Rev. David Holwick R
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 3, 2001
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
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I. Can a prayer make a difference in your life?
A. It did for Bruce Wilkinson - 4 million copies at $10 a pop!
B. But he credits it with more.
1) He has prayed it daily for 30 years.
2) He says it has helped him build a worldwide ministry.
C. Can it give us new insight into God's ways?
II. Background of a guy named Jabez.
A. In obscure part of Bible.
1) Least popular - genealogy lists.
2) Yet in midst of list of names, one gets extra attention.
a) He is not tied to anyone, just pops up.
b) Only found here, never mentioned again.
B. Inauspicious start.
1) Mom was in unusual pain.
a) Probably more than childbirth.
b) She had lots of problems in her life, and this son was
going to be her revenge.
2) Given prophetic name - he'll cause pain to others.
a) (other examples of predictive Bible names) Jacob...
C. He didn't have much going for him, but he had faith in God.
1) He prayed an extraordinary prayer.
2) And God answered it.
III. Asking for a blessing. "Oh, that you would bless me!"
A. Selfish or spiritual?
1) Comes across as arrogant, like Pharisee praying in Temple.
2) But we should seek a close relationship with God.
3) Jabez is praying for something God wanted him to have.
a) He is being personal, not selfish.
B. Blessing is more than what follows sneezing.
1) We are asking for God's supernatural favor.
a) Only he gives true fulfillment and happiness.
2) Jabez asks, but lets God decide what they will be.
a) More than that: where, when and how they come.
b) (story of room of undelivered blessings in heaven)
IV. Living large for God. "Oh, that you would enlarge my territory!"
A. Perhaps an allusion to his family losing their ancestral land.
1) Did his father or brothers squander it?
B. Applies also to business, ministry, etc.
1) A broader application is intended: the idea that our
relationships, our experiences, and our work can, and
should, be caught up in the larger purposes of God.
2) Possible to reduce this to a message of prosperity.
a) "God wants you thin and rich!"
b) It really means God wants us to use everything in life
for him.
c) And he wants us to do well at it.
C. When we pray for more ministry, amazing things occur.
1) Ask in earnest and God will give opportunities.
2) Miracles can still happen.
D. Christians tend to be too inward.
1) We should have an outreach focus.
2) Example of missionary C. T. Studd.
C. T. Studd was handed the world on a silver platter.
He inherited a fortune from his father, one of the
wealthiest Englishmen of the latter 19th century.
He himself was a world-class athlete, and captained what
some say even to this day was the greatest cricket team
in the history of Britain.
But Studd gave it all up to become a missionary to China,
India and Africa.
Which is why these words have all the more power:
"Christ's call is to feed the hungry, not the full;
to save the lost, not the stiff-necked;
not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance;
not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches and
cathedrals at home in which to rock professing Christians
to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped
prayers and artistic musical performances,
but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute,
to capture men from the devil's clutches and snatch them
from the very jaws of hell,
to enlist and train them for Jesus and make them into an
Almighty Army of God.
"But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot,
unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion, where
neither church nor state, neither man nor traditions
are worshiped or preached, but only Christ and him
crucified.
Not to confess Christ by fancy collars, clothes, silver
croziers or gold watch-chain crosses, church steeples or
richly embroidered altar cloths, but by reckless
sacrifice and heroism in the foremost trenches."
#19212
V. The touch of greatness. "Let your hand be with me!"
A. God's hand is associated with his power.
1) The prophet says, "His arm is not too short to save."
2) God's hand can be against us.
3) When it is on our side, great things can happen.
B. Attempt something so great it will fail unless God intervenes.
1) We cannot do it alone.
2) Our sufficiency is from God. 2 Cor 3:5-6
C. God is strong toward those who are loyal to him. 2 Chr 16:9
VI. Keeping the legacy safe. "Keep me from harm!"
A. Similar to Lord's Prayer.
Ray Stedman: His prayer is, "that you might keep me from the
harm, the evil, so that it might not pain me."
There is a play on words here.
"Hurt," or "pain," translate into the name "Jabez" again.
So what he is praying, therefore, is, "Lord, whatever it is
that is in me that is wrong, I pray that you will keep it
from 'Jabez-ing' me. Sermon #5625
B. The perils of spiritual success.
1) We start thinking regular rules don't apply to us.
2) Sister-in-law Sara supervising lazy Christian workers.
a) They minister to customers for 45 minutes.
b) Sara fires them.
C. A supernatural God can keep us from evil.
1) We can seek influence and impact, but don't let it ruin you.
2) Americans can relate to this.
VII. God's honor roll. "Jabez was more honorable."
A. How we compare with others.
1) We don't know how bad Jabez's brothers were, but Jabez
did all right.
2) The highest praise for us must come from God.
3) "Well done, you good and faithful servant."
B. Appropriate Jabez's prayer and faith. (but not in rote fashion)
C. God granted what he requested.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#19212 "C. T. Studd on Real Religion," quoted by Norman P. Grubb, in
Rev. Brett Blair's Illustrations By Email,
www.sermonillustrations.com; June 3, 2001.
Sermon #5625 from Holwick database
From sermon by Rev. Ray Stedman, "Prayer's Practicality,"
preached November 9, 1980; Discovery Publishing Message No: 5,
Catalog No: 3739.
(The articles below were also helpful)
These and 18,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Baptist Press, May 30, 2001
FIRST-PERSON: How an obscure Hebrew became a New York Times bestseller,
by Joseph Loconte
WASHINGTON (BP) -- Books on spirituality are popular these days, and
most Americans say they pray regularly. But who would have guessed that
a book based on the prayer of an obscure Bible character would be a No.
1 New York Times bestseller?
"The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life," by Bruce
Wilkinson, doesn't seem to have much going for it. There's no elegant
prose, no gripping narrative. Its subject, Jabez, is just another name
tucked away in the endless genealogical lists of First Chronicles.
Though Jabez was from the tribe of Judah, he wasn't exactly a Hebrew
superstar. He was neither a prophet nor a priest. He won no great
military victories.
But he composed a prayer. "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my
territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from evil, that I may
not cause pain." The Bible tells us God answered the prayer of Jabez.
We are not told how. That's it. That's all we know about him.
But that was enough for author Bruce Wilkinson, who's been reciting the
prayer of Jabez for decades. Wilkinson unpacks the contemporary meaning
of the prayer and shares personal examples - some remarkable, some not
so remarkable - of its power in his life.
The book has gotten the attention of White House staff. You might see
it lying out on a coffee table, or hear it discussed at a prayer group
meeting in the Old Executive Office Building.
Why the popularity of this little missive on prayer, and why now?
Much of the book unabashedly challenges the reader to pursue influence.
For Jabez, that meant enlarging his territory. In Washington, of
course, it means accumulating political power. Wilkinson intends a
broader application: the idea that our relationships, our experiences,
and our work can, and should, be caught up in the larger purposes of
God. That's a throwback to an earlier, more religious age, which
counted all of life's activities as opportunities to respond to the
Divine Call. It is a welcome message in a culture that makes the bottom
line of our work the bottom line.
There's another reason for the book's success. Jabez asks God to keep
him from evil, that he might not cause pain. Now there's a refreshing
thought: Live a life untainted by deceit and not entangled by selfish
ambition. Here is a figure who seeks after influence, even greatness,
but not at the price of his own moral ruin. In the immediate post-
Clinton era, perhaps it's not so surprising that this Old Testament
nobody would emerge as a national role model.
__________________
Joseph Loconte is the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free
Society at the Heritage Foundation. His column is adapted from a radio
commentary that aired May 3 on National Public Radio's All Things
Considered.
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HOLWICK'S COLLECTION Number: 19187
SOURCE: Associated Baptist Press; Http://www.abpnews.com-abpnews/
TITLE: The Prayer Of Jabez: What Does It Teach?
AUTHOR: Mark Wingfield
ILLUSTRATION: Does God intend to give his children certain blessings but
only if they ask?
Does reciting the same prayer to God every day provide power?
Does praying daily for God to bless you and enlarge your territory
violate the dictates of Christian humility and sacrifice?
Has the so-called "health and wealth" theology found a back door into
Baptist congregations?
These are some of the theological questions raised by the breakaway
popularity of Bruce Wilkinson's bestseller, "The Prayer of Jabez." The
book has been widely embraced by Baptist ministers and laypeople in
recent weeks and has become the basis of small-group Bible studies and
sermons in some churches.
In the book, Wilkinson, founder of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries in
Atlanta, urges readers to "reach for an extraordinary life" by praying
the prayer of Jabez daily. He has prayed the prayer of Jabez every day
for 30 years, he writes, and has found it to produce wonderful results
in his life and ministry. "The Jabez prayer distills God's powerful
will for your future," Wilkinson admonishes.
The book breaks the prayer of 1 Chronicles 4:10 into four parts.
The first is "that you would bless me indeed."
"God really does have unclaimed blessings waiting for you, my friend,"
Wilkinson writes. He explains that praying for God's blessings for
yourself "is not the self-centered act it might appear, but a supremely
spiritual one and exactly the kind of request our Father longs to hear."
To "bless," according to Wilkinson, means to "ask for or to impart
supernatural favor. When we ask for God's blessing, we're not asking
for more of what we could get for ourselves."
Although by praying the prayer of Jabez, "your life will become marked
by miracles," Wilkinson urges readers not to see the prayer as a means
to get specific things. Jabez, he notes, "left it entirely up to God to
decide what the blessings would be and where, when and how" they would
be received.
To illustrate the importance of asking for God's blessing, Wilkinson
tells a fable about a man named Mr. Jones who dies and goes to heaven,
where he discovers a ribbon-tied box with his name on it. Inside the
box, he learns, are "all the blessings God wanted to give him while he
was on earth, but Mr. Jones had never asked."
Wilkinson explains: "Even though there is no limit to God's goodness, if
you didn't ask him for a blessing yesterday, you didn't get all that you
were supposed to have. That's the catch -- if you don't ask for his
blessing, you forfeit those that come to you only when you ask."
The second part of the prayer is to "enlarge my territory."
This means to "ask God to enlarge your life so you can make a greater
impact for him," Wilkinson says. "When you start asking in earnest --
begging -- for more influence and responsibility with which to honor
him, God will bring opportunities and people into your path."
The third part of the prayer is "that your hand would be with me."
This emphasizes the Christian's dependence upon God and inability to do
God's work in human power alone, Wilkinson explains. "The hand of the
Lord is so seldom experienced by even mature Christians that they don't
miss it and don't ask for it. They hardly know it exists."
Finally, the prayer asks "that you would keep me from evil."
This is a prayer not to face temptation, Wilkinson says. "Most of us
face too many temptations -- and therefore sin too often -- because we
don't ask God to lead us away from temptation."
In conclusion, Wilkinson asserts that God does have favorites. "Equal
access to God does not add up to equal reward. ... Simply put, God
favors those who ask."
The nature of Wilkinson's message has drawn immediate comparisons among
some critics to the health-and-wealth gospel of the televangelists. But
Baptist advocates of the book say that's not what the book teaches at
all. "I don't see it as being prosperity theology," said Ted Elmore,
director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas prayer office.
"There are ample places in the Old and New Testaments where God does
indeed want to bless his people."
Johnny White, associate pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio,
acknowledged the book "skates on the edge of health and wealth," but he
does not believe that was Wilkinson's intent. In using the book at
Trinity, where 750 people recently discussed it in home Bible studies,
"we've tried to focus on the natural human tendency to turn inward.
We've tried to draw from that passage the outward focus -- bless me that
I might reach out."
Even though he likes and advocates the prayer, it should not be seen as
a "quick fix" or a "magic formula," said Jeff Williams, pastor of First
Baptist Church of Denton, Texas.
At Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas,
prayer and spiritual formation professor Dan Crawford has been teaching
about the prayer of Jabez for 15 years. When he does, however, he
presents it as "a biblical example of when a man prayed a bold prayer
and God said yes." While he believes God answers all prayers, Crawford
asserted that God doesn't always answer all prayers in the affirmative.
"Sometimes God says no; sometimes God says wait." The value of the
Jabez model is to encourage Christians to pray boldly, Crawford said.
It should not be construed as a "hocus-pocus magic formula," he warned.
Even so, scores of people are reporting that they have discovered life-
changing results by praying the prayer of Jabez. Reviews of the book on
Amazon.com, for example, are replete with dramatic testimonies, as is
the book's own Web site, www.prayerofjabez.com.
Elmore said he and other members of his family have found personal
blessings through the prayer of Jabez. Yet he understands how the
prayer and the book might be misused. "The danger is not with the
prayer of Jabez itself," Elmore said. "The danger would be in
interpretation." A person who feels the need to pray this specific
prayer as a formula to achieve God's blessing is "a person who's more
concerned with prayer than the God who answers prayer," he said. "Our
confidence is not in prayer; our confidence is in God."
White, likewise, has found the prayer of Jabez personally beneficial.
And he's heard from other members of Trinity that they have too. Yet
it's not the only thing he prays, he said. "It would be missing the
point to think this becomes the mantra of life."
Christians should not fall into using the prayer of Jabez as a
"ritualistic prayer," Crawford added. "It's biblical to see God as
wanting to give us good things. That's throughout the Scriptures. I
don't think it's totally dependent upon us asking for it in some kind of
ritualistic prayer. It may depend more on faithfulness and how the
circumstances fit in to God's overall plan. "Sometimes God gives to us
that which to him is good but to us doesn't appear as we want it,"
Crawford said. "He works things for his good."
With more than 4.4 million copies of the little book now in circulation
and no end in sight to the sales explosion, Christians who attempt to
draw attention to what they see as potential theological dangers in the
book often get a chilly reception.
Jim Holliday, pastor of Lyndon Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., writes
book reviews for the Kentucky Western Recorder. He recently reviewed
"The Prayer of Jabez" and panned it with a one star rating out of five
possible stars. Even members of his own congregation have questioned his
judgment.
Yet he stands by his critique. "The book makes too much out of the
prayer of Jabez," he asserted. "If I were going to spend every day in a
prayer discipline, I would much rather spend it with the prayer Jesus
taught us," Holliday said. "There's probably more to be mined there in
terms of spiritual development than in Jabez."
Holliday's view is shared by Mike Gunn, pastor of the non-denominational
Mars Hill Christian Fellowship in Seattle. The contemporary
congregation with roots in the Bible church movement has posted a
bruising critique of Wilkinson's book on its Web site. Gunn calls
Wilkinson's book "a new low in the poor theology department" and nothing
more than a fad.
"There are many great books on prayer," Gunn writes. "'The Prayer of
Jabez' is not one of them. ... Stay away from anyone who pulls out an
obscure verse from a genealogy and builds a theology around it."
Meanwhile, the marketing machine behind Christian publishing is working
overtime to develop spin-off Jabez products. Versions geared to women,
teens and children are planned, as are Bible study guides and videos.
Plaques and cups already are available.
For his part, Wilkinson expressed shock at the success of the book,
which began germinating in his mind 30 years ago as a student at Dallas
Theological Seminary. "We can't claim any credit or brilliance," he
told the Dallas Morning News. "It's just God deciding Jabez prayed this
prayer thousands of years ago, and maybe now it's time to get it
answered."
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