Pastor Jeff Anders continues Elijah — God’s Praying Prophet on Sunday evening. After walking again through what happened when Elijah kept praying, and after reminding the church of eight things that do not happen if God’s people quit, this message adds a ninth: there is cleansing that just will not occur if we do not pray and keep on praying. The text for the evening is 1 John 1, with help from Luke 11, Mark 11, and David’s confession in Psalm 32.
Elijah Kept Praying Until the Rain Came
Elijah is the Old Testament picture of the New Testament prayer life James holds up: the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). Pastor Anders traced again what happened when that man prayed.
- The rain dried up — three and a half years with no rain, so Baal was shown to be no god (1 Kings 17:1).
- The provision showed up (1 Kings 17:2–16).
- The dead rose up (1 Kings 17:17–24).
- The sacrifice burned up — on Mount Carmel the fire of God fell, and the prophets of Baal came under judgment (1 Kings 18:20–40).
- The clouds opened up (1 Kings 18:41–46).
Elijah told King Ahab to get in the chariot, eat and drink, and get ready for the trip, because by faith he heard the sound of abundance of rain (1 Kings 18:41). Up on Carmel he put his face between his knees and prayed. The servant looked: no rain. A second time, a third — most Baptists, he said, would be headed home — a fourth, and the Methodists with them; a fifth, and the Lutherans have given up; a sixth, and almost everybody is ready to say God is saying no. Elijah knew the mind of God. Rain was God’s will, so he prayed a seventh time. The servant saw a cloud about the size of a man’s hand. Elijah sent word for the king to get the chariot moving. That little cloud filled the sky and turned black, and a torrential rain ended the drought. Elijah ran and outran the king, and was waiting at the gate of Jezreel when Ahab arrived (1 Kings 18:44–46). God sent the rain because this man prayed and kept on praying. Pastor Anders said he would still have been praying weeks later until God sent it.
If Elijah had quit, the testimony of God would have been marred. The nation was swallowed up in Baal worship under Jezebel, and God showed that He is God — not Baal — through the prayer life of one man. God is still looking for men and women who will pray and keep on praying until the heavens open and He rains down righteousness, until His Spirit begins to stir. If we do not keep asking, we will not receive; if we do not keep seeking, we will not find; if we do not keep knocking, it will not be opened (Luke 11:9–10).
Eight Things That Will Not Happen If We Stop
Before the new point, Pastor Anders reminded the church of what he had already preached. He said somebody might be keeping a better count than he was, and they could straighten him out later.
- Joy we will miss.
- Peace that passes all understanding, the peace that keeps heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Without prayer we are full of anxiety instead (Philippians 4:7).
- Power — we will not be like the early church that prayed until God shook the place, filled them, and used them.
- Gifts and blessings God means to give through prayer. Asking is how we receive what He wants to give.
- Fellowship — prayer is how the door opens so the Lord can come in and sup with us (Revelation 3:20).
- Battles the enemy will win — Jesus told Peter to watch and pray, or he would enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
- Lives that will not be changed — Moses prayed, and God set a serpent on a pole so Israel, dying of snakebite, could look and live (Numbers 21). People stay on our minds because God is calling us to pray until He intervenes.
- Ministry that will be hindered — Sunday morning’s point. In Acts 12 Herod killed James and jailed Peter. The church prayed without ceasing, God sent an angel and brought Peter out, and the Word of God increased. It looked like the ministry was finished. It was not, because the church prayed.
Number Nine: Cleansing That Will Not Occur
If we do not pray and keep on praying, there is cleansing that just will not occur. God wants to clean His people up. Pastor Anders stopped to speak to anyone not saved: God wants to save you, forgive your sins, and give you eternal life. That is why Jesus came and died on the cross. If you think God does not want to save you, that thought is the devil’s lie, meant to keep you lost and under judgment. The cross, the blood, the body broken, and the life poured out say that God loves you and wants to save you. If He sent His Son to die for you, He wants to save you.
The cleansing in this message, though, is not aimed at the lost. It is for people who are already saved. After conversion there are still areas — thoughts, actions, the inside and the outside — that God wants cleaned up, because His purpose is to make us like Christ. When God saved you, He justified you: He forgave your sins and accepted you as righteous, not with your righteousness but with the righteousness of Christ given freely at conversion. Positionally you stand right with God. Practically, the sinful nature still shows — selfishness, and the pull of temptation, the same pull Jesus warned Peter to pray against. Being justified by faith as a free gift does not mean there is nothing left to transform. Likeness to Christ is the positive work. Along the way, what is unlike Him — the Bible calls it unrighteousness — has to be cleansed out. That cleansing is tied directly to the prayer life. We need Him to clean attitudes, direction, and decisions, inside and outside. That is a reason to pray and keep on praying.
God Is Light (1 John 1)
John writes 1 John around two themes: sonship, what it is to be a child of God, and fellowship, the walk those children have with God. He opens with the Word of life — the Lord Jesus — whom the apostles heard, saw with their eyes, and handled with their hands (1 John 1:1). The life was manifested. Eternal life, which was with the Father, was shown to them in the person of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:2). He is our life. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life, but the wrath of God abiding on him.
What they saw and heard they declare, so that the readers may have fellowship with the apostles — and truly that fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). John said he saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, walked beside Him, and leaned on Him, and that he has kept fellowship with Him since the resurrection. You can too. Born-again people in the room can know Him. Not by sight, not by an audible voice, and not by touch — not right now. One day we will see Him as He is, hear Him, and touch Him. In the meantime, fellowship with Him is real. John writes these things so that joy may be full (1 John 1:4).
This, then, is the message: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all — not even a shadow of it (1 John 1:5). Light here is truth and holiness. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth (1 John 1:6). You cannot walk with light and stay in the dark. People who claim fellowship while walking in darkness are deceived, and they may have deceived themselves. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Sinners by nature, who were in darkness before conversion, can walk in holiness because of that blood. It does not only forgive and declare us righteous at conversion. It keeps washing us. His life was given for us, and His life in us has been transforming us since we were saved.
If We Say We Have No Sin (1 John 1:8–10)
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). Nobody in the room is finished. There is never a time when there is nothing left to clean. Pastor Anders said the closer he gets to the light, the more darkness he sees that still has to be dealt with. At home, a house looks fine with the lights out. Turn them on, and you see the floor, the dust, and what has to be taken care of. Walk in fellowship with the One who is light, and you start seeing what does not look like Jesus — what is fleshly and self-centered. He wants that cleaned up.
The response is in the next verse: if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (1 John 1:10). Quit lying to yourself. Confessing means saying the same thing God says about it — admitting that this area is not what it should be. Get alone with Him and name it. Then He is at work: forgiving, so fellowship can continue, and cleansing, so we can keep walking in the light and become more like Christ. If you cannot think of a “big” sin, selfishness is the essence of sin, and all of us struggle with a selfish sinful nature. He wants honesty so He can make us selfless and God-centered. That happens in the prayer life. One reason to keep praying is that we need to keep confessing.
Forgive Us Our Sins — and Keep Knocking (Luke 11)
Jesus explained the same thing in the Gospels. In Luke 11 the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, as John had taught his disciples (Luke 11:1). He told them what to say when they pray: the Father’s name hallowed, the kingdom and the will of God, daily bread, forgiveness of sins as we forgive those indebted to us, and deliverance from temptation and evil (Luke 11:2–4). Prayer thinks about who God is, the holiness of God, the kingdom, a surrendered will, and daily needs — and it confesses the sins we need forgiven. If there is one reason to keep praying the way Elijah did, it is that we need to keep confessing what is stained, so God will forgive and cleanse.
Then Jesus taught them not to stop. A man goes to a friend at midnight and asks for three loaves: a friend has arrived from a journey, and he has nothing to set before him (Luke 11:5–6). From inside the house the answer is, trouble me not — the door is shut, the children are in bed, I cannot rise and give you anything (Luke 11:7). He will not get up and give bread because the man is his friend. He will get up because of his importunity, and give as many as he needs (Luke 11:8). The knocker does not quit. Pastor Anders’ point: pray, and as you pray, keep on praying. One thing that persistent prayer is for, from the verse just before the parable, is confessing what God needs to forgive and clean out.
Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened. The tense, he said, is keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking (Luke 11:9–10). A father does not give his son a stone for bread, a serpent for a fish, or a scorpion for an egg (Luke 11:11–12). If that is true of sinful men, how much more will God give what we need if we ask and keep asking (Luke 11:13). In this passage, one thing He wants to give is forgiveness and cleansing. Keep praying so God can clean you up.
When You Stand Praying, Forgive (Mark 11)
The Lord explains it again in Mark 11. He came into the temple, cast out the money changers, overthrew the tables and the seats of those who sold doves, and stopped the traffic through the temple. In the court of the Gentiles He told them the house was meant to be called a house of prayer for all nations, and they had made it a den of thieves (Mark 11:15–17). The nations were supposed to be able to gather there, hear about God, and pray. He put a stop to the corruption.
The next morning the fig tree was dried up from the roots. The day before, on the way into Jerusalem, Jesus had looked for figs, found none, and cursed the tree. Within a day it looked as if it had been dead for years. Peter said, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away (Mark 11:20–21). Jesus answered, Have faith in God (Mark 11:22). Whoever tells this mountain to be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, shall have it (Mark 11:23). Greater things than a withered fig tree are in view. What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24). Praying in faith means believing that God hears and God answers, and so you keep on praying until He does. You do not stop.
Then, while you are praying like that, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so the Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses. If you will not forgive, neither will He forgive your trespasses (Mark 11:25–26). If you want to see great things happen, pray and keep on praying — and while you are praying, deal with sin and forgiveness, or you will not see them. Areas God wants cleaned up are a reason, like Elijah, to keep on praying.
David Got Honest (2 Samuel 11–12; Psalm 32)
John expounded it, Jesus explained it, and David lived it. David, a man after God’s own heart, was anointed by Samuel as a boy to be the next king, and was indwelt by the Holy Spirit — not for a little while, and not only for one task, but for the rest of his life. That man still had sin in his life. He looked on Bathsheba, lusted, sent for her, and committed adultery. She conceived. He tried to cover it by bringing her husband Uriah home from the battle, expecting him to go to his wife so the child would be thought Uriah’s. Uriah would not go home while the soldiers, under Joab, were still in the field. David’s plan failed. He sent Uriah back with a message to Joab: put him in the hottest part of the fight, then draw the men back and leave him to be killed. Uriah died. David took Bathsheba into his house as a wife, and it looked as if he had rescued a widow. The story is in 2 Samuel 11–12. Pastor Anders said he would not read those chapters for lack of time. For a long time — several months, and some say maybe up to a year — David covered the sin.
Then God sent the prophet Nathan with a story: a rich man with many flocks had a guest, and instead of taking one of his own lambs he took the one little lamb of a poor neighbor, a lamb the family loved, and killed it for the meal. David was enraged and ready to execute judgment. Nathan said, You are the man. You are the king. You had everything, including many wives, and you took one man’s wife and had him killed on the battlefield. The sin David thought was covered was exposed.
David did what 1 John 1:9 teaches and what Jesus said to do when we pray. He got alone with God and got honest. In Psalm 32 the forgiven man is blessed: transgression forgiven, sin covered, iniquity not imputed, and no guile in the spirit (Psalm 32:1–2). While David kept silence, his bones wasted, he roared inwardly all day, God’s hand was heavy day and night, and his moisture turned into the drought of summer — dried up on the inside under conviction (Psalm 32:3–4). Then he acknowledged his sin, stopped hiding his iniquity, and confessed his transgressions, and God forgave (Psalm 32:5). David prayed, and in that prayer he was honest about Bathsheba and Uriah, and, Pastor Anders said, about a lot of other things in his life that you and I never read. God cleaned him up so he could keep being the man God had called and anointed him to be. David was a great man of God not because he never failed, but because he got alone with God, prayed, and was honest about the failures — the sins we know, and the smaller ones we do not.
Pray, and Get Honest While You Pray
Like Elijah, we need to pray and keep on praying, because if we do not, areas of life never get cleaned up. The struggle stays. The stain stays. The sin just stays there. If you want God to clean you, pray, and keep on praying and confessing until, like David, you know the sin is forgiven, covered, and you are cleansed from all unrighteousness. Elijah’s advice to Eastern Gate, Pastor Anders said, would be: pray and keep on praying. Do not stop. And while you are praying, get honest with God about what you are struggling with, so He can clean you. Otherwise it will never happen.
He closed by thanking God for the Word and for the blood shed at Calvary, so sinners can be forgiven and washed, and by asking God to work on their hearts so they would get honest and have a time of confessing sin — get right, get cleansed, and be what God calls them to be, for His glory.
Take-Homes
- Elijah prayed until a cloud the size of a man’s hand became a torrential rain. Effectual, fervent prayer does not quit when nothing shows yet (James 5:16; 1 Kings 18:41–46).
- If he had stopped, God’s testimony against Baal would have been marred. God still does great work through people who keep praying.
- Eight losses if we stop: joy, peace, power, gifts, fellowship, ground the enemy takes, lives that never change, and ministry that is hindered (Philippians 4:7; Revelation 3:20; Matthew 26:41; Numbers 21; Acts 12).
- Number nine: cleansing that will not occur. Saved people are justified in Christ and still need God to clean up what is unlike Him.
- The cross says God wants to save the lost. The cleansing in this message is for people who are already His.
- God is light. Fellowship means walking in the light, not claiming God while walking in the dark (1 John 1:5–7).
- Saying we have no sin is self-deception. The closer we get to the light, the more of the darkness we can see (1 John 1:8).
- Confessing is saying what God says about it. He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9–10).
- Jesus put “forgive us our sins” inside prayer, then told us to keep knocking. Importunity is how the door opens (Luke 11:2–13).
- Faith that sees great things also deals with forgiveness while it prays. God’s house is a house of prayer, not a den of thieves (Mark 11:17; Mark 11:22–26).
- David covered adultery and Uriah’s death until Nathan said, You are the man. Silence dried him up. Confession brought forgiveness (2 Samuel 11–12; Psalm 32:1–5).
- Pray and keep on praying, and while you pray, get honest with God. Otherwise the stain stays.