James 5:13-16 Matthew 6:5-8

I found a story on the internet. It may be make-believe but it is a good story. Let me share it with you as an introduction to my topic. It seems that in a community in Virginia, a very small mountain town, there were two churches. The people in those churches considered themselves quite devout. There also in that community was a distillery and the distillery was run by an atheist. For years, the two churches talked among themselves and grappled with their consciences as to whether they should protest the existence of this distillery because it was destroying the lives of a lot of people who became alcoholics in this small community town. Finally, in the spirit of ecumenism, they got together and agreed on holding an all night prayer vigil. They would pray that the distillery would be closed. When the evening came for this particular event, they gathered in one of the churches and began to pray. As they prayed, a storm arose. It was a fierce storm; in fact, with great claps of thunder and bolts of lightening. One of the bolts of lightening hit the distillery, caught it on fire and burned it to the ground. You can imagine what the atheist thought. He applied for insurance to cover his loss and discovered there was a clause in his insurance that it wouldn't cover acts of God. So he took another path. He decided to sue both of the churches for being responsible for burning down his distillery. They went to court and his plea to the judge was that it was during this prayer meeting that they called upon God. A lightening bolt came down and destroyed his distillery. Therefore, the two churches were responsible and should pay his damages. The two church's representatives, their pastors, presidents and all those they called to the witness stand said, “No. We're not responsible for your distillery burning down. You can't hold us responsible for that.” The judge was quite insightful. He said, “For the first time in history, I think, an atheist is attesting to the power of God and the power of prayer, and the Christian churches are denying it.” It is a good story, isn't it, even though it might not be true?

I want to attest to the power of prayer this morning and let you know that the power of prayer is phenomenal. I want you to know that I am aware of that at an extremely high level. In the scripture that Shelley read this morning, especially the piece from James, we find instruction that when a person is sick, they are to call the elders of the church together to pray for and anoint that person. And that prayer will be efficacious. That prayer will be heard. That sickness will be relieved. We know that sometimes the cure that takes place is in the afterlife and not in this life. But sometimes it occurs in this life. Then it seems quite miraculous. Whatever the case may be, that prayer is heard. We have the assurance of the Bible on that, the Word of God Himself! That is extremely important.

As I thought about this, I looked up some research. I've talked to you about some of the research on the power of prayer before. Over 800 studies have been conducted on the power of prayer, researching patients who have various illnesses. I'll share one of them right now. This was at the San Francisco General Hospital where they took two groups of people in the coronary ICU unit, 192, who got prayed for, and 201 who did not get prayed for. It was a controlled study to see what the results were of these two groups. The results probably don't surprise any of you in our congregation. Those who were prayed for had fewer complications. They improved more rapidly. They had less infections and were less likely to die from their coronary events. Those who had no one praying for them had five times more infections, three times more lung complications which lead to death and so the final conclusion of the experimenters were that prayer works, that there is power in prayer. No surprise here, is there? We've known that for years.

When I was in the hospital, it astounded me the number of people that I heard were praying for me. It still astounds me. I can't get over all the prayers that were said in my behalf. I think I shared with you in my first sermon of this series that I found myself unable to pray myself and was puzzled by that. But at our Bible Study, Jan Nailor probably answered the question for me. She was the head surgery nurse at Christ Hospital for many years, and she said, “Hey Tay, you didn't have much blood in your brain.” So I concluded that my thinking was impaired. So that may explain why it was difficult for me to pray. But that also lets me know how important your prayers were, that your prayers sustained and carried me. Your pleading to God for me to live I credit with me living. That is the power of prayer. So you can imagine the gratitude that Jan and I feel for all of you who prayed. We learned that you weren't alone in praying. It wasn't just our congregation but apparently you got the word out to many other people. My wife got the word out to lots of people, too. I understand that people in Hawaii prayed for me. People in Columbus, Ohio, prayed for me. People in New Mexico prayed for me. People of all denominations&Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Catholics, Assembly of God, and other Pentecostals, prayed for me. Whew! God must have said, “Who is this guy, Tay Bach, that so many people are praying for him? I had better answer these prayers because apparently there is a congregation down there that wants him and needs him,” at least, that is how I am choosing to interpret all this! So the numbers of prayers said in my behalf were phenomenal.

I know that there are different kinds of prayers. The Gospel that was read this morning is actually a Gospel about the sincerity of prayers. Once again, the Pharisees are pointed out as bad examples. They're the ones who like to pray in public, say long prayers and try to impress everyone with their public praying. Once again, Jesus criticizes them and said, “I want prayers of sincerity and prayers of intensity. Prayers that are meant. I don't want prayers just by rote.” In fact, as we say the Lord's Prayer, we are to say that with thoughtfulness. The Lord's Prayer wasn't given to us as a prayer to say by rote as we say it. It was given to us as a guideline of how prayers should be said. First of all, you give praise to God. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name&” Then you pray for the establishment of His kingdom here on earth. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Then you are allowed to pray for yourself and your own personal needs. “Give us this day our daily bread.” That is like during this economic crisis, “Hey Lord. Preserve my retirement fund. Help us out here. Keep me in my job. Help me to keep my work.” So it is OK that we pray for ourselves. Then, the prayer puts a little burden on us, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Oh boy. Our forgiveness is connected to how we forgive people who hurt us, who injure us. Whew! That can be a tough one. Are you the type of person who holds a grudge? You are not supposed to do that. You are supposed to let it go. Our forgiveness is dependent on how we forgive others. “OK. That is a tough one, Lord.” Then it ends with praise again. “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever.” So, those were instructions on the methodology of praying. We say it by heart in all of our services. That is OK but we have to say it with intentionality. But the initial intention of Jesus was to give us a formula on which to base our prayers  not a prayer to say by rote.

Francis McNutt was an ex-priest like myself. McNutt studied healing prayer to a high degree and wrote about it. I became very fascinated with his writings. He coined the phrase, soaking prayer. I love that phrase. Do you like it? Soaking prayer. Soaking prayer is prayer that lasts a long time. Sometimes you pray for a person and you expect an instant miracle. That is not necessarily always God's will. Sometimes God requires soaking prayer. In fact, in the Bible, there is a short parable that Jesus gives. I'll just point it out here. I am going to read it to you. It is a short one.

“Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up in their prayer. He said, 'In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about people. There was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time, he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about people, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming.'” Jesus gave that parable to remind us to have soaking prayer. What ever it is, whether we need justice for some injustice in our life or we are praying for someone who is sick, sometimes it takes soaking prayer. I want you to learn that fact. Don't give up if a prayer isn't immediately answered or if you don't see the answer as quickly as you want it. Be persistent. Bother the Great Judge in heaven. Keep coming back to Him until He says, “I've had enough. I'll answer your prayer! OK. I'll do it for you. Whatever it is, OK!” Because that is what Jesus is instructing us to do. He wants us to pray continually. Jesus Himself did that. Over and over again we have the example of Him going up on a mountaintop or going to a garden and praying. Prayer is simply conversation with God. Jesus was in conversation with His father all the time. He took special time out to go to the mountain top or go to the garden where He could find some silence and not be pressed upon by the crowd that was crying out for healing. We too can do the same thing. We can have our moments of silence, our moments of escape, our moments of privacy where we go to Him. We do our soaking prayer. We pray continually and constantly. There is power in praying with intensity. When we pray with intensity, according to these Biblical passages, God listens. He loves sincerity. He loves authenticity. He listens to powerful prayers and he gives those prayers power. He answers them. I want to thank you once again this morning for praying for me. I owe my life to God and I'm very grateful for that. Thank you for your prayers. God listened to you!