One of the great tragedies recorded in the Old Testament is that of the life of the Judean king, Asa. And I say tragedy because the story starts very well, but ends badly. Toward the beginning of his reign, Asa is drawn into a military conflict that poses a severe threat to the survival of his kingdom, even of himself. He has an army of 600,000 and an army of 1,000,000 Ethiopians comes up against him. But it says there in the record that Asa cried out to the Lord and trusted himself to God, pled for help. And God grants him complete victory over the Ethiopians. He routs their army. This is toward the beginning of his reign. Toward the end of his reign, something similar happens. This time, it's the king of Israel who comes up against him. Comes up against Judah. This army, though, is not quite as big as the army of the Ethiopians. And yet, Asa does something entirely different than what he had done the first time around. He takes silver and gold from the treasury of the Lord and his house. He takes God's money, if you will, and pays it to the pagan king of Aaron and asks that he might defend him against Israel. He doesn't call upon the name of the Lord as he once did. And so a prophet, a man of God, comes up against Asa and confronts him and tells him this. Why didn't you call upon the name of the Lord? This army wasn't even as great as the army of the Ethiopians during the beginning of your reign. And what does Asa do? He puts the prophet in prison. He doesn't repent. And then he is struck with disease in his feet. and he refuses to seek the help of God, and instead turns to physicians. It says in 2 Chronicles 16, 12, this is the tragic end of the story of Asa. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. You say, thank God that this can't happen to me because I am a believer. And I say, Asa was a believer. He was actually one of the good kings who did right in the sight of God. And yet his earthly life ends up in a tragic way. So you're not exempt, so fear. Fear. Study the power of prayer, practice what you learn, and persevere in it. Know what it means to call upon the name of the Lord, call upon the name of the Lord, and keep calling on the name of the Lord. I wanna take you to a passage that I believe will help us with that, James. Verse 16. They're in the middle of the verse. The second sentence says this. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Let's pray together. Almighty One, divine omnipotence gracious god we come to you who have who have invited us to call upon your name oh we pray that you would impress in our hearts that there is indeed a divine invitation we pray that you would impress upon our hearts that there is power in you and therefore power in prayer. And that you would help us to persevere in prayer. We ask in your son's name. Amen. So here you have powerful text on prayer. And it tells us who prays, what his prayer is like, and what his prayer does. Who prays? Who prays? What is his prayer like and what his prayer does? Who prays? The righteous. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Now, when we say righteous here, when the scripture uses that word, it is not referring to sinlessness. perfection that is clear in several passages I'll read Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. There is no such thing as a person, man or woman, who does not sin save for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First Kings 8 46. says this, there is no man who does not sin. So all men sin. So when we say righteous, we don't mean sinless. We mean two things. On the one hand, a person who has been justified by faith, righteous in the divine courtroom. declared legally to be righteous because of his faith in Jesus Christ 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20 has a beautiful statement to this effect. Verse 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You are in Jesus Christ now you have the righteousness of God. You are the righteousness of God as long as you are in covenant relationship with the Messiah, one which I clarify cannot be broken. So what do we mean when we say righteous? We mean somebody who has been justified, somebody who has believed in the name of the Son of God and has been granted righteousness by virtue of his law keeping and his death. But we also mean when we speak of righteousness or the righteous, we mean somebody who has received the law of God, which is true of all who have believed in the name of the only Son of God for the forgiveness of sins, somebody who has received this law into his heart, and now this law has become the rule of his life. You are walking sincerely, obediently with God. And in that sense, relative to other men, you are righteous. And here we have a perfect example of who the righteous person is, and that is Elijah. Notice Elijah, it says in verse 17, he's gonna be the model here for the prayer warrior, if you will. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, it says. Now Elijah is the fiery prophet from Tishbe and Gilead. He actually represents the Old Testament prophets. You might remember that in the Mount of Olives Elijah, and that is a representation of the law of Moses and the prophets. Elijah is the prophet par excellence of all of the prophets of the Old Testament, and he is said to have been zealous for God. He faces off King Ahab and hacks 400 prophets of Baal to pieces. doesn't even die he's actually translated into heaven on chariots of fire but in our text so we're talking about a blameless righteous man nevertheless in our text it says of him like ours literally in the Greek a man of like passions a man of like passions which is to say he was subject to the same frailties and evils that you and I are subject to he was a sinner we know this from the text of scripture in first Kings chapter 19 and verse 3 you might want to keep your finger in James and start making your way to first Kings because we're gonna be turning here quite a few times but in first Kings chapter 19 and verse 3 we see something of the sinfulness of Elijah. Elijah has just stood up to King Ahab, has defeated the prophets of Baal, he has killed them boldly and yet we see that the boldness and the courage of Elijah were from God because finally the boldness and the courage are not there. In himself, he was a sinner. 1 Kings 19 verse 1, Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So may the gods do to me, and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And he was afraid, frightened, and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba. Here is the great man of God afraid, frightened of this woman. That's not the only expression of Elijah's weakness that we get in this account. He is also given to depression, hopelessness, unbelief. Notice in verse 4 after he appears before God in Horeb. He says, he requested for himself that he might die and you say die so that you can see Jesus Christ because you love him so much and you can't wait to see glory. It's enough now, oh Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my father's. He lay down and slept. He just wants to escape his troubles. That's why he wants to die. And he confesses there his sinnership. I am no better than my father's. He is a weak man, a man with a nature like ours, a sinner, and yet a believing one. His prayer is heard. Again, the effective prayer of a righteous man, speaking of Elijah, or using Elijah as an illustration, can accomplish much. He is heard. The righteous man is the one whose prayer is heard. The righteous man is the man who can pray. This is, of course, in contrast with the hypocrite or the habitual sinner. God turns a deaf ear to those, to them. Psalm 66 and verse 18 King David says, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. He will not hear. Proverbs 28 verse 19 or verse 9 he who turns away his ear from listening to the law even his prayer is an abomination he who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. You don't want to hear the word of God. You don't want to hear the exposition, the unfolding of the divine word. Then even your prayer is hateful to God. God does not hear the wicked. God does not hear those who do not hear him. John 9, one more. Verse 31. We know, says the blind man who has been healed by Jesus, we know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he hears him. Spoken truly. God does not hear sinners, and by sinners he means those who live in their sin, and who love their sin, and who are dead in their sins. God does not hear them. So, who prays? The righteous. Now, what is this prayer like? Secondly, again our text says, the effective prayer of a righteous man. Now prayer is the outpouring of one's heart to God. And it's not confined to a single posture or form or length. When you read the scriptures you find saints who are praying standing, sitting, kneeling, laying. You find prayers in which the arms are stretched wide. You find prayers in which the fist is close to the chest. You find prayers that are prepared, like battle plan. You have prayers that are simply the pouring out of water. You have prayers that are short. You have prayers that are long. the form the length the posture varies but what should not vary is the effectiveness the effective prayer of a righteous man effective that word also can be translated as as working energeo, working energy, the energetic, if you will, prayer of a righteous man. Now, what does that mean? Well, let's study it from three different angles. Number one, a prayer that is effective or a prayer that is a working prayer is a spiritual prayer. And by spiritual, I mean that you cannot pray unless you have the Holy Spirit. You cannot pray unless you have been born from above. You cannot pray unless the Spirit of God has been poured out, unless you have been washed by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. For example, Zechariah. of Israel's rebellion that continues even to this day. We look forward to the one day when finally they will be able to pray. But what will make them able to pray? The pouring of the Spirit. Zechariah 12 10, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and prayer and supplication. so that they will look on me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and they will weep overly over him like the bitter weeping of a firstborn." So there you have the day in which Israel will call truly Lord and that will happen because the Spirit will have been given and therefore what we mean by this is that you cannot pray without the Holy Spirit without his help you need to help you need to be under his influence you need to be enabled by his grace to pray the Spirit What else does a prayer need to be in order to be a working, an effective prayer? It needs to be earnest. Again, the word effective here is translated by the King James as fervent. And there's another translator, a translation that translates this as effective earnest. Elijah, in fact, it says here, prayed earnestly, verse 17. Literally, the Greek prayed, he prayed. Or he prayed with prayer. It's a, it's an idiom that's been used in the Greek to, to intensify the expression. It's not enough to say your prayers. You have to pray your prayers. You hear this before, or you've heard this before. I'm going to say some prayers. No, the apostle says, pray them, pray them. And the Old Testament tells us what that looks like in the life of Elijah. Back to 1 Kings, and now in chapter 17, this is how the ministry of Elijah, the public ministry, really begins. This was the first time he appears. And it says, verse 1, Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dune nor rain these years except by my work. Now, James back in James 5 17 is saying that he prayed earnestly that it would not rain in chapter 17 of first kings and verse one we are not being told the story of how he prayed earnestly we're just being told the result of it You can sense that this man had been praying earnestly. He describes that by saying, I have been in the presence of God. That's earnest. And then you get another picture of how earnest his prayer was in chapter 18 and verse 42. It says, Ahab went out to eat and drink. Now again, it hasn't rained for three and a half years. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. They're in Carmel, on the mount, that is where the prophets have been slain. But now Elijah is going to go to the top of Carmel, which shows, first of all, that he wants to be alone with God. So we're looking at the prayer. What does it mean to pray earnestly? And you see this, the first thing that he's doing is getting alone with God. Perhaps traveling a long distance, 1,700 feet was the highest point of Mount Carmel. Carmel is a wooded place. mountain range in the northern coast of Israel by the Mediterranean Sea. They're somewhere in the mountain range and he goes up all the way to the top to pray. He wants to get alone, earnestness, and has this idea of needing to be with God. It's just me and him. It's me and him. And what else happens? Not only does he go up alone, But it says that he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. Very interesting posture. He doesn't just bow, he curls up like a little child in the womb. And part of that has to do with the fact that Elijah has just been exalted among men. Elijah has prayed and fire has come down from heaven. And he has destroyed the prophets of Baal. And the people have looked at Elijah and says, the Lord, he is God. He has turned Israel, if you will, back to God. He has just been exalted greatly. But this man knows that he may be exalted before men, but he is still the smallest, most pitiable servant of God, before God. And so how does he show that? He gets alone with God and humbles himself before his God. And That is a show of the earnestness of his prayer, the way he's humbling himself. And notice again the earnestness of it. He crouches down, puts his face on his knees. Verse 43, he said to his servants, go up now and look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, there's nothing. He said, go back seven times. So you see this earnestness, earnestness in prayer means that your prayer is persistent. Seven times, go back, go back, go back. God will hear me. I will continue to pray. I will continue to wrestle with God for this blessing. That is what this man is doing. Jesus gave us another illustration of that in Luke. chapter 18 and verse 1 through 8 about the widow who is crying out to God for justice and she is so earnest or she's crying out to the judge for justice and she's so earnest that he has to say yes Luke 18 1 now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart saying in a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man there was a widow in that city and she kept coming to him saying give me legal protection from my opponent she's calling him to do what he should be doing that's the job of the civil magistrate protect me from my opponent legally verse 4 For a while he was unwilling, but afterward he said to himself, even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection. Otherwise, by continually coming, she will wear me out. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now will not God bring about justice for his elect to cry to him day and night? And will he delay long over them? So there you have a teaching on the fact that our earnest prayer is persistent. You see other examples of earnest prayer in scripture. For example, Jacob is said to have wrestled with the angel all night. Think about how frightening that would have been as he is waiting for his own brother to come kill him and he is out there in the nighttime by himself and all of a sudden a strange man comes out of nowhere heading towards him. Imagine the fear as he is looking at this man coming to him and all of a sudden this stranger lays hold of him and starts to wrestle him. And he wrestled and wrestled and wrestled all night. Hosea chapter 12 tells us a little bit about that encounter in verses 3 and 4 it says in the womb he took his brothers his brother by the heel speaking of Jacob and in his maturity he contended with God. Yes he wrestled with the angel and prevailed which is a great part of the story. He wept and sought his favor. He found him at Bethel and there he spoke with us. So there you have Jacob wrestling, prevailing, weeping, Seeking the favor of God. That's what you call earnest prayer. Another one in Moses. Deuteronomy. Chapter 9. And verse 18. in the matter of the golden calf, notice the earnestness of this man. I fell down before the Lord as at the first 40 days and nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was against you in order to destroy you but the Lord listened to me at that time also the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him so I also prayed for Aaron at that time here's a man whose prayers were so earnest he could go 40 days without eating and drinking he was so earnest in calling out to God Daniel I'll give you One more. Daniel. Chapter 9. And verse 20. I just want to call your attention to the language there. How he describes his own prayers. He says now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God and behalf of the holy mountain of my God while I was still speaking in prayer then the man Gabriel came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering and answered the prayer. Wow, look at the earnestness here. It's being communicated through the abundance of the verbs and the words. And he says he was speaking and that he was praying and confessing sin and presenting supplication and speaking in prayer. And he was extremely weary. This is earnest prayer. It's real. It's real. It's a calling out truly from the heart. Of course, I can't help but to give you one more, Jesus Christ, whose sweat drops became sweat drops of blood as he sought his father. So earnest prayer or effective working prayer, what is it? Number one, it's spiritual. Number two, it's earnest. Number three, it is believing. it's believing for a prayer to be a working prayer it needs to be a believing prayer you see that even in the life of Elijah here that as he is praying he is very assured that the answer is yes from heaven again chapter 17 and verse 1 it says as the Lord A God of Israel lives before whom I stand. Surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word." Is this a man who believes in prayer or not? And then in chapter 18, again verse 41, what does He do. It says, he goes, he tells Ahab, go up, drink. This is after the prophets have been slain, the prophets of Baal. He tells Ahab, go up and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower. What do you mean the sound of the roar of a heavy shower? The skies are blue. There's not a cloud in sight Elijah. This is a man whose prayer was a believing prayer. Believing prayer. Now, by believing, when I say believing, let me just explain that a little bit further. What does it mean for a prayer to be believing according to Scripture? Number one, for a prayer to be a believing prayer, it has to be grounded on the revealed will of God. That is happening with Elijah here. Why do I say that? Well, in Deuteronomy 11 verses 13 through 17, God had warned Israel that if they should turn away from him, he was going to shut down the heavens. There was going to be no rain and no fruit. If you turn to idols, there will be no rain. The land will not give its yield. Now Ahab is in power. and Ahab marries Jezebel. And Jezebel is as bad an idolater as anyone can possibly be. She brings the religion of Baal into Israel. She supports it with state funds. By the end of their work there, Elijah says in chapter 19 verse 10 they have Israel have forsaken the covenant torn down God's altars and kill the prophets they had wiped out true religion from Israel so Elijah comes and looks at what the word says that there will be no rain that there should be no rain and prays that there will In other words, his prayers are in concert with the revealed will of God. What God had said in his word. And so our prayers must also be consistent with what God is saying in his word. This is why you see in scripture that when God decrees something and gives his final word on a matter, he forbids his saints from even praying for that issue. You see it for example even in the life of the life of godly Moses. God tells him, you're dying. You're dead. I'm gonna take your life from you because of your disobedience. You're not going into the promised land. Final word. And Moses tries to pray for God to change his mind. And what is God's response? Do you know what I mean? Three? 25. Let me, I pray. This is Moses. Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon. I want to see your promises, God. But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, enough. Speak to me no more of this matter. God had given a final word to Moses. So he is saying the word is final. Stop praying. Stop praying. I know I'm leaving the sentence half finished and it's a little awkward. But sometimes prayers can be sinful. Don't pray for the things that God does not want you to pray. 1 John 5, 16. If anyone sees a brother committing a sin unto death, I do not say that you should ask for that. That you should ask for him to be brought back. If you know that something is the will of God, now grant you it's not always easy to know exactly, but we do have a book. If you know what is the will of God about a matter, you don't pray against it. You pray in concert with the revealed will of God. That is what it means to pray believingly. In fact, you see it even in the book of James. In chapter 4 and verses 3 through 5, he says, you ask, you pray. He's talking to the church goers there in Jerusalem. You ask and you don't receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures, you adulterers. Do you not know that friendship with the world is an hostility toward God? You want to please yourself. You want to keep sinning and to have your lusts fed. No wonder God is not answering your prayers. You see, God doesn't want to feed your lusts. That is against his revealed will. So for a prayer to be believing, it has to be in concert with the revealed will of God. Number two, for a prayer to be believing, it has to have a view of the character of God. It has to have the fullness of who God is in front of it for it to be a believing prayer. So for example, Simon the magician, he is told that he is in the gall of bitterness. And he is asked by Peter to pray for God to forgive his sin. Now what was the problem with Simon the Magician? How did Peter know that this man, though he had just been baptized, was still dead in his sin? Well, he tries to buy the Holy Spirit. Tries to give some money to get the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so he has a version of God that can be bought. He has a version of God that is not a person. That is just like a genie in a bottle. You can purchase, you can buy him. So in Acts 8 there, Peter tells him, pray that you may be forgiven. Does Simon pray? Can't pray. He says, you pray for me. You pray that what you have said should not come against me. So for a prayer to be believing, it has to have a view, a right view of who God is, of his character, of his person, of his holiness, and his love, and his wrath, and all the attributes. It has to be God that you're praying to. I love Abraham's prayer in Genesis 18 because it shows this. It shows that Abraham knows his God and can confidently pray to God, a prayer that is in concert with the character of God. Genesis 18, 23, Abraham came near. said will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked support suppose that there are 50 righteous within Sodom will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it verse 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you! Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly? So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account. And Abraham replied, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty riders are lacking five. Will you destroy the whole city because of the five? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find forty-five. Sorry, I was saying five. He spoke to him yet again and said, suppose 40 are found there. And he said, I will not do it on the account of the 40. Then he said, oh, may the Lord not be angry and I shall speak. Suppose 30 are found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. And he said, now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 are found there. And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the 20. Then he said oh may the lord not be angry and I shall speak only this once support suppose 10 are found there and he said I will not destroy it on account of the 10. Here you have Abraham boldly speaking and continuing to make his request to God and further further requests on the basis of who God is this is what his prayer is grounded upon the character of God Far be it from you to do such a thing, O God, to sweep away the righteous with the wicked? The judge of the earth, shall he not do what is right?" Again, this is a man who knew his God and prayed in a way that was consistent with God's character and called God himself to act like himself. This is why, again, the parable of the widow who was requiring justice is so fitting because the judge has to give legal protection. That is his job. That is what he's supposed to do. And she is boldly begging for it. Give me my legal protection. This is what you are. You are a judge. And she got what she wanted. And here the same thing we put, we translate into the realm of who God is. You are a good God. You are a righteous judge. Will you not do this? Prayer, believing prayer is in concert with God's character. And number three, believing prayer is a prayer that is ultimately aimed at the glory of God that is what matters the most and you see this even in Elijah's case as it is being mentioned used in our example it says again verse 17 that he prayed earnestly that it would not rain who prays for there to be no rain who prays for a judgment I'll tell you who prays for judgment, the man who wants the glory of God. Israel has departed, judge them. And perhaps by you judging them in this way, they will turn back to you. So, effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much indeed. So let's, we've talked about who prays, the righteous man. We've talked about what his prayer is like. It's effective, it's working. And by working, we mean spiritual, we mean earnest, we mean believing. But now let's talk about the actual accomplishment. What can prayer do? And here you have it very simply put, it can accomplish much. It can accomplish much. Other translations have this translated as the effective prayer has great power. Another one says it's powerfully effective. Why? Because prayer is invoking divine omnipotence, the one who can do all things. We are asking for the one who can do all things to act on our behalf. And therefore, as Luther said, there is an omnipotence in prayer. We get the example of Elijah here. What did he do? He shut up the heavens for three and a half years. No rain. Because of his prayer. And then you can go back to the example of Abraham. What we read resulted in the saving of Lot's life. When Lot is being brought out of Sodom, it says that the Lord remember Abraham. Can the righteous prayer or can the effective prayer accomplish much? Yes, indeed it can. Abraham, again, not just in the case of Lot, but also in the case of Abimelech. He saved Abimelech's life by his prayer. Genesis 20. And verse 7, Now therefore restore the man's wife. Abimelech hath taken Sarah, Abraham's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours. And verse 17 says, Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children. Prayer of Abraham saved the lives of Lot and the life of Abimelech and his people. You can move forward to Exodus chapter 9 and verse 33 and there see the powerful prayers of Moses. It says Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to the Lord and he the earth so Moses by his prayer stopped thunder and hail in Egypt it also won Israel's battle against the Amalekites in chapter 17 and verse 11 it says it came about when Moses held his hand up that Israel prevailed and when he let his hand down Amalek prevailed. So Moses stopped thunder and hail in Egypt. He won Israel's battle against the Amalekites. He rescued also Israel from divine obliteration. Look at chapter 32 and verses 10 through 14. God says after the matter of the golden calf let then let me alone that may that my anger may burn against him and that I may destroy them and I will make you a great nation I will make you a great nation Moses then Moses entreated the Lord his God and said oh Lord why does your anger burn against your people whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, with evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and change your mind about doing harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever." So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do to his people. Here's powerful prayer. It rescued Israel from divine obliteration. And not only that, but Moses' prayers saved Israel from the burning fire that was burning the camp in Numbers 11.32. I'm sorry, 11.21. Well, it's there somewhere. Just believe me, I'll read your Bible. Moses' prayer stopped thunder and hail in Egypt. It won Israel's battle against the Amazigh. Israel from divine obliteration. It quenched the fire. Joshua, you might remember in Joshua 10 verses 12 to 14, he made the sun to stand still. He says that God has never answered a prayer like that in the history of the world. That the earth would stop on its tracks while Israel took vengeance upon the enemies of God. And then in 1st Kings 13 and verse 6, the King Jeroboam orders that the man of God, the prophet would be struck down or seized and his hands wither. And it says that the man of God prayed and immediately Jeroboam's hand was healed. And in fact, in our passage here in James in verse 13, In verse 14, is anyone among you sick? What's the prescription? Pray. Pray. Pray. Is there anything that God cannot do, brothers and sisters? Is there anything that is too hard for Him? Then bring it to Him. Call upon Him. Pray. Because the effective prayer of the righteous man accomplishes much. This is what Mary Queen of Scots knew to be true of John Knox of Scotland. She once said, quote, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe. sometimes it's your enemies that will give you the best eulogy so we must believe this and we must persevere in it some of us know this some of us have experienced the accomplishing of much through prayer and that's not enough asa knew it But oh, that he would have persevered in it. He lived it one time. But toward the end of his life, he did not believe in it anymore. So don't think, brothers and sisters, that because God once did it for you, that you don't need to feel your helplessness again. that you don't need to back yourself up in a corner and acknowledge that you need Him and cry out to you or cry out to Him for help. Oh, that we would be believing and practicing this even until the end so that we will at the end be just like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. whose last words in this frail body were what? Into your hands I commit my spirit. The effective prayer of the righteous man accomplishes much. We believe that, O God, help our unbelief, that by prayer Saints of old have accomplished and done great things. We are so prone to turn to external helps. The flesh of man, human power, human wit. When we have the infinite power of God there at our disposal, and a kind God who invites us to pray. Oh help us to believe and to keep on believing and give us throughout life to accomplish much because prayer does indeed accomplish accomplishes much and we have been made praying people. We pray these things for the sake of Christ. Amen. Our benediction comes from 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 14. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit and the love of God be with you all. Amen. Dear church, we are blessed to have you here for four years. This Friday, July 11th, was the first Sunday of 2021. We just wanted to appreciate you. We're really blessed to be here under your preaching.