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Sermon Outline Prepared by Dr. Joseph P. Metoyer, Jr., Pastor/Teacher June 10, 2001 Text: I Chronicles 4:10c Subject: “He Touched Me”! Introduction: (Call
for some testimonies) Now you have asked God to “bless you indeed, and to
enlarge your territory”; Have you ever made the statement; this job is
too big for me. Are
you in deeper than you anticipated? Do
you need help? It’s time to pray
the third part of Jabez’s
prayer: “That Your hand would
be with me”. I.
“His Hand” The songwriter says, “the whole world is in His hands”. A father’s hand always seems so large, and so strong. His hand can do more than we can. A father wants to hear his child ask for something. God the Father wants us to tell Him, “Father, please do this in me because I can’t do it alone!” (The Prayer of Jabez, p.52). A. The Apostle Paul says, “We have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (ii Cor. 3:4-6). B. We can accept the manifold blessings of our God. We can see our territory being expanded. But we cannot handle it all. We just can’t bring it all to completion. We can’t get it all done. Jabez realizing that he would not have the power to get it all done called on the Lord; Oh that Your hand would be with me. Wilkinson says: “God’s power under us, in us, surging through us is exactly what turns dependence into unforgettable experiences of completeness.” (p.53). C. “The hand of the Lord is a biblical term for God’s power and presence in the lives of His people”: 1. (Joshua 4:24) is sharing the reason for God demonstrating His power in drying up the Jordan as He did the Red Sea for the Children to cross over; that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord God forever.” 2. (Isaiah 59:1a) Even in response to His people who had sinned the Prophet writes: Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save.” 3. “In ACTS the phenomenal success of the early church was attributed to one thing: The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:21) II. “His Spirit” “A more specific New Testament description of God’s hand is the filling of the Holy Spirit. A. The church’s growth bears powerful witness to both the necessity and the availability of the hand of God to accomplish the business of God.”(p.54) 1. (Acts 4:13) Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled.
And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
2.
The High Priest held
a trial for Peter and the other disciples for preaching the Gospel in the temple
and put them in jail. But the Angle
of the Lord released them and they went back to the Temple to preach and teach.
In (Acts 5) the High Priest sent to the prison to get Peter and the rest
but they were not there, they were in the temple teaching.
Here is the hand of God: (v29)
But Peter and the other apostles answered and said:
We ought to obey God rather than men. B. “When we ask for God’s mighty presence like Jabez and the early church did, we will also see tremendous results that can be explained only as from the hand of God.” (p. 55) The Christians of the first century church continually sought to be filled by God: (Acts 4:31) And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Application: We should pray as Jabez did. We should confess that we cannot accomplish all that God has given us in blessing us and in expanding our territory. We should do as our first century Christian brothers and sisters did and ask for a fresh spiritual in-filling of God’s power that would turn impending certain failure into a miracle. Paul told the Christians at Ephesus to make it a
priority to be “filled with the fullness of God”. Look with me at (Ephesus 3:16-19) That He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His
Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all
the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. The song writer penned these words:
Touch me, Lord Jesus, with Thy hand of mercy, Make each throbbing
heart beat feel Thy pow’r divine. Take
my will forever, I will doubt Thee never, Cleanse me, dear Savior, Make me
wholly Thine. Mold me dear Master; As I bow before Thee,
Prostrate and helpless, make my heart Thy throne. Purge my dross with hyssop; Burn me with Thy fire; Lord, make
and use me; Ever all Thine own. Feed me dear Jesus, from Thy holy table, rain
bread from heaven, let my cup overflow. Naked,
sick, and hungry; poor and weak and lonely, feed me Lord Jesus Till I want no
more. Guide me, Jehovah, Through this vale of sorrow, I am safe forever trusting in Thy love. Bear me through the current; O’er the chilly Jordan, lead me dear Master to my home above. |
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