The Prayer of Jabez

“The Prayer of Jabez”

Dr. Norm Mowery

May 18, 2014

Church of the Wayfarer

1 Chronicles 4:9-10

          Recently I have had requests for me to preach on two separate topics before I retire.

          They are Prayer and the Holy Spirit.

          How much time do I have?

          Can I cover both this morning?

          I will start off by teaching how to pray a daring prayer. 

                    It’s brief.

                    It is only one sentence with four parts.

                    It is tucked away in one of the most obscure books of the Old                                      Testament.

          It is the prayer of Jabez.

          There are only two verses in the entire Bible about a man named Jabez.

Two little verses.

That’s all Jabez got. 

That’s hardly even honorable mention.

 

          I first discovered the Prayer of Jabez when I was a teenager as I was reading the Bible from beginning to end. 

          By the way, that’s not something I recommend.

          I had long ago forgotten about the prayer until someone gave me a book written by Bruce Wilkinson entitled, The Prayer of Jabez.  

          I have since learned that it has become a national best seller and he has made a lot of money on it. 

          Now, why didn’t I think of that?

          The book of 1 Chronicles is a strange book.

          Let me show you.

          Turn in your pew bibles to page 360. By the way, you never have to be embarrassed if you have to look in the index of the Bible to find a book.

          Go ahead and turn to it.

          Take a look at chapter 1. What do you notice about it? It’s a list of names. It starts at the very beginning—with Adam!

          Take a look at chapter 2. It is a list of names, too.

          Take a look at chapter 3. It’s a list of names—the descendants of David. It is a family record.

          Now, chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

          Do you see why I don’t recommend reading the Bible from beginning to end!

         

          The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are taken up with the official family tree of the Hebrew tribes, beginning with Adam and proceeding through thousands of years to Israel’s return from captivity. 

          Talk about boring!

          The long lists of unfamiliar and difficult names—more that five hundred of them—are likely to make even the bravest Bible student turn back.

          Now, turn back to chapter 4. Drop down to verse 9. Forty-four names into the chapter, a story suddenly breaks through:

“Jabez was more honored than his brothers;

and his mother named him Jabez,

saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’”

          Can you imagine being named, “Ouch”! 

          I guess that Jabez’s mother wanted him to always remember how much it hurt when he was born.

          In Hebrew, the word Jabez means, “pain”. 

          A literal rendering could read, “He causes pain.”

          Doesn’t sound like the start of a promising life, does it?

All babies arrive with a certain amount of pain, but something about Jabez’s birth went beyond the usual—so much so that his mother chose to memorialize it in her son’s name. 

Why? 

The pregnancy or the delivery may have been traumatic. 

Perhaps the baby was born breech. 

Or perhaps the mother’s pain was emotional—

          maybe the child’s father abandoned her during the pregnancy,                            maybe he had died;

          maybe the family had fallen into such financial straits that the        prospect of another mouth to feed brought only fear and worry. 

          Only God knows for sure what caused the pain of this anguished mother.  Not that it made much difference to young Jabez. 

          He grew up with a name any boy would love to hate. 

          Imagine if you had to go through childhood enduring the teasing of bullies because your name was pain.

          Something about this man Jabez had caused the historian to pause, clear his throat, and switch tactics.  “Wait a minute” he seems to inject.  “You just gotta know something about this guy named Jabez.”

          As you see here in the middle of nine chapters of names Jabez stands out.

          All that we know about Jabez is his one sentence prayer that follows.  This prayer is what made him more honorable. 

          Something about Jabez’s simple, direct request to God changed his life and left a permanent mark on the history books of Israel. Here it is!

                   “Oh, that You would bless me,        

                   And enlarge my border,

                   That Your hand might be with me,

                   And that You would keep me from evil.”

          1. Oh, that you would bless me indeed!

          I love the urgency of his plea. 

          In Hebrew, adding “indeed” to this prayer was like adding five exclamation points to it. 

          Before we can ask for God’s blessing with confidence, we need a clear understanding of what the word ‘bless’ means. 

          It means more than something that we say after someone sneezes!

          Jabez left it entirely up to God to decide what the blessings would be. 

“Ask,” promised Jesus, “and it will be given to you”.

“You do not have because you do not ask,” said James.

          Only we limit God’s bounty. 

Jabez was blessed simply because he refused to let any obstacle, person, or opinion loom larger than God’s nature. 

And God’s nature is to bless.

I am truly amazed and pleased with what happened here yesterday when eight lay persons met together to vision the future of this church including how our ministries will be funded. This is one of the most positive things that have happened during my ministry here.

You will be hearing more from this group but the one thing I know is that the future of the Church of the Wayfarer is in your hands—not just in the hands of the present or future pastor.

          I pray that God will bless this church in the future with—

Wisdom

Vision

Passion

Along with Jabez, let us seek God’s blessing.

2. That You would enlarge my territory

The next part of the Jabez prayer—a plea for more territory—is where you ask God to enlarge your life so you can make a greater impact for God. 

Jabez wanted more influence, more responsibility, and more opportunity to make a mark for the God of Israel.

When Jabez cried out to God, “Enlarge my territory!”  He was looking at his present circumstances and concluding, “Surely I was born for more than this!”

When he prays for his territory to be enlarged he is asking God to expand his opportunities and his impact on such a way that he can touch more lives.

If ever there was a time in the 110-year history of the Church of the Wayfarer to pray for God to enlarge our territory it is now and don’t we say, “Surely the Church of the Wayfarer is here for more than this!”

This pastoral transition is the time to explore new ministries,

          new visions and new dreams. 

          I am praying that during this changing time God will lead this church to a ministry that is outside of us and beyond this property—that God will expand our horizons.

          3. That Your hand would be with me!

          The “hand of the Lord” is a biblical term for God’s power and presence in the lives of His people. 

          A church’s growth needs the availability of the hand of God. 

          It is my prayer that God’s hand will be with us as a church. 

          We need God’s guidance to lead us as never before.

          As we experience a changing world, changing technology, changing cultural norms we can know that God’s hand is with us.

         

          4. That you would keep me from evil!

          When was the last time you asked God to keep you away from temptation? 

          In the same way that God wants you to ask for more blessing, more territory, and more power, God wants us to plead for safekeeping from evil.

          After the attacks on 9/11 I learned a new term. 

          Its SCATANA. 

          SCATANA is a term for a special military operation, meaning Security Control of Air Traffic and navigation Aids.  In a time of national crisis, all civilian airlines go the ground, and military aircraft go into the air, to provide a strong defense. 

          As Christians in a time of crisis we are challenged to practice a kind of spiritual SCATANA:

          To go to the ground of our being.

          To get back to the original mission.

          To go back to the basics.

          When evil confronts us we go to the ground—to the solid ground that is our creation. 

         

          The King James Version of the Bible has an additional phrase that I like. It is, “That it may not grieve me!” That evil might not grieve me.

          Are you hurt when evil is evident? Let us pray with Jabez that God will keep us from evil.

            How do we do that?

                   It is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

          What is the Holy Spirit?

                   Flames of Fire and the dove are both symbols of the spirit.

                   Power and Peace come when the Holy Spirit fills

                             our hearts,

                             our lives,

                             our church.

          The knowledge

                   that the Holy Spirit of God has taken up residence in our lives,                          that He dwells with us forever,

                   and that He will never leave or forsake us is cause for great                                courage and comfort.

          Thank God for the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives!

          Jesus gave us the purpose for being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem,

and all Judea and Samaria,

and to the end of the earth".

         

          The Holy Spirit was part of all things, from the very beginning of scripture to the very end of scripture.

          That is the whole point of the list of names in the first nine chapters of 1Chronicles.

          The spirit of God was with Adam and everyone who followed him—including we who struggle to be the church in today’s world.

          On the day of Pentecost, the believers who were assembled in the Upper Room experienced a new Baptism.

          It is my prayer that that will happen here today.

         

          Yesterday your new pastor, Mark Bollwinkel, and I knelt at this altar and prayed. He prayed for me. I prayed for him.

          We confessed that we fall short.

          We invited God’s Holy, Powerful, peaceful spirit to fill us and this church.