(Power Point slides and audience outline available for $10 donation to my church’s worship fund--email me or visit church’s website)
Today I continue with part 2 of the challenges of the prayer of Jabez—the pitfalls of the Jabez territory and recognizing some of the myths about this prayer. But first let’s have a little fun.
Folks I’d like to introduce the legendary Johnny Cash and his famous song—A Boy Named Sue. (Singer with guitar sings song)
My daddy left home when I was three And he didn’t leave much to ma and me Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze. 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.’
Well, he must o’ thought that is was quite a joke And it got a lot of laughs from a’ lots of folk, It seems I had to fight my whole life through. Some gal would giggle and I’d get red And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head, I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named ``Sue.’’
Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean, My fist got hard and my wits got keen, I’d roam from town to town to hide my shame. But I made me a vow to the moon and stars That I’d search the honky-tonks and bars And kill that man that give me that awful name.
Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July And I just hit town and my throat was dry, I thought I’d stop and have myself a brew. At an old saloon on a street of mud, There at a table, dealing stud, Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me ``Sue.’’
Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad from a worn-out picture that my mother’d had, And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye. He was big and bent and gray and old, And I looked at him and my blood ran cold And I said: ``My name is `Sue!’ How do you do! Now you gonna die!!
Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes And he went down but, to my surprise, He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear. But I busted a chair right across his teeth And we crashed through the wall and into the street Kicking and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer
I tell ya, I’ve fought tougher men But I really can’t remember when, He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile. I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss, He went for his gun and I pulled mine first, He stood there lookin’ at me and I saw him smile
And he said: ``Son, this world is rough And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough And I know 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 that name that helped to make you strong.’’
He said: ``Now you just fought one heCK of a fight And I know you hate me, and you got the right To kill me now, and I wouldn’t blame you if you do. But ya ought to thank me, before I die, For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye Cause I’m the son-of-a-GUN that named you `Sue.’’’
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun And I called him my pa, and he called me his son, And I come away with a different point of view. And I think about him, now and then, Every time I try and every time I win, And if I ever have a son, I think I’m gonna name him Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!
So parents—be careful what you name your kids. It could be a real pain for them!
Last week I began this series on the challenges of the Prayer of Jabez—this prayer which was not well known until made popular by Bruce Wilkinson in the past couple of years. I talked about what it means to ask to ask God to bless me as recorded in this prayer:
READ with me the verse from 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."
The Bible story is about a man named Jabez. I talked last week about how in Bible times, names were very important. Biblical names indicated what would happen or become of a person, or indicated their character—a lot like this song about a boy named Sue.
Well, Jabez’s name means “pain.”
Poor Jabez.
Identified in such a way, he was meant to be a born loser. His crime appears to be that he had been born, and through no fault of his own, had caused his mother great pain.
With such a name, his life should not have been a success. Jabez had been identified as someone who would be unsuccessful. Jabez was identified as...well, as a pain
But the Bible tells us that he was more honorable than his brothers. Why? Because he prayed—he asked God for blessings.
All of us struggle with prayer. All of us, at least, who pray or who try to pray. We struggle to find time to pray, in the midst of our chaotic and over committed lives. We struggle to find a place to pray, somewhere that’s relatively free of interruptions and distractions. We struggle to concentrate.
Sometimes it seems that as soon as we close our eyes and bow our head, the mental floodgates open and we’re inundated with thoughts of all the other things that need to be done. And sometimes, we struggle just to stay awake.
[Here’s a theological question for you -- does it count as 20 minutes of prayer if you pray for five minutes, and then fall asleep for fifteen? What if you dream about prayer requests? Does that count as prayer time?] But I think what we struggle with most is simply the question of whether prayer works. Whether it makes a difference. Whether God really hears and answers.
Well, what if I told you I had a solution for all those difficulties? That I had come across a prayer in the Bible that was guaranteed to release the power and blessings of God in your life, if you would just pray it once a day? What if I had hundreds of personal testimonies from people swearing it had done exactly that?
And best of all, what if this prayer were only one sentence long, and took less than a minute to repeat? If all those things were true, then my name would be Bruce Wilkinson, and I would be a very popular man. Because his book, "The Prayer of Jabez," has so far sold over eight million copies. All this from a little book that’s only 93 pages long.
I do think that we can benefit from this book, and more importantly from the Scripture that it’s based on. But I want to deal with 2 areas—the limitations of the practice of this prayer and the pitfalls of the Jabez territory.
The first limitation or warning I would give you about this prayer is that the prayer is not an incantation or a magic formula. Even Wilkinson talked with amusement about how one of the tabloids had taken the prayer, placed in a cut-out shield in an article and told people how to place the shield on a lottery ticket to win the lottery or place it under a pillow at night and sleep on it to get that special guy or girl.
Prayer is communicating with a person, not repeating a mantra. In fact, when Jesus’ disciples asked him how they should pray, He specifically warned them against this practice:
"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." -- Matthew 6:7-8
So use the prayer of Jabez, but use it as an example; use it as a model, not a mantra. And this applies to any prayer, including the Lord’s Prayer or the Catholic rosary. fundamentally the prayer has to come from the heart
The second caution I would make is that God doesn’t always grant what we request. Because we often are not praying God’s agenda—we are praying that we can corner God to do as we want. Even Jesus Christ, when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that "this cup" might be taken from Him, when He prayed that somehow he might be spared going to the cross, even Jesus in that instance was denied what he sought. And listen to what happened when Paul the apostle prayed that God would relieve his suffering:
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me." -- 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
Sometimes God doesn’t grant what we request. Or sometimes he answers, but his answer is long in coming. God always has a good reason; and He always does what is wise and loving. But his plans, and his purposes, and especially his timing, don’t always coincide with ours.
As difficult as it was, I learned a great deal about prayer from my mother’s illness until her death about a year ago. Initially I prayed for God to heal her. It was only natural to do so—you want your mother to get better—you live in this fantasy I think sometimes that your parents will always be around. You can’t imagine life without them--even if you don’t always have the best of relationship with a parent.
But at some point I realized that asking God to heal her or cure her illnesses was selfish—and on my part and on my father’s and my siblings part as well. In fact, I think my sister and I came to this realization at about the same time about 3 months before her death—my mother no longer wanted to live. She wanted to be released from her pain and discomfort. My mother in many ways had a difficult life physically and emotionally. She wanted to leave this world and go to be with the Lord.
It was at that point that I prayed for God to let her go. It was then that I began to realize what it means to pray for God’s blessings. The last day of her life I traveled to see her in the hospital, not knowing that this would be her last day until I arrived and then I knew. It was hard but a day of blessing as my father was able to finally tell her it was OK if she wanted to go. I was the last person to speak to her that night as I said goodbye to her and closed with the Lord’s Prayer. It was one of God’s blessings in my life.
When we pray for others our motives tend to be purer—but when we pray for ourselves---our emotions tend to muddy up things. That’s why the words from the Lord’s prayer are helpful: YOUR WILL BE DONE. John Maxwell states it this way:
Our prayers should ask God to help us do what he is blessing, not bless what we are doing. (Partners in Prayer)
Think what a difference our prayers could make if we prayed that way—so when we pray as Jabez did asking God to bless me indeed—if I’m praying with the attitude that God’s will be done—the prayer will ultimately benefit me—and I will become a blessing to others if I have the attitude that I want my agenda to be God’s agenda. In that way I avoid praying from purely selfish motives.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in 18th Century England presents this perspective on prayer in his sermon “On Prayer”:
When we say our prayers… if we do it for any selfish reason, it is not acceptable to God.
We need to remember then that when we pray, whether it’s the prayer of Jabez or some other prayer. We can’t manipulate God. We can’t control Him. We can’t force Him do what we want, when we want; no matter how carefully we say the words of the prayer, or how often we repeat them.
We can only present our needs and requests to God, and then rest in the confidence that His response will certainly be good and right. He is the sovereign Lord of the universe, and He will act as He knows best, not as we think best.
And so it would be a very serious mistake for someone to read this book and think they can find favor with God just by praying a certain prayer. I think Wilkinson could have stated that more clearly in his preface in his book. But Wilkinson is human and is prone to shortcomings just like the rest of us.
And you may not agree with everything Wilkinson has to say in his book or his video presentation. I didn’t agree with 100% of what he said when I attended his conference a couple of weeks ago. But I did benefit tremendously from most of his teachings and from the new commitments I made while at the conference.
With those cautions in mind, I want to invite you again to think about Jabez’s request.
"And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ’Oh, that You would bless me indeed’"
That sounds rather selfish, doesn’t it? Asking God to bless me. Asking God to give me good things. But of course, that’s what we all want, isn’t it? Good things? So what should we ask for?
Bad things? "Dear God, please curse me. Please bring illness, and poverty, and heartache, and disappointment into my life. Please make me as miserable as humanly possible. Please take away everything I love and enjoy, and replace it with things I despise." Would that be more spiritual? No, of course not. Listen:
"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" -- Matthew 7:9-11
Wesley again, from his sermon on prayer
The purpose of your praying is not to inform God, as though he didn’t already know what you wanted. No, it is to inform yourself, to fix your wants more clearly in your heart and to remind yourself of your continual dependence on God who is always more willing to give than you are to ask. Then you will be more willing to receive the good things he has prepared for you.
(as translated into modern English by James D. Holway)
What’s the operative phrase here? Jesus said: "To those who ask Him." Ask Him for what? Good things! God invites us to ask Him for good things, and He rejoices in granting those requests. And Wesley says in his sermon that God is always more willing to give than we are to ask.
Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated Christmas. When you were a child, you looked forward to Christmas for what you hoped to receive. And now, as an adult, you look forward to Christmas because of the reaction on the faces of the children when they open their presents; their joy, and excitement, and happiness.
Nothing pleases a loving father more than being able to give joy to his children. And just as we take pleasure in blessing our children and giving them good things, so also God takes pleasure in blessing us and giving us good things.
Still, some people seem to think that when God gives us good things, He does so grudgingly. They suspect that deep down, He’d prefer that we suffer, or at least that we not be too happy. That’s the very lie that Satan used to deceive Eve in the garden. If that’s the picture you have of God, then you need to repent. Because God loves us, and He absolutely delights in giving us good things. Listen:
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." -- 1 Timothy 6:17
That’s one of the pitfalls of the Jabez territory to think that God gives grudgingly and I think the result is that we have difficulty accepting both the joys and the responsibilities that come with the territory. I want to emphasize that word RESPONSIBILITY.
To enjoy God’s blessings involves a responsibility to properly use those gifts—as a means of being a blessing to others. So I think it will be helpful if I discuss with you some of the misconceptions associated with this prayer of asking for God’s favor in our lives.
Misconception#1: God is responsible for the results, not me.
To the contrary, The Lord will hold you responsible for your life’s PRODUCTIVITY.
We are responsible before God to grow our church, to enlarge our ministry, to go coast to coast for God.
Hear this story Jesus told: “When he returned, the king called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what they had done with the money and what their profits were. The first servant reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount! ‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’
“The next servant also reported a good gain—five times the original amount. ‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You can be governor over five cities.’
What this story tells me is that faithfulness is a responsibility to multiply 10 times what God has given you. God expects results in your life—unfaithfulness is lack of productivity.
John Wesley: Asking God to give us our daily bread should not encourage us to stand around waiting for it to fall from heaven.
I’ll never forget my junior English teacher in high school who loved to preach about responsibility and she would spell it every time: R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y – RESPONSIBILITY! She would shout.
If you think the Jabez prayer is about selfishly relishing in God’s blessings with no accountability for the use of those blessings, then friends you misunderstand what the Jabez territory is all about.
Look at what happened with the one man who took no responsibility to invest or multiply what the Master had given him:
“But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘I hid it and kept it safe. 21I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’
22“‘You wicked servant!’ the king roared. ‘Hard, am I? If you knew so much about me and how tough I am, 23why didn’t you deposit the money in the bank so I could at least get some interest on it?’ 24Then turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who earned the most.’
What does the parable say to you? It says to me as a leader I am responsible before God to make my ministry grow.
What if a man in a suit walked up to you today and said, “I’ll pay you $1 miilion dollars if you triple the size of this church in 3 months?” Could you do it?
Imagine Jesus coming to you out of the door there and say you, “I have given you this church. I expect you to make it grow and double in size within the next year?” What would you do—how would you respond? Could he say to you in a year “Well done, good and faithful servant” or would he say “You have been irresponsible—give your talents to this person over here”?
Misconception #2: God is interested in spiritual things, not numbers!
The Lord desires your life to have both quality and QUANTITY!
What did Jesus instruct in the Great Commission: Go into ALL the world! God wants all of it—the entire globe.
You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last…. My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. John 15:16a, 8
Acts 2:41 (NLT)
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church—about three thousand in all.
But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so that the number of believers totaled about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
Yes the Lord is interested in numbers too—that’s why one of the books of the OT is titled Numbers. As long as there is one more to reach for Jesus, the church must grow.
There was a pastor at a church who sponsored a circus to connect with the community and present the gospel. 3000 people attended. One of the elders complained, “jesus would have never had a circus to reach people.” Would he? 3000 people were reached through that event.
Misconception #3: If I’m doing God’s will, I won’t be afraid! Oh yes you will. In fact the first sign that you are doing God’s will is fear. What was Moses’ first reaction to God’s call?
The Lord with you even when you face FEAR.
Joshua 1:9--I command you—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
For God has said,“I will never fail you. I will never forsake you” That is why we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Hebrews 13:5b-6
Yes you will have fears as you walk this journey with Jesus to the cross. People ridiculed him and ultimately put him to death. But in the end he could say, “not my will but your will be done.” “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Are you able, said the master, to be crucified with me?
“O Lord,that you would bless me indeed". Jabez isn’t asking for a garden-variety blessing. He isn’t asking for something ordinary or mundane. Jabez is requesting something extraordinary, something big, something special. He won’t be satisfied with something mediocre; he wants something great! And you know what? I think God loves that kind of prayer.
Because it shows two things: It shows that you believe He’s a great God, powerful and mighty, able to do whatever you ask of Him. And it shows that you believe in his love and goodness toward you, enough to be bold and courageous in prayer and in all that you face in life.
God is no fan of timidity, of hyper-caution, of people who never commit because they’re afraid of making a mistake. God loves people who step out in faith and take a risk; people who aren’t afraid of looking foolish. God loves people who take Him up on His promises, who dream big, and ask for big things, and attempt big things.
On your outline page, I’d ask you to respond to these questions:
What fear is stopping me today from asking God to bless me?
What misconception about prayer is giving that fear power over me?
The next time I face that fear, what should I do?
My prayer for you and me is that you’ll be bold with me as we ask God to bless Bethany Church in the next year to come. Friends, as I said last week, I’m not asking that God would add one or two families or half a doazen people to our congregation in 2002 and on into 2003. I’m asking that He double or triple our size.
And I’m not asking for a few people here and there to grow a little in their faith. I’m asking God to transform lives, to release the power of the Holy Spirit among us. I’m asking that God would rescue people from the domain of darkness; that God would create faith, and repentance, and confession, and reconciliation among people. I’m asking that God would do great and wonderful things in this church this year, things so great that we have no choice but to bow down and worship Him. Will you join me in that again this Sunday? Will you join me in asking that He bless us "indeed"?
Will you commit to praying this prayer, not as a magic formula, but as a model to help you focus on asking God for his supernatural blessings, that you may be a blessing to others? And if you experience a Jabez moment, an answer to prayer, would you be willing to share that—one of the upcoming Sundays during Lent or the Sunday after Easter?
On the response sheet, if you’d be willing to do that in one of these ways would you check your commitment and turn that in today?
I want to share a story of answered prayer on my life:
___By publicly telling the story during worship for about 5 minutes
___By writing a letter to the Pastor which he can read during worship.
___By videotape which can be played during worship.
Right now, we are going to pray. Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes. I’m going to challenge you to pray this prayer, the prayer of Jabez, for the next 40 days of Lent. Right now, we are going to pray together. I will go through one line, and then you repeat that line as we pray together:
PRAYER:
Dear God, bless me indeed,
enlarge my territory,
that your hand would be with me,
and that you would keep me from evil.
Bless me
and unleash your blessings on others.
Make me a blessing to others.
Thank you, God,
for the results of this prayer in advance.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
