1 Chronicles chapter 4. I want
to read verses 9 and verse 10. There has always been something
about this incident here that has appealed to me and encouraged
me. And I was looking at it again this week and thought we would
do a couple of studies on it. We will look at one tonight and
one the next time we meet. But let me read it here for you
over in 1 Chronicles chapter 4. and just the two verses. And Jabez was more honorable
than his brethren. And his mother called his name
Jabez, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow. And Jabez called
on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me
indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thy hand might be with
me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil. that it may not
hurt me, grieve me, cause me pain. And God granted him that
which he requested. And that's the two verses I want
to begin to look at this afternoon. Maybe we could entitle this,
Jabez and Encouragement to Pray. And one of the reasons I like
that title is because I imagine you're just like I am. You need
encouragement to pray. All of us need encouragement
to pray. If there is one blessing that you and I probably are missing
out on as much as anything, it would be staying closer to our
Lord in prayer. The Bible never tells us to read
all the time. It never tells us to come to
church all the time. But you know the Bible tells
us to pray without ceasing. And when the Lord Jesus came
down from heaven, that's what He told us, that men should always
pray and never to faint. That word there means never to
turn cowards. Don't turn cowards. Don't faint
in your heart. Don't give up praying. Pray without
ceasing. And speaking for myself, and
probably for you too, prayer is one of the most trying aspects
of worship. We forget sometimes that prayer
is just that. It's worship. But it's a very
trying aspect of worship because of so many aspects of prayer. Prayer is not made up of just
one aspect. It has several aspects. Let me
give you some of them. First, I guess, and foremost,
prayer is made up of an honest heart. A whole heart. And that's what makes it difficult
to pray, isn't it? When you seek me, with your whole
heart, you'll find me." Did you ever find that difficult? To
seek the Lord with your whole heart? To bring your whole heart
concentrated upon Him? It's heart work, isn't it? It's
heart work. And not only a heart, but he
talks about a truthful heart. A truthful heart. Behold, thou
desirest truth in the inward part. Truth. A whole heart? and a truthful one. John Bunyan
used to say that when he prayed, he would rather have a heart
without words than words without a heart. And I think that's one
of the difficult things about praying, a heart, a heart. You know it's easy just to say
words, ain't it? Some of us have prayed for so
many years now that we can just zip right through a prayer, zip
right through a public prayer, zip right through a private prayer,
We know how we're going to address God before we address Him. We
know what titles we're going to address Him with. And so we
get in this form. And when we do that, we're not
really praying. Prayer is not prayer if we don't
bring our heart, our whole heart to Him. And that's what makes
prayer difficult. Prayer involves faith, doesn't
it? If any man lack wisdom, James said, let him ask of God. that
giveth to all men liberally, freely, abundantly, largely. And he upbraideth not. He does
not confront you about former sins and your infirmity. He just
freely gives you wisdom. And it shall be given him, but
listen to this, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like the
wave of the sea. He is just over here and he is
over there. If you ask anything, believe it, it shall be done
for you. That's what our Lord said. Those
blind men came to the Lord Jesus and followed Him in the house,
begging Him. And He said, Do you believe? Then I'm able to
do this for you. Faith is involved when we go
to the Lord in prayer. Prayer has this element to it
too. It's an element of praise. Prayer
is just not asking things. It is not even asking for spiritual
blessings for ourselves or others. Prayer has that element to it. I realize that. But you know
there is an element of prayer that is just praise. It is just
praising the Lord. Listen to what David said. I
will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will
glorify thy name forever. And how does he close the Psalms?
Let everything that hath breath. If you have the breath of the
Holy Spirit in you, then praise Him. Prayer is an element of
praise. Praise is an element of prayer.
Then fourthly, it is made up of thanksgiving. Be anxious for
nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving. Let your request be made known
to God, the giving of thanks in prayer. Lord, I thank You,
I thank You, I thank You. That's what prayer is made up
of. Giving thanks unto the Lord for
all His benefits towards me. In all things give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So it's
made up of praise, it's made up of thanksgiving. It has this,
fifthly, an element of love and concerned for others. We should never go to the Lord
in prayer without making this the burden of our heart, that
we mention the name of others when we do. How often do we read
in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, these great men,
these great apostles, that when you see them praying, they are
always praying for other Paul made this statement when he was
talking to the Philippians. He said, Always in every prayer
of mine for you all making requests with joy. And to Thessalonians
he said, We give thanks to God always for you, making mention
of you in our prayers. Making mention to God of you.
I've had people tell me, and this just thrills me when somebody
tells me, I have one man especially that tells me, I pray for you
every day. That amazes me. To know that
my name is mentioned in the courts of heaven. That God hears my
name mentioned in prayer every day. That just thrills me. That's
the best thing anybody can do for me. Clerks are always asking
me, you need any money? You need any money? You need
a raise? And I always tell them, I need your prayers. I need that
more than anything, don't you? Samuel said, God forbid, God
forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease to pray for
you. And you know the Lord Jesus Christ
in our glorified humanity is in heaven right now. He ever
liveth. And you know what He's doing
now? Making intercessions. He did it when He was here and
He's still doing it when He's there. Mentioning your name. Mentioning my name before His
Father. I don't know how that works.
But I know that's what he's doing. That's an element of prayer.
And Paul said to Timothy, I exhort that first of all supplications
and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made
to God for all men. Praying for other people. Praying
for other people. That takes some time, doesn't
it? It takes some time. Then fifthly, and lastly, Prayer
is made up of seeking God's glory, seeking God's will. That should
be one of the chief elements in prayer. If we ask anything
according to His will, we know He hears us. I have another dear
friend, Brother Bob Ponser. When they called today and told
me that Dale Simpson had died, I was thinking about Bob. Bob
and Sally Ponser there at Danville. So often when Don asked me to
come down, he said, where do you want to stay? And I said,
I'll stay with Bob and Sally. And one of the reasons I love
that, because when we'd get up for breakfast, if I stayed all
night with them, we'd get up for breakfast, and I enjoyed
around the breakfast table. I enjoyed that. And the last
time I remember Bob praying for us, as usually men, Bob and Sally,
sometimes Joe would go down with me, and I remember the last time
Bob prayed. Every request He made, He followed
it by, if it be your will. I remember what He said, Lord,
we're going to worship this morning. Be with us, if you will. Lord,
there'll be lost people there this morning. Save them, if you
will. And everything He asked, if it be your will. Well, that's
one of the things we seek after in prayer, isn't it? His will. Not your will, but not my will,
but thine be done." That's what the Master said when He was in
the garden of Gethsemane on a cold night with sweat dripping down
as great drops of blood from His pores. And He said, Father,
if there be any other way, let this cut pass from Me. Nevertheless,
not my will, not what I will, but your will be done." That's
the spirit we want to pray in, isn't it? Seeking God's glory,
seeking His will in prayer above everything else, above me, above
mine, and everything else, your will be done. And to bring our
hearts there in prayer is a difficult thing. Praying may sound easy,
but it's a difficult thing. You find all these elements and
more added with it. So let's look at our text first
of all then, just remembering it's about prayer. Our text in
verses 9 and 10 is about this man who believed that God could
bless him. And God was willing to bless
him. And he desired these blessings. went to the covenant God, the
God of Israel, and asked Him to bless him, and the Bible says
here He granted him His request. Now, we've got several things,
and maybe bring out some more things the next time we look
at that. But you know, this is the only time you read of this
man. You're going through all of these genealogies, and suddenly,
out of nowhere, there he is. And none of the commentators
know anything about him. They just said, here he is in
these genealogies, he shows up out of nowhere, he makes this
request, and he asks God to bless him, and God grants him his request.
He goes off the scene, and he's never seen again. Now that in
itself is encouraging to me. That gives me encouragement to
pray, because who are you and me? Who are we? Who are we? Nobody knows who we are, do they?
We've just popped up on the scene here, out of nowhere, and we're
here for a few days, and when we're gone, nobody's going to...
Who was it? Larry who? Larry Bell. I don't know Larry Bell. When
did he leave? Just ten years ago. What happened to him? He
died. Oh, I'm sorry. Nobody's going to miss us, Larry.
We just come on the scene, live a few days, we're off the scene
just like this man was. But isn't it encouraging that
while he was here, He sought the God of Israel for His blessings,
and He blessed him. God's able to bless a man. He's
able to bless a man, and I think He's willing to bless a man.
Let's look at this this way. First of all, let's just look
at it here in the order that the Holy Spirit gives us, but
I just want you to remember that this is about prayer. It's all
about prayer. Everything that takes place here
is about prayer. And the first thing I notice
here in verse 9 is prayer has a positive effect on a man. Those who truly pray, believers,
children of God, prayer has a positive effect on men. He said Jabez
was more honorable than his brothers. We're not told in what way he
was honorable and more honorable. We're just told that he was.
We have no idea. And I'm glad the Holy Spirit
didn't tell us what he was like or what he was doing to make
him more honorable. But we reach this conclusion,
I think, that all this man was in his character and all he did
in his life, he was a man who honored God and who honored his
fellow man. I think, to me, that's what it
means. And it tells us there, then, about how prayer will affect
a man. What would prayer do for a man?
It would make him honorable. It would make him honorable.
We can't believe for a minute that any man could be a caller
on the Lord and it not affect his character and how he behaves
himself in this world. I don't believe that can happen.
A man cannot make a habit of coming humbly before the Lord
of glory and then go out and live a life of pride. That would
be utterly impossible. A man cannot speak honestly with
the Lord in prayer and then turn right around and lie to his neighbor. He cannot. He cannot come to
the throne of grace with a consciousness of his need of mercy and then
go out and live a life that is harsh. and cruel to his fellow
man. He cannot. A man cannot come
to the Lord who is light and turn right around and go off
and walk in darkness. True prayer will form a person's
character before men because this is one of the means that
God uses to conform a man to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that is prayer. I've read the Bible now in religious
books, probably for 45 years I've been reading this Bible.
I've wore several Bibles out, to be honest with you. But you
know something I have found that God used in me more than in reading
the Bible, more than reading commentaries? You know what God
has used to conform me to Christ's image, to strip me, to humble
me, to fill me with the knowledge of His goodness and His love
in Christ. You know what He's used more
than anything else? That's prayer. That's prayer. I think I have
learned more at the throne of grace than I've learned from
all books that I've ever read. I've learned it in my heart.
There's been times when I was a young believer that the Lord
dealt with my heart so effectually that I to this very day haven't
forgotten it. He teaches us. He forms us. He forms our characters. He influences
the way we live our lives in this world through prayer. Through
prayer. That's what we see in this man.
Have you ever experienced this? I bet you have. I know you have
because I have. You've gotten upset because somebody's
mistreated you. Somebody's said something about
you and you've got mad. And then maybe you've got somewhat
bitter about it, and you realize what it was doing to you, and
you've had to go to the Lord with it. And maybe you went to
Him two times and three times and five times or ten times,
but finally, finally, you come away from prayer, or He begins
to change your mind in prayer, and He begins to show you and
teach you in prayer. that maybe it wasn't them at
all. Maybe it wasn't that man at all.
And you come away saying, Lord, it was me. Lord, I'm the fault. Lord, I'm the blame. Instead
of going to accuse others, you go accuse yourself before the
Lord and say, Lord, forgive me. And give that poor man grace
to forgive me. I tell you, humble prayer before
the Lord. will humble us. It will absolutely
humble us. Go and humble ourselves before
the Lord and it won't be long until you begin to see in your
heart of hearts Him forming you to the image of His dear Son. One thing John Calvin said that's
essential to growth in knowledge is growth and humility. One of the things that's essential
to growth in knowledge is a growth in humility. And Peter said,
humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He shall exalt
you in due season. And I'm saying this, that it's
this exalting of God that happened to this man that formed his character. When God begins to work in the
heart and form the character, that's what makes a man honorable. Only God can truly make a man
honorable. Only God can lead a man to honor
him and to live an honorable life before his fellow man. And
He does it through prayer. And that's what the first thing
I see in this man here. He was an honorable man. And
how does that connect with his prayer? I see the correlation
there. Secondly, the second thing we
see in here is the last portion of verse 9. His mother called
his name Jabaz, saying, because I burn him with sorrow. The margin, the literal rendering
of this, my margin said, he will cause pain. When he was born, he caused his
mother pain and somehow or another probably caused himself pain.
But when I read this, I was reminded of the fall. I want you to maybe
hold this just a second and turn over here to Genesis chapter
3. I read that because with sorrow I bore him."
And I thought of what the Lord told Eve here after the fall,
after that Adam and Eve had sinned against the Lord. And here in Genesis chapter 3
and look in verse 15. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto the
woman the Lord said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shall thou bring forth
children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
root over thee. That's what this woman happened
to her, wasn't it? Jabaz's mother thought she was
going to die in Chalbert. And when the baby was coming
out, she probably said to somebody, call him Jabaz, he's killed me.
He has killed me. He has caused me all this pain
and sorrow. So she called His name Jebaz.
But look on in verse 17, And unto Adam he said, Because thou
hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the fruit of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. And look at this,
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field, and the sweat of your face shall you eat bread,
till you return to the dust, the ground. For out of it was
you taken, from dust thou art, and thus shalt thou return." Well, we were talking, some of
us were talking just the other night about the Gospel and how
easily we forget the Gospel. You know, we forget the fall
too, don't we? We forget the fall. We're going along in our
lives and everything is going pretty good. And then suddenly
what happens? Everything blows right up in
our face. And we don't know how to handle it. We don't know what
to do about it. It's out of our control. And it grieves our hearts
and sometimes fills us with sorrow. And we sometimes wonder, what's
happened? What's happening? You know something? Nothing out
of the ordinary is happening. It's just the effects of the
fall. The effects of sin and the judgment
of God upon it. And we're never going to escape
that as long as we're in this world. And that seems to be what
Jabez was feeling. That seemed to be the case with
him. His life started out, just as the Lord told Eve here, Pain
and sorrow. His mother bore him with pain
and sorrow. And then, I imagine, as he probably
got off in his teenage years and his early twenties, he probably
experiencing what his name implies. Boy, she named me well. Can't
you imagine him saying that? She named me well. I've caused
myself pain. I've caused her pain. I've caused
everybody pain. Pain and sorrow. Pain and sorrow. We see in this text that he was
feeling the effects of the fall. But here's the thing, we see
the correlation here between, look back here in our text, we
see the correlation here between what he was feeling, what he
knew, the effects of this fall in verse 9, and what he did. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think I
have missed this. I think I see the correlation
here between verse 9, He will cause pain, the sorrow He caused
His mother, the sorrow that He was feeling as a result from
the fall, and then what He does. What does He do in verse 10?
Well, what He's saying is this. I'm in a mess. I'm just so full
of sorrow. I'm just so full of trouble.
My life is one of sorrow and pain and vanity. And then in
verse 10, it seems like he just says, there's something better. There's something above this
wretched, sorry life. And he goes to God, the God of
Israel, and he says, Oh, that Thou would bless me. See what he seems to be saying?
He seems to be saying, I found this world to be nothing but
sorrow and pain. I feel the effects of the fall,
and it fills me with sorrow and pain, and this is what I'm going
to do. I'm going to seek Real blessings. I'm going to seek God's blessings.
Those spiritual blessings. And that's what he does. And
God blesses him. So he turns that which could
be a discouragement into encouragement to pray. I see young people, and this
is so concerning to me, and I bet it's concerning to you too. You
see so many young people and they're very successful. They've got good jobs, and they
make more money than I can imagine. I can't imagine what some young
people are making in our day. But it's scary when you realize
that they're making all this money, they're healthy, and that's
where their hearts is, that's where their minds are, and they
have little or no concern about spiritual matters, about the
matters of their soul, about eternity. Sometimes you secretly hope. You can't pray particularly,
but sometimes we pray for our kids. Lord, whatever it takes.
Have you ever prayed that for your child? Lord, whatever it
takes. And I've often wondered, and
I think this is true, that it would be better if God laid some
young people on their backs, on the bed of affliction, if
He'd be pleased to use that to show them the vainness, the vanity
and the sorrow of this life and the shortness of it, and put
it in their hearts to seek His blessing, wouldn't that be much
better? It would, wouldn't it? This man here, this Jabez, turned
his sorrow into that which profited him. Instead of being discouraged
by what he was feeling, what he was going through, He said,
there's something better. There's something higher. That's
God's blessing. So he went and sought the blessings
of this covenant God. Shannon was telling me the other
morning that he's been reading in Ecclesiastes. He was talking with me about
what a good job he used to have and the money he used to make.
And he said, you know, that he saw the emptiness in that, the
vanity of it. He said he'd been reading through
Ecclesiastes and he quoted the preacher when he said, vanity
of vanities, all is vanity. And that's a very good book to
read, Ecclesiastes. You see in the second chapter
where Solomon begin to talk about all the things that he had, all
the things that he sought for. He had all these buildings, all
these houses that he built, all these pools of water that he
had dug, all the orchards and the fruit trees and men's servants
and women's servants and music and all the instruments and singers. He said he had more than all
the kings had had before him. And then when he said, I got
to thinking about it all, all the labor that was involved with
it, all the wages that was earned and all the money spent and all
the pleasure of all of this. You know what he said about it?
Vanity and vexation of spirit. That's all it is. Vanity and
vexation of spirit. What profit is there in all the
labor which we labor for, he said. Because when we come down
to the end, it won't profit a thing, will it? It won't profit us a
thing. What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? And he comes to the last chapter
of that book and he talks about the silver thread being broken
and the cistern broken there at the fountain. It won't hold
water. The body's dying. It's ready to go back to the
dust and the Spirit back to God. He's saying it. And then he said,
let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Remember the
Creator in the days of your youth. Before the evil day come, when
you say, ìAinít no pleasure in this world. Iíve been seeking
all these pleasures in this world, and itís nothing but vanity.
Itís so empty.î So when we take that, when we realize that, when
God makes us to know this, that this world canít satisfy the
soul, And we take the sorrow, we take the vanity that's in
this world, and we turn it for our profit and say, I'm going
to seek the real blessing. I want the real blessing. I want
those eternal blessings. I want those spiritual blessings
that's in Jesus Christ the Lord. That's what I want. It's good. It's good. I told one of our
missionaries, I was talking to one of our missionaries this
week, Lance Heller there in New Guinea, and he's told about some
of the trouble that they were having. They hadn't been able
to communicate for two months now. Stuck in that place with
no communication for two months. And I was telling him, you know,
we don't have any such trouble here. We've got all these conveniences. But you know what I've found
out, brothers and sisters? I don't want to live without
trouble. I don't pray for it. I'm not going to pray for it.
But I hope God don't get me out of it in this life. I hope He afflicts me. I hope
He lets me see the vanity of this life. If that's what it
takes to turn to my prophet seeking Him in prayer, I don't want to
get comfortable in this wretched, sin, cursed world. But I want
to turn it for my prophet. That's what this man did. He
was a man of sorrows, and he turned it to his prophet. Lastly, just a little bit deeper,
when we think of this world and we think of the things of this
world and its pleasures, but it's really not anything but
temporary vanity. But there's another way that
the fall affects us, and it has to do with praying too. It's
not just looking out into the world and seeing the vanity of
the world. It's looking in and seeing the vanity that's in here.
It's not only that we see the effects of the fall that has
turned the beautiful creation and the creation that was so
useful to man and humanity, it's turned it really that it's hindered
so many. It's hindered so many. But it's done more than just
what we see outward. The fall has affected us inward
too, hasn't it? We feel the effects of it. And
you know, it discourages us to death, don't it? Don't you feel,
I know all of you do, just like I do. Larry's talked about it.
Wayne's brought about it. Old wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Does that hinder
you in prayer? Aren't you hindered in your faith?
Don't you see the power of unbelief in this wretched old nature?
The power of sin working in you? We see it all the time. If you
could put us in a cave somewhere and let us not be around anybody,
don't let us see any news, don't let us see any sports, let somebody
bring us our food and water to drink every day, and we're in
there by ourselves, you'd have difficulty praying because of
the effects of the fall that you feel in your heart. That
old man is there to hinder you. And just as soon as you say,
My Father in Heaven, He says, That's enough. Let's go off and
do something now. Don't you have trouble with that?
You can't even pray five minutes without keeping Him beat down.
All the effects of sin working in you to hinder you in prayer. And you know we can turn that
for our good? If this man turned the cares
of this life and the burdens and all the sorrows, if He turned
that for His good, then we can turn our wretchedness and our
sinfulness to our good. Scott Richardson said it like
this, he said, you convince me, and the more you convince me
that I'm a sinner, he said, I mean a real sinner, the more interest
it gives me in Him who comes to save sinners. And when we start feeling the
effects of this sin in us when we're trying to pray, and instead
of getting so discouraged about it, let us use it to suck from
the heart and bosom of the Savior grace and mercy. I think sometimes God shows us
what we are. He makes us feel the working
of sin in us to force us to seek for those merits that's in the
Savior. To make us realize we're in need
of grace and seek it. Come boldly to what? The throne of merit on our part? Some potential on our part? Come
boldly to the throne of grace. Why? That we may obtain mercy. and find grace to help in the
time of need. I don't know some time why we
come to the throne of grace thinking that, boy, we deserve to be here.
We're in such good shape. Listen to us pray. And then when
we come bowed down with sin, bowed down with a feeling of
wretchedness and hell deservedness, we think, oh, we shouldn't be
here. No, that's when we should be there. That's when we're fit
to pray. That's when He can reveal to
us the mercy That's in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
turn it for your good. Don't let anything discourage
you from praying. Anything. Be like this man. Yeah, it's bad. It's bad. It's bad. I've caused my mother
pain. I've caused myself pain. Just
sorrow upon sorrow upon sorrow. What are you going to do about
that? I'm going to God in prayer. I'm going to take this, instead
of being discouraged about it, I'm going to God in prayer. And Jabez called on the God of
Israel, O that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, enlarge my coast,
my borders, that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst
keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted
him that which he requested. And we'll pick up there next
time.