Out living your life.
When you read the book of first chronicles from chapter one through the eighth verse of chapter four, it is like reading a Hebrew telephone book.
It is the genealogy of the nation of Israel.
For the most part, it is a collection of begatts.
From chapter one all the way to the eighth verse of chapter four, this person begat that person.
That person begat that person.
I would have read it, but I can't pronounce those names of this person who begat that person.
But when we come to J-Bez, we are confronted with a man whose life is an oasis in a dry and barren desert of begats.
It turns out that J-Bez was a giant among pygmies.
The compression of scripture truth within these limited verses of verse nine and ten is one of the great miracles that belong to the structure of God's word.
God can say so much in just a few words.
Unlike J-Bez, there are very few among us who rise above the crowd.
There are very few among us who leave an indelible mark on the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, see how the masses of men worry themselves into nameless graves while hearing there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.
Wouldn't it be a tragedy, brothers and sisters, for your life to come down to no more than a few lines on a tombstone?
If all that you are can be buried at Houston Memorial Gardens, your living has been in vain.
Sadly, few people leave an indelible mark on the world while even fewer people leave a mark on eternity.
If you don't hear anything else I said this morning, I want you to take this one thought with you.
If you think you're going to forget it, write it down or put it in your phone like the phone was ringing a minute ago when I was getting ready to preach.
Put this down in your palm pocket or whatever you have to write it on.
Take this thought away from this sermon.
Ten years after your death, will your life have mattered?
Ten years after you're gone, will your life have made a difference?
J. Bears is a parenthesis in an endless sentence of begets.
U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said, we have become a country that mistakes celebrity for significance.
And we mistake wealth for worth.
But we should never be satisfied to be like everybody else.
God has called each of us who are Christian and He has gifted us in wonderful ways.
And I don't mean being different in terms of one side of your head is purple and the other side is pink.
I don't mean different in having a piercing in your tongue or one pants leg cut off and the other long.
That's not different. That's weird.
You have borderline personality disorder.
If you're trying to stand out in the crowd to make yourself look like a fool.
I'm not talking about being a fool.
I'm talking about He has given us the means whereby we can stand out from the crowd and be different for His glory.
Henry Davis Thoreau in his reflections on Walden Pond said, if a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
If so, let him step to the music he hears, whether it be measured near or far away.
Walk with me around the text.
When we look at the life of J. Bears, we look first of all at a sorrowful problem.
His mother named him J. Bears because she bore him.
She gave birth to him in sorrow.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition defines the name J. Bears to mean an underdog.
J. Bears is defined as one that is at a distinct disadvantage.
The name J. Bears biblically means pain, affliction, or he will cause pain.
But this morning J. Bears is telling and testimony that circumstances may appear to wreck our lives,
but God is not helpless among the broken pieces.
You don't have to be what people have named you.
God is able to take us like he finds us and transform us into what he wants us to be.
He turned Jacob the trickster into Israel, a prince with God.
He turned Simon into Peter, a rock on the day of Pentecost.
He turned persecuting Saul into praying Paul, who became the apostle to the Gentiles and wrote over half the New Testament.
It doesn't matter what they name you or what they call you, God sees in you what other people will never see in you.
Some of us who are students of history, black history no matter what Governor DeSantis says in Florida,
those of us who are students of black history know the brilliant story of a black woman named Wilmer Rudolph.
Wilmer Rudolph was born the 16th of 18 children in a poor family in middle Tennessee.
She weighed four pounds and one ounce at birth.
She contracted at the age of four, she contracted polio and lost the use of her left leg.
With polio, she developed a chronic pneumonia and scarlet fever.
Wilmer spent the bulk of her childhood in a wheelchair as a cripple.
Her mother was a domestic washing clothes and cooking in white people's houses,
and on her one day off a week, she spent the day bringing Wilmer to therapy.
And through sheer force of will and determination by her mother and by Wilmer herself, she regained the use of her left leg.
Wilmer Rudolph played high school basketball, setting a single season record for the most points scored.
She scored 803 points in 25 games.
In 1960, she represented the United States in the Rome Olympic Games
and won gold medals in all three events in which she competed.
In both the 100 meter and the 200 meter dash, she finished three yards in front of her closest competition.
She tied the world record in the 100 meter and set a new Olympic record in the 200 meter
and in the 400 meter relay, she brought her team from behind to win the gold medal.
Where you come from, need not determine where you end up.
God is preparing you for what he has prepared for you.
He does not always put you in a classroom that looks like you're calling.
Somebody ought to help me preach it.
Because a whole lot of us in here this morning didn't start out well, but look where the Lord has brought us from.
Look how many doors God has opened for us and people who thought we would never be anybody are looking up at us.
Where you start out does not mean that's where you will end up.
And brothers and sisters hear me.
Often what you have to go through next cannot be compared to what you've already overcome.
What you have to go through next cannot be compared to what you've already overcome.
God has already been good to you.
God has already provided for you.
God has already made a way for you.
So whatever the devil has to come next, you can handle that because of what you've already overcome.
Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
We are more than conquerors.
I wish I had a Bible read again.
Listen, listen, stop tripping over what's behind you.
Yesterday is a canceled check.
Tomorrow is a promissory note.
Today is cash in your hand and use what God has given you today.
And when you look back over your life, you can testify if it had not been.
Somebody ought to help me preach it.
It was not your education.
It was not your family background.
It was not your job or your career.
It was the goodness, the grace and the mercy of God Almighty.
Steps of a good man.
I'm ordered by the Lord.
The Lord is my shop.
I shall not want.
Makes me lie down in green pastures.
Leads me beside steel water.
Restores my soul.
Leads me in paths of righteousness for his name sake.
Yeah?
Though I walk through the valley of the very shadow of death,
I fear no evil because God is with me.
His rod, his staff, they comfort me.
He prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
He anoints my head with oil so that my cup is just running over.
Shirley!
I wish I had some help right here.
Shirley!
Goodness and mercy is following me, chasing me all the days of my life.
When it's all over, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
But in the meantime, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
We're no wicked.
Even my enemies and my foes come upon me to eat up my flesh.
Just before they get to me, God tripped them.
Haven't got a witness?
They stumbled and they fell.
Though a host, go get your boys.
Though a host shouldn't camp against me.
In this will I be comforted.
One thing, have I decided of the Lord.
And that will I seek after.
That I may dwell in the house of God all the days of my life.
Here it is in the time of trouble.
I need somebody who's been in trouble.
I need somebody whose back has been up against the wall.
I need somebody that God has delivered you from some mess you got yourself in.
What you have to go through cannot be compared to what you've already overcome.
You don't have to be what they name you.
You don't have to be what they call you.
Where you come from, doesn't have to determine where you're going.
If God befall, who can be against us?
I wish I had one or two more witnesses here.
The witnesses have come from backgrounds that say nothing in your background says you ought to be where you are right now.
There's nothing in how you were raised that says you ought to be blessed as you are right now.
As a matter of fact, you don't even know how blessed you are or how you got to be this blessed until you remember it was nobody but Jesus.
You ought to learn how to shout.
Stop, stop looking at everybody else do it.
Let me teach you how to shout.
Here is how you shout.
Have a good memory.
Because only people with a good memory know how to shout.
People who can look back and see where God has brought them from know how to shout.
Hallelujah.
Thank you Jesus.
J.Bez is born in pain but he was more honorable than his brothers because the Bible says J.Bez prayed.
He was called on the God of Israel and he said oh that you would bless me indeed.
Oh that's prayer language.
Oh.
You haven't prayed until your back has been up against the wall.
You haven't prayed until you've been down to your last dime.
You haven't prayed until your situation has gotten so bad that if the Lord don't show up it's all over for you.
And when God comes through your word it's all over.
I need somebody who ain't playing with me this morning.
You know what it means to say oh and God will show up in the midst of your oh.
Oh that you would bless me.
Not just bless me.
Bless me indeed.
In large my territory.
Put your hand on me.
So no evil can harm me.
And God granted his request.
My grandmother said it like this.
If you pray and pray right.
God hears and answers prayer.
The prayer of J. Bears we move now from this sorrowful problem to a simple prayer.
The prayer of J. Bears is profoundly simple but simply profound.
George Williams says it may be expressed by just four words.
He asked God for grace, for growth, for guidance, and for guardianship.
He asked God brothers and sisters for two things.
J. Bears prayer to God was give me your best and your blessing.
Whoever told you that praying for yourself was wrong.
Lied to you.
There's nothing wrong with wanting the best God has for you.
As long as God's best for you is for his glory.
Nothing is wrong with praying for prosperity.
Nothing is wrong with asking God to bless you with a plenty.
Because our God is a God of a plenty.
Why would you come to a big God with a small request?
When I was a boy, growing up in my mom and dad's house,
I could tell when my dad didn't have any money.
Johnnie could go get anything from him.
Whatever Johnnie asked him, he would give him.
We would put Johnnie up to go and ask my dad for money.
Because he would never tell Johnnie no.
Johnnie was his youngest and so we would put Johnnie up to go get us a quarter.
Because we wanted to go to the swimming pool.
And you could get in the pool for a dime.
And then you had some money for some now and later.
And some Mary James.
And a red soda water.
With a nickel left over.
But I could tell when my daddy didn't have any money.
Because I would go to him and ask him for some money.
And he said, son, I don't have anything small.
Whenever he said I don't have anything small.
I went away thinking my daddy had big money.
But that meant he didn't have any money.
Because he didn't have anything small.
I would go to God in prayer.
God never turns me away by talking about I don't have anything small.
The cattle on a thousand hills.
I wish I had a Bible reading.
The earth is the Lord's.
The fullness thereof.
The world and they that dwell therein.
The silver is his.
The gold is his.
Everything belongs to God.
Why would I go to a God who owns everything.
And act like I'm going to my daddy who say I ain't got nothing small.
But here is the catch.
It comes with a caveat.
Stop praying for God's best.
Stop looking for God to give you the best that he has.
If you don't do what he says in Malachi 3 and 10.
You see how I hit you with a uppercut right there.
You wasn't looking for that.
I'll sucker punch you with that.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.
I wish I had a witness.
That there may be meat in my house.
I wish I had a witness.
Said the Lord of hosts.
And see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven.
And pour out blessings that you will not even have room enough to receive.
Now I hear some of you saying well I ain't paying no tithes and I'm being blessed.
Think of how blessed you'd be if you paid.
If God is blessing you and you ain't paying.
Imagine how big your blessings would be if you did what God said.
God is giving you what's good but he's not giving you his best because you're not listening to his word.
In praying for God to enlarge his territory.
Jebez is asking God to have more influence in the world.
Jebez wants to be delivered from blind to sanctified ambition.
Nothing is wrong with prosperity if it's sanctified.
Nothing is wrong with asking God for power if it's sanctified.
Nothing is wrong with asking God for protection if it's sanctified.
He said I want you to enlarge my territory, enlarge my borders, enlarge my coast.
In other words, take me out of my comfort zone.
All of us are comfortable in our comfort zone.
For some years now my family has been trying to get me to go on a cruise.
That is not going to happen.
They've been trying to convince me that when you're on that big ship, when you're on that big boat, you don't know you're on the water.
It's so nice you don't even know you're on the cruise.
I said can I drive home?
They said no fool.
I said well I know I'm on the boat.
Because if I can't see land, if I can't see a H-E-B,
if I can't see a bank, I know I'm on a ship.
And so I don't care anything about a cruise because that would take me completely out of my comfort zone.
And if by chance they would drug me and put me on a ship, I would have to stay under the influence of some serious heroin.
Because I hate beaches, I hate water, I hate boats.
That's just not me. That's not who I am.
I would never be comfortable in that.
If heaven is on a ship, I'm going to have to wave to y'all from a distance.
Because I am most uncomfortable in that setting.
I'm not going anybody who wants to go, God bless you, have a good time, bring this up and back.
But I'm not going to go there because that's out of my comfort zone.
And that's okay, they ain't got nothing to do with heaven or hell.
That's just I'm out of my comfort zone.
But now when it comes to spiritual comfort zones,
God is calling us to move beyond what we do on Sunday morning.
And move beyond just the people we love.
And move beyond just the people who are in our concentric circles of concern.
Because somebody does not think the way we think or do things the way we do things,
does not mean that we have to hate them and they become an enemy, they are just different from us.
And different does not mean hell bound, it just means different.
Because all of us in here are different.
The only thing that makes us the same is the cross.
Because everybody in here needs the same mercy.
We need the same grace.
We need the same Jesus.
We need the same salvation.
But God is calling you to get out of your comfort zone of just loving Baptist people.
Of just loving straight people.
Of just loving educated people.
Or just loving pretty people.
Or just loving people that we were raised with.
Or people who are in our Sunday school class.
Or people we go to church with.
God is calling us to love that drug addicted man on the street.
God is calling us to embrace that woman who's had an abortion.
God is calling us to love that man or that woman who is caught in this gay situation.
God is calling us to love members of our family who have mistreated us.
God is calling us to even love people we are divorced from.
God is calling us to be kind to people who have mistreated us.
I'm not saying that life is easy to do because I'm still working on some stuff.
And if you would be honest, there's some of us in here also who are still working on trying to love somebody who has mistreated us.
I wish I had a witness here.
I wish I had an honest Christian in here who's saying,
Reverend I know what you're saying is true but I'm struggling with that.
Well God can help you in your struggle.
The only way God can help you in your struggle is if you admit you're struggling.
Don't you hate to be around them Christians who got it all together?
They answer their phone, praise the Lord.
They're too blessed to be stressed.
And they're blessed and highly favored.
And you can't talk to them without them saying, give them the honor of God who's the head of my life.
They're so spiritual.
There are some of us in here who hate that spiritual.
And we are struggling with some things.
And thank God for that struggle.
Because it helps us to know that unless the Holy Spirit enables me,
unless the spirit of God takes my hand and pushes us out there,
I will not be able to do what God wants me to do.
But if I belong to God, then I've got to bring myself under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
And the Lordship of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with what I want,
but with what God commands.
Love your enemies.
Pray for them that despitefully use you.
Do good to them that curse you.
That's not easy to do.
And if you are a serious Christian, you admit that you have a serious struggle.
That's why J. Bay is praying.
Enlarge my circle of influence.
And then he asked the Lord to to keep your hands on me.
Because away from your protecting presence,
I'm subject to be a fool.
Out from under your hand, I would be out of control.
And then he said, Lord, when you put your hands on me,
I know then that you can keep me from evil.
All the evil people are not in prison.
There are some evil people at the church.
That's a mean, vindictive, low down people who come to church.
And so just because they look pious on Sunday morning,
you don't know what's in their heart, but God knows the heart.
Man looks at the outward appearance.
Have I got a witness here?
God can see a smile on your face and a frown in your heart.
That's why you got to ask God to keep you from evil.
Because you don't know who's plotting against you.
The very folk who are up close to you may be the ones who are trying to do you in.
But God will keep you.
And God will show you some things.
But they think that they're getting over on you.
They think that they're making a fool out of you.
But God will reveal some things that you would not have known if God did not show you.
I wish I had a witness here.
He asked God to enlarge his territory.
He asked God to put his hands on him.
And then he asked God to keep me from evil.
No weapon formed against me.
God, don't let it prosper.
If they throw it at me, don't let it reach me.
If they're talking about me, don't let me hear it.
If they're trying to destroy me, don't let me pay attention to it.
If they're fooling me and lying to me, don't let it affect my personality.
If they're trying to harm me, put a fence around me.
I wish I had somebody to help me.
If they're trying to break me, I want you to help me to build myself up by your holy power.
If they're trying to push me down, I want you to be behind me, propping me up.
God will be a fence around me.
And the Bible says, God granted his request.
We move from this simple prayer of J.B.I. to a spiritual privilege.
God honors prayers that honor him.
Let me run it by you one more time.
God honors prayers that honor him.
Matthew 7 and verse 7 says, Ask, and it shall be given.
Seek, and you shall find.
Rock, and it shall be opened under you.
Jeremiah 33 and 3 says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee.
And show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.
Philippians 4, 6, and 7 says, Be anxious for nothing.
Everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
Let your requests be made known under God.
And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I'm through now.
I'm running out of air.
I can't holler like this young preacher hollered last Sunday.
I'm running out of steam right here.
So let me cut across the field and tell you what prayer will do.
Last night I was watching my favorite movie of all times, The Godfather.
I love Michael Corleone.
I love Don Corleone.
The Godfather is my favorite movie.
I've seen it 6 million times.
It's my favorite movie of all time.
It was not on HBO.
It was not on CineMax.
It was not on Showtime.
So I had to get it on demand.
And I'm not tech savvy.
So I had to call somebody to find out how to get it on demand and how to work the remote and all of that.
Because that's not a game that's out of my comfort zone.
Some of y'all old enough to remember a VCR?
I never could program a VCR.
And then when they start recording shows on television, I'm not good with that kind of stuff.
I'm not good with mechanical stuff.
So I had to call to ask how to get it on demand.
I got it on demand.
$3.99 for two days.
The Godfather.
I'm gonna watch it again today.
But when I was watching the movie, it started stopping.
It started slowing down and the screen would freeze.
And I couldn't unravel what that was about until it came on the television that my TV was buffering.
And again, I don't know what buffering means.
I had to call somebody who got more sense than me who could tell me what buffering means.
Buffering means your internet modem is too slow for the movie.
And the movie is playing, but you don't have enough internet support to get the movie all at one time.
And so your television freezes so that the movie can catch up with your internet connection.
It's buffering.
The movie freezes because you don't have enough internet power.
And so the movie freezes to catch up with your internet connection.
And then it came on my television that you could do one of three things.
You could continue watching the movie.
Or you could record it to watch another time.
Or you could disconnect some of your devices so that your internet will have more power.
You're gonna help me close this, won't you?
You could continue watching the movie.
Or you could record it to watch it at another time.
Or disconnect some of your devices in order for your internet to have more power.
You could continue watching the movie.
You could record it for another time.
Or you could disconnect some of your electronic devices
so that your internet would have more power.
You could continue watching the movie.
You could record it to watch it another time.
Or you could disconnect some of your electronic devices
so that your internet will have more power.
God is trying to get a blessing to you, but you keep on buffering.
You can keep on doing what you're doing.
Or you can get back to it at another time.
Or you can disconnect some stuff from your life
so God can give you more power.
Is there anybody here who needs more power?
Is there anybody here who needs more grace this morning?
Is there anybody here who needs God to bless your life?
God's got a blessing with your name on it.
And God is trying to get it to you, but you got too many things connected to you.
There's some people you need to get rid of in your life.
There's some circumstances you need to come out of in your life.
There's some people you need to unfriend on Facebook.
There's some folk you need to quit going to lunch with.
There's some people you need to get out of your concentric circle of concern.
Because not everybody means you well.
Not everybody wants to see you do good.
God wants to bless you, but you keep on buffering.
That's why your blessing keeps freezing.
That's why you can't get your breakthrough.
Now you can keep on doing what you're doing.
You can wait and get through it at another time.
But why don't you just disconnect something and ask God to bless your life?
Disconnect envy.
Disconnect pride.
Disconnect hatred.
Disconnect gossiping.
Disconnect laziness.
Disconnect not reading the Bible.
And here's some things you ought to connect with.
Connect with somebody who knows Jesus.
Connect with somebody who knows how to get a prayer through.
Connect with the power of the Word of God.
Because there's power in the Word of God.
There's healing in the Word of God.
There's deliverance in the Word of God.
I need somebody to help me right now.
Who knows that the Word has power.
If you've ever been by yourself and called on the name of Jesus.
And you start feeling good for no reason.
You started laughing and nothing was funny.
You started crying and nothing was bothering you.
You got in a hurry and you weren't going nowhere.
Because God's been so good to you.
God has opened so many doors for you.
God has made so many ways for you.
You just start thanking Him for your blessings.
You just start giving Him glory for His goodness.
Why don't you tell the Lord right now.
Enlarge my territory.
Don't look at nobody else.
Don't ask nobody else to do it.
You've got to pray for yourself.
Ask God enlarge.
My territory.
Come on, say it like you mean it.
Enlarge my territory.
Open your arms wide.
Tell Him enlarge my territory.
And then put your hands on yourself.
And ask God to put your hands on me.
Keep me from the evil ones.
Keep me from the slabs of the devil.
Keep me from somebody who's lying on me.
Keep me from somebody who's trying to destroy me.
Keep me from somebody laughing in my face.
And lying behind my back.
Keep me from somebody who's trying to trip me up.
Let nothing evil get hold of me.
And then with God grants your request.
Come to church next Sunday.
And tell God thank you.
Wait a minute.
Don't wait until next Sunday.
You got time right now.
Thank you.
Enlarge my territory.
Keep your hands on me.
Keep evil from the hungry.
Make your way out of nowhere.
I know you can.
I know you will.
Because one Friday on a hill called Calvary.
He died.
Get me down.
But I have.
I have.
Sunday morning.
He got up.
With all power.
In his hand.
Where they keep you.
Where they open doors.
Where they make a way.
Where they be good.
Come on help me, Claude.
Use your preaching thought.
Say it loud as you can.
Enlarge my territory.
Enlarge.
Enlarge my territory.
Here's how you put a seal on it.
Here's how you put the top on it.
My arms are here.
Hey.
My arms are here.
Who is able to do exceeding it.
Abundantly.
Above all.
You can even ask.
A freak.
Won't he do it?
I know he's alive.
He's alive.
He's a keeper.
He's a comforter.
He's a deliverer.
He's a savior.
He's a hero.
He's a money keeper.
He's a mother for you.
He's a doctor for you.
He's a lawyer for you.
He's a banker for you.
Won't he do it?
Why don't you encourage somebody?
Why don't you grab somebody?
Tell them be not dismayed.
What a big time.
God will take care of you.
Won't he take care of you?
He will!
I know he will! I know he will! I know he will! I tried him for myself! Have you tried him? Won't he bring you out? Won't he make a way for you? Enlarge my territory!
If you need him to enlarge, why don't you ask him this one? Enlarge!