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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Praying for Rain

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the time that we have to share together.

We just ask for your Holy Spirit to bless us now, to give us wisdom and enlightenment and understanding from your Word and from your Spirit to teach us and to guide us as we navigate the scriptures, as we look into scripture.

I pray that you speak to our hearts so clearly, so personally.

The title of the sermon this morning is Praying for Rain, and let's jump into our first text found in 1 Kings 17 verse 1.

And Elijah the Tishbite, who is of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

You know Elijah, he just turns up out of nowhere.

He makes this bold declaration to King Ahab, who was a wicked king.

And Elijah said, There will be no dew nor rain except according to my word.

And you know, It seems like God answers this bold declaration because there really is no dew nor rain for 3 and a half years as the Kingdom of Israel is plunged into a famine.

However, the funny thing is we don't know what He's been doing before this.

But yet we read this in James chapter 5 and verse 17.

Elias, which is Elijah, he was a man subject to like passions as we are.

And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain.

And it rained not on the earth by the space of 3 years and 6 months.

Elijah before he ever stood before King Ahab, the Bible says he was praying earnestly before he made that declaration.

And you know friends I don't know about you but praying earnestly is not a work of just an hour.

But he was praying earnestly before God ever called him to stand before this wicked king.

He learned to pray before God could use him mightily to be his mouthpiece and instrument of judgment.

Judgment because there would be no dew nor rain.

And It seemed like he was the 1 that was doing it, but it was God.

Notice what the pen of inspiration says here in Prophets and Kings 119 paragraph 2.

As Elijah saw Israel going deeper and deeper into idolatry, His soul was distressed and his indignation aroused.

What was the reason why he was praying, friends?

He saw Israel going into deeper and deeper sin.

He saw the state of the nation and the church and he couldn't take it.

You know, he wasn't seeking to be anyone great.

He was just sad for Israel and how they had wandered so far from God.

Friends, what happens to you when you see sin in the church?

But of course, before you can ever do that, you've got to pray, right?

Prophets and Kings 119 paragraph 2 and 120 paragraph 1.

Viewing this apostasy from his mountain retreat, Elijah was overwhelmed with sorrow.

In anguish of soul, he besought God to arrest the once favoured people in their wicked course, to visit them with judgments if need be, that they might be led to see in its true light their departure from heaven.

He longed to see them brought to repentance before they should go to such lengths in evil doing as, pardon me, to such lengths as to provoke the Lord to destroy them utterly.

And then it says Elijah's prayer was answered.

You see friends, Elijah, he was praying already.

Before he ever stood before King Ahab, he was praying.

He was praying for their apostasy and their entrance into sin and deeper and deeper apostasy.

He was praying, not for God to use him as a prophet, but for God to do something.

So before we ever hear of Elijah, 1 of the greatest prophets ever in the Bible, we see that he was already praying.

It says here In Prophets and Kings 120 paragraph 2, Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to Ahab heaven's message of judgment.

He did not seek to be the Lord's messenger.

And jealous for the honor of God's cause, he did not hesitate to obey the divine summons, though to obey seemed to invite swift destruction at the hand of the wicked king.

You know, friends, what I want you to notice here is that God only called Elijah when he was praying, because he was praying.

Elijah wasn't seeking any honor for himself.

He wasn't like, I want to be a prophet, I want to be a prophet, I want to be a prophet.

No, he wasn't seeking any position, any worldly honor.

He wasn't seeking for that power to call fire down from heaven.

He wasn't seeking any worldly recognition whatsoever.

It was the word of the Lord that came to him that gave him this mission, that gave him this purpose, that gave him this push to go and do something.

And because he was praying, he was jealous for God's honor and so he went forward without thinking about the consequences to himself.

He knew that what would happen to give such a judgment to the king, it would make him a hunted man.

But prayer had given him purpose and prayer also had given him courage.

So even though you know we're given such an abrupt introduction to Elijah in 1st King 17 verse 1 where he stands before King Ahab to give such a strong denouncement of judgment and it's a message that would rock the whole nation.

1 thing we understand about him is that he was a man of prayer.

He was a man of prayer before he set his foot to go and stand before the king.

He was a man of prayer before he ever thought that God had called him to do anything for him.

He was simply and totally a man of prayer.

Humble, out of sight in his country retreat, letting his prayers ascend before God for his people, Israel.

And I want to ask all of you a question, and myself also.

Has God called you to be a mouthpiece for Him?

Before you can answer that, there's another question.

You know, many of us, we don't desire to preach.

The other comes up to you and asks you to preach and you have no choice, you know, you got to do it.

They've got some sort of authority, right?

There's these sorts of people out there that you just can't say no to.

And you know I don't think many of us are in a position to say I want to preach, I want to stand before the people.

There are a few but they're few and far between.

Not many people covet to stand before people at a pulpit to give the message of God.

There are a few but they're in the minority.

So I don't think anyone seeks glory for themselves when when they stand up to preach in our churches.

But here's a lesson that we got to learn for those who think they are called to preach or to do anything great before God, we must first learn to be men and women of prayer.

Rarely do people rise up to their calling because they're simply put into that position.

You know, sometimes we think, let's put them into this church position so that they'll keep coming to church, right?

We think, oh, if we put them in this position, they will rise up and they'll improve and they'll get better.

We need to learn to be men and women of prayer first.

We got to make that our foundation before we think that we are ever called to do anything.

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Praying for Rain

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