(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) just to bring you up to speed where we are in the book of first chronicles of course chapter 1 gave us the genealogy all the way from the creation of the world Adam Seth Enos all the way up to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and then in chapter 2 we specifically went through the sons of Judah the tribe of Judah after we talked about how we got from Adam to Israel we went through the tribe of Judah then in chapter 3 we talked about David and all his descendants all his sons with his various wives and so forth so in chapter 4 we come back to the tribe of Judah and we're entering a section in first chronicles here where we're going to go through various tribes and learn about the descendants and branches of their families now this does not give us an unbroken chain of everyone who descended from Judah and Simeon that would just be way too many names who thinks there's enough names here we don't need more all right I think this is enough so it doesn't give us an unbroken chain a lot of these families that are listed here and a lot of these guys you don't really know who their dad was or who their grandfather was you just know these are the names of the key families in the tribe of Judah the key branches just to kind of figure out where they come from and who they are and in fact in this chapter you also have some guys listed that were not technically physically descended from Judah because for example you have Caleb the son of Jephunneh and I already talked about this in my chapter 2 sermon so I'm not gonna prove this again but Caleb the son of Jephunneh was not a natural born son of Judah because his father Jephunneh was a Kenizzite that was one of the nations that lived in Canaan that the Lord cast out before the children of Israel so he was one who had been part of a heathen nation but he had joined the nation of Israel and specifically he had joined the tribe of Judah and he became a full-fledged member of the tribe of Judah as did his son Caleb so much so that when they chose one spy from each tribe Caleb was chosen to represent the tribe of Judah even though he was not ethnically or racially of Judah and this goes to show that in the Old Testament being one of God's chosen people or being a part of the nation of Israel never had anything to do with ethnicity because any person of any nationality all they had to do was have their males be circumcised keep the Passover and they would become a part of the nation of Israel that's why it says in the book of Esther that many of them became Jews you can't change your DNA can you but you can become a Jew in the Old Testament by getting circumcised keeping the Passover and becoming a part of the nation of Israel that way in the Old Testament God's chosen people were the physical nation of Israel but when we say physical notice we're not saying the racial or the ethnic nation of Israel when we say the physical nation of Israel we're talking about that it had a physical location and it was a physical group of people who lived in that location and they kept the laws of God they did the human the animal sacrifices they did the worship in Shiloh they did in Bethel eventually they did in Jerusalem but it was a physical nation it was not the spiritual nation that we have in the New Testament okay so in the New Testament the difference is that God's chosen people are a spiritual nation okay that's made up of all believers whether they be Jew or Gentile whether they be bond or free red yellow black white and no matter where we are in the world we could be in Africa Asia North America and as long as we have Christ in our hearts we are that chosen generation we are that royal priesthood we are God's people according to 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 and 10 it was prophesied in the book of Hosea that he would say to them that we're not his people you're my people and those that were his people would no longer be his people and that's exactly what happened the Jews the nation of Israel the physical seed and those who had joined ourselves unto them ceased being God's nation ceased being God's chosen people and now we as believers are God's chosen people now your typical evangelical Christians and and even Baptists are so wrong on this not only are they wrong on the New Testament aspect of it they're wrong in the Old Testament aspect of it they think in the New Testament that somehow the Jews are still God's chosen people when in reality they have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ they are not elect they are not saved and not only are they not saved they're not the chosen people because God said the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof now that's what's the word for that starts with an R like a replace yeah they've been replaced you know and people act like this is a scary word replacement theology yeah it's replacement theology because he replaced the nation of Israel with believers with Christians but they're wrong about the Old Testament too because even in the Old Testament it wasn't about an ethnicity or a bloodline it was primarily the sons of Abraham Isaac and Jacob primarily the sons of those twelve patriarchs but what about guys like Caleb I mean are you gonna tell me that Caleb wasn't one of God's chosen people well that's funny because God sure thought he belonged in the Promised Land in fact he looked at a nation of millions of Israelites and he said I'm only gonna let two people come in the Promised Land from all of you all of you 20 years old and upward are all gonna die in this wilderness but I'm gonna allow two of you to come in the Promised Land only Joshua and Caleb that's it now here's the thing about that Caleb that you know is a foreigner in a sense but he's not a foreigner you know why because he'd been graphed in even in the Old Testament because he had joined the nation of Israel but thank God in the New Testament we don't have to join the nation of Israel all we have to do is believe on Jesus Christ and we are the elect we are God's chosen people so you know this is more proof of that not only that in this chapter jump down if you would to verse 18 here's a here's another branch of the family here it says and his wife Jehudah bear Jered the father of Gidur and Heber the father of Soko and Jecuthiel the father of Zenoa and these are the sons of Bithya the daughter of Pharaoh which Mered took so this guy Mered who did he marry an Egyptian woman and we've already seen this in several chapters of First Chronicles where you see them marrying Canaanites you see them marrying Egyptians even in the very first generation the patriarchs married the heathen their descendants married the heathen so don't come at me with some bloodline or DNA or that makes people chosen wrong it doesn't have anything to do with their bloodline and that's why in the New Testament were told to avoid genealogies you know because they don't matter they mattered back then because we see in first chronicles we have genealogies here they mattered back then but they don't matter in the New Testament because the physical nation has been replaced by what the spiritual nation that we are all a part of so let's get into this chapter it says in verse 1 the sons of Judah Phares has Ron and Carmi and her and show bal and Ria the son of show bal baguette Jaya and Jaya baguette humi and lay had these are the families of the Zora fights and these were of the father of eatum Jezreel and ishmaah and it bash and the name of their sister was hazel alponi and pin you all the father of Geador and azer the father of husha these are the sons of her the first born of Africa the father of Bethlehem now let me just say one thing about that it's interesting that Bethlehem is a person and that Africa is the father of Bethlehem well we know that that's what the town is named after because of the fact that it calls it in Micah 5 to Bethlehem Africa it calls it that place so it was obviously named after these two people this guy and his dad and thou Bethlehem Africa you know art not the least among the princes of Judah for out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting that great prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ in Micah 5 to also in Ruth chapter 4 David's descendants I'm sorry excuse me in Ruth chapter 4 David's progenitors David's ancestors talk about being in Africa and being in in Bethlehem when we're talking about guys like Boaz and Obed and Jesse that's why when Joseph and Mary were taxed in Luke chapter number three or I'm sorry Luke chapter number two that famous Christmas passage in Luke chapter two when they're taxed they go to Bethlehem to the city of David because Joseph was of the house and lineage of David and David comes from that family of Boaz that was from Bethlehem Africa so that place was actually named after a person named Bethlehem look at verse five and Asher the father of Toccoa had two wives we know that that isn't right but that's what people did back then we talked about that last week he law and Nara and Nara bigger him a hoozum and heifer and to mean I and a hash tori and these are the sons of Nara the sons of he law were zereth and jezo are and ethnan and cause begat anub and zobey ba and the families of a har hell the son of harem and jay bez was more honorable than his brother now what's interesting is in verses nine and ten we have this little section that's just stuck in here that seems to just completely depart from what the rest of the chapter is about it seems to be completely out of place doesn't it just this random guy named jay bez and this has become known as the prayer of jay bez has become famous because of the fact that there was a book that was written about it approximately 20 years ago maybe a little less than 20 years ago and it was a New York Times bestseller it sold like 9 million copies or something like that was a big successful book so now everybody's heard it well you know I read this chapter before it was cool you know I read I read this chapter a couple of years before the book came out was the first time I read the Bible cover to cover and it was probably several years before the book came out and I remember reading this and to me I felt like God put stuff like this in there because it's just a little bit of a relief from the names you know it's like giving you a break because you're reading all these names and it's just heavy reading and it's easy to zone out if you're not careful but when you get these little nuggets these little gems that are tucked in here it kind of just wakes you up and it kind of gives you something to think about and it's just refreshing right it's just kind of a fun little story or an interesting little tidbit that is stuck in there so this is one of those things so let's just read the text of it and then we'll talk about it verse 9 this is what I'm probably gonna spend most of the sermon talking about because there's not a whole lot super exciting in this chapter I'll touch on a few other things but I mainly want to talk about this it says in verse 9 and Jabez was more honorable than his brethren and his mother called his name Jabez saying because I bear him with sorrow so he's born into a sort of depressing situation his mom gives him a depressing name because she's having sorrow when she brings him into the world and Jabez called on the God of Israel saying oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coast and that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldest keep me from evil that it may not grieve me and God granted him that which he requested so he asks for several things and they're good things the type of things that we would want to have applied to us and God granted him his request so there's obviously something for us to learn here how we could be like Jabez and pray a prayer like this and receive these kind of blessings but here's the problem with the best-selling book now this probably isn't gonna shock you but the book's wrong now why should that not shock you well because it's on the New York Times bestseller list and it's sold 9 million copies and liberal Christians and Charismatics and Pentecostals everywhere love this book you know if you actually preach the truth you're not gonna be loved by the world and have mass marketing appeal on Madison Avenue when you're actually taking a stand for what's right and preaching the truth and would it shock you to know that this book is not based on the King James version of the Bible it's based on the corrupted NIV Bible and not only that what this book teaches is basically to use this prayer as a vain repetition say this over and over again pray this prayer every day for 30 days and then it'll become a habit and then you'll pray it every day for the rest of your life and these type of vain repetitions are prohibited in scripture you don't have to turn there but in Matthew chapter 6 says and when you pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking be not ye therefore like unto them for your heavenly father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him and then the next breath he says after this manner therefore pray you now what does that mean after this manner in this way pray like this after this manner therefore pray ye 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 forgive us our trespasses we forgive those who trespass against us i think i'm mixing in the luke version there a little bit forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen and here's what's ironic he says don't use vain repetitions pray like this and then they take that and say let's chant that right oh well yeah oh pray like that he didn't say chant this pray exactly this prayer he said after this manner pray you so what he's giving there in the new testament is a pattern prayer or a sample prayer telling you this is the type of praying that you should be doing pray in this manner pray in this way well i think that this prayer of jay bez is kind of the same thing it's not meant to be chanted or recited it's meant to be a pattern prayer pray like this guy prayed in fact if you compare this to what we know as the lord's prayer what i was just quoting from matthew chapter 6 you'll see that it has many similarities like for example look down at your bible there in first chronicles 4 10 you'll see that it says halfway through there that that would is keep me from evil now isn't that kind of similar to when christ said lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil keep me from evil deliver us from evil isn't that kind of the same thing so this is another pattern prayer and these are great just to give us examples but you want to find a lot of pattern prayers book of psalms i mean the book of psalms is called in some place the prayers of david the son of jesse in many places it's called a prayer to god now we shouldn't chant those either we shouldn't pray those verbatim to the lord but when we look at the prayers found in the book of psalms it tells us how to pray and we can learn to pray like david prayed like the prayers in the psalms teach us the lord's prayer the prayer of jeba these are all great patterns but what we don't want to do is chant this prayer or recite this prayer we don't want it to become like a mantra that the heathen do and we also don't want it to become like a superstitious thing a good luck charm a rabbit's foot type of a religion we want to make sure that we understand what prayer is and what it isn't now let's think about the false religions of this world do they use vain repetitions i mean let's go down the list i mean if we're to think of the roman catholics they're notorious for this with the hail mary's and the our fathers that they chant over and over again the protestant churches you walk in you chant the lord's prayer every service in some cases uh they chant the apostles creed um the the orthodox church the the east orthodox russian orthodox they have a prayer that they chant that's super short jesus son of god have mercy upon me the sinner and they'll chant that for three four five hours these orthodox monks will just chant that one sentence for hour upon hour upon hour well you know what the catholics didn't invent that the orthodox church didn't invent that you know why because jesus said that the heathen were doing that before there ever was an orthodox monk before there ever was a catholic monk or confessional booth jesus said the heathen are already doing that why because there were already religions like buddhism and hinduism that were already around before the time of christ buddhism 500 bc hinduism a thousand bc these false religions had already been around for many hundreds of years and the buddhists chant prayers the hindu's chant prayers over and over again and they are vain repetitions so god's saying don't use vain repetitions like the heathen do don't be like unto them be different than them but today the jews are in the group with the heathen now they're the goyim now because they're chanting prayers today they every single day they do their prayer where they misquote deuteronomy 6 4 and turn it into a oneness thing as i talked about on sunday night and they chant that prayer they chant other prayers they chant things on friday night they chant things on the sabbath day they've got all kinds of vain repetitions that's not how our prayer life is supposed to be our prayer life should be more like moses where he spoke to god face to face out of the cloudy pillar as a man speak it to his friend right moses was called the friend of god and you know moses is praised for the fact that he spoke with god to face it now unfortunately we don't have the cloudy pillar showing up and speaking to us face to face but we could still talk to god as a friend what a friend we have in jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege to carry to him every to carry everything to god in prayer what a what a blessing the bible says that we should come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find mercy and help in time of need so we don't have to be shy about just boldly entering the throne of grace why because we have that high priest jesus the son of god the mediator between god and men the man christ jesus and we can go to the father through jesus the son and we can make our request known unto god be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto god and the peace of god with passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through christ jesus so we can just talk to god we should speak in our own words and speak to him tell him what we're thankful for ask him for blessings and these kind of prayers are great patterns and examples but they're not to be chanted or recited like that you know and this verse should not be used to taught to excuse me this verse should not be used to teach a prosperity gospel either of just name it claim it and asking for selfish things i don't believe that's what jay bez is doing here so let me point out some things about his prayer first of all it says in verse 10 and jay bez called on the god of israel so first of all we see that he's praying to the right person right he's not praying to just some supreme being or other false gods he's specifically playing praying to the true god because he's praying to the god of israel which is the only god there is amen so he's praying to the god of israel saying oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed so there's nothing wrong with asking god to bless us this is not selfish or wrong to pray for god to bless you it's okay to pray for blessings now in the new testament prayer that jesus gave us he said give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors but you know the bible says simply let your request be made known unto god what do you want what do you need ask god in fact the word pray simply means to ask that's what it means like when you would say in older english i pray thee you would even say that to a human being right i pray thee give me this or that or the other so it's okay to ask for things it's okay to ask god to bless you he's our heavenly father if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your father which in heaven give good things to them and ask him so god wants to give us blessings and good things so there's nothing wrong with praying to god and saying god please bless me bless me bless my wife bless my family bless our church right so he said oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed and he says and enlarge my coast enlarge my coast what does that mean i don't think he's necessarily just saying here give me money give me a better car give me a big house i think when he's saying enlarge my coast i think he just wants to do something big with his life you know he's he's born in sorrow his mom gives him a depressing name i don't even know if his dad's even around we don't know but the point is that he wants god to enlarge his coasts that could also just mean that he wants to do more he wants to be someone important he wants to do big things with his life and i don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to do something big with our life do something great with our life be used by god greatly have a great influence i mean when it comes to pastoring a church you know do we want god to enlarge our coasts here or do we want to stay small i mean i would want as the pastor i would want to see the church enlarged i'm sure you would like to see the church in large in fact we're knocking down that wall right there quite shortly and we're gonna enlarge our coast here and there's nothing wrong with wanting to grow there's nothing wrong with wanting to have a big family big church you know a big business a big scope of influence i mean you know doing big things with your life there's nothing wrong with that as long as we want a big work as long as we want to do right and not just indulge self okay now if we pray selfishly indulgent prayers we will not be answered the bible specifically says you have not because you ask not you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts so if you ask for things to consume on your lusts you're going to receive not so that tells me that jay bez he wasn't trying to get a larger coast just in order to indulge his own selfish lust he just wanted to do great things or be great in the sight of the lord he just wanted to have a greater scope of influence a bigger whatever and i don't think there's anything wrong with that and he said and that thine hand might be with me of course we want god to be with us and if god be for us who can be against us and yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me psalm 23 says he says that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldest keep me from evil that it may not grieve me you see evil in our lives is going to grieve us but you know what's not grievous living a life following god's commandments because the bible says that whatsoever is born of god overcometh the world it says this is the love of god that we keep his commandments first john chapter five and his commandments are not grievous so the love of god is that we keep his commandments his commandments are not grievous but evil in our lives is grievous right so he says deliver us from evil keep me from evil that it may not grieve me and it says and god granted him that which he requested so a lot of people think hey if i can just pray exactly like jaybez the if i can say abracadabra and and give this exact prayer in the name of jesus then i'm gonna get this answered and you know what there's a lot of hocus pocus abracadabra out there amongst the pentecostals and charismatics where they think in the name of jesus is a magic word that just whatever they say in the name of jesus it's theirs but they don't understand that in the name of is not saying that you say the words in the name of in the name of means on behalf of by the authority of or representing that's what in the name of means you know so we that are saved and have jesus christ as our savior christ in our hearts christ as our mediator between us and the father you know we can ask things in jesus name and be heard some unsaved person can say the words in the name of jesus and guess what it's not going to do anything for them why because they don't have the right to do anything in the name of jesus because they don't have jesus how can they speak by the authority of jesus how can they represent jesus how can they do or say anything in the name of jesus when they're not of jesus when he never even knew them and remember the seven sons of skiva when they tried this you know jesus whom but you know in the name of jesus they got their rear ends handed to them you remember that story in the book of acts why because they weren't saved okay you can't just throw out the name of jesus as a magic spell or a magic word or as an abracadabra you can't do that that's not how it works friend okay so don't think that there's any magic words that you say in prayer that get you these special powers and things like that that is of the heathen that concept so what we want to understand is that if we want to get our prayers answered here's what we have to do number one the number one secret to getting your praise answered is that you have to pray it's impossible to get your prayers answered if you don't pray a lot of people don't pray at all well they're not going to get their prayers answered right number two you've got to pray according to god's will not praying to consume things on your own lust but number three the real key here in this story if you really want to know why jay bez's prayer was answered it's found in the first sentence i'll tell you why jay bez's prayer was answered because verse 9 says he was more honorable than his brethren you know be an honorable person that's how you're gonna get your prayers answered that's the key it's not the words he could have worded this completely differently he could have asked this in a completely different way and god still would have heard him why because he's jay bez that's why because he's honorable that's why because he loves the lord that's why i'll prove it to you go to first john chapter three first john chapter three so if you're some niv toting aisle rolling charismatic praying the prayer of jay bez every day for 30 days is going to do nothing for you because you don't even have the mediator you're not even saved and you know what i have no problem saying that these karismaniacs are not safe here's how i know they're not safe number one because to be saved you got to believe the gospel of jesus christ which is that god has given us eternal life and this life is in his son they don't believe in eternal life they don't believe in everlasting life they don't believe in john 3 16 they don't believe in first john 5 13 they believe that they're going to heaven because of their works and they can dress it up and sugarcoat it however they want i have never met a charismatic i have never met a pentecostal ever who believed in eternal security they all believe you can lose your salvation so that's another way of saying work salvation because what are they saying well you don't have to work but if you don't work you're gonna lose it well you don't have to work you just have to keep all god's commandments um that's the works of the law right keeping the laws of god they think that they're saved by you know getting baptized and going to church and speaking in tongues and living a good life and repenting of all their sins they have all these works that they've added to the gospel they're like those foolish galatians who've been bewitched by a false gospel they're not saved you say well i met one that was saved well you know what that's great because i haven't because i never have and if there is one out there great but i've met thousands of pentecostals and thousands of these holy rollers that weren't saved because they all taught oh yeah you gotta you can't just live however you want you'll lose your salvation you gotta be holy well you know what i was sanctified by the blood of jesus christ once for all and so i'm holy every day and every minute and every hour it's called the new man the holy new creature that god created in righteousness and true holiness and i'm not going to heaven by my works i'm going to heaven by grace through faith it's a free gift of god it's not a work unless any man should both the other reason i know that they're not saved is when i see them rolling around like a demoniac and i don't believe that a that a saved person could be demon possessed greater is he that is in me than he that's in the world there's a he that's in the world by the way the devil and his minions and i'm telling you when you see some of these people rolling around and and and flopping around and you know that tells you right there they're either lying deceivers pretending or they're demon possessed that is not the spirit of god god is not the author of confusion those ecstatic utterances are what the bible describes as demoniacs falling on the ground the spirit tear him writhing spitting all these things these are signs of that which is demonic and it makes sense because the doctrine is demonic so it's a false gospel you know and that false gospel is compared in galatians to witchcraft that false gospel is is is condemned as being of the devil of the wicked one so um how did i get off on that okay first john three is what i'm supposed to be talking about that doesn't explain how i got off on that but it is what i'm supposed to be talking about well you know i think i was just talking about that because the charismatics they think they're going to pray the prayer of jay bez and and just as long as they tag on the end in jesus name amen they think that they're actually praying to the lord but if you're not saved your prayers are hitting the ceiling that's what i believe i believe that an unsaved person who prays the lord the only prayer he's going to hear is the prayer of salvation praying to confess the lord jesus or i believe that he would hear a prayer of somebody who's seeking the you know asking for you know to be shown the gospel you know if somebody i believe that if somebody's out in a jungle somewhere or in an urban jungle somewhere you know if somebody's anywhere and they're just praying god please reveal yourself to me please show yourself to me i don't you know i want to know what the truth is i believe that god can lead that person to the truth and if happily they might feel after him you know god will make sure that somehow they can find the truth of the gospel you know the bible says seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened under you ask so i think that god will answer that kind of a prayer of the person who's seeking the lord or praying to be saved but you know what unsaved people saying oh god bless me that's hitting the ceiling pray oh enlarge my coast that's not going any further than the ceiling friend and you say well this isn't a very loving message well you know what it's tough love because you know what if we're just going to assume that all the karismaniacs are saved then we're not going to give them the gospel but if we come to grips with the fact that they're not saved then we'll actually go out and knock their doors and gently kindly plead with them to be saved and try to win them to christ you say but why do you call them karismaniacs you know that isn't nice i'll tell you why because i'm sick of them dragging the name of our lord and savior jesus christ in the mud because you know what people are going to burn in hell because these karismaniacs that make christianity look stupid to the world anyone who ever sees any of these tv programs and everybody's seen them i mean these tv preachers on every channel and joe blow america turns on his tv and he sees these people flopping around and you know what he thinks they're a bunch of idiots they're nuts and then and then he doesn't want to hear about jesus let them be accursed these tv evangelists and tv preachers that are up there with their wild circus act because they are dragging the name of christ in the mud and they need to be called out and you know what if your average normal person hears me preaching like this you know what they'll say oh good this guy's not one of those weirdos and then they might actually listen to what i have to say and actually get saved when they realize i'm not one of these snake handling voodoo karismatics that flops around in the aisles you know it's it's junk it's wicked and it's for the love of money and they laugh all the way to the bank as they lead these demonic revivals with all the circus shenanigans and you know people who come out of that world they're even madder about it than i am people who've been in that you know because they they've been deceived by that and it's millions of people that are victims of of that terrible religion of pentecostalism charismatic movement whatever you want to call it but it's it's of the devil is what it is nothing's more demonic in my opinion you know and if you don't think so just just spend a few minutes on youtube it isn't hard to find and tell me that i'm wrong you know tell me that that's the holy ghost you tell watch that stuff on youtube and tell me that that's the god of the bible i don't believe it for a second it's it's it's of the devil so jay bez was more honorable than his brethren which is why he got his prayers answered look at first john chapter three the bible tells us here uh a tip on getting our prayers answered it says in verse number 22 and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight so the bible tells us that we receive whatever we ask of him why because we keep his commandments and do those things pleasing in his sight so if we want god to answer our prayers we should keep his commandments and do the things that are pleased now we don't have to keep his commandments to be saved that's where the charismatics are preaching lies all we have to do to be saved is believe on christ but if we want god to bless us indeed if we want god to enlarge our coasts if we want god to deliver us from evil then what do we need to do we need to keep his commandments and we need to do the things that are pleasing in his sight and then he'll bless us then he'll give us that which we have requested just as he gave jay bez what he requested why did he give it to jay bez because jay bez was more honorable than his brethren that's why we're reading about jay bez and we're not reading about them we don't even know what their names are because jay bez was more righteous in the sight of the lord so we need to make sure that we're like jay bez more than that we pray the prayer of jay bez we should more live like jay bez lived and be honorable serve the lord and then we should pray similar to jay bez but don't pray this exact prayer don't memorize this unless you just want to memorize it as scripture you know it's great to memorize scripture but don't memorize it as a chant don't memorize it to recite it to the lord and especially don't be rocking back and forth while you recite it if you do like one of these you know wailing wall jews you know and look there's something wrong with people when they when they rock like they're autistic while they're praying yeah but you know what there are plenty of other false religions that do that too you can find hindus doing that and you can find buddhists doing that you know you can find all that and you know what what is it with people just doing weird things with their body in the name of the lord flopping around falling on the ground rolling around it's foolish putting on some weird show outward show or it whether it's interfacing with demons or whatever you're doing i don't want anything to do with it this is not and this is not a charismatic church this is not a bapticostal church and you know this is never going to be a swinging and swaying jamming for jesus kind of a church with all the ecstatic utterances and the wild services and the woo you know this is look this is a church for people who praise the lord with the spirit and with the understanding also that's what paul preached in first corinthians 14 you know yeah be spiritual and also use your brain at the same time right isn't that what he said in first corinthians 14 i know i'm paraphrasing a little bit don't turn off your brain to praise the lord right he said yeah i'm gonna pray to god in the spirit but i'm gonna pray with the understanding also meaning my brain is gonna be turned on you know who tells you to turn off your brain when you worship the lord buddhists clear your mind empty your mind empty yourself of all thought right no wrong i'm gonna you know when i pray to the lord when i sing to the lord when i worship the lord my brain is in full swing don't turn off your brain and don't get all wild and animalistic in here acting like a crazy person and you know what there are baptists that even do this where they get all wild in church this is not some wild church everything the bible says should be done decently and in order and you know what we come to church because we love the lord and want to sing praises to god and because we want to learn about the bible and we like to use our brains in church don't we i don't know about you but i like to walk out of church every time having learned at least one new thing i like to learn things i want to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord savior jesus christ when i come to church right so i want to be educated i want to learn things and you know what i also want people to do be able to walk into our church as visitors and not think that they've walked into an insane asylum and you know what paul rebuked this in first corinthians 14 he said if the unlearned walk in here they're gonna think you're mad they're gonna think you're crazy but you know what if everybody's prophesying and preaching the word of god he said they'll come in they'll be convinced of all they'll be convicted right they will say boy of a truth god's in you you know people should be able to walk you know you should be able to bring your friends to church and they can actually hear an intelligent sermon they can actually hear something that makes sense they can actually learn something they can sing songs that make sense they can listen to preaching that makes sense they can open their bible and follow along and be edified and you know what we don't have to get all wild to prove how spiritual we are you want to prove that you're spiritual to me all right i'll see you out soul winning you want to prove that you're spiritual to me okay then go home and read your bible go home and pray right sing the hymns sing out loud unto god you know what we shouldn't have to get all wild and crazy hey look at me everybody i'm so spiritual these bunch of fundamental baptists even get too wild sometimes i'm talking about these preachers where it becomes a circus where they run laps they're jumping in the baptistry they're picking each other up and giving each other bear hugs and carrying each other around on their shoulders and stuff and and what's what's with these can somebody from the south explain to me this what is with these southern preachers with that stupid camp meeting and i got saved and then i went who knows what i'm talking about you gotta repent of your sins am i i don't know maybe i'm not good at it maybe i need more practice he's coming again he could come today yeah there's jesus what is that little ah i'll tell you what is it stupid is what it is why don't you get up and talk like a normal person because you're a circus clown right getting all wild and adding this little you know can i get a witness it's foolishness you know i hope that our church and the church that we associate never descend into that foolishness of just shallow preaching with a circus clown you know just just shallow message and just whoa you know you know that's what they do i've seen it i've been there i've been in the services physically where they do they grab their babylon flag and their christian flag and run around the room with it and i remember we had an evangelist come preach at our church in sacramento and he came in he said y'all are dead y'all are dead and i'm just sitting there like no we're not what are you talking about y'all brought me in for a revival if y'all are having a revival that means you're admitting that you're dead i'm thinking well maybe we just need to cancel this revival because we're actually already alive you're right we don't need you leave i wasn't the pastor so it wasn't my place you know but that's what i'm thinking to myself is you're right this should be cancelled because we're not dead at all and i mean i'm sitting there and y'all are dead and he starts telling us a story about the camp meeting and they're running laps and they grabbed the flag and they ran up and down the aisles that's not what it means to have life i remember one time i was talking to this pentecostal girl that that was in one of my college classes and she's like oh the baptists are so dead you guys are so dead your services are so dead and i'm like well you know what what do we need to liven the place up for you you know because i said that i said how you know we're getting people saved every week we're getting people baptized virtually every week you know lives are being changed the church is growing like how is that dead because we're not having ecstatic experiences that's what they mean you know and i'm sitting there i'm sitting there a regency baptist church listening to evangelists thinking you know we're going soloing we're getting people saved we're having converts baptized lives are being changed the pastor's preaching hard on sin the pastor is teaching us the bible what is dead about this you know but these bunch of southerner circus clowns want us all to join their confusion their backwoods junk and you know i'm not against you from the south if you're from the south okay i know sometimes i come off a little bit you know biased against people from the south i know i come off that way a little bit sometimes i'm not against people from the south i'm against this culture in the churches of where they think it's cool to be dumb you know they just want to get up and tell us that you know that that the people of israel is still god's chosen people i'm like people are that is a plural word you know what i mean it just drives me it's like subject verb agreement the subject of the verb if the subject is singular the verb needs to be singular and if the the subject is plural the verb needs to be plural and and it's not cool or fun to get up and talk like an idiot and run around and get all wild and just make a fool of yourself and just pride yourself on ignorance but you just add that on it's like oh what a powerful man of god and it's like they have this they have these contests i think how long they can go without breathing while preaching who knows what i'm talking about and he got born again and he stopped drinking huh and he quit preaching and he quit smoking and these guys these guys are like 7 500 pounds overweight you expect him to fall over from a heart attack when i got saved i got all the way saved and i was born again i mean that's what you're expecting next oh that's so powerful you know what god's word soul-winning preaching you know where the power is the power's in the results the power's in the truth the power's in the gospel the power's in the lives changed the power's in the souls saved not in some show or some religious experience so chanting prayers singing songs jumping around getting wild that doesn't get you closer to god and i grew up having emotional experience after emotional experience on church camping trips christian school chapel services you know tear-jerking invitations that lasted 18 19 minutes 57 verses of just as i am and you know what people they don't work work they don't work you know what works is actually getting up and teaching the bible you know what works just every week sunday morning sunday night wednesday actually preaching the bible actually talking about what the bible says going through scripture learning the bible going out soul-winning reading your bible and praying so we need to get off the clowning and the gimmicks and we need to get on the real deal here not an emotional service we need an intelligent service where yes we're spiritual but we still have our brains turned on right we have the the spirit and the understanding also inspire and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord and we thank you for books like first chronicles lord that that challenge us a little bit mentally they make us work a little harder we have to study a little deeper to to uh understand these things these big heavy books of the old testament lord but i just pray that our church would would never become a shallow church that just longs to be fed with spiritual junk food and sugary fatty sermons of just pure uh inflated garbage lord help us to actually study to show ourselves approved help us to love your word to help us to love uh soul winning lord help us to do real praying in our prayer closet lord with the door shut between you and us alone in secret lord and help us to pray with our brains turned on help us not to chant lord but to just just tell tell you what we need lord and just give us our request please bless us lord i pray that you would enlarge the coast of our church lord and help us to continue to reach more people and lord i also pray that you would just uh keep us from evil that did not grieve us and in jesus name we pray these things amen