I Chronicles 4:9-10

&nb= sp;

God wants to bless us with success,

po= wer, and protection.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

June 10, 2007

When we think about blessing, we often think o= f the prayer we say before we eat. I suppose every family has a funny story about some verbal mishap during the grace before meals.

I heard about a dad na= med Bob who had been teaching his little girl, Jenny, to say grace. After a few weeks of coaching, Jen= ny was ready to do a solo blessing. = She started out fine, thanking God for mommy and daddy, brother and sister, for= the rolls, the salad, and the drinks. She ended the prayer with a heartfelt “And thank you, God, for the spaghetti!” Then she li= fted her head up and was ready to eat.

Jenny had forgotten ho= w her dad had taught her to end the prayer, by saying, “In Jesus’ nam= e, Amen.” Bob tried to hel= p her remember by prompting her, “In…what?” Jenny was confused for a second, t= hen her light came on and she proudly finished, “In tomato sauce! Amen!”[1]

Maybe we’re all a little confused by this idea of blessing.&= nbsp; If you think all we’re talking about is grace before meals, I = want to expand your concept of blessing today.&= nbsp; I want to do that with a little jewel of Scripture that is tucked aw= ay into one of the most boring passages in the entire Bible. In fact, I think it’s a mira= cle that anyone ever found this little prayer at all, because it appears in the midst of a long and tedious genealogy of Israel. The author takes a short break in = the monotony to say a special word about a man named Jabez. Jabez was honored more than all his brothers, despite the fact that his name meant “labor pain.” How would you like the other kids = on the playground calling you that all= your growing up years? Maybe as a = way to cope with the difficulties of his life, Jabez had a favorite prayer that was significant enough that the chronicler recorded it for all time:&nbs= p; “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that y= our hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!”= ;= = [2]

This little prayer swe= pt the country a few years ago because of a small book called The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life by Br= uce Wilkinson, an evangelist based in Atlanta, Georgia.= = [3] The book was phenomenally successf= ul because it touched people’s hearts and minds and lives. A prayer doesn’t have to be lengthy to be great. Today I = want to share with you how this prayer of Jabez can touch your life with the pow= er of God.

Understand first that = GOD WANTS TO BLESS US. He made us; he loves us; and he wa= nts our lives to be filled with all good things. Like any good father, his desi= re is to see his children happy and fulfilled. Too often we get the idea that God= wants our lives to be like Jabez’ name—a pain! Some people seem to picture God si= tting on a cloud with a cattle prod just waiting for us to step out of line so he= can zap us. But that’s not = what God is about at all.

Musa Alami was a Pales= tinian official who was sent to live in the desert near Jericho following the Arab-Israeli War = in 1948. Musa had a dream, based= on his acquaintance with irrigation projects in other parts of the world, to s= ee the Jordan River Valley blossom and flourish with crops. Other people looked at= the bleak desert landscape and laughed at Musa’s dream. But with a few poor refugees from = the Jericho refugee ca= mp, Musa began to dig in the desert, not with steam shovels or earth movers, but with picks and shovels. After six = months of grueling labor, Musa and his motley crew finally struck water deep under= the desert sand. When water—= ;fresh water—began to fill up the hole they had dug, Musa Alami didn’t shout or cheer or laugh at all. He wept, because God had blessed his dream with success. Before long, thousands of acres we= re yielding fruits and vegetables in abundance because of one man’s persistent dream and his faith in the blessing below the surface.= = [4]

Isn’t that just = like God? Sometimes—most of = the time—we have to dig and dig hard to gain the blessing. But if we will dig beneath the sur= face of the desert landscape of our lives, God will bring blessings gushing fort= h, abundant and refreshing and productive.&nb= sp; That’s his promise. Remember how Jesus said, = 220;Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door wi= ll be opened for you. For everyo= ne who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks= the door will be opened.”[5]

Our problem is not tha= t God is lacking in supply. Our pro= blem is that we don’t open up our lives for all the blessings God wants us= to have. I don’t know if it’s ignorance or lack of faith or fear, but many times we fail to realize just what God wants to do for us.

The late Dr. Bill Brig= ht of Campus Crusade for Christ told the story of a famous oil field in Texas called Yat= es Pool. During the Great Depres= sion of the 1930’s this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates= . Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enoug= h on his ranching operation to pay his mortgage, so he was in danger of losing h= is ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others during the Depression) had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, Yates g= razed his sheep over those rolling West Texas = hills, worrying about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an o= il company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wi= ldcat well, and he signed a lease contract.

At 1,115 feet they str= uck a huge oil reserve. The first w= ell came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discove= ry, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow = of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.

Mr. Yates owned it all= . The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in povert= y. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there ev= en though he owned it.[6]

Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the all the gifts of God, but they are not even aware of their birthright.

The Letter of James sa= ys, “You do not have, because you= do not ask.”[7] Jabez knew how to ask. He prayed, “Oh, that you would bless me.” Bruce Wilkinson translates this verse with a word of emphasis: “That you would bless me indeed.” Not just a little b= it, not just an ounce, not just enough to get by, but bless me indeed. Bless me a lot. Bless me by the barrel.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Bless me big time. Bless me abundantly. That’s what God wants to do = to you.

GOD ALSO WANTS US TO HAVE SUCCESS.= We’re not talking about cars and boats and big houses here. God wants us to have a life that i= s spiritually successful. He wants us to ha= ve a successful witness, a successful ministry, successful relationships with him and other people. That’s worth more than any material possession.

There’s nothing = wrong with praying for success, when you’re praying for success in the will= of God. You probably remember the verse from Psalm 118, “This i= s the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” But do you know the verse that = comes right after that? “Save us, we beseech you, O Lord= ! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success.”[8]

Jabez prayed that God = would enlarge his territory. Our spiritual territory is the influence we have with other people in sharing t= he good things of God. We pray t= hat God would use us to touch more and more people with the good news of Jesus Chri= st, and we will be successful. The measure of a Christian’s success is not how much money you make or wh= at you own, but how many people you touch and how you touch them. Sometimes you may not even realize= how successful you really are until you look back at the influence you have had= in some people’s lives.

I love the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus. It’s about a frustrated musi= cian in Portland, Oregon, who takes a job as a band dire= ctor in the 1960’s. Thinking= the job is only temporary, he lets himself be diverted from his goal to become a famous composer. Little by li= ttle, Mr. Holland’s life is taken up with the demands of teaching and raisi= ng a family, especially after he learns that his only son is deaf. After a while he gives up on the f= amous composer dream and just does his best with all he has to deal with every da= y.

After 35 years teaching band, Mr. Holland finds out one day that the school board, because funds are short, has decided to cut the music and drama programs. A short detour into teaching had b= ecome his mission in life, and now that, too, was being taken away.

At the end of the movi= e, Mr. Holland and his wife and son are cleaning out his classroom, and as they le= ave the building, they hear a noise coming from the auditorium. Mr. Holland opens the door to find= an auditorium packed with current and former band students and a big banner th= at says, “Good-bye, Mr. Holland.”= As he enters, the crowd of friends gives him a standing ovation.

The speaker for the gathering is the governor of the state of Oregon, who was a student that Mr. Hol= land helped believe in herself when she was in his class. She speaks for everyone as she say= s, “Mr. Holland had a profound influence on my life (on a lot of lives, I know), and yet I get the feeling that he considers a great part of his life misspent. Rumor has it he was always working on this symphony of his, and this was going to make him famo= us and rich (probably both). But= Mr. Holland isn’t rich, and he isn’t famous. At least not outside our little town. So it might be easy for= him to think himself a failure, but he’d be wrong. Because I think he has achieved a success far beyond riches and fame.”

Then the Governor look= s at Mr. Holland and says, “Look around you. There is not a life in this room t= hat you have not touched, and each one of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies = and the notes of your opus. We ar= e the music of your life."[9]

When God blesses us wi= th that kind of success, it’s music to our spiritual ears. So we pray for God to enlarge our = border, so that we might touch others more and more for him!

God wants to bless us = with success, and GOD WANTS TO PROTECT = US. Though every one of us has to bear= some burdens and endure some pain, God always wants to surround us with his love= and care. He wants to preserve ou= r life and protect us from harm. Rem= ember how the Psalmist sang it?

Because you have made the Lord your refuge,

the Most High your dwelling place,

no evil shall befall you,

no scourge come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you=

to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.

…Those who love me, I will deliver;

I will protect those who know my name.

When they call to me, I will answer them;

I will be with them in trouble,

I will rescue them and honor them.

With long life I will satisfy them,

and show them my salvation.[10]

Pastor Steve Nickles h= as a three-year-old daughter named Sara, and he recently bought her a small aqua= rium with four fish in it. The fir= st fish died when Sara was away at her grandparents, and her mother just flush= ed it down the toilet and didn’t tell Sara about it. But Sara discovered the second dea= d fish when she got home. It had bec= ome entangled in the plastic bushes in the aquarium. Steve’s wife called him at t= he office and said that Sara wanted to talk to her dad. In her three-year-old way, Sara explained that the fish had died, she had found it in the bushes, and that = she and mommy were going to have a funeral for it in the back yard.<= /span>

It’s sad enough = to realize that your child has just experienced the first of many losses in hi= s or her life, but what really got to Steve was the last thing Sara said before = she hung up the phone: “Daddy, keep me from getting caught in the bushes.”[11]

Your heavenly Father w= ants to protect you from getting caught in the bushes. God will keep you from the power of evil. Jesus taught his discip= les to pray for protection. We pray = every week in the Lord’s Prayer, “Deliver us from evil.”

Jabez prayed that God’s hand would be with him, that God would keep him from hurt and h= arm. Isn’t that interesting? The one who had to live with the b= urden of the name “Pain” all his life long prayed that he would be sp= ared any more. Can’t you rel= ate to that? We all experience pain = in this life; there’s no way around that. But enough is always enough. We never ask for more, do we? The good news is, when the tough t= imes come, when life hurts, we can pray for and depend on the protection of God = to save us from the power of evil and give us the victory through the trial. His hand will be with us every day= and forever.

Whatever happened to o= ld Jabez? We don’t really know. He sort of pops up out = of this genealogy, and we never hear from him again. Except we do know this. The Scripture says, “God granted what he asked.”[12] God said “YES!̶= 1; to Jabez. He gave Jabez the vict= ory of the blessed life. And if you = pray to the same God for blessing, success, and protection, I believe with all my heart that you will find it.

There is no imagining = what God might do with a heart that is yielded in prayer. There is no imagining what God wil= l do with a church that is praying for the blessing and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. There is no imagining= what God might even do with you. Let’s pray this prayer of blessing today, and I want to invite= you to continue praying it in the days and weeks ahead. Let’s just see what God will= do with us.

“Oh, that you would bless me [indeed] and enlarge my border, = and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!” Amen! May God grant your prayer.