Sermon Outline

Prepared by

Dr. Joseph P. Metoyer, Jr.,

Pastor/Teacher

May 27, 2001

Text:  I Chronicles 4:10

Subject:  “Why Not Ask God For A Blessing?”

Introduction:  Do you want to be extravagantly blessed by God?  Are you ready to reach for the extraordinary?  To ask God for the abundant blessings He longs to give you.  Is it possible that God wants you to be “selfish” in your prayers?  To ask for more – and  -  more again from your Lord?  [Some Christians assume they will appear greedy if they ask God for too many blessings.]  Maybe you think like that.  If you do, I want to show you that such a prayer 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.[1]        

I.                   “So Why Not Ask?”

The Prayer of Jabez is not only a wonderful book on the best sellers list but it is a formula God gives us through a man who gets God’s attention through effective, continual prayer. 

1.      Concerning Jesus in (Luke 18:1-7) He spoke a parable to them, that men ought to always pray and not lose heart, saying:  There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.  Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, get justice for me from my adversary.  And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.  And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them.

2.       Concerning Jabez his own mother calls him, “Pain” (v.9).  In Hebrew the word Jabez means pain.  A literal rendering could read, “He causes (or will cause) pain”.  The pain could have related to his birth, or the circumstances surrounding his birth.  Despite his dismal prospects, Jabez found a way out. 

                                                              i.      “Jabez had grown up hearing about the God of Israel who had freed his forefathers from slavery, rescued them from powerful enemies, and established them in a land of plenty.  By the time he was an adult, Jabez believed and fervently hoped in this God of miracles and new beginnings.”  So why not ask for a miracle of his own? 

                                                            ii.      That’s what he did.  He prayed the biggest, most improbable request imaginable:  Oh, that You would bless me indeed…!  (4:10a)     

In our world today when we send an e-mail with urgency, you write it in capital letters and underline it, and put an exclamation point at the end of it.  That alerts the recipient of the urgent nature of your communication.   The “Indeed” in Hebrew at the end of this request is like putting five exclamation points at the end of his prayer.  Wilkinson says, “he pictures Jabez standing before a massive gate recessed into a sky-high wall. Weighed down by the sorrow of his past and the dreariness of his present, he sees before him only impossibility – a future shut off.  But raising his hands to heaven, he cries out, “Father, oh Father!  Please bless me! And what I really mean is … bless me a lot!”  With the last word “Indeed” the transformation begins.  Jabez steps forward into a new life.

Jabez was desperate to receive his blessing.  Have you ever been desperate to receive a blessing?  I’m not talking about something you can get on your own.  To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for or to impart supernatural favor. 

3.      “When we ask for God’s blessing, we’re not asking for more of what we could get for ourselves.  We’re crying  out for the wonderful, unlimited goodness that only God has the power to know about or give to us.  We are not asking for God to let us win the lotto.  We are not ask for God to give us some new fancy car.  Jabez was asking for something that was under God’s supernatural authority not for a blessing he could have acquired on his own.  (Proverbs 10:22, TLB) says, “The Lord’s blessing is our greatest wealth; all our work adds nothing to it.”  

4.      (4:10a) The Jabez blessing focuses like a laser on our wanting for ourselves nothing more and nothing less than what God wants for us.  When we set our thoughts and wishes aside and trust God to bless us with what ever He wants for our lives we will become filled with the “Extraordinary” and the “Extravagant” and even “Miracles”!

                                                               i.      I prayed the Jabez prayer on Friday evening as I went into Bob’s Market,  I asked God, “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 [me] what [I] requested.”  Guess what God did?  I have a neighbor, Bryan Wilson, who I have wanted to introduce myself to but I have been putting it off since he moved on our street.  As I literally prayed for God to enlarge my territory Bryan turned down the isle in the market facing me and immediately I said, “Thank you Lord”, and I introduced my self to Bryan only to find out he has been on my street for five years, but I never prayed that God would allow me to meet him.  I left the market and in the parking lot a young lady called my name and as I looked up it was Jennifer Hubbard, Pastor Hubbard’s daughter.  She is a friend of our family and we had not talked in years.  God arranged the circumstances.  As we talked a gentleman walked up to me and asked if I were Pastor Joe from ACTS.  After responding he told me his name was Bill, I think, and that he attended our Bible Study a week ago.  He is a member of The Lighthouse Church, but was passing our Church and his Church had a special service instead Bible study that night. I don’t know about you but that’s enough to let me know that God can “enlarge your territory” and that’s supernatural.        

                                                            ii.      Wilkinson tells little story about “Mr. Jones goes to Heaven”… “What would you do if you found out that God had it in mind to send you twenty-three specific blessings today, but you got only one? (The white box with the red ribbon). 

Application:  “Ask” promised Jesus, “and it will be give to you” (Matthew 7:7).  “You do not have because you do not ask” says James (James 4:2).  “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.”  Jus like your earthly parent is delighted when you ask for their blessing so much more is your Heavenly Father, He is delighted to respond generously when His blessing is what you covet most.  Don’t think that once you are saved that God will dribble His blessings down to you, Don’t keep a ledger on His blessings and the things He takes from you because you will start thinking that HE has already blessed you recently so you shouldn’t ask for more.  That kind of thinking is a sin and a trap.  It’s God’s nature to bless us.  When Moses said to God on Mt. Sinai, “Show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18), he was asking for a more intimate understanding of God.  In response, God described Himself as “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth (34:6).  It’s His nature!

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