Daring Faith
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Talk about things that cause big imagination.
We used to have to play make believe or create our own fun. That meant our imagination was on overload.
Used to lie on the grass and watch clouds pass by and look at the different shapes they would make.
Create things out of junk so that we could enjoy our time with friends.
These things cause us to look at things differently. It causes us to see that there are new possibilities.
I believe in this season we have been challenged to do that. We have to live with Daring faith and pray prayers that are bold, because God wants to do a new thing in our midst.
This morning we are going to look at 1 Chron. 4:9-10
This is a familiar scripture and one I often read because it challenges me and gets my head and heart ready for more. I believe that we as a church are ready for more and I believe that we need to be praying this prayer with daring faith!
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
Prayer - Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you O Lord.
Bless me
Bless me
What do we say when we sneeze?
Bless me/you
This is more than that kind of request here.
This is a prayer that God would be real in our lives. That we would have a Damscus Road experience. That we can cry out like Moses Show me your Glory.
Jabez prayed honest prayer that was real before God.
There is nothing better than the presence of God. When God’s presence settles in a room there is nothing that can compare to it.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place
I can feel His mighty power and His grace
I can feel the brush of angels wings I see Glory on each face
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Even when you sing that song it is a prayerful taste of His beautiful presence.
Remember how we talked about imagination earlier?
Well imagination is essential to living by faith.
We need to believe.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
So blessing is more than what you say after you sneeze.
Take a look at Gen. 28 where we see what blessing is.
Bless - to pronounce or desire of happiness to someone.
In Gen. 28 we see where Isaac called Jacob and blessed Him.
To bless to also defined as to make happy, to make successful, to prosper in temporal concerns; as we are blessed with peace and plenty.
Look at Deut. 15:10
Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
The Lord God shall bless you in all that you do.
I believe when we are blessed we should be a blessing.
Look at the Aaronic Blessing where God spoke to Moses to tell Aaron and his sons how they are to bless the people of Israel.
“ ‘ “The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” ’
This is important because God blesses us we then are to be a blessing to others. When you pair that with the next part of the prayer this is getting even more powerful than anticipated.
Shape my Life - Enlarge my Territory
Shape my Life - Enlarge my Territory
Do you ever get the urge that there is more to life than what you are currently doing?
Have you ever had a gnawing hunger or a restless burden?
Does any of this sound familiar?
You are not alone, we have been created to do our part to create a better world.
God is the fulfiller of dreams. He begins writing dreams on each of our hearts. This causes our imagination to go wild and big dreams come with that.
These deep dreams come together with His perfect plans and the passion that is in our souls.
In our hearts today there are seeds of great imaginings of a future to hope for, long for and dreams that are to come. God planted them there.
Our text this morning talks of a man who took a risk and acted on his ambition. His name was Jabez, and his story has been widely shared.
Scripture only gives 4 short sentences found in two verses to highlight Jabez.
God summarized Jabez’s life into four facts:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers
He received his name Jabez, because his mother gave birth to him in pain
Let your hand be with me
Keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.
Of all the things Jabez prayed what I find most interesting is “Enlarge my Territory”.
Why you may ask?
Because I find myself longing for the same thing. This is not out of selfishness or arrogance but it is because I want to see the level of influence I have and you have and we have corporately enlarge.
That our community will know we are here. That there is a God who loves them, died for them and He is our reason for living and can be theirs too!
God did not look at Jabez’s cry and laugh and say you have to be kidding. He took that sincere cry of Jabez’s heart seriously.
So how I see it if He did that for Jabez He can do that for me.
He can do that for Faith too!
Expand our Territory!
Please be with us in all that we do and keep us from trouble and pain.
Widen our sphere of influence.
Take into consideration that we are to be a lighthouse in CBS. That means from Topsail to Seal Cove is where we are thinking we are to cover off. But with this prayer that could me expand on to Holyrood, Hr. Main, Chance Cove etc.
Transform our Destiny.
We cannot do things like we did when this church first opened its doors. The Gospel message is the same but our appoach has to change. We have to be willing to try new things, think of new ways to share our faith. If one thing doesn’t work well we tried that and then don’t give up but try something else.
I believe that is what is behind this prayer.
Asking God to enlarge our Territory is not something we should feel guilty about. It can leave a powerful testimony.
It shows that we are not content with complacancy. That we desire to be used for more.
Henry Blackaby shared a quote I like:
“God is interested in the world coming to know Him. The only way people will know Him is when they see Him at work. Whenever God involves you in His activity, the assignment will have God like dimensions to it…The assignments God gives are always beyond what people can do because He wants to demonstrate his nature, his strength, his provision and his kindness to his people and to a watching world. When God’s people and the world see something happen that only God can do, they come to know Him”.
When we ask God to enlarge our Territory we are asking God to increase our sphere of influence for His kingdom.
Bruce Wilkinson illustrates that in his book the prayer of Jabez when he says:
If Jabez worked on Wall Street he may have prayed “Lord increase the value of my investment portfolio.
God wants you to accept His increase His blessing to enlarge your territory as a significant opportunity to touch individual lives, and the world for His glory and asking Him to enlarge that opportiunity brings Him only delight.
When we ask for more territory we are tapping into the heart of Jesus, whose heart was so large it encompassed the whole world.
Among his final words to his followers he said this:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Notice in these references the word ALL is there. Part of the world was not enough. Some of the people won’t do. He wanted His kingdom, His territory, to extend to all the people in the world.
So when we ask God to expand our territory we are standing on the shoulders of spiritual giants.
At the age of 85 Joshua’s visionary buddy Caleb was not ready to retire and he was not content with status quo. He asked for greater territiry.
“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
Enlarge my territory is a prayer that God loves to answer.
Please be with me
Please be with me
That is another part of this powerful prayer.
I believe this is such a need for us to remember.
WE NEED GOD
We are not able to do things with out Him. We are nothing without Him. We must recognize He is the leader and humbly bow before Him and acknowledge His presence and His power in the work that IS HIS!
It is easy when you are deeply vested in a work that it becomes personal to us. But we need to keep our eyes focused on the fact that this is His work.
Humility is said to be a fit recipient of grace; according to the words of James, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble"
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
He mocks proud mockers
but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.
In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
Conclusion:
Henrietta Mears was a big dreamer. At the age of 38 she took the position of Christian educator at first Ptresbyterian church in Hollywood CA.
She believed that God doesn’t call us to sit on the sidelines and watch. He calls us to be on the field, playing the games”.
Three years afer her arrival at the church the SS attendance grew from 400 to 4000. During her tenure over 400 young people entered full time Christian serivce. One of those was Bill Bright who was founder of Campus crusade for Christ.
God kept expanding her territory. She was frustrated with the material being taughted in SS when she arrived she began to write lessons that would honor Christ and be faithful to the Bible. It wasn’t long before these efforts gained resilts and requests came in for copies of her materials all over the country.
Her office staff worked long hours copying the lessons and sending them out. When the demand grew too greate Mears and a group of business people established Gospel Light Publications one of the first publishers in Christian education.
For years she looked for a retreat area where she could take her high-school and colleage age students. She asked God to provide for that dream. They found a place but the price was too high. She called a group of people together for prayer. She insisted that they should “dream big whenever God was involved” and trust Him for His blessing at the right time. After a miraculous intervention the Homethat the price was too high, that was valued at $350,000 was purchased in 1938 for $30,000!
God expanded her territory into unique places. Originally she was drawn to California for the opportunity to witness to those in the entertainment industry. God provided an open door into this area through the Hollywood Christian Group, which began in her home. Many entertainment professionals came to know Christ as a result of her ministry.
So this morning What is dream God has etched into your soul?
Is it seeing your children become great Christians?
Starting your own minstry to others?
A change in your workplace? Building a great church?
Training teens?
Writing a Christian bestseller?
Winning your family to Christ?
If God could expand the territory of Jabez, He can expand yours.
