Sermon Tone Analysis

*1 Chronicles 4:9-10*

*9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain."*

*10 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.

NKJV*

INTRODUCTION-

Early chapters of 1st Chronicles are tedious.

But as the historian records the genealogy of Israel, he pauses with Jabez.

Something about Jabez’s life is worth detailing.

Carl Hagensick – “Frequently these short cameo appearances by seemingly unknowns reveal deeper insights into the word of God.”

Have you asked God to bless you lately?

Probably so – we ask blessings for our children, for our food, even for our sneezes.

Better question: have we watered down the impact of what it means to be blessed by God? Probably so … and with it we have reduced our requests to generalizations, with no cry of the heart to God, as we hear in the prayer of Jabez.

To ask for a blessing from God is to ask for supernatural favor.

It is not to ask for more of what we could get for ourselves.

Asking God to bless you is asking for the unlimited riches of God’s goodness to be placed upon our lives.

*It is to take us to realms beyond our capacity to reach or even fathom.*

Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.

To seek the blessings of God has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with Him.

It is to ask for nothing more and nothing less than what God wants for your life.

Therefore, why wouldn’t you ask for God to bless you?

I.    The NEED to be blessed.

(4:10a)

A.    He looked at his circumstances and concluded there had to be more to his life than what he was experiencing, so he cried “bless me indeed!”

B.    Circumstances may have wrecked our lives … but God is not helpless among the ruins.

1.

Our broken lives are not lost or useless.

2.     God’s love is still working.

3.

He takes catastrophe and works victory!

C.    Jabez (pain or sorrow) recognized at some point he needed God to work powerfully in his life – to achieve what he could not on his own.

D.    Do the circumstances of your life drive to seek from God, not the temporal and tangible things of this life, but the weightier and greater things that only God can produce?

E.    Example: Jacob (supplanter or trickster).

He had to flee after tricking his brother out of the blessing of his birthright.

1.     Now years later he is coming to meet his brother (Genesis 32).

2.     Amid the ruins of his life, we find him alone with God.

3.     Jacob recognized and desired to be blessed by God.

4.     He wrestled with God; God allowed Himself to be overcome by Jacob.

5.     God changed Jacob’s name … and his future!

~* Are you a Jabez or a Jacob, recognizing your NEED to be blessed by God, to cry out “Oh bless me!”

 

II.

The SOURCE of blessings.

A.    God wants full recognition as the source of your blessings.

1.     Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

2.     This implies not only that we must believe He is the source of blessings, but that *we are to diligently seek His blessings.*

B.    Jabez left no doubt who he believed would bless him – “the God of Israel.”

III.

The Certainty of blessing.

A.    Jabez knew that it was God’s nature to bless.

B.    Do you believe you are a candidate for God’s blessing?

1.     Psalms 5:12 For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.

C.    Do you believe God will bless you?

God says He will!

1.     Ezekiel 34:26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.

D.    As a child of God, you lack only for not asking, because God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

1.     Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

2.     Jabez was blessed because it is God’s nature to bless you.

Conclusion:

Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

James 4:2 “Yet you do not have because you do not ask.”

Go ahead and ask!