#110 Living The Jabez Life (04/01/04)

Guest Pastor Dr. Bruce Wilkinson

Introduction by Dr. Robert H. Schuller

I am so honored to have as our guest pastor this morning, here in the Crystal Cathedral, Dr. Bruce Wilkinson, the author of the best selling book, "The Prayer of Jabez."

Dr. Wilkinson is known as a master Bible teacher. He has authored several books, but his most popular and impacting book is "The Prayer of Jabez" which has sold 9 million copies. That's phenomenal! Dr. Wilkinson lives with his wife Darlene, near Atlanta, Georgia. They have three children and four grandchildren.

Message by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson

Thank you very much. What a pleasure to be here this morning and to talk to you about Jabez.
Would you like to know how the book was written? I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, and they asked me to speak on the Prayer of Jabez that I had been speaking on for about 30 years. So I decided to write it in book form and give it away as a gift to all those attending this special day to pray for our country. So a year ago in May, I saw the book the night before the National Day of Prayer. It was at a banquet in Washington, DC for senators, congressmen and ambassadors that I went and stood behind a table where they were getting their nametag and opened a box and kind of sheepishly gave them my book as a gift. Everyone looked at this little book, The Prayer of Jabez, then looked at me and walked away. Not a person said a word. And at the end of that entire event I said to Darlene, my wife, "Sweetheart, that was a lot of work for nothing."

The publisher had said, "How many copies do you think we should print?"

I said, "I don't know, we'll give it away as a gift, maybe a couple of thousand, a few thousand."

He said, "Oh no, maybe 20 thousand."

I said, "That's a lot of books."

Well, after a few weeks the publisher called up and said, "They're selling the books in the bookstore. Who's buying them? Are you and your family going to the bookstores to buy them yourself?"

I answered, "No."

And he asked, "Why are they buying that book?"

I said, "I have no idea why they're buying it."

Well, the books kept on selling. And it shocked everyone. Who's heard about Jabez? At the end of that year 2000, it had sold a half a million copies and I was in shock. Then in the early part of January 2001, the publisher called me and said, "We're going to print more books."

I said, "How many?"

He said, "Guess."

I said, "I don't know, 25,000."

He started laughing, "Guess again."

"One hundred thousand."

"Guess again."

"Two hundred thousand."

He said, "No, we're going to print a million books!"

I said, "Don, don't print a million books. You're going to have these books until you die. You're going to hate me."

And he said, "No. I think it's okay."

So he printed a million books in early January and they were all gone at the end of January. So he called me in February, and said, "We're printing two million books."

And do you know what happened? Overnight we saw something underneath the surface that was going on in the country that caught us all off guard. People wanted to connect with God and find a way for God to answer their prayers and other people's lives. Everywhere I go, people say the same thing to me. "Do you know what happened to me when I got that little Prayer of Jabez book and I prayed it. God answered it. Let me tell you what happened!"

It's always a wonderful story of how God answers the prayer of Jabez.

And so I ask people, "In the last couple of months have you had a specific answer to prayer? Did you ask God for something and He said, 'yes' and did it?"

People all over the country are praying this prayer of Jabez found in the middle of the Old Testament. There's nothing magic about it, but it's a prayer that God loves to answer.

You can read it in 1 Chronicles 4:9 and 10:
"Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers!K.
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,

1. Oh, that You would bless me indeed.
2. And that You would enlarge my territory
3. That Your hand would be with me !K
4. That you would keep me from evil that I might not cause pain.

So God granted him that which he requested."

When I was a freshman in seminary, the professor spoke on the first verse: "Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers."

This professor was such a moving speaker that, as a freshman, as I sat in the back row, I found my heart beating, saying, "I would love for God, someday before I die to say to me, 'you are honorable.'"

And the professor called for all of us, his students, "Why don't you become a Jabez?" And with all of the stars in my eyes as a freshman, I said, "I want to do that !KI want to know how Jabez became a person that was more honorable."

I hurried to the library !K got out some commentaries and said, "I'm going to find the secret of Jabez." But I got so discouraged because there was nothing else in the Bible about Jabez. I was complaining to God, saying, "God, how can I become more honorable if you don't show me how?" And then I read down to that next verse, the prayer, and I said, "I wonder if that's the secret to what happened to Jabez?" Because the next part of that verse says: "And God granted him !K" !K God said, "Yes!"

So I'm sitting there in that library and nobody else is around as I think to myself, "Maybe I should try praying the prayer of Jabez. Maybe it will work." So here's what I tried to do in that library. I said, "Dear God, would you please bless !K" you can't pray that! You can't ask God to bless yourself. Just imagine if you asked one of your pastors to stand here in this pulpit and he prayed: "Dear God, would you please bless me, a lot, in Jesus name. Amen." ... What would you think?
Well, I am in this library and I can't pray that. That's wrong to pray. It's okay to say, "Dear God, please bless Dr. Schuller" !K but not myself.

The second part of the prayer, Jabez said, "Give me more that I can do for you." And I'm saying to God at this time in my life, "I have too much to do, help me get rid of some things."

Then Jabez prays, "Put your hand upon me." And I'm saying, "God, I can't find your hand."

Every single thing Jabez prayed, I never prayed. And a light went on in that library and it was this !K "I wonder if that's why I'm not more honorable. I don't pray the way a man who is honorable in God's eyes prays."

And so that's what started it. I began to pray the Prayer of Jabez and God began to answer my prayer and caught me off guard.

God loves to answer to what's taking place
in your life when you ask Him.

Now since 9-11, our country started praying. The same people who mocked God one day, the next day were praying, "God bless America." What happened in New York City certainly wasn't the blessing of God. And people who didn't have much to do with God, suddenly asked God, "Would You please bless America." But once you think about that for a moment you realize God can't bless America unless he blesses an American. God makes it personal. After 9-11 happened, millions of people, without exception, were saying to God, "Would You please bless me? Would You use me more? Would You expand the places of influence so I can be Your mouth, Your hands, Your feet? Send me somebody who needs You that I can help." People are stunned. They're stunned because that's exactly what God does.

It is exhilarating when God answers your prayer. Now I ask you a question. Have you ever asked God to bless you? There is the blessing in the Bible that comes when you accept Christ as your Savior. That's a different kind of blessing than the Jabez blessing. Then there are the blessings that you can only get if you behave in certain ways. That's not the kind of blessing that the Jabez blessing is.

The Jabez blessing is a "grace-based blessing." It comes to a person who just asks. That's it.

Jesus taught the same thing. He said,

"Ask! Knock! Seek! Because My Father loves to
give good things to those who ask!" (Matthew 7:7-11)

God loves to give. God loves!

But what happens if you mess up? Then God's gift of grace to you can turn your heart soft because He is so kind. Why don't you ask God to bless you, and keep on asking Him? And it will shock you !K Why? !K Because the bucket in your heart is so empty of the blessing of God. Could it be that God will bless you if you ask Him?

Jabez didn't say, "Bless me by doing this." Don't ever add "how?" !K or "when? !K or "what?" Don't say "Bless me with this." That's not the Jabez prayer. Jabez prayed, "Dear God, will you please bless me indeed." (I Chronicles 4:10) Bless me a lot !K not a little.

One time a man came up to me and he was so frustrated. He held onto the side of the pulpit as he said, "Don't tell me that we're supposed to ask God for a big blessing."

And I answered him, "Well, sir, if there was a little box, a medium box and a big one and each one had a blessing. The little box held a little blessing !K a medium sized box, a medium blessing, and the big box, a big blessing from God !K which one would you take?"
He said, "I would take the big blessing."

Well then, why don't you ask for a big blessing?

But, wait a minute, ladies and gentlemen !K most Christian people believe the exact opposite about God. They believe that God is harsh, negative, pre-occupied, ticked off, has a pad in His hand ticking off the things you've done wrong and every time you come to God He says, "Let Me get out My pad on you !K and it's a long pad."

When Moses was with God up on the mountain for 40 days, Moses said to God, "Please show me some of Your Glory."

Moses was probably asking God to show him some of the universe God's hands created and what God had done. But when God was revealing His Glory to Moses, do you know the first thing God said? "I am full of mercy." The second thing God said, "I am full of grace." Third, God said, "I have lovingkindness. I love to be kind to you."

Most people don't get to know God even though they come to know Christ, because they have this warped idea !K who would want to be friend with a harsh, negative God? But if you believe the truth about God you would be running into the arms of God all the time.

"Because there are pleasures evermore at the right hand
of God who is full of mercy and grace to you." (Psalm 16:11)

That's who God is. And when you get to heaven, if you know Christ you know heaven is going to be so wonderful, you're going to look at the streets of gold for only a second. You will look at the mansions for only a second !K but do you know what you're going to want? You are going to want to be next to the person of God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

The most exciting thing is you can be close to God right now!

I find most people don't know the blessing of God, so I'm just encouraging you this morning. Do you know what that does to a man or woman or young person and to you who receive the blessing of God just because you asked? You'll begin to like God. You will! Who cannot like someone who is so kind and generous when we many times are not?

Many of you need to understand this. You can be far away from God. You could not even believe in God too much, go ahead and ask anyway. And God will begin to bless you as you move closer to Him. God will begin to say, "Well, there's some big blessings over here, but you know for these, you have to clean up your act a little bit with Me. And if you do, then a whole other set of blessings will come to you. And people get stalled in a cul-de-sac in their Christian lives and they stay there year after year after year. If God is asking you to clean up a part of your life or whatever, there are blessings God is ready to give.

God's Mega-Blessings

If you want true mega-blessings, ladies and gentlemen, you have to meet some of the conditions for the big ones. But there is a threshold. The mega-blessings don't take place until the second or third year of a person who went from dryness in their heart to overwhelming fullness. You know what you're going to begin doing about the third year? You're going to begin to say, "Lord, please shower even more blessings upon me."

And God will say to you, "It's time for the mega-blessings. The really big ones."

Jesus defined the mega-blessing this way. He said, "It is more blessed to give than receive."(Words of Jesus Christ, Acts 20:35.) But most people don't have much to give to someone else because they are so empty. That's why you keep asking until you get full and your heart enlarges and your acts clean up and you say, "God I want to do more." And God says, "It's time for the mega-blessings." And do you know what happens at that point? God sends people from every direction to you and you can meet their need for God and that's when you hit the mega-blessing.
I wondered for a long time how God felt about this. I didn't know until something happened with my son, David when I was speaking for the Promise Keepers to 50 thousand men in Pittsburgh, I took my son and my father who was in a wheelchair. We had a tremendous weekend. When we came home we were sharing with my wife and our two daughters what happened at Promise Keepers that weekend. As I was seated in a chair, David said, "Dad, I want to ask you to do something for me."

"Sure, Dave, what would you like me to do?"

He said, "Dad, would you please bless me?"

"Yes, of course," I answered, and without saying a word, David got up from his chair and walked over to me without looking at me. And he knelt right at my feet and then as he looked up at me, he said, "Dad, I really want your blessing," and bowed his head. I put my hands on his shoulder and I began to pour out my heart so full of blessing on him, his family, his ministry and his walk with God. I emptied my heart like never before until there was nothing left to bless. It had to be one of the most intense moments I've ever had in my life. We were all weeping. Then David, without looking at me, quietly stood up and walked back to his chair and as he sat down,. the Lord whispered to me, "Now you know how I feel when you kneel before Me and look into My eyes and say, 'O Lord, I want Your blessing enough to ask for it.'"

Who was most blessed when I blessed my son? The father was most blessed because the son wanted it enough to ask. You don't bless someone because of works. You bless because of relationship. Therefore, I ask you on behalf of God, please come into His presence and if you want a lot of blessings, kneel down and just look up into Heaven's face and say:

"Dear Father, I really do want Your blessing. I don't understand all of this, but please, because
You're kind, bless me."

And then hold on because He will.

I want you to think for a moment. Would you look inside of your heart !K is it full or is it empty this morning? Would you wish that it would be bursting with joy, with fulfillment and with significance? Will you therefore ask the Giver of every perfect gift, the Source of every blessing !K Praise God from Whom all blessing flow? You must ask! Will you right now, say to Him,
"Lord, please bless me indeed."

And now, Lord Father, I thank You that You are the One who loves to bless, and I now open my heart to You. I am unworthy of a blessing. That's why You call every blessing a gift. It is not earned. Therefore, Lord, You who love to give would You please open Your heart to me who asks and would You in the next couple of days demonstrate Your mercy and grace and lovingkindness to me who asks to see it. In Jesus' name. Amen.