The Effectual Prayer of a Righteous Person

Sermon Summary:

What does it look like to pray with everything we have? In 1 Kings 18, we find one of the most dramatic scenes in all of Scripture: the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel, standing against 450 prophets of Baal, watching God answer with fire, and then dropping to his knees in a posture the ancient world associated with a woman in labor. That image alone should stop us in our tracks. Elijah was not offering a casual, routine prayer. He was crying out with his whole being, pressing into God with urgency and intensity. James later holds Elijah up as the defining example of what powerful, effective prayer looks like, reminding us that this man was human just like us. The same God who answered Elijah is the God we approach every day. The question this raises for us is honest and personal: what does our own prayer life actually look like? Is it earnest? Is it expectant? Or has it become something we do out of habit, without much weight behind it? This message calls us to rediscover prayer not as a religious obligation but as the most direct path to intimacy with God, where closeness to Him becomes the very source of fruitfulness in our lives.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• Prayer is universal across all human cultures, but believers are called to a distinctly righteous and intentional form of prayer
• James describes the prayer of a righteous person as powerful (bringing strength in difficult circumstances) and effective (moving intention toward accomplishment)
• Intimacy with God, cultivated through prayer, leads to fruitfulness in the Christian life
• Elijah serves as a biblical model of earnest prayer, adopting a posture described as that of a woman in labor — intense, focused, and deeply felt
• Believers should pray expectantly, trusting that God is at work even when results are not immediately visible
• Prayer should be woven into every part of daily life — on all occasions, about everything, in all kinds of forms, and for all of God’s people (Ephesians 6:18)
• The enemy actively works to prevent believers from praying, making intentional commitment to prayer essential

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Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript:

Well, y’ all know in my home church, Ms. Macon would have already stood up and said, I dare y’ all to sing it again, y’. All. So, wow. How about Juan Armorall and this choir and orchestra? Wasn’t that awesome?

Thank y’ all so much for that, Brother Juan. Well, we are just in the second message in this series that we began last Sunday morning as we are making our way through August, and then we’ll turn the page to the fall once we get to September. But our theme for August is prayer for believers. And as I said, it’s a little bit of a play on words. It’s learning to pray for believers, it’s learning as believers to pray, and it’s also learning to pray for more believers.

So that’s really what’s guiding my thought in this series. And we are going to eventually turn our attention to John 17, where Jesus prays, and we’ll learn more about prayer from his prayer. But before we get to that, I want us to look at this text today. The effectual prayer of a righteous person. Our text is 1st Kings 18.

So if you have your copy of the Old Testament, I’m not going to read that entire page. We’re going to just go to the end of it, really, and look at it. So we’re going to start in verse 41. But this whole emphasis on prayer is going to set the stage for our emphasis in the fall on evangelism. And my theme for the fall is gone fishing.

And that is the sign that you and I should hang on our door every time we leave our house. As Christians, we are gone fishing. God is putting us in places where we can share the good news of Jesus with the people in our world. And so we’re going to be in prayer in August, and then we will find our way to the fall as we focus on that. And remember, in the fall, we’re also going to begin a new ministry on Wednesday evenings that we’re calling the Table.

And we’ll invite you to the fellowship hall for a time of worship every Wednesday night. We’ll have just a brief little snack, not really a full dinner, but just enough to remind you of what dinner may be like later in the evening or what lunch was like earlier in the day. And just to tide you over, as we used to say, then we’re gonna have a time of worship and a time of prayer and every Wednesday night starting on September 9th. And I really hope you’ll be here for that. It’s for the whole church.

And I realize that we have all kinds of things on Wednesday evenings. Choir, orchestra. I know you will be meeting for rehearsals, but we will find ways to include you in that along the way. But I’m looking forward to that becoming a part of our routine as a church, as we are just called Pray. So with that said, you know the story of First Kings 18.

It’s Elijah on Mount Carmel. A few years ago, Cindy and I stood on Mount Carmel and reflected on this very story. We read this story while we were there, looking out over the valley of Jezreel, sometimes also known as the valley of Megiddo. I think there have been some 34 or 35 major battles that have taken place in that valley, all the way from Thutmose III to Napoleon. So it’s a very influential piece of real estate.

And it was there on Mount Carmel where this incredible story took place, where Elijah met the prophets of baal. We’ll get to that story here in just a minute, but we’ll just pick up the story after all that is over and the battle has been won by God, obviously. And we come to verse 41, and we look at this text that reads. And Elijah said to Ahab, who was the king, go eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain. 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.

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, the servant 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 and a heavy rain started falling. And Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

It’s a remarkable story, and I will get back to that story in just a moment. But it serves as the context for our conversation this morning. Because in our context, our focus, our interest for the month of August is prayer. So I want us to think about prayer this morning. The ministry of Elijah in the New Testament is connected to prayer.

In fact, James shows how that works, how Elijah is connected to the whole conversation about prayer. So what I want us to do this morning is reflect on our own prayer life. We all have one. Do you know that prayer is universal? Every culture that we have ever studied has some kind of connection to prayer.

Even if it’s prayer to a pagan deity or pagan gods and goddesses, human beings are wired in such a way that universally, across cultures and across time, we pray. So as followers of Jesus, I just wonder about your prayer life, your prayer habits, and I invite you to reflect on your own personal prayer life today. What is it like for you? How do you pray? When do you find yourself praying most effectively?

What words would you use to describe your own personal prayer life? That’s what I want us to think about today. So here’s some insight from James, since James connects prayer to Elijah. In James, chapter four, verse eight, James writes this. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

I think that’s one of the fundamental insights about prayer in the scripture, because this is what God is after intimacy with you. God wants you to know him. He wants you to experience him in your everyday life. He wants you to serve him in just the run of the mill parts of your life. He wants to be a part of everything about you.

He wants you to have fellowship with Him. He wants you to commune with Him. He wants you to grow in your faith. He wants you to grow in your righteousness, in your walk with Him. And the reason that’s important is because our prayer life is connected to our righteousness and our righteousness is connected to our prayer life.

Because in the same book, the book of James, here’s what James says about that. He says the prayer of a righteous person, powerful and effective. Now that verse is one we ought to camp out on. A righteous person is someone who’s in theologically in right standing with God. That has to do with our justification, our salvation.

But there’s also the implication of an ongoing righteousness, that you are drawing near to God in your personal life, that God is shaping you to be more like Jesus, that the fruit of the Spirit is on display in your life, that you are growing to be more righteous. And what James says about that is the person who knows God, who’s experiencing God, who’s serving God, the righteous person. When they pray their prayers, he uses two words in Greek. He says the NIV translates it like this, they’re powerful. Now that Greek word that’s translated powerful.

When the text says the prayers of this person are powerful, it means to have strength in the fray. I love that definition. It means that you and I are going to be in the fray. So to Speak. And when a righteous person prays, they find strength in the midst of whatever it is they’re facing.

And then the second word, when the text says the prayers of a righteous person are effective. The Greek word is energeo. We get our word energy from that word. Our prayers are energetic. What does that mean?

Well, in Greek, what that means is that your prayers move things along. That’s what the word image is. That’s the picture in that word, that the prayers of a righteous person bring strength in the fray, and they move intention to accomplishment. In other words, they move things along. So here’s what I would say.

Don’t you want that kind of person praying for you? The person who brings strength into the fray and who moves things along? Don’t you want those kind of people praying for you?

Let me ask it another way. Don’t you want to be one of them? One of those kind of people that when you pray, you see things begin to materialize? It’s not magic, because remember who’s praying? A righteous person.

So Tyler Stanton has written this book, Praying Like Monks and Living Like Fools. It’s one of my favorite titles. And here’s a quote from his book. Let me just show it to you. Here’s what he says about prayer.

Intimacy that’s drawing near to God. He says intimacy leads to fruitfulness. In other words, it’s the fruit of the spirit. Living a fruitful life is connected to your intimacy, not the other way around. Those who prioritize a loving relationship with God, meeting with him in prayer through stolen moments throughout the day, long stretches of disciplined contemplation and fiery pleas of intercession are those with whom he shares his divine power.

I love that those stolen moments throughout the days when we pray, when Paul says pray without ceasing, that’s what he means. You just find yourself in this ongoing daily conversation with God. But sometimes you have what Tyler says are these fiery pleas of intercession where you just cry out to God about whatever it is that you may be facing. But you also have those. Those times, those stretches of disciplined contemplation, and you’ve got to find it yourself.

In my life, I’ve gone through seasons of prayer, and it’s just interesting how it’s been for me personally. But now, you know, Cindy and I are empty nesters, except for, you know, grandchildren and granddaughs and all the things that come with all that. But. And we love all that. But for the most part, we are by ourselves.

And Cindy has allowed me one room in the house, okay? Which I love Because I can remember as a kid growing up, there were three boys and we had rooms in our house that we just couldn’t go in. You know, I grew up in a home where we still had plastic on the living room furniture, okay. And we knew better than to go in there unless invited, so. And the last thing we ever did was take food in there, I can promise you, unless mother and dad were at home and we happened to just show how strong we were.

Anyway, good news, we had plastic on the furniture, so. But Cindy has allowed me to have a room at my house. And in that room, I’m surrounded by all of my friends and my life. I’ve got an old bookcase that has the glass fronts, you know what I’m talking about, where you can stack everything with my life, my memories, photos of Cindy’s parents and photos of my parents. I’ve got my first grade lunchbox.

It’s a metal Gomer pile lunchbox that I still have that my daddy gave me. We were big Gomer Powell fans. You know, he was from Alabama. You know, Jim, neighbors. Anyway, I’ve got General Custer and Geronimo, guys that I played with when I was a little boy.

I’ve got the hospital gown that I went home from the hospital in. The little shoes that I wore that my mama made for me. I’ve got Cindy’s daddy’s record of his airplane flights. I’ve got all of my books, you know, I’ve got Eugene Peterson and N.T. wright and John Stott and all of my really good friends surrounding me.

And I have a reading chair, and I make my way to that chair, and that’s where I pray and I contemplate and I reflect. I think about you and I pray for you. And I pray for this church, and I pray for the things that the Lord brings to mind. And then I have a really, really, really messy desk area that Cindy walks by and just shakes her head and keeps moving, which is great. Not really in judgment a little bit, but mostly allowing me the freedom so I have a place and haven’t always had that sometimes.

It’s always been at home. I’ve had to find it. But my point is, we need to figure out how we’re going to cultivate a life of prayer. So in this story, Elijah is connected to all of that. Now, Elijah, that prophet, he is.

He is. He looms large in the scripture and in theological history. In fact, I would say the prophet Elijah, when we look at him, he’s considered in Scripture to be a successor to Moses. In terms of prophetic authority, he’s not equal with Moses. Moses was the Lawgiver.

But he does figure prominently in all of the Biblical and theological reflection for both Christians and Jews. He figures prominently in Judaism. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with modern Judaism, but you know, modern Jews today, they still mention Elijah in their prayers whenever they celebrate the Passover. That fifth cup of wine is poured for Elijah, and you go and open the front door, symbolically allowing Elijah to come if he were to show up. They pray for his appearance to come.

That’s rooted in the book of Malachi, that he’s the forerunner, if you will, of the Messiah. As a matter of fact, when the angel told Zechariah, you’re going to have this son, you’ll name him John. And he’s going to come in the spirit of. In the power of Elijah, John the Baptist. Jesus will say in Matthew 11 that John the Baptist came in the spirit, in the power of Elijah.

When Jesus is on the mount of transfiguration, there the law and the prophets are on the mount with him. Moses and Elijah. So Elijah looms large. So the writer of James, which we believe is the brother of our Lord, says this about Elijah. He says in James, chapter five, elijah was a human being even as we are, but he prayed.

He prayed. Prayed earnestly is how the NIV translates it, that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops. And so James calls upon Elijah as an example of prayer. Now, y’ all know the story.

It’s found back here in First Kings 17:18, Elijah goes to King Ahab, who was a wicked king. In fact, the text says he was more wicked than any other king before him. And that’s saying something, because his father was wicked. But y’ all remember he didn’t marry someone from Israel. He married a Phoenician young girl.

Y’ all remember her name? Jezebel. Just saying the name kind of conjures up something, doesn’t it? He married old Jezebel. Jezebel was a queen princess from Phoenicia.

She was a worshiper, maybe even a priestess of baal. You know that BAAL was the God of fertility. He was the God of nature, he was the God of rain, he was the God of the storm, he was the God of thunder, he was a God of lightning. And when she married Ahab, and they lived in the Northern kingdom. You had a king to the south in Judah, but you had a king in the north.

That’s Ahab. One of the first things she did was she started putting all the prophets of God to death. So they had to run for their lives. Obadiah hid some of the prophets, about a hundred of them. But Elijah was a.

Was a settler. He was a Tishbite. He was not a Jew. He was a foreigner, if you will. And God used him as a mighty prophet.

And he came to Ahab because of the wickedness of Ahab and Jezebel. And he said, it’s not going to rain for the next few years by the word of God Almighty. And that was troubling to Ahab. And so as time were on, you read the story in Exodus, I mean, in First Kings, 17, people struggled, they suffered. Meanwhile, Elijah, he left Israel and he moved to the east side of the Jordan River.

And that’s where God took care of him for a while. And our Jordanian friends who were just here, remember, they reminded me that Elijah lived in Jordan. And they’re very proud of that fact, that they can lay claim to Elijah being cared for by God in their. Their country is today. And eventually he’s going to go to Zarephath and he’s going to meet this widow, and God will take care of him.

But then finally, the time comes, this time period pass. You get to chapter 18, three years or so, and Elijah comes to Ahab, and it is time for a meeting of the minds. And Elijah challenges Ahab and Jezebel, and he says, see who the real God is? And he says to the people, why do y’ all keep moving between one opinion and another? Some of you want to serve baal, Some of you want to serve Yahweh.

You need to make a decision. Either BAAL is God or Yahweh is God. Which is it? And Elijah says, I tell you what, we’ll put them to the test. And he said, here.

Bring the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel. So Ahab takes them confidently to Mount Carmel, 450 of them. And Elijah says, Baal is represented by a bull. Well, let’s take a bull, put it on the altar, and call down fire from baal. And if fire comes from baal, then he’s the true God.

Y’ all remember the story, right? And the prophets, they pray and they wail and they dance. And Elijah just keeps making fun of them because nothing happens. Elijah says, you know, right now, I’m sorry y’. All BAAL just might be busy, you know, he even says, BAAL might be taking a nap, so let’s be patient.

And he waits and he waits. Nothing happens. So finally, Elijah says, well, let’s see what Yahweh does. And he prepares the altar. And then in the middle of a drought, he says, let’s take all this water and pour it on this wood and soak it.

And he dug a trench around, and he said, let’s fill the trench up with water. And then Elijah prayed, and y’ all remember God came down in a fire and he consumed the sacrifice. He consumed the wood. The Bible says he even licked up the water out of the ditch. What a powerful story.

Elijah had those 450 prophets slaughtered. And then you come to our passage. And then Elijah look at verse 41 again. Have your Bibles open. He tells Ahab, now, God has shown you who the true God is.

Now he’s going to send rain. The drought is going to be over, so go get you something to eat, drink, celebrate, because the drought is over. James, many, many years later reflects on that and says, you know, the prayer of a righteous person moves things along. The prayer of a righteous person takes place in the fray. And Elijah was that righteous person.

And when he prayed, things happened. So can we learn real quickly some things about prayer from Elijah? Can we just do that? Let me offer you three truths about prayer. I’d say, first of all, pray earnestly.

I want you to look again at verse 42. It says, Ahab went off to eat and drink. Elijah climbed to the Mount of Mount of Carmel. And then you get this interesting phrase. He bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

That posture of prayer. That phrase, put his face between his knees. Do you know what that phrase was used to describe in ancient Israel? A woman in labor.

In other words, he adopted the posture of what the Jews referred to as a woman in labor, preparing to deliver a baby. Now, I will say this. I have no personal experience of being in labor delivering a baby. Do any of y’ all have experience in it? What was it like?

Just calm. You’re just chilling. Just routine, right? No, what. What words would you use to describe it?

Rough. Intense, right? I mean, this is. This is. This is all hands on deck.

Elijah prayed like a woman in labor. Earnest. Not just rote prayers, things that you’ve memorized. Now, there’s nothing wrong with rote prayers. Don’t get me wrong.

There’s not. I think it’s okay to memorize some things. You know, a Few years ago, I did a wedding last night. I love weddings. And I was doing a wedding at a church that I was not the pastor there, and I don’t typically do rehearsals.

Just made that decision years ago. So I didn’t go to the rehearsal the Friday night before. Well, the lady that was in charge of the wedding at this particular church, she was not happy that I skipped rehearsal. So we get to the wedding, and I’m standing there in front of the church, and she said, you know, I’m going to give you a couple of instructions that I would have given you last night had you been at rehearsal.

I said, got it. She said, you’re going to go in first at our church. The pastor goes in before everybody else, and you’re going to walk up on the platform and turn and face the congregation and lead the congregation in the Lord’s Prayer. That’s how we do it here. I said, yes, ma’.

Am. She said, you do know the Lord’s Prayer, don’t you?

And it was a fancy wedding, so I’m a little nervous. So I’m walking down that aisle going the Lord’s Prayer, okay?

As a royal ambassador, I will do my best. I thought, that’s not it. That’s not it. Now I lay me down to sleep. That’s not it.

I could just feel my hands sweating. I could feel the intensity. And I finally made my way up on the platform, and all I could remember was our Father. But praise God, the church knew the Lord’s Prayer in that moment, and we got through it. My hands are sweating a little bit right now just remembering that, to be honest with you.

But there’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s not what this is. This man prayed like a woman in labor. He was crying out to God. He was earnestly praying.

He was praying. Not just a flippant prayer, not an obligatory prayer before you eat, before you go to sleep. This was a deep, heartfelt season of prayer. So I would say to you and I, there are times when we need to pray earnestly. We need to give our full attention to it, because something important is in front of us, like a woman in labor.

And then secondly, I would say, if this faithful, energetic kind of prayer, animated, deeply felt, where you’re. Where you’re demonstrating your love for God, you’re celebrating God. Then I’d say, pray expectantly. We should pray with hope in our hearts. I mean, I love what Elijah does.

You look at verse 41. He tells Elijah, he tells Ahab, you need to go because I can hear the sound of a heavy rain. Here’s what’s interesting. It hadn’t even started raining yet. As a matter of fact, when he gets up there and starts praying, he has his servant go out and see what’s happening.

And you know, the servant, he didn’t have Harold Taft or, you know, Troy Dungan. I mean, he’s just. Depending on what he said, some of the. In the next service, they’ll have to Google all them because they have no idea who those people are. But they didn’t have that, so they just had to look out on the horizon.

And Elijah kept saying, go out and see if you see anything. And the guy would come back and say, no, it’s just blue sky. I don’t see anything. And Elijah said, well, go back again. And he’s still in labor.

Go back and look again. I don’t see anything. Keep going. Finally, the guy says, well, I mean, if I put my hand up, there’s a cloud about that size. And Elijah says, get ready, man.

It’s about to be a downpour. Go tell Ahab, get his chariot and get out of here while he can get through the valley, because this valley’s about to flood. And then the most interesting thing happens. Elijah tucks up his cloak and outruns the chariots all the way to where Jezebel is. Power of God.

A lot of scholars say that was a sign of respect to the king that you would run in front of a chariot. So Elijah was still acknowledging Ahab as king, but he was overwhelmed with what God was doing. Pray expectantly. You know, years ago, I hadn’t been the pastor very long, and we had a man in our church in those days named Al Bush. One of my favorite men.

Some of y’ all remember Mr. Al, and he was a prayer warrior. And we were in a drought, hadn’t rained in a while. And Mr. Bush came by my office one day, didn’t have an appointment. He just told my assistant he needed to see me. So she said, There’s a Mr. Bush here to see.

I said, please let him come in. Mr. Bush comes in, and he had a country heart, if y’ all remember him. He came in and said, preacher, I came by to pray with you. I said, okay. He said, we need to pray for rain.

Would you pray with me? I said, I will, Al. He had an umbrella with him.

And I kind of looked at him, and he looked at me, and he said, I brought this just in case. And we kneeled him off and prayed for rain. I love that he showed up praying expectantly. Well, it doesn’t mean that God’s always going to do what you want him to do when you want him to do it. That’s not how it works.

But you need to believe he’s going to do something because he’s at work right now. And what you and I have got to learn how to do is connect what he’s doing to what we’re praying. And we’re supposed to pray and watch, and then we’re grateful for whatever he gives us. Sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no. Sometimes he says, wait.

Sometimes he says, I’m going to do this instead. And if I’m a righteous person, I learn how to accept that. But I continue to pray and ask. And I ask expectantly because I’m trusting Him, because I know he knows what’s best. And so I ask him to mold my heart and shape me so that I will pray his will.

Sometimes, if you’re that close to God, you don’t even have to say if this be your will, because you’re already praying in his will. See that that’s where we want to get to. Are y’ all still with me? Okay. One other thing I’d say about praying, and this is.

It’s just this. Pray every day, everywhere, about everything. And I don’t know how to put any. I don’t know how to put it any simpler than that. I’ve told y’ all about this pastor from Birmingham, Chris Hodges.

He’s written this book. And if you look at the COVID of the book, it says worry. And it’s Marked out. And it says cry. And that’s Marked out.

And it says fight, and that’s Marked out. And then it says, pray first. Because the temptation is to worry first, to cry first, to argue first, to fight first. And he Marks all that out and says, no, pray first. And so we’re supposed to pray.

Well. When do we pray? Well, anytime. What do we pray about? Everything.

When do we pray? Every time. Every time. It just needs to be woven into our lives. In fact, when I was working on this series on prayer, this is the theme verse that I gave to the staff.

It’s Ephesians 6, verse 18, where Paul says, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. And with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. So how am I supposed to pray well in the Spirit when on all occasions, what do I pray? All kinds of prayers. And I’m Living in community.

So I’m praying for all of you. Paul says that that’s how you pray. It’s not rocket science. But I can promise you the devil hates it. Hates it.

And he’ll do anything he can do to keep you from doing it. So let me encourage you. Pray. Pray about everything. Pray every time.

Pray everywhere. Give God a chance to do what only he can do. Elijah saw God work mighty miracles. He’s our example in our text for today. So with that said, you know that we have offered our whole church a prayer every week during this season, all the way through Advent.

We have a weekly prayer. Hopefully you got one of these. So let’s look at the prayer for this week. This is what we want to have ourselves praying this week as families. Pray this together at mealtime, pray it at bedtime, pray it with children, grandchildren.

Pray it with each other. Pray it in your Sunday school class, pray it wherever. But this is the prayer. Let’s put it up here. And I want us to pray it together right now.

So let’s pray this out loud. Father, I’m asking you to meet specific needs in my life this week in tangible and recognizable ways. I’ll give you the glory. Amen. In other words, take your umbrella to your prayer closet and let’s pray.

Let me pray for us. Father, we love you. We thank you so much for your love for us. We thank you, Lord, for what you continue to teach us, how you inspire us, how you guide us. And we pray that you’ll find us faithful as we seek to serve you every day.

Lord, I pray that we’ll be praying people and that we’ll learn that the prayer of a righteous person is effective. It’s powerful. So fill this church with righteous people who pray. May it be so. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.