The prayer of Jabez 3

[Narrator] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for you. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker] We thank our God again for another time in His presence. We give Him glory. We give Him honor. We give Him adoration. We thank Him for His mercies. We thank Him for all He is to us and all that He is to us. We bless Him again for another Monday discipleship class to learn again from His word. And we are trusting God again that this evening, we will be beholding wondrous things out of His laws. Let's have a word of prayer. Precious Father, we are grateful unto You. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your mercies. We commit ourselves again into Your hand this evening. Lord, we are praying, cause that Your Spirit will work within us in the name of Jesus Christ. For our brethren who are physically present and all our brethren linking up with us online, Lord, we are asking, let Your Spirit work within us. Give increase, O Lord, to Your word this evening. Cause that Your church at the end will have been edified and Your name glorified in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. We have been considering the prayer of Jabez. And last week we saw the needs to pray. And the Lord helped us. We were able to pray. And it was a time of crying out to God and reaching out, and God reaching out to us. Today we want to move on on the matter of the prayer of Jabez. And we want to consider the Scriptures as we go back again to the same Chronicles chapter 4. First Chronicles chapter 4 to look at the matter again that we have been considering. [Reader] Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." And Jabez called on the Lord God of Israel saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory or my coast, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that it may not cause pain!" And the Bible says, "So God granted him what he requested." [Speaker] If you look at all of these translations that we have read, by and by, there are about four important items of prayer regardless of the translation that you are using. The first one is that he should be blessed indeed. The second is that his coast or his territory or his land be expanded. The third is that the hand of the Lord will be with him. And the fourth is that he will be kept from evil so that it will not grieve him or it will not hurt him. And we want to look at each of these items. Today our focus is on the first item: "Oh that You would bless me indeed." Several times I've been reading this Scripture. But in recent time, I began to see something in this very simple prayer. "Oh that You would bless me indeed." What is the difference between being blessed and being blessed indeed? Is it possible for a man to be blessed and not be blessed indeed? These were the questions that began to arise in my heart in some few weeks back. If you look at this prayer, this man said, "God, bless me indeed." Then suddenly there was this like a spring within me. And the spring was saying, "Is there any difference between being blessed and being blessed indeed?" And as I was meditating on that, I want to share with you what occurred to me. And I saw in this prayer very serious issues that honestly gave me a rethink. That I began to pray more earnestly to God that, "God, don't just bless me. Lord, bless me indeed." Ordinarily, when the man prayed, I'm sure the direction of his prayer may not be the direction in which I might be speaking this evening. Maybe he was just talking about God to just help him out of his pain. Maybe that was all the prayer summarized as at his own time for his own experience. But this matter generated so much within my spirit and I want us to look at them together. Now, let's look at this matter of being blessed indeed. I want us to check the life of Adam. I want to check the life of Eve. I want to check the life of Solomon. Then I want to check the life of the rich man and Lazarus. If we can possibly look at all of that this evening, then we would have been able to conclude the matter of being blessed indeed. Can we just look at Genesis chapter 1 again, the very popular Scripture. Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 talks about the familiar creation story. And when you look at the creation story, you will realize that as at the time God was creating man, all other things were already created. Every other thing was already in existence. The animals, the everything. In a way, when man was created, man was created to actually rule over all that had been created. So he came last. It's like bringing somebody into a flat, a prepared flat or a prepared environment. Then you are telling the person, "Take charge of this place." If man came first, there will be nothing he would want to take charge of. So he came last to take charge of all that had been created. Now, if you look at all that had been created, you will agree with me that everything summarized into what we may call abundant life. Is that not true? It was an abundant life. In the first place, it was God that provided a garden where he would live. Of all the trees, what he is to eat, what he is to drink, everything had been settled. In fact, man did not even have to go about looking for who to marry. God was the one that went into the whole aspect of creation. And when God was through, man even did God a very good honor. What was the honor? He brought the woman to him. He did not tell the man, "Look, I've created something, go that way and pick her." But He brought her again to the man. And so, it was a kind of honor, bringing his to him, bringing her to him instead of telling him to go and take it. So God, in a way, was at the service of man. There was so much around man. It was a life of bliss and good and pleasure. And honestly, it was a life in which man was to be like that forever. All the multiplication, there would have been no death. Adam would have still been with us here. And as it multiply, everybody would just be seeing all the family tree. There would be nobody dying. I'm just trying to look at that kind of a trend. It was something wonderful. Now, all those things that were created for man, only one thing sustained all of it. The only one thing that sustained everything that God created for man and everything that God purposed for man, the only sustainer of that thing is that man must not die. Once he dies, what will happen to everything? Everything will degenerate to what we are having now. You still see the element of the image of God in man, but there is so much degeneration. Only one thing sustained the whole of that thing. And that was the one thing that God warned man about. He said, "I've given you everything, but there is something you must watch. Don't eat this tree, don't eat from the fruit of this tree. If you eat from it, you will die." And it came to pass in the life of man that at a point, man ate that thing. And what happened? Man actually died. But I want to ask you, when man died, what was the implication? What immediately happened to man was that something died inside him even though he was still physically alive. So in a way, man still had all of the blessing seemingly surrounding him. But in the actual sense, man has lost all of that blessing. One thing that departed from man, if we are to compare it with Romans 3:23, it says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So what actually departed from man was glory. The Shekinah glory, the eternal life, that life, that glorious life, that was what departed from man. When that life left man, when that glory left man, what happened? Let us see what happened when the glory left man in Genesis chapter 3. What happened when the glory left man? When the glory left man, you notice that, please, I want to go to around verse 20 of chapter 3. "And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord made a tunic of skin and clothed them." So what has happened? What did God do? They were in something left, but what happened? Something was given in replacement. What was given in replacement? Animal covering. So it looks like Adam in this place was a blessed person because God gave him animal clothes to replace the initial glory. But can I announce to you that this blessing is not a blessing that is indeed. Because what was used to replace the blessing, what was lost, was nothing compared to what was lost. He got another covering. God did not send him out naked. He was sent out covered, but with something that will never bring back everything that was lost. The only thing that can sustain everything that was lost was the first life that he had, the first covering. That first covering. So what I'm trying to make you see is this. When God blesses a man with that that endure time, and all that God do for a man or has done in the life of that man is something that endures just time, the man is not blessed indeed. The man is blessed, but he is not blessed indeed. Let me use another place to illustrate this thing in Matthew chapter 13. Can we see Matthew 13? From verse 1 to verse 9 was the parable of the sower. I believe you are familiar with the parable of the sower. A sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed, some were this, some were that, and all of that. In the verse 9, Jesus concluded the parable. What did he say? "He that has an ear, let him hear." Okay. In the verse 10, please, what do you find in the verse 10? And the disciples came to him and said, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them, "Because it has not been given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given. For whosoever has, to him more will be given and he will have in abundance. But whosoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says, 'Hearing you will hear but you will not understand. Seeing you will see but you will not perceive. For the heart of these people have grown cold. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ear, lest they should understand with their heart and turn so that I should heal them.'" Now, verse 16, what did the Lord say? "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and they did not see it, and to hear what you hear and they did not hear it." What is it that they were seeing and they were hearing? What is it that make disciples to be blessed and those other ones were not blessed? These other ones, they were receiving miracles. Those other ones, they were fed with bread. They got so much from Jesus. These other people did not get much like that in terms of miracles and all of that from Him. What they got from Him was understanding. He said, "The word which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." So what did they get from Jesus? They got the Spirit. They got life. And Jesus said what? That they are the blessed people. Those other ones that got all those things that they got, they were not blessed. Whatever a man is, as long as the life of God is not in him, that man is not blessed. Whatever the man is... but why did I say the man is not blessed? But please, in the light of what we are saying, what will we say? The man is blessed, but not indeed. So when a man want to seek blessings from God, what should the man seek? Not just to be blessed, but to be blessed indeed. Let us see the seriousness of these things as we go through the Bible. Let's see more references. Can we look at the life of Cain in Genesis? We are trying to trace something. Bible says from chapter 4 from verse 1, "Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have acquired a man from the Lord.' Then she bore again this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. In process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of the flock and of their fat. And God respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin lies at your door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.' Now Cain talked with his brother Abel, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. And when the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?' And He said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cry out to me from the ground. So now...'" Please, I want you all to look at this thing. Look at this position of God and Cain. "So now..." What did God tell Cain? What was the first thing? "You are cursed." Are you following me? What was the first thing that came from the mouth of God? "You are cursed." A life that is cursed is not a life that is blessed. Am I correct? The first thing God said is that, "Cain, you are cursed from the earth which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on earth." Please, what was the prayer of Cain? Verse 13. And Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Surely You have driven me out from this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden from Your face. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on earth, and it will happen that anyone who find me will kill me." Then verse 15. And the Lord said to Cain, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. I want to ask you, are you following this story? We are looking at the fact that there was a pronouncement on Cain. But yet, what was the other thing that Cain got? What you look as if long life. He will not die on time, nobody will kill him, like divine protection, something like that. Is that not? Okay, let's go on. Verse 16. What was the next thing that you saw about the life of Cain? Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. That looks like a sentence, but maybe you may not understand it. Do you know what that word means there? Cain went out of all that is eternal. What Adam lost was that which is eternal. And what remain of Adam and everything that God did with him, God clothed him, God did whatever, were things that will not carry him anywhere. If we had continued in Adam, how would we have ended if Jesus did not come? If we have all continued in Adam, please brethren, what is our end? Eternal destruction. So everything that God did for Adam was to carry him nowhere because what it means to be blessed had been taken away. What it means for a man to be blessed indeed had been taken away. The Bible says Cain went from the presence of the Lord. But look at something. I will still show you that what I said is true, but I want you to still show you something in verse 17. The Bible says, "And Cain knew his wife and he conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad Lamech, and on and on the line went and went and on and on like that." Now, I want you to now see verse 25. What did the Bible says? "And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he named him Seth. For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel whom Cain killed. And as for Seth, to him was born a son, and they named him Enos." What is difference between this one and that that came to Cain? Enos and Enoch. You know they are very, very similar. Okay, please come down. Come down a little. Let us look at something. Chapter 5. "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created Adam, He made him in the likeness of God." Abi? "He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day that they were created. And Adam lived for 130 years and begot a son in his likeness, after his image, and named him Seth." What has happened? Can you see anything that has happened? What has happened? Do you see anything? You forgot that there was a Cain before Seth. Do you see that when God wanted to count the generation of Adam, what did God say? "After Adam, it is who? Seth." Where is Cain? I want to show you it was the same thing that God did with Ishmael. When want to count generation of Abraham, what do you say? "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob." Where is Ishmael? What did God tell Abraham? "For in Isaac shall your seed be named." I don't have any divine program, I don't have any eternal... what I want to do, this person is not in my agenda. Do you see that even though Cain married, got a wife, built a city, go and check all that things that Cain did. Cain got a wife, built a city, named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And is that not a great achievement? He did not build a house, what did Cain build? A city. It look as if he's a blessed man. But was he blessed indeed? As far as God was concerned, Cain is eternally lost. After Adam is who? Seth. For you to know that this matter is just as we are saying it, it is not just something that happened by mistake. Can you go to 1 Chronicles chapter 1? 1 Chronicles chapter 1, are we there please? Can you read chapter 1 verse 1? What did the Bible says? Adam, Seth, Enosh. Are you seeing something? Do you see the Enos there? Is it the one we see or the one with "x"? When they want to take the chronicles again, what did the Bible says? Adam. After Adam who? Seth. After Seth who? Enosh. As far as God is concerned, Cain is nowhere. Go to Matthew. Matthew chapter 1. I'm trying to draw something to your attention. For you to see similar things, how they draw themselves. Look at it, they're looking at genealogy again. Is that not? "This is the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ." Are you following it? "The son of David, the son of Abraham." Are you following it? Now, I want you to note first this place in the verse 1. We will now go back. Why I want you to show you this? I want to show you two things here. We will go back and trace Abraham. You will see that you will trace Abraham to Seth, not to Cain. We will soon get there. You will trace Abraham back to Seth, not to Cain. Number two, look at the similar thing again. Abraham begot who? Isaac. Do you see that Ishmael was not referred to? And I want to ask you, please brethren, was Ishmael a great person or not a great person? Was Ishmael a great person? How do we know he was great? What tell us that Ishmael was a great man in his time? I mean greatly blessed in his time. How do we know? Because he has how many princes? 12 princes. 12. Not only that, nobody will be able to conquer Ishmael. But I want to ask you, is that man blessed indeed? What I'm trying to make us trace, I'm trying to make us see, is we need to as believers today, we need to set our values right. We need to set our values right. And that is why the Bible warned us in 1 John 2:15. It say, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, the world passeth... passeth away and its lust thereof. But he that does the will of God abides forever." Now, it takes you that the only thing that makes a man to be blessed when you say a man is blessed indeed, is a man that is part and parcel of God's agenda. He that does the will of God. God has a will, God has something He is doing. And somebody is doing that thing. Say, "That is the man." That man shall be blessed forever. He abides forever. Those other ones that got all those things that they got, they were not blessed. I'm trying to make you understand what it means to be blessed indeed. So you see that as far as God was concerned, Cain is eternally lost. After Adam is who? Seth. And I want to show you some... I want to show you something that you may look at and then you may wonder. Now let's look at the man Judas in relation to the man Peter. That's in the New Testament. At a point in the life of Judas, something happened and Jesus made a statement. Jesus said, "What you are doing, do what? Do it quickly." What was it that Judas was doing? Judas was conspiring for Jesus to be killed. And what Jesus said of Judas is that, "What you are doing, do it quickly." At another point, Peter told Jesus that, "I will not deny You even if everybody go away from You, I will remain." What did Jesus tell him? Jesus said, "Simon Peter, Satan desire to have you so that he may sift you. But what? I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. And after you have been converted, strengthen your brethren." Let's look at these two people. Was Peter given an assignment to go and preach, mission of the 12, mission of the 70, was Peter involved? Was Judas involved? Yes. Was Peter with Jesus? Yes. Was Judas with Jesus? Yes. Were they both disciples? Yes. They both ate with Jesus? Yes. They both moved with Jesus? Yes. But I want to show you a dividing line between a man who is blessed indeed and a man who is not. At a point, Jesus said of one, "What you are doing, do quickly." And of another, "I have prayed for you." The one that was prayed for, his office another did not take. He was still in the will of God. The one that was told to do what he was doing quickly, what happened to his office? He fell out of that which God was doing. So that that a man even carries some spiritual, seemingly spiritual gift around, they still a blessing that is a blessing that is more than that. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I've show you the physical ones. A man may be married, a man may have children, a man may build cities and all of that. And as far as divine program is concerned, he's not eternally relevant. That man is not blessed indeed. He's blessed when you look at him. But there's the place of, "Oh that You would bless me indeed." A man is not blessed if all that he could do is to display spiritual gift and then his life did not receive mercy. That man is not blessed. He's blessed, but he's not blessed indeed. He's not. The reason why I'm showing us these things, why I'm pointing these things to us, is because brethren let us think very practical. Let us think. Brethren, I want us to be very practical. What happens to your heart when you see people with substantial material or physical blessing? What happens to your heart? I want us to be sincere. You will notice that in a way, substantial material, financial and physical blessing, there is a way it makes us to feel that God has not blessed me. What I'm trying to say is that that may not be wrong. It may not be wrong to say, "God bless me." But I'm saying that I wish that in your life, you will not just tell God to bless you, but you will tell God to bless you indeed. That you will tell the Lord that I am not satisfied, I'm not satisfied with just being blessed. Lord, take me further, take me deeper, take me higher. Take me more, more, more and more and more and more and more. Let's see something again in Solomon's prayer and vis-a-vis the word of God in Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23. I believe we are familiar with the prayer of Solomon. We are very familiar with that. When God asked Solomon to ask for something from the Lord. And Solomon was saying that if God will give him wisdom so that he will be able to rule the people. And what did God say? He asked for wisdom to rule the people and God said, "Because you have not asked for riches, you have not even asked for long life. You have not even asked for the life of your enemy. I will give you this wisdom that you have asked, but I'm also going to give you these other ones that you did not ask." It takes you that in asking, there are things that Baba sees as priority. There are asking you will ask that lacks wisdom, that lacks insight. That man prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said, "Look, the request you are making, you are asking for something, you are asking for something to do the work of God. You're not even talking about the riches and all of that. But I will give them along." Which means ordinarily, blessings from the Lord have categories. They are categorized. They have categories. That God give a man riches, that God give a man long life. And that is why I want to make you see very well, you wonder why many times you will see people who say, "Look, they're atheists. God does not exist." And you will be surprised. They may live and live and live and live and live, and live to about 90, 100 years. Have you not seen such things before? You be wondering, why did God allow this man to be this blessed? It is because those are not the real things. It makes me to remember the song of this woman... "Iku l'opin". It does not matter. It does not give you any single thing eternally. What I'm trying to show you that the Bible show us how Abraham... show us the line of Abraham, and the Bible trace it down, down, down to Noah and down, down, down to Seth. That Cain was lost completely. We didn't go there to trace it. But all that we did with Methuselah is just to tell us that, "Okay, this is the line that came from Seth." 969 years. I want to ask you, how many years did David live? Do we know the number? 70. Just 70. Please, how many books were dedicated to David? 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Psalms. New Testament, reference to his Psalm, "The Psalms of... according to what David said in the Psalm." The Messianic Psalm was in David. The angel came to give Mary instruction. He say, "He will sit on the throne of his father David." The throne of Jesus is called the throne of David. We go again to the New Testament... I'm trying to show you just 70 years. How many years is Jesus live? 33. Who should live the longest if physical long life make any meaning eternally? I think God should have given Jesus to live up to about... after the first 200 years, He will now start His mission on earth. So that He can really live long. Old man. Say, "Ah!" I'm not saying that these things they are not a blessing. But I'm saying that we need to know the kind of things that we seek primarily with God. There are certain things that are more primary than certain things. Certain things are secondary. Certain things are primary. And what I saw in the Scripture, that the only thing that is primary in the life of a man is eternal life. The only thing that is primary in a man's life is eternal life and eternal purpose. That a man... and when I'm talking about eternal life, I believe you understand what I'm trying to say. I'm not speaking to young convert. I'm talking of, "This is life eternal, that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He have sent." I'm talking about that knowing of God. Let us see how God drew the matter in Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23 and 24a. What does it says? "This is what the Lord says, 'Don't let the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man boast of their strength, nor the rich boast of their riches. Let the one who boast boast about this: that they understand and knows Me.' If you want to glory, glory in this: that you understand and knows Me. All that God did for Adam, gave him this, gave him animal skin to clothe and all of that. They were not the real blessing. The real thing was the first one that was lost. And can I also announce to you, what is the real thing that Satan want to take from a man? Which glory? What is the glory of a man? What is the real glory? When we say a man is in glory indeed, when can we say a man is in glory indeed? When he has eternal life. The minute Adam came out of that glory, every other thing were no glory by the reason of the glory that was lost. Every other thing was no glory. Because if you go and look at it, all that God did for Adam and everything that He did for them, everything that God did, if you go and check Romans chapter 5, the Bible says... verse 14. "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin according to the likeness of transgression of Adam, who is what? Adam?" Please what did your Bible say? Mine say, "Who is a type of Him who was to come." Adam was a type, he was a figure of the one who is to come. So immediately after Adam sinned, what was the next agenda of God? Another Adam. Which means everything you saw in that Adam and everything that followed death, everything you saw was nothing. Immediately eternal life was lost. The next thing we is what? Another Adam to bring eternal life. What I'm trying to say is that the only thing that gives a man real value is eternal life. The real value that a man has is this knowing God and understanding God. Knowing God, understanding God. That is the real value in a man's life. And that is why Jesus made the statement: "What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world?" By that, what does Jesus mean? In other place say, "What can a man give in exchange for his life?" I want to ask you, what he talk when he said that if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? How will a man lose his soul? When there is no eternal life. Because the soul is eternal. Man does not die. So once a man eternally is separated from God, then he loses his soul. So look at it, say what does it profit a man? If it were possible for him to gain the whole world, which means if you put the whole world on a scale, if you are to put the whole world, if it's possible, to put the whole riches, treasures of the world and you can put it in one bucket, and you put eternal life in another bucket, if you put it on the scale, which one will go up, which one will go down? The whole world will go up. Eternal life will pull it down. So when a man does not have a life, that life of God, that life in God, when a man is not growing in that, when a man is not increasingly formed in the image of Christ, when a man is not continuously increasing from glory to glory, being transformed by the Spirit of God into the likeness of God, can I announce to you that he's not blessed indeed. No matter what else in which the man is increasing. He's blessed, but he's not blessed indeed. And what I want to challenge us with this evening is beyond all, don't let us seek in life just to be blessed. Let us seek in life to be blessed indeed. It also means that it's so crucial for us to know that what a man should seek primarily in life is this matter of becoming more and more like God and advancing the eternal purpose of God, that is in the will of God. And that is exactly what Jesus said. He said, "Not all who come Me 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the kingdom, but he who does the will of God." So there's life that makes a man to be a doer of the will of God. The primary life a man seek that makes the man to be blessed indeed. Brethren as we close this evening, I want us to see from the prayer of Jabez, new creation realities. Blessed indeed is to live in the reality of eternal life. It's to live in the reality of eternal life. And when a man live in the reality of eternal life, we can say the man is indeed blessed. If a man don't live in that reality, no matter what God seems to be doing with his life, I can am announcing to you that the real things are still not done. That is why it does not cost God anything to make the wicked to prosper. Have you read that before? The wicked prosper, they are not in pain, everything goes well for them. And then remember the Psalmist, Psalm 73. We'll come to that later when we come to "keep me from evil that it grieves me not". Because we think that when certain things don't grieve people, they are the most blessed. But I can also show you that many times even the wicked, nothing grieves them till they die. But yet, they are not blessed. Yet they are not really blessed. I'm not saying therefore you leave this place and saying, "Oh God, don't bless me." I'm only saying when you leave this place have an understanding that it is not a matter of just being blessed. It's a matter of being blessed indeed. Let's rise beyond the life of the ordinary. Let's rise into the supernatural. Can we rise to just pray? Let's pray. I want us to just talk to the Lord. Ask your value system. Check your value system. How do you look at life? How do you see life? Substantial, material, financial and physical blessing, there is a way it makes us to feel that God has not blessed me. What I'm trying to say is that that may not be wrong. It may not be wrong to say, "God bless me." But I'm saying that I wish that in your life, you will not just tell God to bless you, but you will tell God to bless you indeed. That you will tell the Lord that I am not satisfied, I'm not satisfied with just being blessed. Lord, take me further, take me deeper, take me higher. Take me more, more, more and more and more and more and more. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray. [Narrator] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and every day counseling. For further counsel, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Be-Rejoice filling station along Idjere Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: FamilyTent@yahoo.co.uk, FamilyTentMinistry01@gmail.com, www.FamilyTentMinistry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.