Standing Tall on Our Knees

The passage we find ourselves in today on Elijah's life has to do with prayer. So, 1 Kings 18 this morning, if you want to make certain that your prayers get to God, then visit www.newprayer.com. At least, that's what the creators of that website claim. Crandel Stone at the age of 49 set up that website in 1999. By the way, I checked this week, it's no longer in operation. Thankfully, but he set it up that night after sipping brandy and philosophizing with some of his friends in Vermont. The engineer and freelance consultant from Cambridge, Massachusetts, chipped in with his friends to build a $20,000 radio wave transmitting website. Believe in that God was out there somewhere, they consulted with NASA scientists to determine where the big bang originated. You can't make this stuff up. Upon their discovery that a star cluster named M13 was the oldest known part of the universe, they aimed the website antennas to that location. Now they transmit, or they did, transmit about 50,000 prayers a week. Now that, my friend, is sad. 50,000 prayers a week from people all over the world of the free service, Stone said. It appears that most people take our service seriously, and that a large number are gratified by the results. Well, I got a better idea. Let's just find out what the Bible says about prayer and do that. Okay. So that's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to see what the Bible says about prayer, specifically with Elijah as our prime example, but I want to begin with what James says about prayer since he uses Elijah as his example. So just listen as I read James chapter 5 verses 16 through 18, confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man evails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not reign, and it did not reign on the land for three years and six months, and he prayed again, and the heaven gave reign and the earth produced its fruit. That last verse verse 18 is the subject of the passage we find ourselves in today. When Elijah prayed again, and reign was given by God in answer to his prayer, that's what we're going to look at in first Kings chapter 18. Elijah is just the example James uses of powerful, effective prayer. So what is it about Elijah's prayer that makes it powerful and effective? How could Elijah, who had a nature like us, in other words, that's another way of saying, he was just like us, no different than us, no spiritual giant, and we're just spiritual pigmies, no, he just like us, but how could his prayer be so powerful and so effective? Well, that's what we're going to look at this morning, and what we're going to see is that Elijah illustrates five keys to effective and powerful praying. The first key to effective and powerful prayer is faith. Faith. If you're with me in first Kings chapter 18, we begin in verse 41. Then Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat, and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of reign. Elijah's statement, this is after the challenge with the prophets of Baal, they have done their sacrifice, and there's been no answer from their God Baal. Elijah has prayed after preparing a sacrifice, prayed a very simple twenty-second prayer, but an earnest and powerful prayer, and God has answered from heaven with fire to consume that sacrifice, proving that he is the true God. Now, it is immediately after that that Elijah says to Ahab, go up, eat, and drink, and notice the next expression there in verse 41, for there is the sound of abundance of reign. There is the sound of abundance of reign. Now, we know from later in the passage that there is not even a cloud on the horizon yet. So what does Elijah mean when he says there is the sound of the abundance of reign? I can hear rain coming. He's not saying literally, I can hear rain off in the distance because there is none yet. He's not saying there are thunder clouds, and I can hear thunder claps in the distance. He's not saying that because there's not a cloud on the horizon yet. So what does he mean? There is already the sound of abundance of reign. He is speaking by faith. He is going to pray that God will give rain, and he is trusting in faith that God will answer that prayer. Now, the New Testament corroborates the fact that faith is essential to having prayers answered. In fact, several well-known passages drive that truth home. James chapter 1, for instance, in verses 5 through 8, says this, if any of you like wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But, here's the qualifier, but let him ask in faith. With no doubting, for he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. And he finishes those verses by saying, for let not that man suppose, the one who doubts, the one who's tossed like a wave, let not that man thinks that he will receive anything from the Lord, for he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. Faith absolutely critical. In our prayer lives, Jesus said much the same thing in a startling statement in Mark chapter 11. In Mark 11, Jesus said, so Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God. Now, I want you to really notice those four words. Have faith. Notice the object of our faith is in God. Now, what happens, what he says next is really startling. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. Now, those verses are startling. They can be troubling and they have caused no end of discussion and controversy about exactly what Jesus meant. There are some people who think those verses give us a blank check. Ask whatever you want. You can have it. The health and wealth, prosperity, gospel movement basically claims that interpretation of those verses. So you get whatever you want. You just kind of have enough faith. And what they teach basically is if you don't get what you want, whatever mountains in your life moved, if you don't get it, you just didn't have enough faith. Well, I would suggest to you that that really is faith in our faith, not faith in God. That's faith in do I have enough faith? And if I've got enough faith, then my faith is in how much faith I've got. That's not what Jesus said. He said, have faith in God, right? Remember those four words. Well, some people think, I've just got to have faith in my prayer. I've got to pray the right way. I've got to pray this long. I've got to pray this many times. You know what that is? That's faith in your prayers. That's not faith in God necessarily. Faith in your prayers. What does it mean to pray with faith in God? It means that we rest our confidence in His Word and in His character. So if God wants the mountain to be moved, it'll be moved. If I have faith in God. But there are some things I may pray for that I may not get exactly what I ask for. The key is am I praying in faith in God? Do I trust Him, His Word and His character, even when I don't get what I think I wanted or what I thought I needed? What is Elijah's the reason for his faith? What is he trusting in? The reason for his faith is very clear. If you have your Bible open, look back at verse 1 of chapter 18. Verse 1 says this and it came to pass after many days that the Word of the Lord came to Elijah and the third you're saying go present yourself to Ahab. Now catch this and I will send rain on the earth. What is the sound of the abundance of rain that Elijah hears? It's not rain off in the distance. It's not thunder claps off in the distance. It is the sound of the Word of God. That's what it is. Because God had told him you present yourself to Ahab, which he has done on Mount Carmel, then I will send rain. So Elijah's praying in faith is not do I have enough faith or am I praying the right way or long enough? His faith is in God's Word who said if you do this I will send rain. It's interesting to me that the Hebrew word for sound that's found in verse 41 there is the sound of abundance of rain is most often translated in the Bible voice or the sound of a voice. So what is the voice that Elijah heard? It was the voice of the Word of God. It was the voice of God and Elijah knew he was praying in line with the Word of God. You know John says that in 1 John chapter 5 when he says if we ask anything according to the will of God we know that we have whatever we've asked. It's not just if I have enough faith. It's is this in accord with God's will, his word, his express purposes. And so faith, yes, is critical in prayer but it's not faith in my faith. It's not faith in my prayers. It's faith in God. I know I'm praying according to his will, according to his word because when he has said something I know that I can pray along those lines and God will give what I've asked. I also trust and have faith in his character that God is always all powerful. He knows what to do. He knows what's best to do and he has the power to do what's right. And so even if I don't get my prayer answered like I asked it I still trust him. If you ever prayed prayers that later on you were thankful you didn't get answered. I have, boy I would have really made a mess of things with the way I asked but thankfully God in His infinite wisdom knew what was best and the key is do I trust Him with the answer? That's praying in faith. Not faith in my faith, not faith in my prayers, faith in God, His word and His character. So the first key that Elijah illustrates is faith. There's the sound of the abundance of God. God's giving me His word. I've heard His voice. The second key to effective praying is to seek private communion with God. I'm going to call it this spiritual sensitivity, spiritual sensitivity. I want you to see the difference between Ahab and Elijah. Look first of all at Ahab's insensitivity. The insensitivity of Ahab is in verse 42. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. You say, well wait a second. John, he hasn't eaten anything all day. He's hungry. Shouldn't he eat? Okay, I can give you that. And wait a second John, didn't Elijah just tell him to go up and eat in verse 41? Yes, he did. But you know what, I'm convinced. I may ask he lied to this one, I get to heaven. One of those questions we want to ask. But I'm convinced that Elijah was testing the way he had to find out whether or not the events of the day and God showing himself to be God had made any impression on the heart of that king. I mean, he did tell him go up and eat, but I think that was a test. I think he was probing into his heart to see if there'd been any really heart change there by the events of the day. Because really when you think about it, when Elijah says go up and eat, if Ahab's paid any attention to what happened on Mount Carmel, he should have responded. Eat, are you kidding me? Are you serious? After what I just saw, Elijah, I need to know how to be right with God. I want to do away with all the bail worship. I need to know what God requires of me, what he wants of me, how to worship him. I mean, if he had really been moved in his heart by the expression, the evidence of the awesome power of God, he wouldn't be concerned about eating. He'd be concerned about getting his heart right with God. I think Elijah was testing him, but Elijah, or Ahab's response was simply, yeah, where's the food? The events of the day have made no more impression on him than watching a play. Oh, that was good. That was interesting, Elijah. Now, like any food around here, we got something neat. I'm hungry. You know, Jesus told a parable one time. Remember the parable of the sower and the soil and the seed? And he talked about how a sower goes forth to sow seed, which he later describes as the word of God. And that word of God, as it falls onto the soil of people's hearts, finds different kinds of soil. You remember the story? One of those kinds of soil was hard, trampled down, packed down soil. It's a hardened heart that is so concerned about other things that when something amazing happens, what God does or God speaks to us through His word, it makes no impression. It does not penetrate that hardened soil. And the Bible says that in the story, Jesus said the birds of the air come and snatch up that seed because it's laying on top of the soil. And the birds of the earth refer to Satan in His interpretation. You know, sometimes we make it easy for Satan to pluck up the soil or the seed of the word of God when it's been given. We're sometimes no better than Ahab. I'm sometimes no better than Ahab. When I'm sitting in a service and all I'm thinking about is where I'm going to eat for lunch or what ballgame I'm going to watch in the afternoon or what this week holds and what I plan to do. If that's all I'm thinking about, Satan has already snatched the seed away very easily. Sometimes we're no different than Ahab. No spiritual sensitivity to the word of God. But in contrast to that, I want you to see Elijah's sensitivity. The sensitivity of Elijah is quite clear. Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. Then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees. You know what he was doing? He was praying. The Bible describes this whole action as being one of prayer. And so that posture is simply the posture of prayer for him. He's crying out to God. I think he may have been crying out out of heartache for King Ahab at seeing his insensitivity. But he's also crying out to God for the promised rain. That's obviously what the whole passage is about. And so he's in prayer. You know what amazes me about this incident? Is that Elijah right after this amazing, amazing victory, this great victory of the answer of God from heaven to show that he was the true God and the destruction of the prophets of Bale. After that amazing victory, Elijah is not, hey, look at me. Look at what I did. Look at how God used me. No. His first response is to go off to a secret place and get alone with God. Why? Because he's got a spiritual sensitivity that's stronger than to look at me, syndrome that says, look at what I've done or look at how God used me or what a great victory we had today. No. He's coming back to God in prayer. He's got such a spiritually sensitive heart. Do you have a place, the top of Carmel was that for Elijah? Do you have a place where you can go to spend time with God in prayer? Even after great spiritual victories and moments in your life, do you have a place where you say, I still need to get alone with God? Because right now I'm in danger of putting confidence in me. So I need to transfer that back to God. I need to spend time with him. Read the Gospels and you will see how often Jesus did that. Often it is said that he prayed, sought time with his father alone in Mark chapter 1 after one of only six days in the New Testament in the Gospels that describe a whole day of our Lord's itinerary His events. Mark 1 is one of those chapters, one of those instances. And after an incredibly busy day of teaching and healing and ministering to people, the Bible says in Mark 1 35, early the next morning he got up and went out to a mountain to a secret place to pray. In Mark 5 it is described that when Jesus sent the disciples across the sea, he went up to a mountain to pray. In Luke chapter 5 it is described that Jesus often, often found a secret place to pray. In Luke chapter 6 it is described in verse 12 that the night before he chose the 12 apostles he spent all night in prayer. In Luke chapter 9 it describes how he took John and Peter and James with him up to the mount to pray and he prayed and it was while he was praying that he was transfigured in all of his glory to appear as he will appear when he comes at his second coming. Over and over and over again the Garden of Gethsemane again is another instance. Over and over the Bible says that Jesus pulled away from hectic days of ministry the crowd pressuring in upon him and took time to be alone with God. Jesus modeled for us that spiritual sensitivity that even in the midst of incredible, incredible busyness he found time to pray. That's Elijah here too. Spiritual sensitivity. The third key to powerful and effective prayer is fervency. Fervency. I want you to notice in verse 42 the end of the verse 42 the position of Elijah. Notice the physical position that he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees. Now I'm not going to demonstrate that for you. It's getting harder and harder for me to get down like that anymore you know and especially to get up after I've done that but this was a literal prostrate before God lying on his face before God. Now does that mean that every time we pray we ought to assume that posture? No no that's not what I'm saying but in this moment that posture for Elijah demonstrates the humility of his heart it demonstrates the posture of his soul and again I am so impressed after such a great victory when it's so easy to to let ourselves go and to maybe bask in the glow of the wonderful things that God has done for us maybe through us and to begin to think maybe we deserve a little bit of credit for that. It's impressive to me that the first thing Elijah does is to lay prostrate before God indicating I am completely humbled before you. I'm not the reason for this great display of power on Mount Carmel and had nothing to do with me it was all of your power and for your glory that position indicated I believe the intensity of his heart as he prayed. Well what about us? What about the position of our hearts? If it's not necessarily the bodily position that is important in prayer and some of you probably pray in the car when you're driving please don't assume this posture when you pray in your car. In fact don't close your eyes so it's not the bodily posture that's important if that's not important then what is it about our hearts that God's looking for? He's looking for a heart attitude of fervency of earnestness of seriousness about prayer not just because it's a duty not just because it's a habit although there is a good side to a spiritual habit that is done not for the habit's sake but for growth's sake it's not just because it's a habit this is not a vain repetition that we take just a few moments of each day to vainly repeat the same things we repeated forever and ever for years this is not some kind of rosary this is earnestly bowing our heart before God giving our hearts to him, prostrating our hearts before him. You know what when I think about it and I think about my worship, our worship sometimes I am so aware that there are at least a couple of areas that really lack fervency. One of them is our singing. Now I'm not I sit up front I don't see who's singing who's not singing so I'm not directing these comments at anybody but sometimes I think just our singing is not fervent we don't really mean it. We sing oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise we don't use the one tongue we got. So why sing oh for a thousand tongues? We're not even using the one we got. We may sing oh how I love Jesus. You know the Bible says Jesus Himself said if you love me you'll keep my commandments so maybe if we're walking in disobedience we shouldn't be singing that song at least we can't mean that song for sure. I think sometimes our prayers also are without fervency without real meaning without really any heart in them certainly not true the prayer I heard this morning in this service that was a fervent heart-filled prayer but sometimes I think we just pray because we've heard these cute little phrases I can remember in the first church I pastored in North Carolina there was kind of a saying that would always kind of close most guys prayers when they would pray publicly in church and it was this and Lord bring us back at the appointed time the next appointed time and they didn't mean that or so many times I wanted to go up to that guy after the service and say hey the next appointed time is tonight at seven o'clock I haven't seen you're here in a year or one night or what that's the next appointed time now if you meant that in your prayer be here but I didn't maybe I should have but I didn't we pray Lord save souls but how often we pass up witnessing opportunities to be the hands and feet the channel through which God wants to get his gospel to other people so sometimes our singing sometimes our praying lacks real meaning heart heart fervency so I find it interesting that Paul addresses both of those in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 15 what is the conclusion then and I won't try to deal with the context of spiritual gifts here but what is the conclusion that he says I will pray with the spirit that means to pray earnestly fervently and I will also pray with the understanding so with the heart yes but also with the mind understanding what I'm saying and meaning it and then he says I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with the understanding so I'll sing with all my heart but I'll sing understanding what I'm singing so easy when we sing the same songs over and over and over again we've known them for years maybe for decades and we just kind of let them roll off of our tongue without even understanding what they're saying without from our heart breathing out those prayers and those vows and commitments to our God so fervency fervency you know more important than knowing all the right words is what's in your heart when you pray the fervency of your heart few years ago lady by the name of Vera Reader in Fort Worth, Texas received an amazing get well card from her six-year-old granddaughter Melissa Melissa also lived in Fort Worth and she found out her grandmother was under the weather a little bit and so she wanted to make one of those amazing beautiful little homemade cards that kids often do to send to her grandma and so she got her stuff out and was making the card and she wrote on the card, dear Nana, I hope you feel better, feel spelled F-E-L, better spelled B-E-T-E-R you know how those little cards from six-year-olds are beautiful so once she completed the card she went to her mother and asked how to spell the street name Watson and then she asked for a stamp and her mother thought she's just doing one of her little projects her mom was busy in the kitchen so she directed her to a drawer that had some SNH green stamps in them, do you remember those? so of course Melissa takes one of those and stamps it and puts it on the envelope and writes out the address and it's ready to go the next day, Melissa's grandma found an envelope in her mailbox that was simply addressed, Nana 1712 Watson, no city, state, zip code, anything like that and the 1712 was backwards and at the top the return address just said Melissa and there was the SNH green stamp nobody knows who the hero or heroine was in the postal department that got that on through postmarked it and sent it on through but when the postal service found out about it they honored that particular post office for making that happen when I read that story I thought of how we pray sometimes we think we've got to have everything spelled just right, said just right, address just right and you know what God's looking for he's looking for the heart of a little six-year-old lying prostrate before him who says God I need you and I may not know how to say it all just right but I'm pouring out my heart fervency in prayer is what Elijah demonstrates for us the fourth key ingredient in successful powerful effective praying is persistence, persistence notice it in Elijah's life verse 43 after he prayed in verse 42 he said to his servant go up now look toward the sea now that's that's important because typically in in the Promised Land in Israel even today storms come from the Mediterranean they come from the west and they come into the hill country and so forth and so he says go out and look toward the sea so he the servant went up and looked and said there is nothing and seven times he said go again you know it's so easy just to read through these verses and read on and not really get what this camp here for just a moment Elijah prays he has a promise of God you appear to a hab and I will send rain so he has every expectation he has appeared to a hab he has prayed and asking God to fulfill what God has promised to do and he sends his servant over to look out and see and the servant comes back and says there's nothing okay if I'm Elijah I'm thinking wait wait a second God what did I get wrong here I thought you'd give me a promise I did what you told me to do exactly what you told me to do according to your word on Mount Carmel you demonstrated your power you said you would send rain I've asked you to send it there's nothing and then I think it's easy for us and the end of that verse to think that he said to his servant seven times go again like go again go again go again go again you know seven real quick times I don't think that's the idea I think Elijah prayed and said a second time to his servant go check again servant comes back there's nothing you know after the fourth and fifth time I'd really be getting kind of squarmy you know I'd begin to think God what have I done wrong but Elijah just kept praying he was persistent and he just kept praying here's something about scripture that is important for all of us to understand and something about God that is important for us to understand we learn it from passages like this God's delays are not necessarily denials there are good reasons why God sometimes delays answer to prayer his delays are not necessarily denials sometimes God delays answers to our prayers because that delay will enable us and help us motivate us to purify our request maybe we get to thinking about wait a second why am I asking this is it selfish reasons is it to you know as James says consume things on my own desires and God begins to do that work through that time of purifying our request sometimes God made delay answer to prayer because he wants us to gain perspective he wants us to see maybe more aspects of the situation than what we have been willing to admit to gain a better perspective before he answers so that we'll better appreciate the answer sometimes God delays answers to prayer to see if we really are in earnest or if it's just kind of one of done thing and we get discouraged so quickly and so easily and quit and God's testing us to see if we're going to stick in there and continue praying and develop some godly patience perseverance persistence God wants us to learn that lesson to many of us quit after praying once or twice or three times or four times and God has an answered and maybe God is doing his work of creating persistence in your life I love what CH Spurgeon said Spurgeon the great pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in London the latter half of the 1800s said this prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God I love that word picture prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God and then he says some scarcely stir the bell for they pray pray so languidly others give only an occasional jerk at the rope but he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might now that's fervency and that's persistence and I believe he's got it right I believe that's what God wants us to do great man of God George Mueller who established those orphanages in England and was an amazing man of faith if you read his biographies incredible he prayed for two men to be saved two friends of his to be saved and he prayed for them for 60 years one of them got saved at the last service George Mueller ever preached before he died the other man got saved a year after George Mueller's death but he prayed for them for 60 years he did not give up he did not quit friend don't quit don't give up unless God clearly shows you through that time of delay that what you're asking was purely for selfish reasons it was an impure request pray for something else but don't give up persistence then there is a fifth key to effective and powerful praying and that is action action you see there's a time to pray and there's a time to act and sometimes we get those confused sometimes we act without praying which is wrong sometimes we pray and then don't don't take seriously the fact that God may want us to be the answer to our prayers he may want us to do something to change the situation so there's a time to pray then there's a time to act and I want you to see how that happens here verse 44 then it came to pass the seventh time that he said the servant comes back with this report there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea I love that he goes the seventh time there's a cloud but it's not a it's not a thunder bumper yet it's just a little cloud coming up out of the sea but Elijah says here it is here's coming the answer it's time to act now it's time to get busy and boy does the action ever start look at what happens next middle of verse 44 so he said go up say to Ahab prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain so Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel now by the way from where they are in Mount Carmel to Jezreel is 17 miles across the huge valley in the northern part of his 17 miles Ahab rode away went to Jezreel verse 46 then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins that means he pulled the long flowing garments around his legs pulled them up and tucked them into his belt so these legs could be free to move he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel now you talk about a run 17 miles and he beats the king's chariot the hand of the Lord was really on him you know that's that's probably miraculous that he would do that there's a lot of action that takes place here there's a time to pray and then there's a time to get up and do something time to act on that prayer now here's the lesson for us often we pray but we never do anything because we'd never expect an answer we don't believe God's going to do what he said he would do so we pray for souls to be saved but we never witnessed anybody we pray to be a better Christian but we don't read our Bible and pray and involve ourselves in discipleship and fellowship with other believers those are the meanings by which God helps us to grow so we pray to grow but we want God just to drop it in our lap and that's not the way he said he's going to do it so we're not praying according to the word there we pray Lord bless this message but we don't take any time to fall on our face before God and pray through it and study hard and prepare well we just want God to bless it I'll just get up and you fill my mouth that's not the way it works we pray for healing and yet we don't take advantage of the means God's given us through good doctors and medication and personal things we can do to help with our health doesn't always happen that way but God may use those things so take advantage of them don't just pray do what you know you need to do I love the story about DL Moody DL Moody was on one of his campaigns for in England one of his great revival campaigns in England he was traveling across the Atlantic Ocean on a ship and a fire broke out on the ship and so Moody's assistant is running all over the ship looking for him and finally finds Moody up in the bucket line you know the line where guys were passing buckets of water to get on the fire and try to put it out and his assistant pulled at Moody's coat and said Moody come with me we need to go down underneath and pray and Moody said you go if you want to I'm going to pray while I pass buckets there's a lot of wisdom in that yes pray with all of your heart but there comes a time you got to pass the bucket too and try to get the fire out don't just pray the fire go out put it out God will use you to put it out so there's a time for prayer there's a time for action I love I love Matthew West as a Christian musician Matthew West back a few years ago four five years ago wrote a song called Do Something and I want to read some of the words to that song I woke up this morning saw a word full world full of trouble now thought how we'd ever get so far how we how'd we ever get so far down and how's it ever going to turn around so I turned my eyes to heaven I thought God why don't you do something well I just couldn't bear the thought of people living in poverty children sold into slavery the thought disgusted me so I shook my fist at heaven said God why don't you do something he said I did I created you he says I'm so tired of talking about how we are God's hands and feet but it's easier to say than to be live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves it's all right somebody else will do something and then he finishes that verse by saying well I don't know about you but I'm sick and tired of life with no desire I don't want to flame I want to fire and I want to be the one who stands up and says I'm going to do something so easy for us to cry out and anger to God why don't you do something about the mess in the world and God may be saying I did I created you you are my hands and feet you are the salt I've put in this world you are the light I've put in this world you do something make sure you depend on me make sure you get the strength you need from you from the spirit of God but do something don't just stand by and curse the darkness go take your light into the darkness that's what God wants us to do there's time to pray and there is a time to act now I know we sometimes get at the end of a passage like this and we think wow Elijah what a prayer warrior he was what a great spiritual giant and I'm just a little pig me I could never pray like this I want to encourage you and me today you too can see answers to prayer you too can see answers to prayer I started the message with James 5 I'm going to end the message with James 5 remember what James said about Elijah Elijah was a man of the same nature as us and he prayed that it would not rain it didn't for three and a half years and he prayed again and it did rain so what's he saying Elijah was some spiritual giant no no he made the point Elijah's just like you he just like me he was a man of the same natures we had failures and weaknesses and personality quirks and all that kind of stuff just like us but he knew what it meant to pray and he knew what it meant to pray with faith he knew what it meant to pray with spiritual sensitivity he knew what it meant to pray with fervency and with persistence and then to act on that prayer if we understand those same biblical basics and pray that way you can see amazing answers to prayer as well you can you can prayer was meant to be more than just some kind of nice little devotional exercise to perform prayer is a vital power line to the throne of God and if we will exercise prayer as the Bible teaches us as Elijah showed us then we may well see great answers to prayer as you pray this week and the next week and the coming weeks along the lines that brother Andy encouraged us to pray today when you pray that way remember Elijah's example pray the way Elijah prayed and you will see God do an amazing thing I believe that let's pray together father thank you for this wonderful example of prayer and thank you for reminding us in your word that Elijah was just like us so that we don't feel like we have to climb some huge impossible mountain to reach the peak of spiritual maturity before we can pray thank you for reminding us that he just like us and so we're encouraged to think that we can pray like Elijah did I pray father I cry out to you that you would work in our hearts the same qualities that we saw in Elijah that will enable us to pray powerful and effective prayers that accomplish much for your glory I pray that for first Baptist I pray for the search committee I pray that father for all in this church who will be responsible at some point for making that incredibly important decision about who the next under shepherd of this church will be I pray for wisdom guidance boldness in you confidence in you trust in you crying out to you and the assurance that they have the answer from you in Jesus name amen