Excerpts
Anchor scripture - Gen 30:25-34
Emphasis on verse 30 - He was asked (i.e. Jacob) to name his wages but replied When will I provide for my own house?
Meaning when will I;
Meaning when will I;
- Have my own thing?
- Stop being a servant and be an owner?
- Have something to offer my generation?
[Pastor shares testimony of Nigerian who had been an employee for 14 years in Italy who listened to his tapes titled Freedom From Laban and within eight months of listening to the series something broke loose in his head and he began to see how he was in bondage and started making plans to set up a factory in his village.]
Look at the story of Jacob in the bible. Don't forget who Jacob was; ''God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob'' He is the grand child of the patriarch, a man connected to the source of the covenant. But the bible revealed to us that this man entered into a place and began to serve. When he met with Laban he fell in love with his daughter and began to serve for 7 years. After 7 years instead of getting the woman he was promised they gave him a different one and asked him to do another 7 years for the one he wanted. To cut a long story short for 21 years Jacob was serving Laban. Laboring to expand Laban's territory. After many years of serving and many children his wife had given birth to a son named Joseph which made him realize all his life he had been in another man's business interests. He started to wonder that with all his wives and many children, if he was to die, would they take over his position of serving in labour.
Jacob got to the point where he realized that his life had been spent, laboring and serving without planning.
Don't get this message wrong. The problem is not that he served Laban for 21 years but that he served for that long without planning his own future(because not everyone will own their own businesses). But even if you are working for someone else, if you know what to do your future can be secure while you are serving someone else. 21 years of serving Laban without anything of his own and then he finally woke up from slumber.
He requested to be allowed to go start something of his own so he could provide a future for his household and for the first time in 21 years Laban refused him from leaving. Laban acknowledged that everything he had was because of the presence of Jacob in his life (Translations of the bible state that it was by experience/divination/consultation that Laban got to learn of this fact). He knew this yet did not settle Jacob.
When Jacob said he was leaving, Laban asked him to name his wages. Why did he not say that 10 years ago?
When you say you want to leave a company, they state they will double your salary and start giving you what they should have 15 years ago.
In cases like this it is better to ask for equity (i.e a share in the company) because my money and our money are two different things.
We need to balance this message so I will tell you; The question you need to ask yourself is how many of you can go to your boss and say ''Without me this company will not stand.''
Don't go to work tomorrow and threaten your employer with your resignation if you have added no visible value and are being kept on by the mercy of the organization.
Many times, if you know you are worth something - prove your value. Laban could not deny the impact of this man so if he could have been that impactful for another man, couldn't he have been for himself?
So the problem is are you planning your future. A plan in place not to end up a shameful vessel. There are people who speak of their luxurious living during their past days of glory; yet now cannot afford such in the present.
If they planned well in those days would they be where they are today?
There are 3 inevitable Rs in the life of each individual, you either;
1.) Resign
2.) Retire or
3.) Are Retrenched
Many of us have allowed ourselves to be governed by the culture of our locality.
Prayer
May my case not end up like that of a failed country ( No light, road, cannot celebrate my glory, am afraid etc.)
Jesus in Luke 14:28-32 talks on the importance of planning. He said (paraphrased) 'Which of you intending to build a tower will not first count the cost, or before going to battle carry out reconnaissance (studying strengths and weaknesses of the enemy)...'
Every team always watches the match of their opponents.
Every team always watches the match of their opponents.
The future you are planning to have; i.e ''The best is yet to come'' - That best you hope to have; do you have what it takes?
What is Planning?
- What you put in place towards the future
- Preparing
- Strategizing for something in your future
What is Retirement?
It is that period of your life where you are no more in active service. Even if you want to, you can NOT to.
Because there is no power or ability (''Work while it is day because the night cometh when no man can work'').
When we talk of retirement planning we're talking of you consciously preparing and strategizing for the night season of your life. Nobody can plan your future for you without your direct involvement. It is an error to leave your future security in the hand of another without your involvement.
Do you know that things such as pension funds can go bankrupt? These things have been done before and wound up. In developing nations fraud and corruption are still part and parcel of these types of societies so you might end up reading about the loss of your money in the newspaper.
What part do you have in how your money is handled in such schemes as this? Answer: None
Anything that you don't have a part in, you can't really guarantee.
Everytime the word retirement is mentioned, the first thing that comes to the mind of people is ''That's till i'm 65 years old.''
When 65 years was established as the retirement age, the mortality age was low i.e people were dying young at for instance the age of 45. So they set the retirement age at 65 because there were no plans for you to get there. That is why there is no security in social security. It was planned that the money saved by someone who died before 65 would be used to guarantee/take care of the safety of the next retiree but now people are living to be 100 years old.
Now all over the world retirement age is being changed. Common sense should tell you that people who went ahead of you and put their trust in a pension plan or gratuity, what has come out of it?
Every year pensioners are being told to come and re-apply, to come and verify their credentials at the places paying them gratuity, pension etc. People are going there on stretchers, crutches and the likes. AND...there are people who served with them that will never be on that queue because they don't need the money due to PLANNING.
There are elderly people today who.... if they did the right thing with the kind of money they handled in the past; they won't be at this conference today.
When people got an award some used it to start a business, others to buy land while some used it to purchase....electronics and depreciable luxuries.
People that bought land in their youth are collecting astronomical rent from houses they built years ago and have not renovated since then. Some people married a second wife that gave them stroke..
Trace your future from your present actions;
Your father had seven wives you already have three girlfriends..It's the same spirit
The morning of your life, The first 25 years is the learning stage of your life. If you are above 25 and are still writing secondary and tertiary level education entrance exams your life is already behind schedule.
If at 28 you are just entering university whereas your mates have concluded their Master's degrees and upon entering, instead of facing your studies, you are asking ''How many female hostels do we have here?'' it only shows that your journey has ended before it started.
Gone are the days when old men are employed. Now at age 30 you are told that you are already old. Because the world is a cycle, what was is and will always be. Now we have gone back to the 70s in terms of fashion (afros, wigs, goggles etc.).
Then people used to marry at 18 and we are now seeing that as now people have gone back to marrying at age 20. So if you are above 30 and unmarried it will be beneficial to cry to God and hold the pillar and altar. Pastor states that his last born son told him that at 26 people have Master's degrees. So if you are applying for a job in the present day world with a 3rd class degree, someone younger is applying from overseas because they have got all their credentials early due to proper planning and vision. So if you refuse to study and are busy on social media you are dead while you liveth (Admonishing joke).
So from age 25 and below is the learning stage of your life
By 25 you should have learnt everything you need to. It is the time to face your books and not be on facebook as; the guy that owns facebook is younger than most undergraduates (This sermon was preached around the year 2011 when Mark Zuckerberg was 27 years old).
From 26-50 is the earning stage of your life where you should be earning an income. By the age of 50 you should not be a tenant. By the age of 50 you should not be working for anybody else but there are some 50 year olds in this crowd who if the position for security guard is announced; they will apply.
There are 50-something year olds who are still tenants coming for welfare to pay rent. How will poverty not become generational when at 50 you are not sorted out and now have to put your life responsibility on the children coming behind you?
The bible says it is not children that lay in store for parents, it is parents that lay in store for children (2 Corinthians 12:14 Good News Translation - ''This is now the third time that I am ready to come to visit you--and I will not make any demands on you. It is you I want, not your money. After all, children should not have to provide for their parents, but parents should provide for their children'').
When you grow old and now have to stress your children's lives and make their journey difficult because of your own, something is wrong. That is why we teach family planning; don't have more kids than you can train. Your wife is getting pregnant every year are you trying to win an award? (Serious joke)
Giving birth at 45 could make for an uncomfortable old age due to difficulty in training such kids. The person would probably still be attending PTA meetings using a walking stick. Many people are unaware how they are sabotaging their own lives. A young guy of 31 is proposing to a lady who is 31 years old and she is being difficult just for the sake of it when in actual fact her market value has significantly diminished.
If you are 26 years old get married, settle down in a one room apartment, start from there to build your destiny. Some ladies say ''I cannot marry any guy that does not have a car''. Do you the lady have a car?
If you say ''I can not marry and start from a one bedroom apartment'' - you will expire in the market. Your father and mother where did they begin, was it not one room? If that one room did not stop you from getting here, what tells you it will stop you from getting there (success in the future)?
Many people forget where they are coming from - like Zacchaeus in the bible. He climbed a tree wanting to see Jesus. Many people's pride and arrogance has kept them in the market like leftover evening stock of tomatoes.
Come down, there is nothing wrong in a one room apartment or entering public transport; start from somewhere. The problem is that when we tell you where we are coming from you don't believe. When this Church started I looked malnourished like a kwashiorkor patient. I used to ask my fellow (Junior ranked) pastors what they see in me and they said ''it's not your physical appearance it's what you say that made us keep following you''. You could see poverty and hunger in my life, but is that the same thing today? (Crowd choruses ''NO!!!!''). You see couples coming here but do you know where they married? One room, they didn't have money for lavish weddings but you want to immediately be like they are currently; at the early stage of your life.
Start early - Many people are fighting for positions in tenants council at age 57. which is not good.
The third stage is the turning stage - from age 51 and above.
By that stage you should be sorted out and imparting the next generation. How can you impart what you don't have?
The day you get your first employment letter is the day you should start planning your retirement because the day you are born is the day you start dying. There are only two dates, birthdate and death date with only a dash in between. Because nobody grows young everybody grows old whether makeup is applied to cover this fact or not.
Settle down, plan your life and go to and finish school quickly.
The day you get your first job, your career story starts.
A piece of research I want you to consider which has been done in different parts of the world followed 100 people at the age of 20 to study their lives for 40 years and after 40 years of this by the age of 60 the result was that;
- Only 1% of them were financially free and wealthy meaning only 1 person was so wealthy that poverty was dead forever in their life
- Only 4% were extremely rich and wealthy
- 5% of them were still struggling and working to make ends meet
- 36% of them had died
So...you that has retired don't you always hear that somebody else has died?
You that always visits the pension office for re-verification, the people you saw last year and greeted; don't you hear they have died?
When everybody around you that is your age mate is dying, it is a sign...that you should start thinking of your life and enter a covenant greater than theirs (Christianity). A lot of elders do not attend elders forum where anointing for profitable ideas can flow into your life - May your children not bring you sorrow (Crowd choruses 'Amen').
Isn't it amazing that it is jobless poor people that always say they are busy; Busy doing what?
- 54% of them were broke, penniless, indebted and dependent on their children, relatives and Government.
The people in the survey were not informed they were being studied. their lives were monitored every 6 months for 40 years.
So..nobody determined how they would end but 40 years later look at where they ended up.
Haven't you seen people on the roads begging for alms at age 75? And you reason ''This is somebody's mother/grandmother, how did they get here?''
But when those people on the road were teenagers and were asked ''what do you want to become in future?'' - They never said a beggar on the streets.
Closing Prayer
In the name that is above every other name, you will not die before your time.
The God of Heaven will favor you
You will not labour in vain
You will not labor for another to harvest
You will not labor to lose it all
The lord will secure your future
Wisdom will guide you to that future
Grace will make it happen for you
In the name of Jesus!
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1 comment:
Chai!!!hard nuts. Thank you for sharing
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