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My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of getting to be the pastor here at Real Church. There is nothing that I would rather be doing and I'm thankful that God asked me to play this role and thankful that you are a part of the Real Church family and I'm excited because the best is absolutely yet to come. This week, we're talking about the prayer of Jabez. Alright.
So I would encourage you to get out your phones. We got all of the notes online. You can find them if you go to real church dot us, click on the little hamburger in the top right, which is those 3 little lines. Click on live stream, click on messages. All the notes will pop up or in the link below, you can see all the notes and or in the description below, you can see all the notes and click on that.
Okay? So the prayer of Jabez. Let's get going. We're gonna be in the book of first Chronicles. It's a book that's really chronicling the generations of Israel, the generations all the way back from the beginning.
We're gonna be in chapter 4, which is where it's talking about the family of Judah and it's just kind of "name after name" after name. I'll show you. Let's read in verse starting in verse 5. It says, and Asher, the father of Tekoa had 2 wives, Helah and Nahum. Men, this was the Old Testament.
New Testament, 1 wife, 1 man, 1 woman, marriage covenant, women, 1 man. It's important. Okay. Nahum bore him, Azuham, Hepher, Temanai, and Haashatari, however you say that. These were the sons of Nahum.
The sons of Helah were Zereth, Zohar, and Ethnon. And Kaz begot Anub and Zobaba, and the families of Aharul, the son of Harem. It's just kind of name after name after name and it can be kind of boring. Now let me give you a little, like, tidbit here, a little nugget. If you go back and you look up, you do some digging, you look up the the meaning of the Hebrew names, a lot of times, you'll be able to find some "gold nuggets", some some jewels of revelation from the Holy Spirit.
Because the Bible says every verse is useful for the teaching, exhortation, training, rebuking, training people in righteousness. So even the names we can learn from in Christ. Okay? But then it gets to verse 9. Says, now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers and his mother called his name Jabez saying, because I bore him in pain.
The name Jabez literally, the literal translation is he will cause pain. So the mother experienced pain when she gave birth to Him and she named Him, not only did I have pain because of Him, but He will cause pain throughout His life. What a terrible prophecy. I mean, you imagine as a baby, this kid growing up and the first words he hears and actually understands are, you know, we have an 8 week old, a 9 week old, I guess now. And you know, we're always talking to her in these baby tones and it's kind of goofy to watch, but can you imagine this kid growing up and, oh, you're such a cute little, he will cause pain.
Oh, hey, he will cause pain, come here. You know, as a toddler, no, he will cause pain, stop it. As he grows up and he's playing ball in the backyard with his dad, if they had ball back then, you know, he throws it to his dad, his dad throws it back and catches it, Somebody calls his dad's name, his dad looks and Jabez just throws the ball, hits his dad in the head, will cause pain, come on. You know, it's almost like living up to his name, you know. Can you imagine like what that could have done to a kid psyche?
What it would have done to your psyche? See there's a lot of people, a lot of you in the same way as Jabez have been living or live by what everyone else said about you as you were growing up. Your life as a kid defined your life today as a 45, 50, 60, 70 year old adult. You go back to those painful experiences. You go back to those things that your mom called you or your dad called you in the depths and the corners of your mind.
I wanna tell you, you don't have to be defined by what everybody else said about you, not even your mother, not even your father, your earthly father that is. See there's 2 names for Jabez here, and the word. In verse 9, it says, now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers and sisters and his mother called his name Jabez. He will cause pain. So the word of God called him honorable, but his mother called him he will cause pain.
What's the definition of honorable? It means, it's in the notes if you're following along, deserving of respect, high regard. That was God's view of him. Deserving of an honorable profession, of great renown, entitled to honor or respect performed or accompanied with marks of honor or respect characterized by integrity. God called him honorable in his word.
His mom called him he will cause pain. So he had a choice to believe what God's word said about him or to believe what his mom said about him. See what you believe is what you'll live by. Your actions follow what you really believe. Right action follows right belief.
Poor action follows poor belief. If you have a terrible outcome in your life, it's probably because you're believing a lie somewhere and need to go back to the truth of who God says that you are. Let's see what did Jabez believe? Well, let's keep reading. *1 Chronicles-4:10, and Jabez called on the God of Israel* saying, oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.
See, love this. This is I'm reading the New King James version. Other versions say that I would not experience pain and I really think they got it wrong. I think the New King James version got it right. I'll tell you why in just a little bit.
But that I may not cause pain. See Jabez here is asking for 4 things. Number 1, he's asking God for blessing. Oh that you would bless me indeed. Number 2, he's asking God for influence.
Oh that you would enlarge my territory. It sounds like he doesn't wanna be defined by what his mom named him. He wants to be defined as honorable as what God said about him. And then he says, he asked for presence that your hand would God your hand would be with me and he asked for protection that you would keep me from evil. And what I love about this prayer specifically is the last part that I may not cause pain.
That tells me His focus was others. God, everyone else told me I'm gonna cause pain but my hope is not in what I was born as. My hope is not what I my own opinion of myself based on what everybody else said. My hope is in what you say. So I'm gonna turn to you and I'm gonna pray and ask for your will in my life to be done and what you've said about me to be to become reality.
God, ask you to bless me so that I can be a blessing to others, not cause them pain, but to be a blessing. God, I ask you to give me influence, to let my business grow, to let my church grow, to let my family grow, let my influence grow. Why? So that I can expand your kingdom more effectively. God, I pray for your presence in my life.
Why? Because I know that I can't do any of that without you. And if I do it in and of myself, it's gonna fall. And eventually, because pride becomes for a fall. But I need to keep my eyes on you, and know that it's you that's blessing me in all of those things.
It's you that's giving me this influence so that I can reflect you. What if when I came into a room, others sensed your presence? What if the things that I built, it was you building it through me so that it impacted others. Lord God, I need your presence. And then he prayed for protection.
Why? Because I know that as I grow and as I expand, the enemy doesn't want me to walk out my destiny that you have prepared for me. He doesn't want me to be honorable. He wants me to believe the lies that everybody else has said about me, that he, that really came from him, the liar, that he whispered to them to say about me. So Lord God, I pray that you protect me from believing that, but also as I'm walking and experiencing blessing and influence.
Lord, let me not be so consumed by self, but let me remember this prayer and be a blessing to others and use the influence to expand your kingdom. God, it's about you. See that's how I imagine Jabez praying that prayer. And you know how I know that's how he prayed? I know that's how he prayed because of the very next sentence.
It says, and **God granted him** his request. We learn from James that God doesn't grant selfish prayers. *James-2:2-3* says, You do not have because you do not ask. And when you ask you don't receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures. But for Jabez, God granted him what he requested.
Why? Because he was asking for blessing, for influence, for presence and protection, not for himself, but so that he could be a blessing to others for God's kingdom and expanding God's kingdom. He wanted that blessing in order. Well, I already said that, in order to bring others blessing. So look, I want you to know that the enemy wants you to focus on yourself.
The enemy doesn't want you, Satan, he doesn't want you walking in the blessing of God that God wants to give to you when you're ready. The enemy doesn't want you to live in the influence of God that God wants to give you when you're ready. Everybody say, when you're ready. Yeah. The enemy doesn't want you to experience presence.
He wants you to believe his lies, lies that he's whispered to your families and friends about you that came through their mouth so that you would believe it. He wants you to believe his lies, His opinions of you that He's whispered to you so that it will prevent you from walking in your destiny or as I've said before, when you get a bit of influence or a bit of blessing, when God lets you experience a little bit of the promised land, He wants you to think the work is over. He wants you to start focusing on yourself and relaxing so that you will be prevented from walking out the rest of your destiny. I want you to know that when you God gives you the promised land, when you experience that opportunity for the beginning of that dream job, when you experience that opportunity to begin to walk in that dream that you've been asking God for to to begin to walk through that open door, The "work's not over". It's just the beginning.
A lot of people just wanna sit back and and enjoy it. Well do enjoy it. Enjoy in his presence as he's leading you forward. Let me show you from scripture. See the Israelites, they walked through the wilderness before they got to the promised land.
The wilderness was their process of development in order to make it to the promised land to Israel. As they're walking through the wilderness in the desert, do you realize it was easier than it was in the promised land? I mean think about this, God provided for them manna from heaven when they were hungry. He would rain down bread, all they had to do was walk outside and pick it up, eat it. God provided for them meat, quail that would fly in and just be on the ground.
All they had to do was harvest them, walk out, get them, go pluck them and eat them. When they didn't know where to go, guess what? God led them visibly by a cloud in the day and fire at night. All they had to do was follow Him in the wilderness in that process and they were being prepared for the promise. But see it's interesting when they got to the promised land it was almost as if it was just beginning.
The work was really just starting. They had to defeat the enemies in the promised land. They were giants. There were wars over and over that they had to win and when they did all of that hard work of taking over the promised land, then they had to take over the farms, re cultivate the ground, they had to plant and harvest, learn to become farmers when they didn't have that skill before. There was a lot of hard work to do in order to experience the promise in the promised land all through God's presence.
Those that walked in the wilderness that were complaining in the process towards the promised land, they died in the wilderness. They didn't get to continue to the promise. You know why? Because they never developed the character necessary to be able to stand and walk out his promise. Their complaining prevented them.
Because if God would've let them their complaining get to the promised land, they would've complained in the promised land and prevented the rest of the people from experiencing the promise of God. So they died in the wilderness. Don't be a complainer in the process, rejoice in the midst of the process and be thankful because you know that God is developing you so that when He blesses you, you have everything that you need in order to carry blessing. So that when he gives you that influence, you have the character necessary to walk out the influence because with that blessing, if you're not ready for it, it will crush you. With the greater influence comes greater responsibility And in that responsibility, there's you have to keep your eyes on His presence.
Otherwise, that responsibility will crush you. You have to rejoice in the midst of it. See, when you get to the promise, the work starts, but you are supposed to have been trained to keep your eyes on Him in the midst of the process, so your eyes can be on Him in the midst of the promise. So that you can do all that God has for you and stand when the enemy comes to attack you, Cause your eyes are on Him in His presence and you're not looking at the circumstances at what the enemy brings around you and about you. No, you're standing in what God says and you're working your butt off with His grace and His power that He's put in you.
Like Paul says, I strenuously work with the power that God has put in me. It's by His grace that He's enabling you to do all that God's called you to do in the promise. Amen. So look, as we go into this prayer time, God wants to bless you. God wants to prepare you for the blessing.
God wants to give you influence and He wants to prepare you for that. God wants you to seek his presence and God wants you to keep your eyes on him for protection humbly knowing that you can only overcome the enemy through the finished work of Christ, through his victory. So as we go to pray for those 4 things, first, here's what I want you to do because your prayer will only be answered if it's not selfish. I want you to pray through Psalm 1 39 23 and 24. I want you to pray like David prayed.
God search me. Holy Spirit, if there's any wicked way, don't search yourself, ask the Holy Spirit. If there's any wicked way, any selflessness, any junk in me, bring it to the surface right now. Search me Oh God, test me. Test my anxious thoughts.
See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. See, He'll bring it to the surface then you repent and you say, God I'll follow you. You're the Lord of my life. I give this to you. So do business with God.
And then number 2, I want you to pray for blessing. Ask God to bless you. Ask God to bless your family. Ask God to bless your church. Why?
So that you can be a blessing to others unselfishly. I want you to play for influence. Ask God to give you influence, more influence at your job. Ask God to give your family more influence. Ask God to give your church more influence.
Why? So you can more effectively spread the gospel in your world And then humbly ask for more of His presence. Yes, you have all of Him with you right now. Yes, absolutely. And yet there's something special about seeking His manifested presence in your life.
What if when you walked in a room other people saw you and thought about Jesus? What if when other people around you, they began to seek and desire the Jesus that's in you because they experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. As you pray for the presence in your family, what if when people walked in your home they realized something was different because the presence of God was manifested there. Pray for the presence in real church. What if as people drove onto the parking lot and walked in, they began to get delivered and healed and saved and set free before they even heard the first note of the Psalms just because the Holy Spirit's presence was so thick because you dared to ask for it.
And then humbly pray for protection because the enemy wants to prevent you from walking out your promise, your destiny. The enemy wants to prevent you from even getting there. He wants you to complain now about what you don't have instead of being thankful for what you do. And then when you get there, he wants you to complain about the work instead of laying your life down by the grace that God has put in you in order to accomplish the promise with Him in partnership with Him, Him accomplishing it through you. So pray for protection from the enemy so that you can refute the lies of the devil, stand up and overcome the giants that are trying to prevent you from walking out your promise.
Let's get together and let's humbly pray. And I wanna ask you, after you're done praying, to ask God if you're supposed to be a part of this church and if you are, don't just say yes in your heart and do nothing about it. I want you to fill out that serve card on realchurch.us. Click serve, fill it out, we'll contact you. I want you to take action because the kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
The violent, what that means is we're gonna take action and we're gonna do this thing and lots of lives will be are gonna be changed and you are invited to experience the fruit of that and you'll only experience it if you participate. God bless you. Hopefully this encouraged you and helped you. Don't forget to share if it did. Bye bye.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.usgiving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you and the best is yet to come.
"Transcribed with Deepgram"