Sermon Central
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The Prayer Of Jabez
Contributed by Abraham Shanklin on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Jabez is distinctly remembered, not for what he did, but for what he prayed. His prayer became the casting distinction in his life to remove him from causing pain to being blessed by the hand of God.
I brought home the CVS brand, after taking it a couple of times; she was convinced that it didn’t work.
Some of you are here thinking that there is no room for your gifts in the kingdom because it seems everybody is always using the brand name folks. Folks just assume that you won’t work. But God says otherwise.
Just because you got saved last week, last month, or last year God can still use you. Just because your love has grown cold for the Lord and your service has forced you into bouts with other Christians, God can melt your heart and refocus your attention on his will and his work.
The wise and almighty God of the universe seems to commonly opt for the generic, store-brand Christian who has a heart for him.
Yes, God certainly uses those who are the elite, but he is often in the habit of using highly unlikelies, the Least-Likely-to-Succeed to be used by him to touch the world for Christ.
If I thought that God would only use the T.D. Jakes, the Charles Stanleys, the John MacArthurs, the Tony Evans, the Floyd Flakes, the E.V. Hills of this world, then I would have resigned a long time ago.
If you think he could only use the Cece Winans, the Yolonda Adams, the Kirk Franklins, the Hezekiah Walkers, the John P. Kees, the Ron Kenolys, the Donnie McClurkins of this world, then you don’t know God very well.
People will try to say that New Life can’t make an impact because the vision is way out there, the pastor is too green, the leadership isn’t focused, the membership is up and down, the facilities are inadequate, but I’m here to tell you that God is not through with us yet!
God constantly says, “Next!” He delights in transforming highly unlikely individuals into transformed servants in order to impact the world.
Jabez prayed:
1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast.
1. "Enlarge my coast".
2. He didn’t want to stay in the "comfort zone"!
3. The word ’enlarge’ means simply to make larger, extend in limits or dimensions, to extend to more purposes or uses.
4. The word ’coast’ here is used to refer to boundaries and borders.
5. His desire was to reach out beyond himself...to expand his sphere of influence.
Jay Dennis, a pastor in Florida would recount this story:
Teenaged Brian was skinny as a beanpole and pimply as a strawberry. His awkward social skills meant nobody really wanted to have anything to do with him.
He was truly a loner. Although it almost appeared as if it were by choice, it really wasn’t. He came to a church youth group, back in the early 1980s in South Florida, which included the usual teenage cliques and groups.
But nobody wanted to include Brian. The whole youth group visited an amusement park one Saturday.
When the youth pastor decided to pair them up, nobody wanted to pair up with Brian, and so he wandered by himself all day long through the amusement park feeling unloved, ignored, and untouched.
Three or four months after the amusement park incident, he just sort of silently slipped away. Nobody at the church really even noticed.
