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Series Code: BOLS
Program Code: BOLS000007S
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00:09 Sermon #S005 - Know Your Worth
00:20 Pastor Snell: Genesis Chapter 30 and we will begin together at verse 25. 00:25 I will be reading from the New King James' version of the Bible. 00:29 And I should tell you, once again, you all look fantastic here in the house of the Lord. 00:32 Turn to your neighbor and say, "You look good today." Turn to the other neighbor 00:36 and say, "The blessing of the Lord is on you today." Amen. Genesis Chapter 30, 00:46 and we are going to look together at verse 25. 00:49 The Bible says, and it came to pass when Rachel had born Joseph, 00:56 that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away that I may go to my own place, to my country. 01:04 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know my service, 01:11 which I have done for you. And Laban said to him, "Please stay if I have found favor in your eyes, 01:19 for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake." 01:26 Then he said, "Name me your wages, and I will give it." 01:30 So Jacob said to him, "You know I have served you and how your livestock has been with me, 01:39 for what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount. 01:46 The Lord has blessed you since my coming, and now, when shall I be able to provide for my own house?" 01:53 So he said, "What shall I give you?" 01:57 Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you do this thing for me, 02:03 I will again feed and keep your flocks. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing, from there, 02:11 all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs and the spotted 02:18 and speckled amongst the goats. And these shall be my wages. 02:23 So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come when the subject of my wages comes before you. 02:29 Everyone that is not speckled and spotted amongst the goats, and brown amongst the lambs, 02:37 will be considered stolen if it is with me." Laban said, "Oh that it was according to your word." 02:45 So he removed, that day, the male goats that were speckled 02:49 and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, 02:53 everyone that had some white in it and all the brown ones amongst the lands 02:57 and gave them into the hand of his sons. He put a three days journey between himself and Jacob, 03:04 and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock. 03:08 Now, Laban took rods of green poplar, almond, and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, 03:18 and exposed the white in the rods. The rods, which had been peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, 03:26 in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 03:37 So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 03:46 Then Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face toward the street and all the brown 03:53 and the flock of Laban. 03:55 He put forth his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with laban's flock, 04:00 and it came to pass whenever the strong livestock conceived that Jacob places the rods 04:07 before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters that they may conceive amongst the rods. 04:12 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, 04:19 and the stronger, Jacob's. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks, 04:26 female and male servants, camels, and donkeys. 04:31 I want to read for emphasis, verse number 30, what Jacob said, "For what you had before I came was little, 04:40 and it has increased to a great amount, for the Lord has blessed you since my coming. 04:48 And now, what shall I provide for my own house?" Today, I want to talk to you, 04:55 as we talk about Black excellence and wealth, about the importance of knowing your worth. 05:03 Let us pray together. Father, I pray that in this little while, you will say much. 05:09 I am praying that there would be an inspiration in the hearing of the word. 05:15 I am praying that my vision would be enlarged. I pray that the faith of your people will be multiplied. 05:22 So, Lord, I pray that you allow the word to go forth without interruption or human hindrance. 05:29 Once again, would you please hide me in the shadows of the cross, that Jesus, alone, might be seen, 05:34 that Christ, alone, would be heard, and, at the end of our time together, may Jesus, alone, 05:40 be praised. We ask this in the name of Him who is altogether lovely. 05:44 It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Let God's people say together, Amen. 05:50 You may be seated there in the house of the Lord. 05:59 As we get into today's teaching, 06:03 one of the things that we have got to do is begin to amend our relationship with money. 06:11 One of the mistakes we often make is we assign certain roles, traits, or characteristics to money. 06:20 And what sometimes happens in the black church is we either treat money as Satan or savior. 06:28 We treat money as a demon or deliverer, and sometimes because of a misreading of scripture, 06:37 we teach that money is the root of all evil, 06:42 when the Bible teaches that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. 06:49 How many of us understand that money is not immoral? Money is actually a moral, 06:56 meaning it has no moral quality. It simply takes on the characteristics of the one who possesses it. 07:04 So, that the same money used in a drug deal is also put in the offering tray to allow the work of God to go 07:14 forward. And so there are times that we actually think that money changes people, 07:20 that money makes good people go bad. That is not true. Money. does not change people. 07:26 Money just reveals people. So, if you are kind of a jerk when you are broke, 07:35 all money does is reveal or create the platform for the world to see who you actually are. 07:41 So, it is wrong for us to treat money as Satan, but equally, it is wrong for us to treat money as a savior. 07:49 In other words, if you treat money as a savior, then you are destined to worship it. 07:54 It is why Jesus said that you could not serve both God and money. 08:00 And though we will never give praise to the hundred dollar bill, 08:05 and we will never lift holy hands to our Amex card, 08:08 sometimes our idolatry is seen in what money means to us. 08:14 How many of us know that money should never mean significance, 08:19 that money ought not ever to equate to security, that money ought not ever to mean status, 08:26 that money ought not ever to make you feel important? 08:30 How many of us know that you are worth is not in how much you get paid? 08:35 Your worth is seen in the price that was paid for your salvation. 08:40 In other words, friends, when you allow significance to be attached to money, 08:46 you make yourself vulnerable to the enemy. 08:49 Because if the devil knows that if he can hold your significance by holding your paycheck, 08:55 the enemy knows that if he can take your money, he can take away your security. 09:01 He knows that if your piece is connected to your money, all he is got to do is hold up your money, 09:07 and he can confiscate your peace, and God wants somebody to know that the security and significance 09:14 and worth that you are drawing from money, God designed that you were to draw your worst 09:19 and your security and identity from him. 09:23 We have got to get to the place where we stop trying to create a relationship with the gift, 09:29 and we learn to put our trust in the One who gave it. 09:33 In other words, our gifts ought to simply enhance our relationship with the Giver. 09:40 Are you all with me today? Let me say it this way. Every now and then, I am trying to be a good husband. 09:46 So, what I will do is I will buy a gift by surprise for my wife. 09:52 I remember on one occasion, I bought her some flowers and a gift, 09:56 and I put it upstairs where I knew she would run into it. And so what happened is, 10:02 when she came into the house, I greeted her downstairs, and she went upstairs. 10:07 I knew right away when she found the gift because once he found the gift, 10:13 she immediately came back downstairs with the gift in her hand and began to hug 10:19 and kiss the husband who gave it. In other words, 10:22 she was not so impressed with the gift that she did not forget to come downstairs 10:27 and say thank you before she even opened it. See, how many of us know that Christ is the bridegroom, 10:35 that Jesus is the bride? And when the bridegroom gives a gift, you do not get so caught up with their gift. 10:43 You run back to the one who gave it and begins to show appreciation to him. 10:49 In other words, my gift does not separate me from the Giver. 10:52 It actually pushes me back toward the God who gave it. Are you hearing me today, church? 10:58 And so go back with me, if you do not mind, to Genesis Chapter 30 11:03 and verse number 27 as we unpack a few things together, Genesis 30 and verse 27. 11:09 When you get there, say, Amen. Genesis 13 verse 27, the Bible says, 11:14 and Laban said to him, "Please stay if I have found favor in your eyes, 11:20 for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake." 11:27 Then he said, "Name your wages, and I will give it to you." 11:32 Now, friends of mine, I need you to understand as we look at the story of Jacob that Jacob is not the most 11:40 virtuous cat in the scriptures, but he is a high-functioning individual. And this story, friends, 11:48 has implications not just for our church but the witness we have in our daily profession 11:55 because what this story teaches us first is that sometimes, God blesses the unbelieving 12:02 because of the presence of the believing. Let me say that again. Sometimes, 12:06 God blesses the wicked because of the presence of the righteous. Do I have a witness today? 12:13 In other words, here, 12:15 we find Jacob having fulfilled his years of service that he gave as a response to the dowry that he wanted 12:24 to pay to receive Rachel, and he also completes the additional years he had to serve 12:31 because of the trickery of Laban when he inserted Leah into the equation. 12:37 But understand now that he has come to an end of his tenure. 12:42 It is time for him to make a profit for himself. 12:46 And so he tells his father-in-law, "I want you to let me go, me, my wife, 12:53 and my children, and everything that belongs unto me." 12:58 Understand that they had worked with so much skill that Laban's tiny flock had morphed into a significant 13:09 heard of financial consequence. 13:12 In fact, the anointing of Jacob was so strong that Laban does not just want to keep him around as a worker, 13:22 he is able to discern that the presence of God is on a Jacob, 13:28 and he just wants to have him around in the estate. 13:32 In fact, he testifies from his own mouth, "I have learned by my own experience that God has blessed me just 13:43 because you are here." In other words, he recognizes as an unbeliever. 13:50 Remember that Laban is not a believing person. He is literally an idol-worshipping unbeliever. 13:58 And he says, "I do not want you to go anywhere because God is blessing me because you hang around." 14:05 And you see, friends of mine, I need you to know that this is not an outlier in scripture. 14:11 It is actually a trend. So, when you look at Joseph in Egypt, 14:16 one of the things that became clear is that God blessed Egypt because of the presence of Joseph. 14:24 Where are you all at today, church? 14:26 When you look at Daniel and Babylon, God bless a foreign nation because he had children at work there. 14:33 Remember when Paul was on a ship on the way to Rome with other prisoners 14:39 and criminals that the storm wanted to destroy the ship, 14:42 but God was able to preserve the ship because God had one of his children there. 14:48 And the thing I need somebody to know is that the blessings of God are not stagnant. 14:54 They do not function in isolation. I need you to know that the blessings of God function in the overflow. 15:02 [Congregation: Cheering] 15:04 Let me say it this way. I need you to understand that what we have done is we have made the concept of 15:10 overflows selfish. But you know how the overflow works, 15:14 that when you are pouring liquid into a cup or container, once the container is filled and you keep pouring, 15:22 the content simply begins to overflow and fall on everything that is close to it. 15:29 And you see, we think that the overflow is simply where God gives us more than what we can handle. 15:36 But how many of us know that God will bless your cup so good that the blessings of God just overflows 15:43 to everybody that is in your sphere of influence? 15:49 The problem with the contemporary church is we want the wicked to just see the righteous being blessed. 15:59 In other words, we just want the blessings of the Lord to validate us and affirm us, 16:06 but we do not want it to fall on or impact them. 16:10 But how many of us know that if God allows you to prosper while everyone else is suffering, 16:16 then the suffering is going resent your prosperity, 16:21 and they are going to wring their hands at the God who gave it? 16:25 Remember the Abrahamic Covenant. He said to Abraham, "I am gonna make of you a great nation, 16:32 and in you, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." 16:36 In other words, the blessings of God were not supposed to be stored. They were supposed to be shared. 16:45 In other words, friends of mine, 16:47 I need you to know that the blessing of protection overflows whenever the righteous are in a place. 16:55 Is there anybody that knows that there were some planes that should have fallen out of the sky, 17:01 but God had some righteous saints seated in first class? 17:05 Are you all hearing me today, saints? 17:07 Is there anybody that believes that the only reason a mass shooting did not take place in Walmart 17:13 or your job while you were there was that God had some of his children stashed on station in that place? 17:20 In fact, the only reason some tornadoes did not touch down on your street was that there were some 17:27 praying people calling on the name of the Lord. 17:32 Do not get me wrong. I believe that in Adam's Fallen World, guess what? 17:37 Bad things still happen to good people. In fact, Jesus said that the rain is going to fall on the just 17:43 and the unjust, but what I believe is that we will never be able to count the number of times that weapons 17:50 have been formed, but they never got to prosper because God had his hand covering his children. 18:01 Are you all hearing me today, saints? So I need you to know that the blessing of protection overflows. 18:07 I need you to know that the blessing of increase overflows as well. 18:11 In other words, I need somebody to know that because God has you on the job. 18:17 I need you to know that the company is prospering. 18:20 I need somebody to believe that Huntsville hospital thrives because there are some Christian nurses 18:28 and doctors walking up and down the hallway, that the school system thrives 18:34 because there are some praying teachers laying hands over the classrooms before you go in. 18:40 I need you to know that your office is thriving simply because God has you there as His witness. 18:46 And do not resent that they share in the blessing 18:50 because you ought to be at a place where you understand that the blessing is not just in what you receive. 18:57 Your blessing is getting to know Jesus for yourself. 19:04 I remembered probably about 4 or 5 years ago. 19:06 It was my daughter's third or fifth birthday, 19:10 and see how many of us understand that whenever one child has a birthday, 19:16 all the other kids get to be a part of the party. In other words, 19:21 we had had a party to celebrate her birthday, but because we were celebrating her, guess what, 19:28 the cake got to overflow into all the other kids that were at the party. 19:33 And so my daughter was right there sitting on my lap as we were cutting up the cake, 19:39 and her older brother got a larger slice of cake, and he began to boast 19:45 and brag that even though it is your birthday, I got the bigger piece of cake. 19:50 While she is sitting on my lap, 19:52 she let him know that the only reason you got some cake was that I let you celebrate my birthday, 20:01 and she said, "You might have gotten the bigger piece, but I got Daddy." You all did not hear it today. 20:07 How many of us know that you never worry about the size of the portion as long as you got a relationship 20:16 with the Father? Because as long as you got the daddy, you can always get a bigger portion. 20:23 So do not look at the portion. Focus on the relationship. Are you hearing the word today? 20:33 [Congregation: I hear you.] 20:34 Snell: So the first thing you got to learn is that sometimes God blesses the wicked 20:40 because of the presence of the righteous, but the second thing that teaches us, friends of mine, 20:45 is the value of knowing your own worth. 20:52 You see, one of the things that become clear is that not only does Laban know Jacobs' worth. 21:00 One of these just becomes clear is that Jacob understands his own worth. 21:07 You see, what literally shifts the relationship is that Jacob understands his value. 21:15 What allows him to dictate the terms of his next contract is that he understands his own value. 21:24 His boss comes to him and says, name your own wages. 21:29 Jacob understands his worth. 21:31 I need somebody to get this that Jacob has this start clarity that if my gifts can make you rich, 21:44 then my gifts can enlarge and enrich me. Yall not hearing 21:48 this today. In other words, he knows that if what I am doing can grow your house, 21:55 then these same gifts can be used to grow my house. Now, I do want to pause and say this. 22:01 I do not believe that everybody is called to be an entrepreneur. 22:05 Now, everybody has the discipline, accounting, vision, or the ability to make hard decisions, 22:12 but I want to encourage the body of Christ that you do not just let your gifts make somebody else rich, 22:19 but you ought to create some additional streams that are going to bless 22:24 and grow your own house so you can give back. Are you all hearing me today? 22:31 So, Laban says, "What do you want me to give you?" Notice what Jacob says. 22:38 Jacob says, "You cannot give me anything." 22:45 Understand the principle at work that even him offering Jacob a salary is another form of trickery. 22:56 In other words, even him giving Jacob a handsome salary is a way of capping his income. 23:02 It is a way of limiting his growth. It is making sure he always remains at a certain level. 23:09 I need you to understand that even when you get paid a handsome salary, 23:15 your employer has made a calculation that whatever they pay you, they will give it 23:22 because they are going to make three or four times that off of you. They did not hire you to make you rich. 23:30 They hired you in order to make them rich. Are you all hearing what I am saying? 23:38 What Jacob says is, "No, you cannot give me a salary. 23:42 We got to create a partnership that allows me to grow at the same level that the flock is going to grow." 23:51 Are you hearing me today? 23:53 The thing that I want to say to us as a community is that we have been assimilated into the larger culture, 23:58 and we have been brainwashed to believe that we come to college, get a job 24:03 and work for somebody else while immigrants from other nations come in and they start their own businesses, 24:11 and they do not function as employees, but they function as employers 24:16 because they do not think, "Get a job." They think, "Own a business." 24:20 Are you all hearing what I am saying today? 24:23 I need you to understand this, young sister, that if you can do some nails, 24:32 they do not come in at first because of the name on the door, but after a while, 24:37 their loyalty is going to be to you. Are you hearing me? If you can do some hair, 24:45 I may start coming because of the salon, but if the stylist goes, "I am going wherever she is going." 24:51 Are you all hearing what I am saying? If you can cut some hair, I may come because of the shop, 24:57 but once I connect with the right barber wherever he goes, that is where I am going. 25:02 If you are good at doing massage therapy, they may come because you started at Massage Envy, 25:08 but if you work out the knots and kinks to the right point, wherever you go, that is where they will go. 25:15 In other words, folks do not follow the franchise, they follow the excellence, 25:21 and if you do it with excellence, the business is going to follow. Are you all hearing what I am saying? 25:28 Listen, some of you guys know that my wife is a photographer by trade. 25:32 I remember when we were in a small town in Mississippi. She cut her teeth at Sears Portrait Studio, 25:38 but I need to know. At first, they came in looking for Sears, but after a while, 25:44 they came in looking for Miss Snell. And what we learned is that if we can use those gifts to grow them, 25:50 guess what? We can open up something that is going to bless our house. Are you hearing me 25:54 today saints. The thing I want somebody to get is that if you do not understand your worth, 26:01 you will live as a slave to somebody else's appraisal. And I want to say to somebody today, 26:09 not only do you need to know your value professionally, you need to know your value personally. 26:13 Young people on the balcony, you need to know your value romantically. If you do not understand your value, 26:21 your discount that which still has great worth. 26:27 The reason some of our singles stay in unhealthy relationships is that you do not understand your worth. 26:33 The reason that some of us married down and not up is that we do not understand our worth. 26:39 The reason you are willing to share your significant other is that you do not understand your worth. 26:46 The reason you lie down with everyone who asks is that you do not understand your worth. 26:52 The reason you let her talk to you in any kind of way is that you do not understand your worth. 26:58 And even if I did not make it clear last week, I want you to know that even if you are married, 27:03 I do not believe in domestic violence. 27:06 I need you to know that if somebody is beating you or abusing you physically or emotionally, 27:13 you are worth so much that you do not have to stay in that predicament. 27:18 In other words, church, I am not going to tell you to get a divorce, 27:22 but I am going to tell you to get on up out of that house. Are you all hearing me today? 27:27 Somebody is sitting there mad saying, "Pastor, the Bible does not really address domestic violence." 27:33 No, the First Corinthians 6 says, No, ye not. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." 27:40 It says that you are bought with a price. 27:43 Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are His. 27:48 In other words, because my body belongs to God because He paid so much for it, 27:54 I cannot let anybody beat it. I cannot let anybody abuse it. 27:59 How many of us know that tolerating domestic violence is bad stewardship? 28:07 You cost too much to let somebody abuse or denigrate the temple of the Holy Ghost. 28:18 Pastor Snell: Hi everyone, this is Pastor Snell. That word blessed me and I'm praying that it blessed you. 28:24 I want to encourage you that you make sure you come back same time, same place next week. As we give you 28:29 installment #2 of the message entitled "Know Your Worth" 28:35 (Breath of Life Music) 28:55 [END] |
Revised 2022-03-09