Welcome to this message from the teaching ministry of University Presbyterian Church in Orlando Florida under the leadership of senior pastor Mike Osborne. My name is Keith Johnson and I'm going to be reading the scriptures for us this morning. If you want to pull out a few Bible, you can turn to page 348. We're going to be reading from 1st Samuel 17 and we're going to read through the entire chapter. 1st Samuel 17. Oh, actually, we're going to do 1st Kings instead. We don't want to ask Mike to change his sermon here at the last minute. But the 1st Samuel's a nice book as well. Now Elijah, the Tish bite from Tish being Gilead, said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives whom I serve, there will be neither do nor reign in the next few years except at my word. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Leave here. Turn eastward and hide in the carath ravine east of Jordan. You will drink from the brook and I've ordered Ravens to feed you there. So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the carath ravine east of Jordan and stayed there. The Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook. Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no reign in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him. Go at once to Zerathath of Sidon. And stay there. I've commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food. So he went to Zerathath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, would you bring me a little water and a jar so that I may have a drink? And she was going to get it. He called, and please bring me a piece of bread. And surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied, I don't have any bread. Only a handful of flour and a jar with a little oil and a jug. I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son. That we may eat it and die. Elijah said to her, don't be afraid, go home and do as you've said. But first, make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me. And then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land. So she went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, what do you have against me? Oh, man of God. Do you come remind me of my sin and kill my son? Give me your son, Elijah, replied. He took him from her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, oh, Lord, my God, have you brought tragedy upon this widow I am staying with? By causing her son to die? Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, oh, Lord, my God, let this boy's life return to him. The Lord heard Elijah's cry and the boy's life returned to him and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, look, your son is alive. Then the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth. The word of the Lord. This summer we are as a pastoral staff going through the Bible and answering some questions that people have. Some of these questions come from you. You sent me some emails and said, why don't you guys preach on these questions. Others are questions that we think you are asking even if you didn't tell us you were. And that's the case today. I want to talk this morning in this series about honest answers to honest questions about prayer. And we're going to do a little audience participation here. I know we don't do this very often, but I'm going to ask you a question. And if you would like to contribute something, just speak up so everybody can hear. What do you find that's difficult about prayer? Let's hear a few answers, just one, two words. What's difficult about prayer? Yeah, all right, good. God already knows what he's doing. He's sovereign. So why ask? And he knows what we need. So why do we have to voice it, right? What was the other one? Yeah, God doesn't answer us as soon as we expect that answer. Yeah, we're going to talk about that today. What else? Distractions happen? Yeah, you're praying and your mind wanders, right? That makes it difficult. What else? It feels repetitive. You mean to keep praying about the same thing all the time? Yeah, like, and that's discouraging, isn't it? Okay, we're going to talk about that too today. One or two more. Unbelief absolutely makes prayer difficult. What was that? We want him to say yes. God sometimes says no. That's right. All right, well, let me throw one out that Eric, did you, that's right. Sometimes his answer is not yes or no, but wait. Very true. Okay, let me throw one more out that you didn't voice. Sinicism makes prayer difficult. Sinicism, a spirit of cynicism. I struggle with that personally. And I suspect a lot of you do as well. It's the question, does it really matter if I pray? It's a little bit like the one Mark was talking about. Does it really matter if I pray? Or another way of asking that same question is, does it matter if I don't pray? Perhaps we're discouraged because of some of the things that were mentioned already. And we give up because of this cynical attitude about prayer. Prayer is a waste of time. Have you ever heard somebody talk about an answer that they got to a prayer? And you're sitting there thinking it would have happened anyway. See, that's cynicism. It would have happened anyway. It would just, it would have just happened naturally. That's a little bit of a spirit of cynicism. And sometimes when I want something from God or I wish that he would do something about a situation, I catch myself thinking, God doesn't really care about that. That's cynicism as well. So it appears in a lot of different forms, but it's something that really does make prayer difficult. And partly, we justify this attitude with our theology. As I alluded to a little while ago, we know that God is sovereign. He's going to do what he's going to do. He has everything already planned out. So why should I pray? Why should I care? Some of you, I'm sure, have had that thought cross your mind. I want you to know, though, that if that's your attitude about prayer, you do not rightly understand the sovereignty of God. Cynicism is completely contrary to the Bible. It's contrary to the teaching of Jesus about prayer, and it's contrary to the character of God as we're going to see this morning. It doesn't matter if you pray absolutely it does. And we're going to see that as we look at 1 Kings 17. In this chapter, which I know it was a long reading, and I thought about, you know, could we chop it down a little bit, but I don't really think you could to get the full story of what we're going to focus on in a little while. In this chapter, 1 Kings 17, we meet an amazing man by the name of Elijah. And we also meet up with several amazing miracles, and I'm going to just summarize a few of them before we look at the main point today. The amazing man is this prophet Elijah, who was Elijah. Some of you probably have a little bit more knowledge of him than others do, so let me kind of give you a little more background. Elijah was a rough and rugged man from the hills of Gilead on the eastern side of the Jordan River. He lived in the mid-ninth century BC, and that's about all we're told about this amazing man. But we know a lot about his times. This was a very dark period in the history of the land of Israel, because about 60 years previous to Elijah, the nation of Israel had been fractured in two parts. He had ten tribes in the north, and two tribes down in the south. And every one of the kings of the northern land called Israel were wicked men, Jeroboam, Nadab, Beasha, Elah, Zimri, Amri. But none of those kings was as bad and wicked as the man who was alive during the time of Elijah. His name was Ahab. King Ahab. In the previous chapter, it says that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than did. All the kings of Israel before him. One of the things that got Ahab in trouble was his wife. He married a woman named Jezebel. She was the daughter of the Phoenician king of the Sidonians. Jezebel turned Ahab's heart away from the God of Israel to the God of the Phoenicians whose name was Bale. Bale was worshipped as the God of rain and thunder and fertility and agriculture. Well, thanks to Ahab and Jezebel, the worship of Bale became the state religion in this northern part of Israel. Ahab even set up an altar for Bale in the temple on the capital city of Samaria. So long and short of it was, this was the time of gross idolatry and immorality for the nation of Israel. But Elijah stood in stark contrast to all of what I've just said. Elijah was a man who loved God, who feared God and who obeyed his commands. And if there was one thing that Elijah had learned in his lifetime, it was the power of prayer. Elijah was not a cynic. He loved God and believed that God loved him and he believed that God hears us when we pray and delights to meet our needs. Luke chapter 5 for example, way over into the New Testament it says that Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain for three and a half years. Now listen to that verse, this is James speaking, looking back from the New Testament to the Old Testament saying that Elijah was a man just like you, just like me. But he prayed earnestly. What did he pray? He prayed that it would not rain. Now this could take a long time to explain that but in the early part of the chapter that Keith read, you read there in verse 1 that it did not rain, it was not going to rain for the next few years except Elijah's word. What that's all about is that God had announced previously to this time that if God's people were to wander away from his commands, he would shut up the heavens and not permit it to rain. So Elijah claims that promise and he asks God to make good on that threat. Why would Elijah pray that? Why would he pray? There wouldn't rain. Well ultimately what Elijah was praying for was the repentance and the restoration of the nation of Israel. He was asking God to stop the rain so that the people of God would see the errors of their ways and repent of their sin and turn back to God. Elijah was praying with hope. He was asking God to make good on his threats that there might be a fundamental change in the nation of Israel. Well you heard the story. He announces that threat to King Ahab and then in verses 2 through 6 he flees from Ahab to the other side of the Jordan and hides out in the carath ravine. And then in verses 7 through 16 he leaves there and he goes to this town called Zarifat and provides food for this widow who is unnamed and for her son. Now let me tell you a little bit about Zarifat because this is an important part of the story. Zarifat was a town in the region of Sidon. I don't know how well you know your Israelite geography back in that day but this was a town about 80 to 90 miles to the west from the Jordan River where Elijah had been staying. It was Gentile territory. It was on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. And not only that but if you were listening a little while ago you remember that this was where Jezebel was from. This was Syro Phoenician territory. That was a heartland of bail worship. All right so hang on to that and then let's move down to verse 17. Here's where we're really going to spin the rest of our time. It says in verse 17 that sometime later the son of the widow became ill and died. And this woman who evidently had become a believer in God or at least a God fearing person assumes that God was punished. That God was punishing her for her sins. And so she comes to Elijah and she says what do you have against me Elijah. Man of God did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son. Notice that Elijah doesn't even answer the widow's question. He just takes the dead boy in his arms. He carries him upstairs to the upper room of the house where he'd been staying. He lays the boy on his bed and he prays. Elijah prays for the young boy. And I want us to learn three things from the prayer that is found there at the end of this chapter. Three things from Elijah's prayer. And friends I really believe that if we can grab on to the three things that I want to show you in this chapter we'll be able to fight back against that spirit of cynicism. And we will become a people who love to pray and who do pray and who keep praying and who see God do amazing things through our prayers. Don't you want that? I do. I believe you do too. I want to see us transformed personally through prayer and to see God through prayer make an impact upon our culture and upon our nation and upon our world. Our mission is to go and make disciples and we can do that partly by being a people of prayer. So first thing that you learn from Elijah about prayer is to pray what you really feel. Pray what you really feel. Look at verse 20. It says then Elijah cried out to the Lord. Oh Lord my God have you brought tragedy also upon this widow that I'm staying with by causing her son to die. Now see Elijah understands the sovereignty of God that we've talked about this morning. He understands that God is the first cause of all things even evil but that doesn't stop Elijah from praying if anything it adds boldness to his prayers. That word cried in verse 20 it means to shout or call out or scream Elijah is so bewildered at this situation and so personally offended by the suffering of this widow that he doesn't hold back. He lets it out. He doesn't edit his prayer. He doesn't filter his prayer. He just tells God exactly what's on his heart. It kind of reminds you a little bit of Jesus by the tomb of Lazarus over in John chapter 11. Remember what happens there our translation say that when Jesus was standing by Lazarus's tomb and Lazarus was dead says that he was moved in spirit and troubled and as far too mild perhaps you've heard this what Jesus really was was outraged. He was furious at the fact that there was such a thing as death and he was furious the author of death well so was Elijah he shouted at God in verse 20. He almost seems to accuse God of injustice. He says have you brought harm into this home God by killing this boy her only son God did you do this is what I hear Elijah pray how could you have possibly done this Lord. It's an honest prayer you pray with honesty you know you see honesty throughout the prayers of the book of Psalms Psalm 130 for instance comes to mind out of the depths I cry to you Lord oh Lord hear my voice let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy or in Psalm 31 you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Do you hear those verbs they're the same verb used here in verse 20 to scream to cry to call Francois Fennelon a French theologian in a missionary in the early 1700s said this tell God all that is in your heart as one unloads one's heart it's pleasures and it's pains to a dear friend tell him your troubles that he may comfort you tell him your joys that he may sober them tell him your long feelings that he may purify them tell him your dislikes that he may help you conquer them talk to him of your temptations that he may shield you from them show him the wounds of your heart that he may heal them lay bare your indifference to good your depraved tastes for evil your instability he says if you thus pour out all your weaknesses needs and troubles there will be no lack of what to say you know maybe your problem with prayer is that you pray silently all the time have you ever thought of raising your voice to God have you ever thought of going to a room and talking to God out loud have you ever thought of screaming your prayers to God lamenting your situation lamenting the situation of your city your country your family your neighborhood your ministry when Susie and I were at another church there were many days in which I would go into an empty room and nobody was around and scream at God it was hard but it helped see when you're in relationship with somebody sometimes you're not nice right when you're in genuine relationship with someone whom you love and whom by whom you are loved sometimes you're not nice I've always wondered about these married couples who say we never argue we've never raised our voices to each other I want to ask you how can that be Susie and I have shouted at each other not because we want to hurt each other but because we want to love each other the more deeply you are loved the safer you are not to be nice isn't that true in human relationships you know when you first meet somebody you've never met them before how do you act well you sort of put on a little bit right I mean you're polite you say the right things you try to avoid saying the politically incorrect stuff because you're you're not sure where you are not sure where they are with you but when you know someone well and you trust someone well and you love someone well you can relax you're free to be you unscripted unedited it's called being real one minute after the fall of Adam and Eve what did they do but hide from God a head behind fig leaves of their own making and being a Christian means you no longer have to do that being a Christian means you come out from hiding and you are real with God and you are real with your brothers and sisters see you and I are not Buddhists Buddhism teaches that you should suppress your desires in Buddhism you reach Nirvana by ceasing to desire that's not who we are we are Christians we feel we express emotion we express them to God we express them to one another so watching Elijah here in verse 20 let me ask you what is it that upsets you what makes you mad is it when you read about yet another roadside bomb going off over there in Kabul is it the 7000 unreached people groups in this world three and a half billion people we pray this morning for the limitang of Indonesia 300,000 people not one evangelical that we know of does that make you upset it ought to God how could this be in a world that you have made a world to whom you have revealed yourself how can there be people who are yet unreached who don't have a Bible maybe it's the entertainment culture of America that is deadening our souls does it make you upset it should maybe it's child abuse maybe it's human trafficking you know Florida is one of the top three states in our country we're two and a half million people are enslaved forced into prostitution or pornography what is it that gets you upset what is it that riles you up whatever it is pray it to God scream it to God pray what you really feel all right so that's the first thing that we learn from Elijah that will help you to battle that spirit of cynicism that quenches the spirit of true prayer second thing that you learn from Elijah is to pray what you really want pray what you really want look at verse 21 and you'll see what I mean verse 21 says that Elijah stretched himself out on the boy three times to the Lord oh Lord my God let this boy's life return to him and in verse 22 the Lord heard Elijah's cry and the boy's life returned to him and he lived that was a really short prayer wasn't it you know I think I'm thinking about my prayer life I'm thinking about how I pray publicly because you know one of the things I do a lot here is pray out loud for you with you and to the Lord on your behalf and I've been thinking about my prayers they're not very simple they're too long and too complicated they really are if I've been Elijah you know what I would probably have said I'd probably do this I'd probably say oh Lord we praise you ACTS we thank you Lord we adore you you are the wonderful God of creation confess God we confess our sins to you T thank what am I thankful for I'd go through a list there finally supplication see that's probably what I would do and I don't see that at all here in Elijah he gets right to the heart of the matter and he says God this is what I want bring this little boy back to life period no flowery language he doesn't even say in Jesus name Amen read through the gospels and what do you see you see people telling Jesus what they want him to do without fanfare just plain and simple a man with leprosy comes up to Jesus in Mark chapter 1 he falls on his knees and he says if you're willing you can make me clean Jaros in Mark chapter 5 he's a ruler of the synagogue he steps up to Jesus says my little daughter is dying please come and put your hands on her so she'll be healed the Roman centurion Luke 7 he's got a sick servant he says to Jesus say the word in my servant will be healed in Mark 12 or 10 rather Jesus meets a blind man his name is Bartimaus and Jesus ask him what do you want me to do for you and he says rabbi I want to see Jesus commends him for his faith and gives him his sight see I think this is where we get to the heart of what prayer is prayer is really nothing more than the dependence of a child upon his father prayer is the dependence of a child upon his or her father what did children do they tell their parents what they want almost to the point of madness but that's what they do they tell their parents what they want I have three grandchildren who live in Mississippi and whenever we go visit them one of the first words out of their mouth to me is our dad dad that's my name dad dad tell us a running story now I don't want to go into what that is it's been going on for many many years but that's the first thing they want me to do they want me to sit down with them and tell them a running story the Westminster shorter catechism is exactly saying the same thing it says what is prayer prayer is the offering up of our desires unto God who is God he is our father who are we we are his children I'm struck in Luke 11 the disciples come up to Jesus and say Jesus teaches how to pray and the first words of response out of Jesus's mouth were when you pray say father how would be your name see prayer is the conversation of a child to his or her father and that means we tell God what we want maybe the reason that you've become cynical about prayer is because you're praying like an orphan rather than as a child children ask for what they want so should you what do you want from God what do you want him to do for you see Jesus is asking you that just like he asked the blind man that what do I want me to do for you what do you want Jesus to do for your husband tell God what that is what do you want God to do for your wife what do you want him to do for your child tell God say God this is what I want What do you want him to do here at UPC? One thing that I want God to do is help us pay off the mortgage. We should be agreeing more often. God, we want you to pay off the mortgage. Plain and simple, just tell him that. And see what he'll do. What do you want him to do in Bislow? The community that many of you are loving and caring for so well. Let's ask God. Let's tell God, God, we want you to widen that bridge on Highway 50 so that those poor people who are trying to get to Orlando won't get killed as they walk across that narrow bridge. We want you to do that, Lord. Let's just ask him, plain and simple. What do we want him to do in Cherokee, North Carolina as we've heard this morning? God, do that. Bless that new church plant. Let it be healthy. Susie and I are facing a situation that I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's a family deal. And I want to more than ever after looking at this prayer of Elijah, I want to say to God, God, this is what I want you to do in that situation. Even our Savior in Gethsemane. Before he said, Father, your will not mind be done. Said, if it be possible, take this cup from me. God, this is what I want you to do. But praise the Lord, he submitted to the Father's will and went to the cross. You know that, him says, oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. So pray what you really feel, pray what you really want. Now look, I know there are all kinds of caveats to this. I know that we could go to the other side of that cliff that someone could fall off on, which is asking God selfishly, we'll save that for another sermon. I just don't want to so qualify this that you forget that this is what Jesus is inviting you to, to ask him for what you want. The third and final thing we learned from Elijah about prayer is to not give up. Someone mentioned earlier, one of the difficulties of prayer is when we keep asking over and over again and we get discouraged that something's not happening or God tells us to wait. Well, the lesson Elijah has for us is to not give up. Look at verse 21. Notice that Elijah stretched himself out on this boy three times. Now I think that's significant. This is a very concise report of the situation. But think about it, imagine it in your mind. Here's this boy lying down on the bed and Elijah lies down on him, praying for him, God give this boy life. Nothing happens. He steps away. God, I want you to raise this boy to life. Didn't do that time. I'm stretched out again. He got second time. God lift this boy's, give this boy life. He walks away. Still nothing. He stretches out again a third time. He's not giving up, he's not giving ground to evil. He will not be denied. Jesus often taught us that we must pray with stubborn persistence. Luke 18 is the story about this widow who keeps pestering and unjust judge about her adversary and finally the unjust judge basically says, I'm sick of this. If I have to do what you want me to do just to get you out of my hair, I'll do it. And Jesus' point is, if an unjust judge will do it, how much more likely is it that a father who loves you will do what you ask if you just continue to ask him? In Matthew 15, you have a psirophonician woman. Now that ought to remind you of Jezebel, right? A psirophonician woman comes to Jesus' falls at his feet and begs him to drive a demon out of her daughter. The disciples tell her to get away. They tell Jesus, send this woman away. She has no business here. Jesus even tells her I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. And then the woman won't be denied. She comes and kneels before Jesus and says, Lord, help me. And Jesus, once again, denies her, says it's not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. One of the strangest things I think that ever came out of Jesus' mouth and the woman still wouldn't be denied. She says, yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And Jesus is just amazed at this woman of faith and says, you have great faith your request is granted. Again, an example of a woman who prays and will not be denied will not give up. Her Matthew 7-7 asks, seek, knock. The verb is in the present tense. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. And that door will be open for you. So here's the thing. God hears you when you pray. He delights to give you what you need, but often he waits to give it to you. Why? Because it's as you wait. That you are changed. It's as we wait in prayer that we are changed. Friends, God wants to do more than change things. He wants to change us. He wants to do more than answer your prayers. He wants to transform you as you wait. Well, let's end this story. In verse 22, it says that the Lord heard Elijah's cry and the boy's life returned to him and he lived. And notice the effect that that has upon this woman. Not only is she overjoyed to have her son back, but in verse 24 it says that she says, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth. You know, I love this story. I love it for a lot of different reasons. It's an exciting story. It's a great story about prayer. But even more than that, it's a picture of the gospel. It's a picture of the gospel because let me explain. You and I are like that woman and her son. We're hopeless. We are hopeless in our sin. We're sinful and we're spiritually dead. We're starving for life. We're enslaved to our idols and we're living in a far country nibbling on whatever we can find in the cabinets of our hopes and dreams. We deserve death. But Jesus comes to our rescue. He's the life giver who sees us in our sin and in our misery comes bringing nourishment to us for our souls. He meets us in the upper room. He goes to the cross, taking our place in death. He stretches himself out in crucifixion. He cries to the Father in a loud voice. Oh, Lord, my God, why have you forsaken me? He prays. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. In his death, we have life by his wounds we are healed. This story is not just about a great man named Elijah. It's a story about a God who didn't stay removed far away from us but came to our rescue. He invaded the heartland of idolatry through the person in work of Christ. This widow of Zarfith became a testimony to the grace of God that reaches the unreachable, that loves the unlovable and that makes the impossible possible. Does it matter then if you pray? Of course. Of course it matters. The prayer of a righteous person says the apostle James is powerful and effective. There are dead people all around you for whom you should pray. Dead people whom you can bring to life through prayer by God's grace. There are dead situations. There are dead relationships all around you that you can awaken up through prayer. There are impossible situations that can become possible because you pray. So pray what you feel. Pray what you want. Don't give up because God hears your cries and He delights to give us what we need. Let's pray. Lord, I want to begin praying differently in my life.
I want to begin praying more simply. I want to begin praying more honestly. I want to begin praying more real. And I pray for us here at UPC that we will become more and more men, women, boys and girls who pray. Lord, thank you so much for the story that reveals the heart of love that you have. A heart that comes to our rescue, a heart that doesn't leave us in our sin, a heart that wants to meet our needs. So Father, will you help us to pray what we really feel? God, help us to come out of hiding with you and be more honest. I pray that you'll help us to give you in prayer what we really want. Lord, we confess sometimes we don't want what we want from you because it means we have to rely upon your grace alone. And Lord, would you help us to not give up? Forgive us that we have prayed so weak and so temporarily instead of persistently. Thank you, Jesus, that you love us so much that you went to the cross and stretched yourself out upon us and gave us life. Life from the dead. May we pass that life on as we pray for our brothers and sisters and for those around us and for situations and structures that are desperately in need of your grace. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We at University Presbyterian Church thank you for listening to this message. Our mission is to help people know God, grow together and serve others. To learn more about the church or how to have a vital relationship with God, visit our website at www.uPC-orlando.com or call our offices at 407-384-3300.