“IMPACT IN OBSCURITY” 1 Chron. 4:9-10
INTRO – NCAA Championship football game Monday night – Alabama put a beat-down on Notre Dame. Throughout the game, the commentators, Kirk Herbstreit & Brent Musberger, talked about “impact players.” Would put their names, pictures, numbers, & positions on the screen. These were players that had taken seriously their jobs as players on their teams & had proven that they truly wanted to be on the team & in the game. They didn’t just talk about it – they put it into action.
So, question for today: Do you & I truly want to be on the team & in the game? Do we want to be “impact players”? Doesn’t mean that you have to be a famous football player or a big-time “mover & shaker.” Doesn’t necessarily mean that lots of people are going to know who you are & are going to be talking about you in awe. Doesn’t mean that you have to have some extraordinary ability or talent in some area. Simply means that you are willing to be used by God in whatever way He sees fit to make an impact for His K’dom. Simply means that you want to be on the team & in the game.
- Recognition not important to you
- Accolades not important to you
- Fame not important to you
Just want to make an impact for Him – simple as that. Charles Stanley: “If you…will walk in step w/ Him, you will make a positive impact…Your character, your conversation, your conduct…You can have an impact on someone’s life by the way you live.”
Title of today’s message – “Impact in Obscurity.” The Bible is full of people who were used by God to make an impact, even though they are obscure Biblical characters. We all know names like Paul, Peter, David, Moses, Noah, & others. Know something about the impact that they made in God’s service. Large portions of Scripture either written about them or written by them.
But what about names like Ehud, Jethro, Elishama, Abishag, Shamgar, Bezalel, & Oholiab? How about Josiah, Micaiah, Naaman, Joseph Barsabbas Justus, Jephthah, & Jabal, Jubal, & Tubal-Cain? Some of you who have been serious students of the Bible may have some knowledge of who these folks are. But for the most part, they’re pretty obscure compared to those I mentioned earlier.
Jabez is another obscure Biblical character. Some of you may disagree w/ that b/c of the book that Bruce Wilkinson wrote several years ago entitled The Prayer of Jabez. You may have read that book. You may have heard some sermons preached on that prayer. But truth is, before yr 2000, Jabez was as much in the obscure category for the vast majority of us as are Shammua, Shobab, & Elishua. And b/c the book is 12-13 yrs. old, he is probably still in the obscure category for many of you here today.
But there are some wonderful principles we can glean from Jabez’s obscurity. These principles from his tiny 2-verse insertion in the Bible can have a huge impact in our daily lives & can help us make an impact for the Lord.
The book of 1 Chron. is one of those books that, if we are completely honest, we tend to skim through as we are reading through the Bible. If you’re using the DailyWay Bible Reading Calendar, you’ll come to 1 Chron. on July 15 of this year. You & I will probably be tempted to just sort of glance at these chapters so we can check the boxes off in the calendar. Not saying that we SHOULD do that, but we will certainly think about it.
But there must have been something different about Jabez. Listen to this: 1 Chron. 4:1-8. Nothing spectacular in those verses, other than the fact that they are included in the Bible, which makes them tremendously significant. Certainly not making light of these verses, just saying that they are sort of unassuming as they're included in a few hundred verses that are very similar to them in these early chapters in 1 Chron.
Out of nowhere, these 2 verses jump out & impact us. This obscure man named Jabez, given his name b/c his mother was in pain, gives us some principles that we can apply to our lives in order to live for the Lord & impact others’ lives. Check out these 3 principles:
Live a life of honor – v. 9a – We don’t know anything about Jabez’s brothers. All we know is that he was “more honorable” than them. To be honorable may have meant that he was a man of great riches or great courage & strength. No way to truly know about that.
But we can definitely know that a great deal of his honorable life came from the fact that he was a man who knew who His God was. His honor is based on that fact or he would not have been singled out in this passage.
Honor in the Bible is much different than worldly honor. Honor by the world’s standards is based on achievement, or prestige, or accomplishments. People are given honor & awards for all sorts of reasons – their political clout, celebrity status, athletic victories, economic power, or intellectual prowess.
But biblical honor is granted to those who humbly seek the Lord & His ways. Honor is found glorifying God by living for the Lord Jesus & in our being like Him. Jesus said in John 15:8, “My Father is glorified by this: that you bear much fruit & prove to be my disciples” (HCSB). God alone is worthy of honor & glory. So everything in our lives & every day of our lives must be devoted to Him, to His glory, & to His honor. Ray Stedman: “True Christianity is to manifest genuinely Christ-like behavior by dependence on the working of the Spirit of God within, motivated by a love for the glory and honor of God.”
Honor comes to us when we are not seeking it but are earnestly seeking the Lord. It comes when we realize how far we truly are from being the person God desires for us to be & we repent of that. It comes when we consider other better than ourselves. It comes when we are striving to be the husband we ought to be, the wife we ought to be, the parent we ought to be, the son/daughter we ought to be. Honor comes when we live w/ the attitude that John the Baptist voiced in John 3:30 when he said about Jesus, “He must increase; I must decrease.” Honor comes when we are loving God w/ all our heart, soul, & mind, & loving others as we love ourselves. Living in obscurity doesn’t matter to us when we are living to honor God.
Live a life of prayer & reliance on God – v. 10 – The thing that set Jabez apart from everyone else in this chapter is the passionate prayer he prayed. One writer said that Jabez had “an audacious prayer life” (http://www.faithvillage.com/article/e45a7d3f09f1454cb1776db23ca2af3e/the_7_most_compelling_obscure_bible_characters) Listen to the definition of “audacious”:
1. extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless: 2. extremely original; without restriction to prior ideas; highly inventive: 3. recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen. 4. lively; unrestrained; uninhibited
These are the words that describe the prayer Jabez prayed as he cried out to God. He knew that God was the source of all blessings, the source of all strength, & the source of all protection. His audacious prayer provides a great model for us in our prayer life & our reliance & dependence on God. While his prayer is not some sort of magical formula that MAKES God bless us, it does give us a sense of the passion with which we can & should pray, knowing that the God of heaven & earth is hearing us & responding to us. When we take the passion of this prayer & couple it w/other instructions on prayer throughout the Bible, we begin to see the impact that prayer truly has in our lives. Listen to these audacious truths on prayer:
- Jesus said, “Ask & it will be given to you. Seek & you will find. Knock & the door will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7)
- John 15:7 – “If you remain in me & my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, & it will be given to you.”
- Acts 2:42 – “They devoted themselves…to prayer.”
- Paul said in Eph. 3:12 that “In [Christ] & through faith in Him, we may approach God w/ freedom & confidence.”
- The writer of Hebrews wrote: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy & find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)
- James 5:16 –“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful & effective.”
- 1 John 5:14-15 – “We are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know He will give us what we ask for.” (NLT)
Talk about impact! When we begin praying audacious, bold, daring, lively prayers like the obscure Jabez, believing the audacious truths of Scripture, & relying on God as we have never relied on Him before, the potential impact for God is off the charts!
Live a life of vision – v. 10 – “…enlarge my territory…” - Some of words that are used in defining the Hebrew word for “enlarge”: increase, abundance, excel, expand, exceedingly, be full of, make/be greater, heap, many, more, much, multiply, plenteous. The obscure Jabez came out of nowhere & cried out to God for victory, expansion, & increase in his life. This isn’t a “name it & claim it” prayer. But it IS a bold prayer for God to do as my Mama says & “show up & show out!” What a vision! What a prayer! What an impact!
Jabez wasn’t satisfied w/ a status quo kind of life. He had a vision of God doing something big in his life. Do you have the courage to pray that kind of prayer? Do we as a church have the faith to pray that kind of prayer? Do we have a vision that God would use us in ways we could never imagine to impact our community & our world for His K’dom?
Take your note sheet right now or another piece of paper or a Communication Card & jot down 1-2 ways you would like to see CWBC make an impact. Or jot down a couple of ways you would like for us to pray w/ you about YOU making an impact. Think about Jabez’ prayer – “God, enlarge my territory!” What would that look like in your life if God did that in you? What would that look like in our church if God did that?
CONCLUSION – Start sermon off talking about “impact players” on football teams. Not everyone on the team gets recognition as an impact player on a football team – just certain players.
But in the family of God, EVERYONE is an “impact player!” All of us have the Holy Spirit w/in us to empower us & guide us. All of us have been given gifts to use for God. All of us have the Bible to teach us & grow us. Even the most obscure of us is an impact player. Let’s make a commitment to God today to be the impact player that HE wants us to be!
