James Merritt - Bring The Umbrella
It was the worst drought to this day in American history. It took place in Texas between 1949 and 1957. The entire state received 30 to 50% less than the normal amount of rain during that time. Texans experienced the second, third, and eighth driest single years ever in the history of that state. I want you to listen to this: because of that drought, when it started, Texas had 345,000 farms and ranches. When it ended, they had 247,000. They lost 100,000 farms and ranches because there was no rain. The state’s rural population declined from more than a third of the state to a quarter.
Now, this is the most mind-boggling thing to me: by the time that drought ended in 1957, 244 of the 254 counties in Texas were declared federal disaster areas, in effect making it the largest declared disaster in the contiguous 48 states. For almost eight years, there was a word that nobody ever used. If you owned an umbrella company, you went bankrupt because nobody needed an umbrella. What’s amazing is that this was almost 70 years ago, and yet even to this day, with all our technological advancements, increases in knowledge, and financial resources, we still know something, whether we want to admit it or not: when you’re in a drought, only God can get you out. That leads me to the story of the greatest drought in the Bible. In fact, the drought we are going to read about today was a big D compared to the little d that was in Texas. So I want you to turn to First Kings chapter 17; by the way, go to Genesis and turn right; you can’t miss it.
When you go to First Kings 17 in Samaria, think about this: for three and a half years, 36 months, 1,095 days, 26,280 hours, not one drop of rain fell—not even one minuscule drop of dew, not one cloud in the sky. Imagine going three and a half years without even seeing a cloud. Try to get that in your mind: once-flowing rivers turned into dirt mattresses, streams dried up, wells ran dry, and crops burned to a crisp. There were no crops, and everywhere you went, carcasses of dead animals were just lying in the desert because they had no water. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Samaria back together again. All of this happened because of a prophecy made by a prophet named Elijah and a promise from the one who turns all the rain off and all the rain on—God. Let me remind you of what’s going on: three and a half years earlier, Elijah walked into the palace and looked King Ahab straight in the eye. Here’s what he said: Elijah the Tishbite from Tish in Gilead said to Ahab, «As the Lord, the God of Israel lives whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.»
Now, keep in mind two things: first, it was God who caused the problem, and second, He made Elijah a part of that problem. Now we come to the part of the story where God is going to solve the problem, and He makes Elijah part of the solution. What I want you to see is that the way God uses Elijah to solve the problem is the way He wants to use us to solve our problems. Everybody walked in here today with at least one problem. I don’t know how the storm affected you, but I had all my family over last night to watch the game. We were cooking out, having fun, and were in the kitchen when all of a sudden, I said, «Pop, look! I have this big bubble on my wall. I have a water problem! I have a guy coming this afternoon to look at it. I’ve got a bubble problem in my wall.» We all have problems. Now, you may say, «Man, that’s nothing; I have a bigger problem than that.» I get it; we all have problems. Maybe you walked in here this morning feeling discouraged, disappointed, or depressed. By the way, so did I. So maybe you walked in here this morning feeling like that and thought, «Man, you’re talking to me.»
Well, let me tell you something: the way that God used Elijah to solve his problems is the same way that God wants us to use prayer to solve our problems, and it’s found in one word: prayer. Now, if you’re a guest with us today, we’re studying the life of Elijah, one of the most famous prophets in the Old Testament, and we’re calling this series «The God Life.» If you’ve missed the series, let me just tell you that I’ve been saying God did not put us here to live the good life; God put us here to live the God life. The God life is a pure life, a powerful life, and it is also a prayerful life. As you’re going to see right now, one of the reasons I even know there was a man named Elijah—this prophet, who was a nobody from nowhere—is that he was a powerful prayer. He knew how to pray.
So, I want you to remember the book of James; I’ve been telling you this. It tells us Elijah was a man just like us, and you need to keep this in mind: Elijah was not Superman. He didn’t come out of a phone booth; he didn’t wear a costume with a red cape. He could not leap tall buildings in a single bound. He was a man just like us. You’ve got problems; he had problems. You’ve got passions; he had passions. But just like us, we can be just like Elijah in our prayers. Elijah lived a powerful life, and God wants you to live a powerful life. What you’re going to learn today is this: the secret to a powerful life is a prayerful life. That’s the secret: a powerful life is a prayerful life.
Now, let me just be very honest with you. I don’t know if you’re like me or not, but I’m going to be very honest: prayer is hard work. To me, it’s just hard. There’s no part of my life that’s harder than praying. Working on a sermon, I worked all day Friday, almost from sunup to sundown. I love it; I could work on sermons all day long. I love to share my faith; I’m always trying to tell people. Just a while ago, I shared the gospel with a man who’s not a believer right out there in the lobby. I love to do that; I could do it all day long. Prayer, though, is hard work.
So, we need to learn—I need to learn—how to pray powerfully in such a way that we can see God work before our very eyes. So, if you’re one of those people who would say, «Pastor, I want to live a powerful life, » if you understand today that you’ve got problems you can’t solve, if you need God to solve them, if you’re in a situation you can’t handle, you need God to answer it. God says, «Okay, you’ve got one tool in your toolbox, and if you don’t use it, it’s not going to work.» And that tool is prayer. So, how do you pray in such a way that you know God hears and God answers? I’m going to tell you five things, but they’re super quick. You ready?
First of all, pray privately. Now, I want you to keep in mind that 450 prophets have just been slaughtered and buried. If you heard last week, they had this big contest on Mount Carmel, and all these prophets were slaughtered and buried. The smoke from the fire that God had sent to consume that sacrifice is still smoldering. But now, for the first time—maybe for the first time in a long time—the king has been reminded of something: King Ahab, you’re not in charge; God is in charge, and God has put His prophet in charge. Now, the king is about to experience something that has never happened in his life. He is used to giving orders, but now he’s going to receive orders. Here’s what we read: Elijah said to Ahab, «Go eat and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain.»
Now, what’s going on? Why does he say, «Elijah, go eat and drink»? I’ll tell you why: he has had all of Ahab he can handle. He’s sick of Ahab; he wants Ahab to leave. He wants to get rid of Ahab, so he says, «I want you to go eat; I want you to get something to drink.» It’s been a long day. He’s fought these 450 prophets, and he’s had this great contest. He’s worn out. He says, «Look, go get something to eat, because for the first time in three and a half years, I’ve heard something you have not heard; nobody else has heard in three and a half years. I hear the sound of heavy rain.» Now, the original Hebrew language says it literally: «I hear the feet of rain approaching.»
Now, I’ll be honest; I don’t know if Elijah physically heard that with the ears of his flesh or if he spiritually heard it with the ears of faith. Either way, he knows something: God is about to keep His promise. Because remember, when Elijah said this to the king, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, there was no sound of thunder, and there was no flash of lightning. If a weatherman had been standing next to Elijah, he would say, 'Elijah, you have lost your mind! What do you mean you hear the sound of rain? ' Well, what does Elijah do next? So, Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground, and put his face between his knees. What does he do? He goes off by himself, gets into a private place, and begins to pray. He doesn’t see a cloud in the sky and doesn’t see a drop of rain, but he hears the rain coming. Now, why does the Bible say this? He doesn’t see it, but he hears it. Why does the Bible tell us there was sound before there was sight? Because Elijah didn’t do what most of us do. Here’s what most of us would have done: Most of us would have waited and said, 'I tell you what; I’ll pray when I see the cloud. I’ll pray when the first drop falls.'»
I want to tell you something: that’s not the way God operates. When you hear God’s word, you do what you know God wants you to do before you ever see God act. That’s what the Bible calls walking by faith; we’re not walking by sight. Remember what God said to Elijah at the beginning of chapter 18? If you don’t, let me remind you: after a long time in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: «Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.» So, I’m learning something about Elijah and about the godly life: when God commands you to do something, you just do it.
Now, I know what I’m about to say is true: prayer demands faith. If you want God to do something, you have to believe God will act. But the reason why God doesn’t act is that we forget the second half of that coin. The first half says prayer demands faith, but the second half of that coin says faith demands obedience. See, Elijah knew the most powerful way to win the day is to pray. So, what does he do? He gets off and gets alone with God. Now, you may be saying, «Pastor, why are you so big on praying privately? What’s the big deal? Why do you say I need to get alone—just me and God and nobody else?» Because when you get alone privately, when you’re by yourself with nobody around and you’re praying to God—just you and Him—you know some things are true.
Number one, you’re not trying to impress anybody except God, and number two, you’re letting God know that you believe He answers prayer and that you mean business. Because here’s what’s true about me, about you, and about every one of us right now: you really are what you truly are when you’re alone with God. That’s what you are. Now, you can come into this house and raise your hand when we’re praising the Lord, take out a Bible when I’m preaching, and maybe write down notes, and that’s all well and good, but that’s not what you really are. That’s not who you really are. Who you really are is who you are when you’re alone with God.
As a matter of fact, let me just ask you this: before you came to church today, did you pray privately? Did you pray for your pastor? Did you pray for me? Did you pray that you would hear a word from God? Did you pray that people would be saved? Did you pray that the worship would honor the Lord? Did you pray that you would be fully engaged? Did you pray that you would see God move in this place today? I mean, were you really prayed up before you walked into this room? Because when you truly want to get in the ear of God and really want to get near to the heart of God, let me tell you what you do: you don’t go to church, you don’t go to a small group, you don’t even go to a prayer meeting. You get away from the cell phone, you get away from the computer, you turn off the noise, you turn off the distractions, you get alone with God, and you say, «Lord, I want you to know you’ve got my full attention; you’ve got my full affection.» Because your most powerful praying is private praying.
Charles Spurgeon said this: «It’s so good to keep your public prayers short and sweet, and let your private prayers go as long as you want. Pray privately. Number two, pray passionately.» Now, I want you to look at the posture of his prayer. We’re told something, and you have to wonder—why are we told this? He bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. Now, why is that in the story? That word for «bent down,» by the way, means he really got into a fetal position and put his head between his knees. There are a lot of ways you can pray; that’s not the only posture you can take.
You might say, «Well, why does the Bible tell us this?» I think it’s because God wants us to know Elijah meant business. He’s driven literally to his knees; this is no «now I lay me down to sleep» kind of prayer. This is a «I lay myself at your feet» prayer. When James was talking about this episode years later, centuries later, here’s the way he put it: he said he prayed earnestly; he passionately prayed like he meant business. In other words, Elijah wasn’t just talking to the Lord; he was calling on the Lord.
Let me ask you a question. When you do pray, how do you pray? Really, how do you pray? Because I’ve noticed something about my prayer life, and I bet you’ll notice it about yours. Have you ever noticed that the bigger the need you have, the more passionately you pray? Let me give you an example: here’s how we normally pray when we’re about to eat. By the way, let me tell you a scientific truth—this is scientifically true: the hungrier you are, the shorter your prayer will be. So if you’re really not hungry, you’re hungry! Here’s how you’ll pray: «Lord, bless this food. Amen.» But if your 15-year-old daughter is in an automobile accident and she’s clinging to life, and the doctor comes out and says, «The next hour will tell whether your daughter lives or dies,» let me ask you a question: how would you pray then? You’d get on your face, the tears would be streaming. You wouldn’t just be talking to the Lord; you’d be calling to the Lord. «Oh God, hear my prayer! Oh God, heal my daughter!»
Why don’t we pray more like that? We get passionate about criticizing Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. Why don’t we get passionate about praying for something we need more than either one of those people? We need revival; we need a spiritual awakening in our country! Why don’t we get on our knees and say, «Oh God, I don’t care who’s elected. It doesn’t really matter who’s in the White House—if you don’t move, if you don’t come, if we don’t repent, if you don’t revive us, if we don’t rejoice in you, if we don’t trust in you again, we’re all sunk.»
Pray passionately; pray like you mean it. Pray like you believe it. If that were your 15-year-old daughter, you’d be begging God, exhorting God, pleading with God—exhorting God: «Please, oh God, hear me!» Let me teach you two things to remember about dealing with God in case you might have forgotten: God does business with those who mean business with Him, and if you mean business with God, God will mean business with you. Have you ever heard people say, «Say what you mean and mean what you say»? Well, that’s a good piece of advice. Hey, can I just say this? Pray what you mean and mean what you pray. Too many people play when they pray. God wants us to pray when we pray, just like Elijah did. He expects us to pray as if everything depends on Him and then to obey as if everything depends on us. You want to pray? You want to be a powerful prayer?
Pray privately, pray passionately, and thirdly, pray pointedly. Pray pointedly. Now, let’s see how closely you’re paying attention. We’re in Matthew; I’m talking, we’re in Isaiah; we’re in 1 Kings chapter 18. I want you to notice how specifically Elijah prayed. Look in verses 41-46 of 1 Kings chapter 18. Can you see the specific prayer that he prayed in that text? Now, don’t get mad at me, but that was a trick question because, in verses 41-46, you don’t find anything specifically that Elijah said; it’s not even recorded in this passage. You say, «How do we know what he prayed?» Because 800 years later, we find out in the book of James.
Here’s what we read: Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly. What did he pray? That it wouldn’t rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, «And the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.» In other words, when Elijah prayed, he didn’t just pray, «Lord, would You please bless our country?» He didn’t just pray, «Lord, would You please help our economy?» He didn’t just pray, «Lord, would You please make our people happy again? Lord, would You please lower the inflation rate?» He said, «Lord, just like You made it stop raining, would You make it start raining?» Because here’s the problem with a lot of us and the way we pray: the way most of us pray, we’d never know if God answered our prayers. Our prayers are so vague; they’re so general. For example, you’re a parent, and you say, «Lord, would You bless my children?»
Well, what does that mean? What do you want? Well, I want my kids to live for Jesus. Then pray specifically. Well, I want my kids to someday marry a Christian man or woman. Then pray specifically. You know, I’m standing here right now in this place because of a specific prayer that I prayed decades ago. I was pastoring my first church in Mississippi. Is anyone here from Mississippi? Okay, I didn’t think you’d admit it. But anyway, I pastored in Mississippi—great people! If you’re from Mississippi, great people! But it was my first full-time church. We had a great ministry there for two years, and I’m not trying to brag, but we had one of the fastest-growing churches in that state. For two years in a row, we set the record and then reset the highest number of baptisms any Baptist church had ever recorded in the history of the state of Mississippi.
I had a great ministry, but I had a desire in my heart. I had been there about a year, and I wanted to come back to Georgia. Now, I didn’t know if that was God’s will for my life, but I’m just telling you, I wanted to come back to Georgia. So for over a year, I prayed. In fact, I told Theresa, «I want you to know I’m praying.» She lived in Mississippi and was ready to stay the rest of her life. I said, «I can’t explain it; I want to move. I want to come back to Georgia.» For a year, I prayed, but I didn’t just pray, «Lord, bring me back to Georgia.» I said, «Lord, I want to come back to the Atlanta area. That’s where I want to pastor. I want to pastor in a great city where I can reach a lot of people. Lord, I want to come back to Atlanta, Georgia.»
Now, again, I was always under the will of God, but there was a burning desire—I mean, I had Georgia on my mind. Over that year, God was good, and He did answer my prayer specifically. And I want to be honest: do we always get specifically what we ask God for? No, but I will tell you this: God will always give you specifically what He wants you to have. So we need to pray specifically. For example, «Pastor, I need a job.» All right, would you be happy flipping burgers at Burger King? «Well, no, I don’t want that job.»
Well, what job do you want? «Pastor, I’d like a job at the post office.» Then pray for a job at the post office. «Pastor, I want to get into college.» That’s great! Is there a specific college? «Yeah, I’d like to get into the University of Georgia.» Then pray to get into Georgia. «I’m single; I want to get married.» Do you want to marry just anybody? «Well, no.» Who do you want to marry? «I want to marry a Christian man or a Christian woman. I want to marry a spouse who loves the church, loves the Bible, loves Jesus, and will love me like I ought to be loved. I want to love them like they ought to be loved.» Then be specific! God answers prayer specifically. Be pointed; pray pointedly. I told you these were quick, right?
I told you these were quick, right? Number four: this is a hard one. Pray persistently. Now, Elijah is praying to God to send the rain, and he’s waiting on God to send the rain. Now you’re going to see this—ready? Here’s what happens: he prays for God to send the rain, and he waits, and he prays for God to send the rain, and he waits, and he prays for God to send the rain, and he waits, and he prays for God to send the rain, and he waits, and he prays for God to send the rain, and he waits, and he prays for God to send the rain, and he waits. So here’s what we read: «Go and look toward the sea,» he told his servant. And he looked. «There’s nothing there,» he said. Seven times Elijah said, «Go back.» And the seventh time the servant reported, «A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.»
Six times, six times this prophet tells the servant, «Go scan the sky; see if you can even see a drop of rain; see if you can even see a cloud.» Six times he comes back—there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there. Guess what? There’s nothing there! Hey, there’s nothing there! I’ve got news for you: there’s nothing there. Six times, totally empty. Elijah just kept on praying. Now I want you to stop right here. Some of you right now are saying, «Yeah, I’ve tried that. I’ve been asking God to do this; I’ve been asking God to do that. I’ve been asking God to come through here; I’ve been asking God to come through there. I’ve been praying for days; I’ve been praying for weeks; I’ve been praying for months, and nothing happens. There is not even a cloud in the sky.»
If you don’t hear anything else your pastor says to you, I want you to hear this next statement: when you’re praying for rain, there may not be a cloud in the sky, but there’s a God in the sky! Can I get an amen to that? When you’re praying for rain, there may not be a cloud in the sky, but there is a God in the sky. And by the way, this is the third prayer that Elijah prayed. Now watch this: you remember the first prayer he prayed, right? He said, «God, would you stop the rain?» What happened? Boom! Just like that, the rain stops. Then you fast forward; he says, «Oh God, would you let the fire fall?»
What happened? Boom! Immediately, fire falls. But then you come to this third prayer; he has to pray not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times, not six times, but seven times before God answers. I want you to listen to something about prayer: there’s something about prayer that I’ll call the majesty of prayer, but there’s also something about prayer that I’ll call the mystery of prayer. Now here’s the majesty of prayer: God hears prayer. Here’s the majesty of prayer: God answers prayer. That’s the majesty of it. But here’s the mystery of it: you never know when He’ll do it; you’ll never know where He’ll do it; you’ll never know how He’ll do it.
See, I’ve learned in my Christian life something about prayer that you’re not going to like to hear, but it’s true: sometimes prayer is a one-and-done deal—sometimes. But the vast majority of times, it’s not that way. The vast majority—see, you want to treat prayer like Aladdin’s lamp: rub it three times, and the genie comes. What do you want? God’s not Aladdin. Prayer is not a lamp; it’s not always a one-and-done deal. Yeah, sometimes you ask, and sometimes you receive, but often it’s not one and done. And by the way, most prayers you’re praying right now—can I just go ahead and break the news to you? They may not—factually, probably won’t—be answered right now. They probably won’t be answered today. And here’s the reason: because God’s timing is not based on your clock, and God’s moving is not based on your calendar. No, God’s never early, and God’s never late. God’s always on time, but it’s always His time, not your time.
So you remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7:7? You know, people, I love this verse of Scripture, but it’s really interesting. Jesus said, «Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you’ll find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.» So, you’ve got preachers out there who have what I call a name-it-and-claim-it gospel: you ask, God will give it; you seek, you’ll find it; you knock, and God opens the door. Well, that is true if you understand what He said because the verbs «ask,» «seek,» and «knock» in this verse are in the present tense of the Greek language; they denote continuous action. In other words, this is what Jesus really said: if you want something to be given to you, you have to keep asking.
If you want to find what you’re looking for, then you have to keep seeking. If you want the door to be opened to you, then you must keep knocking. It’s not the length of our prayers that impresses God; it’s not the language of our prayers that impresses God; it’s not the loudness of our prayers that impresses God; it’s not even the look of our prayers that impresses God. It is the lasting quality of our prayers. It’s when you go to God and grab Him by the linen, you grab Him by the coattail, and you say, «I will not give up; I will not give out until you tell me to quit praying. I will keep praying because I really believe this. I think we’re all going to get to heaven, including me, and we’re going to see some things that God would have done in us, with us, through us, and for us if we had just kept praying, but we quit one prayer too early.»
In fact, let me give you a biblical example. When I go to Israel, one of my favorite places—if you’ve been with me, you know I love to go to Jericho. First of all, Jericho’s got some of the best dates; if you like dates, there are no dates like the dates from Jericho. They have date trees everywhere, and the dates are just fantastic. It’s beautiful, with palm trees and all that. What’s kind of interesting is when you go to the original site where Jericho was, it’s just an archaeological dig. You look around, and you see all this beautiful area and all this beautiful topography, and you wonder, why don’t people live here? Because when God destroyed Jericho, He said nobody would ever live here again, so nobody lives there.
But I love to go to Jericho because I love the story. You remember the story: God said to Joshua, and He said to the people of Israel, «Look, I want you to conquer Jericho, and here’s how it’s going to work: you’re going to march around the city for six days.» He says, «On the seventh day, when you march around, you’re going to blow the trumpets, and the wall is going to fall down.» Right now, I want you to imagine you’re one of those Israelites. It’s hot, and it’s wide, and it’s so big that it takes all day to march around that city. You’ve done it once, twice, three times, four times, five times, and you’ve come to the end of the sixth day. Now, if you were one of those Israelites, you might say, «I’ve got better things to do with my time; this is not working.»
What would have happened if they had never competed? Jericho never would have happened. Now, I don’t know what you’re praying for; I don’t know what you came in here needing God to do in your life. I don’t even know how desperate you are, but let me tell you something: I’ve had people say to me, «Do you ever quit praying about something?» Yeah, when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God tells you to quit. Until He tells you to quit, you don’t quit. Because let me tell you something: when you quit praying, you quit on God. When you quit praying, you quit on God. You pray persistently.
Now, here’s one other thing: you pray positively. Pray positively. All right, what happened on the seventh time? The servant came back to Elijah; here we go. So the seventh time, the servant reported, «A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.» So Elijah said, «Hey, go tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.» Now, at this point, all Elijah sees is this: it’s not even a big black cloud; it’s a little itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny white cloud the size of a man’s hand. I mean, from the sea, it wasn’t even very high in the sky; it was barely above the horizon. But he looks at his servant and says, «Hey, go tell Ahab he better get in his chariot and he better hit the road before the rain drowns him.»
Elijah, how can you be so sure? How do you really know? How can you be so positive? Well, it’s simple: God keeps His promises. God keeps His promises; He never gives false hope. He never crosses His fingers. God never says, «I might, I may, I can, I should, I could.» When God makes a promise, He always uses only two words: «I will.» Because when you think about it, the only reason we know that Elijah’s in the Bible, the only reason we know about this man, is because of two things: God made a promise, and Elijah believed that God would keep that promise. You know, we have a saying: our saying is «seeing is believing.» You know, people from Missouri call it the show-me state; they say, «Well, you show me, then I’ll believe.» Seeing is believing.
Can I be honest? The Bible does not teach «seeing is believing.» The Bible teaches «believing is seeing.» «Believing is seeing» — that’s what the Bible teaches. I mean, even when there was not a drop of cloud, not a cloud in the sky, not a drop of rain… do you hear what Elijah just said to Ahab? No cloud in the sky, no drop of rain, but he said four words to him: «Get out the umbrella!» What? «Get out the umbrella!» But it doesn’t matter! «Get out the umbrella!» Listen, one of the marks of a mature faith is when you realize you will not believe it just when you see it; you’ll see it when you truly believe it. Because when you pray, God… when you pray, God expects you to pray expectantly. God wants you to live as if the answer is already here. Now listen; don’t misunderstand me. I’m going to say it again: you don’t have the right to assume that God will always give you what you want when you want it. It doesn’t work that way. But I tell you what you can be guaranteed of: God will always give you what you need.
Let me back up. God will always give you what He wants, when He wants to, and God will always give you what you need, when you need it. But He expects you to pray expectantly. He expects you to pray positively. He expects you to hear the sound, and then whether you have the sight or not, you go on the sound. If you hear the sound of rain, you know God promised it’s going to rain, so you’re going to live as if the rain is already there. You’ll be telling everybody you know, «Hey, get out the umbrella!»
We ought to be like the old lady I read about who had a great attitude. She moved into a senior adult assisted living home, and on her very first day there, she saw a very attractive man. Beginning that first day, every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, she would go to the same table where he was sitting and sit right across from him. She would never say a word; she would just smile, fold her arms, and stare at him. She did that for the first day, three meals; the second day, three meals; and the third day, three meals. Finally, at dinner time on the third day, this guy just had to find out what was going on, so he said, «Ma’am, why do you keep staring at me?» She said, «Well, you look just like my fourth husband.» He asked, «How many have you had?» She replied, «Three.»
We ought to pray positively. We ought to pray expectantly. Elijah did. Listen to what we read: Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, and heavy rain started falling. Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead all the way to Jezreel. Now here’s how Elijah’s prayer was answered. It went from—watch this—there’s nothing there, six times there’s nothing there, then it was a cloud as small as a man’s hand. Then all of a sudden, boom! The sky grew black, and heavy rain started falling. Elijah just kept praying. He just kept praying positively, expectantly, believing that God would answer his prayer and that God would keep His promise. And God did both.
Now let me just stop and ask the question of the day: Do you really believe God answers prayer? Talk is cheap—show me your prayer life. I’m going to ask it again: Do you really believe that God answers prayer? Do you believe that God keeps His promise? See, sometimes—can I be honest? —we’re shocked when God answers our prayer. I mean, really, sometimes we go, «God, I just can’t believe it.» But Elijah would have been shocked if God hadn’t answered his prayer. That’s why, almost 3,000 years later, we’re still reading about him; we’re still talking about Elijah because he’s the only man in the Bible.
When nobody else in the whole country believed it would rain, he’s the only guy who had the guts to say three words: «Bring the umbrella.» So here’s my question, and I don’t like asking it of myself; you’re not going to like me asking it of you. I’m asking a question today, and I want you to take it seriously. You’ve got your problems, you’ve got this situation, you’ve got this thing you can’t fix. You’re at the end of your rope, you don’t know what to do, you don’t know where to turn, you don’t know what to say, you don’t know how it’s all going to work out. I just have one question: Are you carrying an umbrella? «But pastor, I don’t hear any rain coming.» Are you carrying an umbrella? «But pastor, I don’t even see a cloud in the sky.»
Are you carrying an umbrella? Do you carry an umbrella even when you don’t see the clouds and you can’t feel the drops of rain? Let me tell you something: you better, because there is a God in heaven who hears your prayers. There’s a God in heaven who will answer your prayers if you will pray privately, passionately, pointedly, persistently, and positively.
So, I’ll close with this last story, which really convicts me, and it probably will convict you. There was a downtown church right in the middle of the city, but somebody bought the property next to them to build a bar right next door. They did everything they could to fight that bar from being built, but they couldn’t do it. The people knew that liquor makes a lot of money; beer makes a lot of money. People spend a lot of money, which means a lot more taxes, so nobody was listening. At the end of their rope, they decided to do what Elijah did: they said, «Why don’t we just pray?»
So they called all their church together one night and held an all-night prayer meeting, asking that God would somehow stop that bar from being built. The bar was almost two-thirds completed. Believe it or not, later that evening, lightning struck that bar and burned it to the ground. Here’s what happened: the owner brought a lawsuit against the church, claiming the church was liable for the bar’s destruction. What did the church do? They hired an attorney, saying, «We had nothing to do with it.»
When the case came before the judge, here’s what he said at the beginning: «No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the bar owner believes in the power of prayer, but the church doesn’t. Most of your neighbors don’t believe in the power of prayer. Most of the people that you work with don’t believe in the power of prayer. Most of the people you go to school with don’t believe in the power of prayer. Most of the politicians we’ll vote in or vote out don’t believe in the power of prayer. But if there’s anybody who ought to believe in the power of prayer, it ought to be the church of the living God. We ought to believe that if nobody else carries an umbrella, we’re going to carry an umbrella. If nobody else sees the cloud, and nobody else hears the rain, it doesn’t matter—we believe that God answers prayer.
If you believe in God, you must believe in the power of prayer, because we always pray to the one who never fails to keep His promise, which, by the way, is guaranteed by His Son, who died on a cross and came back from the grave so that we might have the promise of eternal life. So when you walk out that door today and get in your car to go home, with all the burdens on your shoulders, all the problems on your back, and all the dead-end alleys you think you’re in the middle of, if the God that you serve, the God that you know, and the God that you worship is the God of Elijah, and you want to live the God life, then don’t you ever leave home without that umbrella.
Would you pray with me? If you’re watching right now online or on television, or you’re in this room and you’ve never asked Christ to come into your heart, you’ve never trusted Jesus—let me tell you something: you don’t even have an umbrella. Because the umbrella that I’m talking about is the one that God gives you, and if God doesn’t give it to you, you don’t have one. If you walked into this room today and you’ve never accepted the God who makes it stop and makes it start—the God who makes the fire fall, the God who sent His Son Jesus to die for your sins—if you’ve never given your heart to that God, why don’t you do that today? You know one of the reasons why you have that problem you can’t solve: God is trying to get your attention to let you know you don’t need to solve the problem because you can’t—you need me to solve your problem. I can. So why don’t you right now, if you’ve never done this, just say:
Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need to be saved, but I can’t save myself. I believe you did for me what I couldn’t do for myself. I owed a debt called sin that I could not pay; you paid the debt called sin that you didn’t owe. I believe not only that you died for me, but I believe that God raised you from the dead. So today, I confess you as my Lord; I trust you as my Savior. I ask you to come into my heart today; I repent of my sins and receive you into my life.