Well, good morning, Father's House! Wow, worship! I don't know, just worship. Wow, that's about all I... I don't have any other words. My name is Pastor Tim, and I am honored to serve as a Freedom and Care Pastor.
I'd like to take a moment just to say thank you to everyone who celebrated my birthday last week with a card, a gift, and even more than that, the encouragement that you gave me. Thank you! It really blessed my heart.
But you know, that's not really the reason I'm standing up here today. I have the greatest honor today to introduce our speaker, Pastor Paula.
Danielle is originally from Phoenix, Arizona. She has an undergraduate and graduate degree from Arizona State and Emory University. She's working on her doctorate at Duke University, focusing on biblical hermeneutics and reconciliation. At 19, she accepted the call of ministry and was ordained in July 2012.
Over the past 25 years, Pastor Paula has been blessed to serve congregations that span denominational, cultural, and geographic lines. Currently, Paula serves as the associate pastor for a Charlotte, North Carolina congregation. In 2020, Pastor Paula was named the congregation's first female associate pastor. Yes, amen! That's honorable right there.
She is a practical theologian. A large part of her ministerial focus is on the ministry of reconciliation. She believes that the leaders in the body of Christ must leverage their communication and their influence to help people love God and then to be reconciled to each other.
See, without addressing the systems that keep this from happening in life, we are missing the practical point of the Gospel. Now, you can find Pastor Paula on multiple platforms, blogs, and podcasts, and you should check out some of her podcasts. Her first book, "Dear Sister: There's Something Black Women Want You to Know," was released this August 2023.
She is the proud mother of three children that you're going to hear a lot more about. Father's House, stand to your feet and help me welcome this wonderful woman of God today, Pastor Paula!
[Applause]
Amen! Good morning, Father's House! Good morning, good morning! Y'all make a girl feel loved! Oh my goodness, all the love in the world! And, um, and young, 'cause Pastor Terry was like, "You're not that old, are you?" And then he got me next to a seat neighbor over here cracking jokes. I'm like, "Man, stop, stop, stop, stop!" He said, "Look," when he said Duke, I said, "Man, just don't do that, don't do that, don't do that."
That's the thing about a bio, amen? You get to put the stuff in there that you want people to know. Ah, yes, yes, that's the blessing of a bio, amen.
I am so honored and excited to be here with you all today at the Father's House. Can we just give God praise for your wonderful leadership here at the Father's House? Pastor Terry, Pastor Anita, all your staff pastors, all those who serve in leadership here. God bless you, God bless you!
I have had a wonderful week. I've been here since Wednesday, and I told the 9:00 a.m. service that I almost cut up my license and decided I was going to forget how to drive 'cause I've been passenger princess all week long. All week, I've been passenger princess. And it got so, on the way to church this morning, I sat in the back seat, and Brother Steve was like, "You okay?" I was like, "Mhm, I'm great! Yes, I am, yes, I am!"
But so excited to be here with you all this morning. We are going to jump right into the Word of God. I believe the scripture has something to say to us today through His Holy Spirit.
So, we're going to be in 1 Chronicles, chapter 4, verses 9-10. 1 Chronicles, chapter 4:9-10. We're going to be reading from the Christian Standard Bible. Once you found it, if you will please do as is customary here at the Father's House and stand on your feet as we honor the Word of God by standing.
And if you have that version on your Bible, that's great. If not, it will be on the screen.
And I would love it if we would read together:
"Jabez was more honored than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez and said, 'I gave birth to him in pain.' Jabez called out to the God of Israel, 'If only you would bless me, extend my border, let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will not experience pain.' And God granted his request."
Let's pray.
Lord God, we thank you so much for this morning, and we thank you for the time we've had in worship to express our love and adoration for you, for you are indeed holy, holy, holy. There is none like you.
And so, God, as we open up your Word, we ask that it would give life to us in every situation that is represented here. Holy Spirit, would you make my ears keen to hear? Would you make my mouth keen to say what you are telling me to say? And open up all of our hearts to receive what you have for us today. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Amen! You may be seated in the house of the Lord.
For the next few minutes, I want you to consider this thought with me: "This one's on you."
You heard Pastor Tim mention that I have three children. I have twin girls that are 21, and I have a 19-year-old. When I got pregnant with what I thought was one, I already had her name picked out. I had read a book from Bishop T.D. Jakes called "Lady, Lover, and Lord," and in the book, he talks about Proverbs 31.
There is a Hebrew word used in Proverbs 31 that I now know is pronounced "chayil." I did not know Hebrew then; I'm not very good at it now. And so, I named my daughter Chayil Destiny. Chayil Destiny.
And so, the word in Hebrew means valor. Although we often say it virtuous, it actually means valor. And so, that's what I said I was going to name my first daughter. I was going to name her Chayil.
Well, six months into—or six weeks, excuse me—into being pregnant, I found out Chayil had a twin coming with her. And because of the way that they were in the womb, the doctor was like, "They're going to be identical." The doctor who birthed them birthed me, so that's how long he had been practicing. He said, "I've been doing this a long time; they're going to be identical."
I said, "Great!" Well, when you have identical twins, their names have to match because that's in the rule book. Y'all didn't know? Their names have to match, right? So, Chayil Destiny had a twin coming, and so then we had Charity Joy. Okay, Chayil Destiny, Charity Joy, and Cherish Faith came two years later.
They came here with big personalities, and so they also all got nicknames. Chayil Destiny, because when she was hungry or waking up, she would peck around until you got her what she was looking for, right? And so, I named her Big Bird. I named her Big Bird.
Charity had long, thin legs, and she would kick them incessantly, and so she became known as Kermy. Charity is Kermy. And then Cherish Faith, I actually conceived her the month my grandfather was passing, and she came here looking like him and acting like him in all of the best and shall we say trying ways. Amen?
So, Cherish—he was a doctor; he was a dentist—and we called him Doc, so she is affectionately known as Doc Jr. when she shows up with personality traits that try to tell me what to do in my house. Amen?
So, there is virtuous Destiny, there is loving Joy, and there is Cherish Faith. And when they start acting in a way that I need to remind them of who they were called to be, I will often call them by what their names mean. I will call Chayil Destiny. I will text her and I will say, "Destiny, that is virtuous," right? Or I will say, "Destiny, full of valor," right? And I will call her what I named her.
Charity Joy has a competitive streak in her like nothing you ever want to see, and a potential mean streak that she needs to be delivered from. So, when she goes there, then I'll say, "Loving Joy, Joy, Joy, that I love, loving Joy!"
And then Cherish Faith is just that. She loves Jesus. She has been a storyteller since middle school. She serves in the Kingdom on many platforms, and she has really begun to live out her name of cherishing her faith.
Names are important. Names are important. But what happens when you are named something that could cast a shadow on who God has called you to be? What happens when people name you something that could cast a shadow on who God has called you to be?
Jabez's mother named him Pain. He came here with a negative connotation. He came here attached to a memory that would never be pleasant. And before we vilify Jabez's mother, I don't want to do that because we don't know under what circumstances Jabez came here. And I just choose to believe that parents do the best that they know how to do in the moment they know how to do it. Sometimes that's great; sometimes that's hard.
I don't want to vilify Jabez's mother, but the reality is she attached a name to him that would potentially cast a shadow over who God called him to be. And in that, Jabez, as he came of age, had two choices: to go with what they called him or to go with what God had in store for him.
He had two choices: he could go with what he had heard or he could get close to God and find out what his potential was. Jabez, born in the line of Judah, would not have been a stranger to anything that God had done for the children of Israel. He would have known about the history of slavery for 400 years that they suffered in Egypt. He would have known about God delivering them via the Red Sea. He would have known about God keeping them in the desert with manna. He would have known about Joshua at the Jordan. He would have known about God's capability.
But it was his choice whether to lean into who he had heard God was or whether he would lean into who they told him he would be. Jabez chooses to lean into who he heard God was. He chose to lean into who he heard God was.
How do I know that? Well, I know that because the first eight verses are nothing but names until we get to verse number nine. And even, even if Pastor Terry, I had to look several times because I was like, "Jabez's name isn't even in the lineage!" Like, he's not even mentioned until we see verse 10.
Jabez called out to the God of Israel. Parenthetically, I don't know who forgot or who treats you like you're not part of the family, like you have no place with your people, but it's amazing how God will interrupt a bloodline to get you a blessing. I just want to put that in there. Just want to put that in there.
Verse 10: Jabez called out to the God of Israel, "If only you would bless me and extend my border." Jabez called out to the God of Israel, "If only you would bless me and extend my border."
In verse 10a, Jabez comes of age and takes responsibility for his connection with God. And the first thing he asks God is to bless him. The first thing he asks God is to give him provision. The first thing he asks God is to extend his border. That means his influence, his life, his way of being, where he could abide safely because that was his area and his border and his territory.
Before Jabez asked for anything else, he asked for God to bless him. Jabez says, "I know what I was handed, but you're the God of the universe, and in spite of what I'm working with, God, I know if you can do anything, you can bless me."
There is an idea I've been playing with called the depravity of privilege. The depravity of privilege. No matter what station you find yourself in life, most of us have at least one area that we're privileged. Whether it's because you're an adult and so you have some rights that you don't have as a child, whether it's because you're a man and so people view you often differently than a woman, whether you have more money and so there are some things you don't have to deal with.
But there's a space in life where if you lean into that privilege too much, you become depraved because you forget the God that gave it to you in the first place. So, Jabez didn't have the privilege; he wasn't listed in the text. His mama called him Pain, and he allowed that depravity to lead him to the Divine God that can do something about it.
Jabez asked God to bless him. There are blessings in the Old Testament, there are blessings in the Bible where there is a God-to-man blessing, there's a God-to-human blessing, there's a human-to-human blessing, there is a human-to-God blessing. And in this, Jabez is asking for a divine blessing.
And I think that's important that divine blessings come with kindness. See, Leah was rejected, and God was so kind to her that He opened up her womb and blessed her kindly with children. God is so kind that when we're obedient, He will bless us with rewards. Moses was kicking it in Midian; his life was great with Jethro, and God asked him, told him to go back to Egypt to free the people of Israel, and God rewarded him. He blessed him with the reward of becoming the prophet of the nation of Israel.
We find that God can bless us with rewards. God can bless us with protection. God can bless us with protection against our enemies because we also know that when the enemy comes in, like a flood, the Lord will lift up a standard against them. And so, God can bless us against our enemies, but we have to remember that blessings come from the Lord.
Jabez is saying here, "Jabez called out to the God of Israel, 'If only you would bless me and extend my borders.'" But not only that, "I need you to direct me. I need you to direct me."
Jabez is saying, "You see this predicament, and God, this one's on you to bless me. But not only to bless me, I need you to direct me with what you want me to do with it." In other words, "Let your hand be with me."
1 Chronicles 4:10b: Jabez called out to the God of Israel, "If only you would bless me, extend my border, and let your hand be with me." In other words, "Where should I go? When should I leave? Who should I take? What should I do when I get there? How should I get there?"
I can imagine Jabez going, "Let your hand be with me," and while your hand is with me, can you answer some questions, right? I don't just need the blessing because blessings without clarifications, the two will soon depart.
When God gives you a blessing, the Bible says God gives a blessing, and there's room for it, and it adds no sorrow. If you're going to have no sorrow with the blessing, you have to have some wisdom to know how to use it. Marriage can be a blessing, except if you don't know how to use it right. If the last bit of counseling you get was in premarital, I promise before 365 days are out, you're going to be like, "This is not a blessing."
It could be, but you got to have some direction on how to use the blessing. God's hand has to stay on it; your hand has to stay in God's hand so that He can direct you. Blessings come with direction; they come with God's hand being on us and telling us where to go and how to maneuver.
I don't want the blessing of God without the direction of God on how to use it. We tend to get in trouble when we're wise in our own eyes, and God meant something for good, and by the time our hands get in it, when there's no direction, it messes us up.
Jabez recognized his own frailty, his own limitations by saying, "Don't just bless me; don't just enlarge my influence and enlarge my territory, but keep your hand on me. Keep me from running amok."
When God's hand is on you, there are some things you just cannot do. When God's hand is really on you, there are some places you cannot go. When God's hand—and you've submitted to that hand—and you're like, "Let your hand direct me," God will be like, "Come here, come here, come here. You asked me to direct you; this ain't my fault. You said to direct you," right?
When God's hand directs us, Jabez knew the power of the God he had heard about because he asked him to bless him. He knew about the power of the God he had heard about because he asked him to direct him. But Jabez calls out to God to also protect him, to protect him.
Jabez, in verse 10c, calls out to the God of Israel, "If only you would bless me, extend my border, let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will not experience pain."
Now, I've been called Pain, which makes me think that he's probably already experienced pain. But he's like, "God, keep me from harm so I won't experience any more pain."
Now, some of the translations are interesting because they say, "Keep me from hurt and harm." They say, "Keep me from hurt and harm." This one says, "Harm so that I will not experience pain." And I think this translation is the clearest to us because sometimes there is hurt that is required so you won't experience pain.
Sometimes there is hurt that is required so you won't experience pain. When I was recording some reels that would lead to the book Pastor Tim introduced, I was recording a reel about when I broke my left ankle, and I broke my right ankle recording the reel about when I broke my left ankle. I'm not recording no more videos about broken bones; it is what it is. I'm not recording anymore.
But I was recording about my broken left ankle when I broke my right ankle, and then I got to the place of healing where I was going to physical therapy. Okay, went to physical therapy, and because I'm a big baby, I would go and I would say, "It hurts! It hurts!" And she would say, "Do this exercise," and we would fuss. You say, "It doesn't hurt," and I say, "It does hurt! It does hurt! How you going to tell me I can feel it? It hurts!"
And then I would say, "Where's the massager thing?" And when she came with that, and when I told her that, I know she was thinking, "Who introduced you to that?" 'Cause I had a sub the session before who introduced me to the massager little thingy, and I was like, "Go get the massager thing! We don't need to do this little stretchy exercise you got me doing; it's hurting me!"
And she would say, "Is it hurting you, or is it uncomfortable?" And then I would look at her and I say, "Well, it's uncomfortable." She'd say, "Uh-huh, do more, do more, do more."
Because there are some things that we go through that may hurt temporarily so that they can keep us from long-lasting pain. There are some things that God will allow us to go through that He's like, "I know it hurts, but it's going to keep you from some everlasting pain."
There are some things that God may say no to because it might hurt our feelings, but it will keep us from everlasting pain. Any parents in here that knows what it's like to let a toddler run wild, and then you regret that about 12 years old because you didn't want to hurt their feelings at two, right?
And then they get to be 12, and you're like, "Just somebody please come get them so I don't go to jail," right? That's 'cause we didn't hurt their feelings at two; that got to 12 and acted a complete... Okay, okay, okay. I thought I was in the South; I thought I was in the South.
Listen, there are some moments that there is hurt so that we don't experience harm. There are some things that God might say no to so that we don't experience harm. Jabez was not concerned with not experiencing hurt; he was done experiencing harm and pain.
Whatever you're going through, if it's hurting, just look for God to be working out an area so that you won't continue to experience pain. In other words, He's protecting you.
The "no" that you're getting right now may hurt, but ultimately it's for your protection. You know the job that you did not get that you just knew was yours? That might have been for your protection. You know the loan that did not go through that you just knew was going to pay for the house that was coming? It might have been for your protection.
I turned down a job right before the pandemic when all the churches shut down. I would have been up a creek without a paddle. That was for my protection.
Somebody might be dating somebody in here, and God is like, "No, no, no, that is for your protection." Sometimes the hurt is for your protection so that you won't experience any more pain. Life has enough pain all of its own.
The blessings of the Lord maketh rich and add no sorrow. If it's a blessing from the Lord and it is adding pain, not hurt, pain, then I'd wonder if it's a blessing from the Lord.
Jabez is here, and he prays to God. He says, "If only you would bless me, extend my border, let your hand be with me, keep me from harm so that I will not experience pain." And God granted his request.
God granted his blessing. God granted him with direction. God granted him with protection, and I would venture to say that that led to his restoration. God restored him from the reputation of pain.
Very few people remember that Jabez's name means pain. What they do remember is if I pray this prayer, then God is going to bless me. After today, you're going to remember that He'll direct me and He'll protect me.
But God actually restored Jabez from the pain that he had suffered before. Whatever you're going through today, God is the God of restoration. He is able to restore from pain. He is able to restore from misalignment. He is able to restore from you being out from under the Ark of His protection.
God is a restorer of things—things that have been broken by people that probably should have never touched it in the first place. If Jabez's mother would have asked God what to name her son, she probably wouldn't have come up with pain.
But God stepped in, even after the beginning of his life was messed up, and gave him blessing, protection, and direction. God is the restorer. When people call you pain, God... I need somebody to hear me. God is the restorer. When people call you pain.
But earlier today, we sang all these names of God, and God had a lot of names in the Old Testament, and I think they're helpful because then we can call on the specificity of God. We can talk about what we're talking about, and it helps build our faith.
When we call on Jehovah Nissi, it's not that God is confused; He knows who He is. But it reminds us about Jehovah Shalom and Him being the God of our peace, right? When we're walking in our mistakes, calling on Jehovah Tsidkenu reminds us that He is God our righteousness.
And so, prayer is not solely for you to talk to God, and it sometimes is for God to talk to you, but sometimes, thirdly, it's for you to remind yourself of who God is, who God has been, and who God can be.
So, in this prayer of Jabez, Jabez just doesn't call on any name of God. Jabez could have called on El Olam, the eternal God, the God that met Abraham in Beersheba. He could have called on Yahweh, the Lord, the God that met Moses in the wilderness and said, "I am that I am, and I will be what I will be."
Jabez could have called on El Shaddai, and he would have called on the Almighty God that delivered Moses across the Red Sea with the children of Israel. Jabez could have called on Adonai, and he would have been talking to anybody with a level of authority. He would have been talking to authority, lowercase "l."
He could have called on El Roi, and he would have gotten the God who sees me, the God who showed up for Hagar when she had been forgotten and misused by Sarai. He could have called on El Shalom and gotten the God of peace.
But Jabez called on Elohim, and he fooled around and called on the God of all creation. He called on the God that created day from night and light from dark. Jabez called on Elohim, and he got the God that separated land from sea.
Jabez called on Elohim, and he got the God that created the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air. Jabez called on Elohim, and he got the God that created humanity from the dust of the earth and the breath from His mouth.
Jabez called on the God of all creation to create his blessing, to create his direction, to create his protection. Jabez knew to call on Elohim.
I wonder if when times are hard, do you know where to call? Do you know who to call on? God, if this one's on you, who am I calling on? Am I calling on the God of whatever substance I'm taking right now? Am I calling on the God of depression and isolation and sleep? Am I calling on the God of gluttony and food? Am I calling on the God of anger?
If this one's on you, who is your "you"? Those gods that I just named cannot give you a blessing that maketh rich and add no sorrow. Those gods I just named cannot give you a direction that's in line with your purpose, and they cannot protect you from the enemy that desires to sift you as wheat.
Only God, Elohim, the Creator, He's here to grant your request. So before you leave today, I want you to change my title from "This one's on you" to "Elohim, this one's on you."
'Cause I want you to remember this week, God has created something special and unique for you, and if you ask Him, He'll bless you with it. If you ask Him, He'll direct you how to use it, and if you ask Him, He'll protect you while you go in that way.
The God of Elohim creates peace when there is chaos. The God of Elohim gives us strength when we're weak. The God of Elohim gives us joy in seasons of mourning. The God of Elohim knows how to provide when we don't see any provision.
The God of Elohim is masterful at making something out of nothing and giving you exactly what you need. God, there are needs in this house.
on Nov 05, 2023
