A House Of Prayer

Let me start off asking everyone here a few questions this morning. Now, before any of you answer even one of these questions aloud, or make any hasty gestures or expressions of consent towards the questions, I want you to listen to each of these questions and think about what is being asked. OK?!

OK, here we go: “How many of you would truly love to see the lost of this city and county radically saved and set on fire for Jesus Christ?

How many of you would love to see people who have any type of addictions in their lives radically healed and delivered from those addictions?

How many of you would love to personally see and be and be a part of miraculous healings taking place all over this area?

How many of you want to see the body of Jesus Christ, the church, in Cumberland County, become a unified and unstoppable force across the Cumberland Plateau?

How many of you want to see a mighty move of Holy Spirit in your own personal life as well as all across this nation?

Now, if any of you would say yes to any of those questions that I just asked, then here comes my next question and its a DOOSIE!

In the 1987 movie “The Untouchables”, there is a scene early on in the movie, where the character played by Sean Connery has been mortally wounded and is about to die and his final words to Eliot Ness are this, “What are you prepared to do about it?”

That is my question this morning to each and every one of us here, and to the ENTIRE church family in the 150-160 churches of Cumberland County, “WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO ABOUT IT?”

What are any of us going to do, to effectively make a change and a difference for the Kingdom of God in this neck of the woods that we call home?

And as far as that goes, wherever you may pull up stakes and move to and call home for you and your family, what are you going to do to see the Kingdom of God moving in authority and power wherever you are?

It’s easy enough to say, “Whatever it takes”, or, “Whatever I can, or have to do”, but apply the question to your own life right now and ask yourself, “What am I doing with my life right now, to effectively make a difference for Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God?”

I was reading this week in the epistle of I John and it reminded me of this very staunch and clear fact as to our desire and unction to share the gospel message, , , says,

1 John 4:11 ESV

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:7–11 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:16 ESV

16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16 ESV

16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16 ESV

16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:19–21 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:19–21 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:19–21 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

This letter that John wrote to the church openly reminds of us the fact and the reason as why we should want to share the gospel message.

Because God is LOVE and because of His great love, He saved us, then, the we should be love another, as evidence of His love being in us!

You can’t fake His love. You may say you love someone, but in your heart, you know the truth! And if you say that you love someone, but deep inside your heart, you feel nothing but resentment and bitterness, and anger towards them, and NO REAL LOVE for them, then there is a greater issue at hand.

According to this passage, the love of God does not exist inside of you!

Your love for your brother/ sister should be evidence of the love of God living in you!

And therefore, the love of God should compel us to want to share and spread the gospel to everyone, so that they can experience what we are sharing with each other, as believers!

And so this morning, I just want to re-emphasize one of the single greatest tools that we have at our disposal, but that far too many of us TRULY use, effectively!

This past Friday, we bought our youngest daughter Addyson, a dongle for her digital camera, so that she could take the micro-SD card out of the camera and use the dongle to download the pictures onto her computer and then edit and/or print them, or whatever she wants to do, in order for her to be able to share her photographs with others!

The dongle was an inexpensive $9 fix for her dilemma, but it was an easy and powerful solution for her, none the less!

Addyson has a really nice digital camera that she loves using and she takes really amazing photos with this camera.

In order for her to take what she has and effectively use it to touch and bless others, she needed something as a medium, a vehicle to go through, that would allow her to take that which was hidden away inside of the SD card and be shared with and bless others.

The USB dongle allowed her to take the photos that were hidden away and move them to a place in which they could be shared and bless other people!

Inside of each and every Christian, lies the potential and the ability to bless and reach others, as well as that of our own lives and our own families.

And much like the photos that were trapped inside of that SD card, we need a means of releasing this potential and getting those blessings out there, so that they can touch and effectively reach other people.

The USB dongle is not the means by which the people are blessed when they view the pictures, it is simply the vehicle used and by which the digital images are transferred to main source that allows the images to become a blessing to the viewer!

In other words she takes the vessel that houses the digital image, the micro SD card, and plugs it into the USB dongle, which passes the digital image to the main viewing source, the computer, which has the power to create the and fully release the beauty of that image and thus touch and bless the viewer!

Now that I have everyone completely confused and some of you thinking that I am implying that God is offering a digital photography class so that we can bless others, let me explain my analogy, for clarity’s sake!

The digital images that are stored inside of the micro SD card, are a type or an analogy, or a metaphor (whichever works best for you), for the blessings and the petitions, or requests, that we have for others as well as for our own lives, which are stored inside of each and every one of us, who are truly followers and believers in Jesus the Christ!

And just like the digital images on that card need a medium, or a vehicle to be transferred through, so that they can reach and bless others, so also do the blessings and the petitions/requests that we have inside of us, need a medium to go through so that they can be imparted to others.

And so this morning, I am going to remind you of that means, of that vehicle, by which every believer should be going through, to bless and touch other people’s lives.

And not just bless and impart to other people’s lives, but to our own lives as well!

So, I am going to start off by reading about a situation that took place several years ago in a man’s life and the great impact that this situation had on him.

This guy’s name has become fairly popular over the last few decades and most of you will recognize it; his name was Jabez.

And by a few years, I mean a few thousand years, give or take.

If you will turn in your Bibles to the Old Testament book of .

Now before we read this passage, I want to point out how this story comes onto the scene, from chapter one of I Chronicles moving on well past chapter 4, the writer is documenting the genealogies from Adam coming forward and, for the tribes of Israel.

And the verbiage typically reads in these chapters, something like, “the sons of ‘so and so’ were ___________”, or “so and so married so and so and they had __________ as a son or a daughter.”

But all of sudden, there is break in the flow and of the genealogies and in , we read,

1 Chronicles 4:9–10 ESV

9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

It’s like this particular passage was meant to stand out from the flow of the genealogies and scream something of importance!

This obscure passage about this man, that we haven’t heard of yet and who is not mentioned again in the Bible, jumps out of the page at us!

So, what do we know of this man named Jabez?

Well, we know that he was of the tribe and lineage of Judah, because his name is given under list of descendants of Judah. Other than that, it becomes speculation as to who his father or mother was. We really don’t know.

And speaking of his mother, we read of something interesting about her in this short passage.

Verse 9 tells us this, “his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain”, or in the KJV, it reads, “Because I bare him with sorrow.”

Now remember, as we have talked about before, a name had a lot of meaning in the ancient customs. A person’s name carried great weight for their life.

Whether his mother meant that she physically bore him with great pain/sorrow, or that his coming into this world at all, in general caused her great pain/sorrow, is somewhat speculative.

This word for “pain” that is used here in the passage, refers back to another word for pain that we find used in , where we read of God saying to first woman Eve, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”

Jabez’ name, in Hebrew, has the same configuration as the word for “pain/sorrow”.

I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.

Genesis 3:16 ESV

16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

So his name literally could have meant, “He Makes Sorrowful”, or “He Will Cause Pain”.

If Jabez’ mother named him because of the “pain” of childbearing, then her situation was not unique and in fact, it falls directly under the curse that was placed upon all women, due to the first sin.

in pain you shall bring forth children.

So, either Jabez was an extremely painful birth, or he was a source of great pain and sorrow for his mother, by his coming into this world in general!

Either way, his name reflected a bad situation and it followed him around everywhere that he went.

Unless you are someone big and tough, like Mr. T of the former years, that could back up that name, when someone asked you what your name was and you said, “My name is PAIN”. Then otherwise, that name would have not been a blessing at all!

So, Jabez had a name that would NOT have been a blessing to walk around with, we know that much.

But there is something else peculiar about this seemingly obscure passage of and the man known as Jabez.

Verse 9 also tells us that he, “was more honorable than any of his brothers.”

And in the Hebrew, this word that we use for “honorable”, has a more accurate depiction of someone who is “honored”, more so than someone who is “honorable”.

In other words, Jabez was looked upon as being “honored” as a person for some reason and not necessarily “honorable” because of his behavior and mannerisms around people.

For some reason, the Bible calls Jabez someone who is “honored”.

But why? Why was Jabez, the man of pain and sorrow, esteemed of more honor than that of all of his brothers?

Verse 10 answers this and in answering this question, we will also find the answer to the very thing that I was eluding earlier when I said that we need a means, a medium or vehicle through which we can make our requests and our blessings and our petitions be made known, so we can affect and bless others!

Verse 10 tells us this, “Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain/sorrow.”

Did you see it? What was there about this man that gave him the accolade of being honored in God’s Word?

Jabez PRAYED to God for his situation!

Jabez went in FAITH and BELIEF before the one true God of creation and he petitioned God and asked for God’s favor and His blessings and His protection for his life!

And did it work, did God hear and answer Jabez’ prayer?

The end of verse 10 say this, “And God granted what he asked.”

YES, most definitely, God heard and blessed this man and answered his prayer!

The very reason that Jabez was considered “honored” above all of his brothers, is simply because Jabez went to THE ONE source of strength and blessings and love that anyone can go to and made his petition known to God!

Here is a man who was named after “pain and sorrow” and whose future doesn’t look the brightest. (I mean, it would not exactly be the most desirable bachelor name on the Dating Game, right?)

Act out the bachelorette asking bachelor number one, “Bachelor number one, what is your name?” To which he responds, “My name is PAIN/SORROW!”

And in this brief and short mentioning of Jabez we see God intervening and bestowing God’s own favor and blessing upon Jabez and increasing his land/territory, and walking with Jabez and keeping him from all misfortune and pain!

Jabez didn’t just give some knee jerk reaction prayer to God, as kind of an after thought..............NO SIR.........Jabez made it clear that he didn’t just want God to bless him, but he wanted God to be with him at all times, in all that he did!

There is the big difference in the prayer of Jabez, as opposed to so many other people’s prayers to God!

Too many times, we ask God for a blessing, a miracle, a healing, to change the course of things in our lives, and that is where our desire ends.

“FIX THE PROBLEM GOD AND THEN WE’RE GOOD HERE!”

Not with Jabez, he didn’t just want his situation reversed and improved, but rather, he wanted Yahweh to be with him throughout his life in the midst of everything that he was involved in!

The Bible tells us, “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."

And again, God’s Word tell us, “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry/prayers.”

Jabez’ prayer drew the attention and the favor of God, because it was Jabez’ desire to have God in his life and with it at all times!

People, get this in your heads and wrap your minds around this concept.............God is not looking for the, “ONE AND DONE”, kind of prayer life!

God’s eyes are searching for and His favor is bent towards, those who TRULY and FAITHFULLY, desire to be with Him and in His presence at all times!

Let be get back to my original questions, that I started off with this morning, “How many of you would truly love to see the lost of this city and county radically saved and set on fire for Jesus Christ?

How many of you would love to see people who have any type of addictions in their lives radically healed and delivered from those addictions?

How many of you would love to personally see and be and be a part of miraculous healings taking place all over this area?

How many of you want to see the body of Jesus Christ, the church, in Cumberland County, become a unified and unstoppable force across the Cumberland Plateau?

How many of you want to see a mighty move of Holy Spirit in your own personal life as well as all across this nation?

If that is a “YES”, on any of your parts, then I will ask my other question, “Now, what are you prepared to do about it?!”

I said right after asking these questions, that the thing that moves and drives a Christian, is the LOVE of God inside of them and it is that LOVE that compels us to act on behalf of others!

And there is one GUARANTEED thing that you and I can do and that we should be PREPARED to do, at all times and in all places, and that is to PRAY!

Prayer is the medium, the vehicle that gets our petitions and our requests before THE SOURCE of all POWER and LOVE and AUTHORITY, so that we can impact the lives of others and of governments and school and churches and ourselves!

When there is no prayer, then the darkness starts to rise!

READ: “The Removal of Prayer in 1963” sheet about schools and damage that was done with the removal of prayers and the removal of the Bible!

I believe that there could very easily be some Jabez’ in the house today, or watching live this morning. And what I mean is this. You are under the pain and shame and sorrow of the enemy. That just like the name, JABEZ, means “pain/sorrow”, you too carry around a name of some lie, some curse that has been pronounced over you by the enemy!

Now make no mistake, we are ALL (everyone say, “ALL”), we are all born under the curse of sin, and so like Jabez, we are all born in the “pain and sorrow” of the curse of sin.

Jesus Christ and His atoning blood shed on the Cross, paid for and eradicated that curse for all who TRULY believe!

The sure sign of redemption, is that you are a new creature and you do not live under the curse of sin in your life!

But today, is you are in constant strife and struggle and the enemy has woven a tapestry of lies into your life, and like Jabez, you are feeling pain and sorrow, let me tell you right now, THERE IS A CURE!

Just as Jabez went from a curse to a blessed life, through his earnest and sincere prayer to God, so can you!

God has a miracle waiting for you right now, that will INSTANTLY break and release you from the lies and the curses of the enemy!

NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST US SHALL PROSPER!

PRAY PEOPLE!

Do like Jabez and CRY OUT TO GOD! PRAY AND SEEK HIM WITH YOUR NEED!

And one more thought on Jabez and the twist of his account in Bible.

Jabez was a descendant of the tribe of Judah. There was another man who was also a descendant of the tribe of Judah, but His name didn’t mean pain, but rather His name meant, SALVATION!

This other man also prayed out to God that the pain of His life be spared Him, but it was God’s will that He must suffer the pain and sorrow and the shame of the cross for us.

And as Jabez was released from the curse of the pain and the sorrow, the other man, Yeshua, the blessed Son of God, became the curse of pain and sorrow and shame and sin, so that we would never have to! AMEN?

God has things for your life right now, that He wants to bless you with, but He is waiting on you to PRAY and ask for them!

Did you know that last year, in this country, there were over $3 billion in college funds that were never given, because the people didn’t ask for them!

In Tennessee alone, there is an estimated $1 billion in unclaimed and properties and refunds, that people have never come forward and claimed, just sitting there, unused and wasting away!

It is the same with the blessings of God for many, many people. He is waiting for you and I to come forward and ask for His blessings!

Just like when Jesus would be approached by the sick and blind and the lame and He would ask them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Jesus knew, but He and His Father, wanted them to ASK for Him to move on their behalf!

PRAY church and seek His will and His favor and His blessings for your life!

Some of you might say, “Well, I have prayed and still am praying and nothing is changing in my life! I am still living under the pain and the sorrow!”

Well, let me throw something your way. The Bible says, “Let us come into his presence with THANKSGIVING; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of PRAISE!

That doesn’t mean starting off your prayer like, “thank you God” (say very dry and sarcastic).

Coming before Him with THANKSGIVING means that your heart is already THANKFUL when you get there before Him in prayer.

And “making joyful noise to him with songs of PRAISE!”, does not simply mean that you throw on some P&W as you start your prayer.

Unfortunately, we have relegated and reduced the WORSHIP of God, to singing a song, or playing some music with our hands raised.

That is not remotely even close to what TRUE worship is.

That is simply the bi-product of a life lived in worship!

Anyway, when you pray, out of thanksgiving and your heart yields praise to His name, then, just like Jabez, things begin to happen!

Too many of us pray and then live our lives grumbling and complaining, because this didn’t happen, or that did. we question God and say things like, “Why did you do this for that person and not for me?”

Truth be told, He already knows your heart and the direction that your thought processes are leaning. You are not fooling God with the words that you offer up, because He already see and knows your heart!

How can you even begin to think that your prayers are going to affect anything for good, when they are backed and driven by a heart that produces discord and strife and non-thankfulness?!

Remember that the Bible says, “There are six things that the Lord hates, yes seven are an abomination to Him”

That seventh thing that is under the label as an abomination, is “a person who sows discord in a family.”

So, praying to God for His help and then turning right back around and complaining to your coworkers and your church family, or even your immediate family, and producing strife and discord in their lives, because of what you are spewing out, is ludicrous!

How can you even think that your prayers are doing any good, when your heart is bent towards the very thing that God calls an abomination?!

Jesus reiterated something that the Old Testament said, when He went into the temple are in and said, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

Mark 11:17 NLT

17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

Let me ask you a question this morning, “What is, or where is the temple now?”

And is your temple a “HOUSE OF PRAYER”?

We must adamantly and passionately begin praying to God, each and every day and ALL throughout the day!

We must begin to pray for God to move on behalf of our lives and the lives of others and on behalf of this nation!

Pray for one another and lift one another up!

Readers’ Digest Magazine contains the story of an employee who confided in a co-worker:

"I told her about a problem in our office and my fear that I would lose my job. She was concerned and said she would pray for me. I know she keeps a list of 10 people she believes need her prayers the most, so I asked her if she had room for me on her list. 'Oh yes,' she replied. 'Three of the other people just died.'"

It’s great to have intercessory prayer for one another, but remember this, the greatest intercessor that we have, is our GREAT HIGH PRIEST, JESUS, who intercedes for us daily!

Keep your heart and your trust in HIM AND HIS FATHER and go before them, DAILY in prayers!