good morning my friends i'm pastor
stephen brooks welcome today to morning
glory our midweek bible study i'm so
happy that you're here today i want to
invite you to grab your bibles and meet
me
in a book that we're not too often at
but it is a fantastic read and that
would be the book of first chronicles
we're going to go to chapter four
and let's talk about this amazing guy
named
jabez
we're going to start in verse 9
and look at a guy that seems to just pop
in
out of nowhere and do some amazing
things and then disappear
but we're going to find out today that
the truth is
he doesn't just pop in nor does he
disappear and we're going to see some
uh insights into the prayer of jabez and
i believe it's going to really help you
in your prayer life let's pray heavenly
father as we go into your word
we ask that your holy spirit would come
and illuminate the scriptures so that we
can spiritually see them spiritually
hear them
and take your word and apply it to our
lives father let your word
be as spiritual food to us
today building faith
and giving clear vision
we just thank you we receive the help of
your holy spirit thank you father in
jesus name we pray and around the world
we say
amen
okay first chronicles chapter 4
verse 9 it says now jabez was more
honorable than
his brothers
well back in the year 2000
there was a man named bruce wilkinson
and he wrote a book called the prayer of
jabez
and that book was basically
on this little bitty uh two verses out
of the bible
basically the prayer is just one verse
so he wrote a whole book on one verse
and it was really anointed by the lord
and that book has now sold nine million
copies
and the catch is is that it seems like a
real short real simple prayer and it is
and god answered the prayer
but as we know it's not like a magic
silver bullet where this is like
something just pray it and you know god
says yes done
there uh are some insights that will
help us to understand why
god answered this prayer and when you
pray this prayer
i think if you understand a little bit
more about jabez i believe god will
answer the same prayer for you
when you pray it praise god so we want
to discuss this man jabez a little bit
more today now
verse 9. now jabez was more honorable
than his brothers
and his mother called his name jabez
saying
because i bore him in pain
now this phrase i bore him in pain
is very interesting because
we could think well that that could mean
just about anything i mean did she have
difficulties during the labor uh
you know what was going on was she
burying him in pain because uh some kind
of a wild activity was going on outside
of the tent where she's giving birth at
uh was the glory departing
or something like that
well thank god for the rabbinic
literature that has been
written down
sharing the knowledge of the rabbis and
of the history of the jewish people
and when you want to find out a little
bit more
of the meat on the bones a little bit
more of the detail of the history so
that you can feel these stories and
better then we can go back to the
ancient writings of the sages and
particularly i'm talking about the
babylonian talbot
when you
study scripture particularly the old
testament and you're reading
commentaries by what we would call
western preachers
they can really
bring a lot of understanding to the
scriptures but there are some areas of
scripture that unless they
understand jewish customs
jewish tradition uh jewish lineage and
uh
you know basically those that wrote the
book basically uh and of course god
worked through the uh those the jewish
men that wrote the books in the old
testament but without a good
understanding
of that jewish identity
there will be some things that we're
going to miss
and the talmud which is a
very complex commentary on the old
testament scripture is a couple uh just
a compiling together
of commentaries by many different uh
world-leading rabbis and of course
they're it's called the babylonian
talbot because they were in babylon in
captivity there by the rivers of babylon
we we sat and wept so
you know they had a lot of time on their
hands uh to
reflect upon the law of moses and also
upon the rich jewish tradition and thank
god that many of them
came out of that captivity returned back
to
the holy land praise god but we can
study those commentaries now they used
to all be in
uh like either hebrew or some type of
european language because as
uh you know the jews immigrated and
particularly the rabbis with all of this
knowledge as they immigrated to spain
and other places like that other
countries over in europe it was uh in a
lot of different languages except
english but now we have
uh the availability to read these
commentaries translate it into english
and they are extremely helpful
in filling in the gaps and i will say
this
that there have been a lot of biblical
events
that
sometimes
archaeologists or skeptics they kind of
say oh there's no way that could be true
but then yet there will be
uh archaeological evidence that will be
uncovered that directly validates god's
word and refutes the skeptics and the
doubters so my friends uh the word of
god is 100 percent true
and it is amazing
that uh many of these
teachings of the rabbis expounding or
commenting up on the old testament
scriptures
really are accurate
to a very amazing degree they were very
uh
very good record keepers very very good
in passing on that knowledge now
in the munich literature
it basically says that jabez
was born prematurely and this is you
know teaching passed down from the
rabbis and that this man was born
premature and his name actually means
speedy
and that uh you know quick so he was
actually called speedy and that would be
a term of endearment that his mother
gave to him with that type of a name but
it would also be not just a term of
endearment it would actually be a
statement of fact that he was a what
they would call a preemie or he had a
premature birth
and the root meaning of his name means a
sudden and unexpected appearance
very interesting now
as we know today even with medical
science today
that if there is a pre-birth
that child is going to be in a very
delicate balance between life and death
they're usually all
very very underweight
and
what happens in a pre-birth particularly
back in the uh you know you go back
hundreds and hundreds and a couple of
thousand years ago
it was a battle of survival not only for
the little baby that's been pre-born but
also for the mother they're both usually
fighting for their lives and sometimes
there can be
lingering health effects uh that the
child
you know has take place in his life
because not everything was formed
completely the way it should have been
before he or she popped out but
nevertheless that is
really what we're looking at here saying
because i bore him in pain
i bore him in pain so
the lord
wants to relieve pain
and the gospel is the pain relieving
solution hallelujah to sin
praise god and all of his problems thank
you lord jesus
and it's good to know
that god can work through us
to
make things sweet hallelujah bring
relief into our lives
and also bring relief from suffering
into lives of other people
around us
and even around the world praise god now
let's continue on
again it says his name's jabez saying
because i bore him in pain
and jabez called on the god of israel
saying
o that you would bless me indeed
now the word bless in hebrew
means literally translated it means
empowered to prosper to prosper in every
single area of your life and we all want
that don't we all want to be blessed i
mean you don't have to pray god
let me be cursed god i'm asking you to
curse me real good no you don't you
don't need any help to be cursed
but to be blessed requires god's
empowerment god's blessing
riding upon your life to lift you up
above all the challenges of the world
the flesh and the devil now let's
continue
oh that you would bless me indeed
and so that's that's a noticeable
tangible blessing indeed an unmistakable
knowing that yep i'm blessed that's what
he's looking for that's what he wants
we're going to find out if we actually
stepped into this
oh that you would bless me indeed and
enlarge
by territory
god is in he's very interested in
larging
your territory
now
you'll always have those that try to
spiritualize everything they'll they'll
that they have a theology that's
basically
uh
it kind of it kind of goes like this you
have some that have a theology where no
matter what the scriptures say they're
going to try to spear like spiritualize
and say that doesn't really refer to
your finances or that doesn't really
refer to your body or god won't really
heal your body he'll just spiritually
heal you or god will just spiritually do
this for you but the truth is is that
salvation the new covenant of salvation
includes wholeness salvation for the
whole person spirit soul body and it it
impacts every area of your need
god didn't leave anything out so this
phrase enlarged my territory yes
absolutely that
literally can mean land it also can mean
influence
uh your ability to
affect others
for righteousness and to affect others
to follow after the lord and his ways it
would include all of that this this
prayer is really a package deal
all that you would bless me indeed and
enlarge my territory
that your hand would be with me now that
reminds me of acts chapter 10 verse 38
where it says concerning jesus that god
was with him
and that that's an amazing statement
where you
you know that god is with you and
because he's with you
it's not like you're going to try to do
anything now
well since god's with me there's nothing
i can't do yeah but you don't need to do
everything all you need to do is do what
god called you to do but just knowing
that while you do that while you pursue
your assignment
while you stay on task doing what god
has called you to do just knowing that
he is with you
is a tremendous blessing because if you
didn't know that you'd be like well i
i'm doing what god wants me to do but i
i sure could use a little backup or i
could use a little company no god's
right there with you the holy spirit is
in you and greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world and so this
is what jabez is asking for
that your hand would be with me
also the phrase your hand
so often in scripture we see that the
hand of the lord came upon the prophet
or upon the king the hand of the lord
also is an allegory that would refer to
the spirit of god moving in a person's
life praise god that your hand would be
with me
and that would you that you would keep
me from evil praise the lord and that's
something that we all want we don't want
to walk into a trap we don't want to
walk into a mess we uh we just want to
stay clear of those of those things that
you would keep me from evil
that i may not cause pain
and having
known i'm sure his mother told him hey
this is why you have this name
this this is your name i'm sure having
understood that
that he
he he was a man of meditation he was a
man of reflection and he said well i
certainly caused my mother enough pain
and i don't want to cause anybody else
any more pain
nor do i want to inflict any unnecessary
pain upon myself
and he prays that that i may not cause
pain and i believe as christians we can
go about
bringing relief from physical pain
through praying for the sick
we can bring relief from mental agony
those that would struggle with
psychological
trauma those that have had or seen
horrific things that have destabilized
their mental state
and we can help relieve their pain and
not just help relieve it completely
through the healing power of the lord
jesus christ amen
and of course the greatest thing that we
can bring relief to is to those that
don't know christ by bringing the cool
water of salvation that they might
receive eternal life through faith in
christ
now look at this
so god granted him what he
requested
and then the story changes
and we jump into a bunch of names and we
jump into a lot of lineage that's laid
out from various family members
and so we're left to think that the man
jabez pops in the scripture out of
nowhere and then after the prayer is
over uh
he's he's gone off the uh uh the
historical records and we all we know is
that we have this little beautiful
prayer and god answered it
my friends there's a lot more to the
story i want to get to that in just a
moment but i want to say that god
granted him what he requested
and if that's all we knew about jabez
that's enough we know that god did it
for him and therefore we would
understand that this prayer is a holy
spirit anointed prayer and that when we
pray it
with a good heart
with an understanding also i believe of
the motives of jabez that i believe that
god will grant and answer this prayer
request for you
as well praise the lord thank you lord
jesus
well
let's see if we can go a little bit
further with this man named
jabez praise god
the ancient rabbis
and the commentaries in the babylonian
talmud
tell us that jabez
went on to become one of the greatest
torah teachers
in the old testament glory to god not
just a torah teacher they said that he
became one of the great ones a great
illuminary of the mosaic law and of the
teachings of god's word
but my friends there's something even
more fascinating about him
is that we also will see that jabez
became
a great leader
and a mighty
warrior
wow
god certainly answered the man's prayer
now let me
share a little light by saying
that you have to understand that jabez
is
his nickname
and don't let that throw you you see it
you see this often in scripture moses
had a nickname for joshua
solomon had multiple nicknames uh
he had he even had a pen name his pen
name was lemuel
and uh his mother called him jedediah so
he had he went by i mean you could just
call various name and maybe solomon
might answer because he had multiple
names
[Laughter]
and so this is not unusual in scripture
and
jabez was
his nickname that's what his mom would
call him and things like that well what
was his real name pastor stephen well
his real name is the name that all of
the rabbis
in all of ancient israel would have
understood and that name of course
passed on through rabbinical knowledge
would be still understood by leading
rabbis today
you want to see his real name
just drop down to verse 13.
the sons of kinase
were othniel
and serea the sons of other neil were
and then it goes into the names of the
sons of athenial
othniel is the real name of jabez
and i already know what some of you are
thinking pastor stephen that sounds
really familiar i have certainly heard
that name before now it's not a name
like moses or david or or something like
that but it's it's for many of you it's
really beginning to ring a bell so i
would like for us to talk just a little
bit today about jabez his prayer and the
more
uh
full picture of who this man was and why
god answered this prayer
now his real name is othniel and let's
go to the book of judges because that's
most likely uh where all of the uh
remembrance of scripture memorization
and reading god's word you're thinking
that sounds like one of the judges from
uh
the early days of uh of the judges when
israel didn't have a king i didn't have
a leader and you're exactly right other
neil was the first of 12 judges
that god gave to the nation after moses
died after joshua died then there was a
vacuum in leadership and the the
the nation of israel began to go into
apostasy and begin to worship false gods
and whenever you have a covenant with
god and you begin to go away from him
and you begin to get into sin and begin
to practice sin
a person or a nation that's in covenant
with god will begin to go into bondage
and when you go into bondage now the
enemy is ruling over you instead of
being the head now you're the tail
instead of being above now you're
beneath and it's no fun it's no fun to
be under the dominion of a cruel task
master
and so god raises up ethnio to be the
first judge and we see this in verse 7.
judges 3 verse 7
so the children of israel did evil in
the sight of the lord
they forgot the lord their god and
served the bells
and
asheras therefore the anger of the lord
was hot against israel and he sold them
into the hand of kushan
rishitham of king of mesopotamia and the
children of israel served kushan
rishitham eight years
eight years or eight days all of it is
too long to be running with the devil
if you're watching me today
and you once knew jesus
and you've gotten the way you backslid
you've walked away from god
now you're in bondage to the devil and
the the devil's the boss over your life
it's time to come back
time to tell uh that old king uh goodbye
king kushan tell him goodbye whether
it's eight years eight months or eight
days you don't want to be in the devil's
camp in the enemy's camp you want to be
serving the lord praise god verse 9
when the children of israel cried out to
the lord
the lord raised up a deliverer for the
children of israel notice you have to
cry out first when you get fed up with
the devil when you get fed up of living
in the pig pen and say god i'm not going
to live like this anymore i can't handle
this this is disgusting
[Laughter]
when you cry out
is when the lord will begin to move upon
your behalf
and now we know that this is going to be
a repetitive thing
where there's going to be a judge and a
judge was a delivery he's wearing
multiple hats
and then that judge is going to die and
then there will be apostasy again then
they'll be crying out again because
nobody likes being in bondage and then
god will send another deliverer another
judge but my friends this is the first
judge
this is the man off the kneel let's go
further when the children of israel
cried out to the lord the lord raised up
a deliverer for the children of israel
who delivered them othnio
that my friends is jabez
whoo and that's what all of the
commentaries in the rabbitic literature
tell us that this is actually who this
man is jabez is off the neil arthur neil
the son of kinase
caleb's younger brother now look at
verse 10 the spirit of the lord came
upon him
my friends the holy spirit
is the one
whom jesus has sent to the earth
to comfort the church lead the church to
strengthen god's people and to show them
things to come and when the holy spirit
comes upon the scene my friends there's
victory on the way and when the holy
spirit comes upon a man or upon a woman
i'm telling you the devil cannot hold
such a person down
the spirit of the lord came upon him and
he judged israel
he went out to war
ah so he's a judge
he's going out to war sounds to me like
he's
a person that's expanding his territory
that he has gone from a position of
being a very good teacher now to a place
of national prominence and he is
influencing do you see that the
expansion of his territory let's now see
there pastor stephen i told you it
wasn't about land god never blesses you
physically it's only just spiritually no
no no god will give you the whole
package praise the lord but
it's very important to understand that
this area of influence uh carries a
great weight with the lord and if you're
if you're willing to be an influence for
righteousness
trust me you're gonna you're gonna catch
the lord's attention and how can you be
an influence for righteousness by
telling people what god's word says how
come you don't do that
well i don't do that because i'm a goody
two-shoe i don't do that because i'm
trying to act self-righteous and make
myself look good make you look bad i
don't do that because god says i can't
do that i don't do that because in god's
word he says that's wrong he calls that
sin that's why i can't do that
so you are what you are an influence for
righteousness whoo praise the lord
now
we see the expansion of his territory
greatly i mean we're talking about
tremendous level of increase here the
spirit of the lord came upon him
now back in the old testament it was
very very rare if the holy spirit ever
came upon what we would call a layman
and
even still when the holy spirit would
move he would usually only move upon
three categories of people those would
be the jewish people who would either be
a a prophet or be a priest or see a king
so prophet priest or king the holy
spirit would move upon
and
for the holy spirit to move upon this
man is very special because
first of all you would think well was he
a prophet priest or king uh it doesn't
appear to be now we know that moses was
a tremendous prophet and it could be
that authorial came into a prophetic
type ministry but either way there's no
king so he's really standing in the
place
of a king or as a leader
and thus the holy spirit comes upon him
and my friends the holy spirit can come
upon you today we have this tremendous
privilege
in christ of having the holy spirit not
only be in us but he can also come up on
us and that's something that the spirit
of the lord coming up on a person in the
old testament was rare and only happened
to select people but we as the children
of god can also have the holy spirit
move upon us the spirit of the lord came
upon him and he judged israel he went
out to war see there he was a warrior
also i tell you what he he stepped into
some big shoes and did a great job
and he judged israel he went out to war
and the lord delivered cushing rishitham
king of mesopotamia into his hand
and his hand prevailed over kushan
rishitham so the land
had rest for 40 years the nathaniel the
son of canez died praise the lord now
when he died they buried him in hebron
and he's actually buried there today he
runs a fascinating city many of the
great patriarchs are actually buried in
hebron it's just a little bit
oh
i guess the best way to say it is that
it's not the safest place for americans
to go i would like to go there but um a
little bit risky particularly during
some times of the year certain days is
extra risky but that's where jabez or
othniel as we now know him is buried
now
this is interesting because
in the talmud it says that othniel
became one of the greatest torah
teachers that israel had had seen i mean
this was a man that could take the law
of moses the mosaic law and he could
teach it he he had it completely
memorized and he could he could instruct
people as to its meaning and he was a
tremendous teacher
and it's very important for us to
understand that
the teaching of god's word
is the unveiling of god's instructions
and god's instructions
point us in the direction of obedience
to his commandments and obedience is not
optional
it's absolutely essential in order
in order for us to experience
god's very best for
our lives now i want you to be thinking
about this because this is this is
jabez's prayer the prayer that jabez
prayed i want you to understand that
jabez
was one of the great teachers of the law
praise the lord
thank you jesus now let's ask a question
did
god
increase
his territory
well the
the meaning of territory could in a
sense refer to
influence and we could see clearly that
that was a very
uh
big enlargement that happened to his
life he's judging the whole nation now
but also
we do see that god blessed jabez
with more land and that my friends is in
the bible and now that we know that his
name his real name is othniel
we can see it recorded in scripture
here's one example i think he had other
land as well here's one example joshua
chapter 15 as we're looking at this get
ready for increase
get ready for enlargement
get ready to make a bigger impact for
the kingdom of god through god's
blessing in your life he's going to
bless you
he's going to increase your territory
hallelujah some of you are going to jump
to a regional impact some of you are
going to jump to a national or
multinational international type of
impact but get ready for the lord to
lift you to the next level because
you're coming into it in this season not
five years from now you're coming into
this bump up
this great step forward
hallelujah in this current
season for some of you it's almost like
you're going to literally go from the
back of the line
directly to the very front
of the line mark my words on that praise
god some of you will see the literal
fulfillment
of what i just spoke to you praise god
now
joshua 15 verse 16
and caleb said
he who attacks kira joth seifer and
takes it to him i will give aksa my
daughter as wife
so athniel who's often ill jabez
so authentiel
the son of kinase the brother of caleb
took it and he gave him oxa his daughter
his wife let me stop there just for a
second before i get to the part that i
want to mainly bring out but i shouldn't
skip over this and leave you hanging
excuse me just for a moment while i get
a drink of water
now
when you see that atheneel
and caleb were brothers
and one brothers giving the other
brother his
his daughter uh you're kind of you're
kind of wondering what's going on here
let me say first of all that
if i were to try to explain
this in full it would probably take
about
30 minutes these family lines and these
lineages are very complex and it takes a
lot of work even for
hebrew rabbis to unravel who's who who's
related to who
and how this is actually working here
but i can safely say that he did not
give his brother his own sister okay so
we're not talking about incest here
there's a huge age gap also between
caleb and
othniel it could it could be as much as
40 to over 50 years in age difference
so this is uh this is not what it is
appearing to be when you dig into the
lineage
there is a relationship there but you
have to understand that it's it's
somewhat diluted and when you study the
meaning of brother here in context
uh it takes a while to
unravel all of that but no he's not
getting uh his his sister to be his wife
that is not what that is conveying right
there
all right verse 18.
now it was so
when she came to him
that she persuaded him to ask her father
for a field now let's jump back to what
we're referring to here and the point i
want to make is that jabez
whose real name is othniel
has now married aksa
and aksa she is the daughter of caleb
now everybody knows joshua and caleb
okay now look at verse 18. now it was so
when she came to him that she persuaded
him to ask her father for a field so she
dismounted from her donkey and caleb
said to her what do you wish she
answered give me a blessing
sounds a little bit similar to that
prayer that jabez prayed give me a
blessing since you have given me land in
the south right down in the negev give
me also springs of water so he gave her
the upper springs and the lower springs
see you have to understand this this
increase of land that's coming to
oxa she's married to jabez
[Laughter]
so jabez is literally increasing in
physical territory and i see that for
many of you
where god's going to take you into land
ownership
and um
there's something about owning land it's
it's like the old proverb says they're
not making any more of it right
there's something about owning land that
the holy spirit can help you to buy a
piece of property maybe it's uh maybe
it's just raw land
but you feel led to buy it and that
perhaps you take it and you fix it up
and uh maybe somebody wants to come by
later and buy it for
uh what would be a wonderful prophet for
you uh and so these are things that god
can do but it begins with ownership and
god can increase you now i know right
now the holy spirit is speaking to quite
a few that you're going to see an
increase in territory
and that is a literal meaning of owning
more land perhaps is owning your first
piece of property
but either way it's time for increase
increase
increase in the owning of real property
how about this this one had some uh had
some springs of water on it and you know
that was very valuable down in the
southern area of israel known as the
beautiful niger which is very very
pretty that's a desert but it's still
very beautiful but the half springs wow
hey doing pretty good that's a wonderful
blessing to have and of course she is
married to
jabez praise the lord
so yes god did increase his territory
with influence and also with land praise
god thank you jesus
now
let us not forget that he also increased
in the area of influence by being a
national torah teacher and instructing
the people in the ways of righteousness
this is very very important praise god
now
there is actually
when you read through the old testament
and you see the name jabez
don't be confused when you come across
a word jabez in the bible that is
actually referring to a town or village
and so there is actually
mentioned in scripture a town
called jabez
and guess who it's named after jabez or
other neil as we know him so this town
is in israel and the rabbis teaches in
the talmud that jabez the town in israel
is where jabez taught all of the scribes
and this town became a
just a receptacle of all of those that
were called to be scribes it was a
schoolhouse for scribes
and he would teach them the law he would
teach them how to record it how to write
it and everything that was involved in
that whole process
and we are told through rabbinic
literature that the whole tribe
or the whole family group of jethro
and the keynights and the reykjabites
left their homes near jericho
and went to the town of jabez to learn
from jabez as he taught torah to them
and to everybody else that lived in the
village and of course that teaching
would go out those instructions will go
out on a national level to everyone
there so the town was named after him
and
let me go back to the prayer of jabez
just for a moment because i want to show
you uh
even another angle on the increase of
territory
when he's praying oh that you would
bless me indeed and enlarge my territory
the rabbis also teach that phrase
enlarge my territory he's asking god
give me a whole bunch of students
let my uh uh
schoolhouse of all of these scribes just
get bigger and bigger and it did god
blessed it he started getting students
as we would call them he had he had this
this thing going on where he he was
teaching a lot of people
and uh it really is fascinating how god
answered this so you see that tremendous
influence this man had praise the lord
it's very very beautiful thing
glory to god and i believe that
when you bring god into the equation
god's kingdom into the equation of why
you're desiring increase
then that's something that really
catches the heart of god
here's a fascinating verse from the book
of isaiah
isaiah chapter 2
and i want to go to verse 1
isaiah 2
and let me drop on down here to verse 1.
the word that isaiah the son of amaz saw
concerning judah and jerusalem now look
at verse 2
now it shall come to pass in the latter
days
many translations say the last days
that's where we're living at right now
now it shall come to pass in the latter
days so this thing is coming to pass
right now
we're in the middle of it
now it shall come to pass in the latter
days
that the mountain of the lord's house
shall be established on the top of the
mountains and shall be exalted above the
hills and all nations shall flow to it
many people and many it's not like 100
or 200 many as millions upon millions
upon millions hundreds of millions many
people shall come and say come
and let us go up to the mountain of the
lord to the house of the god of jacob he
will teach us his ways and we shall walk
in his paths look if you don't if you
don't know his ways you can't walk in
his path paths
and thank god for jabez so you can see
him as a as a
an elite torah teacher
right
training scribes and doing everything he
can to influence the people of god for
righteousness
and saying god increase my influence
increase my territory lord i need more
influence i need more provision lord i
need property i need land i mean you
can't you can't have a school of
ministry you can't have a school of
scribes sitting underneath a tree you
have to have property you have to have
facilities and all of those things
he will teach us his ways and shoot he
should we shall walk in his paths for
out of zion shall go forth the law and
the word of the lord from jerusalem
look if you can mix this
into your prayer somehow and i'm not
saying you have to be a minister to mix
this in
i'm just saying if you have the kingdom
heart to see the increase of what's on
god's heart in your prayer for increase
in expansion that's why the prayer gets
answered because a lot of people have
prayed the prayer of jabez like it was
some kind of magic silver bullet
and well the the bullet never went
anywhere
and magic doesn't work
so when you understand the context of
who jabez is he of course he's off the
kneel
and the motive of this prayer
which is to influence people for
righteousness
then you see why god would be so
uh in agreement to answer it and do it
so we know that that prayer concludes by
saying in verse 10
god granted him what he requested
and we know that because god said it but
we've also seen it revealed in scripture
in joshua as we've looked at and also in
judges as we have seen as well and he
lived a very long life he's a good man
he was actually counted as
amongst the teachers the rabbis as a
very very righteous man in other words
he
he not only taught it but he
lived it praised the lord let's look at
the prayer one more time
and jabez called on the god of israel
saying oh that you would bless me indeed
that there's a purpose for the blessing
he needs that to do what he is on his
heart the vision that god's given him
oh that you would bless me indeed and
enlarge my territory and that word is
multifaceted it's influence it's literal
land it's whatever you need but you're
going to have to you're going to have to
enlarge because this is a large work to
do so if you want the lord to enlarge
your business to increase your finances
you've got to pull the kingdom
into that and when you put the kingdom
of god first and his righteousness which
is what people need
righteousness then he's going to add all
of these other things to you
praise the lord but it's a beautiful
prayer and you should pray i would i
would encourage you to do it hallelujah
oh that you would bless me indeed and
enlarge my territory that your hand or
your spirit as we would say would be
with me
and that you would keep me from evil
that's good absolutely that i may not
cause pain
hallelujah that you don't cause pain you
go around bringing relief
bringing the word of the lord bringing
provision bringing encouragement
uplifting people everywhere you go and
also warning
those that
that are
you know doing bad things you have to
warn them as paul did there is a day of
judgment coming and god
through his son jesus is going to judge
the world there's a there's a day of
judgment coming you have to warn people
that so god granted him what he
requested praise the lord now
before
you leave today after hearing this
message i would like for you to
just find a quiet place you can drop
down on your knees
and pray this prayer to the lord
and however you want to see the
the increase or the enlargement of your
territory in your life then you present
that to the lord
and watch what god will do perhaps you
have a business and you say lord
enlarge my territory enlarge my business
and he'll do that and as you also see
the purpose see the purpose amen that
the word of god will go forth
from zion zion a representation of the
church to all of the earth and as we
proclaim it there there are multitudes
already that are receiving it and those
numbers are increasing
praise the lord
praise god the word is going forth the
war the word is going forth out of zion
praise god
hallelujah father i pray for everybody
watching today
that even as they understand that
prophetically this is in isaiah chapter
54
verse one through three
year in the sense where we are
stretching out our stakes and we're in
uh stretching the curtains and
lengthening everything lord because it
is a time of great increase
and the increase is for
the propelling of the gospel message
throughout all of the earth we thank you
for and also for teaching your people
teaching them your ways so that we can
walk in your paths father we thank you
we rejoice in you
we rejoice in you father let
let your people connect with your heart
through this prayer and i thank you that
you're going to grant it to them and
they're going to see
immediate movement in their lives just
like you did for jabez
thank you father god thank you thank you
thank you father god in jesus name
in jesus name
amen
you know when you're righteous
you can be a good judge
but when you're unrighteous you're a bad
judge maybe you took a bribe or maybe
you just you don't care so you got to
just uh call the case however you want
to because you don't you don't care
about justice but when you're righteous
you can be like othniel like jabez you
can be a great judge you can be a great
leader because you have character you
can be a great warrior because you have
faith and not fear
praise god well there's a lot packed
into this little prayer
praise the lord if you're watching
today's program and you don't know jesus
christ the son of god as your personal
lord and savior
right now he extends salvation to you
if you will open your heart to him and
surrender your life to him and ask him
to save you he will save you right now
if you would like to do that pray this
prayer after me say lord jesus
you died to save sinners
like me
jesus
you rose from the dead on the third day
and now you are seated in heaven at the
right hand of your father
lord jesus
save me from my sins
wash me with your precious blood
write my name in your book
of life
jesus
i repent and turn from my sin
and i commit my life fully to you
from this day forward
and lord i'm going to walk in your ways
now say this say jesus teach me your
ways
and thank you jesus for saving me
in your name i pray
amen
and amen
praise the lord hallelujah and those of
you that have prayed that prayer welcome
to the family of god
my friends let's take holy communion
together today
and just rejoice in what jesus has made
available for us hallelujah
and the lord is moving
i see that god the father is just
waiting for you to pray that prayer
and we're going to
take a moment after we've taken
communion give the lord a few minutes so
you can lift that prayer up to him
praise god let's grab some communion
take some unleavened bread some grape
juice
and let's pray over it together
heavenly father we thank you for the
bread and the juice
we set the bread and the juice
apart as being holy now through this
prayer we bless it
we thank you that this is now the body
and the blood of christ
father we still see with our physical
eyes a little wafer and some grape juice
but we thank you
that this is the mystical body and blood
of christ
and we receive it as such
father thank you for the flesh of our
savior
thank you oh god
for the prayer of jabez
and helping us to understand who jabez
is he's othniel
and oh god we just thank you that
you are establishing righteousness in
our lives and that we can be
teachers of righteousness
we give you praise we thank you father
in jesus name
amen let's receive the lord's body
heavenly father thank you for the blood
of jesus we thank you for its sin
cleansing
ability
and father just like jabez prayed that
he asked that you would keep him from
evil and father we first ask that you
would forgive us of all of our sins
wash us clean through the blood of
christ
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
thank you father now father we forgive
anybody anyone who sinned against us
and father we pray that you keep us from
evil
there's so many things out there father
god through so many different forms of
evil that are presented
and it's a very dirty world that we live
in oh god
dirty spiritually
we ask that you would keep us from those
things
we thank you father god that just like
you
delivered jabez you'll protect and
deliver us as well
so father we thank you for the blood of
jesus and we receive it now
in his name
amen let's receive
praise the lord
praise the lord
thank you lord jesus
bless it be the name of the lord
blessed be the name of the lord glory
glory
glory to god just lift your hands for a
moment and worship the lord lord we just
praise you
we worship you
father you're the god of jabez you're
the god of abraham isaac and jacob and
you're the god of jabez
and father we thank you that that was
his na that was his nickname
hallelujah that was his
just his term of endearment name but we
thank you father for othniel
and the great work that he did thank you
father god that i
i see that you're increasing your people
you're expanding your people into new
territory father we give you the praise
because we praise you before it's ever
it never takes place because we know
it's going to happen we're in the season
i thank you father for promotion for
your people and the uh enlargement of
territory father we give you praise and
glory we bless you we bless you lift
your hands with me let's just thank him
for it in advance father we thank you
and we praise you you're a great god
you're a good god we give you all of the
praise
in jesus name thank you father amen i
tell you i'm seen i i i
i'm seeing promotion come swiftly for
for quite a few people i'm seeing
promotion come
it's your time of lifting up
blessed be the lord
praise the lord well my friends i'm
going to step off now and leave you in
the lord's presence leave you with the
lord and i'd like to ask you just to
take a moment
and you and god one on one
or you kneel down and pray this prayer
to him from your heart
and i believe that god's going to grant
it to you as well and you're going to
see god
move in your life in this area god bless
you thanks for watching
i'll see you back
next time bye bye