March 10, 2024

James 5:17-18; 1 Kings 18:41-46

Three secrets of Elijah’s Prayer Life (Read 1 Kings 18:41-46 for context);

1. Elijah was a human just like you (James 5:17a)
2. Elijah prayed God’s will (James 5:17b)
3. Elijah prayed with patient fervency (James 5:17-18)

[James 5:17-18, 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.]

How are you? Good! My name is John Nemmers. For those of you who don’t know me, I am the pastor over at Eden Church on the north side of Des Moines. That is the latest church plant that you guys have planted. So I’m very excited to be here! I feel a little bit… I told… I said last service, I feel a little bit like I’m coming home to Mom and Dad’s for, you know, Sunday dinner. You know, everything’s here, everything’s nice. You guys got, like, walls and stuff. We don’t have that, you know? So I’m very happy to be here. It’s really good to see a lot of familiar faces and to see you guys.

But if you have a Bible, we’re going to continue on in the series that you guys are in, which is in James. James chapter 5, and we’re going to be in verses 17 and 18. And while you go there, also put your finger in first Kings 18, the end of first Kings 18, starting in verse 41.

And while you find those passages, I want to start by asking you a question, and here’s a question. What are you missing out on by praying safely? What are you missing out on by praying safely? I would guess that all of you in this room pray. Maybe I shouldn’t guess, but I am guessing that most of you pray. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably a little too scared or maybe even too lazy to pray courageously. We pray ‘safe trips’ and ‘blessed foods,’ but very few people pray in such a way where it would be obvious if God didn’t answer your request.

If you grew up in the 90s, there was this comedian that would oftentimes make fun of this. Tim Hawkins, I think, was his name. You would say, you would say, like, what are we praying? Like, we have these phrases that are so bizarre, like, ‘I’m praying a hedge of protection over you.’ Right? Like, what does that mean? — A hedge of protection? You couldn’t have prayed a brick wall or something? Like, a hedge? What does that mean? We pray. This is how we pray. We pray, oftentimes… safely. We pray safe prayers.

But what if I told you, what if I told you that answered prayer is God’s way of giving you the authority that you were created for. Does that statement make you a little nervous? Good! I hope it does, because I think that’s what Elijah believed. Elijah was a prophet, this powerful prophet, and it’s who James mentions today in James chapter 5, and the past two Sundays, you guys have been talking about “fervent” prayers. So I get the ‘back cleanup’ when it comes to prayer — the third service on “prayer.” In verses 17 and 18, James, he gives us an example of someone who does not pray safe prayers, and he mentions the name Elijah. And the way that the biblical authors work, which should be no surprise to us, but sometimes you don’t read our Bible like this, is that when they reference something from the Old Testament or name somebody, they’re expecting you to go back there. They’re expecting you to download that story, whatever they just referenced, and meditate on it, and think about it. And so that’s what we’re going to go do. James mentions Elijah. So I want to go back to first Kings 18, starting in verse 41, and just talk about this story. It’s an amazing story! I wish I could preach on two chapters, 1 Kings 17 and 18, but they only give me half hour. So here we go. 1 Kings 18, starting in verse 41, “And Elijah said to Ahab…” Elijah said to Ahab. Now, first and second Kings, maybe those are books that you’re interested in. Most of you might skip over them, but they’re really, really fascinating books in the Bible! And actually, I’ve heard one person say that they’re probably more accurately described as the Kings versus the Prophets, because that’s what’s always going on there. It’s one evil king coming up against one of God’s prophets and they’re always fighting back and forth. And this is what’s happening here with Elijah who is a prophet of God and he is fighting with Ahab, the worst king that Israel had ever seen up to that point! And Elijah says this to Ahab, he says,

1 Kings 18:41-46, 41 “Go up, eat and drink for there is a sound of rushing rain.“

(Now it hadn’t rained for three and a half years. James tells us that in the text. It hadn’t rained for three and a half years, because Elijah prayed that it wouldn’t rain! And…)

42 So Ahab, went up to eat and drink. Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. (That’s a desperate prayer!)

43 And he said to his servant, “Go up now and look toward the sea.” And when his servant went up and looked, he said, ‘I don’t see anything.’ And so Elijah said, ‘We’ll go again…’ came back. ‘I don’t see anything.’ ‘Well, go again… Seven times! (Seven times! When are you giving up if you’re Elijah’s servant? ‘Elijah… it’s not raining.’ When are you giving up? Seven times you went there.)

44 And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, (there is something out there.) It’s like a cloud, like a man’s hand 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.”

What are you missing out on by praying so safely? Prayers like that, that Elijah just prayed, they make us feel uncomfortable. I mean, imagine being his servant. ‘Elijah, don’t pray like that! Don’t pray that prayer! It hasn’t rained for three and a half years, Elijah! God didn’t tell us when it was going to start raining again! Don’t do that! If it doesn’t… if God doesn’t answer you, you’re going to ‘out’ God! Don’t do that!’ Is Elijah, is he a fool or is he on to something? The premise of this message is that dangerous prayers give you intimacy in heaven and purpose on earth. And I do think that Elijah is on to something. I don’t think he’s a fool. I think he’s on to something.

And so what I want to do is, I want to flesh out Elijah’s prayer life. So I’m just going to give you three secrets to Elijah’s prayer life. They’re not really secrets, to be honest. It just sounds fancier when you put secrets in the title — So, Elijah’s secret prayer life. Here it is. And the first one is right here in James. Go back to James if you’re there. James, the very beginning of verse 17, says that Elijah was a human like you!

[James 5:17 (ESV), Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…”]

He was a human like you. Translation says “man,” but the man right there literally just means “human.” And think about that. That’s got to be one of the coolest verses in all of the Bible, right? Elijah was a human just like you.

There’s this guy, Matt Frazier, who was one of the best, if not the best, CrossFit athletes out there. And before he became a CrossFit athlete, he didn’t think that he could compete in these things, because these guys are crazy athletic, you know, they’re wild! — Until, by happenstance, he sat next to one of a really good CrossFit computer, and he looked over at him, and he saw his legs, he saw his shoulders, he saw his arms, and he goes, “You know what, I can actually compete with these guys.” That’s just going on here. We tend to idolize characters in the Bible, but one thing that I like to say is that the Bible… it works more like a mirror than a poster, Okay? We are not intended… with these characters… we’re not intended to put them up on a poster, up on your wall and idolize them, but rather, we’re supposed to look at them as like a mirror to reflect your own nature. Okay? — Both the good and the bad. There’s a lot of bad characters out there. And we’re not supposed to go, ‘Yes, be more like him.’ We’re supposed to look at them and we go, ‘Wow, they’re a lot like me!’

And so, when we see Elijah, we look at a mirror and we go, ‘Ellijah, he was a human, just like me! First King 17:1 says that he’s from Tishbe. Anybody here know where Tishbe is? Nobody does! Nobody has an idea where that place is at! If you go read any commentaries, they’re just guessing. They’re like, ‘Yeah, we have no idea… No idea where this place is at.’ It’s called “the settlers,” — So maybe he’s just a set… We have no clue from where he’s at. So here’s a guy who comes in on the scene out of nowhere, from nowhere, and he marches up to the King of Israel and he says, ‘Ahab, it is not going to rain. There will be a famine on the ground because I have prayed to the living God. I’ve prayed and that’s what’s going to happen.’ Elijah, he’s not divine. He’s not royalty. He’s not special. Elijah is human. But James — he was just really going on. It’s just so interesting! James, he’s not just commentating on Elijah’s physical nature. He’s commenting on his God-given status. Elijah is a human. Humans are God’s chosen instruments to create His kingdom on earth. Did you know that? Did you know that you are God’s chosen instruments to expand His kingdom here on earth? — Not because… He doesn’t do this… God doesn’t do this because He needs your help, okay? But He does do this because He wants your help. And if you’re a parent, you understand this, right? Anybody who’s has kids…

I was carrying a … chair, down these stairs not too long ago. And my son, who’s all of 40 pounds, comes around the corner and he goes, “Hey, dad, can I help?” And like, to be honest, I didn’t need his help, right? And if I’m being really honest, he’s actually more… it’s probably a little inconvenient for him to help, right? He’s just this little guy right here. But as a dad, as a daddy, when my son asks if he can help, I don’t need it, I want it. I want him to help!

And this is how God works. Grasp this… it’s amazing! God is so generous! He is so generous with his world that He wants to share His power with His creation. Isn’t that amazing? And it all started right in the very beginning of the Bible with Adam and Eve. Shocker, I know that the pastor of Eden Church would go back to the Garden of Eden, but that’s… I can’t help it! All roads lead back to Eden, apparently! Genesis 1:26 says this, look at it on the screen.

Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image according to our likeness and let them (what?) rule.” (Rule? That’s kingly status right there! God says, ‘Here is your status, human. I am putting you on this earth for you to rule, for you to have authority, for you to subdue.” And Jesus would go on to do the same thing. Jesus would go on to become the One true human who actually would rule with perfect authority. And then when He’s training up His 12 disciples in

Mark 6:7, [“And He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.”]

…we get a picture of it. He sends out the 12 and He gives them what? Gives them what? — Authority! He gives them authority to go do what Jesus can do. It’s the same word for rule here.

So here Elijah knew that he was a human with a role to play… with a role to play to push out the darkness. Ahab was the most wicked king in Israel at that point and to establish the light and to establish God’s kingdom. And amazingly, amazingly Elijah saw prayer as the way that this happens! (I so wish that I really could just take an hour and a half and just walk through 1King 17 and 1King’s 18 with you because it’s so awesome!) James… he talks about the two prayer requests of Elijah to start the drought, which is in 1Kings… the beginning of 1 Kings 17, and then to end the drought, which is what we read in 1 kings 18 at the very end. But sandwiched in between those two prayer requests, I think this is what James is trying to get at here. He says, ‘Go back. Meditate on the story,’ because what you’re going to find out is that sandwiched in between those two prayer requests are Elijah’s greatest hits, his amazing stories, these miraculous things that brought about the kingdom of God! Here are just three of them. He keeps oil from running out in the Gentile woman’s home. Do you remember that story? And it’s a picture, this is a picture of God’s kingdom and how it is for the outcasts, she’s a widow, and the outsider, she’s a Gentile! That’s who God has come to save. Then right after that, the widow’s son dies. And so Elijah prays over him three times and he’s raised back to life, which is a picture that God’s kingdom is coming to bring dead people back to life. It’s amazing! And then finally, it’s the most famous of all of Elijah’s stories, which is he calls fire down from heaven and defeats the prophets of Baal, which is a picture that God’s kingdom is pushing back and eventually, completely destroying the unseen forces of evil in this world. And do you know how all of these amazing events were brought about? Can you take a guess? Prayer. Prayer! So think about this. Elijah was a human just like you. The only difference is he recognized his status as an agent of God. And so he prayed dangerous prayers.

If you’re a follower of Jesus in this room, this is your status as somebody who has been called by God to expand His kingdom through dangerous prayers. And if you’re not a follower of Jesus in this room, this is… you’re missing out on the full purpose of your existence right here. What are you missing out on by praying so safely? I’m sure you’ve preached on it. You’ve been going through James. James even says, “You may not have because you do not… (what?) ask. Now don’t take that to mean, now I’m gonna go pray for a nice car, right? If you’re getting that, then you are completely missing the point because that leads to Elijah’s second secret, which is Elijah prayed God’s will. The end of verse 17 in James 5 says that he prayed that it might rain. He prayed that it might rain.

[James 5:17, “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.”]

I mean, you might look at that and go, well, that’s an interesting, cool trick! Maybe he just thought that in his head. Here’s one way to get Ahab is just like, let’s not make it rain for a while and it’ll really punish him! But that’s not what is happening here. What’s happening here is Elijah… this prayer was rooted in his understanding of scripture. This was amazing when I saw this! Check it out. Look at Deuteronomy 11 behind me. It says this,

Deuteronomy 11:16-17a,

16 “Take care, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;

17 then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit…”

Do you see what’s going on here? Elijah, he was able to pray such dangerous prayers because he knew, He knew that God could come through at any moment to go fulfill His word! His mind had been so saturated in God’s word that he goes, ‘I know that we as Israelites, as Hebrews, we are not following the things of God. And I know God’s word says that if that happens, then there may be a drought. And so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to pray God’s words and just see, just ask God. ‘God, will You make Your word come true? Will You make Your word? Will You fulfill Your own word?’

Listen, do you want to pray dangerous prayers that God might use to build His kingdom? I’m asking you, do you? Are you a follower of Jesus? Do you want to pray in such a way, in such a dangerous, unsafe way that you will actually push out the darkness and bring in the kingdom of heaven? Then do this. Pray something that you know lines up with God’s will in the scriptures and just see what happens. Just see what happens! By the way, this is exactly what Jesus… this is exactly how Jesus teaches us to pray. (And I’ll always say this.) Anything that you read in your Bible about prayer, it has its roots right back into or points to the Lord’s prayer, how Jesus teaches us to pray. How does He teach us to pray?

[Luke 11:1-4 (KJV), 1 “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation…”]

Jesus said, “Teach us to pray like this, that “Your kingdom may come and your, (what?) “Your will be done.“

And so here’s something that you could do this week. This is something that my small group at Eden Church, what we did this past week, as we went around and we prayed uncomfortably dangerous prayers. And it was incredibly uncomfortable and amazing at the same time, we just went around and we prayed these prayers. Here are a few of them that were prayed. “15 sex trafficked women that we’ve come across would find safety and a community at Eden Church.” Another request was “that genuine salvation would sweep over homeless camps on the north side.” This individual has been ministering and hanging out with and loving on homeless people for a while, but he’s never seen one actually get saved. And so he says, “I want to see entire camps come to Christ!” Another one was “that all the neighbors on his street would start following Jesus by this time next year.” Now, we will know if God chooses to answer those requests. They are specific enough to know if God’s going to say “Yes” or if God’s going to say “No.” And when it comes to your prayers, when it comes to your dangerous prayers, prepare your heart. You don’t know God’s answers. You know that you need to line them up with God’s will, but you don’t know how He’s going to answer. And so if He tells you “No” or if He tells you “Wait,” you need to prepare your heart to respond correctly, which leads to the last secret.

And that is that Elijah prayed with patient fervency. Going back to verse 17 and James 5.

[James 5:17, “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.”]

It says that he prayed… (what?) fervently. He prayed fervently that it might not rain.

Now I have a daughter. I I have a couple of daughters. I’ve got some boys too. The boys are fun. But my girls, I love my girls! They’re awesome! They’re so sweet. And I don’t know. I don’t know. They’re daddy’s girls for sure. And I have one daughter who loves her snacks. She just loves her snacks! And we’ve got some girls at our church that give her snacks. And I’m telling you, if you give this girl a snack, she will rob you blind! She’ll just keep on coming back for more and more and more! But without fail, I’ll usually go home for lunch, at least one time a week. And she– (I usually come around right around nap time) and she’s, like, hanging out in the living room, sitting on the couch. And without fail, I’ll walk in and she’ll give me this smile! Her eyes just completely disappear when she smiles. And I know it’s coming! I know it’s coming. Every time she looks at me and she says, “Daddy, can I have a snack?” And what do you think happens in my “daddy heart” at that moment? Like in that moment, I go, ‘Oh, I love giving my girl a snack!’ Like, ‘I love giving my baby a girl a snack!’ And most of the time I do. I say, “Yeah, come on. Even if mom doesn’t know…! (I’ll just just be quiet!) I’ll get you a snack. Yeah, of course!’ That’s my heart for my girl. I love giving her a snack — But of course, I am her father, and I do have a perspective that she doesn’t have. And so there are times where I have to give her the dreaded words. And every kid hates these words. Every kid, when your parent looks at you, and I look at her and I say, “Honey, not right now.” And she just– well, sometimes she responds correctly. This is how she responds, usually one of two ways. Either one, she’ll see me as “the enemy!” All right… Hey, parents, you know what I’m talking about! You could give your kid a snack for 100 days in a row. Tell them “No” once. All of a sudden they’ve just flipped! ‘How could you do this to me?’ ‘Why would you do that to me, Dad?’ ‘How could you hate me so much?’ They see me as “the enemy” or, OR… she’ll respond like this. She will trust me and she will ask a different time. She’ll trust me and she’ll keep on asking.

Did you know that this is the heart of your Father when it comes to prayer? Jesus lays that out for us in Matthew 7.

[Matthew 7:9-11, 9 “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”]

He says, ‘Guys, your Father, when you ask Him for fish, I say, He’s not gonna give you a snake! When you ask Him for bread, He’s not gonna give you a rock. This is your Father! Your Father loves you! Your Father wants to give you good gifts. He loves giving you good gifts! He is the dad that’s looking at their… going, ‘I want so much to give you a snack!’ And there are times where I will give you those snacks, but… He’s also a Father with an infinite perspective. And He has insights into your heart and your circumstances that you simply cannot have as a finite human. And there are times where He says, “No” or He makes you wait.

Now I know in this room there are many of you who have been praying and praying, and God is saying, “Wait” — Maybe it’s an unsaved child, maybe it’s a troubled marriage, maybe it’s your own singleness, maybe it’s your job difficulties, maybe it’s family issues that you have. But what Jesus wants you to see… what He wants you to see, He wants you to grasp the heart of the Father when it comes to prayer, and He wants you to hear the Father saying to you, ‘Guys, if you’re a follower of Me, rejoice when I say “Yes!” It is a great time to rejoice when I give you good gifts, but I need you to trust when I say “No.” And if I’m telling you to “wait,” I need you to keep on asking because that’s it. I may just be making you wait.’

Elijah was probably hyped after he prayed one time for fire to come down from heaven to consume his sacrifice! One time… That’s amazing! He was probably so excited that God answered that, but Elijah also had to send his servant back seven times before God answered his prayer for the rain. And three times he had to pray for the son who was dead before he was raised to life. Unanswered prayer is one of God’s preferred tools to shape you into Jesus. And I believe one of the main reasons why is because prayer is more about intimacy than it is about results. It’s more about intimacy than it is results. We get that confused.

So at 3 p.m. today, I’m going to get on a plane and I’m going to fly to Pennsylvania. I’m sure that I’ll sit next to someone. I’m sure that we will strike up a conversation and we may become friends. I don’t know. But 10 years ago, I was also on my way to Pennsylvania except in a car, not on a plane. And because I was a 19-year-old about to go to college, I never really checked my car, whether it was a good car or not for a 16 1/2 hour drive, never checked the engine. Got all the way to Indiana… transmission blew out! So I’m sitting in Indiana, and my buddy was in the car in front of me. So he had to pull over… he had to come out… we could not figure it out. I just had to get a backpack, get the clothes that I had. I got in his car, and then we ended up driving 10 1/2 hours together. Now, here’s the question. Who do you think I developed more intimacy with? Who do you think I was closer with by the end of that trip? — the two-hour plane ride to Pennsylvania or the 10 1/2 hour car ride full of broken vehicles, bathroom stops, inconveniences, arguing, conversations? Of course, it was the road trip!

This is the picture of God’s heart when it comes to prayer. We all want the flashy Elijah ‘call fire down from heaven’ types of prayer, and, praise the Lord, when that happens! But God wants your heart! He is saying to you, ‘I know that you want this right now, but right now, actually, what I know you need is more intimacy with Me, and so I’m gonna make you wait. I’m gonna make you get down on your knees every single day, and show up every single morning and you don’t want to, and I’m gonna make you say, “Please God, please answer this,” because what’s gonna happen is, yes, it may be inconvenient, but you are going to know Me and understand Me, and love Me in a way that you never could if I gave this to you right away.’ This is the picture of prayer. God is after your heart, and this is why Jesus says… when He teaches us to pray, what are the first words out of His mouth? What are the first words of the Lord’s prayer? What are they? “Our Father.” “Our Father.” Your prayer life is about intimacy with God before it’s about seeing the incredible from God. He’s after your heart. What are you missing out on by praying so safely?

Let me end with a picture that summarizes how God answers prayer. What you’re looking at is a lot of prayer requests written down in a span from 2005 to 2012. A group of men began to pray and fast for lost souls to be saved. All of these were documented by one of our church planters, Josh Daggett. Now, as I was looking at these one time, he sent this picture and I started zooming up on all of them and just to see what I could see. And among those requests was a righteous man who prayed a dangerous prayer. I was zooming up on it and I saw the name “Abe.” That’s your very own Abe Miller. And I looked over to his prayer request during the time span of 2005 to 2012, when, by the way, I could have very well been in jail! — and looked to see what he was praying for… outreach to South Saydel and the North side of Des Moines. Years ago, a righteous man made a dangerous prayer and it began to work… not right away, but it began to work. And in God’s providential timing, the wheels of God’s providence began to turn. And He would save me! He would save others! He would bring them about, and He would start a church on the north side of Des Moines because of one man’s prayer! I can’t tell you how motivating a picture like that is to me! — because it proves James 5:16 that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Would you bow your heads?

As we go to prayer here, I want you just to quiet your own heart, because some of you in this room, some of you in this room are on that list — Not literally, but there are people who have been praying for your soul, and you don’t know this Jesus. And some of you know that you’re on this list, list of lost souls. And the prayers that people have been praying for you are something like this that you would recognize that you were made for intimacy with the Father. That’s what you were created for. And our prayer today is that this morning, you might pray for the first time, truly pray for the first time, that  this morning, you would call out on the name of Jesus and be saved. And if you are a follower of Jesus here this morning, what dangerous prayers are you praying? Think of one right now. Ask the Lord to do amazing things.

Lord, we love you. We thank you that you are a God who allows us to enter into the throne room and to have the ear of our Creator. But we don’t deserve that. But you hear us and you want to use us. I pray that we would not sit on the sideline while we have the greatest weapon available to us. Father, help us to pray dangerously! We love you. We pray this in Your Son’s name. Amen. [Music]