 First Kings chapter 18 in verse 41 through 46 And it says then Elijah said to Ahab go up and eat and drink For there is the sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel then bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and Said to his servant go up now look toward the sea So he went up and looked and said there is nothing and Seven times he said go again then it came to pass that The seventh time he said there is a cloud as small as a man's hand Rising out of the sea so he said go to Ahab go up to Ahab and say to him prepare your chariot 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 heavy rain So Ahab rode away to Jezreel and the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel and so you know what I Love the life of Elijah because it's such a powerful story. It's such a unique Portion of scripture And the reason I will like it. It's because he had a sinful nature just like you and I He had a sinful nature, but he was used by God in a powerful way to impact his the world around him And yet it's kind of interesting too There's no backstory for Elijah all of a sudden he just appears on the screen in First Kings 17 verse 1 he just pops on the scene and appears before Ahab And he's face to face with Ahab and he tells Ahab a there's going to be no rain on the land until I come back at my word and tell you and That's the first poor the first verse where Elijah is mentioned And so after Elijah says that we kind of get a little insight from James 5 17 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 land for three years and six months And so what I want to talk to you today about is prayer and Elijah Demonstrate a life of prayer somebody that lived by faith Trusted in God and his promises And he prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain on the land for three and a half years So after he just went in and told Ahab The Lord called him to go to a river and stay there It's he stayed there till it got dried up then the Lord said hey I want you to go to this widow and she will provide food for you and and He multiplied the food with the widow and as he spent some time he actually spent a good portion of his time We don't know how much how long but he spent a lot of his time with this widow and her son But the son became ill and very sick so much so that he actually died and the woman gets mad at him He says you have caused caused this to this affliction to come upon us And then he takes him up to the upper room and prays over him and he gets brought back to life So not only do we see his prayers? Stopped the rain from coming for three and a half years. He his prayers brought people back to life And at the end of the three and a half years the Lord tells Elijah in verse 18 chapter 18 verse 1 You should go appear to Ahab again Now Ahab for those that I don't know and have never read 2nd Kings Ahab was one of the most wicked kings in all of Israel's history He did more evil in the side of the Lord than any other And to top it all off. He married a wicked woman the most wicked woman in the Bible Jezebel and Jezebel she was something else she Was determined to make all of Israel worship her God but all and in 1st Kings 2125 but there was none like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel his wife stirred him up Because of his wife. He's got stirred up to do more evil But you know what then verse chapter 18 is so amazing. I love it It's the battle of Elijah against the prophets of Baal He goes and appears to Ahab and says hey, I'm gonna challenge your prophets He goes we're gonna have a duel against my God against your God And so he goes all right Let's do this and so they each prepare a sacrifice and an altar and he goes I don't watch no one is allowed to throw any fire on it The true God will bring fire down from heaven and so the prophets of Baal Chant they do all sorts of things and then at midday Elijah mocks them and he goes hi Maybe your God's sleeping wake him up. Maybe you need to shout louder And so they start cutting themselves and crying out even louder and nothing takes place until like evening and then Elijah dumps buckets of water on this sacrifice and then all of a sudden he prays and fire comes down and consumes the altar and consumes the Sacrifice the altar and even the stone there For fire to consume stone. It has to be complete super hot and So this was a supernatural thing that took place and then Top it all off. He goes and slaughters and kills all the prophet of Baal He takes him down to the river and kills them all there and so this guy is an amazing man of God And so tonight I want to talk about the five Ps of prayer if you guys are taking notes That's kind of like the title of my message message. It's the five Ps of prayer We're gonna look at the place of prayer the posture of prayer the promises of God in prayer Perseverance in prayer and the power of prayer In verse 41 it says then Elijah said to Ahab go up and eat and drink For there is the sound of abundance of rain The purpose of the drought was to show that Baal was not God and now that that has been accomplished rain was on Was on its way. See Baal was this God of fertility and the rain And so that's who they the the pagan culture was worshiping that got introduced into Israel's life and So Elijah proved by this drought that Baal was not God And you know, I love Elijah. He goes the sound of abundance of rain. This man was a man of faith He could hear the rain. He goes, you know what that it's coming They have might have been like, dude, you're crazy. Like I don't hear any rain And you know in Hebrews 1 11 1 it says faith is the confidence that we hope for Will actually happen it will give us the insure the assurance about things we cannot see verse 42 so Ahab went up to eat and drink and Elijah went up to the top of Mount up to to Carmel and so Here is the first point It's the place of prayer the place of prayer Elijah went to an isolated place a secluded place To go and pray to the Lord He departed and went up to the mountain To pray And you know what even Jesus said to do this Matthew 6 5 through 6 and when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites For they love to pray standing up in the synagogue And on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men or surely I say to you That they have the reward, but you when you pray Go into your room and when you have shut the door pray to your father who see Who's in the secret place for your father who sees in secret will reward you openly And so he doesn't say he says when you pray go into the secret place and pray to God Jesus not only taught this he lived it out in mark chapter 1 verse 35 he says this Now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight He went out and departed to a solitary place and he prayed You know why I like this portion in mark because the previous Verses before that is Jesus did had a full day of ministry and then all of a sudden he goes back to the house Like and he was about to relax like some of you guys when you have a full day of work And then you go home and all you want to do is relax, but then guess what? Jesus doesn't get to relax All of a sudden people come knocking on his door saying hey, would you heal my sick? Would you cast out the demons and so Jesus stayed up into the late night healing people casting out demon and just ministering And you know what he valued prayer so much that he was willing to forget or sleep To spend time with God. He was willing to pray So having stayed up late. He still woke up early before even daylight And he went to pray And you know what this is sometimes a challenging and hard thing because a lot of us we like sleep, right? We love to sleep in and um as a 24 year old. I like sleep And so this is something that the Lord challenged me personally on back when um before I was uh On staff here. I was working with my dad and we would have to get up at like 4 a.m In the morning and I would go work construction with him And I noticed like I try to usually read my bible and spend some time with the Lord in the morning before I go out throughout my day But as I was working with him it was just hard to wake up even earlier than four to spend time in the word But then all of a sudden the Lord's like josh, do you value sleep more or do you value spending time with me more? Because he goes I can give you energy And when I made that decision it was tough Trying to like wake up and not hit snooze a couple times um I woke up and I just that the rest of the day was a different there was a difference I was just more in tune with the Lord and walking in the spirit and so Sometimes we might have to forego sleep Jesus's prayer life guys was so powerful. It was so dynamic That the disciples asked Jesus in Luke 11 verse 1. He said Lord teach us to pray Have you guys been around anybody whose prayers? You just you're listening to them as they pray and they're you're just like blown away And you get encouraged you get kind of stirred up. I had a teacher like that in bible college He prayed and his prayers were just like man. They convicted me. I was just like man I want to learn how to pray like that, but he prayed like that in public because he prayed like that in private With the Lord first and foremost And he wasn't praying to impress people. No because he was talking with the Lord And so we ought to find a place of prayer Check out the second thing and it says then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees We see here the posture of prayer Throughout scriptures. We see different postures of prayer mentioned In mark 11 25. We see standing in second chronicles 6 12 through 13. We see lifting up hands We see in second kings 4 35 walking and praying In joshua 7 6 we see lying down or posture First chronicles 17 16 we see sitting Here we see bowing down in first kings And we see kneeling also in first kings 8 54 But let me ask you a question. Is god more concerned With the posture of our physical body? No, he's not of course not. He's more concerned with the posture of our heart. Where's our heart at with him? Are we standing up in pride or are we kneeling down in humility saying lord? I need you I Think of the man who brought his son to the disciples when jesus was on the mountain of transfiguration and the disciples couldn't cast out the demon in mark and Jesus comes down and goes, what's the problem? What's going on? And He explains and allows the kid to kind of seize on the floor still by the demon And he goes, what do you want me to do? He goes, I asked that you would just cast out here This the demon out of my son and he goes it is possible if you believe and he says lord, I believe but help my unbelief And you know what god's not asking us to be fake in prayer. He wants us to be real in prayer Now i'm not real to the extent of There's honestly There is one christian band that actually came out with a song and it's called I think it's about prayer and they dropped the f-bomb in it because they're oh We're just being real with god. God doesn't want us to be that kind of real in his prayer in prayer Okay, that's not what he's talking about but just be honest and say god, you know, I don't feel like praying I don't feel like being in the word right now Because we have this flesh nature that we have to constantly fight against And so we see here the posture of prayer mark seven six jesus replied you hypocrites Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you for he wrote Those people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me Those were the hypocrites those were the Pharisees That prayed lifting up their hands to be seen by men and women But god doesn't look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart first samuel 16 7 and the lord said to samuel Do not look at his appearance Or at his physical stature Because I have refused him for the lord does not see as man sees But uh for man looks at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart God's more concerned with our heart than our outward appearance. And you know, it got me thinking the other day uh, the junior high We call the junior high rooted to be rooted in christ based out of um colossions two seven and I was thinking roots are kind of like people's hearts It's the part that's unseen You can't see them. They're in the soil, right? What you see is the tree on the outside And so as the as us in the junior high ministry, we're constantly wanting to strengthen those roots The the youth's hearts And make that right with the lord and help them to be strong because if the roots are strong Then the rest of the tree will be strong and be able to stand in the storms and draw its source and its love from jesus christ And so god looks at our hearts Doesn't look at the outward appearance. So when we pray we ought to pray in humility with the right heart And I love what first john 514 says and says And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him God hears our prayers when we ask anything that pleases him You know what really pleases him First timothy chapter two. He goes I desire that all men would be saved If you're praying for people's salvation that pleases god and he hears you Point the point number three. I want to make is the promise of god and prayer Now you might be saying I don't see that in this portion of scripture That's true But what we do when we study the bible we use scripture to interpret scripture, correct? And so in first kings 18 verse 1 check this out And it came to pass after many days the word of the lord came to elisha and in the third year Saying go present yourself to ahab And I will send rain on the earth This is a promise from god. He goes if you present yourself, I will send rain on the earth And so elisha was holding on to the promise of god here Saying that god would send rain Tozer said this elisha prayed with humility standing on the character of god Which is unchanging And ever faithful to his word I think that's true He stood on the character of god That he is good that he's just that he's holy that he's righteous that he is our father and desires the best for us jim symbolus says this He is waiting for us to take his promises seriously and go boldly to the throne of grace God is waiting for us to grab ahold of the promises in scripture and go boldly to the throne of grace and bring them and pray them We have access to god and I think sometimes we forget how amazing that is That we have access to the living god Now there's certain people we don't have access to right you can't just go up to anybody and everybody and have access to them You can't have just access to the president of the united states. It doesn't work or like that, right? But with god we have access to him And we can come boldly to the throne of grace and bring these promises and pray them Let us take this action And make these promises of god a reality in our lives and the lives of the other people around us Elijah first had to know god's word in order to pray god's Promises and I think that's true. So the question has to come up and says do we know the promises of god? If a brand new believer went to ask you a question and say hey, what are some promises of god? Would you be able to tell them? What are some promises in scripture and where they're found? We ought to be equipped and we have been equipped To know these things And I'll just give you a couple off the top of my head and or my notes um One of my favorites is Elijah Isaiah 26 3 You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you God wants to keep us in perfect peace But that's only if we keep our mind focused on him on his character Who he truly is and so just like the psalmist said in psalm 46 10 be still and know that i'm god Knowing who god is Take time to be still and you know what in our society. It's so hard to be still We're there's uh so much going on It's hard to find time right we got this going on this some of you guys maybe take your kids to soccer practice And not only that we have our phones going on facebook and instagram taking up time and looking at useless stuff all the time um But you know what? God wants to keep us in perfect peace be still and know that he is god When's the last time you really contemplated that? For me, I absolutely love the rain um When I was little uh me and my brother and sometimes our friends would go out and play in the rain And never once did we ever get sick. Okay, so rain does not cause people to get sick um But we played in the rain constantly. We would take our scooters in it We would take our skateboards We would the gutters would overflow and we would play in the gutters and it was so fun Because personally I just enjoy rain I do and there's sometimes I would I'll put on a jacket or whatever put my headphones in And I'll just sit out in the rain and listen to worship music But then there was one time as I was just sitting there listening to worship music that I was contemplating that how god is all knowing God knows everything right And so it caused me to think about the raindrops He knows every single raindrop that has ever hit me In my life He knows what number they are And so when I get to heaven, I'm gonna go ask god God where did the first raindrop ever land and he's gonna be like, oh the sea of china And I'm and then you can like where was the tenth millionth raindrop? He goes. Oh over here Show me all the ones that ever hit me. He goes. Oh, yeah all of them right here When was the last time you just explored one aspect of god? He's all knowing he's all power his omnipresence Be still know that he is god and he'll keep you in perfect peace another promise Is james four seven Resist the devil and he will flee from you Resist the devil and he will flee from you James four eight draw near to god and he will draw near to you That's a promise that we can take hold of Draw near to god He rose 13 five. He will never leave you I love that And real like the salma said he goes if I ascended into heaven you are there if I make my bed in hell you are there I can't hide from you verse 43 it says And saying to his servant Go up now Look toward the sea so he went up and looked And said there is nothing See back then they didn't have weather apps They didn't have a echo or a google home device to say hey siri. What what's the weather like today? They had to go outside and actually check And so he said his servant and says hey go check what the weather's like And you know what he went up And there was nothing There is nothing What do you do when there is no answer in your prayers? When there is nothing there What do you do? Elijah went and prayed and there was no answer to his prayer. Do we just give up? No tozer says this Yet prayer is the hardest thing He will ever be Called upon to do being human. It is the one Act he will be tempted to do less frequently than any other I think that's so true because I find myself like you know, I like I want to pray But then I'm tempted to do other things go watch tv go hang out with people and I'm not gonna be praying Because you know why Satan doesn't want us to know how to pray If we truly pray genuinely And correctly like imagine what would take place God does extraordinary things through prayer And so when there is no answer don't give up check out what he did seven times. He said go again so this point number four Perseverance in prayer perseverance webster dictionary defines it like this The quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it's difficult Dude, there's sometimes that prayer is difficult. There's sometimes we don't feel like it gets hard. It's tough Praying for our loved ones over and over and never seen anything take place It's difficult, but we're not called to stop there. We're called to keep going pressing in It's as if Elijah didn't take no for an answer. He was confident that God would send rain Elijah kept on praying in luke 11 9 jesus tells us Ask seek and knock and those words ask seek and knock mean keep on asking keep on seeking keep on knocking Don't stop and yet so many times we stop There was a picture someone posted on facebook and it was about this guy like that He was digging and all of a sudden he gets like so close and then he gives up And on the other side of that inch was a mind of diamonds It's just like you can be right there and yet give up Don't give up keep praying Keep asking keep seeking keep knocking Colossians four two continue earnestly in prayer being diligent in it with thanksgiving Don't give up Elijah did not give up. He I bet you he was tempted to stop praying Yet he got back in the ring and kept fighting There's a teacher I look up to um, I read one of his books and Uh, his this book kind of changed my life and how I did ministry Um, his name is Howard Hendricks and the book is teaching to change teaching to change lives and the reason why it kind of changed my perspective on doing ministry is um There was this one man he brought over to his house who was I think like a youth pastor and he said This this young man was doing well in ministry and he was succeeding and God was just being fruitful and multiplying And he's like, what's the key like what makes you so successful? And he takes out a little black book out of his pocket And then he goes this And he opens it up And there's a pay on each page is a different student's face with their name and a couple prayer requests under it And he goes I pray over this daily And ever since I read that in 2014, I've done that myself and from time to time I'll put people down and pray for them I don't say that to get the attention. That's not what I want. I want maybe to encourage you maybe to do the same thing to pray for people I go sometimes in uh teaching the public school when I go to oaks middle school and Ramona junior high um, I went in last Week to oaks and the main uh front less the front desk lady wasn't there And so I was like that's kind of like she's normally here And so the week later I came back and she was there. I was like, hey, you weren't here last week. Is everything okay? And she's like no my dad passed away And so it's just like I wrote her name down just to pray for her and the christian club, uh The lady that has the christian club in her class. Her name is miss alexander. This lady just loves jesus And she just wants these kids to love jesus. She prays for these kids And it's encouraging because like I shared stuff with them like when my grandma passed away in october And she said like a month ago. She goes, you know, I'm still praying for your family And I was just like wow like awesome. Thank you. I like I didn't expect that And this lady just knows and values the power of prayer and so Howard hindricks I said all that to go back to Howard hindricks. He said his unbelieving father taught him the most about prayer why Because for over 30 something years he prayed for his salvation He got saved before his father did And for over 30 40 years he prayed for his salvation And you know what a year before he passed away he got saved And he goes he taught me more about being persistent in prayer than any other believer It's just like sometimes we discard like or not discard that maybe that's the wrong word um Don't value non-believers, but think about it. What does god want to teach you through non-believers? He might want to use you to teach you a lesson through a non-believer And so don't give up God wants to answer those prayers verse 44 then it came to pass at the seventh time That he said there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea See Elijah asked in faith and god is going to sin rain. There's a small bit of evidence here So he said go up to Go up and say to ahab prepare your chariot and go go down before the rain stops you Now it happened in the meanwhile That the skies became black with clouds And the wind and there and the wind and there was heavy rain And so this is kind of point number five is the power of prayer The power of prayer when we Find that secret place in pray When we have the right post the posture of our heart in prayer When we pray the promises of god when we are persistent to keep keep praying the promises of god We can see the power of god in prayer David Guzik says the power in prayer resides in faith in the living god Jesus even said all you need is a mustard seed of faith A mustard seed is just like a grain of sand that much faith in the living god And you can see mountains move Howard Hendricks also said where prayer focuses power falls And I think that's true You know what I went and saw the movie, uh, I think it was uh It was a movie on prayer recently that came out. What was it called um fervent. No wait wrote war room Yes, I went and saw war room and it was good movie. But you know what it caused me to start thinking Did this movie accomplish its purpose? Can a movie encourage believers to pray or was it just something that believers went to and said man That was a good movie and then walked out of the theaters and didn't kind of follow through That and so I was wondering that I was like is this movie accomplishing its purpose To cause us to pray But it's the spirit of god and the word of god that stirs us up to pray In james 5 18 it says And he prayed again and the heavens gave rain in the earth produced fruit Elijah prayed again and the heavens gave way The clouds were opening up and we've seen a couple days of different storms coming through right California is getting its rain now But he prayed and it just poured down God did not answer this a little but he had answered this in abundance and it reminds me of One of my favorite scriptures is Ephesians 3 18 through 20 Where it says that we may be caught that we can Comprehend what is the width the depth the height the length of god's love which surpasses which surpasses knowledge And that god And a fullness all the fullness of god would dwell upon you and that god would do exceedingly Abundantly above all that we can ever ask or even think And after I read that and think about that I just have to step back for a second Just be like wow god wants to do more than I'm asking Like you know what like sometimes when we pray like we're praying like down here, but god's like you know I want you to pray even bigger Don't pray small prayers. I want you to pray bigger dream have vision And so a have rode away and went to jezreel And the hand of the lord came upon elisha and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of a have to the entrance of jezreel See when we spend time in prayer god strengthens us for the road ahead and not only that Elijah here has supernatural speed Think about it a have left in a chariot And what does elisha do he tucks in his robe and he starts running He outruns a chariot in pouring down rain about 14 or to 25 miles away House, how is that possible? It's not it's a supernatural thing that takes place here that god gives him the speed and how it causes him to run faster than a have chariot And you know what god does some incredible things throughout scripture like philip philip the evangelist he actually Teleported from the presence of the eunuch as he was ministering to him and he baptized him and all of a sudden he came up and he was gone bam God does incredible things like that And so just to recap The five p's of prayer is the place of prayer The posture of prayer the promises of god in prayer persistence or perseverance in prayer And the power of prayer and you know what? Why did we come why did I come and talk about prayer? Because I think it's important. This is something that the lord's been teaching me Since all of last year's prayer Because before I can even come up here and teach I have to learn how to pray correctly Before we can do anything we got to learn how to pray and that's what tozer I've been reading this book by tozer That's why I'm like quoting tozer a couple of times is because I've been reading this book by him and it's on prayer And it's just so encouraging. I'm just like wow I want to be that man of faith that man where it says in second chronicles 169 where god is looking for one person to show himself strong on their behalf who is faithful to him Ever since I heard chuck smith say that god is looking for a person to show himself faithful I'm like god. I want to be that person. I desire to be that man full of faith Just relying and depending upon you to work in and through my life And you know what I personally believe and I've heard pastor david say this that you know what? He believes that god still wants to send a revival And you know what I believe that too But you know what revival doesn't come without prayer Men and women who are devoting themselves to fervent prayer Revival is not going to come unless we pray Ian bound said this What the church needs today is not more machinery or better not new organization or more novel methods But men whom the holy ghost can use men of prayer Mighty in prayer the holy ghost does not fill or Fall on methods, but he fills men He does not anoint plans, but men of prayer And that is so true no matter how many methods we have god fills us through prayer And so when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of god and pray Understanding who he is and what he wants to do in our lives I think god wants to do more in our lives than sometimes we're allowing him to do like the Abraham When Abraham went to go sacrifice his son Isaac The angel of the lord said you did not withhold anything from me He said you didn't withhold anything from me and then I as I read that I had to stop and like am I holding withholding anything from god? Am I holding anything back from him and not giving him everything? Am I holding all that I have with an open hand or am I holding on to things with a tight grip? We just looked over This morning in the junior high ministry the rich young ruler And where the rich young ruler asked how can I inherit eternal life? And he goes you have to do all these commandments And he goes I've kept those for my youth. He goes the one thing you lack Go sell your possessions And you will have treasure in heaven Follow me pick up your cross But the man went away sorrowful Because he had many possessions and then he goes on to say how hard it is for rich men to enter into heaven It's like trying to put a camel through the eye of a needle It's impossible But all things are possible with god. What's the one thing maybe that's holding you back What's the one thing maybe you're not surrendering to god? God wants to use you to impact those around you God used Daniel in a wicked environment Babylonian or Babylon To have an impact there God used Elijah here And you know what then Elijah after this point he gets to Jezreel and uh And Jezebel threatens to kill him. He goes she goes in 24 hours. You're gonna be dead He freaks out and kind of gets depressed And says lord, there's i'm the only one. He's like no, you're not the only one I have many profits reserved But god desires to use us to further his kingdom To love people Are you gonna take this challenge And take a hold of his promises and actually pray them One promise that i absolutely love is in um Luke 11 13 where he finishes talking about knocking asking uh, or I forgot to order uh, seeking knocking or whatever. You know what all it um After he says it he talks he uses a couple illustrations. He goes we're good. We're a father give his son a Scorpion instead of an egg and he goes how much more your heavenly father Will he not give you the holy spirit to those who ask for it? Jesus is just waiting god's just waiting for you to ask and then in the scriptures in um James chapter 4 verse 2 he goes you have not because you ask not Maybe we aren't experiencing the blessings of god in our life is because we're not even asking for it We're not asking for god to intervene for god to speak to us to god for god to show us What he wants to do Maybe we have not because we ask not I want to challenge you This week spend some time in prayer Spend some time in prayer. You know what? This is something I have to personally do myself I actually uh, sometimes Would watch about three hours of television on monday or tuesday And you let the lord I was like I kept saying this excuse like oh i'm busy and some of you guys like you're 24 How can you be busy? I have a family and so and so But I was using that as an excuse and I realized i'm lazy This week I actually stopped I've only limited myself to one hour of tv And i'm like you know what i'm gonna save this and now i'm gonna go and actually read other books I want to spend more time with the lord and it honestly has been so refreshing Then i'm like why didn't do it this sooner? it's like time with jesus or tv Anyways, but you know what? God is looking for men and women to show himself strong on their behalf Men and women that are praying and down on their faces If you can't you can't get down on your face physically Then do it in just the in your heart just crying out for god to move in your life and to save those loved ones who aren't saved And to use you to further his kingdom. Let's pray