Getting Our Requests Granted 1 Of 2

• He was not a great prophet or preacher

• He was not a wise ruler over a great nation

• He was not a famous soldier, known for his heroic deeds

He is in the Scriptures because of a prayer He prayed.

Some prayers that some men and women have prayed have rocked the nation in which they lived.

Illus: When minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual prayers they normally hear. But he prayed a prayer that touched off news stories across this nation. Listen, to the prayer that he prayed.

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!"

When he prayed this prayer in the Kansas Senate, the response was shocking.

• A number of ungodly legislators walked out during the prayer in protest.

• In 6 short weeks, Rev. Wright’s church, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.

• The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea.

• Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

This one prayer has swept around the world because it is considered to be one of the greatest public prayers that has been prayed in recent years.

Today I want us to look at a prayer by Jabez. Thousands of years have come and gone and men and women are still talking about this wonderful prayer.

WHO WAS JABEZ? We do not know a lot about this great man, we can only tell you a few things, such as:

(1) JABEZ’S NAME MEANS PAIN

His mother must have had a very PAINFUL time at childbirth bringing him into this world. She called him Jabez which means pain.

Illus: Can you imagine a mother today thumbing through a name-your-baby book at Books-a-Million and saying, "I know what I will name my brand new bouncing baby boy: I will name him…Pain!" He was stuck with the name Jabez which means PAIN!

We know what HIS NAME MEANS, but what else do we know about him?

(2) JABEZ WAS HONORABLE

Verse 9 says, “And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren:…” This man, Jabez, must have lived a life of greatness, because historians tell us that a city was named after him, people followed him, and he was a true man of God.

WHAT MADE HIM SO GREAT? He was a man who knew how to turn PAIN into PRAYER.

A lot of people are born into pain. They are born without the ADVANTAGES of others. But listen, our birth does not determine our future.

• Go back into history and many of the men and women that we hold in high esteem were born into disadvantaged families.

• Go back into the Scriptures and every one of the twelve disciples were just ordinary men.

God was so pleased with this man’s life and his request, that the Bible tells us, “…God granted him that which he requested.”

Let’s look at the requests that God granted him. We will only have time to deal with two this morning. We will deal with his other request in the next service. Let’s look at-

I. THE REQUESTS

Jabez requsted four things from God the Father. Look at -

A. HIS FIRST REQUEST

Look at verse 10, we read, “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed….”