Our relationship with Jesus is our gift to the world.
Sermon Title: FACING LABAN
Sermon Text: GENESIS 30:25-34 NIV
Sermon Series: IMPERFECT FAITH
By: PTR NIC SY
Sermon Notes:
GENESIS 30:25-34 NIV
25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.
26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
31 “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:
32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
ACT III Scene 3
JACOB VS LABAN
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS OUR BLESSING TO THE WORLD.
GENESIS 30:25-28 NIV
25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.
26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
Our relationship with Jesus is our gift to the world.
GENESIS 30:29-30 NIV
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
PSALMS 75:6-7 NKJV
6 For exaltation comes neither from the east Nor from the west nor from the south. 7 But God is the Judge: He puts down one, And exalts another.
“Whatever you gain through self promotion you’ll have to sustain through self promotion. When our promotion comes from God, He sustains it.”
Bill Johnson
GENESIS 31:6-7 NIV
6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.
Has your integrity traveled the high road?
Our integrity is revealed as Jesus Christ lives out his life through us.
GENESIS 30:31-33 NIV
31 “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:
32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
GENESIS 30:34 NIV
34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
GENESIS 30:35-36 NIV
35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.
36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS A CALL TO TRUST HIM.
GENESIS 30:37-39 NIV
37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
GENESIS 30:40-43 NIV
40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,
42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.
GENESIS 31:1-3 NIV
1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.”
2 And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
GENESIS 31:9-13 NIV
9 “So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
10 In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted.
11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’
12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’”
God is always at work all around us.
The blessed life is available to those who put their trust in God.
GENESIS 31:38-42 NIV
38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.
39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night.
40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.
42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
Application 1.
TAKE THE HIGH ROAD
God is not blind to your troubles nor is he deaf to your prayers. Trust him and do the right thing.
Application 2.
TRUST IN THE GOD WHO DOES NOT CHANGE.
Trust that the Lord is the only one you need. Trust that God is working for you in ways you cannot see.
“This life therefore is not righteousness
Martin Luther
But growth in righteousness
Not health but healing
Not being but becoming…
We are not yet what we shall be
But we are growing toward it.
The process is not yet finished
But it is going on.
This is not the end
But it is the road.
All does not yet gleam in glory
But all is being purified.”