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The Names of Our Children - Steve Vaughan · Passing On The Faith

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever looked in the Bible and looked at what the what God calls you?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And compare that with what we call ourselves or everything that everybody else has called us?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: You might hear, you never do anything right.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been my name all my life.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: But no, it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I can do anything.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: If God's called me to do it, he's going to make sure it gets done.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: We are all, we are his workmanship.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that word workmanship in the Greek language looks an awful lot like the word poem.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And God is a master at this.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he's prepared those good works.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: If he says, I want you to do this good work, is he going to let you not do that good work if you're going to walk in him?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: As we walk in Christ, as we seek him, as we seek his kingdom, as we trust in his trust in the Lord with all of our heart, he's going to make sure that that good work gets done.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to Passing on the Fifth, a podcast regeneration.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Every week, we bring you a powerful moment from one of our sermon's audiobooks, webinars, or conference topics.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So 1 Chronicles chapter 4, starting in verse 9, verse 9 and 10.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him in pain.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm, so that it might not bring me pain.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And God granted what he asked.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now that this is an unusual verse in Chronicles.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who have wanted to read through the whole Bible in a year or however long, especially you dads, if you wanted to do this for your family, read the Bible through in a year.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the book you really are not looking forward to because it's just lists of names and name after name, and so many of them are unpronounceable.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you might have your kids try it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just difficult, name after name.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he comes to Judah, the tribe of Judah, and we get to this one guy, and the Holy Spirit tells the guy who's writing this out, we can't just give this guy's name.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to say something else about this guy.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is he's more honorable than his brothers, and these lists of names are the most honorable people in all of the tribes, but this guy outshines all of them.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit says, you just can't say his name.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are the honorable people.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't start anything new, then it just goes right back to name after name after name.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is interesting.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so as you're reading through this, uh, I'm looking at this and I'm going, okay, so what is it about this guy?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, who is this guy?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's he's being summed up in two verses, essentially two sentences to let us know.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, we we need to be able to find out why this guy is more honorable than his brothers.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so we we need, you know, we could look around, we might be able to find his dad, but he's not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I have I have to ask you that question.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: If we were to sum up your entire life and say why you're the most honorable person in your family history, and you get two sentences, could you do it?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I could.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, but this we should be able to get everything out of this.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so why is he more honorable?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, it starts off, it says, Well, his mother named him Jabez.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I mean, it seems like kind of a waste, right?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it already started off with now Jabez.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Of course his name is.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, his mother names him Jabez, of course she named him Jabez.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just says that right there that his name is Jabez.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So why take the time to say his mother named him Jabez?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Of course she named him Jabez.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Unless there's something else to this.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the the way that the Hebrews named their kids was not like we name our kids.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: When when you know we all have names, you know, uh unless of course you forgot to name your child and you may be baby boy, whoever.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: But if if you all have names.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when when the parents, your parents got together to name you, there are certain ways that we did that.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: We might have gotten a book out, you know, what are the popular names of today?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It could be uh just a legacy, you know, we're gonna name you this because you know, you're we we've been, you know, I am Steve Vaughn the 14th, although I'm not uh my my brother Dan, he was the fourth or fifth Daniel Vaughn in our line.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so he was the oldest son, so my my dad named him Daniel.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so you might have all of that as your name.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you know, there's always those arguments, you know, let's name him this.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I knew a guy in high school like that, and he was a jerk.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: We can't name him that because they'll turn, you know, like if you named him that, he would turn out to be a jerk.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But no, that that's how we name it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the the children in the Bible were named differently.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were named in little sentences.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and the the parents would wouldn't just throw names out there, they they would they would think about this.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: They would say, This is what I want this child to become.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a prayer.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so when Lamech named his son Noah, it was because he was saying he's going to give us rest from our labors.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: He thought that Noah was the one who was to come.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh actually, Adam and Eve thought that about their first son, Cain, named him acquired.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got the man.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: They thought he was the one who was going to crush the head of the serpent.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so they were named in little sentences.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: This was what their prayer was.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so every time they would call their child, they they would be uttering that prayer.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the child would hear that this is my parents' prayer for me, and this is in fact my destiny.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, knowing that, I have to ask a question.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of sicko name this poor kid?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know what Jabez means.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in modern day English, it it basically means troublemaker, sorrowbringer.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's up with that?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is this my parents' prayer for me?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is this my destiny?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: What is up with this?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: It says that his his mother named him because she said, I bore him with pain.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was there was something that happened around the time of the birth that she associated with pain.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we don't know what it was, but whatever it was, she couldn't handle it.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: She just lost it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And she turns and looks at this little baby that's just been born and said, You're the fault of this.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: You caused every bit of this pain.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine you doing anything other than bringing pain and sorrow, and I'm gonna make you pay for this for the rest of your life.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I name you Jabez, you little troublemaker, you little sorrowbringer.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just ridiculous.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: He'd only been in the world for just a few minutes.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he couldn't have done this.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: But but it says that the mother named him.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's another clue.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the dad?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, where's the father here?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there there were times in the Bible where a mother tried to name the child and they wouldn't take it.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Remember with Rachel when when she's having her son, her second son, and they they've already lost Joseph, and there's complications and she's bleeding, and she realizes that she's not gonna survive this and that she's gonna die.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: She's never gonna see this little boy grow up.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, I name you Benoni, son of my great pain, son of my great sorrow.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the dad steps in and says, Hey, you know, Rachel, you know, you're you're my honey and everything, but you know, you're not gonna take this out on the kid.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I name him Benjamin, son of my right hand, son of my strength.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that name took.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so they they didn't take the mother's name.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: It happened in you know with with uh Zachariah and Elizabeth.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: When Elizabeth says, you know, they say, Well, what's his name gonna be?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: He says, His name's John.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Well, you don't have any Johns in all of your history.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's his name?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Zechariah grabs a tablet says his name's John, and then his tongue's loose and all that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But but really they didn't take it from her, they took it from him.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so, where's the father?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was part of the pain.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he died sometime around the time of the birth.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he walked out, never to be seen again.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Could be, I mean, we we're not quite sure.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It could be worse.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was there.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was a wimp.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when mother said, I name him Jabez, he said, Yes, dear.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that'd be worse.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, either way, this kid's got it rough.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's either growing up without a father or some beaten-up, yes, dear wimp of a dad.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But either way, he's got pretty rough.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's grow up with Jabez a little bit.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: You remember, kids are going to be meditating on their names.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be thinking about this.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Be alone in his room for a little while.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: He sits there and he thinking about his name.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's all my fault.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everything in this family, it's all my fault.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I mean, this this is what my parents name me.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I must be the one who's going to bring pain and sorrow everywhere I go.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is my fault.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that's happening in this family, it's all my fault.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I this is this is just who I am.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Trouble follows me.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do anything about it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere I go, I'm just gonna bring sorrow.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna bring pain.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, would you let your kids play with this kid?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, imagine him coming over to your house and your kids say, Hey, mom, uh, troublemaker sorrowbringer's here.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can I go out and play?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, are you kidding?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're not gonna let you go play with this kid.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's going to grow up pretty much alone, or he's going to be growing up with people that just are not good friends to have.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a pretty, pretty rough life.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I said earlier that we in America name in a different way.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: But that's really not quite true.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: After we get over naming our kids their their handle, uh, you know, and and giving them whatever it is, we we start to name our kids in little sentences.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the Hebrews do.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So how many of you, uh uh dads especially growing up, were named You never do anything right.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many times is dad gonna say that?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: How many times is mom gonna say until you become I never do anything right?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna amount to anything.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Until you become little, I'll never amount to anything.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're no good.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're no good.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many times do I gotta hear that?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no good.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm no good.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're named a lot of times by our parents' pain, our parents' inability to deal with life.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they grew up probably in the same type of household where they were called the same kinds of names, and that's all they had then to pass on to us.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're all named by those things.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're named by their fears, we're named by their inadequacies.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh some kids are named by behavior that they've observed.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: My mom grew up in an alcoholic home.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, her name was our family's alcoholics.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And her brother ended up being an alcoholic.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Her brother's son ended up being addicted to drugs, got kicked out of the Navy because of drugs and alcohol.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: My two brothers are alcoholics.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: My older brother died a few years ago of uh alcohol and drugs.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: He just dropped dead.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Doctor said he's probably dead before he hit the ground.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: That that was our name.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I chose not to have that name, but that was that was the name.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Alcoholism.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the there's, you know, children grow up in the in homes where there's things flying through the air, yelling, fights.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids are named by that.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Might be, you know, okay, mom's in one of her moods.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she's she's locked herself in the bathroom again, and and our kids are named by that.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Our family doesn't forgive.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's our name.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: We we hold grudges for the rest of our lives.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Our family, you know, the Hatfields and the McCoys.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, in 1981, I think it was, signed an agreement that they're no longer at fight.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're no longer in a fight with each other.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this went on since the Civil War.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids are named by that.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Named by our idolatries.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Workaholism.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, dad's never at home.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I took care of a a patient one time whose husband he flew for Eisenhower.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was the pilot for Eisenhower and MacArthur.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and he just he worked all the time.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they had one son that was his namesake, Frank.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, I I'm going to keep working and working and working, and and when I get enough money, then I'll spend time with my son.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, his son was twenty-one, twenty-two years old, just before the start of the Vietnam conflict, and he was out on a reconnaissance flight and got shot down and died.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And his dad never had time with him.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And within a couple of months he had a major stroke on a cr at a Christmas Eve party and never recovered, and his wife took care of him for the next five years as basically in a semi-vegetative state in bed for the rest of his life.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids are named by those things.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: If if you're all about business, if if that's all it is, I'll I'll I'll play with you when I have enough time.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'll play you know, it's the Cats in the Cradle song.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids are named by that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sports.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our our money, if our idolatry is money, television, computer games, our kids are named by those things.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids are named by how we handle stress, how we handle life.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: They are watching us.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And they're being named by everything that we do.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're named by our habits, named by our failures.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: We name ourselves.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: When I was growing up, uh in grade school, first through, you know, kindergarten through sixth grade, I was like really popular.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had friends, they were inviting me over to parties, I'd invite people over, they'd show up, you know, it was nice.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And something happened between sixth and seventh grade when I went into middle school, and I I really don't know what happened.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: But all of a sudden, nobody liked me anymore.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and we're talking little town, I graduated with 84 people in my class.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like people didn't know me.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And from that point on, I was the one who's bullied all the time.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so by the time I got out of high school, my name was I'm never gonna have any friends.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can't trust anybody.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even the people I thought were my closest friends turned on me.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, I'm never gonna have any close friends.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to I've got to keep everybody at arm's length.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when we got out here, when my wife and I, my wife was the only one that I ever thought accepted me for who I was, and so I married her.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I figured I'd better I better grab this one.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's nobody else.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I've I've got her.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been married for 35 years, so it's it's been great.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: But me and Bill Roach, we've got married on the same day, probably about an hour apart from each other.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we we text each other on our anniversary day.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, um we would go to this young couple's Bible study, and after the Bible study was over, when I'd be we'd be driving home, I was imagining all of the negative conversations that everybody else was having.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they're all saying, Man, we just like that Jennifer, but why does she have to bring Steve?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: He is such a jerk.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's funny, you know, and and you know, we we laugh just because you know we're being nice to Jennifer.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was really what I thought.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that for years.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I just never wanted to get close to anybody.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was my name.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: You may be naming yourself.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: We we all talk to ourselves, you know.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: We sometimes we talk to our golf balls, but we we we talk to ourselves.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's been shown that about 90 to 95% of the time when we talk to ourselves, it's negative.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because the time that we talk to ourselves is when we failed at something.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, Oh, you big dummy, you're never gonna be able to do this.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what we say.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so that we're we're naming ourselves over and over again.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: But Jabez heard something.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: He had to have heard something.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: He had to hear it out there somewhere.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he didn't hear it from his parents, his parents named him Jabez.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so so he heard something about this Yahweh guy, this God that was out there.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that he didn't just belong to the nation of Israel, but he belonged to the tribe of Judah.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Judah's name is praise.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Judah, your brothers will praise you.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that this group of people, this nation is in covenant with this Yahweh, that God came and imposed upon them.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and what was this imposition?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was an imposition of blessing.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was that that central tenet of the law was that you are blessed.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so it says that Jabez called upon the God of Israel.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's very interesting.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you call something, the word call doesn't mean to wish something to be as it is.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Calling something says, this is what it is.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so when when when woman was brought to man, he said it it says he called her woman, he called her Esha, saying she is another self.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: She is one just like me, but different.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: She's another Esh, but she's different.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, yeah.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay, so she she was Esha after the fall.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: He named her by a function.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I name you Eve, because you'll be the mother of all living.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was after God said, She's going to be after your position.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: She's going to want to be in charge.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Just like I name the animals, I name you.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am in charge of you.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's where all the problems started.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Alrighty.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: So he called on the called upon the God of Israel.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: The God of Israel.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Who's Israel?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: He used to be Jacob.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what does Jacob mean?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob means he grasps the heel.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a Hebrew idiom for he's a liar, he's a cheater, he's a twister.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh or in other words, you don't buy a car from Jacob.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't buy a used car from Jacob.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not going to go well.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: But what happened with Jacob?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: He wrestled with God.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And God, remember, God says, okay, what's your name?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I know, I know, I'm Jacob.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jacob.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No, not anymore.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: You are now Israel.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Israel, hard name to translate, but somewhere in there is one who has been conquered by God and is now a prince with God.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: He had his name changed.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jabez came upon the God of Israel.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: The God who changes names.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people's names changed when they came into contact with God.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people got their names changed.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: He grabbed hold of that central promise, that central character, because name is your character.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: He grabbed a hold of that and he said, Oh, that you would bless me.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like an intense thing.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: In some of the versions, it says, Bless me indeed.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that you would bless me indeed.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was calling upon the blessing of the covenant.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's very confident this is going to happen when he called upon.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, to enlarge my border.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now it could be property, but likely it could be a spiritual increase through gaining understanding of who this God is.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I want my borders increased.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know you, to know you more.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just like what Paul, oh, to know Christ and Him crucified.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I want to know you, God of Israel.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know this God who changes names.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says that your hand might be with me.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: The hand of Providence, in order to protect and to provide, and also to deal with to deal with him in grace and in love and in comfort in the time of need, as well as wisdom for the future and for the power to keep him there and to and to keep me from harm.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jabez has been in harm's way all of his life.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody knew him as the troublemaker, sorrowbringer.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure he got beaten up a lot.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that you'd bless me.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that it may not cause me harm anymore.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Keep me from harm.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: That it might not bring me pain.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: He'd been living with he I want to escape my name.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get away from my name.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want this to be pain anymore.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to escape his past.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be free.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And God granted his request.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he probably knew that immediately.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: That he he called out in faith, and God gave it to him, and he knew it.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: At that moment, I am free.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like when we get saved.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm free, and I'm free, and I'm free indeed.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm blessed.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I am so blessed now.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I am free in Christ.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's our salvation.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he was in fact saved at that point.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: He knew it, and he knew who he was.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: That this is old covenant.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's old covenant.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are under the new covenant.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And all it says in Corinthians, all the promises of God are yes, to which we give our amen.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: We say, so shall it be.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in the new covenant, the new covenant promises go a million miles beyond all of the old covenant.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because we've got everything that they wanted from the old covenant.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: They looked forward.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews, they said they looked at it and they waved and they said, Hey, I can't wait till you get there.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're there.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the promise that was given, all of the promises that were given in the old covenant.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the new covenant.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so our names are changed.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever looked in the Bible and looked at what God calls you?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And compare that with what we call ourselves or everything that everybody else has called us?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: You might hear, you never do anything right.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been my name all my life.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: But no, it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I can do anything.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: If God's called me to do it, he's going to make sure it gets done.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are all, we are his workmanship.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that word workmanship in the Greek language looks an awful lot like the word poem.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And God is a master at this.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he's prepared those good works.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: If he says, I want you to do this good work, is he going to let you not do that good work if you're going to walk in him?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: As we walk in Christ, as we seek him, as we seek his kingdom, as we trust in his trust in the Lord with all of our heart, he's going to make sure that that good work gets done.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he's not hiding it somewhere.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's not out there.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's prepared all of these good works.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Yeah, but I'm not going to let him know what it is.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you happen to stumble on it, well, you know, maybe.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ask.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just ask.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's a whole different talk.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to not do that.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be like Kevin.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go off somewhere else and we'll be in here for an hour.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so you can never give that up.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, you know, we have habits.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: It might be, you know, smoking, alcohol, pornography, television, anything.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you keep telling yourself, I can't give that up.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't give that up.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: What does the Bible say?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: What does God say?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: You are more than an overcomer.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're more than an overcomer through Christ who loves you.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm never going to have any real friends.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was my name.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I found out I'm the friend of God.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm the friend of God, I really don't need anybody else, but all of a sudden, you know, all of these other Christian friends who are friends of God too become part of my family.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so not only do I have boatloads of friends, I've got a lot of family.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got a lot of family who loves me.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're just stupid.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard that too.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard that from other people.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had a friend of mine who was called that all the time.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he's building he converted a vacuum cleaner from I can't, I'm not an electrician, it's either AC to DC or DC to AC.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: All of you electricians will know that.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he converted it to be able to run on battery power, put a propeller on it, and built himself a hovercraft in 1980.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And his dad was calling him stupid.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't think he could do anything.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this kid was a genius.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: If only his dad would have said something different.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I have wisdom because I fear the Lord.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm wise.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not stupid, I'm wise.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're ugly.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit dwells in beauty.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're loved.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're children of God.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're children of the King of Kings.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: You are blessed.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have hope in Christ.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You are a new creature.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I am set free in Christ to be his slave.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I am blessed.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm chosen.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm set apart.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm redeemed.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end, he's going to come and get me and take me to my forever home.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's who you are.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you are in Christ, that's who you are.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: You need to start renaming yourself.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, any of you who are in business, how much time do I got left?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Two hours?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so any of you who have ever been in business, or have you anybody in business, ever been to a business, ever bought anything, sold anything?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, it's pretty much all of you.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: So how do how do businesses set their prices?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you've put anything on Craigslist, you go, okay, so how much can I list on Craigslist?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I, okay, this is probably worth$10.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if 80 people call you up, it's like, oh, maybe it was worth more.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some people put stuff on eBay and it gets worth a lot more than what they thought.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: People just start bidding and bidding and bidding, and all of a sudden something I thought was worth$100 is worth$1,000.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's, yeah, and that's exactly how it works.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, talking about a penny the other day.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, how much is something worth?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's worth what somebody's willing to pay for it.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's how that's how Lowe's and and Home Depot and all these people set their prices.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's based upon market value.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: What will the market bear?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so everything is worth what something somebody else is willing to pay for it.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Bible says you're not your own.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: You've been bought with a price.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what was that price paid?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: We heard that last night.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: We were bought with the blood of Christ.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not with silver and gold, but with the blood of Christ.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so the focus was on how valuable that was.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: But do you realize what value that places on you?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: That every one of you, if you've been bought with the blood of Christ, if you belong to Him, you are priceless.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are priceless, you have no authority, no reason to tear yourself down.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: If God has forgiven you, forgive yourself.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: If God is not mad at you, why are you mad at you?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's no reason for that.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this doesn't mean that we're in right, outright, upright, outright happy all the time.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hate that song.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because, no, I mean, the good works that he's prepared beforehand might be that you get martyred.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: It might be that you get sawn in two.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: You might defeat a lion only to get eaten up by a lion later.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so those are the good works he's prepared beforehand that you should walk in.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that we're all going to be billionaires and trillionaires and all of that.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's his good works that he's prepared beforehand that you should walk in.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: You find that out as you walk on that path, as you run on the path that he set before you with your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's who you are.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that we're going to not have problems.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, in this world you will have trouble.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that should be in every promise box on every dining room table.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: In this world you will have trouble.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can take that to the bank.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But take heart, be of good cheer.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I have already overcome the world.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we have the best retirement plan that there is on the planet.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: When we die, we get God to the full.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, isn't that great?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: What's interesting here, though, is Jabez never changed his name.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: He died, Jabez.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, you would have thought that he would change his name, but I think it was so that he would be that living contradiction.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: That would people would come up, they would see him, they would see just how blessed he is, and say, So what's wow, who are you, O blessed of God?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm troublemaker sorrowbringer.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's my name.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, what?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: How could this be?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you this story about me and what this great God has done for me.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And every one of us has that story.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: We all have that story.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: How can you know we need to always be ready to give an answer to anyone who would ask you for the hope that lies within you.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: The world is falling apart.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: We've got this pandemic, we've got the riots, we've got all of this other stuff.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: The world's falling apart, and we should be walking around with just joy in our hearts, smiles on our faces, going, God is great.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's going, why in the world are you having hope?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you, because my God, my perspective of this God is that he has a plan for this, and it's going to be to his glory and to the betterment of the church.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm part of the church.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to get better because of this.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to when he comes and takes me home.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: No problems here.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is going to work out for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Even the riots, even this pandemic, even everything else, because that's your name.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's who you are, and you can take that to the bank too.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we are all Jabez, but we've all been saved.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you're bought by the blood of Christ, that's who you are.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: You have a story to tell, you have hope in your heart, be ready to give an answer because people are going to ask.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: As everything's falling apart, be ready to give that answer for the hope that's within you, and to do it with gentleness and with respect, which is so hard for me to do.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: But um gentleness and respect.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I usually do this in class, so I'm always, you know, any questions.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions, come and find me.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um this I am so hopeful because of who God is, not because of what's going on out there.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am hopeful because of who Christ is and that I am in him, he is in me, and no matter what happens, I know where I'm going.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've already won.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, amen.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you so much for this day.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for the hope that you've given to us.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for changing our name and giving us a new name that is written on your stone, on your tablet, that those of us who have been written in the Lamb's book of life, our names are there.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray that we would take this to the bank, that we would realize who we are and what we have because we are in you.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that no matter what happens, no matter what path you've set before us, I pray that we run on that path and that we keep our eyes fixed on you, and that no matter what happens, we realize that it'll be to your glory and to our betterment as a church and to get us stronger in the faith, more perseverance, more maturity and endurance in the faith, so that we can continue to spread your word and your word of hope to everyone who I ask us.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you and we thank you in Jesus' name.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a production of the Generations Media Network.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: For more information, go to generations.orgslash media.