Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
1 Kings 18:41-46, James 5:13-18
41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. 43 And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. 44 And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” 45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. 46 And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
(ESV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.1 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
So if you have your bible, I invite you to turn to 1st kings 18 and James chapter 5. I realized that as we've been going through the story of Elijah, we've had to skip over a few things. We skipped over Elijah raising the widow's son. We skipped over him killing the prophets of Baal. We skipped over the whole section about Obadiah, And just know that we're going to look at some of those things in the weeks ahead.
Joel Brooks:We'll go back and, and we'll look backwards as as we get to some of the chapters ahead. But also, it's a 10 week series, and so we do have to leave some things out. But I might have a time, maybe at Back 40 Brewery or something like that on a Monday night to where you could just come and ask questions about Elijah, because I've I've loved studying this, and I'd love to talk with you about it. So this morning, this is our 3rd week in studying Elijah. We're looking at 1st Kings 18.
Joel Brooks:James 5 is there in your worship guide. And we'll begin with 1st Kings 18 verse 41. And Elijah said to Ahab, go up and eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.
Joel Brooks:And he said to his servant, go up now. Look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there's nothing. And he said, go again 7 times. And at the 7th time, he said, behold a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.
Joel Brooks:And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rains stop you. And in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment, and he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Now James chapter 5 beginning in verse 13.
Joel Brooks:Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick?
Joel Brooks:Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Joel Brooks:Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for 3 years 6 months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our father, we ask that through your spirit, you would give them give us a mind to understand, ears to hear, and a heart to obey the words that we hear from you. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So James ends his letter, with a call for us to pray. And he says if we want to learn how to pray and and to pray in power, we need to look to the prophet Elijah. He said if we wanna pray with such power that it might even result in the healing of people, then we need to learn the lessons of Elijah, in particular, the lesson of Elijah praying for it to stop raining and for it to start raining. And so that's what we're gonna do this morning because I would love such a prayer life personally and for us as a church.
Joel Brooks:And so I want us to look at Elijah and see what he has to teach us about prayer. Now there are many notable people actually that James could have pointed back to to teach us about prayer. But for some reason, he chose Elijah. Hey. He could have used Abraham.
Joel Brooks:He could have used Moses. 2 very prayerful people. I mean, Moses was actually described as a man who used to meet with the Lord face to face, like one meets with a friend. But James doesn't go there. James could have also he could have used maybe the examples of of Daniel.
Joel Brooks:Daniel, a person who is known for 3 times every day getting on his knees and praying, but he doesn't bring up Daniel. He could have chosen David. David literally wrote our book on prayer. He wrote most of the Psalter, but James doesn't go there. Instead, he pulls up Elijah.
Joel Brooks:Why? Why why point to Elijah as our example for prayer? Well, one of the main reasons is because Elijah was known as a man of action. He was known actually as a man of miracles. Believe it or not, the the bible is not crammed full of miracles.
Joel Brooks:Really you see 3 main periods in which miracles happen in the bible. You have Moses and Elijah or Moses and Joshua, in which there's a lot of miracles happening during that time. You have Jesus and the apostles, a lot of miracles happen in that time. And then the only other time in the Bible you really find a whole lot of miracles is with Elijah and Elijah. Elijah in particular was known for a man who performed mighty miracles.
Joel Brooks:And so for those reasons, he was known as the most powerful prophet in all of Israel's history. So if you want to pray for healing power, if you want to pray for miracles, Elijah is a good person to look to, to learn from. But I actually don't think that's the main reason that James has us looking at Elijah. Yes. He wants to remind us of the incredible power that Elijah had, but he makes it a point to point out just how normal Elijah was.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 17 of James chapter 5. You'll read that he's described as a man with a nature just like ours. That word nature there means substance or of the same emotions. Elijah had the same emotions as we do. He thought like we think.
Joel Brooks:He he felt like we feel. He was not superhuman. He put his pants on one leg at a time. It was actually, weeks back that when I read this description of Elijah, that made me start thinking I'd like to preach on this at Redeemer, Elijah being a man with a nature just like ours, Because, honestly, I struggle believing that. Elijah, when you look at all the miracles he does, he he just seems superhuman.
Joel Brooks:But James says that Elijah was a man that we should instinctively get. We should instinctively just understand because he's no different than us. Now one of the reasons that's hard for us to see right now is because up to this point in Elijah's story, we have only seen his power. But make no mistake, in the weeks ahead, we will also see his weaknesses. We will see his struggles.
Joel Brooks:Did you know that Elijah struggled with loneliness? He struggled with loneliness. At times, he called out to the Lord. He says, I'm the only one. I'm the only one here.
Joel Brooks:He also struggled with anxiety and fear. Even when he knew the Lord was taking care of him, he struggled with anxiety. There was times that he was angry. Times he was filled with compassion. Times where he displays arrogance.
Joel Brooks:Other times, he has an incredible humility. In other words, we see clearly he was not superhuman. He wrestled with all the human experiences that we wrestle with. He was a man just like us. Now if Elijah lived today and had an Instagram account, you wouldn't realize that because you would've only been seen as being very put together, 6 pack abs, standing on top of some mountain, looking off in the distance, living the life you wish you had.
Joel Brooks:But the Bible presents very realistic pictures of people. It lets us know their struggles, that not everything is roses. And when we look at Elijah, we are to see we're just like him. He's just like us and so we can relate to him. So I think that's one of the reasons that James uses Elijah.
Joel Brooks:A harder question to answer is why James decides to use this miracle of all the miracles Elijah does? Because there were plenty of other miracles he could have drawn from, and honestly, the other miracles make more sense at first glance. Every commentary you are gonna read, they're gonna say, basically, they're scratching their head as to why James pulls out this miracle with the other ones that you could have drawn from. For instance, James coulda easily brought up the time he took on the prophets of Baal. Elijah just prays a simple prayer, boom, fire falls.
Joel Brooks:You see this powerful display. Or maybe more appropriately, you could pull up the time that Elijah prayed for the widow's son who had just died. And he prays and the son comes back to life. Now if James is trying to teach the church to pray for healing, you can't get a better example than that. Elijah literally prays and raises somebody from the dead, but James doesn't go there.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't use that miracle. Why? Why does he point to a time when Elijah prayed for it to stop raining and for a time when Elijah prayed for it to reign? Well, one of the reasons is this. This was Elijah's first miracle.
Joel Brooks:It was his very first miracle, praying that it would stop raining. And I think James wants us to contemplate that. That Elijah was a man just like us. He's no different than us, yet something brought him to the point where he would pray for something huge. He was an ordinary man, yet something brought him to this point.
Joel Brooks:Something served as a trigger in him, igniting him to make such a bold request before the Lord. And I believe that trigger was the Word of God. We see clearly in this story that it was God's word that led Elijah to pray for rain. Back in chapter 18 verse 1, God tells Elijah, go to Ahab because I'm going to send the rain. So he has God's word that tells him what he needs to now pray for.
Joel Brooks:But also, it was God's word that led him to pray for it to stop raining. But this time, it wasn't the audible voice of God. It was actually scripture. In Deuteronomy chapter 11, we read that God told the Israelites as they were moving into the promised land. He said, you obey me.
Joel Brooks:You worship me. I'll send the rains. You will be You will have a fruitful harvest. But, if you go after other gods, if you worship other gods, I will shut the heavens and I will cause it not to rain. So Elijah knows this.
Joel Brooks:He's read this. He believes God's word to be true and he prays towards that end. So Elijah's prayer for God to withhold rain and Elijah's prayer for God to later give rain, both were based on the word of God. This is what allowed him to pray in faith for these things. It wasn't a blind faith.
Joel Brooks:It wasn't a faith that he just had to try to muster up and to conjure up all in himself. He was simply taking God at his word. God, you said this. God, you promised this, and now I'm gonna pray it into existence. And believer, that is how we are supposed to pray.
Joel Brooks:Our prayers are to be bathed in scripture. You want a better prayer life? Pray with your Bible open. Open your bible. Read the scriptures.
Joel Brooks:All the time reading and praying and asking, spirit of God, teach me what this means. Spirit of God, show me what I'm supposed to do or pray for in light of this truth. We read with our Bibles open, asking God to direct us. That's exactly what Elijah did. James, I believe also, he brings up this story of Elijah, because of the type of praying Elijah did.
Joel Brooks:It was a persistent, fervent prayer. James, with that word fervent prayer, literally it's, in praying he prayed. In praying, he prayed. Meaning, he prayed and he prayed and he prayed and he prayed. Now when Elijah called for fire to come down from heaven, how did he pray?
Joel Brooks:He just went out there. He said, that they might know you're the living God. And before he even got the words, like, finished. You didn't get to say, amen. Fire fell down immediately.
Joel Brooks:Anyone have that experience in prayer? Anyone? Where you you make a huge request for a miracle, and before the words are even out of your mouth, god just answers? Rarely, if ever, does that happen. That's not the common Christian experience that we see that happening.
Joel Brooks:But this story is the common experience. This time, Elijah has to in praying, he prayed, or he has to pray and pray and pray again. 7 times, he's praying for rain. Think about it this way. What if the prophets of Baal had still been around?
Joel Brooks:What do you think they would have been doing in this moment? What's wrong, Elijah? Can your God not hear you? Elijah, perhaps your God's out taking a walk. Perhaps he's out going to the bathroom, or perhaps he's asleep Elijah, and you just need to call louder and wake him.
Joel Brooks:The prophets of Baal would have been mocking Elijah, because God was responding mocking Elijah because God was responding the exact way that Baal had responded to them. Yet Elijah just keeps persisting. This does raise some questions, though, about prayer. Why is it that God did not answer the first time? Why is it that God made Elijah ask him again and again and again?
Joel Brooks:And finally, one stupid question. Perhaps it's a stupid question. It maybe it's a question you've also thought of and you've just been too embarrassed to ask. But what do you think Elijah said to God every time he had to keep kneeling down to pray? Seriously, think about that.
Joel Brooks:I I can imagine what his prayer was the first time. He he kneels down and he's praying. He says, God, you said it. You said you're gonna bring the rain, so bring it. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Sends his servant out. Servant goes and checks. Comes back. He's like, it's not raining. And Elijah's thinking, And he's he's staying on his knees.
Joel Brooks:He's he's praying again and again, as James tells us. And so what do you think he said that second time? Hey hey, god. Just a reminder, you told me it was going to rain, and so I really want you. I've already told Ahab this.
Joel Brooks:I've, like, come through. Amen. And he sends his servant out, and the servant comes back and goes, still no rain. What do you think Elijah prays that 3rd time? I mean, he probably does what, you know, some of us do.
Joel Brooks:You you think, okay. I need to add some things. Maybe I didn't spend my time in praise, you know, that little, and now that that ask you need to ask, you need to, seek, you need to knock. So I need to I need to ask or I need to adore God. I need to maybe spend some time in thanksgiving.
Joel Brooks:And so you add all these things and you're like, almighty God, heavenly father, who maketh everything. You add some adjectives. You raise your voice and say, now send the rain,
Jeffrey Heine:and then you go out,
Joel Brooks:send the servant, comes back, still no rain. What do you ask for now? What do you say? I feel like at this point, what happens with a lot of us is we kinda become micromanagers of God. We start telling us specifically what he needs to do.
Joel Brooks:Actually, a lot of times, we become like the the hospital administrators, the doctors, the lab technicians, the biologists. And so if you're praying for somebody's healing and cancer, you know, you start off with that bold prayer, Lord, heal them of cancer. And then he could kinda feel nothing happened. So now it's time to become the microbiologist. And, lord, we just pray against those cancer cells and their structure And that you begin to break down those cells at the cellular level.
Joel Brooks:And then we become the hospital administrator. And we pray that you would get this person to the right doctor and that you would give this doctor enormous wisdom. And then we become we the lab technician, and we pray that the results, the blood results would come back, negative, and it'd be good news. And then we pray for the medicine. Lord, we ask that chemotherapy would would do its work.
Joel Brooks:We begin to pray those ends. We kinda micromanage God. Anybody pray like that? Liars. I pray like that.
Joel Brooks:We all pray like that. And hear me, I am not knocking that prayer. Pray on people. Please pray on. But I do wanna raise this possibility.
Joel Brooks:That sometimes our many words do not indicate faith, but they indicate a lack of faith. Sometimes, we hope that we will be heard for our many words. Sometimes, we pray, and our prayers more resemble the prophets of Baal than they resemble the prophets to the true God. We feel that if we shout a little bit louder, say the right formula, work ourselves up into a frenzy, then we might get God's attention. What do you think Elijah prayed for, maybe the 4th or 5th time?
Joel Brooks:Do you think he became a meteorologist? Lord, would you just bring in that cold front to mix with that humid air, causing those water droplets in the air to get heavy and then to come down. And God's thinking, you know what? Thank you. Because I I didn't know what to do.
Joel Brooks:You know? I just I just needed a little instruction. Do you think that's what Elijah did? Maybe. Maybe.
Joel Brooks:I do think God was teaching something. I know God was teaching Elijah something by having him continually ask and seek and knock. God is teaching us something, as we have to go to him over and over and over again in prayer. I have found that when I go to the Lord with my initial request and it's not initially answered, I do pray again and usually I just repeat myself as if God was hard from hearing hard of hearing and and I'll just say, once again, Lord, I I I ask this. And maybe I say it with a little more fervency.
Joel Brooks:And then if he doesn't answer, I pray again. After a while, I have found that when I have to keep going back and back, the content of my prayers change. They grow deeper. I begin probing into myself and into God. Begin asking deeper questions like, is is there something in me?
Joel Brooks:Is there is there some sin in my life you would like to deal with me now? Lord, is there something that I'm missing? Is there something I'm not hearing from you? And then I really begin to press into him. I remind myself of who he is.
Joel Brooks:I begin searching the scriptures, reminding myself of the promises of God, reminding myself of everything God has declared himself to be, and I keep going deeper and deeper into who he is. And that initial request that I came to win, now it's in the rearview mirror, it's just so small. And God has moved me on to deeper things. Perhaps that's what he's doing with Elijah. I don't know.
Joel Brooks:Just using some holy imagination here. What did he keep praying for each time? What was the Lord really teaching him? I do know this. He did not feel the need to keep praying and praying in order to get God to hear from him.
Joel Brooks:He kept praying and praying because he knew God did hear him, and that gave him the confidence to keep going. And as children of God, we have that confidence as well. We just read in Hebrews that's through the blood of Jesus that we can boldly approach the throne of grace. No fear of rejection. No fear of not being heard.
Joel Brooks:This is what Elijah does. After the 7th time of Elijah praying, and he's not doing his song and dance. He's not lipping around. It says his head's between his knees. He keeps on, go check.
Joel Brooks:Go check. Go check. And finally on that 7th time, he gets to report back that there is the tiniest of clouds. I I I love Hebrew. It's a very visual language.
Joel Brooks:And actually, what you read in Hebrew is there was a cloud the size of a fist. Almost as, like, God's coming to punch it. Like, he's just coming in the horizon, this this gradual small little fist. And Elijah says, that's enough. Just like earlier when it says that he heard the sounds of rain even though there was not a cloud in the sky.
Joel Brooks:He was hearing by faith. Now when the servant says there's just a little fist of a cloud, he's now seeing by faith, and he says it's gonna happen. Run. Tell Ahab, get in his chariot he needs to leave before the rain overtakes him. And then, I love this.
Joel Brooks:Elijah, he he pulls up his robes and he outruns Ahab who's in the chariot. I love this because, I'm 47 years old. My body's breaking down. This gives me hope for the old man. And you know, Elijah had to love this too.
Joel Brooks:It's like he's be sure to keep this in there. I outran the chariot at my age. But he gets out there, and he outruns Ahab. Now you know why that detail's in there. Don't you?
Joel Brooks:You know why the story has to end with that little detail because it's a contrast with the prophets of Baal, who when they prayed, they went around limping. Their prayers led them to do nothing but limp and to bleed. Elijah's prayers lead him to run. Run with wings like eagles. He runs and he will not grow weary.
Joel Brooks:And really, this is an invitation for us to run-in prayer as well. Now as we move to our time of taking communion together, I want us to be reminded of how it is that we have such confidence that our heavenly father hears us. Why do we have such confidence? It's because of this. When Jesus was on the cross and he was crying out, that scene there more resembled the prophets of Baal crying.
Joel Brooks:He cried out and he cried out, and yet he was forsaken. He heard nothing from God, and then he bled. We see that with Jesus there. That Jesus was was forsaken by his heavenly father. He cried out and he bled.
Joel Brooks:He never heard God answer. And then we have judgment coming. And judgment, this time did not fall on a sacrifice. It fell on Jesus. Now all of this happened.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was taking our place. Jesus who should have been treated like the child that he was and and his heavenly father answered him and rescued him, He has denied those things because those were given to us. We are now treated like the child. We are no longer judged because that judgment fell on Jesus. And the end result is this.
Joel Brooks:We now get to go to God boldly with no fear of rejection, with not a doubt in our mind that we are not being heard and accepted, all because of the blood of Jesus. Pray with me, church. Father, we are so thankful for your son Jesus. Jesus, we are so thankful for your sacrifice, A sacrifice that now enables us to have bold and confident access to our God. And I pray like Elijah, we would run.
Joel Brooks:I pray we would search your scriptures, asking direction for your spirit and we would ask big things of you, knowing that you hear us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.