The Five Sections of our Vision Document at St Stephen's spell:

CAN DO

We want St Stephen's the kind of community that encourages its members, and gives them the confidence to step out into new areas of service; to step out into new experiences of God.

We want St Stephen's to be a Can Do kind of community.

The Bible is full of stories showing how God can take a can-do kind of person and use them for his glory.

eg David

eg Caleb

But this morning I want to draw your attention to someone in the Bible a little less well known.

I tried to look him up in a concordance. But He Wasn't mentioned.

I looked him up in my IVP Bible Dictionary. But he wasn't in it.

I turned to my Huge Survey of the OT - No mention.

That's how insignificant Jabez is !

Have you heard of him ? That's how insignificant he is.

You'll find him mentioned in I Chronicles 4.

Just flick through the first 12 chapters of Chronicles - what do you notice....It's genealogies, lists of military leaders, payroll lists for the priesthood....12 chapters of lists of names.

Chances are if these chapters have come up in your Bible reading plan you may have skipped a few verses. If you did you would have missed Jabez. Only two verses of the Bible are devoted to him, right in the middle of these lists. But they tell an interesting little story. (I Chron 4.9,10)

Jabez - the name means Painful -

Jabez was more nonourable than his brothers.

His mother had given him the name Jabez-painful saying

"I gave birth to him in pain."

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel;

"Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory.

Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm

so that I will be free from pain."

And God granted his request.

Wow ! How many of us would like to be able to pray a prayer like that; Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.......and have God grant our request.

Wouldn't that be something ?!

What if we as a church cried out to God

Oh that you would bless us and enlarge us, let your hand be with us and keep us from harm

so that we may be free from pain. And God granted our request....Wouldn't that be something ?!

So let's just have a look at what these two verses tell us about the amazing life of Jabez - and see what we can apply. I'm just going to go through the verses and draw out three lessons and three questions:

POINT ONE - Jabez' name

Very unusual in OT Jewish culture for a mother to name a child.

You might remember that when Elisabeth - John the Baptists mum - told people He's going to be called John no-one bothered taking any notice of poor Mrs Baptist, and waited for Zechariah to give the correct answer. Zechariah of course couldn't speak at the time (read Luke for details) and had to signal to indicate, that yes his name was going to be John. That was the bolke's preorgative.

Well evidently his mum had had a difficult labour when Jabez was born and for some reason didn't want to forget - or more likely didn't want him to forget.

Can you imagine what that must have been like ? If your family was ever introduced it would be.....

This is my son John, that's Reuben, that's Timothy, that's Margeret, and that's Painful.

What a label to have to live with. It would jinx you.

It would certainly jinx your chances of a relationship. Hello Darlin'. I'm painful. How about it then ? It's not going to work is it ?

POINT ONE is that Jabez was labelled.

POINT TWO

Jabez cried out to God and asked specifically that his Painful Past would not be his future.

Jabez rejected his label. He prayed that how every body thought of him now would not define how his life would unfold henceforward.

And look at how he prayed.

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel - it says. Israel.

Israel who fought with the angel of God in order to get his blessing.

That's when he was given the name Israel - before that he was called Jacob.

Israel means He struggles with God.

Israel fought until he was permanently injured just to get his inheritance from God.

In Hebrew culture, to get the blessing of your Father

meant that you took his name - Jacob son of Isaac

it meant that you became the tribal chief

it meant that you inherited his estate.

(Gen 26) Jacob had fought with his brother even in the womb

to be the firstborn and inherit these privileges;

but he didn't quite make it.

So (Gen 26) he tricked his brother out of his estate

and (Gen 27) tricked his father into blessing him instead of the eldest.

And not satisfied with that (Gen 32) he fought with the angel of God until he got blessing from his Father in heaven too.

He sounds awful.

But let's quote Jesus in Luke 11, Matt 6 - the story about the neighbour going round at midnight for some loaves of bread.

What's the punchline of that story ?

Yet because of his......boldness / persistence....you could translate it outrageous barefaced cheek

because of his outrageous barefaced cheek the man got what he wanted

Becasue of Israel's outrageous barefaced cheek Israel got his inheritance from God.

Israel said to the Angel of the Lord I will not let you go until you bless me.

And now Jabez prays the same "Oh that you would bless me."

I think that Jabez knew that God is a God who responds to nerve, to persistence, boldness, outrageous bare-faced cheek.

POINT THREE Jabez' conscience.

In his prayer Jabez asks for more land. That's what enlarge my territory means. It means more wealth, more people, more property, more power.

What's interesting that Jabez seems to have no conscience asking for these things.

It's as if he sees it as being in God's interest,

to give himmore land, more people, more money, more wealth,

Verse 9 tells us

Jabez was more honour-able than his brothers.

What does that mean ?

One meaning is that Jabez had more integrity than his brothers.

It means that his beliefs, words and actions all lined up.

It means not only did he talk the talk as a good religious Jew.

But he walked the walk (as they say) as a genuine man of God.

It means he kept the commandments - He did not covet. He was not greedy.

It meant he honoured God financially; paying his dues in tithes and sacrifices.

It meant he paid his workers fairly and on time - as the Law commands.

It meant he treated foreigners on his land equitably. As the Law states.

It meant that he gave alms to the poor, as God had shown..

It meant that he honoured his parents and his commitments to his family.

All these things - just as the law required.

For Jabez these were not merely the Jewish liturgy that he repeated in synagogue. This was his way of life.

And clearly Jabez believed that because of all this it would be a good deal for God if he Jabez had control of more of the land and money going round in Israel.

The writer of the chronicles in effect lends his agreement:

That word honourable - applied to Jabez doesn't just mean integrity.

In the Septuagints it's from the same that word Paul uses in I Timothy when he says that a leader who leads and teaches well is worthy of double-honour - that's actually a reference to money - earnings. (Wonderful verse that.)

I think the writer of chronicles is agreeing.

It would be a good deal for God if Jabez had more of the land and money going round in Israel.

He was more honourable than his brothers.

HERE COME THE THREE QUESTIONS

1) How do we deal with our labels ? Where do we get our expectations for our lives?

From what others call us, or from seeing how God can work.

I have a friend whose shool called him unalterably thick. They labelled him that way because he was dyslexic. And for years my friend Tim believed the label they had given him.

He worked in a music shop.But he had a passion for theology. And so when his friend went to theological college. He shadowed his friend's reading. When he realised he had done a degree's worth of reading, he persuaded a college to let him i - my college St John's. He was the first student to get a first class degree on the BTh. One by one we all trekked round to his house

to do revision sessions with him because he was streets ahead of the rest of us.

He's now working on his 2nd PhD and lectures in theology for the Chelmsford diocese.

Tim's story always serves me as a reminder that it pays to question labels and expectations that others have set for you.

Do you have a label on you, put there by parents, teachers, a spouse, even by your children, or just by past experience that you need to reject; and say "God Bless me so that that label just becomes history - becomes an irrelevance."

Do we have a label as a church, as a parish put there by whosoever, that we need to reject and say "God Bless us and enlarge us so that that label just becomes history - becomes an irrelevance."

SECOND QUESTION

Are we crying out to the God of Israel - the God who blesses those who are barefaced in their nerve and cheek for what they ask, and who persist, and wrestle with God and won't leave him alone until they've got the inheritance they want;

IS THAT US ?

Are we crying out to the God of Israel

or praying prayers to the God of the polite ?

This church does not need polite prayers. We don't need polite, namby-pamby, if it be thy will, sorry to take up your time God kind of prayers. We need the blessing of the God of Israel - let's give him what he responds to - historically speaking.

If you're not sure on this. Look again at Jesus' teaching on prayer in Luke 11, Luke 18, Matthew 6, John 14 & 16.

Let's offer to God the kind of prayers that he responds to -and step out a bit and be a bit bold.

AND THIRDLY

Is our conscience clear to ask Him for more money ?

Are we more honourable than our brothers and sisters in Canberra that God should think it a good deal to give St Stephen's more of the money going round in Canberra.

I'm not really asking us to compare ourselves with other churches, what I am really asking is

Are we so good with the money we have - do we honour God so much with our money -

that we would be God's first thought for giving money to.

Are we so good with new people that we would be God's first thought for sending people to.

Can we look him in they eye and say Lord you know that it would be a good deal for you

if we had control of more of your money (?)

God you know that it is in your interests to give us more of the people coming to you in Canberra.

Jabez got himself into the place where God granted his request. Let us do the same.

Amen.