I wanna say Happy Father's Day to all the dads that are worshiping with us today at all of our campuses, those of you who are worshiping online, thank you for your investment in our families. Uh, we thank you. And I'm gonna tell you that Father's Day is one of my favorite days to preach. And I always ask, Hey, can I preach on Father's Day, uh, when he gets past Easter and Christmas? The next best day, in my opinion, is Father's Day because of how much fathers mean, uh, to our families, to our country, uh, to our, to our culture.

And I know that Father's Day can be complicated, and I always hear this, and I'm always, you know, listening to this because some of you, some of you have lost your dads, and this day is very painful to you. And so I want to encourage you and know that we love you, we wanna come along beside you. For some of you, it's complicated because you and your dad are maybe not in a relationship and maybe you don't even know your dad. And so that can be really frustrating. Uh, Kyle said last week, and I love it when our, our teachers share their heart, because most of our guys, not all of them, but most of our people on our team had relationships that were really bad with their dads growing up. And so when you hear their testimonies, it's really the testimony of a lot of people.

And I want you to know that you can break the generational challenges that are faced because of the family that you're born into. For some of you, you were born into a family that everybody in that family's gotten divorced. For some of you, you were born into a family that, like everybody, not everybody, but a lot of them, a lot of your family members have been addicted or abused, or in poverty. And I'm here to tell you today, on this Father's Day, that you can break the chains that bind you, that God has a plan for you and that you're important. And, and I really believe that as men go, so goes the world. And, and here at Venture, we love to encourage and challenge men. One of our early church says that the glory of God is a man who is fully alive. And I have to agree with him there. There's nothing like a man who is fully alive, who loves the Lord and loves his family. And, and I want to tell you how you can be that kinda man today, no matter what you've faced or what you've done.

Now, now, I understand that our world kinda is skeptical about men. I mean, when you see the, the, the shows and you see the sitcoms and you see, uh, most of the things o on tv, it's always men are losers. You know, men, men are gonna take advantage of you. You know, you know, you be skeptical. And I'm here to tell you that that's not God's plan. And I don't believe that's that's true.

So today I want you to look at a passage of scripture. In First Chronicles you say, oh, this is gonna be good. Rainy day, first Chronicles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, just hold on. I, I know you probably know this, but Chronicles is the writer chronicling the, the number of people and the families from Adam to Abraham through the 12 tribes of Israel. So it's really boring. I mean, like, you just got, he beget him and he beget him, and he beget him and he beget him. And he was the father of so-and-so, and he was the father of so-and-so, and he was the father of so-and-so. And in the middle of that, you find that the writer plucks a name out of this chronology. And, and he lists that name out and he goes, Hey, here's a guy that we want to talk about, because he did something different. He was a person that said, I'm gonna do something different. You say, what did he do different? Well, he prayed.

Now before you tune me out, because we have this meeting every week when we preach and we talk about the sermon and how go from good to great. And, and one of the guys on our team said, when you said, pray, I automatically got discouraged because prayer is hard for me. And, and prayer is like this thing that's not natural. And, you know, sometimes I pray and I don't really, I don't really trust that God's gonna answer my prayers, and I get that. But here's a guy who prayed a prayer that changed the future of his life and his legacy. And it's a prayer that we're gonna pray today. It is so simple that I want you to write it down and never forget it. This prayer at 15 is the reason I'm standing on this stage. And, and you talking about having all the, the, the different, you know, generational pathways, it probably weren't pathways for success, man, I had all those matter. Matter of fact, it would be hard to get out of the community I grew up in, because when you were born there, you just stayed there.

But this guy was a guy, his name literally means get this, his name is Jabez. Anybody's kid's name Jabez, would you raise your hand? You got a kid named Jabez, a cousin named Jabez. You know anybody named Jabez? Nobody. You know why? Because it means this guy's name was your a pain. Can you imagine naming your kid that, I mean, you've said that, you know, or you've thought it, okay, you really have. I know, but this mama named him pain. She said, you're a pain. She was saying, my life is a pain. Our, our family is a pain. And, and maybe you grew up in a family like that where it was really negative and, and all you ever heard is you'll never amount to anything. You know, you can't do anything, right? You, you could tear up a steel ball with a toothpick. You're, you're just a pain. And may, and maybe that's all you've ever heard.

Let me tell you, if you grew up in a negative environment and that's all you ever heard growing up, you need to know that your parents do not have the right to label you. Only God has the right to label you. And I wanna tell you today, on this Father's Day, and I know the weather is bad, and a lot of guy, a lot of men said, Hey, let's don't go today. I'm gonna protect my family and let's stay home. But listen, the legacy, you can refuse to let a label be your legacy. I don't know what your label is. I, I dunno what was said to you. I don't know what you thought. I don't know what, like in, in school where they put you and you had a, you had a label. You're in this group, you're in this crowd. Listen, when you note Jesus, he changes your label. When you understand the power of what I'm about to tell you, I don't care who you are and where you've been, God can change your life because men, you are noble. You get me, gentlemen, you are noble. You are worthy. You raised the water level where you are.

You say, well, how do you become noble? Well, let me ask you with the royal family, and you're reading all about them and, and Prince Harry and, and all the things that are happening there, but how do you become a royal? Anybody know you're born into it. You were born into the family. And gentlemen, I need to tell you something, regardless of what this culture tells you, that if you've been born again into the family of God, you are royal and you matter. And God's got a plan for you. And as your life goes, so goes your family. And today, no matter what has happened in your life and how bad you feel like you've done, it can be changed through prayer.

So first qu it goes chapter four. And, uh, verse 10, I want you to read this and I want you to, to hear what he has to say with regard to Jabez, because they're going along. You'll see this. If you look back at all the, the chapters, there's all these names and they're kind of just rolling. And then Jabez. And this is what the Bible says about Jabez, that he was more noble. He was more honorable than his brothers, even though his mom had named him Jabez saying, I gave birth to him in pain. Everything about him is pain. I don't know, maybe her husband had left May, maybe she suffered from depression. I don't know what it was, but there was something that caused her to name the son pain. And she said, I gave birth to him in pain. And Jabez cried out to God, the God of Israel. Oh, that she would bless me and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me and you would keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God answered his prayer.

Well, what, what if today with, with all this going on in your life and you know, you're gonna get, you know, through church and you're gonna go eat lunch at your favorite place, and maybe you'll even get a steak today cuz it's Father's Day and you know you're gonna have some socks and some underwear. Because here's the thing about Father's Day. There's always this deal of last minute gifts for dad. You know why? You never think about last minute gifts for mom? And maybe you're thinking that's just the way life is. You know, I I I don't make the cut. I, I I'm not respected. And I'm here to tell you that the Bible has a different view of you.

And if you want God's view of you to be noble, to make a difference in your life and change your legacy, here's the prayer you can pray. You ready? You may wanna write this down. You may wanna put this somewhere in your Bible because if you are, remember to pray this prayer and pray with earnestness, then God can change your life. It starts like this. God, I want you to bless me. You said, really prosperity gospel. That's not prosperity gospel. We have so misused the word, bless that. We say things like when somebody sneezes, what do we say? Bless you. What does that mean? Or when we don't like somebody, we say, bless your heart. Heart, thank you. Yeah. And, and so when you begin to walk through this and you're gonna say the blessing, you're going, man, I don't know what he, I don't know what blessing means. Blessing means that you're asking God to intervene in your life. You're saying, God, I need you to help me.

When is the last time in the middle of all that you're experiencing that you just got on your knees somewhere by yourself and said, God, I need you to help me. I need you to intervene in my life. God, I need you to do something with my marriage. God, I need you to do something in my kids. God, I need you to do something at work. God, I need you to do something with my temptations. God, I need you to help me Bless me. God help me God, because I can't do this on my own. Listen, that is the most powerful prayer you could ever pray when you start. It's like aa when they come together and, and they say, you know, I'm, you know, I'm so-and-so and I'm a so-and-so. That's a label You're not, that you really are saying, Hey, I can't overcome this in my own strength. And, and God is so good, he will let aa use his name to make him something that he's not and still bless him. It's the general revelation of God when you say, I need to trust in a higher power to change me because I can't white knuckle change.

I dunno what you're going through. You know, you say, well, I struggle with this and I struggle with that. You can't go, I'm just not gonna do that. I'm just not gonna do that. I I'm not gonna do that. It's like putting a muzzle on a mad dog. No, no. You gotta change the dog. You, you gotta ask God to work in you. God, I need you to help me. You say, well, well, well, a prayer is just asking you like, no, no, no. When you pray, you're not getting something, you're getting someone, when you pray, God bless me, you're not getting a new car. You're not getting a skin of your body. You're giving God. The, the, the writer in, in, uh, Isaiah second crown of 69 says, the eyes of the Lord range to and fro throughout the whole earth seeking to strengthen the person whose heart is dedicated to him. He's looking for you to simply say, I need you. I need help. I need you to be with me. I need you to do things in me that I can't do. Ezra chapter eight, verse 22, the eyes of or on his eyes are on the righteous. His arms are wide open to them.

Listen, you have not because you ask not. And and I'm begging you when, when, when you say, Hey, hey, I wanna be that noble person. God is designed for me to be. Then you start your day. You, you do this during the, during the lunch hour. You do this in evening where you say, God bless me, God intervene in my life. God bless me indeed. I love that. You know that indeed part in Hebrew, it literally means, God, I need all of you in my life. You say, well, okay, bless me. Help me change me. Okay, good. I just need to be, no, no, no, no.

Then he prays this, he says, grow me, enlarge my capacity. Help me to go beyond the borders of what I can do naturally. So that supernaturally you'll do things in me that widen the scope of my influence. Can I say dads, can I just say this? Would you ask God to grow you with regard to how you interact with your wife and children? Can I just say, as a man, that is so hard. I I mean there's something about when, when, and Alicia's not in the service. I think her parents are, uh, so I'm gonna be careful, but sometimes when she starts talking, I just, there's something I like, I like to start doing like this, like, like, you know, like, I got up this morning and, and I you did it. And, and you know, I'm thinking are, is everybody okay? I mean, just can you start backwards? And for me to work at growing, to listen to her and to enjoy Her, You know, being a parent for 35 years with my kids, what I've always done when they start, cuz I know what they're gonna say before they say it. It, it is weird. I've got the espn, I, I mean, it's, it's crazy. And they'll start talking and I'll jump right to like, I'll jump right to, this is what you need to do. Hey, let me, let me fix that for you. Right? Let Daddy fix it for you. Let, let, let the almighty daddy fix this for you. Let Yoda have a shot at this. And sometimes, you know what my kids want me to do is listen and struggle with them.

Enlarge my territory. Listen, men, God didn't create you for comfort. He created you to confront the darkness that is in front of you. He made you for more. When Jesus prayed that kingdom come thy will be done. It wasn't somewhere millennial kingdom. It was the kingdom of God in your life, in your family where you understand that He wants to rule in your home and in your life and at your work and you begin to pray, God grow me, God. God used my pain as a platform. I I love what Kyle said last week in Ezekiel, it's my favorite verses in the saddest verse in the Bible, really where Jeremiah said, I look for a man to stand in the gap. And I found, No, no, no, you, but I kinda grew up going, I'll tell you what, I'll stand there. I mean that's part of my sickness. I know. But like, like, hey, you want some of this? I'll stand there, I'll defend the fatherless. Hadn't always been that way, but God's just kinda working in me to say, Hey, hey, I've got you here for a reason. I got you here for a purpose. I I want you to extend your your boundaries. I want you to take more chances.

Do you know that men were made if you know this, but psychologically and sociologically and anthropologically, you were made to take more risks. And when, when Alicia and I, we got married when I was in college and cuz I just couldn't wait any longer. So it's better to marry than to burn. And uh, so I'm sorry that I apologize for that. They're asking me to stop doing those. Like that wasn't in the notes. And I don't know why do that. I've got issues. But it came time for us to go to seminary and, and my father-in-law, I don't know if he's here or not, my father-in-law, who is maybe the greatest man next to Jesus who's ever lived. Matter of fact, for a long time I thought he was part of the Trinity. He was the fourth part Cuz that's what the way Lee always talked to. My daddy's never spit. My daddy's never coughed. My daddy never, my daddy's hair's never been messed up my daddy. Anyway, so, so we got to the, we got to the Happy Father's Day, uh, to my father-in-law. I love you.

But let me tell you what happened. You know, he had everything set up for us. Go, I'll do this real quick to go to New Orleans Presidential scholarship, a church diamond head, you know, the best housing. There was like Alicia job and you know, everything going on. And I started praying and praying and praying and praying and praying cuz I was going like, Hey, what should I do? And, and, and I was talking to this guy who was, I'm not sure he was a Christian, and, and he said, Hey, you need to expand your territory. I, I said, what'd you say? You, you, you already know about New Orleans. You already know about Mississippi. You already know those things. You need to go where you don't know anything. And I started praying about it and God said, you need to go to Fort Worth, Texas. And, and I'd never been to Fort Worth, Texas. And I remember thinking, you know, I don't have a job. I don't have a a place to live. I don't have a way to get there. And, and the people in our little country church, I was this part-time youth director, they said, Hey, we'll take y'all your, all your stuff in a horse horse trailer and, uh, you know, we'll, we'll help you. And so, so I loaded all of our stuff up in a horse trailer. And my father-in-law, I know like he had to go, like he had to get medication because he had to have been watching this. And he would ask me every now and then, he would call, he'd come up to our, uh, room and, and, and our, our apartment. And he would, he would put check the air and the tires, you know, he got 33 and one and, and 42 and one and 10 in another. I said, well, you know what average is out. And, and so, so you know, you, so I've I've apologized and I love him. He's a godly man. He has to be. And, and so like, you know, we, we got everything together the night before. I'm calling to find a place.

To my point is this, God made you for adventure. God Made you to do things you don't feel comfortable with. You say, God bless me, intervene in my life. God grow me. Push me outta my comfort zone. Don't let me just lay down. You know, it's so easy, like when you get my eyes, just play pickleball and, and you know, like, you know, the, the hacky sacky and no, no, no, no. You push the envelope, you try other things.

And then he says, show me. May your hand be with me. Show Me what you want me to do. Walk with me, guide me. Listen man, you're the point man in your family. I mean, you're the one that, that sets a direction for your family and you begin to pray. God help me make wise decisions because your life is really a compilation of small decisions that you're making every day. And over a period of time, you wind up at this place because the decisions you've made, uh, uh, wit, I love this wit and Sophia that were baptized today. And, and see here's the thing you don't know about them. I knew wit and and his sweet wife before they were even married. And I remember watching them and, and watching the way they made decisions and watching how kind they were. And, and Brandy's such an encourager and I kinda watched them grow and then they got married and then all and, and now they're baptized and their daughter. It's Just a bunch of decisions that you make. And, and one of the shyest guys, one of the best guys in the world, he really makes our church run. And you don't even know him. He didn't want to be known, But He's listened to God. He's followed him.

You say, how do you do that? Well, I'm gonna tell you one is, you know, I, I know this is gonna sound crazy and I hate to get weird. I know we're at church. One is, you know this book right here you might wanna read occasionally, you know, like every now and then you really think you're gonna find your way by watching espn. I'm way out now. Now I'm just gonna tell you, none of this is in the script. So just sit back and relax. You, you think you're gonna find your way through Fox and see n n and, and then whatever else news that comes on to your phone that is already programmed to tell you what you want to hear. Listen, when you get this book right here and you start reading this book and you start praying and God starts guiding you and you're in the church and you didn't want to come today, but you're here like you brought your family and you weren't even excited about it, but all of a sudden you realize, hey, when I get serious about God, he takes my circumstances and takes me to another level. And there's power in knowing what God would have you Do with your life.

Can I just tell you I've been, I've been so blessed that God will speak to me and, and show me things and I've had the best people in the world, the people I love and respect the most that have come to me and said, even my wife, this is not, surely this is not the right thing. Surely this is not the right thing. Surely that is not a good decision. And every time when I've gotten a word from God and I've known it's gone with the character of God, it's not gone against the the plan of God and the mission of God. I can stand there like a steer in a hailstorm. I can run like a bison into this, the storm that's in front of us because I know it's God. Your word is a lamp into my feet And a light to our path With your hand. You lead me your right hand. You will take hold of me. God Wants to guide you. He wants to help you. Even in small decisions. You say, oh, you mean like, like what color shirt I'm gonna wear for some of you? Yeah, yeah. I see some of the shirts you wear. Yeah, you not praying. I I mean shoot man, just, just go into Walmart. You need to be praying. I mean, they got monkeys at Walmart and the guy, they got a monkey on his shoulder. One guy had a kangaroo. I mean, man, you need to be praying.

And then you say, God protect me. You know why I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm moving here. Okay? When, when you say bless me, okay, and you say grow me and you say, show me and you get serious about it, you need to pray, protect me. You know why? Cuz the enemy's coming for you. Listen, nobody breaks into an empty house. They're break into house what the valuables are. And when you get serious about your faith and you get serious about your family and you get serious about the hand of God in your life, the enemy is coming for you. And if you feel pressured and you didn't wanna come to church today, it's a good sign. It's a good sign. Because if you are a good I said player, if, if you, if you are really good at what you do in any sport, they're gonna guard you.

I wanna show you something. I just thought this was funny. Caitlyn Clark plays for Iowa. She's on defense and South Carolina girls are on offense. And you know, the idea is you, you guard people, okay? You know, when you're playing defense, you, you man up on 'em, you d on 'em. But, but I want you to watch this clip and I want you to watch something interesting that I think sums up so many of us when it comes to the enemy. I want you to watch this. Look at how far Caitlin Clark is playing off of Raven Johnson Daring her to shoot From three. Do see her, she's not even looking at her. She swiped away with her hand. That's the girl with the ball right there. Johnson dumps it into Cardoso, she throws it away. And team to shoot the basketball. Watch Caitlin Clark left side. She doesn't even look at her waves her hand as if to say, I don't care about you. I'm not defending you. That's embarrassing.

I'm gonna tell you something when I got the ball. You better bring everybody you got, cause it's going up in the air, it it gonna go a lot. And I steal it from my own player. It's a ball hog. It come, the black hole, it goes in and never comes out. But here's the reality, man. It, for some people, like you know why a lot of people are struggling with the enemy on top of them? Because they don't have to guard you. You're not dangerous to him. There is nothing more dangerous than a man who gets alone with God and says, God bless me, grow me. Show me. Protect me, change me. I I wanna be changed. I wanna be different. I'm not comfortable where I am. I know there's more in me. God, I want you to change me. And you know what, you know what the scripture says after that God answered his prayer, Change His life. You think God won't do that for you?

Whose label are you wearing? Whose label you wearing? I'm a daddy. It's a label he gave me and it's my mom. She just, it was always a pain. It's my kids. I said, I was always a loser. My boss said, just throw me away like trash. A thousand years after this was written, there was another man from the tribe of Judah, just like Jabez, who went to the cross and took all those labels and put 'em on himself so that you could have the label son and daughter of the living God. That's how much he loves you. There's not one man that I've ever given up on, never because of the, as long as there's breath in his body, there's a chance he'll pray this prayer. Bless me, grow me, show me, protect me, Change me.

I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment. And we're gonna give you a moment to think through. Not all the mistakes you've made, goodness gracious, but the reality that you can be made brand new and maybe you didn't have the dad you wanted. Maybe your dad's not here and maybe you just need a word of encouragement and blessing. And we're gonna ask you to just take a moment to let this flow over you and encourage you and remind you of the man that God has called you to be. That's noble, that's honorable, that's willing to say. I'm sorry, forgive me. Father, thank you for saying this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.