How many know you're royalty, you're born into a royal family? When you and I give our lives to Jesus Christ, God puts His own spirit and DNA into us. We become changed on the inside through experiencing Christ. We become royalty, part of a kingly family, and of course we need to keep remembering who we are. That's why he keeps saying here you are, you are chosen, you're a generation chosen by God. You're not a nobody, a nothing. No matter what happened last year, no matter what struggles you had, what pressures, what difficulties, what challenges, today is a new day for God's chosen people. Today and this year is a year for great things for you. I can tell you for certain as you start this year, God has great things ahead for you. He has great things ahead for us. Whether they come about, of course, relies on us making good decisions, and connecting with Him.
I want you to open up your Bible with me in 1 Peter 2, Verse 9. I want to just start here, then we'll go back to where we were last week. I want to talk about - here it is - The Prayer of Kings. I want to do The Prayer of Kings, I want to look at particular prayer in the Old Testament, but let's just have a look at see our identity first of all in 1 Peter 2, Verse 9: But you, you are royal priesthood, chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvellous light. And now you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. We are the people of God. We are the people of God. Notice the key thing I want to bring in here you are the people of God, a royal priesthood.
How many know you're royalty, you're born into a royal family? When you and I give our lives to Jesus Christ, God puts His own spirit and DNA into us. We become changed on the inside through experiencing Christ. We become royalty, part of a kingly family, and of course we need to keep remembering who we are. That's why he keeps saying here you are, you are chosen, you're a generation chosen by God. You're not a nobody, a nothing. No matter what happened last year, no matter what struggles you had, what pressures, what difficulties, what challenges, today is a new day for God's chosen people. Today and this year is a year for great things for you. I can tell you for certain as you start this year, God has great things ahead for you. He has great things ahead for us. Whether they come about, of course, relies on us making good decisions, and connecting with Him.
So you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. So this year God has things for you to do. He has relationships for you to build. He has things for you to accomplish. He has giants for you to bring down. This year it's all out there - God has got many opportunities planned for you for this year and I love that. I love coming into a New Year, and we need to be continually reminded as we come into a New Year, who you are in Christ. You are a chosen generation, you are royalty who has access to God - here it is - you are a king, on assignment from heaven, in the earth. I want us during this year to have our minds set on who we are. You are kings, on assignment from heaven, in the earth. You are a king on assignment, a role to serve and advance the kingdom of God this year.
So the question is: what will advance this year, because of your efforts, and because of mine? I want you to turn with me in 1 Chronicles, Chapter 4. Our assignment is to make Jesus Christ known, make Jesus Christ known. You may think your assignment is to make a lot of money, but the purpose of making a lot of money is to make Christ known, to make Him known. Let's look in 1 Chronicles, and I want to pick up just two verses we're going to look at, and I want to share with you just five simple things out of those two verses. Here it is, it's a list of genealogy and it's going through a whole list of names. You could look through it and think it's boring, and turn over and say I'm bored, but then in the middle of Verse 9, suddenly the Holy Spirit stops, and draws attention to one particular person. In other words, not only was everyone significant, but one stood out from among everyone else. Now Jabez was more honourable. He was more weighty, there was something about him that was distinctive.
He was distinctive, and he stood out above all his brothers. His mother called his name Jabez, meaning pain or sorrow, saying because I bore him in pain - so her pregnancy no doubt was filled with some kind of sorrows and pains. There's no mention of the father; presumably the father died, was murdered or had an accident or something happened, but the mother carried this child, there was tremendous pain, and so she never got over it. She never handled her pain, so she put it on him. She labelled him pain or sorrow. Now it's not a very good way to start life is it, you're called a bit of a pain? You're an inconvenience. You arrive, you upset everything. We had our financial plan, and then suddenly my wife got pregnant and the plan was over, what a pain, you know? We weren't married and she had a baby and what a pain. I mean there's many, many ways you could put this out, but at the end of the day there was something of great grief and sorrow in the family at that time.