|
Sermon Series
|
|
| Once 3 other sermon seekers subscribe, mentioning your name, you get a free sermon series download! |
Grace Notes Sermon Ministry:
NOTICE! Our sermons are free to download, copy and paste, edit and use as you see fit...but only our free subscribers get the newest messages, featured sermons, and some gifts we shower on them from time to time!
Jabez:
Livin' Large
I Chron. 4:9, 10
Before Bruce Wilkinson wrote his bestselling ‘Prayer of Jabez’, hardly
anyone had ever heard of the guy.
Hidden within a long list of genealogies in your OT is a golden
nugget of truth, only recently discovered by popular Christian culture.
I
am convinced that people begin to skip over all of the names in these lists
because they are hard to pronounce and do not mean anything to them
personally.
Sadly, even though it sold millions of copies and no doubt had a great
effect on all who read the book, most Christians don’t seem to live any
differently as a result of this powerful passage.
And so many of those who claim these verses and pray this exact
prayer regularly do it with the attitude of rubbing a lamp to summon a
heavenly genie. To me, that is
the very definition of what James called ‘asking amiss’, or for selfish
purposes. We are supposed to
pray for God’s will…and yet, let’s not miss the fact that God wants for us
to pray for His blessings, and wants to bless us!
Jabez' name means "sorrow," "burden" or "miserable."
Can you imagine what a hard time this little fellow must have had
when he was a boy? His name
meant misery. Maybe some of the
children came knocking on the door asking if Misery could come out and play.
What a name!
The Bible says that his mother called him Jabez because she had borne him in
sorrow (I Chron. 4:9). A hard
time at birth had labeled his name.
But none of us are bound to our upbringing or trapped by former
circumstances…with God’s help and blessing we can rise from the muck of the
pit and be something more for Him!
I
want us to listen carefully to the prayer of Jabez.
He prayed for:
I.
GRACE
Jabez called on the God of Israel and asked for the blessing of
God (I Chron.
grace of God. The Bible explains
to us in Ephesians 2:8,9: "For
by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is
the gift of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast." In
Hebrews
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to
help in time of need." If a
person is going to come to God, he has
to start at the starting place and receive the gift of God and the
grace of God.
Jabez realized that he must start with grace!
II.
GROWTH
Jabez prayed, "Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed and
enlarge my coast" (II Chron.
the same. He was interested in
growing in grace. In I Peter 2:2
we
read, " . . .desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby." In II Peter
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
It is important
that a Christian grow, and Jabez was praying for that growth.
Sometimes small churches look at themselves and say, “Oh, we can’t do this
and we can’t do that because we are too small. We don’t have the resources.”
And their vision gets limited by their circumstances and instead of taking
giant steps of faith, they take baby steps. I’m reminded of the story of a
man who had done something wonderful and the king called him in and told him
he could mark off as much of the kingdom as he wanted and it would be his.
The man took his staff and traced a line in the dirt around himself. The
king watched as he finished and said, “Is that all you want? Just what’s in
that circle?” The man said, “NO. I want everything OUTSIDE the circle.” What
if we drew a line around this building and said we want to claim all the
territory beyond this place for God? Jabez looked beyond where he was and
what he could do to where God was and what God could do. We can take a
lesson from the vision of Jabez. Let’s
not sell ourselves short. Don’t
put God in a box…think of everything that’s outside these 4 walls!
III. GUIDANCE
Jabez prayed for the hand of the Lord to be upon him.
He wanted the guidance and leadership of the Lord.
In Matthew 4:1 and Luke 4, we read of Jesus being led by the Spirit
into the wilderness. In Romans
Jabez prayed for the guidance of the Lord.
This ‘hand’ also speaks of power.
God’s mighty hand wants to put you on like a glove and then work thru
you!
In his book, Wilkinson explains the reluctance believers have toward having
a greater influence for Christ in their world.
He explains this reluctance by using two mathematic equations. The
first equation describes the reluctant believer. It looks like this…
“My abilities + experience + training +my personality and appearance + my
past + the expectations of others = my assigned territory” (Wilkinson, p.
40).
The prayer would sound something like this. “Lord, please use my abilities,
such as they are. Give me the experience and training I need. Make me a
better person and don’t let anyone find out what I’m really like. Help me to
be what everyone expects me to be so I can have more influence.”
Wilkinson writes, “Our God specializes in working through normal people who
believe in a supernormal God who will do His work through them . . . That
means God’s math would look more like this: My willingness and weakness +
God’s will and supernatural power = my expanded territory” (Wilkinson, p.
41).
In other words, the best ability is availability and next after that is
dependability. When it comes to
other supernatural abilities, well, that’s where God comes in…IF we’ll look
to Him and ask for it!
IV. GODLINESS
Jabez prayed that God would deliver him from evil or keep him
away from sin. This means
godliness. Psalm 12:1 prophesies
that
the godly men will cease from the earth.
This prophecy seems to
have been completed. First
Timothy 4:7 admonishes us "…exercise thyself rather unto godliness."
Titus
Second Peter 1:6 encourages us to add "to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness."
Our text says, "And God granted him that which he requested."--I Chron.
The Bible says “ye have not
because ye ask not.” God wants
to bless us, but He wants us to ask, and to ask from the right heart out of
the right motive. Not just for
financial blessings and enlargement, but for spiritual growth and Godliness,
for guidance in all things!
We left off in our Gospel
of Jesus study in Matthew 7…please turn there now.
v. 7-11
God wants good things for His children, but we don’t really know
what’s good for us. But we can
trust that HE DOES know what’s best for us, and we can have God’s best by
asking for it!
Your name may never be widely known, and years from now you could just be another genealogical branch on a family tree. But one thing is for sure--Jabez is a lesson to all of us when it comes to asking and receiving from our loving Father above!
Grace Notes Sermon Ministry:
NOTICE! Our sermons are free to download, copy and paste, edit and use as you see fit...but only our free subscribers get the newest messages, featured sermons, and some free gifts we shower on them from time to time!
Help keep this service free by recommending it
using the links above the sermon
All Sermons and PowerPoint Slideshow Presentations ©Copyright Jerry Shirley and Grace Notes Ministries® unless otherwise credited. These resources are yours to use freely, but only in public worship services or private study groups and devotions. They may not be sold, republished or retransmitted in any form without written permission.
