Sunday sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 25 Feb 2024 

1 Chronicles 4:9-10- 9 Now Jabez was more honourable than his brothers, and his mother called his name [a]Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my [b]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. 

Mark 5:25-26- 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 

Psalm 56: 9- TPT paraphrases, “The very moment I call to you for a father's help the tide of battle turns and my enemies flee. This one thing I know: God is on my side!” that is your testimony this year.

Some of you will run ahead this year. In the areas that you prayed for this year, the Hand of the Heavenly Father will come. God will reveal to you that He is with you. The Holy Spirit will move in such a way that He will make it obvious to you that the Lord is working in this season of your life. He will chase your enemies.

Reversing worse- God will reverse the worse in your life. 

• God will reverse the worst aspects of your life. I am saying it again and again. 

Your past is not a prophecy. Your past is not even a prediction of the future God has kept for you. 

• Your best days are still ahead of you. God will reverse the worse.
• In Mark 5:25-26, we see that her situation became worse despite going to many doctors. But she decided to go where she needed to go and when she decided whom to go to, the worst in her life reversed.

Faith is a wire. It pulls what God has for you into your life. Using the faith wire touch Jesus and the shock comes through it to touch your life. 

• Here some people have heard about Jesus, and seen Jesus but if you decide to touch Jesus by faith, His presence is moving here to reverse the worst situations of your life. The Holy Spirit is releasing His power here for this to happen.
• This lady started her normal cycle. She got her period. The cycle never ended for 12 years!! She never expected, desired nor prayed for this type of problem. 
• Some of you are experiencing what you did not imagine, ask for or pray for. There are such issues in your life and in your family. But God can reverse these problems. 
• You never imagined that your business would fail, that you would have this disease. But remember that God is not making a mistake. This morning. 
• A drunkard never imagines that he will become a slave to it. But it became worse, it became an addiction. A person who gambles never imagines that things will become worse. A person who took loans never imagined that he would end up in a vicious cycle of losing money.
• We are not a church that judges you or your mistakes. I also was an addict and God set me free. I know the struggle.
• Heaven is promising some of you who did not expect certain things to do wrong in your life, that God can deliver you from your problem, just like the woman with the issue of Blood.

Worse means beginning a descent, a downward spiral, to rot and to decay. But God will reverse! 

Her life, her health and her hope were destroyed But God reversed it for her. God will reverse your addictions, your silent struggles, your secret pains, your worse situations, loveless relationships in your families, bitter experiences, fears of certain things, financial struggles, and sinful nature, God will reverse. Get ready. Heavens will reverse. There is a reversal of the worse.

Get ready! There is going to be a reversal. 

WHAT DID THE LADY DO? 

1. She heard

• She heard about what was happening wherever Jesus went. She heard people talking about their healing. She heard voices like “I can see now, my leprosy is gone, I can hear!” • This morning if you are hearing about the miraculous power of Jesus it is time for you to experience it. It is time to experience His miracle-working power. It is time to walk in healing. It is time for your deliverance. If you have heard that He opens ways where there seems to be none, He will do for you. 

2. She thought

• Her heart and mind were filled. She heard and she thought. “If I may touch the hem of HIS garment, I will be healed. What you hear is what converts into a thought.

Her mind converted into miracle thoughts 

• Whatever you hear, through YouTube, newspaper, friends and other conversations, whatever you hear is what becomes a thought. Are you listening to the Word of God?! If that Word becomes truth inside you, that is your dominant thought.
• Even unbelief comes through what you hear. If you are hearing that there is no use going for a prayer, that leads to an unbelieving thought. But if you hear that there is healing in prayer, that converts into a thought of faith. 

What I hear becomes a thought. 

Don't make the negative experiences of others become your truth. 3. She spoke

She spoke and said, ‘if I touch the hem of His garment I will be made whole.’ God can reverse the worst. Touch the hem of His garment. Push through the crowds, walk through the side of the 

temple, and get that man of God to lay His hands on you. whatever it is that leads you closer to Jesus, your worse situations will reverse.

• Act like you are reversing the gear of the Lorry! Make it prophetic. Whatever is becoming worse in your life, may it be reversed.

Your proximity matters to God. 

• That’s why she decided to go to Jesus, she did not join through Zoom. A man of God said certain things God can do only in the church. The church is created by God. Where two or more gather together, He is there in our midst.

The church is important. Certain deliverances happen in the church. That’s why David says, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked! 

• Come and respond to Jesus. Don’t leave this place without first touching Him. Take steps of faith. Call out JESUS!! Explosive deliverances
• The proximity of immediately- suddenly something happens- A sudden shift. Suddenly. A reversal in your situation. 
• You may be going on a downward spiral. The beginning of descent but suddenly something happens! Don’t confess that you deserve the downward spiral, that it is all because of your sin. 
• In Psalm 113 the Word says- how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. There the Lord commands His blessing
• Touch the hem of His garment. Get under the anointing.

How do you escape the downward spiral? You should go lower consciously in Humility, in prayer, on your knees, on all your fours, with your hands, with whatever it takes to go and reach His garment 

• Don’t say “let the Lord come to my house and deliver me.” You are arrogant to think so. We want our miracle and we want our dignity. 
• The woman was willing to be undignified. We are concerned about keeping our dignity in our families. Your attitude- Whatever the price I was to see the deliverance in my life. I want a reversal, that addiction has to break, and I have to be debt-free. Glory to God.
• David forgot he was king. He was undignified before the ark. His wife was saying- how can he be so undignified?’ Micah never had a child she became barren. Never belittle somebody’s worship, don’t comment negatively in God’s presence.
• SOME People don't have another refuge or place to go to. Why are they crying in God’s presence? Why are they worshipping so vehemently? Because they have no one else but the Lord!! Lord, reverse my worst.

Are you ready to be undignified for God? 

• When the children of Israel were walking around the walls of Jericho, people must have thought that they were so foolish. But on the 7th day, one shout of praise brought the walls down. 

It always looks silly and stupid till the blessing is manifested. 

• You are going to get better from now on. I can see the possibilities for it. You tried for everything, you took refuge in your name, fame, and studies but nothing happened. Take refuge in Jesus, the name that is given to you for your blessing and salvation. The name of Jesus. There is nothing impossible by the name of Jesus.

1 Chronicles 4:9-10- 9 Now Jabez was more honourable than his brothers, and his mother called his name [a]Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my [b]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. 

• Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. In the 4th chapter, you suddenly see the name JABEZ- after a long list of Jewish names in the previous chapters with no further information about them. There is a description of Jabez. His mother names him Jabez or Pain. But he was more honourable. 

Your past is never a prediction of your future. 

• He prayed. And spoke to God and God said, you will no longer be called pain.

Your life will get better, your life will become brighter for the glory of God. May you be that Jabez, whose name stands out because he prayed. Your name will not end in sorrow, pain or sadness, you will be blessed in the Lord.

• God is a God of the generations. We feel that we will get everything we want right now.

All God has for you might not happen in your lifetime alone, but it will happen in your lifeline. 

• He is a God of your promise. It will be passed on to the next generations. Your life is like a seed. Your generation will not experience addiction but a blessing. 1 Chronicles 1 to 9, had over 600 names and Jabez stood out.

Do any of you wish that at least 1 or 2 people must cry at your death? You know what I desire when I die? I want my children to say, that because my father served Jesus and loved Jesus, blessing entered into our bloodline. Let honour and blessing enter your bloodline like it entered Jabez.

Your faith must go through a wire into all generations that follow. That curse is going to break off from your bloodline.

Touch Jesus and believe in Jesus.

WHAT DID JABEZ DO? 

1. He chose his name

• His mother called him a child of pain or sorrow but God called him honourable.

You can choose to either accept how people label you or you can choose how God calls you. 

• Based on her experience she is named her son, ‘pain’. Somebody else’s experience need not become your identity. We give trending names. But according to the Bible, your name is a prophecy. Here as per Biblical tradition, it is the father who names the children. In this case, when the mother called Jabez pain, the father never intervened to say, no don’t call him that. When the people you look up to and hope from do not defend you, remember there is a God who can do that for you. Heaven remembers you. God calls you honourable, precious, My offspring, My child.

Don't let people label you. What the Holy Spirit calls you is your identity 

• God calls you HOLY!! The neighbours may call you a thief, a miser, an adulteress, a sinner. But God calls you honourable. I call you Holy. That is your identity. You are not a sinner. Jesus took your sin and delivered you and made you righteous. You are a child of God.
• You are Holy. Call yourself that. You are rich! And wealth will enter your life. If you call yourself a sick person, you will attract that. 
• Let the weak say I am strong. Let the poor say, I am rich! You can only call yourself what the FATHER calls you. You may not feel like it but still do it and you will see that you are transformed.
• Don’t let people tell you-- all men are like this, all women are like this. Don’t give into such definitions by societies. People say- you can't trust anybody! You can’t believe any man or any woman. How many men and women have you met? Never say such things! 

2. He chose his blessing

• Jabez said, ‘Lord that you will bless me’. In Hebrew culture, blessing means to get on your knees with another person and exchange a gift. Lord, I can’t come to your level but Lord, you come to my level and bless me.

God will come to your level and bless you. 

• Isn't it a divine exchange? Jesus came down to us, near to us from heaven and died for us. He came down to our level and took our curse and gave us the blessing, health, strength, and long life that are at HIS level. This is a blessing. 

3. He chose the size of his blessing

• Place your hand on me and enlarge my territory, Jabez prayed. Choose the size of my blessing. • Enlarge my territory. Enlarge the church. Jabez is saying- ‘I want the big life.’ • I am believing in God for big things. If we can do those things on our own, why do we need the Holy Spirit? God will bless us beyond what we can achieve.

Big thinking. It's easy to think small. 

• It is easy to tell children what not to do, don’t jump, don’t climb a tree, don't run. But can you tell them what they cando? Can you tell them they can go to the moon?

Son, daughter, you can do great things. You can only them these big things if there is big thinking in you! 

• Don’t lead them to a small life. If you have big thinking, your prayers will be big, if so, your lifestyles will be bigger. You will do things that cause envy to others.
• Have you seen some of you on the road, when someone wrongly cuts you on the road you go after him and badmouth him and you feel good after that! That's because you don’t have an enlarged heart! Your inside is still small! You could have just let go and you could have thought that the person perhaps was in a foul mood today. 

Your vocabulary is not what you cannot do but what you can do. • Your inside should be enlarged. Only then can God can do big things on your inside. 

If your territory has to increase, your inside has to enlarge. if your heart is not enlarged you can't give anything. 

• When I ask my children for a chocolate they have, they say “no, it’s mine!!” Why? That s their level of maturity.
• My business, my job, my money, my kids, my my my---that shows your heart is not enlarged. You are still immature but if you say nothing is mine, it’s all for you, Lord! 
• I pray and ask the Lord- Lord, do not give me a platform too big that my inside cannot handle. If I have a big stage and my inside is not enlarged, I will become proud, I will become arrogant and my ministry will end. 
• Enlarge me inside out Lord! 

3. He chose the Hand to be in

• In whose Hand are you? A cricket bat in Sachin Tendulkar’s hand is valuable. Moses had a rod. If you had a rod, you would use it to chase dogs but Moses parted the Red Sea with it. • David had a sling and if we had that sling, we would have played stones with kids. But through David, that sling brought deliverance to a nation! 
• Jesus had 5 loaves and two fish in his hand and He fed the multitudes with that. Jesus had nails in His hands. We would have got a bandage and a Tetanus shot. But His nails gave me deliverance. 

It is all about whose Hand it is in 

Lord, let me not be my own worst enemy, may your Hand be upon me, Lord! May the hand of the Lord deliver you, protect you, preserve you. May you be secure and safe in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

GOD WILL REVERSE THE WORSE IN YOUR LIFE! HE WILL SEND YOU INTO HONOUR!