Lovely to be here with you again.
Today we will be looking at Jabez. Who is he? Let's find out together.
Let us begin by singing: To God be the glory
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Let us pray together
Let us pray.
When we are not sure of the future Lord help us be calm. When information comes from all sides, correct and not, help us to discern. When fear makes it hard to breathe and anxiety seems to be the order of the day, slow us down God. Help us to reach out with our hearts when we can't touch with our hands. Help us to love as perfectly as we can, knowing that "perfect love casts out all fear. For those who are sick, and those who are grieving, we pray. For all who are ill we pray for safety, for health, for wholeness. May we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked. May we walk with those who feel they are alone, and may we do all that we can to comfort the sick. Help us, O God, that we might help each other. In the love of the Creator, in the name of the Healer, in the life of the Holy Spirit that is in all and with all, we pray. Amen.
Please share with me in the Lords Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come; thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
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Before we go to the word let us sing: As The Deer
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Pray like Jabez
You and I are, well, we’re us. But in 200 years’ time, if we’re lucky we’ll probably be an unknown name on a family tree somewhere. If not, we’ll likely be completely forgotten. There’s nothing, it seems, to make us stand out from the crowd.
Two books in the Old Testament, 1 and 2 Chronicles are books that chronicle the history of Israel. And the first dozen or so chapters of 1 Chronicles is a long list of dry boring names, sound familiar? Now you get to 1 Chronicles, Chapter 4 and verse 9, and so far they’ve been through 425 different names. Then suddenly without explanation there’s a brief biographical sketch given of a man called Jabez. It’s like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room. What’s going on there?
We all have great people that we admire, sports people, media personalities etc, and that’s great. But the media kind of pumps them up and makes them larger than life. And we live in a culture of fame and superstardom. And one of the things that I really love about God is in stark contrast to that, He loves little people, and He uses little people. He loves little old me.
The fact that there are big people, implies that we’re little people, we’re not as big, we’re not as important, we’re not as well-known, we’re not as wealthy as some of those other people. And let me say this, God delights in these so-called little people.
In 2nd Chronicles we get a man called Jahaziel. And it’s a real encouragement to see historically how God used this nobody, this little person this face in a sea of faces to bring enormous encouragement and guidance to the King, when they were about to be attacked by the Ethiopian army, which was a million strong.
But, today we are going to look at Jabez, because you go through all this whole family tree and the first dozen or so chapters of this book of 1 Chronicles. And I confess, it’s really dry reading. But all of a sudden name number 426 in Chapter 4 and verse 9 is a guy called Jabez. This is what it says:
Now Jabez was honoured more than his brothers and his mum called him Jabez because it means I bore him in pain.” (It’s a good start to life, isn’t it?) Jabez called on God saying, ‘Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my borders, and that your mighty hand would be with me and that you would keep me from sin and I would cause no pain’. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)
Isn’t it an interesting little biographical sketch that comes out in the middle of all these names? You know so and so begat so and so who begat so and so. And all of a sudden, we hear about Jabez, and Jabez’s name is Jabez because his Mum says, “I bore him in pain”.
Could you imagine if your mother or mine called us “You are a pain”? If I was given a name in the culture where the meaning of names is important and my name was “You are a pain” and my mother gave it to me, now there is a stunning start in life isn’t it. And yet it says Jabez was honoured more than his brothers.
There are so many people who think that their start in life has ruined their lives. Maybe you had an unpleasant upbringing, maybe your parents weren’t the best, maybe you look at yourself in the mirror and you think I just don’t look anything or maybe there’s a health issue or a disability or something.
We all have something in our lives, don’t we? And we think, well you know I’m kind of handicapped, well you know I kind of can’t do as well as the next person because I’ve got this in my background, or I’ve got this in my past and you know what I’m talking about. God would have none of that. Here’s this little person Jabez, it says that he was honoured more than his brothers. Why?
Jabez prayed: God bless me, bless me indeed, God enlarge my borders, God I want your mighty hand to be with me and God stop me from doing stupid things so that I may cause no pain. Very specific prayer by Jabez. His name means, “I caused my mum pain” and he says, “But Lord I don’t want to cause anyone else pain.” Here’s this man Jabez whoever he is, whoever he was, this is the only thing we know about him. And he humbled himself under God. He bowed down, he said, “God bless me.”
Question: What is Christianity all about? Is it doing good? Is it playing by the rules? Is it telling other people when they’re not playing by the rules? Is it being superior? Is it being a superstar? Well, those things are sure what used to be high on my list of what I thought Christianity was about. But the more you look at it, it’s not about being mighty, it’s not about being superior, it’s not about telling people what they’re doing wrong. It’s about doing what Jabez did – humbling ourselves. Lord I want your way, whatever You say goes. Change the things that are rotten in me Lord, let me be a blessing. Let me do good, God bless me, be with me.
It’s so normal, it’s so ordinary, there’s nothing super spiritual or super academic about any of this stuff. We’ve this tendency of separating the spiritual dimension from our life and this huge separate gap but here Jabez is saying, God I want you to be in my life. He’s saying Lord, I had a lousy start, but will you bless me, anyway? And it says the Lord honoured him more than his brothers.
God will you enlarge my borders? Yes! Will you give me influence? Yes! God, will you come with me? Yes! God stop me from doing the stuff that will hurt others. Yes! And right after the passage, it says this:
And the Lord granted his requests.
What do people expect out of life? Superstardom? Well … 00001% of us might become superstars. Wealth? Well, you get wealth and how happy does it make you? Me, well, I like this prayer by Jabez. In fact, let us pray this prayer every morning: Lord just give me a simple life, just bless me. I pray that people just like you and me, have a simple, spiritual desire to have God in our lives, not separate, not in a cupboard, not in a box, not in a Sunday morning church box, but here with us every day.
Lord, bless me indeed today. Lord I just want to see you extend my borders so I can touch more people for you. Lord, I just want you to keep me from evil. Lord, that I won’t hurt anyone. Lord, I want you to go with me; Your mighty hand to be with me all the time.
What a great prayer, and it’s that prayer that distinguishes Jabez from the 425 names that came ahead of him, and from all the names that came after him in that long, long list.
You and I, in a 100 years’ time, we will be forgotten. What will they write on your epitaph, what will they write on my epitaph? God honoured him, God honoured her more than their brothers or sisters. Well, that depends, you and I, we’re just little people. But will we humble ourselves before a mighty God and let Him do great things through us? Amen
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Let us share together as we sing: I need thee
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Amen
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