Great Prayers of the Old Testament
Part 10: Let God Bless You through the Prayer of Jabez!
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared September 19, 2024)
MESSAGE:
*Bruce Wilkinson is an excellent Christian teacher and author known all over world for his "Walk Thru the Bible" ministry. Back in 2000, Bruce wrote a little book on this prayer of Jabez, and it took the country by storm. THE PRAYER OF JABEZ became an international bestseller, and sold 9 million copies. God used it to help start a prayer revival in our country, and it made a big difference in people's lives. (1)
*All of those blessings flowed out of the power-packed prayer here in vs. 10. "Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, 'Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'" Verse 10 also tells us that "God granted Jabez what he requested."
*Church: The same God who blessed Jabez wants to bless us! And He will bless us, if we will pray like Jabez prayed.
1. FIRST: PRAY FOR GOD'S PROVISION.
*Jabez needed to be blessed by God, and he wanted to be blessed by God. So he prayed, "Oh that You would bless me indeed." And God granted him what he requested.
*Notice that Jabez's answered prayer does not mean that we can automatically wipe out all of our problems in life. Jabez surely knew about problems, because he had faced them all his life. Jabez's name meant "pain" or "pain-maker." How would you like that for a name? Sometimes my daddy used to call me a pain in the neck. And he was right! But how would you like to be called "a pain" by everyone, all the time?
*Jabez knew all about trouble, but he was still blessed. Carlyle Marney told about a wonderful young woman like that. She and her family were part of Carlyle's church in Austin, Texas. One of their children was a beautiful baby girl, who tragically was born without arms and legs.
*But Marney said that family was tremendously courageous and resourceful. They were people with great strength and positive faith. They didn't wring their hands in anger or despair. Instead, the whole family pulled together when they took her home from the hospital. They gave her every kind of help they possibly could.
*As a result, she grew into an absolutely delightful young adult. And though she died at the age of 22, she had become a remarkable and wonderful person of strong faith and knowledge. Even though she was never able to move herself, feed herself, dress herself, or do many other things that we take for granted every day, she never stopped trusting in the Lord.
*This young lady was blessed by God, and she knew it. Pastor Marney explained how strong her faith shined when this young lady was 19. Her brother brought home his college roommate. That young man was very smart, but also very shallow and coldhearted. Near the end of his visit, that insensitive student said, "Before I leave, I simply must ask you something. What keeps you from crying out in rage against a God who would let you be born this way? How do you keep from blowing up in anger at the injustice He has dealt you?"
*She looked the boy straight in the eye and confidently said, "I realize that when compared to what other people have, what I have may not seem like much. But I wouldn't have missed the chance to have been born for anything! I have been able to taste. I have learned to read. I have been exposed to some of the world's greatest literature. I have heard incredible, wonderful music. I have had the love and relationship of a wonderful family and friends. I have faith in God's goodness and in His unfailing help. Yes, I know when compared to others it may not seem that I have very much. But compared to not being able to live at all, I wouldn't have missed being born for anything!" (2)
*Church: That's the kind of faith God wants us to have! That young lady didn't have arms or legs, but she will stand in Heaven forever, -- because she had faith in God! She knew all about trouble, but she was surely blessed.
*All of us will also have pain in life. We will have problems. Sometimes we will have big problems. But God promises to give us great blessings in answer to our prayers! Nave's Topical Bible actually lists 80 places in the Bible where God promises to answer our prayers. (3)
*Scriptures like Psalm 37:4-5, where God's Word says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass."
*Psalm 102:17-20 says this about our wonderful Lord:
17. He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, And shall not despise their prayer.
18. This will be written for the generation to come, That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
19. For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary; From heaven the Lord viewed the earth,
20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To loose those appointed to death.
*God also promises to answer our prayers in Luke 18:1-8. There, our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ. . .
1. . . spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
2. saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
3. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Avenge me of my adversary.'
4. And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man,
5. yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'''
6. Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said.
7. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?''
*Like Jabez, we will have pain and problems in life, but God promises to give us great blessings in answer to our prayers! That's why we need to pray like Jabez, "Oh that You would bless me indeed." And "God granted him what he requested."
2. PRAY FOR GOD'S PROVISION. AND PRAY FOR GOD'S POSSIBILITY.
*In vs. 10, Jabez also prayed, "Oh that you would enlarge my territory." Jabez was not just pleading for a little more dirt. He was asking for God's possibility in his life. Jabez was asking for the possibility of more influence, more responsibility, and more opportunity to make a difference for God.
*Now God wants us to pray for more of His infinite possibility in our lives, our families, and our churches. We need to pray like Jabez prayed, "Oh that you would enlarge my territory." Bruce Wilkinson explained that "The Jabez prayer is a revolutionary request. Just as it is highly unusual to hear anyone pray, 'God, please bless me, so it is rare to hear anyone plead, 'God, please give me more ministry!'
*Most of us think our lives are too full already. But when, in faith, you start to pray for more ministry, amazing things occur. As your opportunities expand, your ability and resources supernaturally increase, too. Right away you'll sense the pleasure God feels in your request and His urgency to accomplish great things through you.
*People will show up on your doorstep or at the table next to you. They'll start saying things that surprise even them. They'll ask for something -- they're not sure what -- and wait for your reply." Wilkinson called these encounters "Jabez appointments." (1)
*I call these encounters "divine appointments," and God has divine appointments for us all. But my experience is that divine appointments do not always happen right away. Sometimes we have to wait on the Lord. But it is a good thing to wait on the Lord. Remember what King David said in Psalm 27:13-14. "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!"
*Also remember Isaiah 40:28-31.
28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. There is no searching of His understanding.
29. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
30. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,
31. But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
*Your divine appointments may not start tomorrow, but you keep praying like Jabez prayed for God to enlarge your territory. And keep waiting on the Lord!
*Pastor Floyd Faust met a man who saw amazing results from a prayer like that. His name was Worral, and he had been stricken with rheumatoid arthritis at the young age of 15. When Pastor Floyd met Mr. Worral 30 years later, he was completely immobile except for one finger. He could barely speak and was totally blind.
*But Mr. Worral had a string tied to that one finger he could move. That string was somehow hooked to a tape recorder that Mr. Worral used to write books and articles for national magazines. He lived a meaningful, happy life from his bed.
*And this was possible because after their prayers for healing were not answered, Mr. Worral graciously accepted his lot and prayed this prayer to God, "Well Lord: If this is the size plot in life you've staked out for me, let's You and me together show the world what we can grow on it." (4)
*In effect, Mr. Worral prayed like Jabez: "Oh that you would enlarge my territory." And God granted him what he requested.
3. SO PRAY FOR GOD'S POSSIBILITY IN OUR LIVES. AND PRAY FOR GOD'S POWER.
*In vs. 10, Jabez also prayed, "Oh that your hand might be with me." And God granted him what he requested.
*Christians: First understand that the hand of the Lord is always with us because we are in His hand! Jesus made this clear in John 10:27-29 where He said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."
*Bruce Wilkinson pointed out that "the Hand of the Lord" is also a biblical term for God's power and presence in the lives of His people. For example, Acts 11:21 says this about the early church: "The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord." Then he explained: "That is what your Father's hand is like. You tell Him, 'Father, please do this in me because I can't do it alone! It's too big for me!' And you step out in faith to do and say things that could only come from His hand.
*Afterwards, your heart is shouting, 'God did that, nobody else! God carried me. God gave me the words. God gave me the power. And it is wonderful!'" (1)
*I have seen this happen too many times in my own life to count, and you may have too. I'm talking about those times when you were trying to witness to someone, or trying to give someone wise advice. Then you look back on the conversation and you know: That didn't come from me! God gave me exactly the right thing to say at the right time. That was the Hand of God at work in our lives.
*But we need to pray for His hand to work more, -- both in us and through us. This was certainly the way Paul lived his life. And he gave this testimony in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 where Paul wrote, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
*Paul lived the life he lived through the hand of God at work in his life. That's how we all need to live! And that's how Jabez wanted to live. So he prayed, "Oh that your hand might be with me." And God granted him what he requested.
4. PRAY FOR GOD'S POWER IN OUR LIVES. AND PRAY FOR GOD'S PROTECTION.
*In vs. 10 Jabez also prayed, "Oh, that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'' The KJV says, "Oh that You would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!" This reminds me of the Lord's promise in Psalm 121:7 where God's Word says, "The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul."
*This promise can seem hard to understand when we go through hard times in life. But we all need to know that the biggest problem we have with evil is not the evil that comes from outside. Our biggest problem is the evil that comes from inside our own hearts. The evil from outside can hurt us for a while. But the evil from inside can hurt us forever.
*And all of us have this problem. Romans 3:23 tells us that "all have sinned fall short of the glory of God." But Psalm 121:7 says, "The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul."
*The only way that this could happen was for Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. The eternal Son of God humbled Himself to become a mortal man. Then He lived the only perfectly sinless life. Then Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for our evil ways. Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. Then three days later He rose again in everlasting victory over sin and death. And we receive the victory when we trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
*The Apostle Paul described it this way in Romans 10:9-13:
9. that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
11. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.''
12. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon Him.
13. For "whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.''
"Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'' And that changes everything for us!
CONCLUSION:
*In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and much of the Gulf coast. Some of us got to go down to Folsom on the North Shore to help with the clean-up. And driving down we saw many thousands of trees blown down. It was unbelievable to me.
*We were there just a couple of days to help remove trees that had fallen on houses. It was a good witness because we were doing it for free. And we let people know that we were doing it because of the love of Jesus Christ. We also helped serve the people who came by First Baptist every day for food and supplies. They had converted their Family Life Center into a warehouse, and every day around 11, dozens of cars would line up.
*One of the good people we met in Folsom was a 13-year-old student named Jordan. Jordan played drums in the praise band at church. His dad, Wayne, played too. But even though Jordan's dad was a devoted Christian at the time, Jordan told us of the time when his dad was everything but a follower of Jesus Christ.
*In fact, Wayne was a meth dealer in New Orleans, and he got busted. But they offered Wayne a deal: Either he could go to jail, or he could turn in the ring leader. Wayne decided to turn in the guy who was over the whole operation. It was a huge turning point for Wayne, and he rededicated his life to the Lord. But the drug boss put out a murder contract on Wayne's life, and he lived under a cloud of danger.
*One day about 7 years later, Wayne's wife got a heavy burden for the family's safety, so she asked some prayer warriors in their church to make it a matter of urgent prayer. Just a couple of months later the family was eating at a fish place way out in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly Dad told the family they needed to go to the car right away.
*In that crowded, out-of-the-way restaurant, Wayne had spotted his former drug boss, and the drug boss had spotted him. The man came over, put his hand on Wayne's shoulder and asked, "Do you know who I am?" Wayne said, "I do."
*Then the drug boss said, "I want you to know that you and your family don't ever have to be afraid of me again. God got hold of my life when I was in prison. And I have been saved!"
*What a testimony! What a testimony of salvation, and answered prayer, and God's special care! What a testimony of God's victory over sin!
*Jabez prayed, "Oh, that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'' God knows how much we need to pray this kind of prayer, so He gave us some great examples in His Word.
*In Psalm 19:12-14, King David began his prayer with a question and said:
12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
13. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
*Then in Psalm 69:5-6, David prayed:
5. O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You.
6. Let not those who wait for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
*Jesus also taught us to pray this kind of prayer as part of the Lord's Prayer. And Matthew 6:13 says, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."
*Then a few hours before the cross, Jesus twice told the disciples to watch and pray so they wouldn't fall into temptation. Sadly, they fell asleep. But listen to the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:39-46 says:
39. And coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.
40. When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation.''
41. And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed,
42. saying, "Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.''
43. Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.
44. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
45. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.
46. Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.''
*One way God helps Christians overcome temptation is prayer. So Jabez's prayer is a great example for us: "Oh, that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'' And God granted him that which he requested. God heard Jabez's prayer for deliverance from temptation. And Christians: He will surely hear our prayers too. Yes, Satan will tempt us, but we have victory in Jesus! Jesus Christ will deliver us through the blood, the cross, the grace, and the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. Jesus Christ will deliver us through His power and love!
*That's why God wants us to pray like Jabez prayed in vs. 10: "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'
*But if you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that is the first thing you need to do! Call on our crucified and risen Savior to save you now, as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) THE PRAYER OF JABEZ: BREAKING THROUGH TO THE BLESSED LIFE by Bruce H. Wilkinson, published in 2000 by Multnomah Books, Copyright 2000
(2) From a sermon by Dr. Joe Harding - Source: Sermons.com sermon "A Higher Happiness" - Series: The Vision-Driven Life, No. 6 - Luke 6: 17-26
(3) Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1841-1917), A.M., D.D., LL.D. while serving as a Chaplin in the United States Army. He referred to this work as "the result of fourteen years of delightful and untiring study of the Word of God." - Published in 1896; public domain - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
(4) KERUX ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION - ID Number: 15200 - SOURCE: Fredericksburg Bible Illustrator Supplements - TITLE: A Small Plot with Large Production - Testimony by Floyd Faust
