April 5, 2025 • 33 mins
Righteous Rainfall
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(00:00):
Good morning again.
Anyone ever hear of this thing called an altithermal long drought?
And I'm probably pronouncing it wrong.
An altithermal long drought.
Okay, then we're on the same page because before this week, I'd never heard of it either.
But I was doing research to find out what's the longest drought ever.
(00:24):
Because, you know, we lived in the Midwest and droughts, if they go more than a month, it's forever.
You know what I'm talking about.
Because we're growing crops, and we need the rain.
And if we don't have the rain, you know, it could be catastrophic economically.
And, of course, we've heard of different droughts throughout the years,
but I looked up the ulti-thermal long drought.
(00:48):
400 years.
And as it caught my interest, I read on.
And I wanted to know more about this 400-year drought that I had never heard of before.
And evidently it happened somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago.
And I said, well, that narrows it down.
(01:09):
Because I had typed in on my Google the longest recorded drought.
And I was like, I don't know anybody from 4,000 to 8,000 years ago that was keeping track for 400 years about a drought.
And there seems to be a lot of conjecture about it.
In fact, the years when it happens is all over the map.
And actually, because of that, I was like, well, if it was recorded, where was it recorded in archaeology?
(01:38):
Like, okay, I'll give a little bit of credence to that, but still, I'm not trusting that one, that it was actually there.
May have been.
Evidently, there was record enough that there was a long drought for quite some time.
But actual recorded where somebody wrote it down in the United States.
By the way, that was in the United States.
(02:00):
That was supposed to be in the United States.
But the longest recorded, there's 13 major droughts since 1900.
Three of those covered over 60% of the 48 states.
Over 60%.
And they lasted more than 99 months each.
(02:22):
in the early 2000s, one stretched for about 16 years.
In the 1950s, and some of you might be recalling that one, I don't know,
but that was a little before my time.
But then, of course, the most famous one is called the Dust Bowl.
I may have heard of the Dust Bowl.
Okay, so let's talk Dust Bowl instead of this antithermal thing.
(02:48):
Incidentally, and I know this is news to everybody, dry weather led to the drought.
I thought that was worthy to spend several paragraphs of my reading on to learn that it was dry weather that caused the drought.
But they also said what was interesting to me is that poor farming practices played a big role in it.
(03:14):
And apparently they were, the way they were doing their farming is they were not allowing, let me see if I can get this right, enough grass, enough foliage, enough stuff to grow to keep the ground rooted down.
If that makes sense.
Anyone who's a farmer is going to understand what I'm talking about.
The rest of us that have been here in the desert forever, we're in a drought anyway.
(03:36):
So all we know is the dust blows where it wants to blow.
But poor farming practices, dry weather, hot temperatures, all the things that you would expect to lead to a drought did.
And, of course, during this drought, they learned an awful lot about how to avoid the problems that comes with a drought.
(03:57):
Because in the 1930s, when the Dust Bowl hit, what was the big problem?
The Great Depression.
Economics tanked.
It was bad.
In fact, I look at pictures of my grandparents on my dad's side from that era,
(04:20):
and I've always been embarrassed to look at it because, you know,
they're on dirt floor, a little shack with a little curtain for the front door.
And I was looking at that, and I was like, man, my folks were poor.
I mean, I grew up poor, so I understood that.
But, man, that was a lot worse than what I grew up with.
And I was shocked to see this picture and think, my family came from that.
(04:46):
And then as I was looking at this, there were a lot of people who lived like that because of the drought.
Because there were no crops to harvest.
There were dust storms that would last for days.
In fact, I read about one that lasted for over a week.
And they said it was so dark you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.
(05:07):
And imagine, no matter how well you seal your home, dust is still getting in.
There's just no way to avoid this.
And so the repercussions of a drought is harsh.
The Dust Bowl started around 1938 and didn't end until 1941,
and you'll never guess what triggered the end of the drought.
(05:32):
Rain.
my research is sometimes very interesting.
The Bible tells about another drought.
It tells about several droughts, but there's one in particular we're going to look at today.
It's found in 1 Kings.
(05:54):
And I want to thank Jennifer for reading our text today
and reading it with a little energy and life, so thank you.
Our text today in 1 Kings,
Actually, the story starts in chapter 17 and verse 1, if you want to read it with me.
(06:14):
Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead.
I love this because Elijah really is not heard from or about or anything until this verse.
And all of a sudden, boom, here he is.
And Elijah comes on the scene and said to Ahab, the wicked king,
As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be due nor rain these years except at my word.
(06:48):
Elijah knows how to make a scene, how to make an entrance, doesn't he?
And you know what?
It would have been nothing except that it came true.
It stopped raining at that point and did not rain again until later in the story.
And we'll get there.
And of course, the extra heat, the dry conditions led to, come on, I taught you this, a drought.
(07:15):
A drought.
And things got bad.
It got so bad that, you know, God sends Elijah out.
He says, you know, make the pronouncement.
Now you go out, go to a safe place that I'm going to show you.
And there's this little brook in this hidden area where nobody can find him.
Or maybe God's angels just kind of hovered over him and they couldn't find him.
(07:36):
Either way, he wasn't found.
But he's by this brook and he's got water to drink.
And God sends birds to bring him, my Bible says, bread and meat twice a day.
And so he was fed.
He was watered.
He had a safe place to live.
He had shelter.
(07:57):
God took care of him until the brook dried up.
I always found it interesting that God allowed the brook to dry up.
He's taking care of Elijah in the midst of this drought.
He's got this brook.
It's full of water.
God's taking care of him because Elijah's been faithful to him, right?
And so God takes care of us when we're faithful to God.
(08:20):
But something happens along the way, and the brook dries up, which always brings up the question, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
We're not going to get into that today.
But, you know, it begs the question of isn't God taking care of him?
Well, as the story goes, Elijah goes on to Zarephath and meets this widow, and he's supposed to go to take care of her, but she kind of takes care of him.
(08:46):
And they take care of each other for a period of time to the point this widow from a foreign country accepts God to be her Lord and Savior.
God allows bad things to happen to good people sometimes so the gospel reaches people that it normally wouldn't go to.
(09:07):
I'm not going to say that's all the time, but just keep that in the back of your mind if you go through difficult times.
Maybe there's an opportunity to share Jesus.
Maybe there's an opportunity to share your God.
But the long story short, three years has passed since God shut off the water.
Everything is dry.
Everything's dusty.
There's no food growing.
You see images of King Ahab going out on these hunting expeditions, except he's hunting for grass for his horse.
(09:36):
There's nothing.
It's that bad in three years.
And Elijah comes back.
There's a whole story with that we won't get into either,
but he calls for a church business meeting.
He says, Ahab, we need to have a church business meeting.
Call all the members of the church.
(09:56):
We're going to meet.
He brings the meeting to order and he gets right to the point.
Whose church is this anyway?
Isn't that what he's saying to Israel?
are you going to follow God? Are you going to follow the Baals and the Asherahs and anyone
(10:19):
else that comes along and sounds good? It's either or. In other words, there's no middle ground.
There's no fence post that you can sit on and ride. And Elijah's just making it painfully clear
to everybody, this is God's church. Are you going to follow him or not? It reminds me of Joshua.
You remember Joshua when they come into the promised land and Joshua comes along and Joshua
(10:42):
chapter 24, and he says,
Choose you this day whom you will serve.
But as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.
It's time to make a decision.
And that's the whole purpose of this business meeting that Elijah has called.
(11:04):
There's no riding the fence.
Make up your mind.
I mean, Israel has this history of being God's people
and then building an altar to Baal, bowing down to Asherah, but we're God's people.
Elijah's saying you can't do that.
It doesn't work.
In fact, that might be the reason why we have a drought.
(11:25):
And so he calls them here.
He calls all of Israel here.
And he has this contest, so to speak.
and God demonstrates that not only is he alive and well, but he is the one true God.
And Israel comes alive.
The Lord, he is God.
(11:46):
The Lord, he is God.
And Elijah turns to Ahab and he tells him that he better get something to eat
because it's going to rain and it's going to rain a lot.
An abundance of rain.
I always found it interesting that he says, there is the sound of abundance of rain.
In 1 Kings 18, verse 41, go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.
(12:14):
I find it interesting because there weren't any clouds in the sky at that point.
There was no thunder happening.
There was no visible sign that it was going to rain according to, I took climatology as
pastors, that gets to be our science class.
We get to learn about the weather.
I don't have to take biology, chemistry, all that hard stuff that your brains out there can take.
(12:36):
I get to learn about the weather.
And there are certain signs when you look at the sky, and my son's getting really good at this,
because he'll look at the sky and he'll say, there's 50-50 chance it's going to rain.
I can't argue that.
The Weather Channel might argue him, but he's right.
(12:57):
It may or it may not rain.
And so he's right with that.
But, you know, there's things that you look for when it rains.
And one of the things that they taught me is when you see clouds look like they're billowing up, there's an updraft.
And when there's an updraft, the conditions are good for rain.
(13:18):
And so you would expect when Elijah is saying there is the sound of abundance of rain, he's looking out at the skies and he's seeing this evidence.
some sort of evidence that there, but when you look, there was nothing.
There was nothing.
There weren't any clouds in the sky.
They don't show up till later.
(13:38):
There's no sound of thunder mentioned.
So what in the world is he talking about?
The sound of the abundance of rain.
Well, I would turn your attention first to 1 Kings 18 verse 1 says, and it came to pass
after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go present
yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. The sound. Elijah heard God's word.
(14:09):
God had stopped the rain because Israel was doing evil. They call themselves his people,
but they're worshiping other gods, false gods. And essentially they're supposed to be in a
relationship with God, but they were dating God's enemy behind his back, or they thought it was
behind his back. God sees, he knows. I remember back when I was in bread sales, I had this customer
(14:34):
and I was in training. It was when I first got started. So I had the assistant supervisors with
me and we're in training. We're supposed to go into this store and our orders are get this big
display. And in the meantime, we're resetting the shelves. Don't you love it when you go into the
grocery store and nothing is where it used to be? I used to be one of those guys that did that.
(14:57):
Sorry. I just apologize now. But that's what we were supposed to go do. We were supposed to go in
and rearrange the shelves. And the guy that's trained to me says, well, we're going to take
this shelf, this shelf. And I said, what makes you think the owner of the store is going to give it
to us. I kid you not.
Word for word, he said.
Because he knows which side his bread
is buttered on.
(15:18):
He's from Arkansas, so put the accent in there.
Because he knows what side his bread
is buttered on. And I remember
sitting there for a second, what in the world
are you talking about?
Then I remembered how much
I like bread on one side
of my butter, or butter on one side of my
bread. I don't know which
side my bread is buttered on.
(15:39):
Apparently.
But we go in there and sure enough, and I said, but the other companies have better prices.
We're higher priced and all that.
He said, he knows which side his bread is buttered on.
And sure enough, we got the best shelf space.
We got the most shelf space.
We got the display that we wanted.
(16:01):
And we're selling our bread for more than the other guys, but we're the ones that got all the space and we're getting all the business.
We're making all the money.
And on a commission job, that's kind of nice to know.
And we walked out of there and I said, how did you know?
He said, it's simple.
He said, we may have higher prices, but we take better care of his business.
(16:25):
The competition comes in twice a week.
We're there five days a week.
The competition comes once a day.
We're there twice a day.
We make his shelves look full.
They look good all the time.
When you come in, there's always product there.
The customer always has something to buy.
He knows which side his bread is buttered on.
No rain in Israel for three years.
(16:48):
God brought this drought on Israel to show them that the false gods were not buttering their bread.
The false gods were not being a blessing to them.
The false gods were not bringing any rain on Israel.
The false gods could do nothing about that.
years without rain
and they're worshipping Baal
(17:09):
and Asherah as if they were
powerful gods.
And so
God shuts up the rain for three years
just to give them a little reminder.
I'm the one who butters
your bread on the right side.
And now God's going to make it rain on
Israel just to remind them
which side the bread is buttered on.
(17:32):
No visible sign of
rain, but
Elijah had faith.
God had given his word.
Go to Ahab and tell him, I will make it rain.
Israel chose God, and that was all the evidence that Elijah needed to see.
When he put it before them, and the evidence was put before the people in the form of sacrifice,
(17:55):
and which one was honored and which one was not, the people made the choice.
The Lord, he is God.
The Lord, he is God.
All of a sudden they remembered, God butters my bread on the right side.
These other gods don't even bring butter to the table.
And so they chose the Lord.
(18:16):
Elijah knew it was God's will because God had told him, I will make it rain.
And so he placed his faith in God's word and he saw the evidence of the Holy Spirit working on the people's hearts.
That's the sound of the abundance of rain.
He didn't need to see clouds.
He didn't need to hear thunder.
All he needed to know is that God was at work,
(18:37):
and his spirit was busy on the hearts of the people.
And he says, Ahab, you better eat now.
You better get ready because it's going to rain.
The rain is coming.
Jesus promises that he is coming again.
Do you believe that?
(18:58):
I would hope so.
It's in our name.
Seventh-day Adventist, which means we believe that Jesus is coming again.
Matthew 24, 44.
We won't read it now.
Matthew 24, 44, though, go read it because Jesus cautions us to be ready
(19:24):
because we know he's coming.
How many of you hear the sound of his coming?
are you listening i'm sorry there's another bald guy i wasn't going to do this but because you guys
aren't really listening today there's a bald guy who was in wrestling he'd always put that hand up
(19:45):
to his ear and he'd say can you hear what the rock had someone got it someone got someone's a wrestling
fan can you hear what the rocks got cooking well i'm going to change that can you hear what god's
got cooking. God's got rain coming. Jesus is coming. He is on his way. Now, keep in mind,
(20:06):
Jesus also assures us, we don't know when that is, but he is coming. We can count on that. The sound
of rain. Jesus says in Matthew 14, 14, it'll be after the gospel is preached in all the world.
In other words, the people will have the opportunity to make a choice.
(20:26):
Choose you today whom you will serve.
Israel, whose church is this anyway?
Is this God's church or is it Baal's and Asherah's church?
Make a decision.
There's a call for people to give their hearts to Jesus Christ.
There's a call for people because he is coming and he's coming soon.
And he wants you in his kingdom.
(20:47):
This isn't a matter of survival, folks.
this isn't a matter of I've got to make the right choice because I'm going to live forever and I
don't want to die it's a matter of I'm making the choice because I love my lord and savior Jesus
Christ because he loves me he loved me enough to save me from certain death and that's the kind of
God I want to spend eternity with therefore I choose him this is the God that butters my bread
(21:17):
and he serves it to me toasted just right.
That's salvation.
People are being called to make a decision.
And when everyone has had the chance to make a decision,
that's when Jesus will come.
(21:39):
I believe that that time is soon.
Because I hear the sound of his coming.
We've been praying all this year for Pentecost 2025.
And I'm hearing reports.
Already, we're in April.
Already, churches are baptizing 30, 40, 50 people.
(22:04):
I mean, for goodness sakes, we've had quite a few here ourselves.
And there's more.
And we're participating.
The message is going out.
The gospel message, this call for people to make decisions is going out.
The sound of abundance of rain because people are making decisions.
There are people in their hearts saying, the Lord, he is God.
(22:25):
That is one of the signs that Jesus is coming soon.
Can you hear the sound of his coming?
Get ready.
1 Kings 18, 42 through 44.
I'll make it quick because we can smell what's cooking in the kitchen.
(22:48):
But Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel,
and he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to the servant,
Go up now, look toward the sea.
So he went up and looked and said, There's nothing.
And seven times he said, Go again.
I thought we just said Elijah had faith.
He heard the sound of the abundance of rain without any sign.
(23:10):
Ahab, go get ready.
It's going to rain.
And as soon as Ahab's out the door, Lord, let me pray.
There's a reason.
There's two reasons.
First is found in James 5, 16 through 18.
For time, we're not going to look it up, but 5, 16, 18.
We do this when people are sick and we read this because we go to pray by their bedside
(23:33):
and we anoint them with oil and pray to God to heal them.
But in there it says that the prayer, the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
You guys have the same version that I have.
I looked it up in another version.
I actually like the way that it read because it sounds like my prayers are accomplishing something.
(23:59):
Because I pray, God has to answer my prayers, right?
I put the oil in the right spot on their head and I pray the right words and I read the right verse and therefore now God's going to answer my prayer.
I was just you.
That's not what it's saying.
What it's saying is we are placing our faith in God and that's what avails much.
(24:19):
When we press into God with our prayers, when we connect to the Lord with our prayers,
When we have that strong relationship with God and we have faith that he is and he will do what he says,
he makes promises and we believe that God will answer those promises.
(24:40):
That's when things happen.
That's when we start seeing God do these amazing things.
Not because God's not doing them.
Note the difference.
Now we see him doing them.
God's always doing amazing things.
We just don't always see it.
But when we press into God and we know him and we have that relationship where we talk to him all the time.
(25:05):
And besides, does God always answer our prayer right away?
Sometimes.
But not always.
I can think of things that I prayed for years for.
My mother prayed for me for 24 years.
24 years she prayed.
(25:26):
Did God answer?
Absolutely.
24 years she pressed into God, though, for me.
And God answered that prayer.
That's why we continue to pray.
It's not that our prayers move God and make him answer what I want.
But it's that we develop that strong relationship.
(25:49):
It builds our faith.
It strengthens us in him so that we can see the conclusion that he already had in place.
1 Kings 18, 44 through 46.
Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud.
Now we got some visible evidence.
(26:10):
There is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea.
So he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.
Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind,
and there was a heavy rain, so Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins,
(26:31):
and he ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
This is a time where Elijah has pressed into God.
He's exercised faith.
He's having this mountaintop experience, as we like to call it,
and now the Lord comes upon Elijah.
and leads an evil king home.
(26:55):
Catch the significance of that.
Ahab was not a true follower of God.
Ahab was not known as a righteous king.
In fact, he was known as one who did more evil than all those before him.
Yet God showed his grace and his mercy.
Because when the rain was coming, he sent Elijah to guide him all the way down the mountain.
(27:21):
And you may think, well, that's not a big deal.
He led horses down the mountain.
Did you know that it was 17 miles between there and his home?
17 miles that Elijah ran through the pouring rain, leading this evil king safely home.
What a testimony to Ahab.
(27:41):
This is how much your God loves you and wants to save you.
And I'm giving you an opportunity.
You just witnessed what happened on Mount Carmel.
And I'm giving you an opportunity to let it sink in and choose me to be your Savior, to be your God.
(28:01):
17 miles in the pouring rain.
And just when you think the battle's won, Israel had chosen God, the bad influence of the false prophets were removed,
and the king was happy with the blessing of rain and he's safely home.
He's got the testimony of God's love.
Everything is right in Israel again.
(28:21):
Chapter 19 comes up.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done,
also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying,
So let the gods do to me and more also,
So if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time.
(28:42):
And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs
to Judah and left his servant there.
And then he rode on for another day's ride out into the wilderness.
All of a sudden, Elijah's faith, everything that, and I would suggest that this was why
God had him press in with prayer because God knew what was going to happen.
(29:04):
And he knew that Elijah was going to run.
He knew Elijah was going to be exhausted.
He knew Elijah was going to be depressed and he was going to pray that prayer
and say, Lord, just take my life from me.
I'm not worth it.
You ever known someone that depressed?
There's a reason why Elijah survived through that.
(29:27):
And that reason is God had pushed him to press in with prayer,
that he had that connection with God,
that he had this faith in God,
because when he reaches that point,
instead of taking his life,
he turned to God.
He prayed again.
(29:50):
And God's love, God's grace,
rained down from heaven on Elijah.
I say that because an angel comes and feeds him.
An angel watches over him so he can get rest.
An angel gives him time to regroup and to strengthen before moving on.
(30:14):
And we know the end of the story.
Elijah comes back.
He's lifted up by God.
God speaks to him in the still, small voice.
He goes out and he gets Elisha.
And they go out together.
And the end of the story is Elijah is taken up into heaven.
he receives the full promise of God's grace and mercy.
(30:36):
But what does that mean for us?
Read Revelation 12.
It tells of a time when God's people are persecuted.
It says that there is a dragon who's just like Jezebel.
And as Jezebel was livid with Elijah,
the dragon is livid with God's people.
He wants to put an end to him.
(30:57):
And he persecutes him.
He makes war with them.
It goes after them.
And when you read it, it looks like that's who's going to win.
I mean, it even says he was given power to do this.
But Revelation 14 comes along and describes a group of people
who press into God with prayer, who place their faith in him.
(31:19):
No matter what the dragon puts them through, they remain faithful to God.
And in the end, God reigns grace and mercy, and he delivers them.
interestingly when the drought began with israel god was with elijah during the drought
(31:40):
god was with elijah on the mountaintop god was with elijah when he went through the storm
god was with elijah when he wanted to die in the valley god was with elijah and in the end
God brought Elijah to himself.
(32:01):
Where are you at with your relationship with God?
Pray and keep praying.
Why? Because God is with you.
No matter where you're at,
whether you're on the mountaintop or in the valley,
whether you're in the beginning or nearing the end,
God is with you.
(32:24):
Press into him with prayer.
place your faith in Jesus Christ
he's with you in the good
he's with you in the bad
when your spiritual life feels dry
God is with you
when it feels like he can't go on
(32:44):
God is with you
and he will be with you all the way to the end
keep praying
because his presence
is like a soft rain
refreshing rain,
a righteous rain on a hot summer day.
Let's pray.
(33:05):
Father in heaven, we pray
for the outpouring of rain.
The Bible promises that you're going to pour out rain on us
in the form of the Holy Spirit one day.
Well, we pray that you help us get ready.
We pray that you help us hear the sound of the abundance of rain
(33:25):
We pray that as Jesus is coming soon, that you would be with us,
that you would be that refreshing rain, that you would keep us strong,
strengthen us to go through anything that we have to go through
until the day that you take us up to heaven to be with you forever.
And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Good morning again.
Anyone ever hear of this thing called an altithermal long drought?
And I'm probably pronouncing it wrong.
An altithermal long drought.
Okay, then we're on the same page because before this week, I'd never heard of it either.
But I was doing research to find out what's the longest drought ever.
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Because, you know, we lived in the Midwest and droughts, if they go more than a month, it's forever.
You know what I'm talking about.
Because we're growing crops, and we need the rain.
And if we don't have the rain, you know, it could be catastrophic economically.
And, of course, we've heard of different droughts throughout the years,
but I looked up the ulti-thermal long drought.
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400 years.
And as it caught my interest, I read on.
And I wanted to know more about this 400-year drought that I had never heard of before.
And evidently it happened somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago.
And I said, well, that narrows it down.
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Because I had typed in on my Google the longest recorded drought.
And I was like, I don't know anybody from 4,000 to 8,000 years ago that was keeping track for 400 years about a drought.
And there seems to be a lot of conjecture about it.
In fact, the years when it happens is all over the map.
And actually, because of that, I was like, well, if it was recorded, where was it recorded in archaeology?
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Like, okay, I'll give a little bit of credence to that, but still, I'm not trusting that one, that it was actually there.
May have been.
Evidently, there was record enough that there was a long drought for quite some time.
But actual recorded where somebody wrote it down in the United States.
By the way, that was in the United States.
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That was supposed to be in the United States.
But the longest recorded, there's 13 major droughts since 1900.
Three of those covered over 60% of the 48 states.
Over 60%.
And they lasted more than 99 months each.
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in the early 2000s, one stretched for about 16 years.
In the 1950s, and some of you might be recalling that one, I don't know,
but that was a little before my time.
But then, of course, the most famous one is called the Dust Bowl.
I may have heard of the Dust Bowl.
Okay, so let's talk Dust Bowl instead of this antithermal thing.
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Incidentally, and I know this is news to everybody, dry weather led to the drought.
I thought that was worthy to spend several paragraphs of my reading on to learn that it was dry weather that caused the drought.
But they also said what was interesting to me is that poor farming practices played a big role in it.
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And apparently they were, the way they were doing their farming is they were not allowing, let me see if I can get this right, enough grass, enough foliage, enough stuff to grow to keep the ground rooted down.
If that makes sense.
Anyone who's a farmer is going to understand what I'm talking about.
The rest of us that have been here in the desert forever, we're in a drought anyway.
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So all we know is the dust blows where it wants to blow.
But poor farming practices, dry weather, hot temperatures, all the things that you would expect to lead to a drought did.
And, of course, during this drought, they learned an awful lot about how to avoid the problems that comes with a drought.
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Because in the 1930s, when the Dust Bowl hit, what was the big problem?
The Great Depression.
Economics tanked.
It was bad.
In fact, I look at pictures of my grandparents on my dad's side from that era,
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and I've always been embarrassed to look at it because, you know,
they're on dirt floor, a little shack with a little curtain for the front door.
And I was looking at that, and I was like, man, my folks were poor.
I mean, I grew up poor, so I understood that.
But, man, that was a lot worse than what I grew up with.
And I was shocked to see this picture and think, my family came from that.
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And then as I was looking at this, there were a lot of people who lived like that because of the drought.
Because there were no crops to harvest.
There were dust storms that would last for days.
In fact, I read about one that lasted for over a week.
And they said it was so dark you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.
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And imagine, no matter how well you seal your home, dust is still getting in.
There's just no way to avoid this.
And so the repercussions of a drought is harsh.
The Dust Bowl started around 1938 and didn't end until 1941,
and you'll never guess what triggered the end of the drought.
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Rain.
my research is sometimes very interesting.
The Bible tells about another drought.
It tells about several droughts, but there's one in particular we're going to look at today.
It's found in 1 Kings.
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And I want to thank Jennifer for reading our text today
and reading it with a little energy and life, so thank you.
Our text today in 1 Kings,
Actually, the story starts in chapter 17 and verse 1, if you want to read it with me.
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Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead.
I love this because Elijah really is not heard from or about or anything until this verse.
And all of a sudden, boom, here he is.
And Elijah comes on the scene and said to Ahab, the wicked king,
As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be due nor rain these years except at my word.
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Elijah knows how to make a scene, how to make an entrance, doesn't he?
And you know what?
It would have been nothing except that it came true.
It stopped raining at that point and did not rain again until later in the story.
And we'll get there.
And of course, the extra heat, the dry conditions led to, come on, I taught you this, a drought.
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A drought.
And things got bad.
It got so bad that, you know, God sends Elijah out.
He says, you know, make the pronouncement.
Now you go out, go to a safe place that I'm going to show you.
And there's this little brook in this hidden area where nobody can find him.
Or maybe God's angels just kind of hovered over him and they couldn't find him.
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Either way, he wasn't found.
But he's by this brook and he's got water to drink.
And God sends birds to bring him, my Bible says, bread and meat twice a day.
And so he was fed.
He was watered.
He had a safe place to live.
He had shelter.
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God took care of him until the brook dried up.
I always found it interesting that God allowed the brook to dry up.
He's taking care of Elijah in the midst of this drought.
He's got this brook.
It's full of water.
God's taking care of him because Elijah's been faithful to him, right?
And so God takes care of us when we're faithful to God.
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But something happens along the way, and the brook dries up, which always brings up the question, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
We're not going to get into that today.
But, you know, it begs the question of isn't God taking care of him?
Well, as the story goes, Elijah goes on to Zarephath and meets this widow, and he's supposed to go to take care of her, but she kind of takes care of him.
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And they take care of each other for a period of time to the point this widow from a foreign country accepts God to be her Lord and Savior.
God allows bad things to happen to good people sometimes so the gospel reaches people that it normally wouldn't go to.
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I'm not going to say that's all the time, but just keep that in the back of your mind if you go through difficult times.
Maybe there's an opportunity to share Jesus.
Maybe there's an opportunity to share your God.
But the long story short, three years has passed since God shut off the water.
Everything is dry.
Everything's dusty.
There's no food growing.
You see images of King Ahab going out on these hunting expeditions, except he's hunting for grass for his horse.
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There's nothing.
It's that bad in three years.
And Elijah comes back.
There's a whole story with that we won't get into either,
but he calls for a church business meeting.
He says, Ahab, we need to have a church business meeting.
Call all the members of the church.
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We're going to meet.
He brings the meeting to order and he gets right to the point.
Whose church is this anyway?
Isn't that what he's saying to Israel?
are you going to follow God? Are you going to follow the Baals and the Asherahs and anyone
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else that comes along and sounds good? It's either or. In other words, there's no middle ground.
There's no fence post that you can sit on and ride. And Elijah's just making it painfully clear
to everybody, this is God's church. Are you going to follow him or not? It reminds me of Joshua.
You remember Joshua when they come into the promised land and Joshua comes along and Joshua
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chapter 24, and he says,
Choose you this day whom you will serve.
But as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.
It's time to make a decision.
And that's the whole purpose of this business meeting that Elijah has called.
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There's no riding the fence.
Make up your mind.
I mean, Israel has this history of being God's people
and then building an altar to Baal, bowing down to Asherah, but we're God's people.
Elijah's saying you can't do that.
It doesn't work.
In fact, that might be the reason why we have a drought.
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And so he calls them here.
He calls all of Israel here.
And he has this contest, so to speak.
and God demonstrates that not only is he alive and well, but he is the one true God.
And Israel comes alive.
The Lord, he is God.
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The Lord, he is God.
And Elijah turns to Ahab and he tells him that he better get something to eat
because it's going to rain and it's going to rain a lot.
An abundance of rain.
I always found it interesting that he says, there is the sound of abundance of rain.
In 1 Kings 18, verse 41, go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.
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I find it interesting because there weren't any clouds in the sky at that point.
There was no thunder happening.
There was no visible sign that it was going to rain according to, I took climatology as
pastors, that gets to be our science class.
We get to learn about the weather.
I don't have to take biology, chemistry, all that hard stuff that your brains out there can take.
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I get to learn about the weather.
And there are certain signs when you look at the sky, and my son's getting really good at this,
because he'll look at the sky and he'll say, there's 50-50 chance it's going to rain.
I can't argue that.
The Weather Channel might argue him, but he's right.
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It may or it may not rain.
And so he's right with that.
But, you know, there's things that you look for when it rains.
And one of the things that they taught me is when you see clouds look like they're billowing up, there's an updraft.
And when there's an updraft, the conditions are good for rain.
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And so you would expect when Elijah is saying there is the sound of abundance of rain, he's looking out at the skies and he's seeing this evidence.
some sort of evidence that there, but when you look, there was nothing.
There was nothing.
There weren't any clouds in the sky.
They don't show up till later.
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There's no sound of thunder mentioned.
So what in the world is he talking about?
The sound of the abundance of rain.
Well, I would turn your attention first to 1 Kings 18 verse 1 says, and it came to pass
after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go present
yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. The sound. Elijah heard God's word.
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God had stopped the rain because Israel was doing evil. They call themselves his people,
but they're worshiping other gods, false gods. And essentially they're supposed to be in a
relationship with God, but they were dating God's enemy behind his back, or they thought it was
behind his back. God sees, he knows. I remember back when I was in bread sales, I had this customer
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and I was in training. It was when I first got started. So I had the assistant supervisors with
me and we're in training. We're supposed to go into this store and our orders are get this big
display. And in the meantime, we're resetting the shelves. Don't you love it when you go into the
grocery store and nothing is where it used to be? I used to be one of those guys that did that.
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Sorry. I just apologize now. But that's what we were supposed to go do. We were supposed to go in
and rearrange the shelves. And the guy that's trained to me says, well, we're going to take
this shelf, this shelf. And I said, what makes you think the owner of the store is going to give it
to us. I kid you not.
Word for word, he said.
Because he knows which side his bread
is buttered on.
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He's from Arkansas, so put the accent in there.
Because he knows what side his bread
is buttered on. And I remember
sitting there for a second, what in the world
are you talking about?
Then I remembered how much
I like bread on one side
of my butter, or butter on one side of my
bread. I don't know which
side my bread is buttered on.
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Apparently.
But we go in there and sure enough, and I said, but the other companies have better prices.
We're higher priced and all that.
He said, he knows which side his bread is buttered on.
And sure enough, we got the best shelf space.
We got the most shelf space.
We got the display that we wanted.
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And we're selling our bread for more than the other guys, but we're the ones that got all the space and we're getting all the business.
We're making all the money.
And on a commission job, that's kind of nice to know.
And we walked out of there and I said, how did you know?
He said, it's simple.
He said, we may have higher prices, but we take better care of his business.
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The competition comes in twice a week.
We're there five days a week.
The competition comes once a day.
We're there twice a day.
We make his shelves look full.
They look good all the time.
When you come in, there's always product there.
The customer always has something to buy.
He knows which side his bread is buttered on.
No rain in Israel for three years.
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God brought this drought on Israel to show them that the false gods were not buttering their bread.
The false gods were not being a blessing to them.
The false gods were not bringing any rain on Israel.
The false gods could do nothing about that.
years without rain
and they're worshipping Baal
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and Asherah as if they were
powerful gods.
And so
God shuts up the rain for three years
just to give them a little reminder.
I'm the one who butters
your bread on the right side.
And now God's going to make it rain on
Israel just to remind them
which side the bread is buttered on.
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No visible sign of
rain, but
Elijah had faith.
God had given his word.
Go to Ahab and tell him, I will make it rain.
Israel chose God, and that was all the evidence that Elijah needed to see.
When he put it before them, and the evidence was put before the people in the form of sacrifice,
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and which one was honored and which one was not, the people made the choice.
The Lord, he is God.
The Lord, he is God.
All of a sudden they remembered, God butters my bread on the right side.
These other gods don't even bring butter to the table.
And so they chose the Lord.
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Elijah knew it was God's will because God had told him, I will make it rain.
And so he placed his faith in God's word and he saw the evidence of the Holy Spirit working on the people's hearts.
That's the sound of the abundance of rain.
He didn't need to see clouds.
He didn't need to hear thunder.
All he needed to know is that God was at work,
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and his spirit was busy on the hearts of the people.
And he says, Ahab, you better eat now.
You better get ready because it's going to rain.
The rain is coming.
Jesus promises that he is coming again.
Do you believe that?
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I would hope so.
It's in our name.
Seventh-day Adventist, which means we believe that Jesus is coming again.
Matthew 24, 44.
We won't read it now.
Matthew 24, 44, though, go read it because Jesus cautions us to be ready
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because we know he's coming.
How many of you hear the sound of his coming?
are you listening i'm sorry there's another bald guy i wasn't going to do this but because you guys
aren't really listening today there's a bald guy who was in wrestling he'd always put that hand up
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to his ear and he'd say can you hear what the rock had someone got it someone got someone's a wrestling
fan can you hear what the rocks got cooking well i'm going to change that can you hear what god's
got cooking. God's got rain coming. Jesus is coming. He is on his way. Now, keep in mind,
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Jesus also assures us, we don't know when that is, but he is coming. We can count on that. The sound
of rain. Jesus says in Matthew 14, 14, it'll be after the gospel is preached in all the world.
In other words, the people will have the opportunity to make a choice.
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Choose you today whom you will serve.
Israel, whose church is this anyway?
Is this God's church or is it Baal's and Asherah's church?
Make a decision.
There's a call for people to give their hearts to Jesus Christ.
There's a call for people because he is coming and he's coming soon.
And he wants you in his kingdom.
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This isn't a matter of survival, folks.
this isn't a matter of I've got to make the right choice because I'm going to live forever and I
don't want to die it's a matter of I'm making the choice because I love my lord and savior Jesus
Christ because he loves me he loved me enough to save me from certain death and that's the kind of
God I want to spend eternity with therefore I choose him this is the God that butters my bread
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and he serves it to me toasted just right.
That's salvation.
People are being called to make a decision.
And when everyone has had the chance to make a decision,
that's when Jesus will come.
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I believe that that time is soon.
Because I hear the sound of his coming.
We've been praying all this year for Pentecost 2025.
And I'm hearing reports.
Already, we're in April.
Already, churches are baptizing 30, 40, 50 people.
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I mean, for goodness sakes, we've had quite a few here ourselves.
And there's more.
And we're participating.
The message is going out.
The gospel message, this call for people to make decisions is going out.
The sound of abundance of rain because people are making decisions.
There are people in their hearts saying, the Lord, he is God.
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That is one of the signs that Jesus is coming soon.
Can you hear the sound of his coming?
Get ready.
1 Kings 18, 42 through 44.
I'll make it quick because we can smell what's cooking in the kitchen.
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But Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel,
and he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to the servant,
Go up now, look toward the sea.
So he went up and looked and said, There's nothing.
And seven times he said, Go again.
I thought we just said Elijah had faith.
He heard the sound of the abundance of rain without any sign.
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Ahab, go get ready.
It's going to rain.
And as soon as Ahab's out the door, Lord, let me pray.
There's a reason.
There's two reasons.
First is found in James 5, 16 through 18.
For time, we're not going to look it up, but 5, 16, 18.
We do this when people are sick and we read this because we go to pray by their bedside
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and we anoint them with oil and pray to God to heal them.
But in there it says that the prayer, the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
You guys have the same version that I have.
I looked it up in another version.
I actually like the way that it read because it sounds like my prayers are accomplishing something.
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Because I pray, God has to answer my prayers, right?
I put the oil in the right spot on their head and I pray the right words and I read the right verse and therefore now God's going to answer my prayer.
I was just you.
That's not what it's saying.
What it's saying is we are placing our faith in God and that's what avails much.
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When we press into God with our prayers, when we connect to the Lord with our prayers,
When we have that strong relationship with God and we have faith that he is and he will do what he says,
he makes promises and we believe that God will answer those promises.
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That's when things happen.
That's when we start seeing God do these amazing things.
Not because God's not doing them.
Note the difference.
Now we see him doing them.
God's always doing amazing things.
We just don't always see it.
But when we press into God and we know him and we have that relationship where we talk to him all the time.
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And besides, does God always answer our prayer right away?
Sometimes.
But not always.
I can think of things that I prayed for years for.
My mother prayed for me for 24 years.
24 years she prayed.
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Did God answer?
Absolutely.
24 years she pressed into God, though, for me.
And God answered that prayer.
That's why we continue to pray.
It's not that our prayers move God and make him answer what I want.
But it's that we develop that strong relationship.
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It builds our faith.
It strengthens us in him so that we can see the conclusion that he already had in place.
1 Kings 18, 44 through 46.
Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud.
Now we got some visible evidence.
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There is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea.
So he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.
Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind,
and there was a heavy rain, so Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins,
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and he ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
This is a time where Elijah has pressed into God.
He's exercised faith.
He's having this mountaintop experience, as we like to call it,
and now the Lord comes upon Elijah.
and leads an evil king home.
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Catch the significance of that.
Ahab was not a true follower of God.
Ahab was not known as a righteous king.
In fact, he was known as one who did more evil than all those before him.
Yet God showed his grace and his mercy.
Because when the rain was coming, he sent Elijah to guide him all the way down the mountain.
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And you may think, well, that's not a big deal.
He led horses down the mountain.
Did you know that it was 17 miles between there and his home?
17 miles that Elijah ran through the pouring rain, leading this evil king safely home.
What a testimony to Ahab.
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This is how much your God loves you and wants to save you.
And I'm giving you an opportunity.
You just witnessed what happened on Mount Carmel.
And I'm giving you an opportunity to let it sink in and choose me to be your Savior, to be your God.
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17 miles in the pouring rain.
And just when you think the battle's won, Israel had chosen God, the bad influence of the false prophets were removed,
and the king was happy with the blessing of rain and he's safely home.
He's got the testimony of God's love.
Everything is right in Israel again.
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Chapter 19 comes up.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done,
also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying,
So let the gods do to me and more also,
So if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time.
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And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs
to Judah and left his servant there.
And then he rode on for another day's ride out into the wilderness.
All of a sudden, Elijah's faith, everything that, and I would suggest that this was why
God had him press in with prayer because God knew what was going to happen.
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And he knew that Elijah was going to run.
He knew Elijah was going to be exhausted.
He knew Elijah was going to be depressed and he was going to pray that prayer
and say, Lord, just take my life from me.
I'm not worth it.
You ever known someone that depressed?
There's a reason why Elijah survived through that.
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And that reason is God had pushed him to press in with prayer,
that he had that connection with God,
that he had this faith in God,
because when he reaches that point,
instead of taking his life,
he turned to God.
He prayed again.
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And God's love, God's grace,
rained down from heaven on Elijah.
I say that because an angel comes and feeds him.
An angel watches over him so he can get rest.
An angel gives him time to regroup and to strengthen before moving on.
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And we know the end of the story.
Elijah comes back.
He's lifted up by God.
God speaks to him in the still, small voice.
He goes out and he gets Elisha.
And they go out together.
And the end of the story is Elijah is taken up into heaven.
he receives the full promise of God's grace and mercy.
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But what does that mean for us?
Read Revelation 12.
It tells of a time when God's people are persecuted.
It says that there is a dragon who's just like Jezebel.
And as Jezebel was livid with Elijah,
the dragon is livid with God's people.
He wants to put an end to him.
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And he persecutes him.
He makes war with them.
It goes after them.
And when you read it, it looks like that's who's going to win.
I mean, it even says he was given power to do this.
But Revelation 14 comes along and describes a group of people
who press into God with prayer, who place their faith in him.
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No matter what the dragon puts them through, they remain faithful to God.
And in the end, God reigns grace and mercy, and he delivers them.
interestingly when the drought began with israel god was with elijah during the drought
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god was with elijah on the mountaintop god was with elijah when he went through the storm
god was with elijah when he wanted to die in the valley god was with elijah and in the end
God brought Elijah to himself.
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Where are you at with your relationship with God?
Pray and keep praying.
Why? Because God is with you.
No matter where you're at,
whether you're on the mountaintop or in the valley,
whether you're in the beginning or nearing the end,
God is with you.
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Press into him with prayer.
place your faith in Jesus Christ
he's with you in the good
he's with you in the bad
when your spiritual life feels dry
God is with you
when it feels like he can't go on
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God is with you
and he will be with you all the way to the end
keep praying
because his presence
is like a soft rain
refreshing rain,
a righteous rain on a hot summer day.
Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we pray
for the outpouring of rain.
The Bible promises that you're going to pour out rain on us
in the form of the Holy Spirit one day.
Well, we pray that you help us get ready.
We pray that you help us hear the sound of the abundance of rain
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We pray that as Jesus is coming soon, that you would be with us,
that you would be that refreshing rain, that you would keep us strong,
strengthen us to go through anything that we have to go through
until the day that you take us up to heaven to be with you forever.
And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.