FBC Daily Devotional – January 11, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope you're doing well today. Got a good night of rest and ready to take on the day ahead.

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Or maybe you're watching this in the middle of the day, and perhaps even at the end of the day. Nevertheless, I hope

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God is blessing you with a good day thus far. Well, let me ask you this. How can you make a difference as an individual in this world, in your family, for generations to come?

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You know, we're reading in, if you're following the Bible reading plan, we're reading today in 1 Chronicles, in chapters 4 and 5, and these are the, can

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I say this reverently, the boring sections of the Bible. This genealogy list, the tables of the descendants of the different tribes of Israel, and earlier on in the book of others.

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And it seems like it's just a bunch of names. Just a bunch of names, and it can get tedious to read through them all.

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But again, as I pointed out the other day, if you are alert, as you maybe kind of skim through some of the names, certainly, to be sure, you will pick up on some things that stand out.

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And I want to point out two of those today. And they are two individuals who make an impact on those around them, and on generations to come.

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One positive, and one not so much. So the first is this character

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Jabez. You read of him in chapter 4 of 1 Chronicles verses 9 and 10. You know, several years ago, it's probably been,

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I'm, I think 20 years, 21 years ago, maybe, a guy wrote a book entitled

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The Prayer of Jabez. And it became a big seller in the Christian market and beyond.

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I mean, there were people who were sending this book to members of Congress and telling them to pray this, you know, read this book and pray the prayer of Jabez.

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And it became quite a thing. And the problem, I'm not intending to give a critique of that book, but the problem is it was really this prayer of Jabez was treated almost formulaically.

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Like, if you pray this prayer, then this will happen to you. Well, that's not what I'm suggesting today.

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But what I want to point out is that the text tells us that Jabez was significant in his generation.

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Verse 9 of chapter 4 says that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers.

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What made him a more honorable man? I think it probably had to do with his name.

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His name means pain. And we're told in the text that his mother named him that because he was a pain at childbirth.

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Apparently, his was a very difficult birth. And to record and make that extremely difficult childbirth a memorable thing, she named her son

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Pain. Well, that served to challenge Jabez to pray that he wouldn't be a pain.

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And that's how he prayed. He asked God to be gracious to him, that he would be able to overcome the memory of that of that childbirth.

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He asked that the Lord would bless him indeed, that he would enlarge his territory. That is, that that God would be gracious in giving him vocational success.

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It's the way we would have to look at it today. And that that he would be a blessing to others.

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And he also says that he would keep him from evil. Prayed that the

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Lord would keep him from evil. That word evil doesn't necessarily connote moral error or moral wrongdoing.

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It can simply connote calamity or pain. So he's asking the

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Lord to keep him from pain. Not only the experience of it, but the causing of it.

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See, that's the thing. His name was Pain because he caused pain at childbirth.

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And now he uses that reminder of what he caused his mother to to have him ask the

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Lord that he not cause pain to others through his life. And that that faith and that turning to the

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Lord and trusting in the Lord was what made him more honorable than those of his brothers, of those around him, his contemporaries.

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And I suggest that's a way that you and I can make an impact and make a difference in our homes, our families, and in our generation.

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That we be truly be people of faith that depend upon the

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Lord and trust in the Lord and count on the Lord and look to the Lord to be with us and to prosper us in the ways that God wants to prosper us and to to keep us from causing heartache and pain in the lives of others.

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Now that brings up the second guy who made a huge impact on his generation and generations to follow.

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And we read of him in chapter 5 and the first verse. And I'm talking about Reuben, one of the twelve sons of Jacob.

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And here's what here's what verse 1 says of chapter 5. And you can almost feel the pain in the writing of this.

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It says, now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph.

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And then it goes on from there. But that little statement that he was indeed the firstborn, but he relinquished it.

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He relinquished all the blessings and the benefits and the rights that were associated with being the firstborn son.

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He gave those all up. He sacrificed them all. For what?

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For a moment of pleasure. He took his father's wife and and went into her.

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He committed immorality with his own stepmother, if you will. And as a result of that, it brought shame upon him.

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It caused him to be deprived of the rights and the privileges of being the firstborn son, which would have involved extra inheritance and honor and prestige and leadership in the clan.

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He lost all of that and it was given to somebody else. And here it is. Here's the point. This chapter in the book of 1

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Chronicles is written centuries later. And yet the pain of it still exists.

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So how can you and I make a difference in our generation? We can make a difference by, you know, being faithful, trusting in the

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Lord, depending upon the Lord, looking to the Lord, seeking the Lord to keep us from causing pain.

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Or we can we can reject the Lord, reject his word, reject his standards, his guidelines, his his law, his principles for living, and we can end up causing pain that may inflict generations to come.

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Oh, may we shun the latter and pursue the former. Our Father and our

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God, I pray that you would give us the determination to be people more more in line with Jabez, honorable in our generation.

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And may we avoid the stains that that afflicted

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Reuben for all of his posterity. We pray this in Jesus' name.

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All right. Well, I hope you have a great day and that you will be trusting the Lord in the course of living it today.