take up his cross and follow me, there is something that is questionable about your Christianity if it doesn't involve cross-bearing, responsibility, and ultimately death to self. So thank you, Phil and Rebecca, for taking us to that thought today. Well, how many of you have ever read genealogies in your Bible? You've read the genealogies? And they're inspirational, aren't they? Aren't they inspirational? You're turning the page and, oh, man, so-and-so begat so-and-so begat so-and-so begat so-and-so. How many of you read it like this? You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, all right, all right. You know what I mean? You read the Bible like that, too, sometimes, those genealogies? And they are not really, I mean, we just, let's be honest, they are not very inspirational, are they? They're inspired. They're as inspired as anything else in the Bible. They are significant. They're significant for dating. They're significant for keeping track of people. People are important to the Lord. There are reasons for genealogies. They're not all that inspirational, though they are inspired. But sometimes when you read the genealogy, you go through, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you're not careful, you'll miss something that's a gem, because sometimes God includes a gem in the middle of a genealogy that you would never expect to be there, but there's something that God just puts there, and if you're not careful, you'll miss it. So let's talk about one of those gems in the genealogies today, that if you're not careful, you'll miss it. So, turn with me in your Bible to the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 4. 1 Chronicles chapter 4. So if you start in chapter 3 of 1 Chronicles, you realize, oh, now these are the sons of David, which were born to him in Hebron. And then he goes, genealogy, genealogy, genealogy. Yeah, yeah. And then you come to chapter 4. The genealogy carries on. And Judah, Pharaoh, and genealogy, genealogy, genealogy, until you come to verse 9. In verse 9 and verse 10, there's a gem in the midst of the genealogy that we don't want to miss. So you found it now. Let's all stand together. Let's read it as a congregation aloud. We'll all lift our voices to read this gem in this genealogy. I'll read verse 9, and then we'll all read verse 10 together. All right? Verse 9, and Jabez, another one of these men in the genealogy. was more honorable than his brethren. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow. And then let's all read together, lifting our voices, the prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. Here we go. Let's read it together, shall we? And Jabez called on the name of the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him all that he requested. Let's pray and ask God to help us to understand what he would have for us in this gem in the genealogy, all right? Now, Lord, we read these genealogies and they're really pretty dull, but you have placed in this genealogy this wonderful, challenging gem of truth. And I pray that you would make this today come alive to us. Not just from the words off the page, we want that, but we really want that you would make us people who are so attuned to you that this prayer becomes our prayer. And so we'll ask for this to be done and we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you very much. You may be seated. All that you will ever know about Jabez you just read about in the Bible in front of you. He's not mentioned any other place in the Bible. There is a town that is called Jabez, but there is no proof that is named after this man, Jabez. That is the speculation, but again, there's no proof. So, all that you really know about Jabez you just read. We realize that he is a man of integrity. He's an honorable man, more honorable than his brethren. We realize that He was a man that was born in sorrow. He was born in adversity. His name means sorrow. And we don't know what happened, but whatever was going on, his mother named him Sorrow in remembrance of the occasion of his birth. But what's really most inspirational is the prayer we read about in verse 10. How many of you remember about the turn of this century? How many of you remember the little book by Bruce Wilkinson called The Prayer of Jabez? How many of you remember that? How many of you read that book? How many of you read that book? Well, now, if you remember that book, it's just a little book. It's sold like wildfire. It takes the prayer of Jabez and said, you know what? If you ask for it, God's obligated to give it to you. A lot of undiscerning people read that book and named it and claimed it, as if, if I just ask God for it, I deserve to have it. Well, that's not necessarily right. In fact, there's a name for that. That is called prosperity theology. If I want it, I claim it, and God is obligated to give it to me, if I ask in enough faith. And so, that really missed the whole point of the prayer of Jabez. Because the prayer of Jabez really is about somebody who is seeking the hand in the face of God and asking God to do something in his life. It is an incredible prayer of faith. And in this prayer, David has four requests on his prayer list. Do you have a prayer list? Maybe you have a formal prayer list. You have things written you're praying about. Maybe you have in your mind an informal mental prayer list, things you're praying about. Well, God in this passage tells us about Jabez's prayer list. In the requests that are on his prayer list, there are four specific requests that God tells us about in this prayer as Jabez prays it. And it tells us something about a prayer list that we could have. You as an individual, prayer list for your family, for your life, what you would want God to do in your life. We as a congregation, what we would want God to do in our church and through our church. So let's talk about this incredible prayer of faith. Here are the four requests already. Number one, here's the first request. The first request on Jabez's prayer list, and it's not a bad one for yours or mine either, is a declaration of dependence. And he begins praying in verse 10, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed. The blessing of God. When God describes His blessing on the creation account, there's a summary of it, Genesis chapter 5 verse 2. And the Bible tells us there that male and female created them and He blessed them. So that the existence of the human race depended on the blessing of God. The growth of the human race depended on the blessing of God. Genesis 1, verse 28, God says to Adam and Eve, now be fruitful and multiply. He blessed them and He said, be fruitful and multiply and fill or replenish the earth so that the growth of the human race was dependent upon the blessing of God. Now, you know what happened to the human race, didn't you? The human race had every opportunity, but it started with Eve, and she sinned, and Adam sinned. And every generation of that sinned, and it got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And finally God said, this is so bad, I'm going to step into this thing and do something drastic. And so He has Noah to build an ark, and He preaches for all these decades. And He says, judgment's coming, judgment's coming. I'm building an ark. Get in the ark, because it's going to rain. And when it rains, it's too late. God's going to judge and the world was a violent place. It was a vile place It was a place of just a terrible place and all the while Jonah's preaching and he's building And finally the day comes and God brings the animals and God brings Has all the people that believed God and the whole earth were gathered there Noah and mrs. Noah and Three boys and each of their wives, everybody else mocked God. Ah, God's not going to do anything. They all got in the boat and God shuts the door. The rains begin to fall, the floods, the subterranean waters begin to break up and the earth's thrown into a flood. Everybody perishes. So God tells Abraham, tells Noah, whenever the water, the floods are done and everybody perishes, God says to Noah, now Noah, I'm going to bless you." And the Bible says He blessed him, and He says, now you be fruitful and multiply and replenish or fill the earth again. And the continuance of the human race only came from the blessing of God. Genesis chapter 12, of all the people of the world, God looks down, He picks out one man, his name is Abram, or we know him as Abraham. And He says to Abraham, Abraham, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to choose you out and I'm going to make a family from your family. I'm going to have a covenant relationship that everybody in the world can know me through your family. But it all depends upon my blessing. I want you to do this. I want you to do that. I'm going to take you. You don't have any children now, but I'm going to make your descendants like the stars of the sky, like the sand of the seashore. Your life will bless everybody in all the earth. But it all depended, Genesis 12, 1 and 2, on the blessing of God. See, all of those are things that could not be accomplished in and of oneself unless God stepped in and did a work. And when this man Jabez says, Oh, that Thou wilt bless me indeed, he's saying, God, I cannot do this. There are things I cannot do. This is a declaration of dependence. God, unless You step in and unless You do something for me, I cannot. A declaration of dependence. I wonder if you've reached the point in your life today where you are making a declaration of dependence. In fact, there's an urgency to it. The rendering in our Bible beautifully describes the Hebrew format of it that has an intensity. Oh God, bless me! And that's the idea of it. There's an intense longing, but beside the intensity of it, there's a constancy. This wasn't just a one-time, God bless me, and then I let it go. This was a continual asking God, would you bless me? God, would you have your hand upon me? God, I need you. God, this is something I'm asking you to do that I could never do. And unless you do it, it will not happen. God, I need you! I wonder, is that the way you pray? Is that the way you pray? Is that the way you live? I have in my office, and you know, it's funny, I didn't pick them up in the early service and bring them to the early service. And I thought, I'm going to do that. So I picked him up in the office and couldn't get into here to put him in here. So I'll tell you what I have, and picture this in your mind. You can come see me and see them sometime if you'd like. But I have two beautiful Chinese paper hangings. Do you know what I'm talking about? Can you picture these? Have you maybe seen them? They're really beautiful. And one of them was given to me by John and Debbie Anderson. We support them. They're in China. And it's all about so big and it's just it's just beautifully done and has in Chinese this prayer. Oh, that that was bless me indeed. OK, and it has it in Chinese and it has it in English underneath. Then I have another hanging. This one, if you walk in my office, you'll see, you just open the door and the light switch is on the right, and you'll see it hanging right beside the light switch. This one is John 15 5. I'm told this was given to me by a family from our church serving in China as well, Jim and Therese Barron. And their little guy, Cart, just had an accident the other day. He's OK. But Jim and Therese bought that for me when they were on their survey trip many years ago. And now they've been there. for a good while, and four kids later, and all of that. And so it's very precious to me. And the verse is in Chinese. I'm taking their word for it. I don't know anything about Chinese. Don't know anything about it. But it's John 15, 5. If ye abide in me, and I abide in you, then, oh my goodness, my memory just blanked. All right, it's a verse that I love so much, I cannot remember it. This is terrible. John chapter 15, verse 5. You know, I don't know if you... I carry my Bible to church. I probably ought to just read it. Any other time I'd be able to remember it, but the Lord's judging me, maybe. No, He's not judging me. I'm not going to blame the Lord for my problems. John chapter 15, verse 5, the Lord Jesus says this. I'm the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." And if you know that last phrase, it's a great phrase. Here it is. Say it with me if you know it. For without me, you can do nothing. What a wonderful compliment, those two Chinese paper hangings. Oh, that thou would bless me indeed. Without Me, ye can do nothing. So, have you reached that point in your life? Have you reached that point in your life? So, Jabez reaches a point in his life and he prays this declaration of dependence. Oh, that Thou wouldst bless me indeed! And then, beside that, he has another request in his prayer list. The second request in his prayer list is this. Beside the Declaration of Dependence, there is a dream for expansion. Oh, that thou wouldst bless me indeed, he prays. And then he says, and enlarge my coast. You see, Jabez asked God for more. For more coasts, more borders. He wanted to have land that would expand. Is it wrong or inappropriate to ask God for more? More money. More opportunity. More impact. Is it wrong? Jabez wasn't the only person who asked God for more. Remember Elijah? He was a great prophet of God. And Elijah had a protege. His name was Elisha. It's the man that God chose to be his... to follow in his footsteps as a great prophet. Elijah knows his time is short. And Elisha realizes that Elijah's time is short and his life will be over and he will leave this world. And he was caught up in a chariot of fire, remember. He didn't die. And he says to Elisha, you ask me anything you want. Anything you want. Now, how many of you have ever been asked to ask a question like that? You ask for anything you want and I'll give it to you. How many of you have ever been asked that question? How many would like to be asked that question? Just to try it out. Just to see how it goes. Right? You ask anything you want, it'll be yours. 1 Kings 2, verse 9. Here's what Elisha says. Elisha says, and everything that I could ask, here's the one thing I'm asking for. I'm asking that God would give me a double portion of His Spirit that was on you. See, I saw what God did in your life. And I want God to do something in my life in the same powerful way that He did in your life. Is it wrong to ask God for more? Well, all depends, I guess, on your motive. If your motive is selfish, give me more money so I can have more stuff. I'm not sure if that's really what God's after. But what if you said, God, if you'll provide more, I'll give more. I'm content living as I am. Is it wrong to say, God, I want my life to count? God, would you do this in my family? I'm asking you to do this for my family. There are people around me I'm praying about and asking, God, would you do a work in their life? God, you increase our impact. And then is it wrong for a church to say, God, we want you to do things within our congregation and through our congregation that are beyond where we are now. Would you enlarge our coast? I guess it all depends on the motive. God has been very good to us here, Church. I was thinking about this earlier, and I'd like to tell some Stanley Heights stories. Within the last year, our last lady, Mrs. Fowler, passed away, who was of the original group when Stanley Heights was over on Dabney Drive and was down to a handful of people. And they met and said, should we close this thing? And they said, let's give it a go and called a young guy, young pastor named Mike Frazier, Pastor Frazier. How many of you were here when Pastor Frazier was your pastor? A few of you here. In the early service, we had a few people there as well. And if we fail, We fail. If God resurrects it, God does it. And you know what God did? God resurrected it. Aren't you grateful for that? It was over on Dabney Drive. And then over the years, we've seen God do different things. And we praise Him. And all you can explain is God did it. We've been here, I think, five years maybe in this building. How do you explain something God did it? And I probably need to tell stories every so often about how God does things just to to hopefully inspire and to give the Lord praise for how He does it. But along the way, a lot of things come and go, and you have times that are up and times that are down. But God has been so good to us. Church, can you agree that God's been good and faithful to us? Can you agree that we haven't been as faithful to Him as He's been to us? Yeah. But He's been faithful to us. And it is not a bad thing for a church to say with a heart before the Lord, say, Oh, that You would enlarge our coasts. Increase the impact in our generation of this congregation in our city, in our region, church planting in this region, to the regions beyond in the world. Oh, God, that You would enlarge our coasts. There are people that you could use this body to touch their lives. There are people in this church that you could transform their lives and transform their families. God, would you do a work in our children? Would you do a work in our grandchildren? Would you do a work in this generation and beyond? Oh God, enlarge our coasts. How many of you want to see God do things like that in your life? I do. I do. So he has a dream for expansion on his prayer list. But let's remember one thing. To keep all this in balance, here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, Luke chapter 16 and verse 10, Jesus said, He that is faithful in little shall be faithful in much. And we need to be balanced to be faithful in what God gives. If you're not faithful in what God gives you now, don't expect God to give you more to be faithful over. If you're not faithful in your witness now, don't expect God to expand your witness for Christ. If you're not faithful in your stewardship now, don't expect God to give you more to be unfaithful over. If you're not faithful in your purity now, don't expect God to give you more. If you're not faithful now, what is it that God has placed in your life right now? Are you faithful in the things that he's placed now? Be balanced. You're faithful now. Obeying him now, then. All right, Lord. I'm faithful now. Would you, if it's your plan and will, would you enlarge our coasts? All right. So there's his second prayer request. There's a third prayer request on his prayer list here. And the first is, oh, that thou would bless me indeed, his declaration of dependence, and enlarge my coast, it's a dream for expansion. And then he says in his next request, and that thine hand might be with me. Oh, what an expression. It's not a physical hand. It is the sense of God's hand and presence with Him. It's an expression that pictures God's working in our lives. And it is His, really, here's His third request in His prayer list. It is a desire for partnership. A desire for partnership! Because, God, I want Your hand with me! I want you working in my life, I'll follow you, but Lord, I want your hand at work in my life." This is a cry for God's working. And you will find this repeatedly in the Old Testament. In fact, take your Bible, let's walk through some passages that describe the hand of God working. Go with me first back to the book of Deuteronomy. And we'll come back to 1 Chronicles. You may want to hold your place there. Deuteronomy chapter 6. I'll start at verse 20. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen or slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. This is the hand of redemption. Here they were, slaves in bondage, and God in His power redeemed them for Himself and freed them from the power of the world around them. Do you need God's hand of redemption? Are you asking for God's hand of redemption? You're lost. spiritually dead, you're condemned, your heart, in your heart, you know that you are guilty before God, you have a heavy burden of sin upon you, and you're wondering, how do I get rid of this sin? Listen, the only way to get rid of this sin is that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's why Jesus died, so that you could have your sins forgiven, redeemed, bought from the pit of sin, And the hand of God can save you. He is able to save you today if you will, by faith, trust what He did. Not what you're doing, but what He did for you. You can be saved today. God's hand of redemption can be manifest in your life. There's another hand of the Lord that is wonderful. And that is the hand of conviction. Go from the book of Deuteronomy over to the Psalms. The book of the Psalms And you'll want to find Psalm 32. David's singing, he was living well. He was living a lie. Everything looked good on the outside. But in his heart, he knew. He knew that he wasn't right with God. And God steps into his life and God reveals his sin. and brings great conviction in this song as part of a series of songs that he wrote about this time in his life. Verse 1, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile or deceit. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I will acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. This is the hand of conviction. And I wonder if God the Spirit is bringing upon you today the hand of conviction, because you know you're living a lie. You're pretending. But you can't out-pretend God. You might be able to pretend there's somebody that lives down the road from you, somebody that's sitting down the pew from you. But you cannot fool the Almighty God, and He sees deep, deep, deep into your heart. And oh, how merciful God is to bring about, even today, the hand of conviction. He's shown you your sin. He's shown you your pride. He's shown you your self-righteousness. He's shown you your covetousness and your idolatry. And the hand of God's conviction is heavy upon you today. There's also the hand of restoration. Take your Bible from that psalm and turn back a number of psalms to Psalm 80. Psalm 80. And you'll find verse 17 of Psalm 80. The psalmist says in verse 17, Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou made a strong for thyself. I'll keep reading. So will not we go back from thee, quicken or raise us up, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. This is the hand of restoration. David looks at his life and he says, Oh God, I want to be restored and know your power once again. Do you need the hand of restoration? And with that hand of restoration, there's always the hand of empowering. Turn just a page or two in your Bible to Psalm 89. You want to find verse 13. Thou hast a mighty arm. Strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. And it is wonderful, this hand of empowering. And when people know what it is to walk in a supernatural empowering of God in your life, the hand of empowering Do you need the hand of empowering? And then there is one more occasion I'll describe for you. You'll find it now in the prophet Isaiah and his prophecy, Isaiah chapter 64. In Isaiah chapter 64, the southern kingdom of Judah is crying out to God. And as they cry out to God, Isaiah chapter 64, find verse 8 if you would. And they cry out to the Lord and they say, But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father. We are the clay, and Thou art the potter, and we all are the work of Thy hand. Oh, crying for God Do His work of molding, shaping your life. Do you realize? Do you realize what God wants to do to mold your life? Now, you think about this in your life today. You think about where you are. God's working in your life is what you need to experience God's hand. And it means that if you have not yet been saved and know His hand of redemption, you can be saved today. For God to work in your life, it means that His conviction is working heavily upon you. And when He brings a conviction, don't chafe against it, yield to it. So you can know restoration. And you can know His hand of empowering and His hand of molding your life. And that is why Jabez, when he puts on his prayer list of all the things I can pray for, God, I want You to have Your hand upon me more than anything else. Is that on your prayer list? Then there's one more request on Jabez's prayer list. So go with me back to 1 Chronicles 4 where the prayer is found. Remember we had the prayer of declaration of dependence, enlarge my coast. A dream for expansion, or excuse me, declaration of dependence, bless me indeed. A dream for expansion that thou would enlarge my coast. A desire for God's partnership that Thy hand would be with me. And then there's one other request, and that is a delight in purity. A delight in purity. And Jabez prays, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. Boy, James said it best, didn't he? James 1, verse 12, there's a section on, a wonderful section on temptation and facing temptation. And then at the end of the section, verse 15, here's what James says, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth what, Church? Now, when you read that in the Bible, when you read death, here's what you need to think of it in these terms. Death is the consequence of God's judgment due to sin. Sin, when it is finished, always brings forth the consequences of God's judgment. In many ways, it doesn't mean every time you sin, God's going to immediately take you out, though God could do that and would be just in doing so. But it does mean this, that there will always be consequences to known sin in your life. Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Jesus taught us how to pray. He said, now if you want to know how to pray, let me tell you how to pray. And He began, Our Father, which art in heaven. If you know it, you can say it with me. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. See, Jesus understood. In fact, Jesus, in John chapter 17 verse 5, he's praying. This is the night before he's taken and crucified. Or the night that he was taken and crucified, rather. There's a wonderful prayer. It is recorded for us in John chapter 17. Listen to what he does as he prays for the twelve, and he prays for those other disciples, not the twelve of the apostles, but the other disciples. And he prays for generations beyond that first generation, which if you're a follower of Jesus Christ as I am, that would include me and it includes you. John 17, verse 15, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. And do you know Jesus is still praying for you? Because God... It knows that every one of us, at any given time, could be dealing or harboring in our heart an area of known sin, an area of disobedience. So let me ask you this. Is there an area of your life that you know you are not right with God about it? You know. And the Spirit of God is putting His finger on your heart, and He's dealing with your apathy. He's dealing with you, known sin in your life. Things that you know are not right with God. Things that you know you're disobedient to God. And God Himself is dealing with you today because God knows that sin never takes you anywhere but to the land of regret. And God knows that if you want His blessing, you're going to have to deal with that area of sin in your life, that area of known disobedience to the Lord God. So I wonder, I wonder, what does God the Spirit see? And what is He dealing with you about in your heart today? See, the people that know the hand and the blessing of God are people that delight in purity. It's the only way to have God's blessing. You know, this prayer is an incredible prayer of faith, isn't it? It's a good prayer. It's a good prayer. Maybe you ought to add these to your prayer list. Maybe we as a church ought to think about whether we put it on our formal prayer list or not, asking God what he would do. God, we want your blessing. We don't want to depend on the power of the world and all of that. We want to depend upon you for your power. We depend on you. God, a dream for expansion. And those of you that are pastors, prayer partners, you will get your prayer partner update this week, God willing. You read that in your bulletin. You already know that we as a congregation, we're looking at the next step, whatever God would have. I don't know what that means. Only God knows where He wants to take us and what He wants to do. But you know, I think it's good for us to really pray, God, would you give us dreams where you could expand what you're doing here to impact the world? It could be that for you, God is so dealing with your heart about a desire for the hand of God in your life. You want His hand more than anything. You're willing to come clean with God with about it for anything in your life. And then a delight in purity. Now, that's quite a prayer of faith. That's quite a request list. But I want you to notice with all of that, there's something else this passage tells us and tells us about God's prerogative. You know what the Bible says God did? First Chronicles chapter 4 verse 10. After Jabez prays this prayer, And it's recorded for us here in the Bible, and the Bible says this, and God granted him that which he requested. You know, God did it. Do you really believe that God actually answers prayer? Okay, you go to your adult Bible class, and it's, okay, we have to have prayer, right? Right, don't you? Don't you always? Do you actually believe when you ask for prayer requests that God's actually going to do it? Do you really believe that God's actually... Do you think that God actually listens and responds? No wonder your prayer life isn't exciting and vibrant. But Jabez prays this prayer, and God, in His choice, God said, alright, I'll do it. You ask, I'll do it. How many of you would like to see God, when you ask, do things for you in your life? Well, I sure would. So we pray and we ask. Well, you know, I think all of us have to realize in times of this part of life, you have to realize there are some things that are in your control and some things out of your control, right? There are a lot of things out of your control. You can't help. It's out of your hands. Now, whether God chooses to answer some requests in the way that you and I want or not, that's really not our business. That's God's business. I'm very content to let God be God. On occasion, I do want to help God with His job. Do you ever want to help God with His job? And tell the Lord how He needs to do His job as God? But generally, I'm very content to let God be God. So there are things that are God things that are out of my control, that are out of your control. But I'll tell you what is in your control. Desire that God's hand would be upon you. Asking God to have His blessing upon you. Dependence. That's in your control. Submitting to the hand of God in your life. That's in your control. Purity. That's well in your control. See, let God be God and let God take care of the things out of your control. But you and I, as submissive, obedient individuals, let God be God in our lives and submit to Him with the things that are in our control. And with that in mind, you never know what God is going to do. You never know. what God's up to. Let's all stand together, shall we? Now, Lord, we are grateful that you are God. I'm grateful. Your job is way too big. Though I do think that sometimes I think I, in my pride, think I can do better than you can at it. But I'm so grateful that You are God, and that You choose what is always best and wise, what is always in accordance with Your plan and will. So we thank You that You are God. But yet, Lord, we today come, and with Jabez we pray, Asking that You would bless indeed. Submitted. Humbled. Asking and submitting that as Your hand moves, we will submit to You. Now, before I'm done praying, it could be that you're here without the Lord Jesus Christ. You know about Him. You've heard about Him. But He wants to save you from your sin and give you new life. You can't earn it. You can't be good enough. And then God says, alright, you're good enough. No, no, no. It's only a gift that has to be received by faith. You say, I want God's blessing. I want to know God, and I want to know the forgiveness of sins. I'm going to ask you here in just a minute to step from where you are, find the nearest aisle. We have men here waiting for you. Just say, I want to come to Christ and be saved. And someone will open the Bible with you and show you how you can call on the name of the Lord to be saved today. Is that your need? I wonder, as a born-again person, I wonder, as God is dealing with your heart, You say, God, I want your blessing and I have been doing it my own way. There are areas in my life you're dealing with. But God, today is the day that I depend on you and declare it and submit to your hand.