Enlarge My Territory
Charles Francis Adams, 19th century political figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered: "Went fishing with my son today--a day wasted." His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry: "Went fishing with my father--the most wonderful day of my life!" The father thought he was wasting his time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time. The only way to tell the difference between wasting and investing is to know one’s ultimate purpose in life and to judge accordingly.
Knowing your ultimate purpose changes everything. There’s an incredible focus and perspective for our lives that can only come from being caught up in God’s greater goals for humanity.
Take for example, our friend Jabez.
“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 God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.” 1 Chron. 4:9-10 (NKJV)
As you read about Jabez, as a King of Judah, perhaps your mind makes the same assumptions that mine does. Jabez is a king here, asking God to give him more territory, more land, more wealth. And maybe so.
But what if we’re supposed to notice what the Chronicle narrator tells us, “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers…”
What if Jabez understood his role as King of Judah with more clarity than other rulers did. Remember, God didn’t want to give His chosen people an earthly king.
“Give us a King,” they would cry.
“But I am your King!” God would insist.
“Everyone else has a King they can see and follow.”
After a while of this, God caveats and gives the people what they’ve asked for… a physical King. But you hear God all the time saying…
“Okay, you’ve got your king. The throne in which he sits, I own. The crown he wears, I own. The borders he protects, I own. The people he rules, are mine. The blood running through his veins, belongs to me.”
Perhaps Jabez understands all this. Maybe, he sees himself not as sovereign, but as a servant of the High King of Israel. He knows that his role is to lead the people for God – to serve as a shepherd, a servant, a steward. Maybe he knows that his job is to be a lighthouse for the entire world to see the handiwork and the sovereignty of Yahweh.
All of which dramatically changes how you read “Enlarge My Territory.” Jabez is caught up in the greater purposes of his roles as a servant of the King. He’s a part of the greater purposes of God.
Enlarge my territory. Help me to better serve you. Allow me more land, more coastline, more kingdom to focus the masses on your commands, your call, your holiness, your grandeur, your love.
Such is the call of Enlarge My Territory. I read this quotation earlier this month regarding this very principle:
This call is unabashedly challenges the reader to pursue influence. For Jabez, that meant enlarging his territory. In America today, there is a broader application: the idea that our relationships, our experiences, and our work can, and should, be caught up in the larger purposes of God. That’s a throwback to a more unpolluted ideology, which counts all of life’s activities as opportunities to respond to the Divine Call.
So, when we pray enlarge my territory, we’re praying enlarge the range of my effort your Kingdom; open new doors of opportunity, increase my influence.
Part of what is going on here is that God has a plan. God strategically places each of us to accomplish elements and roles of influence in the spreading of His kingdom. Our jobs, our neighborhoods, our relationships are all venues through which God can use our influence to expand the kingdom and enlarge his territory.
So, recognize your territory - the places where you have influence for the King. The settings in which you operate are the territories that God has given you to represent the wishes, the plans and objectives of His kingdom. Your territory is your mission field, your ambassadorship.
And now, God invites you to pray as Jabez prayed, ‘enlarge my territory.’ Ask God to increase the range, the width, the depth of the territory you are to patrol and serve for His kingdom. Give me more influence for you God. Give me more opportunities for you. Wrap up all of my life in your great pursuit of your creation. Use each and every moment of my life, every muscle of my body, every word of my mouth to further draw people into your Kingdom, your rule. Enlarge my territory.
This is no small thing you’re asking. What you’re asking for will demand much more of you than perhaps you’ve ever asked for. There are two demands you’ll immediately face when you begin praying for enlarged territory:
First, when you pray for God to enlarge your territory, I will need to grow in my faith. You will need for God to increase not only your influence, but also your ability and willingness to trust him and to rely on him.
Secondly, when you start praying for God to enlarge your territory you’ll have to give up your comfort zone. When God enlarges the realms of your influence, he will also enlarge your realm of responsibility. In addition to enlarging your arena of responsibility, he will expand your span of concern and care, requiring a greater maturity from you than ever before. And the more God increases your influence, the more responsibility you’ll face, the more maturity you’ll need and the more selflessness will be crucial to your life. When you pray for God to enlarge your territory, you are asking God to increase your ability to live with responsibility, with maturity and in self-sacrifice.
Listen to these words from Jesus, as rendered by The Message in Luke 14:33:
"Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it goodbye, you can’t be my disciple.” Luke 14:33
This isn’t going to be easy. The first steps of change never are. The first time we try to ascend to a new level in our service for our King it never is.
But consider this. Have you ever had to paint some roof trim, high up? You get halfway up that 36-foot extension ladder and you start wondering about the ladder, its footing and your body weight. You’ve climbed ladders before. You’ve been on your roof before. But still, you stop and hug the ladder, looking neither up nor down. Your left leg begins a ridiculous but uncontrollable shuddering. At length you conquer that particular rung and inch your way to the next, then the next. Finally you’re at the top, clinging for your life. How can you take one hand off the ladder to use the paintbrush? But you do. Tight as a fiddle you begin. The sky is clear. The sun is nice. The thirsty wood soaks up the paint. You whistle and think positive thoughts and do a good job and forget about the height.
The struggle and strain are real. The fear and doubt are natural. And your hesitation is quite understandable. Why would I want to pray this prayer? It’s going to demand that I grow in my faith like never before. Its going to call me to give up my comfort and call me to more responsibility, more maturity and selflessness than ever before. Why do I want to pray this prayer? Why do I want God to enlarge my territory?
[Shine like Stars holding out the word of life]
“…become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” Philippians 2:15-16 (NIV)
Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone. Colossians 4: 5-6 (NLT)
How do I do this? How do I begin to pray for God to enlarge my territory?
Start here. Pray this:
God, Make Me Aware.
Lord, open my eyes to the divine appointments you have put in my life. Divine appointments are engagements and encounters, which God has arranged as unique opportunities for you to act as his agent and vessel. God sets up these appointments all time. Sometimes he warns you ahead of time, other times, you learn about them suddenly and without warning. But make no mistake these are divine appointments. Our problem is we’re simple unaware of them because we haven’t asked God to open our eyes.
“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:13 (NIV)
“But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?” Romans 10:14 – The Message
While waiting in a cemetery to conduct a funeral service, Charles Simeon walked among the graves, looking at the epitaphs. He found one that arrested him:
When from the dust of death I rise,
To claim my mansion in the skies,
E’en then shall this be all my plea--
"Jesus hath lived and died for me."
He was so impressed with that gospel message that he looked for someone in the cemetery with whom he might share it. He saw a young woman, obviously distressed, and called her over to read the epitaph. He took her address and visited her the next day. The home was a scene of poverty and squalor. The woman’s old mother was dying of asthma, and two little children, very dirty, were trying to warm themselves by a small fire. Simeon prayed with the family, visited them again, and found assistance for them. Later, the young woman told Simeon that she had been in the cemetery five hours and was contemplating suicide when he called her to read the epitaph. Because of his concern she trusted Christ and the family situation was changed.
How might your life be different if instead of just walking through your day focusing on the appointments you’ve made for yourself with the hairdresser, the lawyer, the bank, etc… What if you spent your day continually asking God – make me aware – open my eyes to the appointments you have divinely set for me today. Show me when and where you need to be your ambassador, your star, your light. Make me aware.
Secondly, Pray this:
Lord, Make Me Ambitious
God, give me an bold, passionate, zealous, unquenchable thirst to accomplish your mission. Make me ambitious for opportunities to expand your kingdom and enlarge my territory. Ask God for a fervor like the believers of the first century, a obsession for showing Christ to others like the Apostle Paul, a reckless desire to serve the risen Christ like Peter did. Somehow we’ve lost any sense of urgency. We’re quick to check the stock market, fast to race to the grocery store for the latest sale, pressing to get our Big Mac from the drive-thru… yet we act as if we have another 2000 years to tell our friends, family and co-workers about the love of God.
We need to be ambitious. We’re not here trying to convert one more soul to Jesus. Make no mistake, this is a numbers game – and God is in on it. He wants a specific number of people saved – all of them. “(God) wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” 1 Tim 2:4 (NLT)
The story is told that a famous evangelist was preparing for a meeting in a large city, He wrote a letter to the mayor in which he asked for the name of individuals she knew who had a spiritual problem and needed help and prayer. How surprised the evangelist was when he received from the mayor a city directory.
What if we were thinking that way? Wouldn’t it be great if God had to rezone and remap Heaven because we were so filled with His call, so committed to enlarging territory that all of Owasso, Collinsville and Skiatok were saved? We could each have our mansions, just have them laid out like they are right now… that way we’d already know how to get around…
What would happen if we would pray, make me ambitious for souls? Lord, Give me an ambition to see the people I love changed by your touch. Enlarge my territory – make me ambitious, let’s save them all.
Make me aware, make me ambitious, and
Make Me Assertive
Lord, make me aggressive, uncompromising, forceful in the way I spiritual fight for souls. We’re not talking about an assertive, Type-A personality. We’re talking about being persistent, relentless, insistent in our spiritual warfare for the souls of humanity. We don’t sit around and wait and hope that God will do something in the lives of those around us. We don’t hide out in our church building, trying to protect ourselves from the attacks on the enemy. No, instead of trying to defend ourselves, we go on the offensive. As God makes us aware of divine appointments, as God makes us ambitious to see people saved, we become aggressive with the weaponry of prayer that Jesus has told is ours.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 2 Cor. 10:4 (NIV)
“We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds.” 2 Cor. 10:4 (NLT)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Jesus tells us that the gates of Hades cannot stand up to His church when they are out on His mission. Isn’t it time for us to ask God to make us aggressive, relentless, forceful in our praying over people’s eternal future?
And finally this morning, ask God this:
Make Me Available
Lord, make me available for what you have in mind. You are the potter, I am the clay. You tell me what we have on our plate. You tell me what I need to do. Give me a willing heart, a submissive spirit and an open mind. Make me available.
Notice what Jabez never prays for in this prayer? Jabez doesn’t ask for more capabilities, more troops, more training or more information. Our problem really isn’t that we don’t know enough. I know some of you might think that’s the problem.
I won’t know what to do if God puts me in the game. I’ll look like the rookie quarterback throwing the ball to the other team… I just don’t know what to do…
Let’s be honest. We are the most over-informed people on the face of the earth. We take in information at an astounding rate. We watch our news shows on TV. We listen to talk-radio. We read through our newspaper, check out the news stories on cnn.com. Spiritually, we have a couple different translations of the bible, we read the latest Max Lucado book, we trek the latest must-read, we get two or three inspirational emails a week. We hear at least one sermon a week, go to bible classes…
We are bombarded with constant information, most of it given to us as professionally and as dramatically as possible, and almost always out of any sense of context and without any sense of response from us. We have what’s commonly known as a Low Information to Action Ratio. The amount of action we take based on the information we have is surprisingly and alarming low. And notice what acronym is formed by our Low Information to Action Ratio – LIAR. We make ourselves our to be exactly that with how busy and over informed we are.
We have plenty of information to start. Many of the shakers and movers of scripture we nowhere near as educated and informed as we are. Almost none were theologians. Simple people who had been with Jesus and had to get the word out. Peter’s a fisherman who puts his feet in his mouth more than in a boat – yet he preaches the first gospel sermon and never fails to call people to the Messiah. Paul spends his entire life being trained to defend Judaism, only to see the light and be sent as a missionary to Gentileland. No training, no classes on six ways to win gentiles, just an encounter with Jesus and conviction on what has to happen.
“Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are.” 1 Peter 3:15 – The Message
Pray for God to enlarge your territory. Pray for God to make you available. That’s all he needs to get started – your availability.
If I will make myself available to God, God can make amazing things happen through the greasy, grimy, filthy mess of my life. God can deliver the priceless, pure, wonderful message of Jesus through the flawed, failed fabric of my life.
Let’s make it our prayer.
We pray that you would increase our territory! Give us a vision and the will and the capacity to grow in faith, in numbers, and in mission in this community and everywhere you lead us. Shape the ministries of this church to be flexible in the work and quick to react to the changing needs. May we be generous with our time, our resources and the Spirit. Help us to be welcoming to all and to minister to all in Jesus’ name. And, may we be courageous to grow and to go, as you lead. Make us aware of the people you have divinely appointed for us to meet. Father, make us ambitious to win them all, that no one would go through life without the hope and love you offer. Father God, would you make us assertive in the spiritual realm – fearless and feverous in our spiritual warfare on your behalf to see souls changed. And please God, make us available. Make us available to be your agents of conspiracy in this confused and lost world.
