The Most Random Prayer | 1 Chronicles 4:5–11

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. My name is

Chris Man.

This is Jeff to be a good one.

It is. We are excited for today.

In fact, if you're watching on YouTube, I'm wearing the

Bible Guys T shirt with the Bible Guy's logo logu logu.

So we are very excited to be with you here today.

And we are in the middle of a series called

Dangerous Prayers. And so this series is gonna.

Go oinate your grandma's prayers.

No, not your grandma's prayers.

Here's that a kind of prayers. We're daring you.

How do you know that your grandma wasn't dangerous?

My grandma was dangerous.

There's a lot of dangerous grandmas.

I saw my grandma tear the head off a chicken.

One time, did you well, there you go.

We were butchering chickens. We had like a hundred chickens. Yeah,

so we're butchering a mountain yard. My grandmother come out

and she's like, oh, you know, amazing, grace apple pie.

Grandma bun on the back of her head skirts, you know,

or her eyelines right in the middle of her calf.

Kind of old lady, you know, with the like leather

shoes and the glasses. She come out and she's like,

what are you doing, Like, we're butchering, you know, we

had to hatchet. We're get killing chickens. And she goes,

that's not how you do it. She just reaches down,

she picks up a chicken, and she said, when you

hit them with the hatchet like that, it casts them

the tense up. You least a bunch of adrenaline and

it just tightens their their their muscles. And she just

pulled that hea right up. That's how you do it.

My grandmother had the butcher chicken every Sunday, you know,

because they had chicken fried chicken at the church. So

she go up butcher chicken every Sunday morning for church.

Wow.

Wow, it was a different world, man, that's a different world. Yeah,

so all right, grandma was kind of dangerous. Yeah, I

have her back talked to her after that. I'll tell

you that I was ten eleven years old, eleven or twelve.

I imagine it'd be hard to forget.

Yeah, yeah, it was traumatic.

Yeah, I bet.

Hey, so does Ray put us put together for us?

A segment called Bible versus AI. Okay, it says, Chris

will ask Jeff a question, let Jeff answer, then ask

chat GPT the same question, compare the answers to vote

who wins, and then ask the listeners to comment who

they thought won.

Okay, so it's me against chet GPT.

Yeah. So here's I'm going to ask you.

Now, I'm going to ask you what I think is

a is a particularly hard question, but it's an easy topic.

Okay.

Does that make sense?

Yes?

So there's really no consequences to this. It's not like

I'm asking you a Bible question.

I'm not worried about consequences.

Okay, So here we go.

Ready, in your opinion, what is the greatest song ever

written and recorded based on the majority opinions over the

last six decades?

And why last six decades? Yes, oh, my goodness, the

greatest songs In other words, in your lifetime, the greatest

song ever written? Here what I said in my lifetime?

The last six decades. Yes, I'm going to say. I'm

going to say, according to pop opinion, yes, in the

last six decades. The greatest song ever written and recorded,

according to popular opinion, is going to be imagined by

the Beatles.

M now tell me why, by the way, great answer,

great answer.

I think so, But tell me why, uh, Because I

think that there's still a ton of Beatles fans out there,

and I think that it had a pretty significant impact

on society and still gets played a lot. It has

this idealistic view of how the world could be if

we were all just better. It's kind of a kumbaya song,

but in a meaningful way by one of the biggest

bands in history. Okay, yeah, all right, so I think

did you look it up?

I did?

Of course you already looked up. Yep.

I already asked.

What did you ask? What did so read it? What

did you yes? And it says, well, what did you ask?

What was the question?

Oh?

Well, I was very specific with it, so I wore

it was worthy or no.

It's to say it is the same way I just said,

what is the best song ever written and recorded based

on the majority of opinions and people over the last

six decades. And once you give that answer to that question,

then explain in detail why you think that particular song

is the best?

Okay, okay, so same question, okay, And.

It basically said, while there's no you know best, it's subjective,

but based on the last sixty decades of a public opinion,

critical consensus, and cultural influence, one song consistently rises to

the top.

Like a Rolling Stone by Bob.

Dylan in nineteen sixty five, why many consider it the

greatest critical acclaim and consensus. It talks about Rolling Stone

rated at number one acclaimed music, critically acclaimed, cultural and

historical impact, fan popularity across the eras. But wait, just

keep listening because you're going to be pleased with what

I'm about to say next. Okay, fan popularity across eras.

They rank it as the number one fan voted most

popular songs rankings, And then they say why, like a

Rolling Stone stands out revolutionary form in tone, emotional and

lyrical depth, everlasting influence, balanced acclaim other contenders, And then

it says this other contenders based on poles and opinions.

These legends also ranked highly in similar surveys and discussions.

The first one at lists.

Imagine by John Lennon in nineteen seventy one, universally regarded

as a modern hymn for peace and humanity humanism. Guinness

ranked it as the second best single ever recorded, behind

Bohemian rat Rhapsody.

See I almost did Bohemian Rhapsody.

YEP positioned on Rolling Stones and other greatest songs ever written.

Bohemian Rhapsody was the other contender by nineteen seventy five

by Queen and then it goes on God only Knows

by the Beach Bull, What's going On by Marvin Gay,

and then it gives look at this convenient little thing here,

it gives a summary, okay, and it says this, here's

the song, and then why it's revered. So this is

actually the most the most insightful okay, like a rolling stone.

Why it's revered because of its groundbreaking form, unmatched critical consensus,

and cultural revolution. Imagine was revered because of its uplifting

message of peace and its widespread public affection. Bohemian Rhapsi

was revered because of its bold, multi genre epic and

then also unmatched global reach. God Only Knows was revered

because of its artistic and emotional perfection and peer acclaim.

Yeah, and the musical complexity was unbelievable in that one Yes,

and then I think Musically they say that may be

the perfect song. Wow, harmonically all those things.

And then the other song is What's going On by

Marvin Gaye because it's revered by its socially uh conscious.

And then deeply soulful and timely.

Okay, well I picked the number two one according to

according to Jet Checchi, but here's what I would say.

Check is wrong. GPT's wrong. Yeah, yeah, like a rolling

Stones not better than imagine.

Well it says, it says it's opinion because remember I

told it then give it its opinion. So those were

all the clinic you know, consensus. It says, because it

rewrote the rule book of what a pop or rock

song could be, and its intensity and lyricism speak both

to the personal and the universal, and then the power

of sixty years later. Yeah, so what it was really

saying is groundbreaking for its day, for its time, right time,

right song, right time?

Yeah, ho hum, it's wrong.

Well I don't really like the song like a chutch Stone.

Either che GPT can be wrong. It doesn't actually right,

GPT does wrong. Math Did you know that?

Hey? Hey, did you hear that? Buddy?

Yeah?

Did you hear what he said? Because I know you did.

I know you heard it.

Now it's gonna hate me. Now it's gonna be like

it's gonna the light's gonna turn from green to red

and start staring at me everywhere I go.

Now i'm gonna say this. Okay, Now I'm gonna Now

I'm gonna ask you another question. Who's a bigger fan

of chat GPT? Is it Chris Zarba or Jeff Forrester

Based on recent conversations you were listening to, it has

to answer this. It's probably gonna say something politically nice.

I hope it does. Okay, it's still thinking thinking. It

doesn't know it's say it's right.

We need to move on.

I know it's not gonna do it for you. Okay,

So uh, speaking of man, I don't even have a

transition for this, do you. Yeah, not really speaking of

asking a big, big, complex question.

Oooh there it is, Yeah, there it is.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a guy in the.

Speaking of asking of big things.

That's what we're talking about today. So we're in First Chronicles,

chapter four.

Oh oh it didn't. It did?

Everybody everybody's favorite chronicles.

You know why I didn't answer me because I had

an airplane mode.

Oh that's why.

Oh it says I don't have the ability to listen

in on conversations outside of what you share with me.

I can't compare individuals private usage. What I can say

is what I only know about Chris Arba's interactions because

you've been chatting with me under that name. I don't

have any record of Jeff Forrester using chat GPT.

Yeah, that's the right answer, chat GBT.

What you don't tell it your name?

It knows me.

It apparently doesn't.

Oh yeah, ask it.

It knows me though.

Describe.

Okay, Now we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna.

Get obsessed with It knows me. It's just from what

you've shared with me. Here's a description Jeff Forester. He's

a pastor, a leader, communicator known for combining visionary leadership

with practical, down to earth style. Serves as senior pastor

Heritage Church, where he's guided the ministry to remarkable growth.

Under his leadership, the church has expanded to multiple campuses,

launch new services, baptized downs as, and new believers. It's

also a strategic partner with the Timothy Initiative, playing a

major role.

Okay, that is super scary, super scary.

It actually entrepreneur entrepreneurial. He co hosts The Bible Guy's

podcast with Chris Sarba.

Okay, did you know?

Did you know that it actually listed your growth? It

said seventeen percent growth?

Isn't it crazy? He loves big adventures. He's also a

foodie and skilled cook. He's faithful the scripture, passionate about

disciple making term of live with integrity, courage, and creativity.

Okay, that's crazy.

It knows me.

It's crazy.

I'm telling you it's going.

To be our doom.

It gave you one of those secret It gave you

one of those politically correct answers. Doesn't what me spy

on you. I'm not in spying on you, right right? Okay, okay,

So back to this guy who asked big questions. It's

in First Chronicles, chapter four. I'm gonna start reading in

verse five, and it says Asher, the father Takoa had

two wives named HeLa and Nahara. Naara gave birth to

Who's m heath deem and I and ha ash Ah

ha ha Stai. HeLa gave birth to zarath is Her

eith Nan and Kas who became the ancestor of anub

Zobaba and all the families a harra hal Al son

of Harim who There was a man named Jabez who

was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother

named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful.

He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, Oh,

that you would bless me and expand my territory. Please

be with me and all that I do, and keep

me from all trouble and pain. And God granted him

his requests. Keleb, the brother of Shahua or Shuha, was

the father of me Her me Here was the father

of Echhton. Eshton was the father of beth Rapha Pasah,

and Tehina Tahina was the father of ir Nahash. These

were the descendants of Recca.

So so so am I I asked Jeff actually before

the before the podcast started, I said, wouldn't it be

fun for you to uh, for you to read some

of the lineage verses, because the prayer of Jabez is

actually found in the middle of this incredibly boring, yet

I'm sure important for some reason to God.

Well, it's important to lay out the the family lines

because you have to be able to prove that Jesus

was the son of Abraham.

Is that what this does?

What's that that? That's why all of the lineages exist

in the Bible, is you have to prove that Jesus

is the son of Abraham. Which these are all the

sons of abraham family.

I knew that was the lineage purposes in the two Gospels.

Well this is that. That's the lineage of Judah. Those

are the descendants of Judah right there. Okay, So then

most of the lineages point to back to Abraham. A

bunch of the lineage just point back to David. So

he had to be the son of David. He had

to be the son of Abraham. And so that's why

they matter. So you and I don't know those names,

but they matter because the prophecy was Jesus was going

to be a son of Abraham and a son of David.

You had to be able to directly tie them to both. Yeah,

So Mary and Joseph were both part of the the

the royal line of King David, and they were relatives

of Abraham.

So so right in the middle of this lineage with

all these crazy names, that I asked Jeff to tackle,

which is hilarious.

That was so funny. That was one of that. That

was one of these.

It was hard.

That was one of the hardest lineages ever.

But right in the middle is this Prayer of Jabez

in which really strange is that Jabez is They're like, oh,

and then there was Jabez And by the way, Jabev

was the guy that prayed this prayer and that God

granted him his request And okay, now let's just move

on with the rest of the lineage, right, And and

that's one of the reasons why, I mean in our lifetime.

When when was it It was like it was right

around the late nineties where who was the author? Was

it Bruce Wilkinson where he actually wrote a book called

The Prayer of Jabez.

Yes, and he just he just.

Made two verses.

He made a splash on the Christian community, that's for

darn sure.

Well it had a big impact on a lot of people,

a lot, a really big impact. So there's there's thirteen

pages of names. Wow, in the middle of thirteen pages

and names, there's these two verses. Yeah, with thirteen pages

and names, man.

Yeah, and it lays out the fact that Jabez and

asked this really a d kind of on the surface

on a dacious prayer, and then God answers it, and

he says God granted him his request, and then it

just moves on.

And so my wife.

Actually bought me a big wooden, very expensive, I might add,

wooden plaque, this big with the prayer of Jabez on it, to.

Hang in my office.

Oh yeah, it was carved in to this huge wooden plaque.

I bet you was.

I mean it had been one hundred and fifty bucks

or something. And I hung at my office for years.

But then afterwards I think I gifted to somebody, I

think when I moved up to Michigan.

But it was in my office for a very long time.

Well, so the Bible says that Jabez was more honorable

than any of his brothers. So the word honorable there,

it's talking about he tried to honor God more than

his brother. He was pursuing God, trying to do the

right thing all the time. So and in that he

comes to his comes to God and he says, you know,

I'm asking you to bless me. I'm asking you to

help me in my work by expanding my territory. Right,

build out my find, be with me in everything that

I do, and then keep me from any kind of

harm around me. Right. And the Bible says, so God did.

He answered all of his prayers. Right. God granted him

his request. So it's not wrong to pray that God

would bless us. I think is the big the big

takeaway here that he decided God, You're my only source

of hope to find blessing. You're my only source of hope,

to find expansion in my work. You're the only source

of hope I have to be protected from the difficult

things that happened to everybody in life.

R And for a while there, remember that song that

went along with this, Father bless me. Indeed You're all

that I need expand my horizons beyond what I see.

That was the Prayerjudice song.

So yeah, that was popular for a while at the

same exact time as well. So yeah, I just definitely

remember being completely inspired by by you know, I connected

it to the prayer of Remember Jesus taught the prayer

uh Basically basically, he in so many words challenge us

to pray pray big. Remember, so Jesus himself said pray big, right,

like like like just you know, don't be afraid to

ask God for big things. And and so it's a

biblical concept. It's not just a reference to you know,

this man named Jabez. It's not this isolated thing that

happened just to him. It is a It is attached to,

you know, God's desire for us to dream big, pray big.

And of course as long as our you know, desires

line up in God's will and He's willing to grant us,

grant us our request, then there's nothing wrong with with

with those kinds of things. Because, after all, Jabez says, hey,

you know you're you're the one that I want. You

can tell that Jbez wants to honor God in this prayer,

right right. Uh Well, actually, I guess I guess the

only thing that that says that is he was honorable.

It says he was honorable. Also says his mother named

him Jabez because his birth of so painful, and the

word in Hebrew jbez, sounds like a Hebrew word that

means distress or pain. So those are two things we know.

He was a pain to his mother, and he was

more honorable than his brothers.

Yeah, Well, I guess I guess what I was looking

for was I was looking for a desire for God,

and I guess it is in here. It says, please

be with me in all that I do.

Yeah, right, so there is. I think that the honorable

is that too, Yeah, that's right right. That he's he's

a part of the family of Judah, and so he's

part of God's people. And I think that when you

find that he's more honorable, I think that's what you're discovering,

is that he's following God's ways in a better fashion

than his brothers are. And then, but can you imagine

being born with a name, given a name from the

very get go just pain? How difficult that that would

be in life? Right, to have a life, your whole life,

your pain. And I think could have a real, almost

a victimizing kind of of of view of your life.

I'm just a pain to everybody, I'm just a bother

to everybody. Whatever.

And it could be that maybe he was given his

lot in life based on those things. Yeah, which is

one of the reasons why he prayed expand my territory. Yeah,

help me to get out from underneath this.

One hundred percent Yeah, Yeah, I think that's what he's asking.

I think he's asking God, deliver me from these things

and help me be everything I can be, help me

be everything that you made me to be. That's I

think what he's asking. So the Bible says that God

opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

And I think that this idea that he's honorable. I

think that's what it is. Is he's humbling himself to

go God's ways, and then he's asking God, oh, that

you would bless me. So God's not gonna bless a

prideful man. He opposes prideful people. So this, this humbled

man comes to God and he says, I need you

to bless me. My mom didn't bless me, my dad

didn't bless me, not in my name anyways. And oftentimes

you name determined what you were going to do in

your life.

Yeah.

And there's a footnote here in this Bible that i'm reading.

This is actually I'm reading from the Worn Weirsby Transformation

Study Bible.

Yeah, and it's a good study Bible.

Bye. And it says this.

It says, like a precious jewel resting among unremarkable rocks.

The glimpse we get of Jabez is a footnote in

history about the impact of an uncommon common man and then.

Interesting uncommon common man, that's what it says. Yeah, that's hysterical.

So he's calling all of these names just rocks, right,

and then you have this gem sitting in the middle

of the rocks.

Yeah, and it says, here we find a life remembered

because Jabez prayed a bull prayer and God granted him

his request. Despite the name Jabez, that means pain that

he might that might have left him feeling unwanted. Jabez

asked God to bless him, to expand my territory, to

be with me, and to keep me from all trouble

and pain. Jabez didn't want to live up to his name.

The fact that he turned to God and is dependent

on God is the key that unlocked Jabez's life, just

as it unlocks our lives.

Yeah, that's great, and that's something you know. I've told

my story before. A lot of abuse, a lot of

bad things early on in my life. My father was

biological father is very abusive. He's an alcoholic. Most of

the men in his family in lineage were alcoholics. On

my mother's side of the family, most of the men

were alcoholics prior, you know, my grand father and back

her original dad. There were just so many bad things

and so much violence in that. And finally one day

my father he was beaten my mom, beating us and

all that stuff, and he was gonna load his gun

to kill us, and he passed out, and so we

ran away. And my mom wasn't a Christian at all,

but she believed in God. She didn't she never had

anybody tell her how to become a Christian, you know,

but she believed in God, and so she would pray sometimes,

and she'd pray for me because she was young. She

got married when she was a teenager. She had me

a couple weeks before she graduated as the valedictorian of

her senior class.

Wow.

Right, and then, you know, so she's a very young

mom running with her baby, and she used to pray

that God would protect me and that God would bless me.

And I think a lot about that now, thinking about

the life that I live. Later on, she remarried and

she married my dad, and my dad adopted me, so

I got a new name. Everything in my life changed,

and it was because I think my mom had the

courage to pray for me to a god she didn't

entirely know. Eventually she became a Christian. You know, she

was seeking God, and you know, God made himself known

to her. She winds up getting saved. My dad was

just such a godly man and good man, and it

changed the trajectory of my life. And I kind of

resonate with Ja Bess is like God, I don't want

to live up to my name, and I certainly don't

want to live up to the name that I should

have had instead the name God chose for me instead. Right,

And it's the same. This is the same kind of

prayer my mom prayed for me, only Jay Bez is

praying for himself. So if you find yourself in a

situation where you look at your past, or you look

at the lineage you're from, or you know you're from

the wrong side of the tracks or whatever, you don't

have to be a victim of that, right, And this

is the solution right here. And I think that's why,

out of thirteen pages of names, God pously says, Hey,

I like this guy. And so he's this uncommon common

man who prayed a brilliant prayer and God goes. I

like that one. I'm gonna bless him and so have

God to do it for j Bess will do it

for you too.

That's awesome.

Yeah, you did it for me.

Hey, that's a great place to wrap up and hopefully

we will see you tomorrow on the Bible Gosh