#Don't Stop Now!

Well, good morning. My name is Jenna.

I am the Versa Hatfield Sight pastor along with my husband AJ,

who he's there at the moment with the team in Hatfield.

But here we are, We have arrived at our final week in our prayer

series and what a series it has been.

I don't know about you guys, but I have been encouraged,

inspired, challenged over the last few weeks as we have dived

deeper into different aspects of prayer.

We have looked at so much, haven't we?

We have looked at what it means to pray for our personal needs

and provision. We've looked at what it means to

pray beyond that, for Kingdom prayers, to align ourselves with

God's will, and to pray for His Kingdom to come and for His will

to be done. We've unpacked what we're to do

when we're in a season of waiting.

You know, how do we wait in expectation of all that God is

doing and is yet to do? We've looked at the invitation

from the Lord for us to fast and pray, and I know many of you

have joined us on Wednesdays fasting.

We've looked at the importance of intercessory prayer.

You know what it means to stand in the gap and to pray on the

behalf of other people. We've looked at how to listen

well as we pray, how to hear the voice of God.

So much wonderful stuff. And I would encourage you if you

have missed any of those, you can catch up with the talks on

our YouTube channel. And if it's your first week

here, welcome. You can catch up on all of them

on the YouTube channel as well. And here I am with the privilege

of finishing the series. But I want to say that actually,

in reality, this is not the end. I don't want us to

compartmentalize this series to box in everything that we have

talked about and kind of say, well, that was the season, that

was the series on prayer and now right on to the next thing

because church now is not the time to stop.

Each of us has been invited into this prayer journey, not as a

series, not as a tick box exercise or we haven't talked

about intercessory prayer in a while.

Tick, done that one. But it's an opportunity for us

to be ignited again, to have a posture towards prayer, a daily

rhythm of prayer, a recognition that we absolutely cannot live

without prayer, not just for six weeks, not just for a season,

but for the rest of our lives. Amen.

So I'm going to pray. Father, I want to thank you for

this series. Father, I thank you for all that

you have done in us as a church, in us as individuals over these

last few weeks. And Father, I thank you that

this is not the end. And I pray, Lord God, that you

would open our hearts right now, open our ears.

Spirit of God, would you fall in this place afresh?

Would you take these words that I've prepared and breathe your

life in Jesus name? Amen.

OK, we're going to look at our anchor texts for this morning,

which is found in One Kings 18 In a minute.

We're going to read it. We're going to read from 41 to

45. But before we do that, I want to

give you a little bit of context.

It's really important that we know what's going on here right

before we pick up these verses. So at this time in Israel, there

is a severe drought. There has been no rain for just

over three years. And there is a prophet called

Elijah who God speaks to and God promises him that there's going

to be rain soon. And he tells him, go and see the

king, King Ahab, and tell him. So Elijah goes to the king and

he confronts him about the idolatry that is taking place.

And he basically says to him, hey, you know what the drought

is because of the idolatry that's taking place.

That's the reason that the drought is here, because you see

lots of people at the time had been worshipping false gods.

They had been worshipping a God called Bao.

And it's so Elijah calls the prophets of Bao.

There's about 450 of them. And as many people as he get can

get from all around Israel to go up a mountain with him where he

proposes a contest to these prophets.

And he basically says, right, both of us, we're going to

prepare a bull sacrifice. We're going to get the wood

ready. We're going to chop up the bull.

We're going to put it on there, but we're not going to light it,

OK? We're not going to light the

sacrifice ourselves. We're going to call on our gods.

You call on your gods. I'll call on my God, Yahweh.

And we're going to see what happens.

We're going to see who is the one true God, right?

And so we read about these desperate prayers from the

prophets. They're crying out to bow day

and night. They are shouting, they're

dancing. They're even cutting themselves.

They're apps, absolutely nothing happens.

And Elijah, it's quite funny, He starts to mock them a little

bit. He's like, maybe you're God,

he's having a nap, you know, maybe he's busy, maybe he's got

better things to do. That's why he's not answering

you. And then Elijah prays to God, to

Yahweh, and immediately God sends the fire from heaven and

the sacrifice is lit. And it says, when all the people

saw this, they fell on their faces and they said, yes, this

is the God. This is the one true God.

And then Elijah orders that all the false prophets are

destroyed. And then we pick up from verse

41. Are you with me?

Right, Let's read it. If you've got your Bibles, you

can turn to the passage, which is 1 Kings, 1841 to 45, or it's

going to come up on the screen. So it says.

And Elijah said to Ahab, go eat and drink, for there is the

sound of a heavy rain. So Ahab, that's the king.

He went off to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of

Carmel. That's the mountain.

And he bent down to the ground and put his face between his

knees. Go and look toward the sea, he

told his servant. And he went up and looked.

There's nothing there, he said. Seven times.

Elijah said, Go back the seventh time.

I haven't reported a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising

from the sea. So Elijah said, go and tell

Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops

you. Meanwhile, the sky grew black

with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling, and

Ahab rode off to Jezreel. How often we look at the story

of Elijah on the mountain, and we focus on the fire falling on

the altar. But this morning I want to these

last few verses at the end of the chapter, we're straight

after this amazing demonstration of God's power.

Elijah prays for rain in James. So James is a book in the New

Testament, the the stuff we've just read that's in the Old

Testament. And so James refers back to

Elijah, this experience, and he says, you know, this isn't just

for Elijah. In James 5/17, it says Elijah

was a human being even as we are.

He prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain

on the land for 3 1/2 years. And then again, he and the

heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops.

And, you know, I think sometimes we can think like people like

Elijah, some kind of superhero, like they have like a direct

access to God. But according to James verse 17,

he's not. He's just like us.

Elijah was the man who perceived what God wanted and he prayed it

into existence. So we too can expect God to move

just like he did when Elijah prayed.

You see, Elijah would have known from the book of Deuteronomy

that God would send a drought on the land when the people

strayed, when the people turned their back on God.

And so he simply prayed for that.

And then he also knew that God said the drought would end when

the people returned to him. So having just seen people fall

on their faces and recognise God as the one true God and repent

and turn back towards him, Elijah knew that actually rain

was going to come because God has said it would.

And So what can Elijah's prayer teach us about how we can pray?

I think there are five things from this passage that I want to

pull out this morning. So number one, from verse 41, it

says this. And Elijah said to Ahab, go eat

and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain.

At that moment, there was no rain, not even a cloud in the

sky. I mean, imagine if you guys ever

climbed to the top of a mountain and you've looked out and it's

just all around. You can just see blue skies, no

clouds anywhere, no sign of rain.

And yet Elijah says he heard the sound of heavy rain.

So this was not with his physical ears.

This was with his spiritual ears.

You see, before Elijah ever saw the rain, or even had saw signs

of the rain, he heard it. Elijah spoke as if the answer

had already come. He prayed in faith that the rain

was on its way. You see, Elijah knew what God's

promise was. He knew, as I said, that once

the people had repented, the rain was going to come because

God had said that. So the first thing we can take

from this is that when we pray, we pray on what God has said,

what He promises, not on how things look.

We walk by faith and not by sight.

Faith sees the answer before our eyes can.

Faith is also demonstrated by giving thanks before the

blessing comes. I love it here when it says that

Elijah told Ahab he told the king, go eat and drink because

essentially he's saying to him, you better get ready to

celebrate. That's what you've been waiting

for, it's coming, it's on its way.

This says that even as we are praying, we thank God we

celebrate. Before the answer comes for some

of you this morning, maybe you're here and you're

struggling financially or you're waiting for a new job.

You know you too can pray like Elijah in faith.

Father, I thank You that you are my provider.

Even though I don't see yet how you're going to meet my needs.

I trust that you're already sending the rain.

I hear it. You said you're going to supply

my needs, Lord God, So I thank you in advance for the doors

that you're going to open for me.

Or maybe you're praying for a friend or a family member that

doesn't yet know Jesus. And again, you can pray in faith

like Elijah. Lord, I don't see the change

yet, but I believe you're moving in their heart.

I can't see the rain, but I can hear the rain.

Thank you that you're faithful to complete what you start what

you start. And so I see life and hope in

Jesus name. You know, when we pray, we do so

from a place of faith, standing on the promises of God,

believing that the rain is coming even if the circumstances

say otherwise #2 Verse 42. It says, so Ahab went off to eat

and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, climbed to

the top of the mountain. You know, Elijah had just seen

this incredible experience where God had answered his prayer.

Immediately there was fire from heaven.

People fell on their knees and repented.

This was a dramatic public demonstration of God's power.

And what does Elijah do? He turns around and he climbs to

the top of the mountain, and he seeks a private place to pray

away from everyone where he could take a moment to connect

with God spiritually. He'd heard the sound of the

rain, but now Elijah needed to pray for the rain, pray that

they would see the rainfall and the end of the drought.

But he did that away from everyone else.

And we saw Jesus do this all the time in the Gospels.

We read about it. He would often withdraw from the

crowds. He would often leave his

disciples. He would go off on his own

somewhere. He would go up a mountain or

he'd get up early. He'd stay up late.

He demonstrated a pattern of disconnecting from those around

him in order to connect with the Father, Matthew 66 says.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to

your Father who is unseen. And then your Father, who sees

what is done in secret, will reward you.

I don't think that literally means we have to go into our

room and pray. We can do.

But I do believe it's saying that we should find a place in

private where we can pray. But as if we only pray in

public, something is wrong. We need to get in His presence.

We need to prioritise the secret place.

You know, if I only spoke to my husband in public and didn't

prioritise that time of private conversation with no

distractions where I could really say what I wanted, if I

only did that in public, our relationship would only go to

one level, right? I love the message version I'm

going to of that same verse, Matthew 6/6.

It says, here's what I want you to do.

Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role

play before God. Just be there as simply and

honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to

God and you'll begin to sense His grace.

Isn't that beautiful? I love it.

Find a quiet, secluded place where you won't be tempted to

role play before God. It's so much easier in that

private place to bring our raw, authentic selves before God.

We are in the world, but we are not of the world.

And so is there any wonder that sometimes when we are feeling

totally overwhelmed, we have to take time to disconnect from

this world, to connect with the Father who is eternal and

steadfast, The one that we don't have to role play with, the one

that we can be totally upfront with.

And so we pray in faith and we pray in private #3 from verse

42, the end of 42, it says he bent down to the ground and put

his face between his knees. So here is Elijah.

He's now alone with God in that private place at the top of the

mountain, and he starts praying for rain, How on his knees with

his face to the ground. Elijah had seen God demonstrate

his power and authority, but now he was appealing for God's grace

to bless the people and for the drought to and he does so from a

posture of humility. When God asked Elijah to go and

confront the king about the idolatry, right at the

beginning, he knew that with that God had promised to send

the land, the rain on the land. And so now as he prays, he's

coming humbly before God, and he asked him to honour his word and

to fulfil his promise of rain. He doesn't start making demands.

Well, you know what God, you said when this happened, this

was going to happen, therefore where is it?

He doesn't come negotiating. You know God, if only you'll

send the rain, then I promise then I'll go and do this for

you. No, He prays on his knees in

total surrender, knowing there's nothing more he could do but

wait on God. Psalm 37, five says commit your

way to the Lord, trust in Him. And then it goes on to say, be

still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

We commit our plans, the things that we long to see happen

before the Lord, and then we wait patiently.

We surrender ourselves in humility, saying, God, this is

not about us, God, this is about you.

And in doing so we createspace for him to do only what he can

do #4 From verse 43 it says, go and look towards the sea.

He told his servant and he went up and looked.

There's nothing there. He said seven times.

Elijah said to him, go back. Now we don't know exactly what

Elijah was praying here, like the actual words that he was

saying, but we do know that he prayed.

Once he got his servant to go off to check over the side of

the mountain to see if there was any sign of rain.

He comes back, he's like no, there's nothing there.

So Elijah prays again and then he asks his servant to go have a

look again, 7 times this happens.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not sure I would

have kept going after four times, maybe 5 at a push, but I

think I probably would have given up.

Maybe I didn't hear right, maybe I misunderstood, but every time

Elijah's servant comes back and says Nope, there's nothing

there. How does Elijah respond?

Does he panic? Does he moan and grumble?

Does he throw his toys out of the pram?

Or does he get back on his knees and pray again?

He doesn't stop praying. He prays with perseverance.

I don't know why God didn't send the rain the first time Elijah

prayed, or the 3rd, or the 6th. But I do know that sometimes we

only see the breakthrough when we persist in prayer.

Jesus teaches us in the Gospels that God rewards persistence.

In fact, in the parable of the widow, he says that we should

call out to God day and night. We're actually to wear him out

with our praying. We're to keep knocking on the

door of heaven. It's not enough to pray once

about something and then forget about it.

There are some things that we have to pray and pray and pray

and pray and pray until God responds and until the

breakthrough comes. The 7th time the servant

reported a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the

sea. Every small cloud starts to rise

from the sea. And I wonder this morning, what

cloud are you waiting for to appear?

Have you given up because there just seems to be nothing there?

Maybe this morning God is inviting you to persist in

prayer again. We don't know how many times it

will take. You know, it might be 7, but 7

isn't like a magic number. It could be more than seven

times. We don't know how, how many

times, how long it's going to take, but what matters is that

we persevere until the cloud forms #5 verse 44 it says.

So Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and

go down before the rain stops. So here is Elijah with his

servant. And hey, they see this cloud

forming. And Elijah knows his prayer is

answered, even though no rain has fallen just yet.

He saw that first sign of a small cloud and he knows that

the rain is coming. It's coming.

The rain that they have been in desperate need for for 3 1/2

years. The rain that was promised to

come is on its way. And what does Elijah do in that

moment? He doesn't wait for the rain to

fall, but at the first sign he proclaims God's promise, the

rain. He says to king, it's on its

way, you better get ready. The ground, it would have been

hard and dry. You know, Elijah knew this

wasn't a sprinkle of rain coming.

This wasn't a drizzle. This was going to be a downpour

of rain. And he says to the king, you

better get your chariot off this mountain because the rain is

going to stop you. You better get going.

Sees the cloud, he declares what God is doing before it actually

happens, and then he tells the King to move it.

Some of you have seen the cloud. There's no rain just yet, but

the cloud is there. You know it is, and the Lord is

calling you to move into action. Get prepared because it's on its

way and you need to be ready. And so to summarise, like

Elijah, we pray in faith, we pray in private, we pray in

humility, we pray with perseverance, and we proclaim

the promise of God. You know, as we started this

series, if we cast our minds right back to the beginning,

Claire presented this beautiful invitation for us to embrace

this season by digging wells, deep wells of prayer, where

springs of living water and life rise up.

And who knows that digging requires effort.

And as we put in that effort, our muscles, our spiritual

muscles are physically changed and strengthened.

And I think that's the keyword there, effort.

I think if we want to be transformed, it requires a

certain amount of responsibility on our part.

Anyone here ever go to the gym or you've taken up and you, you

don't have to put your hands up, it's fine.

Or taken up running or like another form of physical

exercise. You know, that requires a

certain amount of effort, right? Especially if we don't want it

to be just a one off. We want to develop a a long

habit, long lasting habit. For me, I usually come back from

the summer holidays. I'm like, I've eaten way too

much. Like now is the time to hit the

gym and I start off well. I have all these amazing plans.

I know the days I'm going to go, I know what I'm going to eat,

you know all of that stuff. This time next year you're not

even going to recognise me, you know, that type of thing.

I'm totally motivated to get fit.

And then a few weeks in, what happens?

The dark mornings come, might get an injury.

The kids have kept me up at night, might have a headache and

what happens? I fall out of the habit of going

because my motivation dwindles. But you see, what I've come to

realise is that in order to make habits last, I need more than

motivation. I need discipline, John C

Maxwell says motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you

growing. You see, motivation is what

pushes you to take the first step.

That's a good thing. But the problem is, motivation

comes and goes depending on how we feel, right?

Depending on the circumstances around us.

Whereas discipline is what keeps us moving forward even on the

days you don't feel like it. Because discipline is a choice,

and it's not based on feelings. And so when we're talking about

creating a lifelong habit of prayer, motivation is only going

to get us so far. We can walk out of here today

and be totally inspired to set our alarm clocks half an hour

earlier to get up and pray, or to be excited about committing

day to praying for 5 minutes for that person that doesn't yet

know Jesus. But the truth is, those good

intentions are only going to get us so far.

If we are serious about creating and maintaining a rhythm of

prayer, we need to be disciplined.

And so just to finish some really practical ways that we

can be disciplined #1 choose a place.

Doesn't matter where, but somewhere you can be alone with

Jesus. That private place that we

talked about earlier, the place you can get angry, the place you

can get sad. The place that you can share

everything with him whilst also leaving that space for Him to

share with you. That secret intimate place where

it's just you and him and this could be anywhere.

I would recommend you just don't take your phone.

Leave your phone in another room and then find a place.

It could be your favorite chair in the house.

It could be in the shower. It could be on a walk.

It could be on a bench like a particular bench in the park.

It could be standing while you're washing up For the mums

out there. I know that you're going to say

I know it. No place is private.

Is it Like no place is prior? I hear you.

Like the kids, they follow you everywhere.

But try locking yourself in the bathroom like that's like, I

know they will find you, but you've probably got 3 or 4

minutes. So you could try that.

So choose a place #2 choose a time.

Of course, we can pray anytime. In fact, the Bible says that we

should pray continuously. You know, the ultimate aim here

is for us to develop a pattern of prayer, a life of prayer,

where we're talking to God constantly through the day about

everything that happens, every decision we have to make,

everything that winds us up. But this doesn't accidentally

happen. It starts with us being

intentional about it, so I suggest the setting a specific

time of the day when you can pray.

It could be first thing in the morning, it could be over your

morning coffee, it could be on the 6:32 train to work, it could

be before you go to sleep. But if we are not intentional,

then it's not likely to happen #3 keep it consistent.

Make a commitment to join in with corporate prayer rhythms.

Like we have prayer hour that takes place once a week online,

we have space that takes place once a month across the Hemel

and St. Alban sites.

Why not commit to being consistent in that for six

months or whatever it is? Maybe continue to fast on a

Wednesday, or to to be consistent in praying at

mealtimes, or with your kids before they go to bed, or with

your friends, your colleague at work, or in your versa group.

Honour those daily, those weekly moments of prayer and keep it

consistent. And then #4 keep it short.

Matthew 6-7 to 8 says. And when you pray, don't keep

babbling like pagans, for they think they'll be heard because

of their many words. Don't be like them, for your

Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

We don't need to Babble. We don't need to go on and on.

We can just get to the point. Praying is not a formal

presentation. We don't need to pray like we

think we should, but we all know those amazing prayers, right?

Like Richard, you mentioned it like a pro prayer.

Like we all know those people that just seem to be so eloquent

in the way that they pray, so articulate.

They're just calling on scripture and speaking out here,

there and everywhere. And those people are amazing.

I love that that's their way of praying, but don't let that put

you off from praying or to feel that your prayers are any less

than or even be tempted to copy that and to try and pray like

them. Guys, Jesus wants us to be real.

He wants us to be authentic. Do it often and get to the

point. So some really practical ways

that we can be disciplined in maintaining a life of prayer.

Keep Choose a place, choose a time, keep it consistent, and

keep it short.