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Ordinary or Extraordinary?
James Merritt
I Chronicles 4:9-10
11-28-04
Introduction
1.
I want to get your juices flowing this morning by asking you two questions.
If you had a choice would you want to live an ordinary life or an extraordinary life?
Which do you think God wants for you?
2.
I can tell you what Jesus said.
He said in John 10:10,
"My purpose is to give life in all its fullness."
(John 10:10, NLT)
God wants to make a difference in your life, so that you can make a difference in the lives of others.
God wants to work in you, with you, through you and for you to manifest His glory in your life.
3.
That statement leads us to a man named, Jabez.
Have you ever heard about a man named Jabez?
Up until about four years ago, most of us had not and then Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book about this man and more specifically about a few words that he prayed and sold 9 million copies.
When you think about it that is amazing!
4.
His total biography occupies less than 80 words in English.
Yet, in those 80 words we learn how to go from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
We learn how to become the cream of the crop.
5.
If you would like to learn how to become a speed reader, begin reading the first several chapters of I Chronicles, because it reads like a Hebrew telephone directory.
Jabez's name is listed with more than 500 other names in these first few chapters.
6.
As you are reading these first several chapters it is like driving on the Autobahn.
You can go as fast as you want to go - it doesn't take long.
All of a sudden on this interstate highway of names, you hit a speed breaker in verse 9.
"Jabez was more honorable than his brothers."
(I Chronicles 4:9, NASB)
Immediately we were told there was something different about Jabez.
He was not one of God's favorites, because God doesn't have any favorites, but he was one of God's intimates.
Amazingly, Jabez is remembered, not for what he did, but for what he prayed.
7.
Now you wouldn't have thought that Jabez would have amounted to very much.
His name literally means, "he who gives pain."
Come to think of it, I've known more than a few Jabez's in my own life.
How would you like to know from the time you were born that your name means to be a pain in the rear?
8.
That name tells us something about this man.
He evidently came from a very hard background.
He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
He wasn't educated at a fine university.
He had no access to a lot of money, but he was still able to go from the ordinary to the extraordinary because of the three things we learn about him in this prayer.
What took him to the top can take you to the top as well.
I.
Be Passionate In Your Ambition For Life
1.
"Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 'Oh that You would bless me indeed...'"
(I Chronicles 4:10a, NASB)
That doesn't sound like an extraordinary way to begin a prayer, because we all ask the Lord to bless us.
There is a word He adds that we never do.
It is the word, "indeed".
In the Hebrew language that would be like adding five exclamation points.
It would be like writing the request in bold print, capital letters, underlining it and italicizing it.
2.
You can learn a lot about a person by the kind of prayer that he prays.
We learn that Jabez is not hesitant or bashful to pray not only for God's blessings, but God's best and biggest blessings.
There is nothing wrong with praying for success, because that is what success really is - the blessing of God.
If you haven't prayed for God to make you successful in what you do, why haven't you?
There is nothing wrong with praying for success if you are asking to be successful for the Glory of God.
If you can't ask God to bless what you are doing, then you had better start doing something else.
3.
To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for a supernatural favor.
When you ask for God's blessing, you are not asking for more than what you could get for yourself if you just worked harder.
You are asking for something that only God can give.
4.
The Bible says,
"It is the Lord's blessing that makes a person rich, and hard work adds nothing to it."
(Proverbs 10:22, GWT)
When you seek the blessings of God, it has nothing to do with you.
It has everything to do with God.
5.
I want you to notice something about this request for blessing.
Jabez left it entirely up to God to decide what the blessing would be.
He left the timing of the blessing up to God, the form of the blessing up to God, the content of the blessing up to God, and the method of the blessing up to God.
6.
This type of blessing has nothing to do with the popular message that you ought to ask God for Cadillac's, Rolex watches and a six-figure income.
All Jabez wanted was what God wanted for Jabez.
If you ask God to bless you your way, He won't bless you.
You can only ask God to bless you His way.
7.
It may surprise you to learn what the biggest obstacle to God's blessing is - we are.
There are many of us that think God's abundant blessing is for someone else.
I want you to understand, if you are a child of God, you are as much a candidate for God's blessing as anybody else on this planet.
8.
Jabez had an ambition to be blessed by God and he was passionate in that ambition.
He didn't mind saying, "God I want the best that you have.
I am grateful for what I have already, but if you have something more, I want you to give it to me."
9.
I know there are some people who would criticize Jabez.
They think ambition is wrong.
They think it is wrong to want to be great and to do great things.
My answer to that is it all depends on why you want to be great and why you want to do great things.
10.
If you want to be great so you will have more power, more prestige, more possessions or a better position, then it is wrong.
Jeremiah 45:5 says,
"Are you seeking great things for yourself?
Don't do it!"
(Jeremiah 45:5, NLT)
You should never want to be great for what greatness will do for you, but you should want to be great because of what greatness can do for God.
Be passionate in your ambition for life.
II.
Be Pointed In Your Approach To Life
1.
Jabez goes on to say,
"Enlarge my territory."
(I Chronicles 4:10b,NKJV)
The word for territory literally means "border".
In that day a person's border or territory would mark the limit of his influence.
Jabez was asking God to give him greater responsibility, more influence, larger opportunities to do something for Him.
2.
Jabez evidently looked around at the circumstances of his life and said, "I believe I was born for more than this.
I believe God has more for me than this and if He does, I want to get in on it."
It breaks my heart to know that there are people who are looking forward to retirement, so they can do less.
Jabez wasn't looking to do less.
He was looking to do more.
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