The Rain Man [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Be in an environment of the Gospel where there is an apprehension of the grace of God so that it's safe enough emotionally to be able to share whatever it is that you're troubled by, whatever failures, whatever fears you might have. Confess your sins and pray for one another. This is the model of God's healing plan in the New Testament.

Church. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Miracle Man as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'd like to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright North.

So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here's Alan Wright. You ready for some good news? God still makes it rain and He uses your prayers to do so. Elijah was just as human as you are. And God changed the whole atmosphere through His prayers. We have begun a study in the life of Elijah.

We call this year's Miracle Man because so many miracles were worked through His ministry, but ultimately it points to the Miracle Man, Christ Jesus. And I've been taken by the words in James and it's been the substance of a new year's blessing, a positive vision that we're speaking over one another in this new year that is full of expectancy of God's miraculous intervention in our lives and in our land. And I turn to you today just the two verses in James chapter 5, but then we're going to go back and look at the actual story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17 and 18. But let's just start with this in James chapter 5 at verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. I think what he's saying is be in an environment of the gospel where there is an apprehension of the grace of God so that it's safe enough emotionally to be able to share whatever it is that you're troubled by, whatever failures, whatever fears you might have, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.

This is the model of God's healing plan in the New Testament church. And the prayer, the second half of that verse, the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it's working. And what we've seen is that the righteous person is not a reference to the one who is more morally upright, personally, intrinsically righteous, because who among us has not sinned? Who among us actually lives a righteous life? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But when you're in Christ, a miracle takes place and he who knew no sin, Christ, becomes your sin and through simple faith you are imputed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So the righteous person that James is talking about must be you if you're a Christian. The prayer of the righteous person has great power as it's working. And then he alludes to Elijah who was perhaps the most famous miracle worker in Old Testament times that lived in the psyche, the mentality and history of Israel when they thought of the person that was used so great, they thought of Moses and they thought of Elijah. And he references Elijah in verse 17, it says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it might not rain and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. Wow. I have to confess, I need to make a confession, I am, I'm sorry to confess it, in many areas of my life I feel like I'm a mighty man of faith but I'm a weather worrier.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry to admit it. I'm that guy and I've been trying to overcome, my wife has faith for weather but I just have very little weather faith. I'm that guy and Ann started seeing this earlier in our marriage like you know that big vacation's coming up and I start looking at the weather you know 10 days in advance, the 10 day forecast. Oh no, it's going to rain every day of our vacation.

We had two days in, we just sit inside the whole time. And my wife's like, it's not, you always say that, the weather's going to be fine, just you know, just stop it. I shouldn't be a weather worrier, my dad was a weatherman. Now he spent his entire career as a TV newsman but he began as a weatherman. Now you understand, weatherman in those days, he was really a pioneer in the news TV when it was just first starting, I mean literally. Like this was back in the day, they did live commercials and one time he was doing a commercial for milk live and he's just pouring the milk, reading the teleprompter you know.

And they didn't realize the milk was just flowing over, just flowing over, flowing over, yeah it was a different day. I never saw him do the weather because I was a little kid and he did the nighttime weather and the news was only 15 minutes at 11 o'clock from 11 to 11.15 and the weather was only at two minutes. And he did, he was the Atlantic weatherman, he was sponsored by the Atlantic Company so everywhere I went, he finished, he was the last thing in the night, he said this is Dave Wright, good night. And so my entire growing up in Greensboro, everywhere I went, soon they found out, oh Dave Wright, good night, Dave Wright, good night, Dave Wright, good night.

Don't ever say Dave Wright, good night to me, anyway. But anyway, it was funny, at his retirement, a beloved TV news personality, Lee Kinard, who had been a colleague of dad's for all of his years, was kind of doing a little statement stuff, making fun and telling stories and stuff. And he said, you know, all of them had done the weather a little bit at some point along the line, it was just part of being a news person. You get up there and you announce the weather and Lee said, we didn't know anything about the weather. He said, somebody told him, so this is what he went with, he said, if you want to know what the weather is, just look and see what was the weather in Huntsville, Alabama, 24 hours earlier.

And that's what we're going to get right here in Greensboro, so that's the way they did it. And he said, but Dave, he got in there, he actually liked the weather, he's trying to learn about it and stuff. Anyway, we laughed about it, but now we got all these meteorologists, you know, and people, what happened was the TV stations found out, people love to talk about the weather. They love to think about the weather. And then, now that we have meteorologists on the news, you know, this scenario, this thing's coming in and we all look at all this stuff, yeah. And we get a weather channel. I remember when the weather channel came out, I was like, this is going to fail in 10 seconds. I mean, nobody, who is going to sit around and watch the weather?

I laugh about my buddy Bob Roach, I think he puts it on DVR just to watch the reruns of it, he likes it so much. We love the weather, we like to talk about the weather, why do we have to talk about the weather all the time? Well, I think the reason is we're all impacted by it at every moment. You know, what's interesting is that if you can't think of anything to talk about, you talk about the weather. There was a study in Great Britain, who evidently the Brits talk about the weather even more than we do.

So it rains all the time. And so there was a study, no lie, and they found out that 94% of all Brits reported they had in the last six hours talked to somebody about the weather. And 38% had talked to somebody about the weather within the last hour. And so the authors of this study did some math computations and figured out that at any given moment in Great Britain, about one in three people is talking about the weather.

Why? I think maybe it's because it's something we, you know, easy to talk about, you don't know somebody, hey, how are you, I can't think of anything I have in common with you, what about that big snow? How much did it snow over in your area?

Well, I've got 12 inches, I've got 9 inches, you know. Boy, we need some rain, yeah, I need some rain. And so it's something you can talk about, but I wonder if there's something deeper than that. I wonder if part of the reason that we talk about the weather is that we're admitting our humanity. With all of our technological advances, I mean, it's in the paper this week that somewhere somebody's cloned monkeys, with all of our technological advances, we can't do one single thing about the weather except talk about it.

It's like to say we need some rain is sort of like saying, and I'm a human being and I can't do one thing about it. It is also to say I hope there's a God who cares because we can't control it. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing. It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org.

It's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news, and we'd like to help. In James 5, we're given these jaw-dropping words. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years. Elijah, the man whose prayer called down fire on a water-drenched altar, defeating 450 wicked prophets, and whose intercession revived a widow's deceased son, was just like us, an ordinary man who was used by God for the extraordinary.

God's word is clear. If the Lord could use Elijah miraculously, he could also do wonders in and through you. If you yearn to see more of God's power in your life, you'll love Pastor Alan's devotional journal, Everyday Miracles. It's a one-month journey through the stories of Elijah and his successor, Elisha, that include daily devotionals from Pastor Alan, questions for reflection, space for journaling, and a daily prayer of faith. This beautiful spiral-bound book is the perfect tool to get you into the Word and to build your faith day by day. When you make a gift this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal, Everyday Miracles, as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Also, free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing. So please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. We come today to this story about Elijah and a drought and then a big rain. And it's a story that is to be taken literally, but I think it also is a story that can help point you figuratively to the power of prayer in any sort of drought. I mean the times when life feels dry. You know what a drought is when you can't do anything to change it.

You don't have the technology, the skill, the intelligence, the resources. No matter how hard you can't change it. And so it leaves you thirsty. And some people with their thirst turn to God. Such was a time about 900 years before Christ when the people of God had abandoned their affections for the one true God. And had become infested with idolatry.

And we learn about a king named Ahab who the Bible says was more wicked than all of his predecessors. And on to this scene in First Kings 17 if you want to follow along. On to this scene of spiritual barrenness. In this spiritually dry time there's going to come a natural dry time. It is as though the drought simply mirrors the drought of true worship.

And at verse 1 of First Kings 17 it's like out of nowhere. Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead. We don't know where Tishbe is. A scholar has not found it.

It's like nowhere. Out of obscurity comes this prophet Elijah who said to Ahab as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand. There should be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. Now James tells us that Elijah had prayed fervently that it wouldn't rain. But we don't see that in this text.

We just see the announcement. But somewhere there was a process of prayer. Somewhere this prophetic word was born out of a communion with God out of a man who knew the Lord. And he brought this word to Ahab there is going to be a drought. And a drought is something that honestly I don't personally have a way of understanding.

Because we have been so, I've been so blessed. I've had running water my whole life. To me a drought is when they stop watering the golf course as much and the ground gets a little crusty and it bothers me. I mean that's like a drought. But real drought, real drought, real drought is awful. I was reading about the greatest droughts in the history of the world.

It bends your mind. I had to finally just put it out of my mind. The great Chinese famine of 1958 to 1961 in a section of China is estimated between 15 and 43 million people died because of a drought. There was a drought around 1900, 1902, a famine in India that killed an estimated 19 million people. Europe had a drought in 1315 to 1317 that scholars estimate killed 7.5 million. Some of you remember more recently the Ethiopian drought of 84 and 85 that killed about a million people. The ground becomes parched, the vegetation becomes crusty and withered and the animals paw it up at its roots until there is no more.

And the livestock becomes emaciated and the people suffer. So to have someone announce a drought to the king is bold and devastating. What's interesting about this is that perhaps Ahab's worst sin was he perhaps for the opportunity to gain the political advantage, the leverage, a marriage for kingdom ideologies to support his own reign, whatever, he married Jezebel who was a pagan who worshipped the pagan deity Baal. And Jezebel financed it seems personally 450 prophets of Baal.

It's like they were on our staff. And she promoted the worship of Baal. She was an idolater and she wanted Israel to worship Baal rather than Jehovah God. And Baal was guess what? The god of rain. He was the storm god. Baal is the one who in their minds could make it rain.

He'd make it rain. So they would practice their fertility prostitution in the cults of fertility on the high places. And the people of God had begun to intermix it into their own worship of Yahweh. Baal is the one who makes it rain and therefore makes the ground fertile and therefore makes the crops grow and makes the people prosper. So Baal is the one you need to worship if you want to be rich with produce.

And God couldn't stand it. Baal is the non-existent deity that his own people are clamoring after. And he sent Elijah to tell him it's not going to rain.

We'll find out if Baal can make it rain. Listen beloved, God loves you and he loves all people and in his love and in his kindness there are times that it would be a gift to you to experience the kind of drought that makes you let go of your idols. Because the greatest thing that could ever happen in your life is to let the things that are phony and impotent that you trust in for joy and peace and fulfillment to come crashing to the ground and find yourself in love with the one true king of the universe, your creator. So Elijah is unbelievably bold and he's full of faith about this and as some commentators have pointed out part of the reason he was full of faith about this was not just a prophetic connection with God but Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 13 makes it clear as part of the Old Testament law and we're not under Old Testament law we're in a new covenant. But in this moment that he's confronting Elijah is a prophet, he is an old covenant enforcer, he is living out of the old covenant. A law of God that had come in Deuteronomy 11, 13 if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul he will give you rain for the land and its season, the early rain and the later rain that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. But the warning also came take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit. So this was, Elijah knew this, Israel knew this and so there's a sense in which Elijah comes with this word and is born out of this prayer for God to be faithful to his own word. Because if God allows the people to live in idolatry and yet brings the rain then people would say either God was a liar or he has no power to bring into effect his own law.

If God didn't dry up the heavens, then all who knew the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy would have doubt about the power of Jehovah. Allen Wright. There's our teaching for today. We're going to put a bookmark here in the Rain Man.

Come back for part two on our next edition in the series Miracle Man. You're listening to Sharing the Light and Allen is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Allen Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Allen Wright's daily blessing. It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. We'll send you Allen Wright's new devotional journal, Everyday Miracles, as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Also, free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing. So please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, so there was a movie called The Rain Man.

Is this where you borrowed the title for this? And what's today's closing thought? Well, the drought was severe and the prayer for rain is extraordinary. But what we see in some of the nuances of it is that Elijah hears rain but sees barrenness. And what do you do when you hear rain but you see drought? You pray. And this is a powerful picture of prayer that makes, I think, every believer say, okay, God uses prayer like that. And no matter what drought you're in, it's time to pray. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.