May 31, 2026
Elijah's Prayer
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
1 Kings 17:1 NIV
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe 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.”
James 5:17 NIV
Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Earnest prayers stir and move the heart of God.
1 Kings 18:2 NIV
So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria,
1 Kings 18:3-4 NIV
and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)
1 Kings 18:16-17 NIV
So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
1 Kings 18:18 NIV
“I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.”
1 Kings 18:19 NIV
“Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
1 Kings 18:20-21a NIV
So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said,
1 Kings 18:21b NIV
“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.
The hardest challenge you will ever give someone is the challenge to choose.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 NIV
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Kings 18:23 NIV
“Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.”
1 Kings 18:24 NIV
“Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
1 Kings 18:25 NIV
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.”
1 Kings 18:26 NIV
So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
1 Corinthians 10:20b NIV
…the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.
1 Kings 18:27 NIV
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
1 Kings 18:28 NIV
So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.
If you have ever intentionally hurt yourself to deal with life’s hardships – just know that even that idea comes straight from the pit of hell.
1 Kings 18:29 NIV
Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
1 Kings 18:30 NIV
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down.
1 Kings 18:31 NIV
Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”
1 Kings 18:32 NIV
With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed.
1 Kings 18:33 NIV
He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”
1 Kings 18:34 NIV
“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time.
1 Kings 18:35 NIV
The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
1 Kings 18:36 NIV
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.”
1 Kings 18:37 NIV
“Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
Passionate prayers stir and move the heart of God.
1 Kings 18:38 NIV
Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
1 Kings18:39 NIV
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”
1 Kings 18:40 NIV
Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.
Matthew 18:6-7 NIV
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”
1 Kings 18:42 NIV
So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of (Mt) Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
God’s prophet Elijah’s prayer is the opposite of Baal’s prophets. He is hidden, still, even collapsed in humility before the One true God.
1 Kings 18:43 NIV
“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
1 Kings 18:44 NIV
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.’
1 Kings 18:45 NIV
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.
Persistent prayers stir and move the heart of God.
1 Timothy 2:1 NIV
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.
Colossians 4:2 NIV
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.