1 Chronicles 4:10 And 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!" So God granted him what he requested.
Are you living larger than life or is life living larger than you? What would it take to make your life better? Money man John D. Rockefeller said, "Just a little bit more."
Jabez wanted more than what he presently had as he prayed … "and enlarge my territory."
Bruce Wilkinson suggests Jabez looked at his present circumstances and concluded, "Surely I was born for more than this!"
Gordon McDonald writes in his book, "Restoring Spiritual Passion" … You see someone you know, and ask a simple question: "What’s going on in your world these days?" You may get an all too common answer: "I’ve got to cut down! I’m into too many things." Or you ask someone how he or she is feeling and you’re liable to hear the response, "I think I’m on the edge of burnout... or something." You comment on how busy the last few weeks seem to have been, and someone agrees and begins to philosophize: "Tell me, do you ever ask yourself why we’re doing all of this anyway?"
The last thing anyone probably wants to think about is "doing more!" We are people living a life that is larger than us.
Jabez was praying just the opposite … he wanted to live larger than life! He was seeking to live life by the motto, "Wanting to be more and do more for God."
When Jabez prayed for the enlargement of his territory … I believe he was asking for more than just land acquisition. He wanted more influence, more responsibility, and more opportunity to be and do more for God.
If we are going to be "living larger than life" we have to move the boundaries lines of our lives.
We have to start praying differently by asking for more rather than for less.
"O God and King, please expand my opportunities and my impact in such a way that I touch more lives for Your glory. Let me do more for You!" (Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez)
Three boundaries need enlarging …
- Expand our Hearing … to be more influential.
- Expand our Heart … to be more responsible.
- Expand our Heralding … to be more opportunistic.
1. Live Larger by Enlarging Your Hearing
There use to be an old commercial for an investment company called E.F. Hutton that stated, "When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen." The emphasis was upon influencing other people … for the good!
Who listens when God speaks? Do you hear Him speaking? Are you influencing life or is life influencing you?
We need to enlarge our borders by taking in more of God’s Word … the more we know God through His Word the more we are able to discern His voice in the world.
Joshua 3:9 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God."
"Hear" is the Hebrew word "Shema" that means to carefully consider and to diligently discern.
To be more and do more for God … our minds are to be filled beyond capacity with God’s Word. God’s Word needs to swell in our minds so as to push outward the small boundaries in of our lives.
1 Samuel 3:1 Then the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.
It was said at the Missouri Baptist Evangelism Conference that 92% of all Southern Baptist do not read God’s Word throughout the week.
Perhaps our perishing like lives are because the hearing of the Word of God no longer influences our lives to push us beyond our everyday hum-drum borders.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
Hearing God’s Word can lead us to live larger than life and to become responsible to keep God’s Word.
2. Live Larger by Enlarging Your Heart
In the days of Joshua, God was looking to enlarge the borders as He spoke to Joshua.
Joshua 1:3 "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.
Some would see this as merely land acquisition based upon wherever Joshua & Co. physically stepped.
But God had already marked off the territory of land. The land was theirs, but Joshua & Co. would have to obey every word God spoken into their hearts.
Joshua 1:7 "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
The heart is enlarged by keeping or obeying the Word of God. A life that is enlarged to keep God’s Word is the blessed life.
Luke 11:28 But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
The greater blessing in life is to have a heart to obey the Word of God.
Our prayer ought to be, "Oh bless me God by letting me hear and do your Word."
Life lived in obedience … enlarges the heart to endure life.
Matthew 7:24-25 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Are we willing to do the extra so God can do the extraordinary in our lives? Or are we self-deceived to think and live otherwise?
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Live larger than life by enlarging your heart boundaries to obey God’s Word.
3. Live Larger by Enlarging Your Heralding
By "heralding" I mean a life that is willing to be a witness in any and all opportunities.
Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Joshua was reminded that the presence of the living God would be with him wherever and in all opportunities to live for Him
We are no less blessed as Jesus assures us of His living presence.
Matthew 28:20b I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
We can seize every opportunity to live and be all God wants us to be, knowing He is with us. Life can be lived in the abundant rather than the lacking of life.
Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
A heralding witness we are called to be … seeking to expand our borders of influence by speaking up in every opportunity that avails itself to us.
Here is where many "shrink from living at this level of blessing and influence." (Bruce Wilkinson)
We tend to live by our own abilities, training and experiences rather than by our willingness, weakness and God’s supernatural power to expand our territory.
We would rather God work by us rather than through us. We fail to live by the powerful principle of … "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)
Consider the following story.
George Smith was an ordinary man with an ordinary name. He had aspirations of becoming a great missionary. For several years he planned and prepared. Finally the big day came - he was going to a village that had never had the Gospel in any form.
George shared his very soul with these people in this far-away land. He worked hard but didn’t seem to be to be making any headway in the work. He grew weary after a number of years of struggling that appeared to reap almost no results. The only measurable success for all his years of labor was one young man who was studying the Bible with him daily. The intensity of his discouragement grew so strong that he finally admitted failure and made plans to return to his homeland. His young student was given a Bible and encouraged to continue learning how to live by its principles. George Smith was so heartbroken and felt so defeated that it soon affected his health and within months he died.
A few years later a church organization sent a delegation to the village where George Smith had gone to determine the viability of sending a missionary team there. You can imagine their surprise when they saw a huge church in the center of the village. What amazed them even more was learning that there were thirty-one satellite churches in surrounding villages and that the overwhelming majority of people were actively serving God. They asked, "How can this be?" The answer was simple: it all began with that one Bible and a young man who developed a passion for sharing his faith with those around him. (Unknown Results, God’s Vitamin "C" for the Spirit, pg.24-25)
Let God stretch you! I am not talking about your ability but by trust! Trust God to use you as He expands the borders of your ministry to Him.
Conclusion:
It is when we give up ourselves to be used by God we find the borders of our lives being expanded … sometimes beyond belief.
In the days of Malachi the people had grown comfortable to their safe borders. God was looking to do a work beyond the borders of comfort.
Malachi 1:5 NLT When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, ’Truly, the Lord’s great power reaches far beyond our borders!’"
Jabez … saw his own life as destruction and called out for the blessing of enlarging his life’s boundaries … that he might be more and do more for God.
Let’s pray today … God enlarge my territory!
Amen!
The Prayer of Jabez sermons are a result of having read, The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life, by Bruce Wilkinson. Some ideas, thoughts and quotes have been gleaned from the book. Outlines are original with R. AuBuchon Jr, Other materials from various sources have also been gleaned and added.
This sermon was preached by Robert AuBuchon at Trinity Baptist Church in 2001. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
