Prayer Changes Things

Reflecting The Son

Next week, we will begin a discipleship series, “Way, Truth, Life; Discipleship as a Journey of Grace.” I hope that you have picked up the little book that was written by Dr. David Busic, as it provides a pathway for us to guide us on this journey. When you just look over the Table of Contents in the book, you will see that the Journey of Grace is all about grace! We will be focusing in on discipleship, but really, every Sunday, our focus is on developing into disciples of Jesus that reflect Him to the world around us in ever clearer ways. That’s why we have been focusing over these last few weeks on Reflecting the Son, as we have looked at several different passages from the letter of James, the brother of Jesus.

Whenever I read through the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, one of the things that jumps out to me (and there are many), but one of the things that jumps out to me is that Jesus was a person of prayer.

Some examples:

Luke 6:12 NIV

12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

Mark 1:35 NIV

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Luke 3:21–22 NIV

21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Matthew 14:23 NIV

23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,

Matthew 14:19 NIV

19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

Luke 5:15–16 NIV

15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Jesus, the Son of God, saw that prayer was vital to everything He did while He was here on earth. The disciples recognized that there was power in His prayer life and even asked Him to show them how to pray. If prayer was important to Jesus, it is vital to our spiritual power and even survival as those who would reflect the Son as well.

Yet, study after study concludes that Christians, and yes, even pastors, spend precious little time in prayer. Let’s lift up Jesus as our example to how we are to pray. It is my belief that a prayerless church is a powerless church and prayerless Christians are powerless Christians. Let’s look at what James has to say about this:

James 5:13–18 NIV

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Is there anybody that is suffering? Christians should recognize that God is in control and pray in the face of suffering.

I would say that suffering is pretty widespread - there are, of course, different levels of suffering - some of the things we talk about when we talk about “suffering” are 1st world problems for sure - things like broken down cars, or getting caught in traffic, while much of the world has no vehicle and walks everywhere they go. Yet, there are many in our culture who are truly suffering - sickness and loss are some things that cause suffering among all people groups. James says if anybody is suffering they should pray!

Anybody that is cheerful, he says should sing songs of praise. Praise songs are a type of prayer. God inhabits the praises of His people - so praise is natural for the Christ follower who is cheerful.

If I am completely honest, though, I struggle with this next part - If anybody is sick - we all know that there are times that we see loved ones experience sickness and we will all face sickness ourselves as well. He says, if anyone is sick, we should call in the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.

Jean Serrao, in the New Beacon Bible Commentary says: “Here, an intercessory healing prayer follows the anointing with oil. Olive oil (elaiōi) was one of the most common medicines of the first century. After appropriate medicine was administered, the elders were to pray for the healing of the believer. God is the one who ultimately heals and makes the medicine effective, but medicine is important to the healing process.”

We believe in the power of prayer for the sick. I believe that there are times that God steps in and heals in miraculous ways. I have told you about times in my own life and ministry when there was no other explanation for healing. I have heard surgeons acknowledge that while they may be able to manipulate the body and help put it in a situation where healing may take place, only God brings healing. I believe in divine healing, but I cannot explain why sometimes healing does not happen. Let me make one thing very clear - I do not believe, and I do not believe that scripture teaches that if only you believe enough that God will always heal the body. Does He heal? Absolutely! Will He heal in a particular situation? We can never know for sure! Yet, James says we should pray over the sick and anoint them with oil for healing, so that is what we do when sickness and disease comes - trusting God in the situations we face, and believing that He can and does heal. Yes - the prayer of a righteous person in powerful and effective! But the healing that occurs is not accomplished by the righteous person - only God heals!

The effectiveness of the requests is not in the praying itself, as if prayer is powerful or magical. Their effectiveness arises from the goodness and unlimited ability of God

It is common for many of us to feel we don’t know how to pray or what to say – and James understood that so he gave us an example of how we can pray. We may even sometimes blame ourselves when healing doesn’t occur as we want it to occur, feeling like if we were maybe more righteous that our prayers would be more powerful. James gives us an example from the Old Testament.

He wrote: "Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." (James 5:17-18)

In other words… if you want to have a good model of how to pray, look at how Elijah prayed. SO that’s what we’re going to do for a few minutes this morning. Turn with me in your Bibles to I Kings 18.

Before we read this passage, I want to give you the background on this story.

At the time of I Kings 18, the King of Israel was a man named Ahab, and he was married to a Philistine woman named Jezebel. She was so wicked that her very name is equated with being an evil woman. When people refer to a woman as a Jezebel - we all know that is a terrible insult.

Partly because of Jezebel’s evil influence, King Ahab and the nation of Israel had turned away from true worship of God and had turned to other gods. While they still prayed to God, they also worshipped other gods, like Baal and Asherah, which were worshipped by the pagan people around Israel but were really no god at all. True worship of the God of Israel - the God of the Old Testament - Yahweh - true worship of our God means that the worship of any other god was and is prohibited.

So - because of their disobedience - God sent Elijah to tell King Ahab that he and the nation of Israel would be punished with a drought. There would be no rain and no dew (this ended up lasting 3 ½ years.) At the end of that 3 ½ years, God sent Elijah back to King Ahab and offered a challenge. Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt. Carmel. All of Israel gathered at the foot of the Mountain and they heard Elijah confront them with these words:

"How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." (I Kings 18:21)

Then the challenge begins: Follow along with me as I read I Kings 18:22-40

1 Kings 18:22–40 NIV

22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” 40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

All this happens before the prayer that James says is our example. Let’s look at what happened next:

1 Kings 18:41–45 NIV

41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. 43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” 44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” 45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.

James illustrates what can happen when ordinary people like us pray:

Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and a half years.

James says that Elijah was a man like us - He was a human who trusted in God’s provision. He did what God directed him to do, and there were amazing results!

Prayer Changes Things!