Elijah's Greatest Example The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Transcription

1 Elijah's Greatest Example The Good, the Bad and the Ugly >>> Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Praise the Lord. As you're seated, I want to give you permission to do something. If you have your phone, and I usually don't like you looking at your phone while I'm preaching, but if you have your phone and you want to pull up Facebook, pull up the church Facebook page or my Facebook page. If you're not a friend of either of those, shame on you. You should be. All right? And you're going to see an amazing picture that Kellie House just sent me minutes ago. It's Gary sitting up in bed, glasses on watching our live stream. It's an awesome picture. Awesome picture. As God continues to work there. They're going to be transporting him tomorrow down to a hospital in Ann Arbor that specializes with neurology so please keep praying for Gary, for the family. Others in our church family that are hurting, we visited, my wife and I, Ken Kuznicki, this week as he continues to battle with cancer. Please keep praying for Ken and Dawn, as well. But we're just excited to see how God is working. Okay. You have had enough time to look at that picture. Turn your phones off, put them away and open up your Bibles to 1 Kings Kings 18. Keep your finger there and then go over to James 5. All right? Those two spots. And we're going to continue our series this morning called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as we go through the life of Elijah. And this morning, we want to talk about Elijah's greatest example. Now, hopefully as we've gone through this series thus far, there have been many examples of Elijah that have really connected to your heart and spirit. We've seen that what separated Elijah in one area is he was a man who no matter what God commanded, no matter how hard it was or how much it didn't make human sense, he always obeyed God immediately and completely. And though that was a phenomenal example for you and I today, I don't think it's Elijah's greatest example. His greatest example we're going to see this morning. And we're going to see it in 1 Kings 18 but before we get there I want to start this morning in James 5. James 5. I want to read verses 16, 17 and 18. Now, I told you earlier in the series that Elijah is mentioned multiple times in the New Testament. This is one of the major ones where Elijah is mentioned so I want us to see this amazing passage of scripture. And I'm going to read James 5: I know that you were just seated but whether you're here in the gospel center, in the balcony, down in the chapel, at home, I'm going to ask you just to stand right now in honor of the Word of God. If you're driving, please keep seated. But James 5. I want to read verses 16, 17 and 18. And keep something in mind as I read. Keep in mind that every verse in the Bible is written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. In other words, these aren't just man's thoughts. God directed men so they wrote exactly what He wanted them to write even using their own personalities and styles. So as I read this to you, this is the very Word of God. Listen to what it says. James 5: It says, therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. And then it gives this amazing principle about prayer. It says, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish

2 much. If you believe that, say, amen. Hopefully you'll believe it more by the end of the service. All right. And then it goes on in verse 17 and it gives -- here's an example that proves that principle. And the example is none other than our good friend Elijah. And it says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. We have studied that three and a half years. Then verse 18. Then he prayed again, three and a half years later, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. Thank you. You may be seated. Now, understand that what we're going to end up studying this morning is going to be exactly what James is talking about but I want to point out something in what James says because in this passage James says that when Elijah prayed he prayed earnestly. If you have an old King James Bible it says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. Now, in the Greek language, it's really one word and it's a word that if you were to translate it literally it would read this. In prayer he prayed. Now, we don't talk that way but that was common in the Hebrew language to show intensity by repeating. For example, remember when it came time for the last supper and Jesus told the disciples, I have earnestly desired to eat this meal with you? Literally, in the Hebrew, it reads I have desired with desire to eat this meal with you. And that's what it says here. In prayer, he prayed. And the very word used translated prayed earnestly, the root word is where we get our English word energy. So you could translate the verse the energetic prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much. Now, that's an interesting word to describe prayer, isn't it? In fact, one of the things you are going to do in your life groups this week is you're going to answer this question. If you had to pick one adjective, just one word that described the average American's prayer life, what word would you choose? And I doubt very seriously that most of you would say, energetic. You may say pathetic. But I doubt you would say energetic. But when God wants to give us one example of a man that proves this point, that the energetic prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much, of all the Old Testament characters he could have chose, He chose Elijah. And it comes from the very story that we're going to see today. And so back in 1 Kings 18, I want to share with you this morning seven characteristics of energetic prayer. The type of prayer that accomplishes much. Now, I want to kind of make a deal as we get started, though, because sometimes when it's a seven-point sermon it's easy to walk out just kind of letting all seven points go over your head. So can we make a deal right now? And here's the deal. Will each of us commit right now before we ever know the seven, will each of us commit right now that we are going to pick one? We're asking God to really lay in our heart one of these seven that we're going to grab hold of because I'm not asking you to apply all seven this week. I'm asking you to apply one. You pick which one. But can you imagine the difference that would be made if every person who's in our church this morning, every person who's listening on radio, every person who's watching on the internet, every person who will watch on the internet in the week ahead, if every one of us added one specific thing that would make our prayer life more energetic this week, can you imagine what God would accomplish? So I want to give you seven. I'm going to ask you to pick just one.

3 So here we go. The energy of Elijah's prayer life, seven characteristics of energetic prayer. Number one, Elijah prayed in solitude. He prayed in solitude. If you're in 1 Kings 18, let me read verses 41 and 42. We ended last Sunday with verse 40. Verse 41 says this. Now Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. And at the top, what does he do? He prays. So what's the first thing I see about the life of Elijah when it comes to an energetic prayer life? Elijah prayed in solitude. He got alone with God where no one could see him, where no one could hear him. Now, don't get me wrong, there's something very powerful of corporate prayer. Corporate prayer is a priority but there's something about praying in solitude that brings energy to our prayer life. Why? Well, the truth of the matter is this. When I pray in public it's really difficult to focus 100% of my attention on the only ears that matter are God's. You see, when I pray in public, I also tend to kind of think about all of you, too and what you think about the prayer. In fact, I had someone not long ago come to me and say, I'm not really sure I liked something I heard in your prayer and I said, that's okay, I wasn't talking to you. But anyway, sometimes it's kind of difficult in that thought process. It's kind of like the mom whose little preschool son Johnny had a really bad day and as she's having prayer with Johnny at the end of the day, she prays this prayer. Dear God, I love Johnny. But you know, God, Johnny was a very bad boy today. And Johnny made mommy's heart hurt. God, would you please help Johnny to understand he needs to obey mommy? Would you please help Johnny tomorrow to behave better? Now, I have a question. Who's mommy really communicating to? I'm not so sure it's God. I kind of think she's trying to drive home a message to who? To Johnny, right? Us pastors do the same thing. We get to the zero mark on the clock and know we have to stop preaching. We have one more point we want to do so what do we do? We give our point during the prayer so you still get to hear it. You know? And so often what happens is when other people are around I don't focus 100% on the fact that it's God's ears that matter. In fact, the New Testament teaches us to pray this very way. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus said this. When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen, then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Obviously, He understood the necessity of praying in solitude. In fact, Jesus did the same thing. He gave us the example. In Mark 1, Jesus has had an enormously long day and I was kind of this week thinking about how busy I've been the last two weeks in ministry and I read Mark 1 and went I have to quit feeling sorry for myself. I didn't do half of what Jesus did in one day. And at the end -- the next morning what does Jesus do? The Bible says He got up early while it was still dark and went to a secluded place and prayed. There is something powerful about praying in a place where you can be alone, where no one can see you and no one can hear you. In fact, it's amazing that Elijah does this because what just happened on top of the mountain? He just won an amazing battle. Remember last week when God sent fire down from heaven to 450 prophets of Baal have been killed, Elijah has now gone from the most wanted villain in Israel to the most loved man of God in Israel. He is at the top of the popularity list. Now's the time that he could sign a bunch of autographs, bless a bunch of babies. Now's the time he could go on the speaking circuit. Write a few

4 books. But what does Elijah do the moment he has that 15 minutes of fame? He goes off to a spot all by himself where no one can see him and no one can hear him and he prays in solitude. You want to add energy to your prayer life? Find a place of solitude. For me, it's my office. I make it a point to come in at least an hour before everyone else arrives every morning so I can have a time of solitude with God. On Sunday mornings, I double the time. I come in by 6:30 so I can have at least two hours of solitude with God because there's something amazing about spending time alone with God. One author said this. Interesting quote. He said, most public prayers are ineffective because in reality they're intended for men's ears. I have to think about that a lot because I get asked to pray at a lot of events. I've opened the state Senate in prayer. This week I'll open the Gaylord Chamber of Commerce awards dinner in prayer. On Thursday night I'll be praying at the benefit dinner for Gary House and it's really easy when I'm praying in circumstances like that, where I know that there's a lot of unbelievers in the room, it's really easy for me to kind of design my prayer for the ears of unbelievers so they hear about Jesus. And though that's not a bad motive, I have to keep in mind that when I pray the only ears that really matter are God's. He prayed in solitude. Number two, number two, Elijah prayed in faith. He prayed in faith. Go back again to 1 Kings 18 and notice that he doesn't start praying until verse 42. But what does he do in verse 41 before he starts praying? Now, Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower. Now, remember, it hasn't rained in three and a half years. Not even a drop of dew. And Elijah says, Ahab, it's going to rain. Get ready. And then Elijah goes up on the top of the mountain by himself and says, God, would you please make it rain? I'm thinking, wait a second. That's quite a huge step of faith, isn't it? To like declare it and predict it and then go over and pray for it? What does it mean to pray in faith? I mean, think about it. I think today one of the thing that is really grieves me today is I see such a teaching in the church today, and by church I mean the big "c," the universal church. And the teaching says this. As long as you have enough faith whatever you ask you'll get. Just speak the words and as long as there's power in your words and enough faith you'll get whatever you ask for. And, folks, I need you to know something. That's theologically incorrect. It's not even close. My friend, you can't strongarm God into doing something. You can't reduce God to a glorified bellhop that as long as we have enough faith He has to do whatever we ask. Can you imagine what a mess your life would be in if God gave you everything you asked for over the course of your life? Some of you would be married to somebody else. Because way back you asked God for somebody else. Folks, listen. This verse does not mean that anything we ask as long as we speak the words, as long as we have enough faith, we'll get. Because, listen. God -- don't miss this. God will never answer a prayer that is outside of His character and outside of His will. It doesn't matter how much faith you have, how many words you speak, if it's outside of His character, outside of His will, God never works outside of His character and outside of His will. Look at a verse. In James 1, in James 1, there's a verse and in verse 6 it says, but he must ask in faith. When he asked, he must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like a wave blown and tossed

5 by the wind. That man should not believe he'll receive anything from the Lord. And I've heard people go to this verse and say, see, as long as you believe God will give it to you. Folks, do it in context. Don't take a verse out of context. What's this verse talking about? Well, if you go back to verse 5 it says this. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it will be given to him but let him ask in faith. What is this verse teaching in context? It's teaching this. That God's will, His desire, is for you to have heavenly wisdom and if you're in a situation where you lack wisdom, you can based on this promise go to God and say, God, I need Your wisdom and if you ask in faith, if you believe that God will fulfill His promise, He will give you the wisdom you need. You see, I can't go down to Miami beach this afternoon and go on local television and say, I'm making a prediction. The prediction is that at 6:00 tonight a blizzard will hit Miami beach, three feet of snow, 90- mile-a-hour winds. It's going to happen at 6:00 tonight. And then, leave the TV studio, go to my hotel room, close the door and say, God, please send a blizzard tonight. Well, how is that different than what Elijah did? Well, there's a big difference. And it really goes along with the next point. He didn't just pray in faith. He also prayed according to God's promises. Go back to verse 1, same chapter. Two weeks ago I asked you to remember this. In chapter 18:1 when the Word of the Lord comes to Elijah, He says this. Go show yourself to Ahab. And then what did He promise? I will send what? Rain. So why is it that Elijah can stand before Ahab and predict boldly it's going to rain and then go on top of the mountain and ask God to send rain? Why can Elijah do this? Because his faith is based on the promise of God. It's not just based on what he thinks is good, what he thinks would be wonderful, what he thinks would be what God would want. It's based specifically on the promise of God. And when God promises you something, you can believe it. You can have enough faith to ask God to give it to you. He didn't just pray in faith. His faith was in the promises of God. Look at this verse because the New Testament teaches the same thing. In 1 John 5:14-15, look what it says. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything -- and here's the key phrase, it's the one so many people miss -- according to His will. If we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask we know we have the request we have asked from Him. You see, you want to add energy to your prayer life, here's what you do. Ready? Pray with your Bible open. Spend time in the Word of God and as you read through the Word of God whenever you see a promise take that promise to God in prayer. Whenever you see something that very clearly says, this is God's will for your life, take that to God in prayer. That's how Jesus taught us to pray. He's taught us to pray Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. You want to see amazing answers to your prayers? Begin to pray the promises of God that you see in the Bible. That will add great energy to your prayer life. But be careful. Be very careful. Do you realize there are nearly 7,500 promises in the Bible? But they're not all for you. This week you're going to look at this in your life groups. Some of the promises in the Bible were for certain individuals. Okay? For example, God said to Abraham and Sarah, in your old elderly age I'm going to cause you to have a child and from that child make a great nation. That was a promise to Abraham and Sarah. You can't claim that promise when you're 89 years old nor do I think you want to. You can't. It was a personal promise to an individual.

6 Some promises in the Bible were to groups. I'm going to do a series before this year's out on the most taken out of context verses in all the Bible because I'm amazed how many times people will claim promises in the Bible that were meant for a certain group or just for Israel many of the times. Sometimes promises are for individuals. Sometimes they're for groups. Sometimes they're for everybody. Sometimes promises are conditional. In other words, you'll only get it if you do this first. But as you're reading through scripture, as you're seeing the promises of God, pray those promises. You want to add energy to your prayer life? Find a place where no one can see you and no one can hear you. Pray in faith according to the promises of God. Pray with your Bible open. Let's look at another one. Number four. Elijah prayed intensely. He prayed intensely. Go back to 1 Kings 18. Look again at verse 42. So Ahab went up to eat and drink but Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and he crouched down on the earth. He just kind of got into a little ball, almost like a fetal position. What does that show me? That shows me great intensity in his prayer life. He didn't just fire off a bunch of cliches and that's what our prayer lives have come to today. Our prayer lives today are kind of like this. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if he hollers let me go, eenie meenie minie mo. That's kind of become our prayer life today. We just fire up a bunch of cliches. That's not how Elijah prayed. His energetic prayer came from his praying intensely and you can see that all throughout the New Testament. Let me in rapid fire show you different examples. In Acts 12:5, the church is praying for Peter. Peter is in prison. He's about to get beheaded. James just got beheaded. Peter's next. And the Bible says, with Peter in prison, the church was praying for him fervently. Now, that's a key word. It's a medical term which makes sense because Acts was written by Luke who was a medical doctor. It's a word that describes stretching your muscles to the limit. Now, let me ask you something. What have you done when you've stretched your physical muscles to a limit? Well, you have probably haven't been acting your age, right? I mean, my wife and I have taken up snowshoeing this winter and we love it. And we took two days, the last two days, took two days off, went up to the U.P. and we did snowshoeing and yesterday we did a three-mile snowshoe hike up by the falls and I can tell you this morning honestly we did it fervently because my legs haven't hurt this bad in a long, long time. That's how they were praying. They were stretching their spiritual muscles to the limit. Let me ask you something. When's the last time you prayed like that for somebody? When's the last time when you were praying for somebody you stretched your spiritual muscles to the limit? Intensely. Look at another example. Colossians 4:12. Talks about a wonderful man in the New Testament named Epaphras. He was a prayer warrior. And the Bible says Paul tells the church at Colosse that Epaphras was always laboring earnestly for you. The word laboring earnestly literally described military hand to hand combat. That's what he's saying. He's saying, man listen, Epaphras is always and taking on hand to hand combat in prayer for you. It was a word used to describe wrestling. Can I ask you a question. When's the last time you went to the mat spiritually? Praying for somebody else.

7 Let me give you another example. Romans 15:30. Romans 15:30. Paul asked the church at Rome, he doesn't just say, please pray for me. He says, I'm asking you to strive together in prayer for me. That word strive together is the Greek wording agonizomai. I don't usually throw out the Greek words but I do this time because I want you to hear the word we get from it. What word do you think we get from agonizomai? Agonize. You know what he's saying? Paul's saying, church at Rome, I'm you to agonize in prayer for me. When's the last time you agonized in prayer? You say, well, how can I do that? What's it look like? I think there's a beautiful example in Hebrews 13:3 and in Hebrews 13:3, the writer of Hebrews is telling us that we need to remember in prayer those who are being persecuted for their faith. Those who have been put in prison for their faith and he says remember those -- remember the prisoners as though you were in prison with them. How do you agonize in prayer for someone? How do you stretch your spiritual muscles to the limit in prayer for someone? How do you go to the mat in prayer for someone? Here's how. You identify with their situation. You pray for them as if their situation were your situation. You pray for Gary House as if it were your spouse in that medical coma or your father in that medical coma. Because you see, ladies and gentlemen, when you pray for others, remembering that that situation could also be yours, I guarantee you you'll pray fervently. You'll go to the mat. You will agonize in prayer for them. By the way, that's exactly how Jesus prayed. In Luke 22:44, when Jesus is in the garden praying the night before His crucifixion, the Bible says He was praying very fervently. In fact, so fervently that the Bible says He was sweating drops of blood. Hebrews 5:7, the author of Hebrews describes that same event in Jesus' life and says that He was crying out in prayer in loud crying and tears. He prayed intensely. I like what Charles Swindoll says. Great quote. Charles Swindoll says, prayer is exciting but it's not glamorous. It's exciting but it's not glamorous. He prayed in solitude. He prayed in faith. He prayed according to the promises of God. He prayed intensely. And then the last three I'm going to have to go in warp speed. Okay? So here we go. Number five, he prayed in humility. He prayed in humility. Look again at verse 42. He went up on top of the mountain. He crouched down on the earth and he put his face between his knees. It's a body posture of humility. It's Elijah recognizing as he comes before God who he is and who God is. He prays in humility. By the way, the New Testament makes the same connection. Same connection. In 1 Peter 5:6, it says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may lift you up. But then verse 7 connects that humbling to prayer. Verse 7 says, and cast all your care upon Him, that's prayer. Because He cares for you. We must come to God in an attitude of humility. You know, I think it's very interesting, something I was thinking about this morning and I don't know where I'm going with it because I just started thinking about it this morning and you're kind of guinea pigs. If I don't think this sounds good I won't say it next service but I was thinking this morning isn't it interesting in this passage that we never see the exact words Elijah prays but God does give us a glimpse of his exact posture? I think sometimes maybe we overlook the importance that even our posture in prayer. For Elijah, his body posture matched his heart.

8 And I can think back to times in my life and my times of solitude with God, times when I was hurting and found myself in a fetal position curled up on the floor. I can also think of times when I was elated with joy. I remember my first ministry in Indiana, my place of solitude was a meadow. If you went out the back door of the church and walked through the woods, right into the woods a little bit was a little meadow and no one was ever there, at least I hope they weren't. Okay? And that's where I would go to pray. And I can remember times being so elated and exhilarated what God was doing that I was just jumping around up in that meadow dancing before the Lord. You're saying, you danced? Don't try to picture it. But I was doing it. You know? And sometimes our body posture just needs to take on the attitude of our heart. Let me give you the last two. Number six, he prayed expectantly. He prayed expectantly. Look at verse 43. As he's praying, remember, what's he praying for? That God would send rain. And it says in verse 43, he said to his servant, so obviously his servant is nearby. He can call his servant over. He said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. Now, he's praying for rain so what do you think he's looking for when he sends the servant to the sea? Well, on top of Mount Carmel, you can look out At the Mediterranean Sea and that's where the storms would come in from. He's looking to see, is the storm coming in yet? As he's praying, he's praying expectantly and he can do that because of this. He's not praying based on a whim that he came up with. He's praying because it's based on what? The promise of God. Folks, listen. When you pray the promises of God you can expect an answer. When you pray the will of God you can expect an answer. Elijah's expecting an answer. In fact, I remember my grandpa Distler, he was a preacher over 50 years, I remember he used to always say this. If you're going to pray for rain, carry an umbrella. Pray expectantly. Why can we do that? Well, look at Ephesians 3:20. Amazing verse. I call it the Ginsu verse. Remember that old Ginsu commercial? You know? One of the first kind of ones of those infomercials where the Ginsu commercial is kind of like the deal always got better. Remember that? It slices, it dices, if you order right now we'll send you one for $ But wait, there's more. If you order right now we'll slash that price if half. But wait, there's more. If you order right now, we'll double it. But wait, there's more. If you order right now we'll give you our first born. I mean, it just keeps going and going and going and getting better and better and better. That's what this verse does. It says, now to him who's able to do. What's he able to do? More. But wait, there's even more. He doesn't just do more, he can do far more. But wait, there's more. He can do abundantly more than all you ask. But wait, there's more. He can do abundantly more beyond all you can imagine. Now, folks, if we serve a God like that and He makes us a promise, don't you think we can believe it? Don't you think we can expect it? I like what David Main says -- it's a longer quote but he says this. The modeling of prayer in our worship serves as little more than verbalizations to observing people which say don't expect much, folks, because we don't really sense that the King is near enough to be responding at the moment. Sad but very descriptive of so many Christians' prayer lives. Elijah prayed in solitude. Elijah prayed in faith. Elijah prayed according to the will and promises of God. Elijah prayed intensely. Elijah prayed in humility. Elijah prayed expectantly and here's the seventh one. Remember, you only have to pick one.

9 And the seventh one is this. Elijah prayed persistently. Keep reading in verse 43. He said to the servant, go up now, look toward the sea so the servant went up and looked and said, there's nothing. And Elijah said, go back seven times. Now, catch what's happening. Catch when's happening. Elijah's praying for rain. He says to the servant, go look towards the sea. The servant comes back, says nothing there. Elijah says, go look a second time. He goes, Elijah keeps praying. Servant comes back. Nothing there. Elijah says, go look a third time. He goes, Elijah keeps praying. He comes back, says nothing there. Elijah says, go look a fourth time. He goes back, Elijah keeps praying. When he comes back, he says, nothing there. Elijah says, go look a fifth time. He keeps praying. The servant goes. He looks. He comes back. He says, nothing there. Elijah says, go look a sixth time and he keeps praying. He goes, he looks, he comes back. Nothing there. Elijah says, go look a seventh time and he keeps prays. He prayed persistently. You know what most Christians would do today? They'd ask God once, maybe twice. After that, they would say, I guess God doesn't care and they'd give up. There's a verse. It's in the New Testament that says something about this. In Luke 11:9-10. You know this verse. It's also in Matthew. Jesus said, ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receive, he who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be open. Do you realize in the original language that's in a continual tense? It is not ask once and you'll get it. Seek once and you'll get it. Knock once and you'll get it. You could literally translate the verse keep on asking and it will be given you. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and it will be open to you for he who keeps on asking receives. He who keeps on seeking finds. He who keeps on knocking will find that it's open. In the Bible, we see that God honors persistent prayer. You see, you want to add energy to your prayer life, you find a promise of God and you dig your teeth into it like a bulldog and you don't let go. And that old adage push is still biblically correct. When you're dealing with the promises of God, you pray until something happens. And Elijah just kept praying and praying and praying until God came through on His promise. My spiritual hero Jerry Falwell said this. Nothing of eternal importance ever happens apart from prayer. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. What's the result? The result is that God answers Elijah's prayer. I love this. Let me read verses 45 and 46 as we wrap things up. I'll go back to verse 44. Starts on the screen verse 45. It came about at the seventh time, he said, behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming from the sea and Elijah said to him, go up, say to Ahab prepare your chariot and go down so the heavy shower doesn't stop you. So you don't get stuck in the mud. Verse 45, so it came about in a little while that the sky grew black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy shower. First one in three and a half years. And Ahab rode in his chariot down the hillside to Jezreel. Verse 46 says, then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he girded up his loins. That almost sounds painful, doesn't it? What does it mean? It just means this. Back in that day, they wore those long robes, right? It's hard to run in a long robe. Girding your loins means you pick up your robe and tuck it in your belt so you can run unimpeded. He girded his loins and then it says, look at this, the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. He girded up his loins and outran Ahab in his chariot to Jezreel.

10 Now, remember this is the same Elijah who I believe when he first stood before Ahab God just caused to vanish. Now God comes upon him, he girds up his loins and God gives him supernatural speed. It reminds me of the old cartoon, some of you won't even remember it, it reminds me of the old cartoon roadrunner. Remember that cartoon? I can picture, here's King Ahab. He is like the coyote and going down the hill in his chariot and then suddenly can you see the look on his face when -- whoo -- Elijah the roadrunner goes right by him? And I half think Elijah went beep beep when we went by him. Folks, listen. We serve an awesome God! Pray in solitude. Pray in faith. Pray according to the promises of God. Pray intensely. Pray in humility. Pray expectantly. Pray persistently. Would you bow with me for prayer? With our heads bowed, our eyes closed, before we go into just a time of prayer this morning, we are going to just remain seated. We're going to go into a time of prayer this morning and the worship is going team is going to lead us in that time but before we do, I want to ask you one thing. Here in the gospel center, down in the chapel, here's the thing I want to ask you. If you're listening online, I want to ask you this question. Of those seven, which one will you wrap your head around this week? Which one of those characteristics will you apply to your life this week? How will you add energy to your prayer life? Will you pray in solitude? Will you pray in faith? Will you pray according to the promises of God? Will you pray intensely? Will you pray in humility? Will you pray expectantly? Will you pray persistently? Which one will you choose? Father, Elijah's greatest example to us is prayer. So now as we here in the gospel center and as well as down in the chapel in just a minute as they go through a time of prayer, as well, I pray, God, that you would be pleased and I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Let's go into a time of prayer.