Now tonight, we'll be back in the book of the Revelation talking about the future unveiled, so I encourage you to be back tonight at 6 o'clock. 1 Chronicles, in your Old Testament, 1 Chronicles chapter number 4. Find your place there in the pages of God's Word if you would please. Several weeks ago, we met a man by the name of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4. God said he was more honorable than his brethren. That means he was promoted to honor. That God honored him above his brethren around him. And it wasn't that Jabez was better than his brethren. It was the fact that he wanted more than his brethren. There's nothing about Jabez that would have led us to believe that he would live an extraordinary life. As a matter of fact, you're going to find that Jabez's name meant sorrowful. And evidently he had some kind of physical handicap or limitation. And his mother had thought that he was destined to live a life of burden and sorrow, what we would consider less than an ordinary life. that he would be faced with difficulty and hardship, and so she thought that he would just be faced with immense sorrow in his life. But Jabez decided that he wanted something different, and so he called, and we're going to see that in a moment, he called on the God of Israel. He called on God, and when you brought God into the equation, everything changed in his life. And Jabez wasn't content to live a life of mediocrity. He wanted more from God and for God. Notice if you would, in our text this morning, 1 Chronicles 4 and verse number 9, the Bible says, And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren. That means he is promoted to honor. And his mother called his name Jabez, sorrow or sorrowful, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow. Verse 10, And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast. and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.' And God granted him that which he requested." And so you're going to find that Jabez turns to God. He looks to the only one that can make a difference in his life. Aren't you glad that God can make a difference in people's lives. He can make a difference in my life. He can make a difference in your life, my family, your family, my marriage, your marriage, our community, the world. God can make a difference. And so Jabez recognized that his life was destined to be sorrowful, but he looked beyond his circumstances to a God that could change the direction and the tenor of his life. Now it didn't mean that it changed his handicap. It didn't mean that God necessarily healed Jabez. It doesn't mean that Jabez didn't have difficulties and hardships and obstacles in his life. It didn't mean that at all. But what it meant was that in spite of all of that, that God blessed him and promoted him, gave him honor. He honored his life and he blessed his life. and Jabez lived a life of extraordinary means and caliber. And you know what? I believe that God can take you and me from ordinary to extraordinary. He can take an ordinary person and do extraordinary things with them. He can take an ordinary marriage and make it extraordinary. He can take an ordinary future and make it an extraordinary future. I'm glad that our God has the ability to do the impossible in our lives, aren't you? Now listen, I asked the question a couple Sundays ago on what do you want from God. You see, Jabez is more known for what he prayed than what he did. And there are four particular requests that he made. Let's look at them again in verse 10. He said this in the middle part. He called on the God of Israel saying, O that Thou wouldest bless me and aid me. He said, God, I want You to bless me and make me a blessing. And then the second thing he prayed for was enlarge my coast. The third thing he prays for is that thine hand might be with me. And then lastly, he said, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil. So there are four particular requests. And a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the second request, the second petition of Enlarge My Coast. But then with that is the third petition where he says that thine hand might be with me. I believe that those two went together. I believe that Jabez got to thinking. He began thinking about the fact that if God granted his prayer, he was going to need a strength and ability outside of himself to handle what God was getting ready to do in his life. And can I tell you, dear child of God, listen, it's you and I do not have the ability to live a supernatural life in our own power. Do you realize that Christianity is supernatural living? It's being born from above. That means I've been given a supernatural life. I've been given eternal life. I've been made a new creature, a spiritual life in Christ. And therefore, because I have a supernatural life, I therefore need a supernatural power to enable me to live life on the plain that God wants me to live it. And so Jabez, first of all, when we asked this question, what do you want from God? There was the prayer for more. He said, God, I want you to enlarge my coast. Now we learned that that word enlarge means to increase or to expand. had the idea of the tents in that day. Many people dwelled in tents and the idea that you would lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes because you were going to enlarge your tent. You were going to make it larger. And here he said, I don't want you to make my tent bigger. God, I want you to enlarge my coasts. And that has to do with one's territories or one's boundaries. It literally meant one's border. So in that day, a person's border or territory would mark the limit of his influence. And Jabez was saying, God, I want You to give me greater influence. I want You to give me greater responsibility. I want to have larger opportunities to do something for You. He's saying, God, I want You to enlarge my coast. I want You to give me greater responsibility and influence and opportunity that I can be what You want me to be and do what You want me to do. And so he prayed in that prayer, enlarge my coast, I want to be more than I've ever been. I believe Jabez is saying, God, I'm not content with being a mediocre Christian. I'm not content with the level that I'm living. I want to be more for You than I've ever been before. Christian, you know what, as we go into this year, It ought to be our desire that you and I live our lives on a higher plane. That we know God better than we've ever known Him. That we love His Word more than we've ever loved it. That we want to be something different for God than what we've been. Hey, can I tell you the world's seen enough of Kevin Broyhill and who he is, they need to see more of Jesus Christ living through Kevin Broyhill. Amen? Hey, the world's seen enough of us, it needs to see more of him. Amen? He said, I want to be more than I've ever been before. But then secondly along with that was, I want to do more than I've ever done. God, I want to be able to be used of You in a greater way than I've ever been used. Is that your prayer? Is that your desire? Is that something you want from God, Sunday school teacher? Is that something you want from God, bus worker, children's church worker, Christian here at Calvary Baptist Church? Are you saying, I want God to do more with my life and more with me this year as we get outside the walls of this church to impact our community and our world for God, I want to do more than I've ever done for God. Now, can I tell you, that's going to take some energy. And that's going to take some effort. And that's going to take some sacrifice. And we need to be willing to pay the price. And what I mean by that is to put forth the energy and the effort and the time and the ability so that God can make me what He wants me to be so that He can do through me what He wants to do, and that also collectively with us as a church as we get outside these walls. Amen? But then notice, there's something that goes along with this prayer. You see, Jabez recognizes that God, if you enlarge my coast, you're going to have to enlarge my strength. Look what he says in verse 10. He says, All that thou wouldst bless me indeed, God, make me a blessing, and enlarge my coast. I want to be more than I've ever been. I want to do more than I've ever done. And look at this next one. And that thine hand might be with me. God, I need your hand on my life. Now I want you to underline two words in your text because our message is going to really... hands around a couple of things, and I'm going to make two really strong points today. Notice first of all, the two words, thine hand. He said, he didn't just want anybody's hand. Listen, you know, there's people out there that say, here, let me give you a helping hand. Well, there's a lot of people that can give me helping hands. There's people who come along and help me in different ways and give me a helping hand in life. But you realize that Jabez realized he needed more than the help of a human hand. It was more than somebody around him, a family member, a friend, a co-worker, a mentor. It was more than just their hand being on. He said, God, if I'm going to experience everything You have for me, then God, I recognize that I need Your hand on me. Christian, listen. Do you realize, church, there is something different between somebody's hand being in your life and God's hand being on your life? There's a total difference there. You know what? My strength is limited, but I'm here to tell you His strength is unlimited. My ability is limited, but God's ability is unlimited. And so he's saying, God, I want Your hand on my life. If You're going to bless me to the extent that I'm praying that You bless me, I'm going to need Your hand on my life so that I can handle what You have for me. Now I want you to notice some thoughts about this. Notice, if you would, God's hand described. God's hand described. He said, I want Thine hand. Do you realize the hand of God, that phrase, or the hand of the Lord? The hand of God is found 16 times in the Bible. The hand of the Lord is found 38 times in the Bible. 54 times in your Bible there are 54 direct references to the hand of God or the hand of the Lord in the Scripture. That's not to mention the many indirect references where the Bible talks about the arm of the Lord. Now if you've got an arm, guess what's on the end of it? A hand. You all with me? And it talks about the fingers of God. Well, if you've got a finger, guess what that's attached to? It's attached to a hand, isn't it? And so many, many times as you read the Bible, it talks about the finger of God, the hand of God, the arm of the Lord. thy hand or your hand, time and time again, references made, especially in the Old Testament, about the hand of God being in a person or on a person or found at work in their lives. So the hand of God, church, is symbolic of the power of God. Listen, what he's saying is, God, I know that when Your hand is on me, I'll have Your power on my life. Listen to Joshua 4, verse 24. You can write it down in your notes. Here's what Joshua said, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. Aren't you glad that our God's got a mighty hand today? And that you might fear the Lord forever. And so what he's saying is, listen, when we come across this Jordan River, he said, listen, all the earth is going to know that the hand of the Lord is mighty. It's powerful. It's strong. 1 Kings 18, verse 46. Elijah. on Mount Carmel. But revival, the fire of God fell and it burnt the sacrifice and the offering and licked up the water in the trench that was around it. And then He's going to run before Ahab's chariot. He's going to outrun the horses. Alright? Because rain is coming. He's going to outrun the horses of Ahab's chariot. And listen to what the Bible says about Elijah. 1 Kings 18, verse 46 about the prophet Elijah. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. Can I tell you, it wasn't Elijah running, it was the hand of God moving Elijah down the road. It was God doing it, not Elijah doing it. You know what, Elijah goes up right before that happened, Elijah goes up and he's praying because it hadn't rained and hadn't had you in Israel for three and a half years. So he goes up on the mountain and he begins to pray for God to send rain. Seven times he sends a servant up there to look on the mountain over the Mediterranean Sea in that direction and says, Hey, I prayed and asked God to send rain. Now go up there and look and see what's happening. On the seventh time he goes up and he sees something and he comes back. For six times he didn't see anything. He comes back on the seventh time and he said, I see a cloud as a man's hand. What would you call that? That's the hand of God, isn't it? You see, God's hand is at work. And so you find throughout the Bible talking about the hand of the Lord. Ezra chapter 7 verse 28, And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me. Friend, listen, we need the hand of God, don't we? Nehemiah 2.18, then I told them of the good hand of my God, which was upon me, Nehemiah rallying the people to build the walls, and he said, I told them of the good hand of my God, I told them what God had done thus far to bring us to this point, and it encouraged the people, and they said, let us rise up and build. Here's what I found, friends, when God is at work, people take notice. And God's people see it and they recognize that God's hand is at work and they see His power at work in people's lives. 1 Peter 5 verse 6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. And so God's hand is mighty. I'm going to give you one more. Psalm 118 verse 16. Now listen, there was plenty of them. I could give you reference after reference. Psalm 118 verse 16. Listen to this. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly." Isn't that good? So God said, listen, my hand is an exalted hand. My hand does valiantly. It talks about the mighty hand, the strong hand, the arm of the Lord, the hand of God's church. speaks of what God can do. It is a symbol of His power and His ability. So there's God's hand described. Now watch this. I believe as we talk about God's hand and the power that it represents, the ability of God, that we could say that it is a performing hand. Could we say that? It's a performing hand. That means that God's hand's doing something. He's at work. Can I tell you, friend, God just wasn't at work in Jabez's day, and Elijah's day, and Nehemiah's day, and Ezra's day, and Joshua's day. I'm here to tell you God's at work in our day. Amen? God's not lost His power. God's still on the throne. He's still in heaven. And, friend, God is still at work in people's lives. I want you to notice something which I believe is a great demonstration of the power of God. Turn to your Bibles, hold your place in 4 Chronicles, and turn to Psalm 19. Would you turn there? Psalm 19. We're just going to look at one verse there. Psalm 19. I'll give you a moment to find it. Psalm 19. And find verse number 1. Notice the psalmist says, the heavens declare the glory of God. Wow. Do you realize that you can just look up in the heavens and know there's a God? Now the Bible tells me who that God is. But I look around me at the world around me and know there's a God, can't I? Alright? But then when I look in the Bible, I know who that God is. The heavens declare the glory of God, and watch this, and the firmament showeth His, say it with me church, handiwork. Wow. You know what that word handiwork means? It means the power of His hand. He has the idea of crafting something, of making something. It speaks of the creative genius and power of God. Listen to Psalm 83. When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars which thou hast ordained. You see what he's talking about? Friend, listen. As we talk about the hand of God, it is a performing hand. And friend, can I tell you, there is no more obvious example an object of the performing hand of the power of God than the created universe around us. Every time I look around me, it's an evident token of the power of God's hand. He said, listen, when I consider, when I calculate, when I ponder, when I think about the heavens, the work of thy fingers. Wow! Just the fingers of God. You know what? He made the stars also. Five words. You know, God doesn't make a big deal about making the stars. He just said, I made them. I made them. And we look at those stars, and the brilliance of them, and the power of them, and the energy that's within them, and we look at that, and we consider that, and listen, that's the performing hand of God. The creative universe and the world around us is an evident token of the power of God's hand. You know, the Christian can look at the beauty of a sunset. We can listen to the singing of the birds. We can stand in awe at the grandeur of a mountain waterfall. And you know what we'll do? We'll proclaim, My God, how great Thou art. I've been around the world. I've been in places and saw beautiful sights and beautiful scenes. And I've said, God, how beautiful the world that You've created. God, what a mighty, mighty, magnificent, majestic God You are. And you know what? It brings praise and worship out of our hearts because we can see a demonstration of the mighty hand of God at work. And you know what? The atheist, on the other hand, looks at the same sunset, listens to the same birds, and stands at the same waterfall, and he doesn't have anybody to thank, does he? The humanistic scientists would have us believe the origin of the universe was the product of some evolutionary chance, some sort of cosmic accidents. But can I tell you, church, that when it comes to the origins of the universe, it can be explained in one sentence. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And can I tell you, the world around us is a demonstration of the performing hand of God. That our God is a God of mind, and a God of genius, and a God of power. Eight times God spoke it. Do you realize Genesis 1 is the most God-saturated chapter in the Bible? Do you realize that when you read through that and you underline the name God in those verses, that you'll underline His name 30 times in 31 verses? That means of the 31 verses in Genesis 1, you're going to call God's name 30 times. That's not to mention the indirect references through personal pronouns. It is the most God-saturated chapter in the Bible. God says unequivocally, I am the Creator. My hand had done this. Friend, our God is a God of might. Eight times God spoke in Genesis 1, and a physical creative miracle took place, and God said, let there be, and there was, and God took nothing, and He made something. Isn't that good? I love how somebody put it. God spoke and the universe lit up like a Roman candle. God spoke, and mountains began to rise, and oceans began to roll. God spoke, and the sun began to shine, and the stars began to twinkle. God spoke, and the birds began to fly, and the fish began to swim. God spoke, and men began to walk, and women began to shop. I love that. And they've been doing it ever since. Jeremiah 32, verse 17, Ah, Lord God, behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee. Church, may I remind us this morning, there is nothing too hard for our God. And the same God that spoke the worlds into existence is the same God that can work in your personal life, in your marriage, in your family, in your future. Hey, He's not lost His power. God is at work and He can work in your life. He can. Isaiah 59-21, the Bible says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear. That word shortened means that His hand is not curtailed. It means that God's power is not limited. Do you realize, friend, that there's nobody outside the saving power of God? You say, preacher, but you just don't know what I've done, and you don't know where I've been, and you don't know how I live. Listen, friend, you don't know how great our God is. Friend, can I tell you, His grace is greater than all of our sins. And His blood, friend, is powerful enough to wash away every stain and cleanse us. Friend, aren't you glad today that His hand is not short that it cannot save? I'm glad for the day you reached down further than I could reach up. I'm glad for the day he reached down and saved me. And Frank, can I tell you, he can save you today. Aren't you glad for that? And his ear, listen to this, his ear, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. What is his idea? Eyes that are dull and going to sleep and ears that are to the point where they're disinterested. Can I tell you, friend, that God's ears doesn't get weak? I don't have to say, father in him say, speak up a little bit, Kevin, I can't hear you. The older I get, the less my hearing is. The worse it gets. But God can hear me. I can whisper a prayer. My lips don't even have to move. I can just talk from my heart and I've got a God who's up there that says my ear is listening and my arm isn't limited, my hand's not limited. I still have the power to work in your life. I call on the Lord. He's able today. Amen? He's able. Listen, church, whatever God asks us to do in the coming year, can I tell you, our God is able. His hand's not limited. Let's believe Him. But not only do I see a performing hand, I think when I think of the hand of God described and I think of the hand of God in the Bible and I was in a performing hand, it's a providing hand. Let's look at Psalm 104. Could we go there real quick? Psalm 104. Not only is God powerful, it's a performing hand, but He's powerful in the sense it's a providing hand. When you come to Psalm 104, do you know this whole psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving of how that God takes care of His creation and takes care of us. As a matter of fact, it talks about how He feeds the fowls, and the lions, and the cattle, and the birds, and all of those different things. It talks about a stork, and goats on the rocks, and all kinds of stuff, and all of that. And then it talks about how the water comes down, and it waters the earth, and the grass comes up, and the sun rises, and how God takes care of everything, and boy, He cares for His universe. And then you come to verse number 28. Would you look at it? Look at verse 27. It even talks about a life. And in verse 26, let's look at verse 26 for a minute, because somebody asked, is there dinosaurs in the Bible? Let me show you one. Look at verse 26. These wait all upon, they talk about the cattle and the goats and the lions and the bears and the tigers and the birds. You know God feeds all of them. There go the ships, there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play there. Leviathan was a seawater dinosaur, a seagoing dinosaur. It lived in the lakes and oceans and it was a picture of a dinosaur that was a waterborne dinosaur. And God made them. You're going to find another one in the book of Psalms which is Behemoth. All right? And we believe that was one of those long-necked dinosaurs that eat grass. I don't know what you call those things. I've got some probably ten-year-olds that can tell me exactly what it is. I just know it's got a long neck. You know what I'm talking about? It doesn't have the big sharp teeth. But anyway, that's another message. But God made them too. And you know what? He fed those big dinosaurs too. But look at verse 27. These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat, their food, in due season. Now look at verse 28. That thou givest them, they gather. Watch this verse. Thou openest thine, what church? Hand. They are filled with good. Can I tell you, every one of us lives from hand to mouth. His hand, our mouth. God takes care of us. He does. He's got a providing hand. The God that created the universe and feeds the birds and clothes the flowers is the same God that promised to take care of you and me. Matthew 26, 25 and 26, the Lord Jesus says, Here's what He's saying, The world around us, will He not take care of those who belong to Him? Will He not take care of His children? Sure He will. I love that phrase, take no thought. You know what that just says in simple terms? Stop worrying. To be anxious or worried is what that means. It carries the idea of being pulled apart, our mind divided between legitimate thoughts and legitimate feelings of concern and destructive thoughts and feelings of worry. Do you know there's a difference between concern and worry? There is. Let me share it with you real quickly. A worrier looks into an unknown future and imagines, did you get that, imagines everything that could possibly occur, but he can't control any of it. So we're spending all of our time imagining hypotheticals that if they happen, there's nothing we can do about it anyway, so we just sit and worry about it. The difference between concern and worry is the difference between obedience and sin. Concern is a legitimate emotion which helps us focus on a problem, such as a mother is concerned about her children playing too close to the highway, so she then is moved to rectify the situation. She moves them away from the highway. Worry, on the other hand, is a paralyzing emotion which occupies our minds with fear about which we have no control. Concern helps us develop solutions. Worry keeps us from solutions. Concern is an issue for today. Worry is an issue for tomorrow." Wow! What a statement! Anxiety, someone said, is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, that means you dwell on it, you think about it, you let it dwell around. It cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. You know what he's saying? Anxiety and worry will consume you. The exclusion of everything else around you. The average Christian, someone said, is crucifying themselves between two thieves. The regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow. The word worry, the English word literally means to strangle. Worry will literally strangle the life out of you. It will rob you of your joy. It will choke out the Word of God. It will cause you to abandon the trust in the One who says that He can meet all your needs and has promised to care for you and tells us to cast all of our care upon Him. Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrows. It only saps today of its joy. Can I tell you, dear friend, God's answer for our fear is faith, and God's answer for our worry is trust. The Bible says, and my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. Well, listen, we have God who has the hand of God, the power of God. Listen, it is a performing hand. It is a providing hand. God said, listen, if I'll take care of the birds and I'll take care of the trees and the flowers and the natural world around you, listen, I'll take care of you. That's what He says. A hand, church, that provided in the past is the same hand that will provide in the future. Listen, can I tell you, He opened His hands and fills us with good. That's the hand described. It's a performing hand. It's a providing hand. Now let's go back to 1 Chronicles chapter number 4 very quickly, and I want you to see God's hand desired. God's hand desired. And Jabez. Do you think Jabez knew something about the hand of God? He says in verse number 10, And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, All that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast. God, make me more than you've ever made me, do with me more than you've ever done. But God, I need something more. Not only do I have a prayer wanting more, God, I need Your power. I need more power. And that thine hand might be with me." There he saw that he desired the hand of God. He's saying, God, I want your hand. I want your performing hand. I want your providing hand. God, what you're getting ready to do is bigger than anything I can handle. It's bigger than anything I've ever experienced before. And God, I'm not going to be able to handle it if you don't have your hand on my life. And dear child of God, when you and I Get where God wants us to be. What He's going to do in our lives is bigger than us. It's bigger than our church. And we need His hand, His power, His strength, His performing hand and providing hand. We need His hand on us. Amen? I want His hand on my life. I want His hand on my preaching. I want His hand on my ministry. I want His hand on my marriage. I want His hand on my family. I desire His hand on this church. Hey friend, we won't get anything done apart from God's power in our lives. His hand being on it. Do you want God's hand on your life today? I'd rather His hand be with me than against me. You know what the Bible says? The hand of the Lord is against them, do evil. Young man, young lady, if you decide that you're going to live a life of sin, and a life of rebellion against mom and dad, and a life of rebellion against God, can I tell you that the Bible says instead of His hand being with you, it's going to be against you? I can promise you there was a time in my life that God's hand was against me. Listen, God couldn't honor me because I wasn't honoring Him. And I can promise you, if your marriage isn't honoring God, God can't honor it. Your family doesn't honor God, God can't honor your family. Your life's not honoring God, God can't honor your life. Listen, when I choose to go opposite of the way God tells me that I should go, instead of His hand being with me and on me, it's against me. And friend, I can promise you, nobody wants God's hand against them. He said, God, I want Your hand on me. He wanted to see God's power. Jabez recognized if God enlarged His coast, God would have to increase His strength. He's not just asking God for a greater place to serve in. He's asking God for a greater power to serve with. You see, Jabez understood what you and I need to understand, that if God answers our prayer and blesses us and enlarges our coast and gives us greater influence and greater opportunity, His hand better be on our lives or we won't be able to handle it. We won't be able to accomplish it. His prayer, His request for God's hand and desiring His hand on His life was a declaration of His dependence upon God. Independence says, God, keep Your hands off me. You know, for 17 years of my life, I can remember, I sang, God, I may not have said it verbally, but I sang, God, keep Your hands off me, I'm going to do life my way. I'm going to live life according to my rules. I'm going to be what I want to be. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to live the way I want to live. Nobody's going to tell me how to live. I'm going to do it my way, God. And you know what? I say, God, keep your hands off of me. Let me ask you, are you telling God to keep His hands off of you? Dependence says, God, keep your hands on me. That's what I want. I want His hand on me. His hand on my life. To see Thy power and Thy glory so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. Do you know that our children, our teenagers, listen, our community needs to see the manifest power of God at work in our lives? God didn't give Jabez a life of ease. He didn't place him on the mountaintop that Jabez had smooth sailing and never had another issue or problem or difficulty. No. I believe that whatever limitation he had, he had it the rest of his life. And God enabled him to overcome that and live a life different than what it could have been because he called on the God of Israel and he looked to God and had God's hand on his life. and everybody around them saw God's hand on his life. Do you realize that there are some times that God's going to allow some things to come in our way? Come into our lives and come our way? Some obstacles? Some stumbling blocks? Some difficulties that come in our lives? That if we're not careful, here's what we'll get. We'll get this attitude. Well, it's all against me. We'll be like Jacob. Well, all these things are against me. Nothing's working for me. Life's against me. Can I tell you, in reality, life's against everybody. It is. Here's what God does. God takes stumbling blocks and makes them step and stomp. God takes obstacles and makes them opportunities, not just for us, but for Him, to show Himself strong in our lives so that He gets the glory. And all the world, everybody around us, sees God at work. And somebody's like, you know what it says? God's real. It does. That's right. There's people, members of our church, that doctors want to put them in medical journals because they're studying them because they don't have any explanation for why they're still around. No human explanation as to why they're still around. As a matter of fact, a doctor told one of them, he said, well, I thought you'd be dead by now. He told one of our members that. You know what they did? See, what I just said is, listen, Doc, I have somebody greater than me. I'm thankful for doctors, and I appreciate them. As a matter of fact, I like them. I'm glad they're around. But I'm glad there's a great physician, aren't you? I'm glad there's one greater, because you know what? There's going to be things that we run up against that humans can't help, that no human hand can help us with. But thank God there's one whose hand's on our life, that He can see us through, and He can help us in life, and He can show Himself strong. Listen, if I never had a problem, I never had a burden, I'd never see God's hand at work in my life the way it wants to work. He said, God, I want to see your power. And then I believe, secondly, not only did he see God's power, he sought God's power. We need to seek it. You know how he sought at church? Look at verse number 10, and I'm going to show you. And Jabez called. You know what he did? He prayed. You won't be a powerful Christian if you're not a praying Christian. You have the power of God on your life, then you're going to have to spend time with the God of power. You're going to have to get to know Him. R. A. Torrey said this, he said, prayer can do today as much as it ever could. Prayer can do anything God can do. For the arm of God responds to the touch of prayer. And if you've got an arm, what's on the end of it? A hand. All the infinite resources of God are at the command of prayer. Prayer is the key that opens wide the inexhaustible storehouses of divine grace and power. and it shall be given you, cries our Heavenly Father, as He swings open the doors of the Divine Treasure House. There is only one limit of what prayer can do, and that is what God can do. Church, as we move into this new year, as we move into this new vision that God set in front of us of getting outside these walls and launching out for Him in ways greater than maybe we ever have before, can I tell you we need to make Jabez's prayer our prayer. Because our church is only as strong as the people within this church. You see, you are the church. It's not this building. It's not the sheet rock and the paint and wood and the nails and the brick. It's not that. No, no, no, no. It's you. It's you and I that have to get with God and say, God, I want to see your power. God, I'm willing to seek your power. God, I'm confessing my dependence upon you. God, I can't change those people's lives in my classroom. Christian school teacher. Homeschooling mama. I can't impact the lives of my children on my own. Sunday school teacher. Children's church worker, RU, jail, outreach, whatever it is, bus worker, listen, do you realize that you and I are powerless to make any life-lasting change in the life of anybody that we're investing in? Do you realize it's not us, it is God? We need His hand on us if a difference is going to be made in somebody else's life. There comes a point where we have to say, I told this in preaching, I've never saved a soul. Never has. Somebody came to me one day and said, Preacher, don't you remember me? I'm so-and-so and so-and-so. And I said, I don't really put my name to it. He said, well, you know, you saved me a number of years ago. And I looked at how they were living and I thought, well, I must have done the saving. Because you're not any different than what you were when I met you. Because I can't save anybody. I can't change anybody's life. I can't put anybody's marriage back together again. I don't save marriages. I don't salvage lives. God may use me as a tool to invest in somebody's life and bring His Word to bear upon their life, but can I tell you, if anything good happens in anybody's life, God did it. God did it. He gets the glory for it. Church, as we move through this coming year, I don't know about you, but I want more from God. I want more from God in my own personal life, my own personal walk with Him, my own personal relationship with Him and what He wants to do in my life, my family, my marriage. I want my marriage to be better for God than it's ever been. I want those things. Those are desires that I have. I want that. If that's going to be true, I need His hand on me. I want to be as good a pastor as I can possibly be, but if that's going to be true of me, I need His hand on me. And you know what? For whatever it is that you want for your life, it's not going to happen if God's hand is not on your life. There comes a point where I have to want more from God. And then I want his hand on me. That's what he says. What do you want from God? God, I want you to enlarge my coast. I want you to do something in my life greater, God, than you've ever done before. But God, I'm realizing something that, God, if you do it, I'm not sufficient. I can't handle it. I can't do it. God, your hand's got to be on me. God, if you give me the strength and the power and the ability to do it, God, it ain't going to get done. God, I'm totally dependent upon You. Church, when we come to that point where we're totally dependent upon God, God can work. Because if we can, He can't. But when we can't, He can. What do you want from God? Do you want a better marriage? Then you have to do things God's way and want His hand on your life. You want a better family? Then do family God's way, and ask His hand be upon your family. You want a different future? Do you? Then you're going to have to live life God's way, and then ask God to put His hand on you so that you're able to do it, because you can't do it on your own. What do you want from God? You see, God's able today, isn't He? God has a performing hand and a providing hand that can bring to pass in my life whatever God desires for me as I seek it from Him. Aren't you glad that we have a mighty God today? I'm glad for the hand of God, the arm of the Lord, that it is not short, that it cannot save. God's able. Church, could we just say it today? He's able. He's able. Amen. Friend, you're here today and you say, Preacher, I'm not even sure I know God. I'm not even sure if I died I'd go to heaven. I'm not even sure, Preacher, that if I left this life, that I would spend eternity with Him. I'm not sure I'm saved, Preacher. You've been talking about that. Can I tell you, He's able to save you today. His hand can reach further down than you can reach up. I remember when I got saved, there was a song that I really got excited about. I heard that song. I mean, those songs never meant anything to me before I got saved. And suddenly, a quartet in my granddaddy's church, they were singing, where I was saved and called to preach, they were singing that his hand reached further down that I could reach up. I'll never forget, I was walking through the grocery store, I was 17 years old, walking through the grocery store where I was working, and I was singing that song, boy, I was blocking shelves, you know, it was about the boringest thing I've ever done in my life. And his hand read further, I had to do something to pass the time, and I was singing that song, and one of my co-workers looked at me, he said, would you please shut up? I don't know if it's my singing, or if it's bothering him, because God had done something in my life. I'm going to just tell you something. You get excited about God, it will impact people around you. Let God use you. Let God's hand get on your life. But I'm going to tell you, if you've got sin in your life, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, unforgiveness, worldliness, God's hand can't be on you, it's against you. It can't bless you. That's why if there's sin in your life today, you need to come and say, I want to confess this because I know this between me and you and your hand can't be on me, it's against me. The hands of the Lord is against them that do evil. Let's remember that. So when sin's in our life, His hand can't be on us. But when we're clean before God, Christian, His hand can be on you. So maybe this morning, if you're away from God or not where you ought to be or there's sin in your life, boy, don't wait on anybody else. You'll be the first one down the aisle so that God's hand can be on life. And maybe you need to say, God, I desire Your hand. I want it. I want it. I want it in my ministry as a teacher, as a preacher, as whatever. Whatever it is God's called you to do. Bus, captain, bus. Listen, if you drive a bus, you need God's hand to help you drive in that bus. We want God's hand helping you drive that bus. Believe me. We do. We need a church. I want His hand today on me. Do you want His hand on you? Let's seek His power and ask His hand as Jabez did. And you know what the Bible says? You don't even have to look at it, I'll tell you. And God granted him that which he requested. You seek God's hand, He'll put it on your life. He will. Let's ask Him for it today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed all over the building. Nobody's looking around. We'd be respectful of others that we close our eyes and let people do business with the Lord. Could we do that today? I know you always do. Could we do that? Do you have the assurance today if you died you'd go to heaven? Or would you have to say, preacher, I don't know. I'd like to go to heaven. I hope I'd go to heaven. But I can't really in my heart say I'm going to heaven. Maybe if that's you this morning, would you just sort of slip up your hand where I could see?