Spilling Cups and Stealing Sheep

We begin this short series by asking “Where does prosperity come from? What is the source of our prosperity?” Laban is blessed by the overflow blessings of Jacob, but also thinks he can rob others and rob God for his prosperity. We will look at both of these ideas as we start this 3 part series “The Source of Prosperity”.

Notes

1. 30:25-34 – Laban’s idea of where prosperity comes From: using God for His own gain. In the end he loses his Son in law, daughters, and the best of his flock and forever is known as a villain in the story.

                1. Note: I want to be so prosperous that even the greedy men of this world take note and want it!

                2. He takes matters into his own hands and steals the livestock he agreed to give to Jacob.

2. 30:37-41 – Jacobs idea of where prosperity comes: Jacob use THE WISDOM OF THE TIME to find prosperity, the concept of Maternal impression.

                1. There is a danger here, as children of God we have been given, will be given, or at the very least should be given life and life more abundantly… when we live according to the wisdom of the time there is a danger to thinking it was that wisdom that prospered us… even when we read this story today we think “Why did the popular sticks make the sheep have stripped babies?” BUT THEY DIDN’T, the text never says they did… in fact the text says GOD was the one who made the sheep give birth speckled and stripped and brown.

Introduction

Genesis 30:25–43 NKJV

And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

So he said, “What shall I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

This is the Word of the Lord, Amen?
You may be seated

•     Let me read those last four verses again, as we launch into a new 3 part series this morning…

Genesis 30:39–43 NKJV

So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

•     Now I have two very strong feelings when I read these verses, and I have read them many times as I read through the bible and I have felt this way a bunch of times…

•     First: I WANT TO BECOME EXCEEDINGLY PROSPEROUS! That sounds pretty good to me, sign me up for that program Lord… It says “Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous”… and I don’t know that sounds pretty good.

•     But the second feeling I have when I read these verses is probably the stronger and more prevalent feeling.

•     The first feeling is “I want to be exceedingly prosperous” and the second feeling is “WHAT?! What do you mean “When they conceived in front of the rods they brought fourth streaked, speckled, and spotted offspring?! Are you suggesting that if I put some rods or bark of chestnut and almond and popular trees in front of sheep that they would give birth to spotted or striped sheep? Is this some kind of divenation? Some kind of witchcraft? Is there any science behind this? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

•       You ever felt that way reading these verses? Anyone else? What brought fourth the prosperity of Jacob, was it rods of poplar and almond, or was there a different source? That is what I want to talk about in this series, which I am simply titling “The Source of Prosperity”

•     Show Series Title Slide

•     What was the source of Jacob’s prosperity?

•     Was it the rods and the bark?

•     Was it the false god’s of Laban?

•     Was it gained by robbing others?

•     Was the source of his prosperity the goodness and provision of God alone?

•     Or did an abundance of hard work have something to do with.

•     Because clearly Jacob ends this story as exceedingly prosperous… but why? And how do we apply these scriptures to our life today? That’s what we are going to talk about in this series. The source of Prosperity…

•     Now I also want to be clear here, what we are talking about this morning, and the following couple of Sundays leading up to Easter… what we are talking about is FINCANCAL and PHYSICAL prosperity, and least for the most part, in the ending of the series we are going to turn that just a little bit… but this scripture right here is not talking about spiritual or emotional prosperity, at least not explicitly, it is talking about fiscal prosperity.

Genesis 30:43 NKJV

Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

•     For a modern man this might read “Thus Jacob became exceedingly prosperous, he had tons of money, a huge business with many employees, and he had many cars and trucks and homes”.

•     Because for the ancient man having large flocks was the same as having a lot of money. And having many female and male servants is kind of the ancient equivalent of having a lot of employees working for you.

•     Camels and donkeys… those are the vehicles of ancient time, moving goods and people, and they were very valuable…

•     This scripture, Genesis 30:43, is straight up saying “Jacob was rich”…

•     So in this series, the source of prosperity, we are talking about physical prosperity (for the most part)… and that just happens to be where we are at in the Bible this morning.

•     If you are new to CLC, this is what we do here, we preach through the Bible, we have been going through the book of Genesis for a couple of years now, in fact this is our 99th sermon from Genesis.

•     We don’t always preach on prosperity, we are not a “prosperity gospel” church, but the scriptures we are in this morning talk about Jacob’s exceeding prosperity, so we are going to talk about it, and maybe learn something about prosperity along the way, amen?

•     Alright let’s get into it! Today’s sermon is titled: Stealing Sheep and Placing Rods

•     Stealing sheep and placing Rods… because from the scriptures we read this morning we see two men, Jacob and Laban, both vying for prosperity… but they go about it in two very different ways.

•     Laban thinks he can steal the heard away from Jacob leaving Jacob with next to nothing…

•     And Jacob thinks he can use bark and rods to get the livestock to bring forth the right kind of offspring to make himself rich…

•     And the crazy part is that it kind of seems like Jacob’s plan worked! So let’s spend some time this morning figuring out what is going on in this story, and applying some of these warnings to our own lives as we seek the proper source of prosperity.

Point One – When Someone Else’s Cup Runs Over

Genesis 30:25–27 NKJV

And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”

•     So right out of the gate we see that there is a level of understand from Laban of where the true source of prosperity comes from.

•     And if you haven’t guessed where this sermon series is going, here is the spoiler: True prosperity, even the financial kind, comes from God. God is our source of prosperity… and to a certain extent Laban understands that… but Laban is kind of a leach in this story “I keep benefiting from the blessings of God on your life, so please don’t leave me”.

•     Man, imagine being so prosperous that the ungodly recognize God’s presence in your life and even WANT you to hang out with them and be a Christian around them simply because they want to benefit from that blessing.

•     That’s a runneth over kind of blessing, and yeah Laban is reaching here, but it shows the abundance of prosperity and blessing that Jacob has come to know.

•     And what comes into mind when I think of this… and this is not what this point is about so I will share this and move on, but what comes into mind when I think of this are those verses about overflowing blessing…

•     Psalm 23:5 says that God makes our cup runneth over…

Psalm 23:5 NKJV

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

•     in other words we are so full of blessing that it spills out… we can’t hold all that blessing, all that anointing, all that prosperity in… it is overflowing our cup, spilling out on the sides…

•     Luke 6:38 says something similar. It says when we are generous, that God returns that generosity with a blessing that is “pressed down, shaken together, and running over”.

Luke 6:38 NKJV

Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.

•     And as I think about that, I think about what a mess a cup would make if it was running over all the time… and how all that good blessing would fall out to the floor, and that makes me think of Matthew 15:25-28

Matthew 15:25–28 NKJV

Then [the gentile woman] came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s [Jews] bread and throw it to the little dogs [Gentiles].”

And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

•     YOOOO! In this story we like to think of ourselves as Jacob, but really we are kind of like Laban…  I was a gentile, I was not of the line of Jacob… but I benefited from the blessing of Jacob… Jesus came first for the Jew, meaning Jesus came first literally for the offspring of Jacob, and then for the gentile… That’s what Paul teaches in Romans 1:16.

Romans 1:16 NKJV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

•     So my Salvation comes from the same place that Laban’s prosperity comes from, it comes from the overflowing blessings of Jacob.

•     So in that sense one source of prosperity is the overflowing blessings on others lives around me. In other words, if someone around me is blessed, if they are favored and anointed, then I can reap some of that prosperity for myself.

•     It is a spiritual principle that we see referenced throughout scripture, and as your pastor let me encourage you… HANG OUT WITH BLESSED PEOPLE. Surround yourself with peoples who’s cups are overflowing and that prosperity is bound to come you way in some shape or form.

•     Later in Genesis we will see this principal be true for Potiphar and his house when Joseph is there, and the Egyptian jail when Joseph is locked up, it prospers, and then eventually all of Egypt prospers simply because Joseph is there.

•     So, in short… Be the kind of Christian who is so blessed and highly favored that your blessings flow out to others, and when seeking real lasting prosperity… surround yourself with those kinds of Christians… Man, I continue to see that Maverick City song that I originally kind of loathed to be quite biblically accurate…

Bless me, bless me, bless me God, indeed
Death has been defeated, He is our victory (come on)
Bless me, bless me, God, not just for me
But so everyone around me can have everything they need

•     I mean it’s an odd thing to put into song… but they aren’t wrong though! I can’t tell you how many times I have prayed “Lord provide for me with such abundance that I can bless others the way that others have blessed me!”

•     Now unfortunately Laban’s next move shows that he wasn’t content with just the crumbs, like the Gentile woman was… He wanted more! AND THAT IS VERY DANGEROUS… Like the Seven Sons of Sceva trying to sell the power of the Holy Spirit… LIKE HOW IS THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT ENOUGH? Here Laban has an amazing son in law, 12 grand children, and a prosperous flock… BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR LABAN. LABAN WANTS ALL OF THE PROSPERITY not jus that which runneth over… so let’s get back to the story and see how that unfolds.

Point Two – Theft Is a Source of Poverty, Not Prosperity

Genesis 30:31–32 NKJV

So [Laban] said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.

•     Ok, so let’s unpack this for a moment. Jacob has been with Laban for 14 years at this point. And under his care, Laban’s flocks have just massively multiplied.

•     So Jacob, when presented with the question “What do you want for your wages” responds “Listen, I don’t want to be too greedy, I just want a starter flock for me and my family… tell you what, give me all of your livestock that are spotted or speckled or brown… those are all uncommon traits in livestock and would have only been about 5% of Laban’s livestock.

•     So Jacob says give me that 5 percent today, and I will watch your heard for another six years, and after that all the livestock that are speckled and spotted will be mine. That seems like a really fair offer from Jacob… But Laban was a thief.

•     Notice that Jacob said “Let me pass through your flock today”… today as in right now, this instance! So what does Laban do? He agrees, and then IMEDIATLY steals all the speckled and the spotted livestock.

Genesis 30:34–36 NKJV

And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

•     Laban was a thief.  He gave those livestock to Jacob, and immediately stole them, and put them 3 days journey away from Jacob.

•     Laban figured “If I take all the speckled and spotted livestock from Jacob now, then my heard he watches will not make anymore, leaving me with 6 more years of free labor and Jacob with nothing!”

•     Well how did that work out for old Laban?

Genesis 30:41–42 NKJV

And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

•     Laban was left with a weak and lame flock, in fact his sons would later go on to report “Jacob has taken away EVERYTHING that is our father’s”.

•     See Laban was prosperous while Jacob was there because Jacob’s blessings overflowed to him. But STEALING from Jacob did not lead to lasting prosperity for Laban.

•     IN other words… God is the Source of Prosperity, not Theft. Theft is a source of POVERTY. The result of Laban’s theft was poverty, he ends up losing everything.…

Proverbs 13:11 NKJV

Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished…

Jeremiah 17:11 NKJV

“As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, So is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, And at his end he will be a fool.”

•     Now listen, as your pastor I want to encourage you to be prosperous, and I want to warn you that theft will be your downfall if you give into it.

Exodus 20:15 NKJV

“You shall not steal.

Leviticus 19:11 NKJV

‘You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.

•     Guy’s, I am not sure we talk about this enough in the American church… because I think we all just kind of think of it as a given… of course we shouldn’t steal….

•     But this is a big deal to God… He made it one of the 10 commandments… God HATES stealing… in fact, look at some of this language…

Proverbs 30:9 NKJV

Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.

•     So according to proverbs stealing profanes the name of God. Now you are breaking two commandments, the 3rd commandment and the 8th commandment!

Zechariah 5:3–4 NKJV

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.”

“I will send out the curse,” says the Lord of hosts; “It shall enter the house of the thief And the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house And consume it, with its timber and stones.”

•     So the language of Zechariah there is a special curse for those who steal, and that curse will enter the house of the thief and consume it, destroy it, and the thief shall be expelled from the presence of God.  And the prophesy in Zechariah pairs theft with swearing falsely… which Laban is also guilty of, as are most thief’s… they lie to your face and steal behind your back…

•     Now let’s shoot forward to the New Testament and see what it has to say about thieves…

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 NKJV

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

•     Right there along with drunkards and sodomites and adulterers… are thieves… thieves will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

•     So what we are talking about is serious here church… and there is forgiveness for all of these sins, such were some of us… but let’s not take it lightly.

•     Now I know, this is Cedar Rapids, IA, not Seattle, Washington.

•     My car has never been broken into here… in fact I rarely lock it here… in Seattle my car would be broken into about once a year if not more than that…

•     So I get that most of us are probably not robbing banks and shop lifting from convivence stores… if you are doing those kinds of things, I hope you know it is a grave sin and it will bring destruction on your life… theft is a source of poverty not prosperity… I have never met a petty criminal who was living it up… not for long at least…

•     So I get that here in Iowa we have this “Midwest nice culture” but I still meet a whole lot of thief’s… I mean I have been a thief knowingly and unknowingly in a lot of these areas, such were some of me… so please don’t get offended, but I want to serve a PROSPEROUS church so I need to help the church stop stealing so they can find prosperity… okay… here is where I see people stealing most…

•     First, digital theft. If you have something that you are SUPPOSED to pay for, and you don’t pay for it… that is stealing…

•     Downloading movies or video games or computer software… that’s stealing, God sees it, God hates it.

•     When we brought our team from Singapore, in the airport send off one of the guys from church handed one of our missionaries a hard drive with a terabyte of movies and tv shows downloaded to it so they could have something to watch on their off time… I throw it in the garbage in the airport security line… why would I want that curse to enter our house while trying to church plant.

•     Streaming football or other sports games… yeah, unless you are paying for it, it is illegal. There is no free way to watch professional sports, other than watching on free TV channels with an antennae.

•     Listen, I am a computer science major, I have looked and looked and tried and tried to find a free way to watch the Seahawks, there are TONS of free ways to watch them, and those ways are all illegal. I stopped doing it about, I don’t know, 6 or 7 years ago… because I got convicted, illegal streaming is stealing… because I am supposed to be paying for this but I think I have found some loophole to get it for free… like Laban finding what he thought was a loophole by taking away the spotted and speckled sheep. I mean they were his right… if he want’s to move them three days away before Jacob get’s there… what’s the problem?

•     Lying on time cards is stealing from your employer… if you took an hour lunch but you said you only took 30 minutes, you just robbed that hand that feeds you… stupid… Lying about the work you have done or are doing, how hard you are working or how much you are working so you can get paid for work you didn’t do… yeah that is stealing… Using a you would HATE IT if you paid an electrician by the hour and he spent 45 minutes on the toilet playing Candy Crush and charged you for that time… Well you employer hates it to… In fact scripture talks about this specifically, about stealing from work by being dishonest or lazy…

Colossians 3:22–23 NKJV

Bondservants [or employees in our day], obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,

•     Buying a fancy outfit and wearing it one night then returning it the next day… yeah that’s theft… just because Amazon let’s you get away with it doesn’t mean God is going to let you get away with it.

•     If you are doing fancy accounting on your taxes to get a little bit of a bigger of a return, or to pay a little less… but you KNOW you are being dishonest… yeah that is stealing…

Mark 12:17 NKJV

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

•     Amanda and I found out this year that we have been underreporting a bunch of stuff on our taxes, not intentionally… tax law for pastors is complicated… but when we found out we had a decision to make… we could keep doing it that way and we will probably never get audited… or we can fix it, and pay substantially more in taxes… you know what we decided to do? WE DECIDED TO FIX IT…

•     Because at the end of the day how much I pay in taxes is not a source of prosperity.

•     My own shrewdness and cleverness is not a source of prosperity.

•     And certainly, theft is not a source of prosperity… MY GOD IS MY SOURCE OF MY PROSPERITY… AND HE HATES THEFT… So I don’t want any hint of theft in my life.

•     I don’t want to overcharge for things of Facebook marketplace.

•     I don’t want to exaggerate insurance claims.

•     When I guy to Pizza Ranch I am going to ACURRATLY portray my children’s ages to the cashier.

•     Yeah it’s going to cost me money, but my money is not the source of my prosperity… GOD IS… and Theft is only a source of poverty.

•     And there is a solution church, because I have been there… I think we have all been little creative thief’s from time to time, a little bit of creative theft is kind of acceptable in American culture… but not in God’s eyes… so what is the Biblical solution? STOP STEALING.

Ephesians 4:28 NKJV

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

Proverbs 28:13 NKJV

He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

•     Church, take stock of your life today… ask yourself if there is anyplace in your life where you have given into theft… small or big, talk to your spouse or your discipler about it, confess it and FIX it.

•     As you restore your life to honesty, God will begin to restore prosperity to you… Now let’s close this thing down…

Conclusion

Turn On Children’s Class Lamps

Genesis 30:25–28 NKJV

And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

•     The take aways from this sermon are incredibly straight forward church.

•     There are no Hebrew words to remember… there is no metaphors to grapple with… it’s just: DON’T STEAL, because it will lead to poverty… and Surround yourself with people who are blessed and anointed by God, because their blessings will pour over and you will gain prosperity just from being in their presence…

•     And of course, be the kind of Christian that other Christians want to be around, so your blessings flow onto them and there’s onto you…

Proverbs 13:20 NKJV

He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.

Proverbs 27:17 NKJV

As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 NKJV

Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.

•     Alright church, we are going to reject thievery, and we are going to pursue Godly, cup runneth over fellowship… and that is going to get us all on the path to prosperity, the kind of prosperity God want’s us to have.

•     Now this sermon series is about prosperity, and I am not talking about being fabulously wealthy, because that is spiritually dangerous, but I do want us to be taken care of… but none of this is going to matter when you die… dying rich or dying poor, it doesn’t matter… we are all going to die… and your fiscal prosperity won’t help you in the judgment room… but there is a gift that is available to you that can lead you to eternal prosperity… I am talking about mansions of Gold kind of prosperity, the kind of prosperity that only comes in heaven… and that comes through Christ.