And Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only You would bless me and enlarge my territory! May Your hand be with me and keep me from harm, so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted the request of Jabez.Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border! May your hand be with me, and may you keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” God granted him that which he requested.And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it be not to my sorrow! And God granted him that which he requested.
5 sermons cite this verse
… saying, Because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 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. And let's read this last sentence together. So God granted him what he requested. Amen. Give some high fives, some thumbs up as you find your seat. today is the finale of the best of both worlds and we're looking at jabez's finale jabez's amen to his prayer. He says, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. And the title of my message today is The Prayer That Overcomes Curses. The Prayer That Overcomes Curses. We've been learning that from the day that Jabez was born, he had been cursed. His mother had a choice to bless him or to curse him, and she chose cursing. We learned last week that she chose to speak over him, death instead of life. And she didn't just yell out in pain, which is normal for a woman giving birth. And she didn't just call him Jabez. …
… saying, because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, 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 and that I may not cause pain. And I love this. So God granted him what he requested. God gave him what he asked for. And it goes without saying that if we're not praying any prayers, we're giving God nothing to grant. Think about every prayerless day of your life. What a missed opportunity it was. If God opens a drawer where he finds a stack of prayers from his people, and he has nothing in there for you to, that you've asked for, what a missed chance. What a forfeited opportunity. Do you remember back in the day when we had to buy cell phone plans with so many minutes, right? Feels positively quaint now, but we would all be like at the end of a month, and you'd be like, oh my gosh, I can't talk because I only bought 1,500 minutes and I've used them all. Or maybe you're like, oh, I'm going to call a bunch of people because I've got all these minutes and they don't roll over. Remember that? They don't roll over, so I've got to use them now. If I don't use them, I will lose them. Well, every day we have the opportunity to call on God, to beseech God. And there's no going back to yesterday and praying prayers for God to …
… because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 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 him what he requested. And Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword and it's able to dive deep into our lives. It's able to point us to you, our Savior. It's able to distinguish and discern the things that you are working in each of our lives, individually, but also together as a church. And so, Lord, we just humbly tremble before your word. And we ask that you would open our eyes to see glorious truths in your word. Lord, that you would open our hearts. and that you would do what only you can do, which is search our hearts and know us and see the things in us that are displeasing to you and allowing you to work and move and shake things up in our lives. …
… Because I bore him in pain, all the women said, men. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 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 look at this. God granted him what he requested. We have called this collection of messages the best of both worlds. The best of both worlds. Because that is what prayer allows us to experience. There is a world that we live on. We call it the earth. and there is a greater sense of the world that John uses in the epistle of 1 John when he talks about what we are not to love, the things of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. That's the manner in which we think about the world that we currently live in on one level. We have to be nuanced because God does love the world in that he loves the people of the world so much he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross so that anybody, whosoever, would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life, right? …
… Israel and their relationship with God, the writer felt the need to say, Jabez called on the God of Israel. why did he need to say Jabez called on the God of Israel and I believe Jabez called on the God of Israel because Jabez just had to check and make sure he was sending the message to the right direction he had to make sure he was hitting up the right line Jabez had to check to see that his message was going straight to God maybe it was his first time talking to God in a long time maybe it was his first time praying at all or maybe it was his first time praying and believing that God can answer but sometimes you got to remind yourself who you're calling to the God of Israel to the God who was and is to come to the God of the Passover to the God who parts red seas to the God who sends a cloud by day and a fire by night to the God who sends manna to the ungrateful and quail to the greedy to the God of my foremothers and my forefathers God of Israel do not forget me in this long list of names of people who have come before me God of Israel Please do not forget me. …