Today is part 4 of 6 of the challenges of the prayer of Jabez. Going where the action is and some perspectives on the Jabez territory.
We are examining the prayer of Jabez. Some of you may have it memorized by now: “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ’Because I bore him in pain.’ 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." (1 Chronicles 4:9‑10) (NKJV)
When Jabez cried out to God “enlarge my territory” he was looking at his present circumstance and concluding, “Surely I was born for more than this.” (1) He wanted to begin “living large for God.” He wanted to go where the action is for God—not stay where he was or even go back from where he was.
Imagine God’s finger is skimping down the phone directory of heaven. Line by line, page by page, he’s looking for a name that stands out among all his loved people. And then his finger hesitates. It stops. Look closely—his finger has stopped at your name. Why? Because you took stock of your life one day and said, “I want more from you Lord, because I want to do more for you. O Lord, I want to go where the action is.”
Jabez wanted more out of life than he was experiencing. Can anyone here relate to that? Many of us can. It is the universal cry of humanity.
The Broadway play, Sweet Charity, depicts the life of dance-hall girls. Night after night they dance with any man who has the money to buy their time. Their greatest hope, however, is that someone will come in and dance them into a new life. Night after night they sing, “There’s got to be something better than this.”
Have you ever felt what they were feeling?
Shortly before Peter Sellers’ death, his fourth wife, actress Lynne Frederick, shared this observation about her husband: “His mind is in a constant state of turmoil about what his purpose is on this planet and whether it’s all worthwhile.” Have you ever been there?
Jabez was a man named “pain.” And he wanted more than that. Was that too much to ask? Jabez was not content to just survive--he wanted to thrive. And so he prayed not only “Bless me” but also “enlarge my territory.”
Is there anyone here today who has never asked God to improve your life—to show you where the action is? If not, then you do not know what “jabez,”--pain--is all about. Jabez was asking God to help him to have what God wants all of us to have--to know joy in place of pain, abundance in place of want, hope in place of despair. You don’t believe God wants you to be healthy, joyful,--to have all your needs met? Then what do you believe God’s will is for your life?
God is waiting for you to ask, to seek, and to find the action in the territory that God wants to give you. The opportunity and the need is right there before you. Listen to Jesus: Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. John 4:35 You might be wondering what territory has been assigned to you—sign up for more work at church, go downtown Staunton and preach on the street corner, go to Africa as a missionary. What do you look for or what do you pray for?
Well, your territory is the whole world. ….go and make disciples of all the nations Matthew 28:19
So don’t worry – God wants to touch the world world through you.
Tony Campolo story – a friend of his, we’ll call Anne, was a divorced, middle-aged lady who was rather well off. She wanted very much to go to Calcutta to work with Mother Theresa. She wrote to Mother Theresa & told her how much she wanted to come & do this. She waited for a response and finally got a letter from Mother Theresa. It simply said, “I received your letter wanting to come to India. Thank you for wanting to come, but go and find your own Calcutta.”
Ask God for the entry point to your whole world today—it might be your family, some one in your neighborhood, someone at work. It could be summed up in 2 words—opportunity and love.
So ask your self: What is my overlooked OPPORTUNITY ?— 1985, in only his second season in the NFL, Dan Marino made it to the Super bowl. Despite throwing for over three hundred yards and a touchdown, Marino’s Miami Dolphins lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 34-16. Marino felt bad, but he wasn’t devastated. He was one of the most promising talents in the NFL. He had made it to the Super bowl in only his second season. Surely he would be back. Dan Marino retired in 1999. He holds just about every record imaginable for a quarterback, but he never made it back to the Super bowl. Even today he says that if he would have realized that 1985 was going to be his only Super bowl, he would have appreciated it more. He would have made the most of that opportunity.
We all have opportunities that we’ve missed in our lives. Opportunities in school, at work, in love. Just like Dan Marino, we don’t always make the most of every opportunity.
So first ask yourself—What is my overlooked opportunity? Then…
What is my enduring PASSION ? Open your eyes and look around you now. Vast fields are ripening around us now. God wants to work through you now—he’s not waiting for you to become like Billy Graham or go to Africa. God has already given you strategic opportunities, passions, interests, and capabilities.
The life of 11-year-old Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), a coal miner’s son in Northern England, is forever changed one day when he stumbles upon a ballet class during his weekly boxing lesson.
His father is less than excited about Billy taking up a non-traditional male activity.Billy is also troubled by the diminishing mental capacity of his grandmother. He is torn between his responsibility to his family and to the gift with which he has been blessed. For his overwhelming desire to dance is more than a means of self-expression. It is his passion, and it is his destiny.
SHOW Clip Location: 1:28:45 through 1:30:15
At the close of his audition for the Royal Ballet School, one of the instructors asks him what he feels like while dancing. Billy searches for words and decides that he feels transformed, as if he completely disappears into the dance and ultimately flies—as if he’s electricity.
What is your enduring passion?
Ask the Lord to open your eyes today to see the larger life to which he is calling you—what is your life’s destiny?.
Once I begin to look for the action in my territory, I will realize God is always at work around me? So I’m I ready for it? You can begin to see God today doing his work, because you know this is where the action is. A. WHEN I GO WHERE THE ACTION IS I WILL REALIZE:
1. Everyone has a NEED.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:35-36 Circle the word compassion
Jesus could see into the hearts of every person and he knew that he had what they needed most. By the power of the Holy Spirit I am Christ’s representative in my needy corner of the world. And so are you. You will encounter people who are rendered helpless and are harassed by life’s circumstances.
A young boy was sent to the corner store by his mother to buy a loaf of bread. He was gone much longer than it should have taken him. When he finally returned, his mother asked, “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you.”
“Well,” he answered, “there was a little boy with a broken bike who was crying. So I stopped to help him.”
“I didn’t know you knew anything about fixing bikes,” his mother said.
“I don’t,” he replied. “I just stayed there and cried with him.”
You’ll realize everyone has a need when you are going where the action is.
The second thing you’ll realize is 2. God wants to use me NOW. Isaiah heard God’s voice calling: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8. God is always looking for people who are not too busy to go for him right now.
Listen to these words from Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard:
What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know… the thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do … to find the idea for which I can live and die.
What so many of us need is to find what we are willing to live for and what we are willing to die for. We need something that will give our lives meaning and purpose.
And its only when we’ve found something that’s really worth living and dying for that it makes any sense for us to pray this prayer of Jabez. After you realize God wants to use you now, then…
3. I will realize God’s schedule for me is full of SURPRISES. The Bible tells about a time Jesus’ followers were really surprised by what they found Jesus doing:
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. John 4:27a
Why was that surprising? Well in those days a Jewish man did not speak in public to a woman, especially at the place they were located—at a public well. And especially a Jewish man did not speak to a Samaritan woman—Samaritans were considered heathen, pagans.
So if you sincerely pray like Jabez for God to give you more opportunity and to put you where the action is, don’t be surprised who you might find yourself ministering to—or forgiving. Maybe you’ve held a grudge against certain groups of people or a particular person. Like the man who went to the doctor & the doctor told him he had rabies. The man immediately took out a piece of paper and a pen and started writing feverishly. The doctor thought he was writing his will so he said, “Wait a minute. No need to write your will. You’re not going to die.” The man replied, “Doc, I’m not writing my will. I’m making a list of people I want to go bite.”
So maybe God will surprise you with how forgiving you can be.
And there’s others surprises like they experienced in the early church as recorded in the book of Acts:
They had learn to be ready for anything—healing a lame man, preach to thousands, jump in a chariot with an Ethiopian, eat pork with a Gentile seeker.
Debbie Saufley is going to come now and tell of a recent experience she had with Enlarged Territory.
DEBBIE: I had taken Dick to UVA for his radiation treatment and while I waited had visited Steve
Clark and JoAnn Gray. I returned to the radiation center to wait for Dick and found a seat in the waiting area. Everyone looked burdened and weary and the silence was deafening. I sat down and got out my book to retreat into my own little world, and the Spirit of the Lord said, “Aren’t you going to pray the Jabez prayer?” I said, “Please Lord, my territory has been large enough today and I am emotionally tired. I think I will just read my book. …Oh all right, “Bless me indeed and enlarge my territory. Put your hand upon me and keep me from evil that I might not cause pain.”
I looked up from my book and I saw him coming toward me—all two feet of him with big brown eyes and a wide grin and curly hair. I thought, “oh no Lord, not a toddler. How can that possibly be enlarging my territory, besides I don’t have the energy.”
He kept coming and looked up at me. I smiled and said, What’s your name? He said something which his grandmother interrupted as Cameron. “How old are you?” Two stubby little black fingers went up. His mother had just been called back for her treatment. Cameron didn’t know that, he was just looking for a friendly face, someone to entertain him or vice versa. So for the next 15 minutes, Cameron, the Lord and I entertained the people in the waiting room. He danced and sang his “ABC’s” and showed me pictures of cars in a magazine and told me their color. When I thought of enlarged territory sitting in a waiting room full of cancer victims, I assumed it would be an adult who needed a listening ear or a prayer. Little did I know that ministry that day would take place in the form of a two year old. As Cameron and I interacted and he performed, a strange thing happened – worry lines turned to smiles, pain was laced with joy momentarily, spirits were lightened by the innocence of a child.
Who would have ever thought enlarged territory would come in the package of a two year old, but oh well, his agenda, not mine!!
It’s all in a day’s work. You realize that every day is full of God’s surprises when you go where the action is.
As you go where the action is you realize
4. The problem is not my ability but my READINESS.
Jesus was ready to respond to people’s needs
As they were leaving Jericho, a huge crowd followed. Suddenly they came upon two blind men sitting alongside the road. When they heard it was Jesus passing, they cried out, “Master, have mercy on us! Mercy, Son of David!” The crowd tried to hush them up, but they got all the louder, crying, “Master, have mercy on us! Mercy, Son of David!”
Jesus stopped and called over, “What do you want from me?”
They said, “Master, we want our eyes opened. We want to see!”
Deeply moved, Jesus touched their eyes. They had their sight back that very instant, and they followed him. Now the disciples weren’t ready for this—right before this event in Matthew 20 they were busy arguing over who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They we’re living for the deadline
Sometimes in life we live for the deadline, and don’t take advantage of the present time. How many of you have had teachers who told you this assignment is due in three weeks so start working on it now? You spent the first week saying, ’I still have two weeks to get it done’. You spent the second week saying, "next week, I’m really going to get started." You then spent the day before the assignment due working at lightning speed to get it done, complaining the teacher gave you too much work to do.
There is a danger in living for the deadline. The danger is, we don’t know what is going to happen in our lives between now and the deadline. We deceive ourselves into thinking we are smarter than we truly are. We want to think we can control the future, but we can’t. One day a fish is swimming along in the ocean just minding his own business, when out of nowhere a net comes up and before long he’s being served at Red Lobster.
Wilkinson suggests that we routinely pray: “Lord let me see what you want to do in me and through me TODAY! Don’t let me miss it!”
My father is always at work right where I am. So I’d better strike while the iron is hot
Finally, when I go where the action is 5. I can ask others, “How can I HELP you?.”
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" John 5:6
Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”
The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”
Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
What is really at the heart of the prayer of Jabez when he said, "Enlarge my borders…“-- he was asking God to give him more land – more to take care of – more to be responsible for.
"Enlarge my borders." Give me more to do. Expand my sphere of influence. Give me more people to love and care about. Enlarge my ministry. Provide me with more opportunities to serve you.
I believe those are the sorts of things we should all be praying. "God you have blessed my life and you are continuing to bless me, so give me more ways to serve you –
Give me more people to love and care about –
Give me more ministry to do."
"God, you’ve blessed me so enable me to be a blessing in the lives of other people." God does want to bless us – God is ready to pour his blessings into our lives – all we have to do is ask. But God also expects us to share those blessings through acts of service and ministry.
And that is also the sort of prayer we need to be praying for our church as a whole. As we ask God to bless our church, we also need to ask him to "enlarge our borders" – to expand our ministries – to ask people how we can be of help
One I realize these things, I wonder
C. HOW TO GET STARTED ON THIS JOURNEY TO WHERE THE ACTION IS
It’s already mine, all I have to do is ASK!
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:11-12
After such a successful career, I’m sure Dan Marino has very few regrets, but I bet one of them is the missed opportunity of not winning a Super bowl. Let’s not get to the end of our career here on earth looking back at missed opportunities. Make the most of every opportunity to give glory, honor and credit to God.
As we close today, I want to consider this question:
Ø If I trusted God completely for the future, What risks could I take for Him today?
One of the great faith builders of my life is going back and looking through all the answered prayer that God has brought my way due to high-risk, high-yield prayers. What would happen if you prayed that the Jabez prayer for thirty days, for three months, for a year, for a lifetime, what would happen?
I am going to ask you to pray the prayer of Jabez. I am going to pray this prayer, and you simply repeat the words after me as I pray, “Oh, God, bless me indeed, enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, in Jesus name, Amen.”
