The Power of Prayer

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that you've given us your word and these stories from the Old Testament with all kinds of drama, how you miraculously acted on behalf of your servants for their good, for their well being. Give us confidence that when we pray, we are talking to you, the God who does miracles, the God of the universe, the God who can do anything. Encourage us to come confidently, knowing that you love us and knowing that you always answer our prayers. In Jesus' name, Amen.

A few years ago, I was talking with one of my nephews. He had made a series of bad choices in life, choices that just caused a lot of pain for himself and for people around him and people who cared about him. So I, as his uncle and “pastor,” said, “You know, sometimes I wonder if you are a Christian.” I guess that was a little too blunt, but he could handle it. He said, “I still believe, but sometimes I wonder where God is.” And I think that really is kind of what Elijah might have been thinking at that time.

The people, the whole nation had turned away from God. Elijah was the prophet. It was his job to take the word of God to the people, to encourage them, to build them up, to guide them, and to communicate from God to them. And the whole nation had turned away. The reason was simply a result of time and their sinful nature and then the king. King Ahab married wicked Queen Jezebel. I don't know anybody named Jezebel, but you know the modern day equivalent is Isabel. I know people with that name. Jezebel was a queen from Phoenicia , and she was a pagan queen. She didn't worship God. She had Baal and Asherah and all these other false gods. So when she married King Ahab, she brought all her false prophets along with her, her little idols and false gods she brought along. And because she was a powerful and dynamic person, she had influence over a lot of people. People were afraid to go against her. People were afraid to worship the true God when she was promoting her false gods.

So the nation of Israel was led astray. The king of Israel was led astray. And now they were suffering. For three years, God had cursed their land with a drought. I don't know about you, but I've seen enough dry weather in my time. I didn't live through the Dust Bowl but, when we went to visit New Jersey the first time, it was dry and hot. They hadn't had rain in I don't know how long. All the yards were brown, and the leaves on the trees were crinkled up from the stress of dehydration. A few years later, we had a similar time without rain. They declared we were all on rationing as far as watering. We could not water our lawns or wash our cars. But, as you drove through our neighborhood, you could find a person or two who had a green yard and you knew they were cheating. A drought is not fun. It's not a good place to live when things are dry and there isn't enough water. A drought causes a lot of hardship. But the physical drought that Israel was experiencing was nothing compared to the spiritual drought because they had turned away from God. They lost all the peace and joy you and I have as brothers and sisters in Christ. They lost the assurance of knowing the God of creation was their God and was with them because it had been worn away as the influence of the false gods and the pagan queen touched their lives.

Elijah was in agony to see all that, and he even declared, “I am the only prophet of the Lord that is left.” By the Holy Spirit, God moved on him to call the people back, to call them from these false gods and back to the true God. So Elijah spoke to Ahab the King and he said, “Summon all the people. Bring them all to Mount Carmel , that beautiful mountaintop.” Normally it's full of all kinds of wonderful crops that people grew there. The soil was wonderful, and it was a beautiful scene with the ocean in the distance. But at this time of severe drought, nothing was growing there. But Elijah called them all there because, in years past, hundreds and hundreds of years, the people of Israel had offered sacrifices on an altar on top of Mount Carmel . So the whole nation gathered. In addition, the king was there. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal were there. Four hundred prophets of Asherah were there. And Elijah issued this challenge. We will both make a sacrifice. You make a sacrifice to your god. I'll make a sacrifice to my God. You prepare your sacrifice. I'll prepare my sacrifice. You call out to your god. I'll call out to my God. The god who answers with fire, that will be the true God. He even let the false prophets go first. There were 850 of them. “Go ahead, you go first. Pick which bowl you want. Make your sacrifice. Pray to your God, Baal, and let him send fire on the sacrifice.” So they called out, “Oh, Baal, answer us.” But there was no response. No one answered. They danced around the altar they had made. You can just picture what that must have looked like. Dancing around this sacrifice hoping to get their god's attention. At noon, Elijah could hardly contain himself. He began to taunt them. “Shout louder,” he said, “Surely, he is a god. Perhaps he's deep in thought or busy.” Or as the Hebrew says, “Using the bathroom.” “Or traveling or maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder, and they slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday past, 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. And why should they? Baal is not God. There is no other God. There is one God, one true God. So if you're praying to something else or offering a sacrifice to something else, you're not going to get an answer. There isn't going to be a response.

Then Elijah takes his turn. He says to the people, “Come here to me.” And they came to him. And he showed them the altar of the Lord on the mountaintop, Mount Carmel , and it was in ruins. Why was the altar in ruins? Weeds growing, stones falling over. Because the people weren't worshiping God. They had neglected their relationship with their heavenly Father. They had turned away toward these false gods that the pagan queen had introduced. And Elijah knelt down and he picked up a stone, one of the 12 stones, each stone representing one of the tribes of Israel . This was their heritage, not just ethnically but spiritually, to come together as the chosen people of God and offer sacrifices on this mountain. So as he picked up that stone, in my mind I'm thinking other people must have rushed forward and they grabbed stones too, and together they rebuilt the altar of the Lord and made it just as God had prescribed, ordered the stones and cleared it away and made it look beautiful. And then he arranged the wood on it just as it was proper to do so. And then the sacrifice itself. And then to make sure there was no doubt this was a miracle of God, he asked for water. Water in a time of drought. And they took four large jugs of water and they dumped it on the sacrifice. You can imagine people in the crowd were just thinking, “Oh, man, if I had that water I could cook for my family. I could water my little garden. I could do all kinds of things. And he's just dumping it on the ground.” He said, “Do it again.” Four more large jars of water. “Do it again,” he said a third time. The third time he did it, the water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench that had been dug surrounding the altar. Then Elijah steps forward, and he prays this simple prayer, “Oh, Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of 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. Answer me, O Lord. Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again.” There was no delay. Instantaneously, fire from heaven fell down on the sacrifice. It burned the sacrifice. It burned the wood. It burned the stones. It burned the soil and also burned the water in the trench. And when all the people saw this, instantaneously, they fell on their faces before God. And they said, “The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God.” And you can just hear that huge crowd chanting that over and over and over, “The Lord, He is God.” There is only one true God, and you don't have to be dramatic to get His attention. You don't have to dance. You don't have to shout. You don't have to do things that harm yourselves. Just speak from your heart, beautiful and clear words.

So how do we apply this story and what does that have to say about prayer? Well, sometimes we find ourselves, like my nephew, in a spiritual drought where we don't see God. We can't see Him. We don't feel like He's answering our prayers. We pray, pray, pray and we don't see anything happening. A drought.

I have a point to make, and I'm going to use a joke to make it. An elderly couple were riding in their pickup truck, she on one side, he on the other side. And a car went by with a young couple in it. The guy's driving, the girl's right next him all snuggled up. The elderly woman in the pickup said, “Remember when we used to be like that?” And her husband driving said, “Who moved?” Who moved? That's a lot like our relationship with God. When it seems to be cooled off, when it seems to be dried up, when we seem to be in a desert time, it's good to get one on one with Him and say, “God, I need you. Show me the way. Show me what it is you want me to learn. Show me how to act, what to do, even how to pray.”

Here's a sobering question. The Holy Spirit calls our bodies, as believers in Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit. You, all of you and me, we're the temple of the Holy Spirit, individually and collectively. But as individuals, think about this, what is the condition of the altar in your heart? Remember Israel ? They had neglected God and so their altar on top of Mount Carmel was in ruins. They had neglected their relationship with God. So we think about our time with walking with the Lord, your daily devotions, your prayers, your individual reading of God's Word, your joining together with brothers and sisters in Christ to bear each other's burdens and to study God's word together, your collective worship coming together on Sunday morning, all of that feeds you and strengthens you and equips you and I want to encourage you to continue in that way.

So I'm going to identify four things to keep in mind as you approach God with your prayers. First of all, I want you to be confident that He loves you and that He can do anything. You know, as little children sometimes we think our dads can do miracles. I can remember my little girls bringing to me Barbies with their heads pulled off. “Fix it, Dad.” Yeah, that's kind of how they look at us. Well, isn't that a great way to think about God, our heavenly Father? Anything in our hearts, any struggle, anything we're having a hard time with, He's our dad in heaven and He can fix it.

Second, I want you to know who you're talking to. Keep in mind, as you're praying, you're talking to the God of the universe. You're talking about somebody who loved you so much He sent His Son to die for you. You're talking about somebody who gave you life and He cares. He's concerned. He's tuned in to what you're walking through.

The third point I want to make is I want you to be aware that God has called you to be His servant. He has something for you to do. He has a plan for your life. He gave you those wonderful gifts and resources and talents for a purpose and ask Him what that purpose might be.

And finally, in Elijah's prayer, he wasn't praying for himself. “O, Lord, show these other prophets that I'm a better prophet.” No, he was praying that God would reveal Himself so the whole nation would be turned to Him, turned to God, to trust in Him again to enjoy the benefits of that beautiful relationship between a loving God and his obedient children.

So pray with confidence. Pray knowing who you're talking to. Pray aware of your role as God's servant. And pray with concern for others. In Jesus' name, Amen? Amen.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church