It¡¦s not very big, it¡¦s just a little book, only 92 pages long, and they¡¦re not very big pages either, but then again it¡¦s based on a very small portion of scripture. The Prayer of Jabez hit the book stands last year and became the surprise best seller of the year. I¡¦m sure that when Bruce Wilkinson wrote his book, which is subtitled ¡§Breaking Through to the Blessed Life.¡¨ He had no idea that it would take off like the way it did. The original printing only numbered 20,000 copies. When they sold out, his publisher Multnomah took a step of faith and ordered an additional 70,000 copies printed. At last count over 4.1 million books had been sold, keeping ¡§The Prayer of Jabez¡¨ on the New York best sellers list for most of last year. You can now buy the prayer of Jabez on just about everything including your coffee cup and it inspired the song that you heard just a few moments ago.
Not everyone was impressed by Wilkinson¡¦s theology though, the New York Times had this to say: "The Prayer of Jabez" offers a new view of the prosperity gospel. It preaches that it is perfectly fine to ask God for personal success, as long as that success has a godly purpose.¡¨ And Jeffrey H. Mahan, professor of ministry, media and culture at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, said: ¡§It fits with the narcissism of the age. Religious life is focused on me and my needs.¡¨
When I first heard about the book I would have probably agreed with the critics but after reading the book my views are more in line with Mark Galli the managing editor of Christianity Today who wrote: ¡§Nevertheless, Wilkinson has accomplished much, especially in Jabez, for which we can be thankful. He’s managed to get millions of Christians to realize afresh their divine significance, reminding them of the ministries God has for them, encouraging them to think big when it comes to helping others. It’s not the whole counsel of God, but neither is it a bad start for those who had forgotten, or never knew, that the living God is as near as a prayer.¡¨
This morning we are going to take a look at ¡§The Prayer of Jabez¡¨ not the book, but the prayer in The Book, and see what we can learn from it, what message it has for God¡¦s people on November 4th 2001.
So who was Jabez? Well he has probably been mentioned more in the past year then in the previous 2,500 years combined. All we know about him comes from two verses in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles. The book itself was written about 500 years before Christ was born and although we don¡¦t have any concrete evidence tradition tells us that it was written by the prophet Ezra. The first nine chapters Chronicle, thus the name of the book, the people of Israel back to Adam, and it is in this section that we find the words that Bonnie read this morning.
1 Chronicles 4:9-10 There was a man named Jabez who was more distinguished than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, ¡§Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!¡¨ And God granted him his request.
And that my friends is all he wrote. That is the sum total of everything we know for sure about Jabez. One preacher commented that when he had heard all the commotion about Wilkinson¡¦s book that he went to 1 Chronicles and read the account of Jabez and his first thought was ¡§Book must have a lot of pictures.¡¨
So what do we know? 1) There was a man named Jabez who was more distinguished than any of his brothers. We don¡¦t know what set Jabez apart from his siblings, but there was something that made him a memorable figure. There are over 500 names mentioned in the first nine chapters of the 1 Chronicles, 44 people are mentioned in the first eight verses of chapter 4, all without commentary and then for whatever reason the author interjects, and says that one man was more distinguished than any of his brothers. And then after writing a mere 71 words he continues with listing people without comment or commentary. It¡¦s as if in mid recollection the author says ¡§Whoa, there¡¦s something about this guy you gotta hear. He¡¦s special.¡¨ But what was it that was so special? Wilkinson sums it up this way
„« Things started badly for a person no one had ever heard of.
„« He prayed an unusual, one-sentence prayer.
„« Things ended extraordinarily well.’’
The next thing that we learn about Jabez was how he got his name, 2) His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. Must have been a memorable birth. Man if mother¡¦s named every kid Pain who had a painful entrance into the world it would be the most common name around. The word Jabez isn¡¦t actually the Hebrew word for pain, but it¡¦s a play on the word, it means to grieve or to be sorrowful. All children cause their mothers a certain amount of pain at their birth, and in most cases a certain amount of pain for the rest of their lives. But this must have been memorable, we don¡¦t know if it was physical pain, family history says that my Great Grandfather weighed, get this 15lbs at birth, I¡¦m sure that must have been a painful birth. Or maybe it was painful emotionally, maybe her husband had deserted her, or maybe they already had a full house and didn¡¦t want any more kids. We don¡¦t know why she named him what she did but I¡¦m pretty sure knowing the way kids are that he probably took a lot of teasing.
The next thing we are told is 3) He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, Now that shouldn¡¦t have been noteworthy. Here the Author is telling us all about the people of Israel you would think that they all prayed, or most of them prayed, or some of them prayed, but instead he singles one man out and says He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel. So what? And so if it wasn¡¦t the act of praying that caused Jabez to be set apart then is must be the prayer that he prayed. What was it that set this prayer apart from the prayers of others? It¡¦s not a necessarily pretty prayer that is it doesn¡¦t use a lot of flowery language and religious terms. It¡¦s not a long prayer there are only 27 words in the entire prayer. And so if it has nothing to do with the length of the prayer, and nothing to do with the construction of the prayer then it must have something to do with the content of the prayer. What was it that Jabez prayed for?
1) ¡§Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! So Jabez begins with what seems to be a two part prayer, but when we understand the Jewish style of writing we see that it¡¦s one request. Jabez uses a literary device called parallelism, which is where something is stated and then repeated in a different way. Bless me and extend my lands. The first thing that we need to understand with this request is what it actually means. The problem is that most of us have no idea what a blessing is. Oh we say blessing at our meals, and if someone sneezes we say ¡§Bless you.¡¨ But to bless someone has become more of a courtesy then anything else. It¡¦s like saying ¡§have a nice day¡¨ or asking someone ¡§how are you?¡¨ And if that¡¦s the way we see a blessing, as simply a nice thing, then we will never understand what Jabez was praying for.
When the Bible speaks of blessing though it¡¦s not just a courtesy thing. Do you remember in the book of Genesis when Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of his rightful blessing? The blessing that belonged to Esau because he was the oldest? Now do you remember Esau¡¦s response when he found out that his brother had stolen his blessing? It¡¦s found in Genesis 27:41 Esau hated Jacob because he had stolen his blessing, and he said to himself, ¡§My father will soon be dead and gone. Then I will kill Jacob.¡¨
Sounds like he was a little put out, doesn¡¦t it? Doesn¡¦t sound like he had lost a simple ¡§God Bless You.¡¨ Because he didn¡¦t. A blessing in the Old Testament was the conveyance of God¡¦s blessing on everything you did. On your family life, your finances, your spiritual life. In every area of your life it was being asked that God would pour out His bounty. And that¡¦s what he wants to do for each one of us. Jesus told a story to his disciples, Matthew 7:9-11 You parents¡Xif your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
You see contrary to popular opinion God is not impartial, He is very partial. He has a favorite and it¡¦s you. And it¡¦s not because you are smart, even though I¡¦m sure you are, and it¡¦s not because you¡¦re pretty, and it¡¦s not because you¡¦re good, it¡¦s because you are His child and he wants the very best for you. If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
What would happen if instead of expecting the worst in your life you expected the best? If when you come to Worship on Sunday Morning you expected that God would pour out his blessing upon you? What would happen if when you went to work or school on Monday that you expected that God would pour out his blessing on you? What if you expected him to bless your marriage and to bless your children? What if when you thought of telling others about Jesus you expected miracles to happen?
God isn¡¦t some angry ogre who is waiting for us to mess up so he can laugh at us, he is our Heavenly Father and He wants the very best for us.
Notice that Jabez didn¡¦t ask for a specific blessing, he wasn¡¦t asking God for a new chariot or a bigger tent. He was asking that God would extend his sphere of influence, he was simply asking that God would bless him. We can¡¦t even begin to imagine what God might have in store for us if we would only ask and trust God to provide for us.
When I came to the conclusion that I needed to find outside work I had this long discussion with God that boiled down to ¡§If that¡¦s what I need to do fine, but I don¡¦t want to work in retail again.¡¨ But I had no idea what else I could do. I¡¦ve been to sea, but it¡¦s tough to do that and pastor, and I¡¦ve worked in retail and I didn¡¦t want to go there again. And then out of the blue I get an offer to write, write, and get paid for it. ¡§Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands!
The prayer isn¡¦t greedy when the intent is to use the blessing to further the Kingdom. I may very well obtain personal blessing out of writing but right now that isn¡¦t how it works. I make a dollar writing it¡¦s a dollar less that BCC has to pay me, a dollar closer that we get to having our financial house in order. God blesses his people to see the Kingdom expanded, you don¡¦t think he gives you all you have just for you do you?
And Jabez continues, Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain! In the New King James version it reads this way; that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain! That sounds remarkably like part of the Lord¡¦s prayer, you know the part that says Matthew 6:13 And don¡¦t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
However we read it the first part is the same, Jabez is asking to be in the center of God¡¦s will. First he¡¦s asked for a blessing, for God to expand his territory and now he¡¦s asking God to be in control of that blessing. It¡¦s not selfish to ask for God¡¦s presence, and it¡¦s not selfish to ask for God¡¦s protection. Your children expect you to take care of them, right? It¡¦s not selfish for them to expect that you will be there for them. So why is it selfish for us to expect God to take care of us? To ask Him to keep us from trouble and to protect us?
Often the only time we actually get around to praying is when we are in trouble, why not pray that He will keep you out of trouble in the first place.
It actually boils down to a question of obedience. If we pray that God will be with us in all we do, and then seek to stay close to God then by default we are staying away from evil. It¡¦s when we decide to go our own way and we move away from God through our disobedience that trouble begins to come our way. Thomas Jefferson said The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.
Don¡¦t see how close you can get to sin, don¡¦t see how close you can walk to the edge. Stay away from the shoals and rocks that can cause you pain. Stay close to God; pray that He will be with you. Is it a guarantee that things will always go right? No, but if things go wrong I want to be right next to the Creator of the universe because I figure that he can handle what I can¡¦t.
And when we become disobedient to God we not only cause pain for ourselves often we cause pain for the ones we love. And then we have the audacity to blame God!
Now the critics of Jabez and the prayer of Jabez would tell us that Jabez¡¦s prayer is a selfish prayer. It¡¦s all about me, me, me. But it is tempered by Jabez asking God to keep his hand on him. When you ask God to bless you, and then you give him control it¡¦s the kingdom that benefits.
When as a church we ask God to bless us and extend our territory it isn¡¦t so we can have a big church, it¡¦s because there are people out there who don¡¦t know Jesus. When as a church we pray for the 440 homes that make up our Why Encounter prayer list it¡¦s because we know that if the families represented by those homes don¡¦t have a relationship with Jesus Christ then their ultimate destiny is a Christless eternity in hell.
And then we read this words in the account of Jabez. And God granted him his request.
Matthew 21:22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.¡¨
Matthew 7:7 ¡§Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened.
James 4:2 And yet the reason you don¡¦t have what you want is that you don¡¦t ask God for it.
Let¡¦s pray , ¡§Oh, that you would bless this church and these people. Please extend our territory! Please be with us in all that we do, and keep us from all trouble and pain!¡¨
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