What Will You Name Your Future?

So back in November, just a couple of months ago, we were in a series, and many of you will remember, that was entitled the Desperate Cry. We were examining for several weeks Notable Prayers of the Bible. Notable Prayers of the Bible. I really felt impressed of the Lord. Even though we paused for our Christmas series, I felt impressed of the Lord that we were to continue in that series.

And so for the month of January, for these next four weeks, we. We're gonna continue in that. We're gonna talk about some of the notable prayers of the Bible that we were not able to get to in those five weeks or so at the end of October and all through the month of November. So we're doing that today out of 1st Chronicles, chapter 4. Now, there are people that have done certain things in life, in society and culture, that have affected millions of people, and we don't know their names.

Like, they're not common household names. Like, for example, Niles Boland. He was working for Volvo, the company Volvo back in 1958. And while he was working for them, he invented something that has literally saved millions of lives. But most of us don't know his name.

Niles Boland invented the seat belt, and literally, it saved millions of lives. There's a guy by the name of Maurice hilleman. Back in 1963, his young daughter was stricken with mumps. And so during the middle of the night, he swabbed the back of her throat. He drove to his laboratory, and there, as he locked himself in his laboratory, he came up with a vaccine for mumps.

But that wasn't all. He also came up with a vaccine for measles and for chickenpox and for hepatitis A and for hepatitis B and for. And for pneumonia. But probably most of us, I would include myself in the category, have never heard the name Morris Hilleman. Many people have never heard the name Lewis Latimer.

Lewis Latimer was the son of runaway slaves, and he patented a carbon filament for the incandescent light bulb in 1881. Now, Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the light bulb. Up up until that point, up until Lewis Latimer patented that carbon filament, Thomas Edison was only able to get a light bulb to stay lit for a few minutes. But then what Lewis Latimer did changed the game completely. We've never heard his name.

There's a guy from Australia by the name of James Harrison. James Harrison had a very unique blood type. In fact, he was able to save 2.4 blood million babies and children because his blood produces a rare Antibody which cures the otherwise fatal rhesus disease. And he donated blood 1,173 different times to save the lives of babies and children before, at the age of 77, he was forced to retire as a blood donor because of his age. But he saved many lives.

He's not a household name. James Harrison. And the guy we're talking about this morning, out of 1st Chronicles, chapter 4, chances are many of you have never heard of him, yet he prayed a prayer. He prayed a very notable prayer in scripture that has literally impacted the lives of millions of people back in the year 2000. So 25 years ago, a pastor by the name of Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book and released the book.

And I have a copy of the book. I probably have several copies, but I was able to find this in my bookshelves entitled the Prayer of Jabez. And in the first year that he wrote this book, it sold over 8 million copies in. In the first year, it stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 94 consecutive weeks. And literally, this little prayer that we're gonna look at this Morning out of 1 Chronicles, Chapter 4, has impacted the lives of millions of people.

So hopefully you're there. We're Gonna look at two verses, verse 9 and 10. Would you stand to honor the word of God this morning? If anybody here is excited about the Word, come on, make a little noise today.

Here's what we find. If you don't have your Bible or device, we always put the verses up on the screen. It says this. Now, Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bore him pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel.

Here's this prayer, one verse, saying, oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. So God granted him what he requested. Make some declarations on this first Sunday of the year. Everybody together. You ready?

Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the Word, and I am confident of this.

We'll complete it in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. Listen, if you're planning to read the Bible through this year, and I do that just about every single year, there's great Bible reading plans on youversion and other places. And a lot of people make it a discipline that they read The Bible through cover to cover, year after year.

And if you're planning to do that, kudos to you, hats off to you. But chances are you're gonna get to some chapters like First Chronicles, chapter four, and it's going to be full of names that you cannot pronounce. It's going to be full of genealogies. And you're going to do what I have done many, many times. And you're just going to skip right over that section.

Come on, you're in the house of God. Be honest. How many of you have skipped over the genealogies of Scripture at some point in your life? Right? Well, First Chronicles, the first nine chapters are just full of hundreds of names.

And chapter four, same thing. The genealogies so and so, begat so and so, begat so and so, begat so and so. And it just on and on and on. And here we are, 44 names in to chapter four. By the time we get to verse nine and ten, 44 names in.

And the writer of 1st Chronicles, Jesus just veers off course for two verses, for two verses. And he highlights this guy by the name of Jabez that many of us have never heard of. And he highlights the prayer that he prayed. And then he goes right back, jumps right back into name after name after name after name after name. What's that mean?

Chances are many of you have have skipped over one of the most powerful prayers found in the entire Bible. Now, verse nine, Jabez is only mentioned one time in Scripture in the entire Bible. It's right here in verse 9 and 10. And verse 9 tells us everything we know about Jabez, which isn't much. Verse 9 tells us that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers.

We don't know how many brothers that he had. We don't know if Jabez was the youngest. We don't know if he's oldest. We don't know if he was the middle child. We don't know where he fell in the order of his brothers.

But the Bible says he was more honorable than his brothers. Somehow, Jabez just determined he was going to go the extra mile. Jabez was going to achieve more. Somehow he was going to etch his name in the history books. Verse 9 also tells us some meaning behind his name.

Verse 9 tells us that his mother named him Jabez because he caused her pain in childbirth. The name Jabez literally means watch, sorrowful or born in pain. Yet somehow, Jabez determined that he would not allow his destiny to be defined by somebody else's label that they put on him. Here's what I wanna say to you. And I believe this is an important message for the beginning of the year and for the entirety of 2025.

But here's something I need to say to you. Church, listen to me. You cannot be make your issue your identity, do not make your issue your identity. And do not name your future based on your present or based on your past. First Samuel chapter four tells us a story.

It's when the Israelites were fighting against the Philistines. And the Israelites in one day lost 30,000 soldiers. And on that same day, in that same battle, the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines. Now, the Bible tells us in 1st Samuel 4 that when Eli the priest heard what had happened, he's in a chair, leaning back against the wall. And when he heard that they had lost 30,000 soldiers, and not only was it just 30,000, but his two sons had hophni and Phinehas were in that number of soldiers that were killed, and the Ark of the Covenant was captured.

When Eli heard that, the Bible says he fell backwards on his chair, broke his neck, and he died. Now, he had a daughter in law who was the wife of Phinehaz, who was very late in her pregnancy. And when she learned of the fact that her father in law had died and that her husband had died and that the Ark of the Covenant had been captured, the Bible says that she went into labor and she had some serious complications while she was there in labor. In verse 20 and 21 of 1st Samuel 4 says this. As she was dying, the women attending her said, don't despair, you've given birth to a son.

But she did not respond or pay any attention. She. She named the boy Ichabod, saying the glory has departed from Israel because of the capture of the Ark of God and the deaths of her father in law and her husband. Listen, we would all agree she had reason to be distraught, she had reason to be upset. She had good reason to be devastated.

She lost her husband, lost her father in law on the same day, as well as heard the news that the Ark of the Covenant had been taken by the Philistines. But watch. She named her child based on what was happening in the present, named him Ichabod. The glory has departed from Israel. What I want you to see and what I want you to understand is that she could have named her child based on God's track record.

She could have named her child based on the goodness of God. She could have named him. The glory will return.

She could have named her son God will restore because names were significant in the Bible, but instead she chooses to name her son based on what was happening in her present. And then she died. Now listen to me. Faith says, according to the Bible, in Deuteronomy 28:7, the Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you, attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven. I think that's a good scripture for you to claim in 2025.

Faith says, according to 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 3. But the Lord is faithful and he will give you strength and will protect you from the evil one. The Bible says. And faith says, according to Isaiah, chapter 54, verse 17, no weapon. Everybody say, no weapon.

No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication for me, declares the Lord. Somebody needs to declare by faith, Isaiah 54:17, over your life in 2025, faith says, according to Romans 8:37, know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are more than conquerors. That word in the Greek conquerors is the word hupernikomen.

It means more than an Olympic winner, more than an Olympic champion through Jesus Christ. I want to ask you this morning, I want to ask you that are watching online. I want to ask you that are incarcerated, watching on the Pando app. What will you name this year? What will you name 2025?

Will you name this year based on what has happened in your past? Will you name this year based on what's already been happening in the first five days? Or will you name this year based on what God says in his word and based on who he is? I challenge you. I challenge you to name this year 2025, as the year of favor.

I challenge you to call this year the year of increase, the year of revelation, the year of advancement, the year of prosperity, the year of health, the year of restoration.

Don't name this year based on a label that somebody else put on you. Don't allow your issue to be your identity. Jabez, we know very little about him, but the Bible says in verse nine, he was more honorable than his brothers. He just made the decision. I'm not going to allow my issue, my name, to identify me.

I'm going to achieve more. And then Jabez, in verse 10, has the audacity to pray this crazy prayer Now, I want you to know the Bible starts out by saying he prayed to the God of Israel. I think that's important. I want to remind you that in 2025, you're not praying to a dead God.

You're not praying to a deaf God. You're not praying to an apathetic God. You're not praying to a God that's overwhelmed. You're not praying to a God who doesn't know your name. You're praying to a God who sees you out of over 8 billion people on the planet.

You're praying to a God who knows your name. You're praying to a God who knows about your upbringing. You're praying to a God who knows about your issues. You're praying to a God who knows about the labels that have been put on you by others. You're praying to a God who knows about the physical condition of your body.

He knows about every bill that has been stacked up. He knows about generational curses in your life. You're praying to a God who is faithful to answer. I said he's faithful to answer.

You're praying to a God who sees and hears. And Jabez, pray to the God of Israel. His prayer contains four parts. We're going to move through these quickly, and then we're going to pray. But he starts out by saying, oh, that you would bless me indeed.

Oh, that you would bless me indeed. A prayer of blessing, he starts out. Now, at first glance, you might think that's rather selfish on the part of Jabez. And maybe you feel guilty praying for the blessings of God. I've said for years that the blessings of God should never make you feel guilty, but they should make you feel responsible.

Jabez says, oh, that you would bless me indeed. It's not wrong for you to pray for the blessings of God, because listen to me, it's God's desire and it's God's heart that you be blessed. He loves to bless his kids. But unfortunately, there are certain people for years that have hijacked the word blessing, and they've associated it only with material wealth and material prosperity.

And they've corrupted the concept of blessing through a thing that we know as the prosperity gospel, that if you do certain things, if you give certain amounts of money, that God's going to do certain things for you, almost as if he's a heavenly vending machine. And you can pay for the blessings of God. And that's not scriptural.

But let me tell you what is scriptural. Are y' all with me so far this morning. What is scriptural is that you ask him for his blessings. He wants to bless you. But let me tell you, motives mean everything.

Motives mean everything. Now listen, as you're praying and as you're seeking the Lord through Selah, God may put his finger on certain areas of your life where you say, God bless me. And I challenge you. I. I want to challenge you. That you pray this one verse every day of your life.

That you pray this one verse, verse 10, the prayer of Jabez, that you pray it over your family, over your household, over your business. But as you pray and as you say, God bless me indeed, then there may come a point that God puts his finger on something in your life and says, I want to bless you. It is my father's heart to bless you. But we have to deal with these issues in your life in order for me to bless you. Maybe there's some things that God reveals to you that are out of order.

And the Lord says, that's blocking my blessings on your life. I can't bless you because of this area of compromise or. Or this area of disobedience. And God says, let's deal with that, because that clog will be removed, and it'll open up the channel for my blessings in your life. Because, listen to me.

Holy order brings heavenly outpourings.

God's blessings are always realized within God's boundaries. Come on. Are you with me?

So we pray and we say, God bless me. And the Lord says, I want to bless you, but let's deal with some things in your life that would be hindrances to my blessing. Now, notice Jabez says, lord, bless me indeed. Indeed. Adding that word to his prayer is like adding five exclamation points when he says, lord, bless me indeed.

Here's a guy who grew up with a name that any boy would love to hate. It was a daily reminder that he had caused his mother pain. It was a daily reminder that she named him Sorrowful. He wanted to do anything he could to slip out from under that label and to do something great for God. He had heard stories about God's deliverance and God's provision, and he figures, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

And so he says, oh, God, I pray that you would bless me indeed. Exclamation point, over and over. What an audacious prayer. Now, the word bless carries so much more weight than just a courteous token after somebody sneezes. The word in the biblical sense means to ask for or to impart supernatural favor.

Listen to me in 2025, those of you who will dare to pray the prayer that Jabez prayed. We're not asking God for more of what we can receive for ourselves, but for his favor on our lives that will enable us to bring more glory to him in 2025. And that rolls right into the second part of Jabez's prayer. He says, enlarge my territory. It's a prayer for growth.

Listen to me. God wants your influence to grow in 2025. God wants your influence as a business person to grow. God wants your influence as a disciple of Christ to grow. God wants your influence amongst your co workers or amongst your fellow students on your college campus or your high school, middle school campus.

God wants your influence to grow this year. And the second part of Jabez's prayer is all about stewarding his blessings in a way that glorifies him. A few moments ago, I prayed a prayer over you that I've prayed for 20 years out of Second Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 10 and 11. I'm going to read it to you again. It says now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. In other words, your generosity will cause people's hearts to be turned to the Lord. Now, there's two keys in those verses that I just read. The first one is Paul says, he who supplies seed to the sower, seed to the sower.

In other words, you have to choose in 2025 to be a sower. It doesn't say that he gives seed to the hoarder.

He doesn't give seed to the stingy. He gives seed to the sower. Here's the second thing that is key in this verse. He says you'll be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. You have to choose generosity.

You can hoard it, you can keep it. You can just focus on buying stuff for yourself. As the Lord responds to the first part of the prayer, when you say, oh God, I pray that you would bless me indeed. And all of a sudden there's a channel opened up for the blessings of God in your life. And as the blessings are received, there are choices that you have to make.

Now what will I do with this? Will I just buy a bunch of stuff? Buy A bunch of toys? Take a bunch of vacations? Or will I, first and foremost, learn to be a sower?

Will I be generous on every occasion? Because if you make those choices, then the Bible says he, he will increase your store of seed. He'll increase your store of seed. But there's responsibility that comes with the blessings of God. And Jabez recognizes that.

Look what Isaiah, chapter 54, verses 1 through 3 says. Seeing barren woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor. Why? Because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband, says the Lord. Watch.

Enlarge the place of your tent. I'm declaring this over you on this first Sunday of 2025. It's going to be a year of increase, a year of enlarging territory. Come on. Will somebody believe with your pastor that in 2025, God's going to enlarge the territory of the refuge where we're reaching people around the world, But God's going to take that to a whole other level.

Not for our namesake. Not because we're trying to become church famous, you know, around the globe. That's not it. We want to make him famous. We want to declare his name across the earth.

I'm believing this is going to be a year that you stretch forth your tent pegs. Your businesses are going to grow. Your relationships are going to grow and thrive. Your children, your grandchildren are gonna grow and prosper and thrive in the things of the lord. Watch verse 2.

Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left.

Your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. Oh, God, let the people of God claim the dead and desolate places for the kingdom's sake. I love the fact that Love Life has been testifying lately that in South Florida, where they've been showing up week after week after week for years, praying at a busy abortion clinic in South Florida, that recently, over the last few months, that place shut down. That a listen, a Christian businessman bought that place and handed the keys to love life. And they now are holding prayer meetings on the inside of that abortion clinic.

That's enlarging territory, my friend. That's the favor of God, increasing and expanding the kingdom. Then Jabez prays this. I gotta hurry, he says, let your hand be with me. Now, this is so key, because God's blessings on our Lives and the expansion of influence should always listen, should always make us more dependent on God, not less.

And that's where a lot of people stumble. That's where a lot of people get tripped up, because they start taking credit for the blessings of God. They start thinking they did something to make this happen. They did something that, you know, they made some changes in their business, and all of a sudden they've got more clients than they've ever had. They've signed more contracts than they've ever had, and they start kind of puffing their chest out a little bit, saying, yeah, yeah, you know, we reorganized some things, made some changes, and, you know, now we're experiencing multiplied increase in growth, you know, whatever, and they start taking credit for it.

And really what should happen is as God blesses us and blesses your family and blesses your life and blesses your finances and blesses your business, you should become more dependent on him. And Jabez is feeling that as he prays. That's why he prays. Let your hand be with me. Wilkinson says on page 49 of this book.

If seeking God's blessings is our ultimate act of worship, and asking to do more for him is our utmost ambitions, then asking for God's hand upon us is our strategic choice to sustain and continue the great things that God has begun in our lives. Listen. The hand of God. The phrase the hand of God is synonymous with his presence. Look what we read in Acts, chapter 11, verse 20 and 21.

It says some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks, also telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. Watch, verse 21. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. That's synonymous with the presence of God was with them. The Lord's hand was on them.

Listen to me, church in 2025. You cannot fulfill his purpose without his presence. And every single one of you that are in this room right now, every one of you watching online, you have a purpose. But you'll never fulfill that purpose without his presence. How many of you would say, I need the hand of God on my life?

Now look at the last part of Jabez's prayer. And then we're going to pray. He prays this. Keep me from harm. It's a prayer of protection.

Keep me from harm. Let your hand rest on me, God. As the blessings start coming in, as my influence grows, as my territory grows, oh, God, I'm more dependent on you. Than I've ever been. I need your hand to rest on me, God, so that I do not cause evil.

Keep me from harm, God. I don't want to cause evil. I don't want to bring pain to you. He says in 2024. Unfortunately, we've witnessed some prominent and influential key leaders in the body of Christ that have been exposed for sin issues in their lives, character issues in their lives.

And it has tainted the integrity of the church and it has stained the wedding gown of the bride of Christ.

I say that with great fear and trembling. We had night watch prayer Friday night, nine to midnight.

And as I knelt on my knees, I said, God, we're not here to impress you.

We're not here to manipulate you. I said, God, as the pastor of this house, I want to be the first to say we haven't figured anything out. We can't do this on our own. We're 20 years in. We could hit autopilot.

But, God, we need you now more than we've ever needed you before. We need your hand on us. We need your presence. Oh, God. That's why we gather.

That's why every quarter we have night watch prayer. That's why there's groups that meet every single week here at the Refuge, praying because we know we need his presence. We know we're only one decision away from bringing shame on his character and on his name.

We want to finish well. We want to run our race well. We don't want to bring reproach or taint the gown of the bride of Christ in any way by anything that happens here at the Refuge. We know we're not perfect, but we know more than we've ever known before that we need him. Because success and increased favor will always bring about new levels of temptation.

And I'm grateful for the hand of God that has rested on this place for 20 years.

Listen, I'm not the smartest person on the planet, but I'm smart enough to know I can't take credit for this. The fingerprints of God are all over this place.

But I know that the enemy would love to corrupt what God has done here. As the Lord continues to increase our influence, as the Lord continues to enlarge our territory, one of the best ways to win a fight is to never enter the arena.

That's why Jesus taught his disciples in the Lord's Prayer. Pastor Terry preached on this back in November. Jesus taught his disciples to pray like this. Lead us not into temptation, but what deliver us from evil. Listen, we can learn from temptation and we should learn from it, but it's much safer if we never enter the ring of temptation.

In the prayer of Psalm 23, the Psalmist writes, he guides me along the right path for his name's sake, for his namesake man. Our prayer in 2025 is that we would live in a way that never stains the reputation of the bride of Christ. It never brings reproach on his name. Jabez says, oh, God, I want you to bless me, Lord. I want you to enlarge my territory.

But as you do, God, I need your presence. I need your hand on my life, because I don't want to bring pain to you. I don't want to commit some evil that's going to bring reproach on the purity of who you are. I want to challenge you in 2025 that you pray this simple prayer that Jabez prayed. First Chronicles, chapter 4, verse 10.

I want to challenge you that you have enough faith in who God is that you would say, it's not wrong for me to ask God for his blessing. Pray unto a God who hears to, a God who sees, a God who knows me, and a God who desires to bless me. 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 and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. I'm going to ask those in the back if you will put that verse up again on the screen. And I want us to pray this out loud.

I want us to pray this together. Can you put that first Chronicles, chapter 4, verse 10 back up on the screen? Skip down to verse 10. Skip the first part. And I want you to pray this out loud with me.

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 and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. And then look at the last part. So God granted what he had requested.