Sermon Central
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Jabez, A Role Model In Prayer--Part One Series
Contributed by R. David Reynolds on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: This is the first of a three part series on the Prayer of Jabez as an example for praying for God to bless the local Church in effective outreach for His Kingdom of God.
For the Lord God is both sun and shield;
He will give grace and glory;
No good thing shall the Lord withhold
From those who walk with integrity.
God wants to grant the requests of His people. He does not want to reject our prayers or withhold his loving mercy from us. He wants to give grace and glory as he did to Jabez and David, but to receive all of that, we must be disciples of integrity. We can not “nurse sin in our hearts” and expect God to hear us. Unconfessed sin in our lives is always a roadblock to answered prayer.
To be honourable disciples of integrity, we must live holy, righteous lives and bring any unconfessed sin to the cross of Jesus Christ in true confession and repentance. Then, like Jabez, God can honor our requests. God never withholds good things from anyone who walks before Him as a disciple of integrity, who daily lives a holy, righteous, honourable life with Jesus as their top priority and guide.
Jabez is our role model for prayer both in our personal walk with Jesus and especially in our cooperate ministry as the body of Christ at Trinity United Methodist Church. I call upon each one of us as disciples of Jesus Christ to begin our personal prayer time each day by following the example of our role Jabez. Cry out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that You would bless me, or, Oh, that You would bless Trinity United Methodist Church.”
I hope to finish two books this summer as soon as possible. One is by Dr. David H. Nixon under the title LEADING THE COMEBACK CHURCH: Helping Your Church Rebound from Decline. The other one by Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson is
Comeback churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too. Why do I feel compelled by the Holy Spirit to concentrate on these two books? According to an article by James Emery White in the Fall 1996 issue of Leadership Journal, 80 to 85 percent of all U. S. Churches are either “plateaued or declining.” Every mainline denomination has basically been declining since 1965, and as of 1991 70 percent of all Southern Baptist churches were either “plateaued or declining.” [SOURCE: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bcl/areas/shepherding/articles/061907.html].
When we honestly allow the Holy Spirit to search our own spiritual condition at Trinity United Methodist Church, we must agree that our local congregation is part of that 80-85 percent of all Churches!
Each one of us needs to fervently cry out to the God of Israel every day, “Oh, that You would bless Trinity United Methodist Church.” Praying for God to bless us means we earnestly, intensely ask Him to help us, show us His favor, and protect us. Local congregations only become comeback churches as the people in the pews earnestly, intensely plead with God daily to show us His favor, help, and protection. Decline is only reversed as God’s people pray earnestly for His blessing.
Are we faithful in such prayer? James, the brother of our Lord is right on target when in James 4:2 he reminds us, “You do not have, because you do not ask of God.” In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestled with a Heavenly Visitor all night long. Jacob called this Visitor “God.” Genesis 32:30 clearly explains the situation: “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” This is an Old Testament “Theophany,” which simply is “an appearance by God to one of his servants in a visible, human body. It is most likely an appearance of Jesus to Jacob some 1800 years before His birth in Bethlehem. At daybreak, according to Genesis 32:26 Jacob had this conversation with his Heavenly Wrestler, “Then the man said, Let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”
