“Enlarge my Territory” – to multiply or increase the
confines of a place
I. Our Evasion
A. How we add it up: My abilities + experience +
my personality & appearance + my past + the
expectations of others = my assigned territory
B. ‘Honorable’ in vs. 9 is more accurately
‘burdensome’ (lit. heavy, for good or bad
according to context); hence his mother’s choice
of his name
C. Not God through us, but God in association with
us
D. We forget Zech. 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts”
II. God’s Equation
A. How God adds it up: My willingness & weakness
+ God’s will and supernatural power = my
expanding territory
B. Expression: Colossians 1:29 (NKJV), “To this end
I also labor, striving according to His working
which works in me mightily”
1. E. Stanley Jones “Most people plot and plan
themselves into mediocrity, while now and
again somebody forgets himself into
greatness.”
2. Psalm 123:2, “Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes
of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our
eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has
mercy on us”
C. 1 Chronicles 4:23b “dwelt with the king for His work”
III. An Ideal Situation
A. ‘Hand would be with me’
B. ‘Keep me from evil’
C. ‘Not cause pain’ (to carve)
1. Play on words w/ Jabez (sorrow)
2. Not be a source of grief to:
a. God
b. Pastor
c. Church
d. World
