Intro
Intro
Johnny Cash is often known simply as “The Man in Black.” His deep voice and craggy face are well suited for tough-guy songs like “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.” But there is a song he did a number of years ago that doesn’t fit that mold at all. Oh, it starts out that way. The song tells the story of a man who is still angry at his father, who abandoned he and his mother almost immediately after he was born, leaving them penniless and alone.
But his father’s desertion isn’t what he’s angry about:
“Now, I don’t blame him ‘cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me ‘Sue.’”
The rest of the song details the physical and emotional suffering that gets inflicted on little Sue.”
Not surprisingly, the Boy named Sue grows into an angry man who is quick to get into a fight – especially with anyone who finds humor in his name.
Sue makes it his quest to find his Dad, not out of any positive motivation, but simply because he’s determined to kill him for ruining his life.
He finds him in a bar one day and they have a spectacular fight, with Sue eventually getting the upper hand. As Sue stands poised with gun in hand, his father offers this as an explanation
"Son, this world is rough;
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s the name that helped to make you strong."
Not only does his Dad not apologize, he tells his son he ought to thank him for giving him the name that made him so tough.
Of course, since this song is intended to be pure silliness, Sue doesn’t kill his Dad, they end up embracing. And Sue vows that if he ever has a son, he’ll name him, “Bill or George or ANYTHING but Sue!”
For the character in the song, his unusual name meant much more to him than our names generally mean to us.
His whole life was shaped by his name.
We may like or hate our name. Or we may not feel strongly about it either way. In our culture, we don’t make much of a connection between our names and ourselves. How many of you know what your name means?
I know what mine means: Mary means bitter. (If you don’t believe me, read the first chapter of the book of Ruth today.) Gift shop owners don’t buy plaques with that on it!
But I’m not really concerned about the meaning of my name, because after all, What’s in a Name?
In the Ancient World, names had tremendous significance
A name was meant to capture the essence of an individual. It wasn’t merely a way to identify an individual Like a SS #, But to reveal a person’s character.
to know name was to know the person, because the name represented his personality, Even his destiny – his future. In Israel, as in the surrounding nations, a name was almost a revelation about the person.
You never decided the baby’s name ahead of time
They would never have published a book of baby names
You might pick your child’s name based on something that was happening at the time of birth
If there was an excavation going on, you might name him "Doug."
If you had a flat tire on the way to the hospital, you could name him “Jack”
You might pick the name on the basis of some characteristic of the child
Jacob’s brother was named Esau, which meant “hairy” – and he was!
They also thought it would be a particular blessing for a child whose name was based on something that was said when the mother was in labor. Can you imagine?
No matter how nice your mother was, you wouldn’t want to be named something she said while she was in labor!
It could be a very interesting exercise, while you’re sitting around at dinner next week on Mothers’ Day to ask your mother what your name would have been if it was taken from something she said while she was in labor!
Of course, if you ask her that, you have to listen patiently to “labor stories.”
Women love to tell each other stories about how terrible their labor was.
And they’ll tell each other over and over!
I was once in a home group – 2 young couples & me – where it seemed like every week they would somehow end up talking about labor stories.
I bet Jabez’ mom was one of those
I picture her sitting with the other women, waiting for them to tell all of their stories because she knows (and they know – because they’d all heard it before) that Mama Jabez had the winner story!
Sick for 3 months? – nothing!
I knew the first day I was pregnant, I was so sick… for 10 months I was sick!
You were in labor all day and all night? – nothing!
I was in labor for three days and three nights! The midwife said never, NEVER had she seen such a thing
You ask her today, she’ll still say it.
We don’t really know what kind of pain Jabez’ mom was suffering. It could have been emotional suffering
Nothing is mentioned of Jabez’ father, perhaps something had happened to him, We don’t know.
We only know that the birth of her son Jabez was marked by pain more than by anything else -- So much so that even in a society where a name was the essence of one’s identity – and one’s destiny, his mother pins this awful name on him
Even in our society, where names do not have the same significance they did in the ancient world, you wouldn’t want a name like that!
It might have been a lot like a boy having the name “Sue.”
What would it be like to be out on the playground with a name like “pain”?
It would provide almost endless opportunity for the kind of merciless teasing children have always inflicted on one another.
We may recite “Sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me” to those who attack them verbally, But the fact is, broken bones often heal quicker than the internal injuries caused by what we so innocently call teasing.
We’ve seen how that kind of teasing can infiltrate a person’s soul.
When Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris stormed into Columbine High school on their murderous rampage, it’s said they were responding to years of insults, humiliation, and so-called “teasing”
When Andy Williams walked into Santana High School, killing 2 students and wounding 13 others, it came after months of constant teasing and mockery.
I wonder if those teenage murderers just felt like they had to do something to take some control over their lives and their destinies
I wonder if they weren’t trying to say, “I am not a wimp! I’ll prove it!”
Were they trying to break out of the mold of weakness and failure that their peers had forced them into?
I wonder if that’s the kind of thing Jabez experienced
And it started with his own mother
His name communicated to him that, above all else, his own Mom saw him as a pain.
And, no doubt, others helped to reinforce that view of himself as one big pain.
So why did Jabez not end up like Dylan Klebold, or like Andy Williams? Why, instead, do we see him showered with blessings?
Jabez refused to allow his name to be his destiny
He didn’t allow what others said about him – even his own mother – to penetrate his soul and destroy him
How? What’s his secret?
He prays this prayer to God: “Oh that you would bless me indeed!”
He makes that a bit more specific, and we’ll look at that next week, but in a sense, he is allowing God to choose his blessings for him
He is not saying, “Lord, give me health & wealth!”
He is saying, “Lord, YOU know what is good! Give me that!”
And give me a lot of it! (Hebrew = “blessing you would bless”, means: REALLY bless me!
Pour out your goodness on me
Somehow, we don’t do that much!
Make a mental tally sheet with two columns
In one column put a mark for every time you’ve prayed: “Lord just get me through today?” (or something similar “this week, this exam, this interview, this whatever!
Do you have the picture?
In the other column, put a mark for every time you’ve prayed, “Lord pour out your blessings on me! Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that the sense of Your presence and power would just spill out into the lives of everyone I meet! Fulfill your unique purpose through me! Bless me that I might be a blessing!”
How many marks do you have in that column?
Some of us may NEVER have prayed like that!
It may not have ever occurred to us that we COULD pray like that, let alone that we SHOULD!
Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.
Billy Graham. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 3.
God is more anxious to bestow his blessings on us than we are to receive them.
Augustine. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 4.
Our prayers lay the track down on which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.
Watchman Nee, Christian Reader, Vol. 34.
Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that God in answering it, will not wish you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but for wings!
Phillips Brooks. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 3.
Conclusion
If you have not seen the movie, Simon Birch, you owe it to yourself to watch it. Based on John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, it tells the story of a 12-year-old boy named Simon Birch who believes God has a grand plan for his life.
Simon was born tiny and with an abnormally small heart. He was expected to die within the first 24 hours of his life. He surprises everyone, though, when he lives to be an adolescent.
However, he is still only about 3 feet tall, he wears thick glasses, and he has a high-pitched, nasal little voice.
He is a disappointment to his parents and the target of many childhood pranks. Simon has every reason to question his self-worth and purpose for living. But, he doesn’t.
Instead, Simon has a remarkable maturity, and faith, and self-confidence that is rare in most adults, let alone in physically deformed teenagers.
What accounts for Simon’s buoyant hope? He believes that God has a unique purpose for him. He believes not only that God allowed him to have the handicaps he has, but that God has created him that way in order to use him to fulfill some grand destiny.
His faith is often too much even for those who claim to be people of faith.
In a poignant conversation between Simon and the minister in his church, Simon asks, "Does God have a plan for us?"
The minister replies cautiously, "I like to think he does."
Simon enthusiastically responds, "Me, too. I think God made me the way I am for a reason."
This is a bit more than the minister can deal with, but he tries to be encouraging, saying, "I’m glad that, um, that your faith, uh, helps you deal with your, um, you know, your condition."
"That’s not what I mean," Simon states. "I think I’m God’s instrument. He’s going to use me to carry out his plan."
The pastor gives him this great advice, "It’s wonderful to have faith, son, but let’s not overdo it." With that he waves for Simon to leave, shakes his head in disbelief, and whispers with an air of cynicism, "God’s instrument."
I won’t tell you what happens, but Simon Birch was right. God made Simon different because He needed someone different to fulfill a specific task.
God uses him in an amazing way to fulfill His plan.
I think Jabez and Simon would have been great friends.
Like Jabez, Simon knows that God is bigger than weakness.
Both Jabez and Simon know that our future is not determined by
Our past
Our weaknesses
Our families
Our failures
Jabez and Simon both wanted to be blessed by God
Not so that they could have their own self-centered fantasies fulfilled
But so that God could bless others through them.
Our futures are determined by the greatness of God and our willingness to allow Him to bless us as He sees fit.
God wants very much to bless you
Not always with material blessings (most of us already have more of these than we need)
Not always with blessings that will pass away when life on earth is done
Not always with the things that make us healthy, wealthy and comfortable.
God wants to give us blessings that will often surprise us. He wants to put the “awe” back in “awesome.” He wants us to trust Him enough to allow Him to bless us in ways that not only bless US, but bless others
He wants us to trust Him enough that, like Simon Birch and like Jabez, we just ask for God to fulfill His purposes in and through us - and then stand back in expectant wonder.
The Greatness of our future is not determined by our parents
The Greatness of our future is not determined by genetic material
The Greatness of our future is not determined by our Peers and the insults – or the praises – they may throw at us.
The Greatness of our future is shaped by the greatness of our prayers – and by the greatness of the one who longs to answer them
Like Jabez: May we trust God enough to ask Him to pour out His blessings however He sees fit
Like Jabez: May we love Him – and others – enough to ask God to bless us – a lot – that we may bless others a lot
Like Jabez: May our faith be great enough that we ask of Him “the largest prayers”
Like Jabez: May we ask Him for wings instead of crutches
