Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Prayers You’re Not Proud Of

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

Angry? Pray. Confused? Pray. Doubting? Pray. Ready to give up? Pray.  Because the prayer you're not proud of is better than the one you won't pray. God isn't asking you to clean up your emotions or find the perfect words before you come to Him. Whatever you're carrying, bring it to Him honestly today and pray anyway. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr Scripture References:James 5, verses 16-18 – Pray like Elijah Psalm 58, verses 6-8 – David prays honestly Luke 18, verses 9-14 – The Pharisee and the tax collectorRomans 8, verse 26 – The Holy Spirit intercedes for you1 Kings 17, verses 1-9 – Elijah is fed by ravens 1 Kings 18, verse 42 – Elijah bows with his face between his knees1 Kings 19, verses 3-6 – Elijah gives up, but God says “get up”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. Praise the Lord. Come on up, Graham, and pray one more time before the people are seated.

Y'all give him a hand as he comes. Get this young man a microphone, Daniel. 30 seconds. Let's pray as we get into the word. Jesus, we just thank you. you for this day. We thank you that you inhabit the praises of your people. We thank you that you are in this place with us right now. God, we ask that right now, would you just open up our hearts to hear what you want to speak to us, God? Lord, would you give us ears to hear? And God, we just

pray that you would just speak through our pastor and through my dad right now in this moment. God, we pray that none of his words would fall to the ground, and we pray that you would use him in a powerful way, God, we pray that this message would have a ripple effect that goes throughout the entire nation and throughout the entire world, Lord. God, we pray that we would not leave this word here, but we would live it out in our everyday lives. We love you, we thank you, and we exalt you. In your name, we pray. And everyone said, amen. Everyone said. A good 30 seconds. I think about 38. You earned it. Grace the Lord. Hey, Graham, come here. I'm going to take a church vote right now.

I finished my series last week. Week six, I know that voice. How about a bonus week? Would you be interested in a bonus week? All in favor, say aye. All opposed? Well, week seven. Y'all be seated.

Hey, give seven hugs on your way to your seat for seven weeks. Come to the living there. Thank you, worship team. Clap your hands and thank God for all of our musicians, our singers. Come on. All of our sound engineers, all of our ushers, all of our E-Kids volunteers. Come on, aren't you grateful for people who served in the House of the Lord? All our E-group leaders.

Praise the Lord. All right. I don't normally choose my sermons this way, and I normally don't ask people in polls. people on what they want to hear me preach about. Henry Ford once said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. They wouldn't have known to ask for a car. So I try to ask the Lord what to preach, because we don't really know what we need, do we? So I'm running around asking you, what do you need to hear from the Lord? Well, if I knew that, I'd do your job, buddy. You know what I mean? But this week, I thought it was appropriate

to just take a week. And before we just move forward into some brand new topic. I asked a few people, what did you want to hear that you didn't get to hear when we were talking about hearing God? And one of my church members sent me this text. I'm going to read it directly like you wrote it. He said, I was praying on the porch this morning and thought how much I'd love to hear you talk about prayer. We did a series called I Know That Voice, and I thought, how I'd like to hear what to say back. He said, I was praying. I was praying, on my porch this morning, but my prayer felt raw, and I didn't feel like I was doing it right. It came from a deep place of gratitude, but I felt like I didn't do it right or enough,

like I was leaving something out. So I want to preach today about the prayers you're not proud of. The prayers you're not proud of. Have you ever prayed a prayer that you weren't really proud of? We'll talk about it in a minute. Flip over to James chapter 5, verse 16 through 18. Now I knew exactly which scripture to use when I thought about preaching the prayer that you're not proud of, or the prayers. We got more than one, don't we? Most of us.

I mean, I've done workouts that I wasn't proud of before. Holly said, did you get your workout in? I said, I got it in, but it wasn't anything to brag about. I'm not posting about that one. I've definitely written songs I wasn't proud of. That's the way that you write a good song, is write a ton of songs that you never show anybody. And then one day hopefully something will show up that's worth showing somebody. So my phone is full of songs that you can't hear.

And we will not be singing on a Sunday at Elevation Church. And you ought to praise the Lord for that. Come on, praise the Lord for that. But when we talk about the prayers you're not proud of. And what my church member said to me, because I know we all can relate to what he said, I thought of James 5, 16, 13, where the Bible says, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Now, if you went on Facebook, you would think that verse said, the post of a righteous person is powerful. effective. But it doesn't heal anybody for you to post about me if you haven't prayed for me. I'm

throwing that in for free. This is a bonus week. Everything is cherries and gravy. It just doesn't really go together. Let's go to verse 17. He gives an example. He says, Elijah, remember we preached about Elijah in the cave a few weeks ago? And the echo, echo, echo of Jezebel's voice. that drove him into isolation. He said, Elijah was a human being, even as we are. That's like you went to play basketball, and it's like, LeBron is a man just like you are? It's like, yeah, but he's a much better person at this particular thing. So he's talking about prayer, and it escalates quickly. He's like, you know, pray for each other. Like Elijah, the greatest prophet who ever lived. And watch what Elijah did when he prayed. He 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. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. So he prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain. And then he prayed that it would rain, and it did rain. I thought your neighbors say, you must be praying wrong. I think we're doing it wrong. That's what he said. He said, I prayed on my porch.

and I felt gratitude, but it felt raw. It felt like I was doing something wrong. And sometimes I know I'm praying wrong. I mean, sometimes in the middle of my prayer, I have to laugh at myself, how ridiculous. And I can usually tell that I'm not going to be proud of this prayer when I'm praying. When I'm praying a, let me see what I could call it. Have you ever prayed a it's not fair prayer? And maybe you don't even call it a prayer.

Maybe it's just somewhere in the realm of thought and like justified, Like Jesus-oriented jealousy. Like Jesus, I follow you more than her and really she's getting married, but okay, Lord. I know you'll send my boaz, but Lord. And even as you're praying for the thing that you want, you know it's driven by envy. Not necessarily from an internal place of trust. So I'm not proud of those prayers. I'm not proud of my prayers because, let's be honest, my prayers can be very, I don't want to say

ADD, I'll just say distracted. How did I end up? I was praying. How was I pray? Now, why am I checking the Clemson football schedule? Because I was praying for Davo. That's why? No, I'm just distracted.

There's nothing to justify. I'm not proud about that. It's just my mind is one. everywhere, you know, and oh, I'm praying. I'm going to look that up. There's a text. Yeah, I never did order that, did I? How am I over here out of my anointing and into my Amazon cart?

Just that quick. I'm not very proud of that, you know. I did pray a prayer. I prayed one yesterday I'm not proud of. I ended up in the comment section of one of our worship videos with our young people worshiping God and it was awesome. The kids were jumping around, worshiping God. You know how they did give you cardiac arrest, just watching them. You just be like envying them like, Lord, you're praying, Lord, do work in my knees, do work in my hips that I can praise you

like this, restore the years, Lord. And they were jumping around. And then some internet prophet was in the comments and they called our kids that were praising God a bunch of clowns jumping around. And I prayed about that. I said, Lord, let me meet this person, username 7, 4, 6, loser head, basement living, you know. Let me meet them, Lord. Not in the church. I want to meet them somewhere that's far away. Come on, you know you pray some prayers.

Let me meet them somewhere, Lord, far away from the church. And let them not be bigger than me, Lord. And let me just talk to them for a minute. Just give me five minutes. Just five minutes with them, God. Just five minutes far away from the church. And while I'm talking to him, Lord, I don't even need you to stick around. You can just drop me off. You can go visit one of the other preachers that you can go. You and Jolosteem can go hang out for five minutes. And just leave me with this person for five minutes. And give me five people, five men in the church who are saved but barely saved to go with me. I mean, like, just got saved last Saturday.

I'm not proud of that, but I prayed that. I call that the God get them prayer. I was comforted because I found this Psalm over in Psalm 58. Now, we probably shouldn't write a song like this for Tiffany to sing, but show them what I found in Psalm 58. You thought that the Psalms were devotionals, but this one sounded like a disc track. One time David prayed, break their teeth in their mouths, oh God. See, you were about to leave when I said I wanted five minutes with an internet critic.

I wasn't going to break their teeth. I was going to let somebody else do that. But David said, break their teeth out of their mouths, oh God, not the front one, just one over there in the back. Tear out the fangs of those lions. Let them vanish like water that flows away when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short. This is the one that got my attention. May they be like a slug? You didn't know that was in the Bible.

make them like a slug lord I don't think anybody could make that sound soamy most ways move Stillborn child that never ceased the sun Something out the Bible That's in the Bible So what it showed me was The prayer that you're not proud of

Is better than the prayer you won't pray My church member said I think I'm doing it wrong Doing it wrong You said I'm doing it with a grateful heart. You think there's a wrong way to be grateful to God? If David is smashing mouth, if David is praying to Mike Tyson from 1992, 1992 Mike Tyson, I reckon you can come to God. And the prayer that you're not proud of, the distracted one, the distract one, all of them,

you've got to start where you are and then get where God is. But you've got to start where you are to get where God is. You've got to start where you are to get where God is. Oh, great. Just pray like Elijah. Just pray like Elijah, the one who controlled the rain. Dude, I can't pay my rent. And you are up here telling me, pray like the guy whose prayers affected rain cycles and weather systems. I can't even pray and get my wife to be nice to me. And you're talking about weather systems. And then there's verse 16, right? That one can really trip us up. At least I think it can trip us up because he said, therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. So this is the part. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, and now you're like, well, I'm out.

Because I'm not that kind of person, righteous. I don't have that kind of power, and it doesn't produce that kind of result. So I'm out. Don't ask me to pray. Don't ask me to pray. Well, this is where we need a little 90-second New Testament lesson in what righteousness is. See, the righteousness that comes from the law is by works. You earn it.

So the righteousness that comes from the law comes from being sinless. But the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ is not from being sinless, it's from being forgiven. It's not something that you did. It's a gift that you received. So now when we see that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful, and effective, you realize that the condition on forgiveness is confession. That's it. That's it. That's it. And so, God is not answering your prayers or not answering your prayers, hearing your prayers or not hearing your prayers. And I served under a leader one time who taught that God will not hear your prayer if there's sin in your life.

I had a good mind. I couldn't afford it at the time, but now that I got some money, I want to put an invest, invest, A private investigator on him. Because I want to see, how are you so sinless that you could say something like that? So the condition on God hearing my prayer isn't like, man, it's been three weeks since I looked at that on my phone. Man, it's been a month since I drank. Man, I hadn't yelled and blowed up and lost my temper since yesterday when I was reading the comments on the internet for the elevation rhythm video. I can pray now, right? Like, must be this holy to ride side.

No, no, no, no. Okay. The question isn't, are you holy enough? It's are you humble enough? I said the question of how to pray and what to bring to God. And I'm not just talking about prayer. I'm talking about the situations that create our need for prayer. See, sometimes it's not like we're embarrassed about how we pray.

We're embarrassed about what we're still having to pray about. Because if I was a good parent, I wouldn't have to pray. have to be praying this for my kid because I would have set a better example. Because if I was a good husband, I wouldn't have to be praying this about my marriage because I probably would have done a better job with my wife? Because come on, have you ever had a situation and you didn't mind praying, but you didn't want to pray about that situation, at least not with anybody else? And so what we do is we all run around like we're these professional prayer warriors, and then we go home and we're professional warriors.

And we isolate to the point that we just keep ruminating on things that we regret, on things that we can't resist, and then we call that prayer. So I want to say this. I'm going to stay right down here for a minute. It's not, are you holy enough for God to hear you? It's are you humble enough to ask him to? I can still, since some of you don't believe me. You're like, yeah, but if I'm not living right, I can't pray to God. If you're not living right, you better pray to God.

He's the only one who's going to help you straighten this out and live right. Who else are you going to ask? Who else you're going to run to? Who else are you going to turn to? Jesus shared a story one time. I'll give it to you from Luke 18. Maybe you believe Jesus if you don't believe me. Maybe if you just believe the devil telling you all the time,

you don't have the right to praise God or to pray or whatever because you're not righteous. I understand that. But Jesus was righteous. And so since I accepted Jesus, I received His righteousness. And Jesus told a story one time in Luke chapter 18, verse 9. You know where I'm going? To some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else. Jesus told this parable.

Two men went up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, that's the professional prayer, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people. What a start to a prayer. I thank you. I'm not like other people. Guess worse? Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, Democrats, Republicans.

Put whatever you want in there that's not you. That's what he's doing. I get to pray and they don't get to pray. I get to come to God. They don't get to come to God. I get to have a relationship with God. They don't get to have a relationship with God. I get to be a preacher. They don't get to be a preacher. I get to worship. They don't get to worship. He said, I thank you that I'm not like robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. And he went out on his porch and he started praying. And he didn't feel like he was doing it right. but it came from a deep place of gratitude. But he felt like he didn't do it right or enough, like he left something out, because the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven.

He's not proud of his life. But he beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me a sinner. So Jesus, which one did it right? I tell you this man, rather than the other, the one who went like this, not the one who went like this. The one who prayed without pointing, went home justified before God. For all who exalt themselves will be humble, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

It's not how holy you are. It's how humble you are that determines whether God hears your prayer. You come to God listing all the things that you did first. him. You come to God giving him all the reasons that he ought to be doing things in your life that he's doing in other people's lives. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Do I have anybody in the room who's humble enough that you don't even care what the person on your row thinks about you, or the person in your room thinks about you, or the person in your dorm thinks about you? But you would just take a few seconds to say today, I need you, God, and I need you to have mercy on me.

God, because I'm not really sure about this, God, because I can't be confident in my own righteousness. So I plead the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah to the man on the middle cross, the one who owed no debt, the one who was without sin, the Lamb of God without blemish. That's the one I'm pointing to. So for all who feel like you can't pray, shouldn't pray, don't know what to pray. Pray anyway. Pray anyway.

Pray anyway. And if you can't pray out loud about it, just mumble a prayer to God. The other day Chandler sent me through a song idea, and it was him mumbling a little idea into a song. You know my friend Chandler Moore? We wrote some great songs together, man. Jira, and Wait on You, and More Than Able, and God I'm just grateful and praise. And we wrote some great songs together, and I played the thing he sent me, and Holly

just started laughing. Because I'm listening to it in the bed. And he's going, He's not saying no words. He's just expressing like Romans 826 with groans that the Spirit only understands. You ever read that in the Bible? And Holly laughed, and she said, I wish people knew how many mumbles turned into the songs that got them through the hardest season of their life.

And I'm here to say today that God can. turn a mumble into a miracle. And it doesn't take much for God to move, and it doesn't take long for God to do it, and it doesn't take perfection. All it takes is prayer. If you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, I need somebody who hasn't had much to say lately to give God the best praise you can. And if it's not a shout, it can be a mumble. A mumble. One woman had an issue with blood and she started coming to Jesus and she said to herself, if I could just touch, if I could just touch, if I could just touch, if I could just touch. Everybody there would have judged her, but she didn't want them to judge her, so she just mumbled

under her breath, if I could just touch, if I could just touch. And she got down low, low enough not to touch Jesus, but to touch the hymn of his garment. And when she touched the hymn of his garment, she was healed. I'm saying pray anyway, drug addict. I'm saying pray anyway. I'm saying pray anyway. Have your neighbors say, pray for me anyway. Pray for me anyway.

Put it in the comments. Pray for me anyway. I know I'm jacked up. Pray for me anyway. I know I've got problems. Pray for me anyway. I know you can talk about me. Pray for me anyway.

Reach around in five, seven people, five, six, seven, eight. I don't care. Tell them pray for me anyway. Pray about it anyway. I know it looks hopeless. Pray anyway. I know it seems too late. Pray anyway. I know you don't see how it could happen now. Pray anyway. I know the doctor told you the same thing three times. Pray anyway. I know fear got you by the throat. Pray anyway. Open your mouth if it's nothing more than a mumble. How many mumbles has God turned into miracles? Just that prayer you can't pray out loud because you're not. You're walking up to them while you're praying. Lord, help me know what I'm going to walk for them right now. You know, we teach about praying in tongues in church.

I do that. But I also pray in mumble. Mumble is when I'm like, Lord, right now, right now. Mumble is, Lord, would you take over my fingers before I get on this keyboard and bring our whole ministry down to the ground? And so I don't type it. I just use it for my sermon illustration. And we all win.

Thank you, Lord. The Lord answered my mumble. I do want to give you a few things that are very practical before we go. And this is my outline. So everything I just said, I don't know what that was, but here we go with point number one. If you look at Elijah's life, it's going to show you three things. One is that when you pray honestly and humbly to God, look what the scripture said. confess your sins one to another. That doesn't mean you go out in the parking lot, find the first

person you can find and tell them like, hey, you see my wife right here? Let me tell you, she needs prayer and I need prayer. As a matter of fact, we fought coming in here today, we're going to fight back home, we're sleeping in separate beds. This is in the context of community, you understand that. And when he talks about sin, he's using Elijah as an example, not because Elijah's sin, but because Elijah struggled. And he says something about Elijah that sounds like an insult. He says he was a human and ask any man in the room that's the last thing you want to be called Think about it When we compliment a man, what do you say? He's a beast

What else? He's a machine He's an animal Anything but a man. That's the last thing we want to be And I get it there were some times where I never asked Holly to pray for me because I didn't want her to see me as weak So what I would do is shut her out. And I didn't even know the help that Holly could bring me if I let her in. And I thought I needed to be hero enough. But what I really needed to be is humble enough. So when you look at Elijah, man, he's got a lot of hero. Remember he called down fire on

Mount Carmel? Take this wet wood and burn it up. Cocky too, man. He told him wet the wood before. They're in a drought. And he said, bring me to water and pours in on. the wood and goes, now do it, God. That's a good way to get killed. But God answered him. I was surprised James didn't use that example. He didn't use example of the fire where Elijah prayed. He used the example of the rain.

Now, it was interesting, verse 17. Elijah was human being, even as we are, he prayed earnestly that would not rain. And earnestly don't mean loud. Earnestly has nothing to do with the volume of his prayer, has to do with the sincerity of his prayer, has to do with the energy of his prayer. He prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. Now, that's so great, but it's a summary.

It's a summary. You've got to be careful about summaries, whether it's AI or Google or whatever. You know, you put something in Google, and it gives you the summary. But don't trust the summary. There's more to what you're searching than the summary. And sometimes you summarize other people. And sometimes you believe the slander that you hear about somebody and you trust the summary about someone that came from someone else.

And you know what that's called? Sin. I am going to do a series and it's going to be the least attended series I've ever done the church. It's going to be called the sin of slander. Stop it, y'all. That's the title of the series. Because all these other sins we love to preach about and we run around in that one, we just

We just slanderholics. And we're asking God to deliver us from anxiety and fear. God deliver me from slander. See, what we got to stop doing is stop just praying about our situation and start praying about our sin that creates the situation. But you've got to be humble to do that. That's a humble prayer. That's when you go to your men's group and you be like, man, not I need you to pray for

my son. He's an idiot. You go in and be like, pray for my son. I'm an idiot. I was an idiot when I was his age. And so now I'm taking out all my disappointment and frustration on my son, and I need y'all to pray for me because I'm humble enough. I'm not proud to tell you this, but I'm not too proud to tell you that I need prayer.

Do you want my points, sir? I don't even know what to do anymore. If you look at Elijah's life, there are three things that you will learn. I'll put them up on the board for you. You can write them down, and we can talk about them on highlights tomorrow and in e-groups this week. Number one, when you call on God with a humble heart, there are three things you can expect. Number one, expect provision that you can't predict.

Put that in the comments, please. Provision you can't predict. Isn't that the truth? When you pray to God about one thing, it not only creates provision that you didn't expect, it creates problems that you didn't expect. And so I've used the example before of a job, you know. Lord, give me this position in the company. Well, the position is going to come with problems.

And so now you've not only prayed about the position, but now you've got to pray about the problems that the position opened up to you. Now you're going to wish you are nicer to your manager, because now that you are one, you understand it must have been hard to manage me too. So in the process of prophesying about a drought, Elijah is like, it's not going to rain except in my word until I say so. You know what's crazy, y'all? The Bible doesn't even say he prayed about it. James does, but if you read First King 17, he just spoke what God told him to speak, and it happened.

It doesn't say that he prayed that it would stop raining. But he prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain for three and a half years. And so now that God has answered his prayer, he has a problem. The drought isn't only for the nation to bring them back to Yahweh and away from Bail, who was said to be the rain God, it put Elijah in a tricky spot too. Because now that God made it stop raining, which is the thing I prayed for, I don't have anything to drink. And if I don't have anything to drink and the land doesn't have anything to drink, then I'm not going to have anything to eat. Now God did what I asked him to do. Have you ever had God do what you asked him to do? and it created a problem that you didn't know you were going to have.

God, I want to have influence. God, I want to have inconvenience. You know those are the same prayer, right? Influence is inconvenience. Y'all wish we'd stopped at week six, right? Come on, you told me don't stop on six. Y'all voted for a bonus week. But the good news is don't just expect the problems.

Expect the provision. And expect for God to give you provision that you can't predict. What do you mean? Look at 1st King 17 for a minute. So Elijah prophesies a drought. And interestingly enough, I don't know if you like this kind of thing. Interestingly enough, I noticed that there was only one verse in the Bible, 1 King 171, about Elijah prophesying a drought. You would think that would get at least a chapter.

Nope, one verse. It's not going to rain. It doesn't rain. Verse 2. Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah, and Elijah said, I know that voice. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah when, in a drought. By the way, God will direct you in the drought. God will direct you in the drought. If they're laying everybody off in your company, don't lay down and die about it. God will direct you in the drought. If you are broken up with, it is a sign from God that there is something else that needs your company. attention right now. Don't go chasing them down, trying to win them back. God will direct

you in the drought. Who am I preaching to? God will direct you in the drought. So the word of the Lord came to him, verse two, and said to him very specifically, leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerrath ravine. East of the Jordan. Now I'm going to show you something really fun now. You will drink from the brook. I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there. Let's talk about this. Did Elijah pray for food? No. He obeyed the Lord. And the Lord gave him food. Seek ye first, his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. If you seek the kingdom, the things get thrown in. If you seek the things, you miss the kingdom. And so Elijah doesn't pray for God to feed him.

And you know what? If he had prayed for God to feed him, he wouldn't have prayed for God to do it like this. Look, you will drink from the brook. I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there. And verse 5 is the important one. It says, so he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Carith ravine east of the Jordan and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening.

He drank from the brook, from the ravens. Hey, Lord. Lord, thank you for this encouragement that you are going to feed me in the famine. Oh, I appreciate it so much. God, I'm just grateful for you. I'm just grateful for you. But, Lord, it sounded like you said, Ravens, and you and I both know that we're Ravens are forbidden in Leviticus chapter 11, where it says that, you know, the ravens are unclean birds. And so, Lord, I appreciate you offering to feed me, but I'm going to need you

do it some way other than the ravens. See, ravens are unclean birds, and I don't touch unclean birds. And so, Lord, I appreciate the ravens. But I prefer peasant. pigeons, Lord. Pigeons are pure, Lord. I would prefer a pigeon, Lord. Would you send a pigeon? And the Lord's like, you don't get to pick whether it's a pigeon or a raven. See, you can expect God to move, but you don't get to tell him how to do it. Well, I'm on fire now. I'm in the bonus round now, baby. Because God said, you can't pray for me to provide your needs and then chase away the ravens that I sin. So if I want to send you something that you tend to avoid, are you willing to embrace what I give you even if it comes through something that you would prefer to avoid? That's what I mean about a provision that you can't predict.

You know, we get so busy telling the Lord when we want our kids to be married by and what college we want our kids to go to. And I know I preach about being a parent all the time because you either have one that's on your nerves or you are one. So we all need this, right? I get it that you want pigeons, and I get it that you want your kid to turn out like this, and you see other kids, and wouldn't it be nice? But God said, you don't get to pick what I sinned.

You don't get to pick what I use. Now, you can pray that I'll provide for you. You can pray that I'll raise them up. You can pray that it will come, but you do not get to say who it comes through. You do not get to say when it comes by. You don't get to give God a deadline. You don't get to give God a stipulation. You don't get to give God terms and agreements that must apply.

He is God. He is Yahweh. He makes it rain. He shuts the sky. He brings the manna. He does the work. He gets the glory. It is God's job.

And then, after he got settled into the brook and the ravens are coming, he's like, okay, ravens aren't so bad. Okay, I'm sorry, Lord. You're right. The ravens are good. Look, how they do their job. They're very dutiful. They're very punctual.

Maybe we could revise Leviticus 11. Maybe they're not so bad. And then verse 6 says, then sometime later the brook dried up. Why? Because there was a drought. Why? Because he prayed for it. Now the thing that he prayed for is becoming the problem that he's got to pray about. And now the thing that God led him to is dried up and he's got to go somewhere else. Verse 7, where's God going to send him? Expect unexpected provision. Sometime later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land and the word of the Lord came to him. See, what never stops happen is God speaking. Because everything else is a resource. He's the source. So no matter of this.

So, who's this for? So no matter where it moves to, God will always provide for you as you fulfill his purpose. And you don't even have to pray about some stuff if you'll just obey what he gave you to obey. World Lord Lord Lord came to Elijah again, and he said, this one's real trippy. Goat wants to Zarifath. Zeraph. You mean between Tyre and Sidon? That's Jezebel's hometown.

So the Lord said, I'm going to move you on. I'm going to keep bringing your bread. But I want you to go to Zarifath, and I have directed a widow there to supply you with food. So God said, now I'm going to give you bread in Bale's backyard. So God puts you in a tough place. And now you're praying like, God, get me out of here. You ever just pray to God get me out of here prayer? You're not praying one right now, are you?

Don't pray it right now. It's going to happen in a few minutes anyway. But the Lord's like, no, no, I got a widow there to feed you. I'm sorry, Lord, you said widow. Wouldn't it be better for you to provide a wealthy benefactor? A woman of means? No. Because she's got a son who's going to be sick sometime from now,

and I need you positioned in the house to heal him. So I'm going to meet your need through someone whose need you're going to meet later. This is what Elijah did. and I can't even find yet where he prayed about any of it. Write this down. Sometimes obeying is praying. Remember when Jesus said, don't use all these fancy words standing in the marketplace.

Oh, God, I thank thee. My grandfather is a great man of God. He was a Methodist minister, and in the Methodist Church, they would write out their prayers and read them from the pulpit. And so my mom made me a copy of a book of all of his prayers from one church that he served out. It's one of my treasure possessions. And it's called Papa's Pulpit prayers. But as beautiful as they are, if he was alive today, I'd be like, can I see your, not your pulpit prayers, but just your pit prayers?

Because the ones you said out loud, and they're beautiful and they're real and they're amazing. And I treasure them. And sometimes it's the pit prayers, ain't it? The ones you're not proud of, that God are you their prayers. Don't look at me like that. I thank you that I am not like this other man. If you never asked God, are you there? You never stepped out in faith.

That's what Peter said. Lord, if it's you, are you there prayers? Have you prayed those? I like those God-Gadom prayers, and I like those, God, are you there prayers? I wrote a book years ago called Sun Stand Still. It was my first book. It was out of Joshua 10, where Joshua needed more time to defeat his enemy.

How many of you need a little more time to defeat your enemy? How many need a little bit more time to pay these bills off? How many need a little bit more time to work on this? And the Lord made the sun standstill, and that's what the book was about, audacious faith, sun standstill prayers, and I believe in those. He spoke to the sun, oh, sun stand still over Gibbyon, oh moon over the valley of Ayala. And there's never been a day like it before since the day when the Lord listened to the man. And that was awesome. A sunstand still prayer.

Almost as awesome as Elijah's make it rain prayer. But there's other prayers too. The second thing I want you to expect is a process that isn't pretty. A process that isn't pretty. When you read the summary of Elijah's life from James, it sounds so nice. And he prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain. He had to go eat from ravens and widows. You don't get that in the summary.

You think God just answered his prayer, and he did. But there was provision that you couldn't predict. And that's what you got to be careful when people share their praise reports around you. It's their summary. It's their summary. Don't judge your struggle by their summary. Because they'll tell you, and all of our kids serve the Lord. They serve and they swerve.

swerve. But the swerve don't make the summary. So now you're judging yourself, well, my kids don't all serve the Lord. It's the summary. And when he says that Elijah prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain, and he prayed that it would rain and it did rain. But look at it. Graham was preaching about this last week. I pictured you while I was preparing to. He got up here on this stage, y'all. He was preaching to our young people. And by the way, you can come to the living room tonight and most Sunday nights, and I'm throwing that in for you, because I'm about to make fun of you. He was up here preaching, and it was so powerful.

He preached fire down from heaven. I can't. I was offended, because Holly looked at him afterwards, and she's like, that's one of the best sermons I've ever heard. I looked at her like, that's his 20th sermon ever. He gets best ever. It's like Hall of Fame. It was good.

Whatever. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of him. That's a prayer I'm not proud of, right? Oh, man. And he was reading how when Elijah prayed for rain and calls down fire from heaven, and then he goes up on a mountain, and he tells his servant to go tell Ahab, go eat and drink. There's a sound of a heavy rain.

And look at verse 42, and Graham acted this out. 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. And why I'm going to make fun of Graham is because he preached it great, but the way he did it is the way I always pictured it, too, his face between his knees like that. But this is not the way that Elijah prayed. It was like, and I'm not correcting you because I preached it the same way before, but I studied it this week, and I found out that some prayers aren't pretty.

There is no way for me to do this in front of you and not lose aura. There's no way. But, and that's about all of what I'm going to do. of you too, because I don't know what happens next. I don't know how long I can stay that way. I don't know if I can get back up. I don't know. We have to get Graham to come close the message. Maybe his way was better. But regardless of how you look at it, his head is between his knees? What? And I'm not saying you need to pray in that position, but that was the Hebrew birthing position. So when you're praying for something, don't be surprised if there's

pain in the prayer. Now, see, if you only ever pray about situations, you won't feel any pain, but you won't get any change either. But if you start praying, God work in me. God do a work in me. God, I want to pray about the drought in me. There can be pain. And the process doesn't, no, there you go. The process doesn't have to be pretty for the prayer to be powerful.

Some of the pit prayers, the push prayers, the distracted prayers, the distract prayers, the prayer that you're not proud of. James gives us two prayers that Elijah prayed. He said, pray fervently like Elijah, pray effectually like Elijah. Pray with the kind of faith that Elijah prayed with. He was a man just like you. And he mentions two prayers, two prayers. He says, he prayed that it would not rain, it did not rain. He prayed that it would rain, and it did rain. There's provision you can't predict. There's a process that isn't pretty with your head between your knees. Sometimes you're praying and you're scribbling things and you're having to lock up the notebook that you wrote the prayers in because these are not pulpit prayers. These are pit prayers and those are okay because the prayer you're not proud of is better than the one that you won't pray.

Pray anyway. There's provision you can't predict. There's a process that isn't pretty and there are prayers you're not proud of. That's my third point. There are prayers you're not proud of. Those are the most important ones for you to pray. because James gives us two prayers, and he's not lying, but he's summarizing. There was another prayer, Elijah, prayed, that James did not hold up as an example to the class.

See, he's teaching Christians who are under persecution and who are scattered about the 12 tribes that are scattered about. He's preaching to them about perseverance and prayer, and he's saying, pray for each other, man. Get beside each other. The devil is busy. He's trying to pick off that person. Stop judging them. Stop criticizing everybody who doesn't do it like you. Stop telling everybody else everybody else's business. Come to God and deal with your own business and pray for your brothers and pray for your sisters like Elijah who prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain,

who prayed that it would rain and then it did rain. But there is a prayer that James did not mention. It's a prayer that Elijah probably wouldn't have been proud of. Because the day after it rained, he prayed that it wouldn't rain, it didn't rain, three and a half, years. He prayed that it would rain and it rained. And the next day, Jezebel sent a messenger to say, I'm going to kill you. And verse three shocks us because it's not a pulpit prayer. It's a pit prayer. It's a prayer that Elijah will not be proud of, but he prayed it. And it's in verse three. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. Make a note. I don't think he was really running for his life.

He was running from it. It was too much. It was too hard. Remember a couple weeks ago about, it is enough. That's what he said. He said he left his servant. He ran for his life and he went himself a day's journey into the wilderness and he came to a broom bush and sat down under it and prayed.

He prayed. We didn't see him pray when he went to the brook. We didn't see him pray when he went to the brook. He just obeyed that. But now he prayed, this is the prayer. James doesn't include it. The very next day, after praying for rain, he prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, he said, take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors. And the man who prayed a prayer called Make It Rain, prayed a prayer called I Give Up. You ever pray to I give up prayer.

Man, I love to tell you about my son's stand still prayers. When I prayed and we went on the loading dock of Matthews and we prayed that God would give us that building and that's our Matthews campus today. I prayed for that. We prayed for that. Put that in James chapter 5, 17 and 18. Tell you about the time that I prayed for God to give me a word and he gave me a word and I spoke into somebody's situation and they start to say, I said.

crying. Put that in James 5, 17 and 18. But God, don't tell anybody about the time. Don't tell them about the time. But I had to drag myself to the car. When I had to put my hands on the wheel and tell Holly, I'm shaking, I can't drive to church tonight where you drive me. I don't really want that in the book. You can cut off verse 18 right there at the make it rain prayer. But I'm standing here today because I didn't just pray making rain prayers. I prayed some I give up prayers. And if you're going to be like Elijah, he wasn't a machine.

He wasn't a beast. He was a man. He was a human. You are a human. And if you can humble yourself enough just to say, I give up, Lord. God says, I can use the prayer that you're not proud of. I need us to clap our hands and thank God that he hears prayers that we're not proud of. Put all three points on the board.

That there is provision that you can't predict. Zigs and zags and swerves as you serve. That there is provision you can't predict. That there is a process that isn't pretty. There's the six times that you go and look and there is no cloud. There's the embarrassment and the humiliation of saying, I'm going to turn it around, baby. I promise. Just give me another month and now it's been three.

The humiliation of having to check yourself in another time. There's the humiliation of a process that isn't pretty, but if you humble yourself and pray the prayer you're not proud of, and you can even humble yourself just enough to say, God, I give up. I like to imagine that at the moment Elijah prayed, I give up. I want to die. That maybe an angel moved at that moment, because the angels were used to doing whatever Elijah you said? And the angel said, you heard what he said, Lord. I'm going to go down there and take him out.

And the Lord said, wait, whoa, hold on, hold on. Uh-uh. I'm not done with that one yet. So here's what I want you to do. Even though he said I give up. verse 5 even though he slept under a broom tree even though he had had enough all at once an angel touched him

and said get up and eat he looked around and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water and he ate

and drank. I imagine the celestial confusion of the angels speaking to their hosts, the one in charge, when he hands them the bread to take to Elijah. And the angel says, no, no, no, he said dead, not bread. And the Lord said, this time I'm not going to give him what he asked for. I'm going to give him what he needs. I'm not going to kill him. I'm not going to kill him. He said, take my life. Hey, come here, angels. You get your apron on and you get into the chariot, the DoorDash chariot of heaven and take him some bread. Yeah, but he said, take my life. Yeah, but we're going to make him lunch.

Had you ever had God when you said I give up? But God said, get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up, get up, get up. I hear the word of the Lord today for someone who has been praying an I give up prayer. The good news is that even as you have been praying this I give up prayer, you have been praying to, I'm going to say it like this.

You serve a get up God. Even when you pray a give up prayer, you serve a get up God. And now I'm going to need 300 people to stand on your feet. If you have been saying to God, I give up, I've had enough, I can't do this, and God is saying, check your head, because I am not going to give you an escape. I'm going to give you what you need to make it through this trial. Who am I preaching to? God said, I'm not going to take your life. I'm going to feed you and lead you and give you what you need for.

the next season. And I'm preaching to somebody who's in prison, and I'm preaching to somebody who's in college, and I'm preaching to a single mom, and I'm preaching to a lost child. And you've been saying, I give up. And God says, get up. There's bread by your head. You prayed, I give up. And God said, get up. Because there was a time when I was heard, so badly in ministry that all I could pray was, God, make it stop. Have you ever prayed to make it stop prayer? And the Lord spoke back to me in my heart, and I know that voice. He said, I can make the pain stop, but if I make the pain stop, the purpose will stop with

it. So listen to me, listen to me. He showed me this, I'm not going to make it stop, I'm going to make you strong. three people say there's bread by your head. There's bread by your head. There's bread by your head. Come on, Elijah. There's bread by your head. What kind of God is this? A God who you will pray, take me out. And God says, I'm not going to take you out. I'm going to raise you up. I'm going to feed you what you need in this season. I'm not done with you yet. I'm not done with you. Jesus said one time, he said in Matthew chapter 7, he said, which one?

of you having your own child, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone. Verse 10. Or if your child would ask you for fish, will give him a snake. Verse 11, please. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts? Good gifts. Good gifts.

bread over hot coals in a land of famine under a broom tree where you tried to die. But God said not dead. Bread instead, bread instead, purpose instead, future instead. And I saw that God is so good that not only will he not give you a stone when you ask for bread, he'll give you bread when you ask for a stone. a stone. There's bread by your head. There's bread by your head. You pray and not make it stop prayer. And I know there's some things you're not proud of. And I know there's some mistakes that you can't move past. And I know you might have been praying, not that I would die, but God, I give up. And God says, just about the time you're giving up, you find out I'm the

God of getting up. So I declare this day a getting up day. Ha ha ha. How does an alarm clock sound? Ding, ding, ding! Podcast. And if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available.

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