The Prayer of Jabez: That You Would Keep Me from Evil - 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 and Matthew 6:9-15

Introduction
Over the last three weeks you’ve been examining different stages in something called the “Prayer of Jabez” found in I Chronicles 4:

• Oh that you would bless me - 

• And enlarge my territory -

• That your hand would be with me -

Today we’re concluding our study of the Prayer of Jabez by looking at the final phrase: “and that you would keep me from evil that I might not cause pain." It is ironic, in some ways. The name Jabez means pain and he prays that he might be free from pain and not cause others pain. It is as if he is praying, “My name is Jabez. Please don’t let me Jabez anyone else!” Let’s see what insights we can learn about ourselves from the last part of Jabez’s prayer.

You Knew What I Was When You Picked Me Up
You may know the story of the Indian youth and the snake. At an appointed time every male Indian youth was required to pass a test to prove he was ready to accept the mantle of adulthood. These young men would go to the mountains and fast and pray. It was a test to see what they had learned from the elders of the tribe.

One such youth battled the elements of nature and reached the top of the great mountain. His head and heart swelled with pride with this achievement. Suddenly, he heard a rustle at his moccasins. He looked down; it was a rattlesnake. Before he could move the snake spoke: "I am about to die," said the snake. "It is too cold for me up here and I am freezing. There is no food and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley."  "No," said the youth. "I am forewarned. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite, and your bite will kill me." "Not so," said the snake. "I will treat you differently. If you do this for me, you will be special. I will not harm you. Let's make a deal."

The youth resisted a while, but this was a very persuasive snake with beautiful markings. At last, the youth tucked it under his shirt and carried it down to the valley. There he laid it gently on the grass, when suddenly the snake coiled, rattled, and leapt, biting him on the leg. "But you promised," cried the youth, as he fell to the ground, soon to die. "You knew what I was when you picked me up," said the snake, as it slithered away.

Keep Me From Evil
Temptation is all around us. And temptation always looks and sounds good and promising on some level like the snake in our story, or you wouldn’t be tempted to do it or go along with it. Many times as believers we have the best of good intentions. In our hearts we are seeking to do right, but under our own power we fail. Often that’s because we wait to pray for the strength to overcome temptation while we are in the heat of the moment facing temptation head on.

But Jabez has a slightly different approach to the matter in his prayer. He doesn’t pray to overcome temptation in the moment – “keep me from doing evil.” Jabez’s strategy seems to be to just head evil off at the pass. He goes a step further and prays to avoid the evil or temptation entirely – “keep me from evil” – in other words, don’t even let me get close to it! Jabez recognizes that he needs God’s help to avoid the lure of the Tempter in his life.

Jesus reinforces the importance of this thousands of years later in our New Testament lesson as he’s teaching his followers how to pray using the model we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” Towards the end of this prayer, Jesus says, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." As divine God and human being all in one, Jesus had keen insight into our human condition. He knew that under certain conditions our potential for wrongdoing can overwhelm our desire to do what is right and good. We need God’s help – the power and presence of the Holy Spirit – to keep us from experiencing those kinds of conditions. This is one of the most important insights you will give to your children and grandchildren - to avoid succumbing to temptation by steering clear of tempting situations.

Need This Reminder Especially in the Highs of Life
Jabez’s final request in his prayer is really extremely wise and mature. What he said in effect was, “God bless me, enlarge me, lead me, fill us, give me more, but keep me humble and keep me holy.” Jabez seems to understand that the more you do for God and the more God does through you, the more temptation comes your way. Do you recognize that? The more spiritual blessings you receive and the more you do on behalf of the kingdom of God, the more you are being set up for the devil to tempt you, trip you and trap you.

So many Christians are caught off guard by this. They come home from a wonderful spiritual retreat determined to be more faithful disciples and seem to encounter problem after problem after problem. Or as a congregation after a time of great spiritual success seems to be the time when so many divisions and factions arise up within a church determined to get their way.

Why does this happen? Follow the logic with me for a moment. If you as a believer or as a church aren’t doing much for the kingdom of God, Satan has you right where he wants you already. But when we deepen our relationship with God and expand our spiritual influence – as Jabez prayed to do – then Satan has work overtime to neutralize your effect. In essence you’ve popped up on Satan’s radar now as a perceived threat.

Have you ever felt that way? Like you had a big target sign painted on you? Several weeks back I had one of those Sunday mornings where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I didn’t get enough sleep the night before because one of the boys had been up and down. Then everything seemed to be taking longer to get ready when I got up and the boys were in a mood. I was running a bit further behind than I like to time wise and I got stuck by the train on the way to Belleview. Then at church things were out of sorts with different people. I forgot the order of worship and skipped something important and had to go back and rework it in. By the time I got to the prayer I was completely distracted. I knelt down at the rail and put my bulletin down and started praying. Two sentences in I realized my mistake – we have votive candles in the altar rail at my church and I laid my bulletin down on top of a lit candle. Now my bulletin was on fire! I stopped praying and someone in the front row helped me extinguish my bulletin. When I went back to praying, I abandoned the prayer I had in my mind and just poured out my heart…. “Lord it feels like I’m under attack this morning. I know you’ve given me this important word to share with people during the message today and it just feels like Satan’s doing everything he can to trip me up to keep me from sharing your Word. I want to honor you and say what your Spirit has put in my heart, but you’ve got to get Satan behind me. Help me have the strength to overcome.”

That’s why the prayer "keep me from evil that I may not cause pain" is one of the most important prayers that many of us will ever pray. In times of success and spiritual highs we also get a false sense of our own strength in comparison to God’s. But our weapons aren’t enough against the enemy:

• Common sense can get us in trouble. Adam and Eve knew just enough in the Garden of Eden to think they knew it all and Satan tricked them into disobedience.

• Previous experience can get us in trouble. Just because you beat temptation once doesn’t mean you will be safe the next time.

• Our feelings can get us in trouble. Often times the things that feel right are oh so wrong for us.

Years ago there was a full page magazine ad that depicted a Roman gladiator in big trouble. Somehow, he had dropped his sword and an enraged lion seeing its opportunity is in mid-dash lunge, jaws wide, ready to kill this gladiator. The crowd in the coliseum is on its feet, watching in horror as the panic stricken gladiator tries to flee. The caption at the bottom of the ad reads, "Sometimes you can afford to come in second. Sometimes you can't." We cannot afford to come in second when we fight temptation. The most important strategy for defeating that roaring lion, the Bible calls the devil, is to stay out of the coliseum to begin with – to pray “keep me from evil.”

The Rest of the Story
What happens to our good friend Jabez in Scripture? He who was named pain, who was found to be more honorable than his brothers, who prayed for God to bless him, who prayed for God to enlarge his territory, who prayed for God’s hand to be with him, who prayed for God to keep him from evil?

Our Scripture lesson from I Chronicles tells us quite simply that God granted his request. We probably could have guessed that even if he had not told us because of how Jabez’s story is included in Scripture – a step out of the straight genealogy line to point out this young man and his interesting prayer. How God grants his request, what that looks like in  Jabez’s life we are not told. Probably because the point is less about the answering, than about the asking.

There is only one more time that Jabez is mentioned in Scripture. It’s in the same chapter of I Chronicles down in the 55th verse. It tells about a place where families of scribes gathered together to study. The place where they gathered was called Jabez. Could it be that this young man, whose name was pain, lived in such a way that he was honored by those who knew him and they named a community after him? God granted Jabez’ request.

And when we come before him in prayer, with hearts and motives right, God honors our request as well.

November Newsletter

Here is the latest edition of the Sunshine Herald! I hope you enjoy!

(Tip for email subscribers: If you are viewing this message in your email, click on the title, "November Newsletter" to be taken straight to my blog and read the newsletter from there. That might be a bit more user friendly.)

Nov10NwsLtr

Bible Challenge 10/31 - 11/06

Greetings All!

We are continuing our trek through the New Testament as we finish up Matthew, go through Mark, and begin Luke. Here is the schedule!

10/31, Sunday: Matthew 25-28

11/1, Monday: Mark 1-4

11/2, Tuesday: Mark 5-8

11/3, Wednesday: Mark 9-12

11/4, Thursday: Mark 13-16

11/5, Friday: Luke 1-4

11/6, Saturday: Luke 5-8

Enjoy and be blessed!

Friday Fives

1. Preaching Series - This week we will conclude our preaching series on the Prayer of Jabez. Pastor Debbie will bring her take on the final phrase, "and that you would keep me from evil." Bring a friend and come enjoy Pastor Debbie.

2. Time Change – Do not forget to set your clocks BACK (yea!!) one hour before you go to bed next Saturday, November 6th. Or you could keep the hour and come early for Sunday School. We would love to have ya!

3. Bible Study – We have finished week two of our Bible Study based on what we as United Methodists believe as we spoke about how we understand the Holy Spirit, the gift of salvation, and the giving of God's grace. We still have several topics to discuss and three more weeks in the study. It is never to late to join. We meet on Thursdays at 11am and 7pm in Fellowship Hall. Just come on over and jump in. Hope to see you there!

4. Salty Service - A few months back I asked everyone to consider joining up together in groups to venture out and visit some of the residents in the many assisted living and rehab facilities around our church. There are many people there that get no visitors, and we are so good with fellowship, I see a need and a spiritual gift that can easily be paired up. I wanted to give everyone an update on how this budding ministry is progressing. We have three members that have reached out and began weekly visits to three different facilities. We also have a group of people that have formed to begin visits with a fifth facility. We have several contacts at area facilities, all we need is volunteers. Many people make light work. If you are willing to spend just a few hours a month visiting with people and sharing the love of Christ please contact the office and we can help you get connected. Please consider reaching out to the people in our area and let them know we care and in the name of Jesus Christ that they are loved.

5. Area Happenings – There are several things happening in our community that I wanted to bring to your attention.

• Saturday, November 6th, from 9am-2pm, St. Mark's UMC will host a Holly Berry Fair.There will be crafts and food available as well as baked goods, candy, and jewelry. For more info call 622-4475.

• Sunday, November 7th, at 2pm, at First UMC Gainesville, Dr. Mark Coffey will give an organ recital.If you would like more information please contact Robert W. Jackson (BJ) at (352) 372-8523 Ext. 20.

• The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Women have begun registration for their 27th Annual Women's Retreat. This is a wonderful time of fellowship and enrichment for all women. If you are interested there is more information in the office.

The Prayer of Jabez: That Your Hand Would Be With Me - 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 and I Chronicles 4:9-10

Introduction
Today we are continuing our preaching series on an oft-passed over piece of Scripture called the Prayer of Jabez. The first week we began with the phrase, “Oh, that you would bless me” as we looked at the appropriateness of asking God to bless us and what we are truly asking for in that endeavor. Two weeks ago we took the passage, “that you would enlarge my territory” as we unpacked the strength that is required for this type of petition. Today we are going to examine the next phrase, “Let your hand would be with me” as we look to what this means for us today in our lives.

We Can Be Our Own Worst Enemy
A ridiculous story made the rounds a while back. It is about a pilot and three passengers--a boy scout, a priest, and atomic scientist--and a plane that develops engine trouble in mid-flight. The pilot rushes back to the passenger compartment and exclaims, "The plane is going down! We only have three parachutes, and there are four of us! I have a family waiting for me at home. I must survive!" With that, he grabs one of the parachutes and jumps out of the plane. The atomic scientist jumps to his feet at this point and declares, "I am the smartest man in the world. It would be a great tragedy if my life was snuffed out!" With that, he also grabs a parachute and exits the plane. With an alarmed look on his face, the priest says to the boy scout, "My son, I have no family. I am ready to meet my Maker. You are still young with much ahead of you. You take the last parachute." At this point, the boy scout interrupts the priest: "Hold on, Father. Don''t say any more. We''re all right. The world''s smartest man just jumped out of the plane wearing my knapsack!"

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Sometimes we are so full of ourselves that we think we can do it all on our own and we begin to take steps to remove God from our lives. Relying on our own power, our own steam, and no longer relying on God to be our strength and driving force. Jabez is a wonderful model for us in this regard.

Remember two weeks ago we talked about the absence of Jabez's father in the genealogy listed here in I Chronicles? We surmised that the reason behind his omission was probably because of some indiscretion and a few bad choices and that he probably made. And we also mentioned that this would have made Jabez's life much more difficult. All of this could have been the precursor to Jabez praying this prayer. But regardless of the reason Jabez understands the necessity of what he is asking God for. He understands the appropriateness of asking God to bless him. He understands the responsibility of asking God to enlarge his territory. And here he understands how vital it is to ask God to be with him.

Is God's Presence Important?
So the question here is why is God's presence or guidance in our lives so important? After all God created all of us with a tremendous intellect right? God gave us the ability to reason right? Absolutely! But by nature we are devoid of righteousness. By birth we are prone to sin. And Jabez understood that. Jabez knew that to be blessed by God and given more responsibility by God that this would often lead him to places he could not navigate by himself. And the only way he could survive, much less thrive, is by God's hand.

So let's look at the original text. Jabez uses the Hebrew word ^d>y" for hand to ask for God's presence. ^d>y" literally means an open hand, one that leads. Jabez understood that for God's blessing in his life, for the enlarged territory that would be given to him by God, to have any lasting impact, for any of it to bear worthy fruit, God had to be in control. God had to be the leader, the sole influence.

Folks, for God to be with us does not mean that God simply gets in line with our thinking, gives a rubber stamp approval, and opens the doors we tell God to open. For God to be with us, we take the back seat. We become the tool and God the carpenter.

If you go to Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, there is a church you can go to that is shaped like a tear drop. It is called Dominus Flevit, or “The Lord Wept”. From this spot you can see the entire city of Old Jerusalem. This is the spot in Scripture where Christ envisioned Jerusalem's destruction all because they would not listen to him. And this image stirred up so much pain and grief within our Lord, that Jesus wept. Luke 19:41-44 recounts the scene, As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." The people did not recognize God right there in front of them. Jesus, God in the flesh, had come to bring peace and reconciliation, to be their hand.

How Can God be my Hand?
So how can God be our hand? One is to read Scripture. For you to listen to God, to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit you have to be able to recognize his voice. And one of the best ways to do that is to spend time with God in the Word. Get that Bible out and read it. Read it every day. Whether it is a verse or two, a story or two, or to take part in the Bible Challenge I put on my blog each week where you read four chapters a day. Just read. Read, study, examine, and memorize the narratives of love God has for you in Scripture.

Another way to help you recognize the voice of God is to pray. Pray daily for God to be the driving influence in your life. Pray for God help you set aside your earthly desires and give you Kingdom ones. Pray for God to give you wisdom to listen and courage to obey. Pray in any way you can, in whatever way you need, that will make God your focus.

The Challenge
Each week I try to give all of us a challenge to work on. Something that will help us draw closer to God. Well my challenge for this week is a bit different. As all of you came in this morning you received a card with a name and address on it. This is a “Pray for Me” card. On one side is a wonderful quote from James Montgomery expressing our natural desire to pray, “Prayer is the soul's sincere desire” along with a very brief sentence or two about the basis of prayer. There is also a box with a challenge and a set of instructions:

Therefore, I encourage you to embark on a journey for the next 30 days.

• Place this card where you will see it daily.

• Pray for the person(s) on the other side of this card for at least a month.

• Send a handwritten note of encouragement to this person(s) and let them know you are praying for them.

On the other side is a wonderful piece of Scripture from Jeremiah 29:11 that reminds us that good things come when God is our hand, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope”. And below that is a name. That is a person that I would like you to pray for, for the next 30 days. And there are some prayer starters below that.

If we as a congregation can do this, pray for each other specifically, I can only begin to imagine what will happen. If we all do this, then each one of us will know we are being prayed for by name for the next month. If we can be that congregation that prays like this for each other, then there is no limit to what we can accomplish for the Kingdom.

Jabez wanted God to be his hand. He wanted God to direct his life so that he could make an impact for God in his world. I am wanting us to ask God to be our hand now, so we can make an impact for this world. Do not be afraid, do not place more importance on our ways over God's ways. Be open, be receptive, be prayerful, be obedient. God's ways are perfect, God's ways are better. God's hand is open, I pray you will take it.

Bible Challenge 10/24 - 10/30

Greetings All!

This week we will finish up the Old Testament and if you have been following along, on Sunday, you will have read the Bible from cover to cover. Congrats!! However, this is still another part of this challenge. We will continue again with the New Testament and by the end of the year we will have completed that as well. So here is the schedule

10/24, Sunday: Zechariah 14 - Malachi 4

10/25, Monday: Matthew 1-4

10/26, Tuesday: Matthew 5-8

10/27, Wednesday: Matthew 9-12

10/28, Thursday: Matthew 13-16

10/29, Friday: Matthew 17-20

10/30, Saturday: Matthew 21-24

Finish strong and be blessed!

Friday Fives

1. Preaching Series - This week we will continue our preaching series on the Prayer of Jabez. We are going to examine the phrase, "and that your hand would be with me" as we look to the importance of God being a central part of our lives. Bring a friend and hope to see you there.

2. Pumpkins! – Our pumpkin wonderland is here! We have had a blast visiting with each other and talking with the people who stop by. If you would like to volunteer to sell or read, or if you would just like to stop by, we would love to have you. This truly is a lot of fun. This is also a great time to fellowship with this community and show them that we are here and we love them!

3. Bible Study – We have finished week two of our Bible Study based on what we as United Methodists believe as we spoke about how we understand the Holy Spirit, the gift of salvation, and the giving of God's grace. We still have several topics to discuss and three more weeks in the study. It is never to late to join. We meet on Thursdays at 11am and 7pm in Fellowship Hall. Just come on over and jump in. Hope to see you there!

4. Salty Service - A few months back I asked everyone to consider joining up together in groups to venture out and visit some of the residents in the many assisted living and rehab facilities around our church. There are many people there that get no visitors, and we are so good with fellowship, I see a need and a spiritual gift that can easily be paired up. I wanted to give everyone an update on how this budding ministry is progressing. We have three members that have reached out and began weekly visits to three different facilities. We also have a group of people that have formed to begin visits with a fifth facility. We have several contacts at area facilities, all we need is volunteers. Many people make light work. If you are willing to spend just a few hours a month visiting with people and sharing the love of Christ please contact the office and we can help you get connected. Please consider reaching out to the people in our area and let them know we care and in the name of Jesus Christ that they are loved.

5. Area Happenings – There are several things happening in our community that I wanted to bring to your attention.

• Saturday, November 6th, from 9am-2pm, St. Mark's UMC will host a Holly Berry Fair.There will be crafts and food available as well as baked goods, candy, and jewelry. For more info call 622-4475.

• Sunday, November 7th, at 2pm, at First UMC Gainesville, Dr. Mark Coffey will give an organ recital.If you would like more information please contact Robert W. Jackson (BJ) at (352) 372-8523 Ext. 20.

• The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Women have begun registration for their 27th Annual Women's Retreat. This is a wonderful time of fellowship and enrichment for all women. If you are interested there is more information in the office.