Three Distinctions Of Jabez Series

Three Distinctions of Jabez

1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Are you ready for an adventure … something new … a fresh start … that will get you off high center of status quo?

Would you be willing to do one thing if it would . . .

·gain you a better life …

·get you more than you presently have …

·protect you …

·not cause pain …

I probably sound like one of those old time side show elixir sellers! They would peddle their so called medicine that was believed to have the power to cure all ills. Well that is not my intent … however the world "elixir" also means "an underlying principle." Look it up!

I wonder if you are willing to practice, to do, one underlying principle to bring about a better and fuller life … to gain you more than you could ask for … to protect you … as well as not cause pain to others?

If so step right up and receive the elixir of prayer. But not just any mumbo jumbo prayer and not from a heart that is wanting for self … but a prayer that seats us deep into the cavity of God’s desire and will for our lives. A prayer that totally and absolutely leaves all in God’s hands. Would you be so willing?

The prayer I speak of is known these days as "The Prayer of Jabez." It’s uniqueness is equal to the way I came upon this prayer. Matt and Jimalee James were camping this past summer and as Jimalee and the girls waited on Matt to finishing fishing. An older gentleman who had been camped across the way from them, and who had with him a daughter who was bound to a wheel chair came over in the last moments before they left and handed Jimalee a small book titled "The Prayer of Jabez." Jimalee on a Wednesday evening asked me if I had ever heard of Jabez and did I know anything about him from the scriptures. Confessing I did not, she showed me the little book … immediately intrigued I asked if I could read it after she had. Well from there I read the book and read it again … bought several copies for myself, as well as a couple for the church library … shared it with some of you, and want to now share it with you in sermon format.

Why? Because the teaching from the prayer of Jabez is absolutely rock solid God filled substance that will get you off the high center of the status quo of your life. It will bring you into the presence of God where …

·You will not only receive, but enjoy the fuller life God desires us to live.

·You will ask not for what you can get for yourself, but what only God can give.

·You will become acutely aware of the direction God is moving.

·You will seek God’s protection from the evil filled living that temps and taunts.

Bruce Wilkinson says, "This petition has radically changed what I expect from God and what I experience every day by His power."

By now you might we asking, "Who is this Jabez guy?"

If you are a genealogy buff the records of 1 Chronicles might interest you … but to the average Bible reader long list of family names you can barely pronounce are about as interesting as counting the dots on a ceiling … you’d rather just skip over them.

1 Chronicles begins with Adam, Seth, Enosh, … with chapter four listing the descendants of Judah … Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal … Koz begot Anub, Zoebah, the families of Aharhel the son of Harum … and then without warning we are introduced to a man named Jabez … his spotlight in Hebrew history is but two verses. But in these two verses we see the distinction this man Jabez had in his life.

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." 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.

1.Distinction of Name

1 Chronicles 4:9b and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain."

Today we name our children with names that are faddish or perhaps after someone who has left an impression upon us. However what we name our children may have an impact upon them. Consider this article I read in "Child Magazine."

What’s In A Name?