Services/Sermon in Rockford 01.03.2020

In the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost, let us join in opening prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, this evening hour we wish to approach you in prayer that you would be with us at these services as we've gathered around your word. Lord, open your word to your servant, give us hearing ears and receiving hearts, give us strength to continue our journey of faith.

At the beginning of this evening service, I'd like to read from the fourth chapter of the first book of Chronicles, verses 9 and 10. I'm reading these words with a prayer that God would open his word, reading them in Jesus' name as follows:

And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bear him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O 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. Amen.

Throughout the Bible, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of names. And many of those names are found simply in lists of people. And in fact, in this chapter, there are many names written. For instance, the verses following our text say, and she loved the brother of Shua, begat Meher, which was the father of Eshten, and Eshten begat Beth-Rapha, and on and on. There are names upon names which have disappeared into history.

In many ways, when I've thought about these lists, I've thought how God has preserved them. And for a reason, the biggest reason being this: that it shows the genealogy of time, and how Jesus, our Lord and Savior, fits into that genealogy, and how scriptures have been fulfilled.

Sometimes, in God's Word, though, we run across short stories, very short stories. And it's all that remains of that person. In this text that we read, it speaks of a man named Jabez. This man only appears in this text. His name also would seem to appear in the name of a city in another part of God's Word.

So when we look at this from that perspective, the people of his day would have known him. It was a short excerpt of this man who was known well enough that a city was named after him. And this short narrative.

So, I've thought to myself sometimes, what will people say about us when we have been gone from this world hundreds of years from now? What would our name be even remembered? And if we were remembered hundreds of years from now, what would be said about us?

What we see here is a prayer that was left as memory of this man, Jabez. So of all the things that could have been recorded about him, there must have been much. When you think that a city was named after him, there surely could have been a lot of stories written about him and about his life that perhaps was interesting. What was left about him was this prayer.

This text begins that Jabez was more honorable than his brethren. When you think about that kind of a topic, about whether someone has more honor than another, there are many ways you could look at that as negative or positive because it could put him into a place where he was proud. I don't think that's the case as we read this text. It seems like it refers to more than that.

I'm not certain what happened in this man's life. It doesn't say other than these two verses. But in the other text which speaks about him, it talks how the people of that day, the scribes, went into that city. It was a place where the scribes would meet. And so it gives that perception of this man, how he knew scriptures. The city named after him had a place where scribes of his day met.

Does it point to that? I guess God's word leaves that open. But when we do read God's word, there are many of these names, if we would stop to consider them, they have meanings as well. And it seems as if the writer has recorded them for that purpose. And even the name tells a story.

The next part of this verse says that his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bear him with sorrow. When we look at another part of Old Testament scriptures, you recall from the beginning pages, it talks how the woman would bear children with sorrow or in pain. And isn't that what's been happening over and over and over again throughout the centuries? How in childbirth, children are born through the pain of the mother.

I think it points to something a little bit further though. Jabez, his name meant that he will cause pain. So it would seem like his mother had suffered something during that childbirth to give him a name such as that.

When you look at it from a temporal perspective, we're known by our name and what our parents have given to us. It is who we are. It's how we're labeled. How we're remembered. And so to be known by everyone around you as someone who causes pain seems like an almost a harsh thing to go through life as a little child and grow up and that type of thought that you cause pain. It's a label. It's a name.

And I don't think that's far from us to be part of this. I know when I've thought about my youth and childhood, there was a label or a name that I was known by that caused pain. And this could change as we meet people. It was a pretty simple name. It was a sin. It caused pain to me because I recognize how my school friends looked at me different when they used that name. If they used my real name, Rick, it didn't bring pain. That's who I am. On the other hand, I am a sin. And somehow or another, it caused pain. It's a label. Something that we can't... It's a truth. We can't pass it by.

And I wonder if this man, Jabez, was thinking about something like that. That name that brought pain to me being a sin pointed to this, how they saw me belonging to this group of sins. And it wasn't a good feeling when they used that word.

In the same way, also, it has caused pain sometimes when I've tried to confess my faith and have said that I'm a Lutheran or I'm a believer. That can cause pain. Because we're so weak and poor in ourselves and we don't want to admit sometimes. Because we're also a result or we're... Because of things that happen to us and things we observe, we can almost become conditioned and become pained when we hear something. Even if it's just a simple statement.

I remember, for instance, one dark winter evening I was in a group in a car in Finland in a small town. It was apparent that everyone in that city knew each other. We were at the main intersection in that town at the stoplight. I still remember this car pulling up next to us and the window rolled down and someone hollered out a term which basically means Lutheran but it was a slur. It sounded like a swear word to cause pain.

Is that what this means? If that is what this means, it feels like maybe this mother felt a different kind of pain. It wasn't the temporal earthly pain of bearing a child.

I know and I think many perhaps you fathers here recognize this maybe more how we've seen our wives in pain and childbirth and the memory of that pain disappears quickly when a child is born. It's almost like it didn't happen when the child is brought into their arms and joy fills the minds and thoughts.

It seems as if Jabez was born into a time where he had to think about things in perhaps an unexpected way. And it made him pause and pray.

And so we'll look at this prayer. It says Jabez called on the God of Israel. And when you look at it from this perspective of causing pain, it seems like it wasn't just a simple quiet prayer. He was pained. He was worried about something. It was like he cried out in prayer, God help me. I need your guidance, your direction.

It's something for all of us to think about. We can ask God for his help. Seek his guidance through his word, through our brothers and sisters in faith, through the Holy Spirit, what God reveals to us.

So first in his prayer he said, Oh, that thou wouldst bless me indeed. Bless me. Isn't that a good way to start a prayer? Dear Heavenly Father, I need your blessing. And it really doesn't matter to us in that sense what that blessing is, but we know that we need his blessing for us to succeed. If God takes his blessing away, we're of all people most unfortunate.

Oh, Heavenly Father, bless me. Bless me indeed. Not just some passing thing. Kind of reminds me of the prayer that Solomon had in his day when God asked him what he would want as he became king. And it wasn't the fortunes, the riches that he asked for to be blessed that way, but that he would be able to rule the people well. Isn't that a blessing indeed? The heart of a child of God, something that we would perhaps each one of us ask in prayer for, is not something superficial.

I think it points to the heart of Jabez that that was his prayer, that God would bless him indeed. Indeed.

Then it says to enlarge my coast. If I understand this part correctly, it seems as if he must have been in charge of this city, and he was asking for that kind of blessing that the area under his control could grow.

When we read about the children of Israel when they first came to the promised land, it seems as if God had asked them to take control of that whole promised land, and it seems as if they did not do that. And if that is correct, as I understand it, then it seems like this isn't a man who is trying to show his power, and asking God to give him power, but he wanted to be obedient, he wanted to follow the instructions, and that's what he had done.

And to enlarge my coast. Dear Heavenly Father, could you bless that work that is done in our midst? We hope and pray as believers that our leaders in our day would approach God, and whether or not they are believers or not, it is good that they approach God and ask for his blessings.

God has promised to guide the phases of nations and peoples, especially when the people approach him and ask for his guidance. And we can also pray on behalf of our country, our leaders, that they would do so, and that we would support them when they do, and if they don't, that we would pray on their behalf that they would do so, and that we could ask God that he would bless our country, our nations, that we could do the best for our nation, that we could work for its good, that we could help our neighbor, and that in helping them, we would even help ourselves.

And that thine hand might be with me. He again is asking for God's guidance. It's not just something that we would ask for God's blessings, like riches or honor, or that he would give us more land, as it seems like he's asking for here, but that God would help him. His hand would be with him.

His blessing hand brings to my mind a picture of God as our Father. I think we can all put this into that perspective when we think of our own fathers. And I'm sure there's maybe some who may not have this picture because of some reason or another, because of the deceitfulness of the enemy of the soul. Perhaps your father is not in faith, or perhaps he has been led astray somehow to mistreat. That's possible.

I would say a majority of believing children, the majority of us remember our fathers in that sort of way. That when there's been trouble, when there's been worries, we've been able to go to them and what has happened? Their hand comes out put onto our shoulder. It doesn't seem like whatever the problem was, it becomes easier, and the worries disappear, and we know that dad will take care of it. It's like a sure thing that the problem is solved.

And it's a greater thing to think of that as the heavenly father, when his blessing hand is felt, we have no worries, no fears. And we see how his guidance will lead us in the best way, and will lead us towards the best destination.

It's not, I guess without reason, that picture is there, that hand. It's also in other parts of God's word when hands are spoken of. In the New Testament scriptures, it says when there's some servants of the word that were being installed, it said that they were blessed that work by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. God's blessing hands also are felt when that happens.

And I'm sure you recall the stories of Jesus. Remember when he was speaking to the people and these little children tried to come to him and the disciples were trying to shoo them away. And Jesus rebuked them and told them that suffer their little children to come unto me and forbid them not. And it says that he took them up in his arms and he blessed them. He put his hands on them, blessed them.

That's what Jabez was requesting. And isn't that a good thing to ask for? That God's blessing hand would be upon us. And isn't it a prayer as well that we would seek those places where God's blessing hand is found. It can be found in very unassuming places. It can be found in the hearing of God's word and when there's thousands of people. When we listen to the sermon and we hear the message of the gospel preached, it can be found where two or three are gathered. Small groups. Home services. Where God's grace and forgiveness come so close. We're allowed to believe our sins forgiven.

Isn't that something that we can pray for? That God would lead us to that type of a place.

When I was in my teenage years, I remember one youth Bible class, one dear brother, he was explaining his trials, his temptations, and how the enemy had been successful. And how his first inclination was to remove himself from the fellowship of the believers, he could sense he didn't fit in anymore. There was something that was keeping him from the services or even just simple discussions with his friends or even the elders that would speak to him.

Until I believe he said it was his father who saw how something was wrong and he approached him. He was still able to go home.

It's a good place to go to remember that that's where God's blessing hand is and where there will be help in time of need. And if we can keep that kind of a thought in our minds, God's blessing hand will be there. He will be able to guide us. He will be able to lead us along the narrow way of faith. God's love.

This man, young man at that time, he only marveled at that. He recalled one of the songs of Zion. He said it explained his situation. And it goes something like this:

That I walked in blindness. My soul was dying. The prince of darkness held me in his power. In pain I turned to my father crying. He broke my chains and saved me in that hour.

Isn't that something that we can hold on to? That kind of a picture that we have a father in heaven that can show himself in our brothers and sisters in faith or in our temporal fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters. And it's a consoling hand. It's a hand that gives us strength. It comforts us. It brings peace to feel that hand set upon our shoulder.

He continues here that thou wouldst keep me from evil. In the Lord's prayer Jesus as if quotes this. And he puts it into that context of that lead me not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

We will be tempted. That's a sure thing. It is something though that you can be comforted that temptations are not sin. It's something that we can't control. It's in our thoughts and minds. Temptations are not sin. But when it's finished it does bring forth. And when we fall into whatever we are tempted by then we have sin.

On the other hand the servants of old have spoken how and taught how temptations can even bother us. And it can make us wonder if we're still a child of God. The power of the gospel can even cover things that are not sin. It's a comforting message, a consoling message, and we can lean on it whenever we want to. Even temptations can be put away and forgotten about.

I remember at one of the services that I was in Finland during the time of Opie's, still one of the old speaker brothers told a story about one of the services that he was serving at. And afterwards this girl came, a small girl, and said can she believe her temptations forgiven? And he marveled at that. What temptations does a five-year-old have that seems to weigh the journey down so much? She wanted to childlike believe them forgiven.

And it's an example for us as well as the believer of this day. I guess the adults of this day. The gospel has a power that we don't always understand and really know the extent of its power. But it's worth preserving. It's worth practicing. It's worth practicing.

That thou wouldst keep me from evil.

It seems as if many times especially for youth it's struggle to corral those temptations that fill the thought in mind and they come quickly and sometimes those temptations seem so much fun. And without thinking falls come.

It would be good if we could have this type of prayer as Jabez did in the back of our minds always. That God would keep me from evil. It seems as if that would help us. It would help us battle against sin and keep us from some of those wounds of the battle.

Because here it says that it may not grieve me. Keep me from evil that it may not grieve me. Causes grief. So many times more grief than we need. We have enough grief in life sometimes just doing our daily tasks, our daily worries. Especially as parents trying to earn our daily bread, help our family and life. Then to throw in the grief that sin causes.

It's good that we would pray that God would help us, that He would keep us from evil. That it wouldn't grieve us.

Sure, when we think about for instance from a doctrinal perspective, we must believe, for instance, that faith alone saves us. If we have faith, we will make it to heaven. And it doesn't say, if we have little faith, or much faith, or I guess, even sins on our conscience. It says that if we have faith, we will be saved. That's doctrinal, and we must believe that.

But on the other hand, dear brothers and sisters, you as well as I know that sin grieves us. It causes our consciences to be troubled and worried. You know, one of the confessional documents that we believe in and sometimes can recite talks about that. Well, the terror of sin that can fill our minds because of sin. And it speaks about repentance, how it's something that is not once and done. It's something that we continually live in a, I guess, a mode of repentance.

It's living the life of a baptism, according to baptismal command. It's putting sin away as it attaches. And that creed, it says that that's what the gospel does. It renews the hope of faith. And it's not just some general message of the gospel that renews faith. It even says absolution. The gospel, or absolution, as that confessional document says, renews the hope of faith. Gives us strength to believe.

We don't need to travel grieved. And it happens. Isn't that what we experience, dear brothers and sisters, that it's a battle of faith. We struggle against sin and it attaches to us. We fall. We're not successful always. God has given us a way out, a way of escape, a way to give hope, renew hope, and it's in the message of the gospel. It can wipe away all those things that grieve us. It can give us joy of faith again.

God granted him that which he requested.

Oh dear brothers and sisters, this evening, it's a good thing that God grants those kinds of requests. You don't need to fear or doubt.

I don't know why when I was speaking a little bit about teenage years, and this part of God's Word reminded me of a literature class in high school where it talks about being sinners in the hand of an angry God. That isn't what, how we travel as believers. We don't feel like we're in the hand of an angry God. Rather, it's the other way around.

God's gracious hand consoles us, gives us security and safety, and we can feel the gentle guidance that he gives us through our brothers and sisters in faith, through the Holy Spirit, through reading God's Word, through songs of Zion. So many ways we can feel his hand when he guides us.

I would venture to guess, though, that many times, dear brothers and sisters, if you are like me, we don't always feel that guidance until we look back and see where we've come from. And then we know where we're going. We're on our way to heaven.

Dear brothers and sisters, this evening you can renew those promises. You can feel the comforting hand of God under the message of the gospel. Lift up your hearts and believe your sins and doubts and fears of the way forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood. And be happy and be joyful.

We can make these kinds of prayers as Jabez did. Oh, that God would bless me. That he would bless me indeed. That his hand would be with me. That he would keep me from evil. That I wouldn't be grieved.

I want to also hear the same message. Can I believe my sins forgiven? I want to believe together with you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's close in the Lord's benediction.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.