Well, it's good to be in church on a Friday morning. Appreciate you getting up and getting to the house of the Lord early today. It's an honor for me to be here today. Thank you so much, brother, for the invitation to come. It's good to be here among friends today. And I tell you, I'm thankful I'm saved today. Did anybody come to church on purpose this morning? And you can be somewhere and not be there, right? And I don't know about you, but I came to church on purpose today and looking forward to the remainder of the day as well. My wife and kids stayed home. They're in softball. I've got an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, and a three-year-old, two girls and a boy in that order. And we just found out Wednesday we got another girl on the way in October. We just found out she's going to be a girl. I'm way, we're way outnumbered. The little man said, we was at the doctor, and the little man said before we went in, they were getting ready to do the sonogram, and I said, Bubby, what do you want this to be? He said, Dad, we need another boy in the house. And so, but he's got another sister coming his way, and you say four kids, you must really love kids. And I say, I love my wife, amen. So, praise the Lord. Anyway, that's, I'll slip up on something the only way home any who You have your Bibles turn with me to first Kings chapter 18 First Kings chapter 18 when you get there. I'm going to be in verse number 41 first Kings chapter number 18 and verse Forty-one. Good to have brother Bill Downs with me. He called me yesterday and said, hey brother, he said, I'll ride with you. And I said, I certainly appreciate that. I tell you, kids are in T-ball. Hey, I know that whenever we go to church, when I go to church, I don't go to a funeral. Whenever we come, hey, there's something alive on the inside of us. And whenever we come in the house of God, I don't believe we ought to come in here. We didn't come to a funeral service. Jesus is alive today. And I appreciate Bill coming with us. And I spent some time around the ball diamonds lately. And listen, you can go crazy over a kid hitting a ball off a tee and it rolling six inches, you know, about lose yourself. And hey, Jesus is alive today. Apart from everything that's gone on in our world, he's alive today. And I'm thankful for that. First Kings chapter number 18 and verse number 41. If you found your place, would you shout a big amen? The Bible says, And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. And he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up and say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Jump down into chapter 19 with me. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also. if I make not Thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's." We'll stop reading there this morning. For just a little while, with the help of God today, I want to preach on this thought, the enemies of the rain. The enemies of the rain. Let's pray. Father, we love you today. God, we thank you, Lord, for the privilege to gather and worship you. God, I pray in these remaining moments, Father, You would clear our hearts and clear our minds. And I pray that You would remove any distraction from about us. Father, You would draw us in to the Word of God that You have for us today. And God, I pray that You would hide me behind the cross and preach through me this morning, we pray. Lord, You know what? stands in need of today. You know the message for this morning. God, I pray for Your touch today. I pray that we would prepare the soil of our heart to receive the seat, God, that You have for us today. God, we'll be careful to give You the glory and the honor for everything that is said and everything that is done for us. In Jesus' name we pray and all God's people said, Amen. You can be seated this morning. By the time that we come, and I don't want to belabor 1 Kings 18, you know it very well, but by the time we come to our text this morning in 1 Kings 18, the children of Israel, the people of Israel, God's people, they had been in a drought. And because of rebellion, the Bible says that Ahab in chapter 16, he did evil in the sight of the Lord above all else. And the Bible says that he did it as if it were a light thing. And because of the rebellion, and because of Ahab's blatant disregard to the Word of God, they found themselves in a place of a season of drought. And God had used Elijah to announce that a drought was coming, that there would be no dew and there would be no rain upon the earth, and it was at Elijah's word that the drought was announced. And by the time we come to our text in 1 Kings chapter 18, you know the story very well. Elijah shows himself unto Ahab, and he begins to announced that rain is coming, that the drought is getting ready to pass. And so He announces, God used Him before to announce the drought to come, to bring God's people back into fellowship with Him, but also God used Elijah to announce that the rain is coming. And before we get to our text in 1 Kings 18 and 41, Elijah has been used to accomplish a great miracle. He has prayed a simple prayer of 63 words and prayed down fire from heaven. God sent the fires from heaven. He opened the heavens and sent down the fires proving Himself to be the Lord of all. Elijah has seen the people of God bow. He has seen repentance coming. Can I just say this this morning? That it's always repentance that brings restoration. It's still repentance today that brings restoration. What's the answer for America? It's not in a Democrat. It's not in a Republican. It's in turning back to the Lord. Repentance is what always brings restoration. And so Elijah, he's prayed. God has sent the fire from heaven. He's seen the people of Israel bow and proclaim their faith and allegiance to Him. He has killed the 450 prophets of Baal. And now God has used him to announce the fact that rain is getting ready to come. Rain is getting ready to come. Instead of walking off into victory and savoring his victory over evil, Elijah, he goes to work again to see the rain comes just as God promised that it would. You see, Elijah was a man who had learned to survive in the drought. But it was time for that season to be over. Let me just say something this morning. There are different seasons that we come through and we go through in life. And listen, you may be here today, you may be in a drought, you may be in a dry season, but hey, whenever God says it's time to move past that season, we ought not stay there. Elijah, he learned to survive in the drought, but it was time for that season to be over with the coming announcement of rain. Brother Mike, I believe that rain represents in this text, I believe that rain represents restoration. I believe that rain represents the blessing of God. I believe that the rain represents prosperity with God. I believe that the rain represents redemption. And I believe in this text this morning that there is a nature of faith that is illustrated by rain in this passage of scripture. And listen to me this morning. There are enemies and things that the devil wants to use to keep you in a dry place. There are things the devil wants to use to keep you in a dry season and in a dry place. This morning, I've got three things I want to give you. The first enemy of the rain, if you're a note taker, is this. Write this down as the invisibility stage. the invisibility stage. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number one, the Bible says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So listen to me this morning. We are walking by faith. Everything that we believe about God, everything that we believe in God, we believe by faith. We have not physically seen Him. He is invisible. to the natural eye. If you'll look with me, in verse number 41, the Bible says that Elijah said unto Ahab, get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the abundance of rain. Notice that Elijah announces rain, and the rain is coming, but it was not based on a sign. There was no thunder. There was no lightning. There was no clouds in the sky. Elijah said, there is a sound of the abundance of rain. If you look at the word sound in the Hebrew, it's the Hebrew. I don't even know. I'm not a Hebrew expert. But I can spell it, though. It's Q-O-L. You can ask somebody else how to say that later on. Q-O-L. What it means in the Hebrew is this. It means a voice. There is a sound of the abundance of rain. What was it that Elijah heard? Elijah heard the voice of God. A sound of a heavy rain. Elijah hadn't yet seen it. As far as Elijah could see was blue skies. But Elijah, he sends a servant to the sea. He says to go and to look toward the sea. And time after time, he comes back with a report that there is nothing. I don't know about you. I was born and raised in Kansas. You can see every corner of this state if you stand right in the middle of it and get up on your tippy toes. It's flatland. It's flat land. And listen, whenever the storms come in Kent, we have a tendency to go out and look toward the west. And you can see the clouds banking up. You can see the storm clouds rolling in. And I can't help but in my mind's eye to think that Elijah as he's sitting there, he finds himself in a posture of prayer and he sends a servant and he tells him to go and look towards the sea. And time after time he comes back and says, I don't know about it, but there's nothing. He says, go again. And look again. And he goes and he looks toward the sea and he comes back. There's nothing. He goes and he looks again. And he comes back. There is nothing. And Elijah sent him back over and over again. And he said, I hear the sound of the abundance of rain. Hey, Liddy, listen to me. Many times in life we hear something, we perceive something, we believe something that you do not yet see in your circumstance, but you keep going back to God. over and over because there are things that you know deep in your soul that you do not see in your situation yet. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Listen to me, child of God today. Something is happening even when nothing is being seen. I'll say it again. Something is happening even when nothing is being seen. Hey, listen to me. Whenever we find ourselves in the... Nobody likes to be in a waiting room in life. Nobody likes to be in a season of waiting. And if I'm being honest, I'm the world's worst about it. But when we find ourselves in a season of waiting, we can get impatient in those seasons. Are you with me? We can get in a season of waiting, we can get discouraged in a season of waiting. Why? Because in a waiting room, it feels like we're wasting away. But understand something, while waiting to us may feel like wasting, waiting to God is working, that something is happening even when nothing is being seen. For those of you that it's in the it's nothing stage, for those of you that it's in the invisibility stage, that you believe something, you perceive something, God has settled it deep in your soul, but you don't yet see it in your situation yet. Hey, for those of you in that place that are waiting, that you're believing for something, There's no change in your kids no matter how hard you seem to pray. There's no new revenue. There's no progress. There's no change in your job situation. There's no change in your finances. Listen to me. Go again. Look again. Pray again. Something is happening even when nothing is being seen. That's how waiting on God by faith feels. How serving God in a dry season feels whenever you haven't experienced rain for three and a half years. It feels like nothing. Say amen if you've been there. Go again. Look again. Listen, I believe this morning with every fiber of my being that Elijah is tactful in what he's doing. I believe that Elijah sends a servant because he can't go based on what he sees. He can't go off what he sees. He needs to go by faith in what he hears. And so He says to go again. Go again. Go again. Pray again. Sing again. Worship again. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean He didn't speak it. The first stage in the enemy of the rain is the invisibility stage. But something is happening even when nothing is being seen. Jump down with me in verse number 44. The Bible says, and it came to pass at the seventh time. Can I say I love that right there? Let me just take a time out right here and say something. So many times we stop too early. So many times we quit too early. Hey, if the children of Israel only marched around Jericho's walls six times, their miracle would have never come. We've got a tendency to stop. We've got a tendency to give up too early. Hey, I love it. He goes back the seventh time. Keep going back. that He said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And He said, Go up and say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. The second stage and enemy of the rain. We have the invisibility stage. The second one is the insignificance stage. there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand." In other words, it's not nothing this time. It's no longer invisible. It's just small. It's insignificant. And can I submit to you this morning that God has a history of using what doesn't seem like much to be something great in His hand. And so don't get discouraged over what seems small. Don't get discouraged over what seems insignificant. I'm reminded of a widow woman who her husband had died and the creditor was coming and they come to collect and she didn't have the money to pay for it. And so he says, I'm gonna take your sons to be bondsmen. And so she goes to the man of God in her desperate situation and she goes to the man of God and she says, the creditor is coming. The creditor has come and has taken my sons to be bondmen. And he says to her, what do you have in your house? And she said, I have nothing except a pot of oil. I have nothing except a part, you know what I found? God has a history of using our exception to become our miracle. He's got a history of using our, God I don't have much to offer you. Hey listen, little is much when you just put it in the hands of God. It may seem small, it may seem insignificant to you, but if you just put it in the hands of God, He's got a history of multiplying it. He says, what do you have in your house? I have nothing except a pot of oil. He says, go and borrow the vessels. Borrow not a few. They bring him into the house and shut the door. And I see it like this. I believe there's probably one son on one side of her and the other son on the other side of her. And I imagine they probably formed a assembly line, and as a vessel, hey listen, they didn't care what the vessel looked like, they didn't care if it was small, they didn't care if it was large, they didn't care about the shape of it, they didn't care about the color of it, if it could hold some kind of substance, they were taking it in, and they were bringing it in. And I see it in my mind's eye as they shut the door on the house and they begin to pass a vessel before that pot of oil. I believe mama would fill that vessel up and give it to the other son. She probably set it to the other side. Down the line comes another vessel before the oil gets filled up and set to the other side. Over and over and over again, the vessel would come before the pot of oil. And every single vessel that came before that pot, there was enough oil to fill every single vessel. And listen, till one day, she looks over and says, when there wasn't a vessel more, she goes to the man of God and she says, okay, I've done what you said. He says, go and sell the oil and live out in thy children. Pay your debt. Live your children on the rest. Huh? Not enough to pay just the debt, but to live on the rest. I have nothing except so many times we offer God every excuse as to why we can't. So many times we offer God every reason as to why he should use somebody else and why he should do something with somebody else and why he should overlook you because God, I just don't have much to offer. But if we'll just start with what we have. If we'll just start with what we have and bring it to the Lord, hey listen, He can use it, He can fill it, He can do whatever He chooses to do with it. This morning, this morning, your miracle starts with what you have. And in the hands of God, you're exception. Listen, that reason, that excuse, you're exception. can become your miracle. In the New Testament, Jesus was teaching to a great multitude of people. He was teaching. And one day, and after he was done, people were hungry. And one of the disciples said, where in the world are we going to get enough food to feed all these people? And you know what their counsel to the Lord was? Listen, they had seen the miracles. They had seen what Jesus was capable of. And you know what their response and their logic to the Lord was? Just send them away. It's not a convenient time. How often do we look at circumstances? How often do we look at the picture and conclude in ourselves there's not enough to meet this need? Lord, we can't do this. And send them away. What I found is sometimes God shows up in the middle of our inconvenience. God will show up in the times of our inconvenience. Whenever it looks like, hey, there won't be enough money laying around. And those are the times that our greatest opportunities come. In the times of our inconvenience are the times whenever our greatest opportunities come. Listen, you won't feel like it. You won't be in a good mood. Hey, listen to me. But if you'll just get a hold of the fact that if you just take what little that you have and bring it to the Lord. There was a little boy that day who said, I don't have much. I've got a sack lunch. But in the hands of God, five loaves and two fish fed the thousands of people that were there. And the Bible says that there were 12 baskets left over because we serve a God. who can do a lot with a little. So this morning I challenge you to celebrate in life the small things. Celebrate the insignificant things because in the hands of God, little is much. And the enemy will tell you that what you see and what you have is insignificant to keep you in the drought. There's a little cloud about the size of a man's hand. It isn't much. It's awful small. It's insignificant. Celebrate the small starts. Celebrate the little growths. Listen to me. So many times, we live in the comparison age. We live in the comparison age where everything is filtered through social media. And people, they post things, and push things, and listen, that are totally absent from reality. So many times we can find ourself in a place where we're comparing and say, well, Lord, I don't have much to offer. Well, my marriage isn't like their marriage. Look, she posted a box of chocolates and the flowers. I don't understand her. She's always got her toenails painted, got a book laying by a pool somewhere. My life's miserable. We fall in this comparison trap and we begin to be robbed of the blessings that God has given us. because our eyes are always somewhere else. Listen, our eyes are always where the greener grass is. And we look at what God has given us and we get robbed of the blessings that God has given us because our eyes are always on greener grass somewhere else. Listen to me. Let me submit this to you today. Where the grass is greener is where it's watered. where it's taken care of. Hey, listen, we get so much in our minds that we want to get to where greener grass is. Well, this isn't anything. This is insignificant. This is small. But if I could just get over there, listen, if the grass is greener, there's water in it, or there's a septic tank there. That's right. That's right. Where you are in life is significant. Say this with me, where I am in life is significant. Say it again, where I am in life is significant. Listen to me, one way the devil gets you to leave an assignment, one way the devil gets you to abandon a post is to convince you that it's small and unimportant, that it really doesn't make a difference if you're serving God in that capacity or not. Listen to me, it does matter. It is significant. It may not seem like much, but in the hands of God, little is much. The first enemy of the rain is the invisibility stage. The second enemy of the rain is the insignificant stage. The third enemy of the rain is found in chapter 19. And it is the intimidation stage. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. With all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also. If I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life. and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord. Take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. Listen, get this with me this morning. God has used Elijah in a great and a powerful way to bring restoration to the people of God. He's on the top of Carmel. God has answered. He has sent the fire to consume the sacrifice and licked up the water that was in the trench. And listen, the rain begins to fall, torrential rain. The Bible says a great rain. Torrential rain begins to fall. Jezebel was in Jezreel and may have thought that Baal had triumphed on Mount Carmel. And when Ahab had arrived home, he told her a much different story. Let me ask you a question this morning. Why on earth did Jezebel send a messenger to Elijah whenever she could have just sent soldiers to have him killed? He was in Jezreel. The deed could have easily been accomplished, but Jezebel was not only a wicked woman. She was a keen strategist who knew how to make the most of Baal's defeat. You see, Elijah was a popular man. He had brought down the fire from the heavens. He'd slain the idolaters. If Jezebel transformed him into a martyr, he may have more influence on the people in his death than he did in his life. Jezebel knew that. And the people of God were now waiting for Elijah to tell them what to do. Because they had turned their face about and they had turned back to God. Things had been restored. And listen, the nation had been in a desperate condition. People would have been starving. There would have been no crops. People would have been dying because of this drought. And now they've turned back to the Lord and Elijah He flees the scene and he runs for his life and he leaves his servant and travels on a little farther and he sets down under a tree and says, God, I just want to die. Just take my life. I'm not better than any of my fathers. The people of God are waiting for Elijah to tell them what to do. If Elijah disappears, Jezebel knew that the people would wonder what happened. And so, She began to intimidate Elijah. Rather than sending soldiers just to deal with him, she sends a messenger to intimidate him, to run him off, to take him and push him. Listen to me this morning. You are the most vulnerable for an attack spiritually after your greatest victories. Jezebel may have suspected that Elijah was a candidate for a physical and an emotional breakdown. He's had a demanding day on Mount Carmel. And listen to me, she was right. And in a moment of fear, listen, Elijah had forgot all that God had done for him. Listen, he had forgot all that God had done for him by the brood, with the ravens, with the widow woman. He had forgot all about how God had supplied his need in the middle of a drought. And now he finds himself on the run and retreating before a beaten enemy. The very thing that Elijah prayed for. I hear the sound of the abundance of rain. The very thing that Elijah prayed for, he's now running from. We're the most vulnerable for an attack spiritually. after our greatest victories. And you know what I found is the devil cannot stop God from making it rain. But listen to me this morning and listen to me well. He can stop you from receiving it. He can't stop God from sending the rain, but He can stop you from receiving it. Listen, some of us, I'm convinced, are better at surviving in a famine than we are at living in the blessing of God. Sometimes we run from the rain. We run from the blessing of God in our life rather than running toward the rain. And listen to me. We may be in a dry season, but listen to me. God wants to call the drought out of us in our life. He wants to call the drought out of us. He wants us to run toward the rain. After all that you've been through, the enemies are the invisible, the things that you can't see. The enemies are the insignificant. Listen, don't you allow the enemy to intimidate you and run you off from the very thing that you've been praying for. The devil can't stop God from sending the rain, but he can sure stop you from receiving it. And Elijah finds himself in a place where he's running from the thing that he had been praying for. Stop running from the rain and start running towards it. If somebody would just come and begin to pray softly, I'm almost through this morning. This morning our prayer is, and should be. Lord, make it rain. Lord, make it rain. I'm not going to run from it. I'm not going to run from it, Lord. We just celebrated Easter this past week. And two years ago, they said that Easter would be canceled. Easter's canceled. That's what they told us. Flood of the media, well, Easter is canceled. The church has been what it's seemed like in a holding pattern for two years. Listen to me this morning. God's getting ready to make up for lost time. I believe that with every fiber of my being. God's getting ready to make up for lost time. So many people were so discouraged preaching to empty auditoriums. And then I don't know who in the world got the bright idea of putting a trailer out and standing on there in the middle of the heat. But hey, I was one of the ones sweating to death about to stroke out in the middle of summer. But listen to me, it seems like the church has been in a holding pattern. Getting close to two years ago now, the Lord began to deal with my heart and began to shift things in me. And listen, it was uncomfortable for me. It was very uncomfortable for me. He began to open my eyes to things and allow me to see things that I had never seen before. And in the middle of a pandemic, God called me to resign where I was currently serving. And I didn't understand that. I thought I'd be there till Jesus came. And with nowhere to go, with no plan, I said, God, I've got babies. I don't know what I'm going to do. It was a season of waiting. And five or six months later, God began to do things in my heart and made himself so real to me in a moment that I needed it more than ever. And led us to Bristol, Oklahoma. Listen, whenever I walked in there, Brother Bill, I think the first service there was 68 people sitting there in church. And we didn't know anybody. Didn't know anybody in that town. And we showed up and listen, I'll be honest, ain't nobody told me anything about how to do anything in a pandemic before. It was blindsided. And you know what I honestly thought, Brother Clark, I thought I'm gonna plan on hooking in and spending just a few years loving people and preaching and not expecting God to do anything for probably a few years. Not knowing anybody. God began to work, and God began to move. He did, he blessed. And we had, just this past Easter, we've been there now, we'll be there two years this upcoming November. This past Easter, we had about 250 people in attendance. Over this past year, we baptized around 20 people. Listen to me. God's sending the rain. He is sending the rain. I believe that, hey, the church has been on a pattern of holding. Listen, I believe that God's igniting a fire in people once again. You say, well, I don't see it right now. I don't understand. Hey, listen, some of you may have had big crowds and you wonder, where's the people gone? Are they ever gonna come back? Are they ever gonna get back? And listen, God begins, I believe that He's getting ready to make up for lost time. Things are happening right now, even though you cannot see it. I believe that God's getting revival ready, because He's coming back. He's coming back for His church. And my prayer is this morning is that the things that we've been praying for, we wouldn't run from. That we wouldn't allow the enemy to intimidate us and run us off, that we would not be discouraged and beaten down by the things that seem small and by the things that seem insignificant. Because listen, we know what I found, there's always somebody to tell you how insignificant that it is. There's always somebody to tell you how bleak it is, how hopeless that it is. Listen to me, church. It's time that we quit comparing ourselves to our circumstances and start realizing we've got a God that's above it all. He's more powerful than COVID. He's more powerful than a pandemic. He's more powerful than an addiction that has plagued a generation. Listen, He's more powerful than alcohol. He's more powerful than a drug. He's more powerful than any chain that can hold anybody fast. Listen, He is more powerful than any circumstance. If you think that your children, you look at your children, you think, God, is anything ever gonna happen? Is anything ever gonna change? It seems like nothing. It feels like nothing. It doesn't seem like much is changing. Something is happening even when nothing is being seen. Our prayer this morning is, Lord, make it rain. Make it rain. Father, we love you today. God, we thank you for your word. God, in the best way that I know how, God, I've tried to preach this morning. God, I pray that you would deal with hearts because I believe there are people within reach of my voice this morning that have been praying and believing for the rain to fall and the rain to come. God, they may not see it now. It may seem small now, but God, I pray that You would rain down Your blessings upon Your church in 2022. God, I pray that You'd help us to purpose, that I'm not just going to survive, but God, I am going to thrive in the place where You have me in life. In Jesus' name, Amen.