble will not let up, prayer is our moment of relief
from it. That's what that, those, however
long it is, it could be three words, Lord help us. It could be five minutes, but
it's your moment of relief in that trouble. Look at verse five,
Psalm 27, verse five, four, in the time of trouble, right in
the middle of it. He shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. It eases our heart to know that
we can pour our grief into the ear of the one who is able and
he will hear us. You know, when we're praying
with our soul, our heart believes, God is listening to me. He hears us, he hears his children,
he hears his own, his elect. Now go back with me over to Psalm
86. Verse 1 says, Bow down thine ear, O Lord,
hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. And if you have a margin, that
means one whom thou favorest. I'm one that you've chosen. It's
not because of me, it's because of you, it's because of your
grace. I'm just a recipient of mercy. O thou my God, save thy
servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art
good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them
that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of
my trouble, I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. True prayer reminds us that he
will not leave us comfortless. We know that as we're praying
it. He's not going to leave in this. I don't know how it's going
to end, but I know he's not going to leave us comfortless. I know
that. He said, I will come to you. Verse seven says in the day of
my trouble, I will call upon thee for thou wilt answer me. Does that mean that he's always
going to take away the trial? No. The apostle Paul asked him
to three times. And this is what the Lord said
to him. This is how he answered him. He said, my grace is sufficient. And it was. And it is. It is. These times of trouble
and prayer, they remind us that he has already laid down his
life for us. We're going through inconveniences,
but He died. And we don't have to. We know that even if what we're
going through lays this body down, even if it ultimately lays
this body down, Christ has already paid my debt. Even if my temporary seems in
jeopardy, my eternal is forever secure. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, who would not gladly endure trials, afflictions, and
crosses on earth, riches like these to secure. Precious, more
precious, wealth that can never be told. Oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ, they're precious, more precious than gold. Wouldn't
we say that's sufficient? A sinless eternity with Christ? Seeing his love and seeing his
suffering and seeing his death and seeing his blood eases my
trouble. It just eases my trouble, doesn't
it yours? the preciousness of prayer, it's
the means that our God has given us to deliver us from the trouble. Maybe not from the trial, but
from the trouble. And we have his promise, we have
his truth, we have his faithfulness, that we will never seek him in
vain, never. He said, Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Never. And here they are. These are
his words. Go with me to Psalm 91. Verse 14 says, Because he hath
set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set
him on high because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me
and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor
him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. In the day of my trouble, I'll
call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me." The preciousness
of prayer. What a gift God has given us
on this earth. That long life, it may be short
on this earth, but that long life is eternity with Him. Wednesday
night, Mary Bell saw His salvation. I'm going to show you my salvation.
What a precious thing. Okay, you're dismissed.