Sermon Central
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Weathering The Storms In Life Series
Contributed by Bruce Landry on Feb 2, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: We will walk with Jacob, as his daughter Dinah is brutally raped by Shekem, a prince of Hamor. We will see how God would have us walk, and we will see what happens when we choose to take matters into our own hands. We must always remember--Vengeance is
Weathering the Storms of Life
DBF 2/3/02
Storms in our walk with God
Storms stemming from the desires of others
Boy you sure did have a big storm here in Dillingham while I was gone. Man about 30 inches of snow in 24 hours or so. Anywhere else in our country would have come to an absolute standstill, but in Bristol Bay and Alaska we just pick up and go on.
I remember when we lived in Peter’s Creek, we often had storms that would put our power out for a week at a time. At those times we were quiet comforted by our wood stove and our ability to live the rugged lifestyle of Alaska. I praise God, where we are now in Dillingham the longest power outage has been hours instead of days.
Of course the storms that we will walk with Jacob through today are a storm of a different nature. We by our walk often do bring storms into our own lives then we seem surprised when they hit.
One might drink….and the storm that come be domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual immorality, murder…
One might view pornography…and the storm of separation, divorce, prostitution related charges, lack of interest in your wife of your youth…
One might be prideful…and the storms come to make one low…
The bible even tells us that our Christian walk will be faced with storms in life, but we can weather any storm that comes if we are firmly rooted in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
We see Jacob’s family come into a great storm today, one not of Jacob or his families choosing to go into, but he does weather the storm leaning on the God. We do however see things desires of things done by man that are not the desire of God. Let’s join Jacob
Storms in our walk with God
1And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. 3And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. 4And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. 5And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come.
Jacob and his family have come “in peace” “to peace”. We saw the wise stewardship of Jacob shown in our last study by maintaining a separation of the people of God from the inhabitants of the land.
Dinah, Jacob’s daughter went out to see the daughters of the land. She went and tried to make friends of the Canaanite women, which is probably very common for a teenager.
Does God expect you and I to set ourselves apart from the world?
Le 11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Le 11:45 For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
Le 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
Le 20:7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
Le 20:26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.
De 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Do you realize how special you are to God?
De 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Do you carry yourself as the peculiar people of God—Separated from the world in holiness?
1Pe 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
We can easily see that anyone who is called a child of God is called to be set apart from the world.
What are things that cause us to run there?
