cheryl just gave me a bit of good news most of you know her son had a major stroke uh... several weeks ago uh... lord willing he will go back to work on a limited basis this wednesday so uh... considering where he was uh... a month or two ago uh... we are very very thrilled to hear that god has been pleased to hear and he's not allowed full time but uh... even part-time is a good place to start so continue to pray for clay let's open our bibles tonight to first corinthians chapter wait a minute wrong sermon i got this morning's sermon i was fixing to preach this morning again it's first chronicles it's close first chronicles chapter four i was in college uh... good friend of mine he was much older than me but uh... we became good friends and he was pastor of a church not far from where i grew up and uh... he was telling us one day at school that he had preached the exact same outline at his church for like three or four straight sundays same exact outline on the fourth sunday a guy came up and said man i have never heard that before that was a real blessing to hear so it makes you wonder how much people really do listen and uh... how much they do i wonder if i preach the same outline how many of you would notice it might be interesting someday first chronicles chapter four verse nine first chronicles chapter four verse nine and jay baz was more honorable than his brethren And his mother called his name Jabez, meaning sorrow, saying, because I have him, I bear him with sorrow. How would you like to be called, you sorry person? That would be your name. And Jabez called on the Lord, on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me. that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him that which he requested. Let us pray. Father, we come tonight and I pray that you would simply allow thy Holy Spirit to fill this room, to open each of our minds and hearts to challenges to give us a greater burden and a greater zeal to serve you and to be used for you even in a mighty way. We pray that you would bless each and everything that's said. Bless me as I speak and those that hear as they hear. In Jesus' name, amen. As a Christian, one of the things that I pray for somewhat regularly is that God would be pleased to use me and to allow me to be part of his service. I know that ultimately, ultimately it's of God's grace that we're allowed to serve him at all. I know that ultimately that it's God's grace that allows us to have the talents, to have the abilities, gives us the opportunity, But I also know that there are certain things we need to do in order to be blessed of God. I've discussed this with a number of preachers and deacons and different people. One of the things that's missing today in so much of Christianity is a commitment to God. A commitment to God and his service, his church, his word, and a commitment to following his word. Everybody is more concerned with themselves many times than they are the things of God. Look at the haphazard attendance that we see in many churches. You know, y'all know this, but do you realize that we are one of the very few churches in this immediate area that even has services on Sunday night? And we're really a minority of churches that have service on Wednesday night. Most people are just not willing to commit to an hour or two on Sunday morning, an hour or so Sunday night, and an hour or so on Wednesday night. They've got too many things to do, too many places to go. Now, I don't like horse racing, but I wonder how many people stayed home today to watch the Triple Crown winner. and to watch what happens. We're committed to everything in the world, but we're very haphazard when it comes to attendance in God's work. Look at the lack of commitment. Look at the lack of involvement in people in the Lord's work. Look at our attendance. Sunday morning, God's been blessing. Sunday night, we go down quite a bit. By Wednesday night, we're down to a fraction of what we were Sunday morning. I know sometimes people work on Sunday night. When I was in college, I very seldom made Wednesday night services because of work, but it wasn't because I didn't want to. If I got off, and sometimes I would get off, my wife would have already, we had one car, she would have already taken the car, I would walk I would walk about three or four miles, hopefully get a ride, and make it to church if at all possible. But you don't see that commitment today. You don't see that involvement today. In 1 Timothy, and someone pointed this out to me this past week, and I went home and studied it, and you know what? I think they may be on to something. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, many of you know the verse, Paul said, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own selves. I think that pretty well fits today, don't we? What's in it for me? What can I get out of it? How can I benefit from it? Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, You know, as Bill said in the devotion this morning, we're not thankful for anything, are we? We've gotten so used to having so much that we're not thankful for anything. But then it comes on down and in verse five, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now, I've always taken that, at least I had up until this week. I had always taken that having a form of godliness as referring to the lost world. But if you look at Timothy, look at who he's writing to, who he's writing about, and this is what this man pointed out last week, that whole context is written to the church of which Timothy was the pastor. And he said, Timothy, in the last days, which started when Christ ascended, in the last days, People in the church are going to have a form of godliness, but they're going to deny the power thereof. In the last days, religious people, many of whom claim to be saved, will give more time and more attention to those things that please the flesh than they will the things of God. And if you look around, after we talked about it, I began thinking about it and looking at it. What do most churches want today? What do most churches want today? They don't want to hear the preaching of God's word. He said in another passage that, you know, preach the word and that time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears will turn to those which will please their ears. He said in our verse, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. There will be religion. And we've got religion everywhere. I was talking to a lady here a while back. She lives on our street. That's all I'll tell you. She lives on our street. And I was talking to her and I said, you know, where do you go to church? Because sometimes that'll give you a pretty good idea of what they believe. She told me a Baptist church. Many of you would recognize it. Many of you would know it. She said, oh, I'm a member of such and such a Baptist church. They don't believe like we do, but they're straight on some things. As far as I know, they're straight on salvation. They're straight on a number of things. But I began watching her. This was a couple months ago. I began watching her. She never, never, ever, ever goes to church on Sunday. I see her out in the yard. Well, let's just say I have to go in the house and close the windows and close the door when she's outside. And yet she claims to be religious. But she doesn't have any power of God in her life. She denies the power of the Holy Spirit to influence her life and the power of the Holy Spirit to rule in her life. And I bet A lot of people tonight, I hope none of us, but I would bet there's a lot of people who are religious, but they don't want to be totally yielded to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, for those of you who truly are saved and are not happy to be saved so as by fire, I want to offer some hope. I want to offer some encouragement. I want to show you some people that God blessed and what they did in order to receive God's blessings. Our first one, of course, is Jabez. Now, I read the text, Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh, that thou wouldst bless me indeed and enlarge my coast that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me. Oh, he's praying for God to bless him. Well, let's look at it. Now, several years ago, some of you may remember this. Several years ago, there was a famous book that came out. It was the Prayer of Jabez. And somebody showed it to me. I read the first couple of pages. And I closed it up because it said that this was a hidden verse of scripture in the Old Testament, and its power was not manifested or revealed until this gentleman wrote the book. Well, for one thing, it was never hidden. It's just most people never read 1 Chronicles. Let's face it, so-and-so begat so-and-so begat so-and-so begat so-and-so. Most people skip 1 Chronicles and go right on into something more interesting. But it was never hidden. It's always been right there. And secondly, it was never written to guarantee success. But I believe it's because God answered his prayer. God granted him that which he requested. So there's something here. that tells us that we can ask God to bless us. Now, he was more honorable than his brethren, but this is the prayer of a man who genuinely wanted God to use him. See, for God to use you, you've got to want to be used. I grew up around military and my dad, my uncle, my brother grew up around the base. One thing I learned, even though I was never in the army, is you never volunteer for anything in the army. I remember one time they said, we need somebody who has a CDL license. Well, it wasn't CDL back then, but we need somebody who has a chauffeur's license and knows how to drive a big truck. Well, this one man stepped out. Well, he had the license, but they didn't care about the license. They wanted him to wash the truck, wax the truck. Lord, I want to be used, but I only want to be used over here in this little way. J. Baz was a man who genuinely prayed for God to use him. Notice his prayer. He prayed that God would bless him. Now, when we think of blessing, we think of a hundred dollars an hour raise. You know, we think of a company car. We think of, you know, all kinds of benefits. But that doesn't appear to be what Jabez was praying for. He wasn't praying for money. He wasn't praying for material things. He was praying that God would bless him with spiritual blessings. Lord, bless me. Bless me with spiritual power. Bless me with spiritual strength. Lord, bless me with freedom to speak and think. Lord, bless me in true blessings, which are not usually material. Then he prayed that God would enlarge his coast. God, expand my outreach and my influence throughout the regions. I found a cartoon, I may run it in the bulletin, probably will one of these Sundays. Preacher is preaching and he said, how many of you people won't change? And everybody raised their hand. We won't change. We want God to bless. And then he said, now, how many of you are willing to be changed? And nobody raised their hand. Lord, enlarge my coast. If it please you, take me and expand my outreach, expand my influence throughout the region, make my coast bigger. And some think that he meant by war that God would give him victory over his enemies. Whichever it might be, he said, Lord, I need you to enlarge my coast. If it be by work, God bless my efforts and make me more effective. If it be by war, God bless my hands, that we might win the victory for you. Then he said that thy hand might be upon me or with me. I think Jabez understood that by myself I can do nothing. You know, Lord, unless your hand is upon me, I can't do anything. As I said this morning in Sunday school, pride is a major, major problem with all of us. But Lord, bless me with thine hand with me. Lord, I can't fight by myself. I need your hand with me. Lord, I can't expand my outreach unless your hand is with me. I'm not strong enough. I'm not big enough. I'm not powerful enough. I'm not rich enough. Lord, if I'm going to be blessed, if I'm going to be used of you, if you're going to use me in a mighty way throughout the region, Lord, your hand must be with me and then keep me from evil. You know, in the model prayer, Jesus said, You know, he said, thy will be done. You know, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. He comes on down, lead us not into temptation. You know, Satan is. Someone was talking this morning, I forget who it was, but they were talking about you can find something good in everybody if you try hard enough. Some people, you have to look really, really deep to find it. And it reminded me a preacher one time asked a lady, find something good about Satan. And she said, well, he's always on the job. And you know, he is. Lord, keep me from evil. The moment I asked God to bless me, The moment I asked God to use me, I say this when people get saved, the moment you get saved, the moment you join the church, the moment you dedicate your life to God, that very moment Satan comes after you with a host of demons to do everything in his power to bring you down. Jabez knew that Satan would try as hard as he could. to stop them from being used in God's service. And so he prayed, Lord, deliver me from evil. Keep me from any sin, any vice, anything that would bring disgrace upon your name. You know, and I'm not sure how to say this, When any Christian falls, it's a shame, it's a tragedy. But if Satan can get a pastor, and the bigger the church, if Satan can get the pastor to fall, it affects far more people than most people dream of. Lord, keep me from evil. I'm not strong enough. Lord, I'm not powerful enough. I'm not big enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not, you know, whatever. Lord, if you're going to bless me and if I'm going to surrender my life to you and I'm going to give you my life and say, Lord, bless me, Lord, enlarge me, then Lord, I need to make sure that you keep me from evil. Not only would it harm him, but it would harm his family, his community. Now in modern New Testament times, it harms the church. Lord, keep me from evil. As I said this morning, I have seen it more times than I even want to think about. God begins to bless. God begins to bless the church. People are saved. The church is growing. God is blessing the church. The church is reaching out and reaching into the community and getting the gospel out. And if we're not careful, we become, boy, look what we've done. Lord, don't let me be lifted up in pride. I look back and I look around and it's amazing. how God has blessed us. I look around and I see people that God has saved, God has added to our church, that I would have never ever even heard of, let alone anything else. And it's so easy to say, wow, our attendance is up, our offerings are up, everything's up, man, we can, no, no, no, no, Lord, if you're gonna bless me and enlarge my coast, keep me from evil. This was not just a phony prayer that Jabez prayed to appear to be humble. But he said, Lord, if you bless, I want you to be exalted, not me. I want you to be lifted up, not me. So for us, I ask you, I personally don't think there's anything wrong at all with praying sincerely and honestly, Lord, use me. Lord, bless me. I don't think it's wrong to pray, Lord, we've got some young men. And by young, I mean anybody 75 and under. We've got some young men. Lord, call them to preach. Oh, please don't. Oh, Lord, that's a terrible life. It can be. But what's wrong with saying, Lord, If it means me, call me to preach. I give my life to you. I give my soul to you. I trusted you for salvation. Now I trust you with my life. Lord, use me. If it's to preach, use me to preach. If it's to sing, use me to sing. If it's to teach, bless me in teaching. Lord, bless me and do it in such a way that you get the honor and the glory. Even we all need to pray a little harder. Lord bless us. Well, I don't want to appear greedy. The Bible gives us an example of a man who prayed, Lord bless me, and God answered his prayer. Well, let's go to another man, and both of these next two you know. Genesis chapter 32, you know the story of Jacob. Jacob, because he cheated his brother out of the blessing, he lied to his father, put on sheepskin so that he could have passed himself off as Esau. After he got the blessing, Esau swore he was going to kill him. So Jacob fled back to his home country or his dad's home country to pick him out a wife. Twenty years later, he came back with two wives, two concubines and 12 kids and a herd of sheep and cattle. On his way back, he sends word to Esau because he didn't leave home on very good terms. He left home. Esau was swearing to kill him. He left home to avoid being killed. He left home. Things were not very good. His mother had kind of helped deceive his father, so there was friction. Twenty years ago, he left home. Now God is bringing him back home. On the way back home, he sends messengers to Esau and say, I'm coming home. And there's a message here. I almost preached it, but I'll save it for another day. Esau comes with 400 armed soldiers. Now, what would you think if you were Jacob? Last time I heard from my brother, he swore he was going to kill me. I've been gone 20 years. I'm coming back and he's coming at me with 400 armed soldiers. Jacob became burdened. In fact, in chapter 32 and verse 24, it said Jacob was left alone. He had gone up ahead, left his family, left them behind. If anybody's going to be killed, let it be me. Keep my family safe. So he was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, that is the man that he was wrestling with, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go. except thou bless me. I say, there's a whole bunch of things in those verses. But Jacob, in the 20 years he was gone, did some growing up. As he was growing up, he became not so much the sub-planter as he did the blessed of God. Now he's on his way home, and the night before he is to meet up with Esau, the night before, he has a battle of his life. The Bible says there was a man that wrestled with him. I don't know, some speculate it was an angel, different speculations, but Jacob was battling within himself, without himself, Jacob was battling like he had never battled before. Sometime during the night, he recognized that this is the man of God. And as the man of God, he began saying, bless me. Bless me. As it began to get morning, the man said, let me go. I've got to go back to where I came from. Jacob said, you're a man of God. I am not letting go of you until you bless me. How many of us have ever struggled and gone through emotional, mental, even physical battles? And I wonder if perhaps during this time Jacob remembered all the times he had been, you know, he had stole the birthright. He had stole the blessing. He had had 20 years of being cheated himself. But now he understands, Lord, I've got more cattle than I can ever count. I've got more sheep. I've got more herds. I've got more servants than I ever, ever dreamed of. But Lord, these are not blessings. These are not what's important. As I go back home and prepare to man up to the things I've done, all of these cattle, thousands and thousands and thousands of sheep and cattle, Lord, those things mean nothing to me. I want you to bless me. I want you to bless me. So after 20 years of working for his father-in-law, he comes face-to-face with check with the soul and after he had prayed lord bless me i'm not going to let you go i'm gonna stay here all night i'm gonna stay here all day i am not going to leave until you bless me the next day when he's all came with his four hundred soldiers he's all hugged his neck No more threats of death. You know, sometimes we have to literally come to the end of ourselves. I mean, Jacob was wrestling. I don't know what all is implied in that. It cost him the hollow of his thigh. He became crippled as a result of this. He said, Lord, all of this doesn't matter. None of this matters. The only thing that matters is, Lord, bless me. Lord, bless me. And God did. God gave him a perfect reunion with his brother. He went back into the promised land and lived there, buried his father, became the father of the nation of Israel. I believe it began when he said, Lord, nothing I have is important, nothing. What matters is you, bless me. Isaiah will be very short. Isaiah chapter six, many of you know it. You've heard it many, many times. I hope you've read it many, many times. Isaiah, in the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord in an exalted position that he had never seen before. He saw the Lord sitting up on the throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. You know, I wonder if one of the reasons we're not blessed more today is because we've never taken the time to see the Lord exalted. Oh, we'll cheer for the Reds. They need it. We'll cheer for the Bengals. now we can cheer for lpc set up that lpc cincinnati great just what we needed will cheer for all kinds of things but i want you to notice isaiah's call really begins when he sees the lord high and lifted up assault six cherubim well he saw cherubim each one had six wings With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. And the cherubims began crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Isaiah in verse five saw himself. And he said, woe is me for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. One of the seraphims flew to him with a live coal, touched his mouth, cleansed him. The next thing he hears, he hears the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah said, Lord, send somebody else. Isn't that like we think sometimes? Lord, we need a Sunday school teacher. Call Stephen. Lord, we need this. Well, call so-and-so. When Isaiah got his heart right, he got a clear picture of God, he got a clear picture of himself, and God said, whom shall I send? And without hesitation, Isaiah said, Lord, if you can use me, here am I. Send me. many times we want to be blessed and and and i i i say this god is blessed every one of us more than we've ever dreamed of probably but if we really want god to use us we really want god to enlarge our coast we must be willing to say lord here am i i will go anywhere i will go everywhere I will do anything. Here am I. Lord, send me whatever you need, whatever you want, wherever you want me to go, Lord, send me. I want to be used. I want to be used of you. I want to be used in your service. Lord, if you've got a job to do, call me. Use me. When I was young, I don't remember how young, but I remember I was young. I used to say, Lord, if you need a preacher, call me. It was a good 10, 15 years maybe before God called me. And then all of a sudden, it's like, okay, Lord, I really didn't mean that. You know, preachers, they have a lot of work, a lot of stress. A lot of studying, you have to get up in front of people all the time. Lord, you know, my brother, he'll make a great preacher. What I didn't know at the time, my brother was over in Korea. God was calling him to preach and he was saying, Lord, not me. My brother's the preacher, you know, kind. Call him. And so God said, okay, I'll take you both. and i wonder how many times we miss out on god's blessings because we just can't or won't say lord i'll go anywhere do anything send me send me lord bless me lord use me i surrender to anything you want just use me send me don't you want to know where you're going because in verse nine god tells him it's not gonna be a pretty picture you're gonna go to your own people they're not gonna understand you you're gonna they're gonna get mad at you their ears are gonna be heavy they're gonna shut their eyes at you they're not gonna understand with their heart how would you like to be sent to that field? I'm telling you you're gonna fail before you go They're not gonna listen to you. They're not gonna heed your message. Isaiah said, Lord, send me. I don't care about the results. I don't care if I'm famous. I don't care if I'm rich. I don't care if I, you know, what I do. Lord, send me and help me to be faithful in the job you call me to do. How about you tonight? You know, in the New Testament, Paul said, if a man desired the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. I remember hearing preachers, even when I was struggling, well, if you want to preach, that means God probably hasn't called you. And it's like, okay, all right. But then I be, when I got much older and read, You know what, maybe it was God that put that desire in me even as a young lad. There's nothing wrong if a man desired the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Why not say, Lord, I'm not very talented, but if you need a preacher, I'll go. I'll be the best preacher I can be. I'll do the best job I can. Lord, send me, send me. I wish we had more people that desired the office of a bishop. I can tell you, if you stand for the truth, you probably won't have a church of 20,000. If you stand for the truth, you probably won't have a church of 10,000. But I'll tell you, it's the greatest work on earth. It's the greatest job on earth. John said in 3 John, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. You know what makes a preacher happy? And I'm not going to, maybe someday I'll give you all the struggles that most of you, my wife doesn't even know 3, 4, 7. But you know what really makes us happy, what gives us joy? What gives us strength is to see people growing in grace and serving God and walking in the truth. What's wrong with wanting to see that? What's wrong with saying, Lord, here am I. I'm not much of a preacher, but then, as I said this morning, you choose the base, you choose the weak, you choose the foolish. Lord, if you can use me, here am I, send me. As individuals, most of you will not be called to preach. I don't want to discourage you. But you can say a thousand other things. Lord, if you need somebody to sing, I'll sing. You need somebody to pray, I'll show up for prayer. I'll show up anywhere, everywhere. Lord, I'll show up. I want to be used of you in whatever capacity you can use me. That's something every one of us can play. Father, we come. Lord, as we thought about the day in which we live, we look at all the religions that are out there, and we see so many religions who do nothing but appeal to the flesh. They entertain them. They put on concerts, rock bands. They put on all kinds of entertainment. They have donuts and coffee and all kinds of things so that people will come for the food and not for the Word. Lord, I've prayed many times and I say even again and I pray that it comes from my heart There is nothing more important on earth than to be used of you and to be used in your service. May you put that fire into our bones. Make us surrender, Lord, and say, Lord, bless me. Bless me that I might exalt you. For those that are lost, we pray that you would save them. we know that only you can and so we pray that you will reach down even tonight with thy holy spirit touch their heart save them by your grace and then add them unto our assembly in jesus name amen