1. Changes!
Mark 10:13-16
1 Chronicles 4:9-10

2. People Change!!!! For better or worse?!
Have you changed?

3. Changes we make can ourselves!!
Wearing specs.
Different clothes.
Change hairstyle
Changes we make can ourselves!!

4. Changes others make to us!!
Like falling in love
Some are good, others are not!!
Changes others make to us!!

5. Changes only God can make!!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God!! 2 Corinthians 5:17-18a
 Becoming a Friend of God (FOG) will not change our outward appearance immediately but it will change everything else about us – and definitely for the better.
Abram to Abraham
Jacob to Israel
Saul to Paul
Promise of New Name: Revelation 2:17
How about Jabez?
Changes only God can make!!

6. Honourable and Respected: but he needed to change what he could not!!
Painful birth: called by his mum (cause of sorrow: Hebrew) Oh dear……..not best start
Jabez cried out to God: he believes not only that God could change things but that he would if he asked! Past does not need to dictate future.
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
Jabez (meaning Pain!)

7. What do we learn from his prayer?
God isn’t impressed by long prayers: just ask him what you need.
Jabez had learnt that God loves to bless us if that's what we want: but we must ask.
God has no hands, feet, voice, body than ours (Body of Christ), so he blesses us when we are about his business (enlarge my influence/territory Lord).
We cannot do this without God, and God cannot do without us: let your Hand be with me is what God does (took them in his arms and laid his hands upon them).
Keep us from harm (deliver us from evil): God’s protection for his servants.
So that I will be free from pain: Jabez was now free of Jabez. A new start with God is for everyone.
And how do I know that Jabez’s prayer was answered: IT SAYS SO!!!
What do we learn from his prayer?