The Prayer of Jabez

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

All right.

I'm so excited to be here today, and you are in a series that's going on right now that I think this actually will dovetail into it.

Actually, you're in this series called Divinely Human.

And I'm gonna share with you some um a message on prayer that Pastor Robert asked me to share that I really think kind of intersects with the topics that you've been dealing with in this series.

But again, just very, very uh honored uh to be in this house.

I wrote this book.

Um I've been in I've been in ministry 40 years this year, everybody.

I'm 60 years old and 40 years of ministry celebrating.

Thanks, both of y'all.

Appreciate that.

And so uh and and for 18 of those, I was a youth pastor, and um, and I always wanted our our students to pray, and you know, it was hard because they were they had plenty of energy, but they didn't have any know-how.

They didn't know what to what to do.

And that was my own story when I first got saved at 15 years old.

I was raised in the church, but when I got really born again and on fire for God, uh they started talking about praying for an hour.

Y'all, I had six minutes of material, you know what I'm saying?

I just didn't I didn't have an hour, and um, and and they wanted us to pray an hour, and I didn't know what to do.

And so my pastor, Pastor Larry Stocks, still, who's still my pastor, uh, and the church I was raised in was called Bethany World Prayer Center.

So it was really a praying church.

He was the one who taught me prayer models and prayer um guides and like using different prayers in the Bible to actually serve as an outline for you while you pray.

And it revolutionized my prayer life.

And I'm gonna share with you one of those uh today.

But then when I started ministry as a youth pastor, I actually started teaching young people how to pray.

And so they packed out our house on Tuesday night, a hundred more teenagers, you know, praying the paint off the wall for an hour.

And and it was really just because we taught them how to pray.

I had this theory, this is the thesis of the book, and that is that people are sufficiently inspired to pray, they just don't know what to say.

They don't know how to fill the time.

And so if the book's out there, if you'd like to have a copy, but but the the first section actually talks about the five things that make prayer actually work.

And I use P's for all these, it's kind of a preacher disease, so I don't know why we do that, but anyway, they all start with a letter, letter P, but you have to have the priority of prayer, pray first.

So it shouldn't be your uh it should be your first response, not your not your last resort.

So not 9-11 or fire escape prayers, but pray first.

So the priority, it's good to have a have um the place of prayer.

So Jesus went to a solitary place where he prayed.

So he had a favorite conducive place to pray.

Um, he had a plan, that's what he taught the disciples.

That's really what the Lord's prayer is.

It's not really intended to be a prayer itself.

It's okay if you pray it, but Jesus was teaching an outline, not a prayer.

Otherwise, your prayer time will last 26 seconds.

That's how long it takes me to read the Lord's prayer.

But it's really it's seven elements that we can cover in our time with God.

So the plan of prayer.

The fourth is the power of prayer, it's the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person that avails much.

So it's praying with some energy and with some passion and with some zeal and having a good time, not just quiet.

I church I was raised in, somebody would pray, and everybody else just went, mmm.

That was about it.

You know, that was their that was their prayer time.

So anyway, you I don't think that's how it's described uh in the Bible.

So you have the priority, you have the place, you have the plan, you have the power, and then finally the persons of prayer.

So you can actually relate to the God Head, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in different ways because they have different personalities.

2 Corinthians 13 talks about it in the benediction that we have the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and the friendship of the Holy Spirit that is with you, and you can actually pray to them in different ways.

Anyway, that's the first section.

Last section talked a lot about prayer and fasting.

We do a lot of uh fasting.

I kind of grew up uh fasting.

Our church um did I did my first fast at 19 years old, and this this past January was my 40th 21 days of prayer and fasting time that I've ever been a part of.

And but the middle section is the meat of the book.

So there are many models, or there are many prayers in the Bible, and I've outlined them or used them as models for us to follow.

And my favorite way to pray is not what I'm teaching you today.

My favorite way to pray is what's called tabernacle prayer.

In the book, I call it the prayer of Moses, where you can actually use the furniture, the different pieces of the furniture to walk you through a protocol to the presence of God.

Love for you to check that out.

But at no matter what model I use when I pray, I always pray the same prayer somewhere in it.

So, regardless of which one I use, I'm always gonna include the four words that I want to give you today.

And um, and this comes from somebody uh who was very human and it became very divine.

See how I slipped it in there, Pastor Robert?

All right, so it because there really is.

There is this intersection, and if I might say so, um, that probably the place where humans intersect with the divine the most is when we pray.

So the Bible says that when we pray, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.

The human becomes divine.

And I think there's a move of God going on in America.

Can I hear a good amen, everybody?

I really do.

And there are drops of revival falling right now.

Lord, let it hit Gateway Church.

Let it let it hit Church of the Highlands, Lord God, right?

And um, but there has never, ever been any type of awakening or revival that did not begin in united prayer.

So if you really want to touch the divine, we humans, if we want to have this intersection, I believe probably one of the most important places is in the area of prayer.

So again, if you have grown up and you know it's important, you just not know what to do or what to say, then this is for you, okay?

So uh and I want to give you uh what's called the prayer of Jabez.

I'm gonna give you my take on it.

And and of course, the Bible, if you know much about the Bible, this prayer is stuck in a place that if you've ever had this as your daily Bible reading, you're so grateful that there was also a psalm or a proverb that day because it's in 1 Chronicles.

That was a lot funnier in my head than it was in your mind, obviously.

But because I read the one-year Bible where I get a little Old Testament, New Testament, a psalm, and a proverb.

I do that every day.

And when you get to 1 Chronicles, well, there's just no material there.

It's several pages of this person begat this person, begat this person, begat this person, and there are 600 of them in a row.

And so there's just not a lot there.

But right in the middle of the 600 names, one person gets honorable mention.

One person, there is a commentary to their life, and the interesting part is it starts by talking about their humanness, the part that was not so divine, because it goes like this in 1 Chronicles chapter 4, verse 9, it says that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain.

1 Chronicles 4:9

Now we don't know the circumstances of this labor or delivery or pregnancy.

We don't know if it was the mom that may have had a bad experience either in the pregnancy or in the delivery, or if the baby, Jabez, actually maybe had a disability.

Um, we don't know, or maybe it was none of those.

She just thought it'd be cute to call him Jabez because his name means pain.

Ladies, please don't do that.

Think of the playground dynamics before you do that, right?

They just called him pain.

That's like a boy named Sue.

That is not nice.

Don't do that, right?

And it says that Jabez cried out to the God of Israel.

Now, watch this, four things.

Oh, that you would bless me, uh, enlarge my territory, let your hand be with me and keep me from harm, and that will keep me from pain.

What I want you to notice right off the bat, and this is not what I'll preach about, but you could actually make this a sermon all onto its own, and that is that he had pain in his life, and he didn't pray about it.

So he redirected his circumstance to something that he knew God wanted in his life, and that took care of his pain.

I just want you to think about that for a minute.

I actually think um it's something that somebody in this room or at one of our other campuses or locations or those that are watching online might need to hear.

Um, and that is sometimes the best way to solve a problem isn't focusing more on the problem, it's having something in your life bigger than your problem.

Can I get a better amen out there, everybody?

Right?

Like it's a redirect.

And that's what the Apostle Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 4 when he said, I am hard pressed on every side, like I've got lots of pain and problems, but I'm not in despair.

Well, why not, Paul?

Well, because I have my eyes fixed not on these things.

They're not on the seen things, they're on the unseen things.

These seen things are temporary anyway, and these the unseen is eternal.

It's a redirect.

I think that's what Jabez did.

I think that's why he in this moment um went from human to divine.

He had this intersection where he took his bad life, his pain, and he said, I am gonna pray the things that are on God's heart.

So I've actually reduced this prayer down to four words.

And so what it looks like for me personally, I literally don't go a single day without praying these four words over my life.

Now, sometimes it's just, you know, uh maybe 30 seconds in my prayer time, and there are times I will spend several minutes on each one of these four words, and I'm gonna give you these four words.

I want to challenge you to actually begin to include these uh in your prayer time because the last phrase in the in the uh in the text says, and God granted his request.

So let me say it this way: if you if you ever figured out how to pray and God's answering all your prayers, we'd never have to ask you to pray again, everybody.

Okay?

So I'm trying to get you focused on that which God is focused on.

And there are four of them.

And and the first one is when he said, God, I want you to bless me.

And in the King James text, he says, bless me indeed.

It would be like putting exclamation marks.

And the first is that you we do need to pray for blessing.

Now, when I thought about this, me teaching blessing at Gateway Church is like teaching LeBron how to play basketball.

Y'all know that, right, everybody?

Okay, so this is the blessed life pastor and message, his life message.

So I won't spend a lot of time on this one, but I will maybe give you a few thoughts on this, that God does love to bless his people.

And so Psalm chapter 5 says, For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous and you surround them with your favor like a shield.

Psalms 5 · chapter mention

Now, there is a lot of misunderstanding, not in this house, because you're taught so well, but there's a lot of misunderstanding about blessing, and especially if you throw that word prosperity in there.

I've had people say, Are y'all one of those prosperity churches?

Are you a prosperity church?

Like, well, not like you're thinking about it, probably not.

You know, if you mean name it, claim it, blab it, grab it.

No, that's not us.

But but God does not shy away from the word.

In fact, in Genesis 26, Isaac sowed in that land, he reaped in that same place a hundredfold, and the Lord, here's our word, blessed him, and the man began to prosper, continued prospering until he became very prosperous.

So God doesn't shy away from the word.

So let's get a better understanding of it.

And again, you're taught well here in this church about this topic, but to me, what prosperity, the word literally in the in the Hebrew is the word Salach, and you gotta say it like that.

You gotta do that.

Selach, okay?

Like yeah, popcorn kernel stuck in the back of your throat.

I don't know.

Selach, and it but it but it literally, watch this, it literally means to push you forward.

So you're able to get to this point, but then God says, I'm gonna take you further.

So I'm I'm this good of a husband, then God makes me a better one.

I'm I'm this good at my job, but God prospers me.

I'm actually I'm pushed forward.

And I can't, I don't know anybody who doesn't want to be pushed forward.

Can I hear a good amen, everybody, right?

You want God to get involved in your life.

The question is, is what is the pushing forward for?

So, like, why does why does he push you forward?

He wants he wants you to be prosperous.

3 John 1, verse 2 says, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

3 John 1:2

So again, why does he want that?

And he he wants that for us because you can't be a blessing to the world around you if you only have your own needs.

And I want you to hear that.

In fact, I want to say it in somewhat of a corrective way, if you if you'll receive it, and that it's never pray just for your needs.

That's just way too short-sighted.

If God just meets your need, what are you gonna give?

Nothing.

But if you have more than you need, to me, that's the real definition, my definition of prosperity is having more than I need so that I can be a blessing to the world around me.

I have something.

And this is what Jabez prayed.

I will, it's the Abrahamic blessing.

Genesis 12.

I will bless you and you will be a blessing to the world around us.

So that's the first is that we just we have to ask God, God, give give me more than I need.

And I want you to get into the habit of saying, Lord, here are my needs.

He doesn't mind hearing those, but I'm not gonna focus on those today.

I want you to give me more than I need so that I can be a blessing to the around me, to the world around me.

Now, if you have more than you need, what are you gonna do with it?

And that's the next line of the prayer.

So it's actually a progressive prayer because he says then, okay, now enlarge my territory.

And I use the word I use there is is influence.

So, in other words, it increase my sphere of influence.

And here's number two if you're taking notes, and that is pray for influence.

Pray for your life to be bigger than your own life.

Pray for your life not just to be right here around you.

I tell people all the time, I said you can always tell uh the the the scope of your life by your prayer life, because if God answered all your prayers, would it change the world or just change you?

So I want I want God to use me to change the world, but he has to increase our sphere of influence.

Well, that's easy for guys like me and Pastor Robert and those maybe in this room that are entrepreneurial.

You see things, but for a lot of people, they don't dream big dreams for God.

They don't see things that are big, but God wants you to.

God wants to give you, here's another word for it, and that is ministry.

That I'm gonna live my life out for the benefit of other of other people.

Why?

Because we serve a big God who's able to do exceeding Ephesians 3, 20, let's look at it on the screen.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably, say the next word out loud, immeasurably more than all we ask or even imagine according to a power that's gonna work on the inside of us.

Now, God wants to do this.

In fact, we're a lot of people talking about revival right now.

Have you ever wondered what revival actually would look like?

So if God did pour out his spirit and there were you know revivals breaking out in churches all across America, like we're starting to see the first drops of, what would that actually look like?

Well, the Bible tells us, and I want you to see it in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

In the last days, God says, I'm gonna pour out my spirit on all people.

And you would think if you didn't know the next line, it would be, and people are gonna, you know, fall out under the power of God, and there's gonna be healing, and it probably does include that, but that's not what the text says.

It says, your sons and your daughters are gonna prophesy.

So prophecy doesn't just mean going up to somebody and like reading their mail.

Prophecy means I see something that nobody else can see.

And they'll have visions, young men will have visions, and your old men are gonna dream dreams.

And so every day I ask God, God, here's my second prayer.

If you bless me with more than I need, I need to know where to put it.

I need to know what to do with this extra joy, this extra time, this extra energy, this great marriage.

Like, Lord, I need you to give me more than I need, and if you'll show me where to put my life so that I can be a blessing to the world around me, now, God, you have given me influence.

Are you following that, everybody?

So I've never really been a good dreamer, if I'm honest with you.

I'm I'm not I'm not a creative, I'm a I'm a task-oriented person.

I deal with stuff that's like right here in front of me.

I make lists.

Where are my lists, people at?

List people, list.

I just love y'all so much.

If I had a list of everything I like, lists would be at the top of the list.

I mean, I like lists, okay.

So I it to me, everything's just right here.

Pastor Robert is so prophetic.

We were before the service, he was talking about, oh, yeah, the Lord showed me this, and the Lord showed me that, and the Lord showed me this, and yeah, I told this person this was gonna happen before they even knew it.

Like, man, I wish I had that.

It's just some of us don't.

So you have to be given permission to actually stir that part of the spirit of God on the inside of you.

Because I've become convinced that the language of the Holy Spirit is dreams and visions.

So when God's talking to you, you say, Well, what language does he speak?

Visions and dreams.

He's gonna show you things, you're gonna see things in your spirit's eye, your mind's eye, in your spirit of that which he wants you to do.

So one of my dear friends is is is Dr.

John Maxwell, and I'm not name-dropping, like we're really close.

He's like a father to me, and he's mentored me my whole life.

Of course, he's one of the greatest leadership experts in the world, and we spent a lot of time together.

We were just together uh this past week.

But uh, when he turned 60 years old, he did a bunch of uh trips with some friends, and I got invited to go on a golf trip with him.

So when he turned 61 years old, he wanted to get the same group of people together again on the second year to play golf where he lives down in South Florida.

So me and these other six guys along with John ate all together, uh, went to South Florida to play some golf.

Now remember, I'm just kind of a I'm I'm not a creative type.

So I it's 8:30, 9 o'clock.

I'm ready to go to bed.

It's this time, you know, we've had dinner, we've been, you know, we're all taking notes.

You don't just hang out with John, you take notes, and it's just fun.

Okay, we're learning, it's great.

It's nine o'clock.

I'm ready.

I think we're all going to the hotel, and John says, hey, let's go see a movie.

I don't, I don't, I don't do movies.

I I had I hadn't been one.

I will now go see this Jesus Revolution, but I haven't been to a movie, right, in a long time.

And like, well, at least they got popcorn.

Come on, somebody, right?

So I can enjoy that part.

So anyway, we get there.

Um, and and it was when we got there, he wanted to see the movie The Bucket List.

And and I can't recommend it, by the way.

There were parts I'm like, oh dear Jesus, oh God.

Yeah, so anyway, um, so I'm not recommending it by any stretch.

Um, but if you don't know the movie, it's these two guys that have terminal cancer, and they're um and and they want they made a list of all the things they wanted to do before they kicked the bucket, and one of them was very wealthy, and he was gonna finance it all.

And it was things like jumping out of airplanes and racing cars and all these superficial things, and it did have a fairly good moral to the story, and that is none of those things really satisfied, only the truly meaningful things really mattered, and that part of it was was pretty good.

But again, if you're with John, you just don't do entertainment, you're gonna learn something.

So when we got out, he says, How many of you have a bucket list?

And I said, I don't, I don't have a to-do list.

Come on, somebody, right?

Like, I don't have a bucket list.

He goes, Well, that's your assignment, he told all of us.

Everybody's gonna go back to the hotel room and and write down as many things that you want to do before you kick the bucket, and it put me in dreaming mode.

And I don't know if some of you guys have ever done this, especially you list people.

And I went back and I could only come up with five things I wanted to do before I kicked the bucket.

And one of them was just kiss Tammy on top of the Eiffel Tower.

I couldn't come up with stuff, like you know, just I was so bad at it, honestly.

And so I came up with five things.

By the way, today I have uh 93 items on my bucket list of things that I'm dreaming.

Some of them are fun and family-related and trip related, but most of them are ministry related and things I've just I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming.

But after a few weeks, I thought, oh, I've got a good one.

I want to fly in an uh in an F-16 type jet as a civilian.

And I I had that dream because I used to live in Colorado Springs as a youth pastor, and I was about a mile from the gate of the Air Force Academy, and they used to have a civilian ride program, and I knew they, you know, that they'd do that from time to time.

So as I wrote it on my list, I went and kind of see if I could pull it off.

Well, they've discontinued the civilian ride program, which I want to stop right here and minister to you a word at in the middle of telling you this story, and that is there is a tension between writing down or dreaming something that you know has absolutely no possibility of happening.

And the question is, do you still write it down and dream it?

And the answer is yes, if Ephesians 3.20 is actually true, and it is, that God is able.

He's still able.

So I left it on there.

Well, fast forward about seven years and I'm doing a series on dreams, and I'm telling this story.

I said, Look, I've got something on there, it can't happen, but I've got it on the list because I'm gonna believe God, even though I know it can't happen.

Well, there were two Fulbird Colonels listening to this story right in the middle of the room, and they leaned over each other and they said, Hey, let's see if we can make this happen for PC.

They call me PC for Pastor Chris.

And I didn't know this.

This is July of 2015.

Well, it took them four months to vet me through the Pentagon.

I don't know this is going on, but I'm being vetted through the Pentagon, okay?

And I passed.

That should give you some relief right there, everybody.

All right.

And so, and that they chose the Christmas services to be the place where they were going to announce it.

Well, I figure it out.

They're walking up in full military dress at one of our Christmas services with this letter in their hand, and I figure it out.

I'm going, oh, are you serious?

Is this getting ready to happen?

They said, Pastor Chris, on behalf of the Secretary of Defense, we formally invite you to a civilian ride program.

If you can pass, first of all, the physical, like, let's go, what's next?

You know, like.

And then if you'll go through the training, I said, What's the training?

Well, I found out, by the way, the training was just ejection seat training, is how to die.

So anyway, that's that's what they teach you, you know.

And then in February of 2016, I I flew, actually flew the F-16 and and I and had up there for about an hour and 10 minutes, pulled nine G's at one time.

My face was behind me, y'all.

But on the way home, I repented to God and said, I'll never say never, and I'm gonna start dreaming bigger dreams for you.

And I'm trying to tell you if you'll include, yeah, give God praise for that.

You you hear me?

And by the way, when you do, this is again when the human and the and the and the divine intersect.

So the person who was named pain is dreaming, dreaming bigger dreams for God now.

And so I just included every day.

God needs you to bless me with more than I need so that I can be a blessing to the world around me.

And Lord, I am dreaming bigger dreams.

I I'm asking for influence.

I'm asking God that you would stretch my tent wider and wider, not for my glory or ego, but for your glory in Jesus' name.

Now, if God does that, you are gonna need the third line in the prayer.

Because the third line in the prayer is, okay, now I need your hand upon me.

Now, why would he pray that?

Because if you have more than you need, and now you have influence and you're living a life that's bigger than you, you're gonna fill in over your head.

And now you're gonna think, well, I can't do this.

I am doing so many things right now that fill in over my head.

And that's why I say, God, I'm gonna need your hand upon me.

And here's the word I use you pray for presence.

The presence of God.

Do you know what the presence of God is?

It's when God just decides to help you.

He decides to, or here's the here's a biblical word, to anoint you.

And now you're not living a natural or normal life, you're living a supernatural life.

This is the beauty of the series that you're in right now.

Because Pastor Robert, I said, why are you teaching this series divinely human?

He says, because I'm trying to encourage people not to just stay and even see their own mistakes as a limitation, but to know that we have a gracious, merciful, kind, awesome, loving, no one like him kind of a God, who, regardless of your past, will still put his hand on your life.

Come on, everybody.

But some of you have not.

So why not, Lord, put your hand on me?

Do you know what happens when the hand of the Lord is upon you?

In the book of Acts, it says the hand of God was on them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

That's Acts 11.

So when God gets involved, all of a sudden I'm living with a power that is so beyond my own.

The way we say it at Highlands, Pastor Robert, is when we look around at some of the things that God has done in our church and in our lives, we look at each other and say, We ain't this good.

And honestly, we're not this good.

We have an amazing God who put his hand on our lives.

Now, this is important for me because I'm not the most, I'm I was never the most educated, um, smartest.

In fact, I was a C student all my life.

Where are my C students at?

Where are y'all at?

Thank you very much.

Not as many as the list people, but there you are, all right.

Where are you A students?

Straight A students, straight A students, yeah.

We're not we're not crazy about y'all, all right?

So messing up the curve all the time, you know, like can't stay home once in a while, you know, it's just anyway.

But um my my oldest, uh uh as I told you, I have a daughter and four four sons, and my oldest son is extremely smart.

He uh he made a 33 on the ACT, got a full ride academic scholarship, did his undergrad three years, stayed and got an MBA, like really smart.

And I'll never forget when he um he did we just happened to all be in the kitchen the day that he got his final report card.

So, and we were just all happened to be in the kitchen.

He opens it up, I'll never forget that.

He's go, Dad, he said, Dad, look, my last report card from high school, all A's again.

He said, I never made a B in my whole life.

I said, That's nothing I never made a B in my whole life either.

Just get on out of here.

I don't need to talk to you.

Just get on out of here.

I don't move on, son, move on.

Okay, I kid, I jest, I have a real inferiority complex.

I was bullied as a junior hire.

Um, they tore, they they tortured me.

They literally tortured me.

I was an eighth grader in a ninth grade PE class.

Imagine what happened in that class.

And it was it was hellish, it was horrible.

And um, and so I I didn't react by by going into a shell.

I I went crazy.

I was gonna get people to like me, but I wasn't very good at school.

So, anyway, so when I got to college, I still wasn't I wasn't doing that well, and I just had this massive inferiority complex.

Well, I was an accounting major at LSU, and had, and one of the classes that I had to take was a speech class, and I failed my speech class at LSU.

Y'all, they don't even speak English down there, you know.

You gotta be really bad if you fail that class.

And look what I do for a living today.

You know, look what I look what I do to God be the glory, right?

And that's the redemptive side.

That's the redemptive side of who God is.

He's trying to heal those broken places, but I had this this horrible inferiority complex.

So when I got in ministry at 20 years old, Pastor Larry gave me way too big of a job, way too young, and I felt inadequate.

And I'm speaking to anyone who feels inadequate in your job, or maybe as a mom or as a parent, or just something you think, this is too big for me.

Great.

You are now a candidate for the hand of God to be upon you.

And I had a verse, God be my witness, I had a verse that I wrote out because Pastor Larry always taught me, get a verse for every situation, get find you a verse.

And I found a verse out of 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

It says this, I want to read it to you.

It says, Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for myself, but my competence doesn't come from a degree from LSU to God be the glory.

But my competence comes from God.

He made me competent as a minister of the new covenant, not of the letter.

In other words, not through all my earthly accomplishments, not even by my earthly abilities.

Again, it goes back to this divinely human thing that God will look at your inabilities and make you competent.

Not of the letter, but of the spirit.

The letter kills, the spirit gives life.

Had that on my bathroom mirror for 20 years.

Had to get up every day and tell myself, you're competent, not because you are the smartest guy.

I still don't know why God picked me.

And just about every time it happened to me standing right there during communion, I'm thinking, what in the world?

What in the world am I getting up there for?

Pastor Robert's right here.

And then I hear the Spirit of God say, But I made you competent.

I gave you something to say.

And I hope it's helping somebody in this room today.

Amen.

But just like just like Moses prayed, and we talked about Moses last week, Lord, if your presence does not go with me, don't send me out there.

And I pray that, I pray that every time before I get on the stage.

I'll go, but I'm gonna need your hand upon me.

So, Lord, give me more than I need so that I can be a blessing, not just my needs.

Stop praying for just your need.

Lord, now increase my influence.

I will let my life be bigger than my life.

I'm gonna live a life of ministry where I don't live my life for myself.

I live my life for the sake of others.

Okay, wait a minute.

This is now too big.

I'm gonna need your hand upon me.

Now, if you have more than you need, and your influence is great, and God's helping you, let me tell you the third thing, the fourth thing that's gonna happen, all of hell is gonna try to stop you now.

And that's why his last prayer was, okay, now you're gonna need to keep me from the evil one.

And by the way, I have a word for somebody if you'll look in my eyes right now here today.

Some of you thinking, what in the world am I doing wrong?

The devil will not leave me alone.

That might be the greatest compliment you've ever received.

Because if you ain't butting heads with the devil, you might be walking with him.

If you're having opposition, it's because he's trying to stop you from something.

And Jabez knew that if I have more than I need, if I have influence, and God is helping me, I'm gonna finally pray for protection.

The protection of Almighty God.

Four words are protecting blessing, influence, presence, protection.

Every day.

Blessing, influence, presence, protection.

Say it with me.

Blessing, influence, presence, protection.

Why?

Because I hate to tell you this, but you have an enemy.

First Peter talks about it.

It says you have an enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Somebody say, Well, I don't think I believe that.

That does not make him go away.

And it shouldn't freak you out either.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

So the Bible encourages us to take our place in prayer to overcome the powers of darkness.

Luke chapter 10, verse 19, I've given you authority, Jesus said, to trample on snakes and scorpions.

Luke 10:19

Those are demonic principalities.

To overcome all the power of the enemy, and nothing will harm you.

Here's why I remind people that prayer is not just communion with God, but it's also confrontation with the devil.

And we learned spiritual warfare.

And look at me, somebody.

For some of y'all, you need to raise your voice a little bit in prayer.

Get mad at the devil and tell tell the devil that he cannot have your kids.

He's not having this generation, he's not having my marriage.

And I take my stand against him in the mighty name of Jesus.

Come on, give God a great praise if you really believe that.

No.

Stir it up.

Somebody can come play behind me and I'll close this service.

But in our second year of the church, so we were just one year old.

If you remember, 9-11 happened on a Tuesday.

And so on the one-year anniversary of 9-11, um, we were gonna do our first event at Church of the Highlands.

We weren't about about 600 people, and and we needed something to let the city know we were here.

So we decided to do a September 11th remembrance service.

And so on the Wednesday before 9-11, 2002, so this would be September 4th, 2002.

We're having our Wednesday night service.

Right before I get on stage, I get a text from Tammy, my wife, and said, Look, Sarah got home from um school today and she had something in her eye.

We couldn't get it out.

So we go to the doctor, the doctor sends her to an optometrist or some eye specialist, and the specialist sent us to the hospital.

Like, what?

I'm reading all this, hearing all this seconds before coming on the stage to preach.

And she says, they did a scan of her brain, and she's got lesions all over her brain.

I said, What?

They I said, What do they think it is?

They said, it looks like multiple sclerosis.

And I said, Well, what do they do about it?

She said, Chris, there's nothing you can do about it.

She said she's already nearly blind in that eye that had the the which felt like she had dirt in it.

I thought, what?

And I like to tell you, and I was just this man of faith and power.

I was more like paste and flour, y'all.

I was terrible.

I was, I just, I fell apart.

And I laid in bed for two days.

I was so mad.

I and I've been trained enough to know in ministry, and I've been I've been doing this for long enough time now to know that it was more than likely a demonic attack.

And I was mad, I kind of got mad at God.

It's like, well, here I am fighting these battles.

And I mean, do something.

Do something about this.

And I just, I don't know, I just I was in a bad place.

Well, fast forward three days.

It's now our Saturday morning prayer service, and I'm headed to the church to do our regular Saturday morning prayer.

And I'm not ready, I don't have a word, nothing.

So I'm at the red light, a block from the church, like flipping.

Don't do this, but I was flipping, Lord, just find me something, you know, and had my Bible in the passenger seat.

Y'all, I did one flip.

And it was 1 Corinthians 15.

Where O death is your victory, where O death is your sting.

And it goes on and says, Stand firm then, let nothing move you.

Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, knowing your labor is not in vain.

And I told God at that red light, if she lives or dies, I'll serve you.

I don't have to like it, I don't like it.

We had a great prayer service.

So now it's the Sunday before 9-11, 2002, and a buddy came up and said to me, they said, Chris, my dad is a neuro, uh neurologist can down in Montgomery.

Bring her, bring her to him, maybe he can figure something out.

I said, I said, Hamp, they already got the scans.

He says, please take her.

So on the Monday, two days before 9-11, 2002, we drive down to Montgomery and they rescan her.

Her brain's clear, but her eye is worse, it's blind.

I was like, Praise the Lord.

I mean, you know, you don't know, like, right?

It's like good, you know.

So the lesions are gone, but the eye is getting worse.

And he said, She's not gonna die, she does not have MS, but she may never see out of the eye again.

And at that point, I was like, at least I get to keep her.

You know, I was just happy.

Two days later, we had this service.

600 people gave their lives to Jesus in one service.

We had 3,000 people come to this event.

Yeah, give God praise for that.

And Thursday morning, her eyes are perfect.

Perfect, perfect.

You can see.

Because if God gives you more than you need, and now your influence increases, and God's anointing it where hundreds of people give their life to Jesus, all of hell's gonna come against you.

But I'm here to tell you today at Gateway Church that at the name of Jesus every demon's gotta bow.

Can I hear a good amen, everybody?

Come on, everybody, pray.

We're gonna pray.

Blessing, influence, presence, and protection.

Stand with me where you are right there.

Let me just pray over you today at every location, every campus.

Maybe even if you're at home, you're by yourself today, and you just want to join us in prayer.

Would you just close your eyes?

Would you open your hands before the Lord?

That's just a posture of receiving.

Lord, I pray for the precious people here at Gateway Church.

God, I thank you, Lord, God, how you brought us together as a family.

But God, all of us have some version of Jabez in our lives.

We are in pain.

We have some situations and things that we face.

And God, we do cast our cares on you.

It's okay, God, for us to tell you about our pain.

But Lord, today we're redirecting our pain to the things that you want for our life.

And I'm praying, God, your richest blessings.

God, give them influence.

Let them live a life beyond themselves.

God, I'm asking for your hand to be upon them in a powerful way.

Let your anointing flow through them.

Let them live supernatural lives.

And God, you're going to keep them from harm.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said a good amen.

God bless your church.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.