Bible Teacher. Pastor.Educator.

DON'T TRUST YOUR EYES Genesis 34 JULY 10TH 2022 Sermon

Saints of God, whenever we choose not to allow the eyes of God to lead us and the voice of God to lead us, we will get ourselves into trouble. The title of this sermon is "Don't trust your eyes"than you. I want you to really remember that God is wiser than you. You are not wiser than God. Don't trust your eyes, trust the voice of God. Your eyes will mislead you.Trust God's instruction, direction and correction. Follow his eyes for he is wise!!  That is why we are commanded to obey the voice of God and not the voice of men.

“Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done. On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭34:5, 7, 25-27, 30-31‬ ‭

           Ogbomoso deeply needs people of peace and humility. We Yoruba people are not humble at all. In fact, every generation is worse than the generation before when it comes to humility. God has called us to be humble people. We need to embrace humility and not hostility. Living in Ogbomoso will make you very hostile. Walking in Taki will make you hostile because everybody is NOT patient with you, people are not kind, but nasty and rude to each other. One of my friends who is an American came to Nigeria and he said, "Everyone is nice to me." I said, "The reason why they are nice to you is because they want something from you. Once you get to know them and they are not getting anything from you again, they will aggressively and verbally attack you." that is the nature of our lives in Ogbomoso and God wants to change that about us. God wants us to embrace humility.
        Today, July 10, I am reminded that today is the second Sunday of the month. Last week we thought about humility, not hostility. We talked about how Jacob humbled himself before Esau, and God forgave him. God allowed reconciliation between them.I am praying for you that any decisive nature of conflict or problems you have with anyone, God will help you overcome. God will restore trust, love and peace in every relationship in your life in the name of Jesus. I pray that you won't be someone in the world who loves conflict, but any conflict that you have with somebody will END IN PEACE and help you grow to reach your full potential.
            This story is one of the saddest stories in the Bible. This story in Genesis 34 is a tragic storyof rape and abuse of a young lady. In this story,  Jacob's daughter, Dinah the daughter of Jacob was raped.

Early in the book of Genesis, Jacob vowed that he was going to return to the land of his father and worship God in Genesis 28:18-22. This is the first indication that God wanted Jacob to complete his journey to Bethel when he told Jacob to leave Laban's country.
            God told Jacob in Genesis 28 that He will prosper him, but he should return to the land of his father. Jacob calls God Almighty, the God of Bethel. This massive disaster befell Dinah in chapter 34. This is what happens when we choose to reject humility before God and disregard his laws.  It is a big scary warning to all of us that Bethel was to be Jacob's proper home. Jacob decided to land in Shechem. The Lord's intent in Genesis 35:1-15 is known below. 

 Genesis 35:1-15
Then God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother." And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone." So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem. And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. Now Deborah, Rebekah`s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth. Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him: "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land." Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

In fact, there is a direct confirmation of what Jacob already knew to be God's will. Jacob didn't go all the way to Bethel, but he settled and dwelled in Shechem. Genesis 33:18-19 reminds us of this.

Genesis 33:18-19
Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched his tent before the city. And he bought the parcel of land, where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Hamor, Shechem`s father, for one hundred pieces of money.

 

 

"Shechem's location in the promised land was a crossroad of trade." Bible scholars told us and made it a convenient choice because it was easier for Jacob to believe that he was making a home in a good place. But we noticed that in chapter 34, especially verse 19 that, even though this was a powerful place, tragic interaction between Jacob and the Shechemites later showed that Jacob made a mistake in remaining there.

            Saints of God, whenever we choose not to allow the eyes of God to lead us and the voice of God to lead us, we will get ourselves into trouble. The title of this sermon is "Don't trust your eyes"than you. I want you to really remember that God is wiser than you. You are not wiser than God. Don't trust your eyes, trust the voice of God. Your eyes will mislead you.Trust God's instruction, direction and correction. Follow his eyes for he is wise!!  That is why we are commanded to obey the voice of God and not the voice of men.

This morning, I want to give you reasons why you should obey the voice of the Lord.
In this passage, Jacob decided to settle in Shechem. His daughter was raped, his sons committed multiple murders because he simply didn't obey the voice of the Lord. He did not believe that God is wiser than Him. Jacob is not perfect. Sometimes he obeys God, sometimes he doesn't. When he doesn't obey God, he faces the consequences.

FOUR REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD OBEY A WISE GOD.

1. GOD'S WORD WILL ALWAYS COME TO PASS.

Whatever you sow, you will reap. If you don't obey God's Word you will regret it!!!

You can pick your sin, but you can't pick the consequences of your sin. His word will always come to pass. Refrain from obeying the voice of other men in your marriage. Obey the voice of God in how you spend your money.  Whenever we choose to disobey God's word, it comes with a lot of dangerous consequences.
Hey, Bridge of Grace, Pastor James has reminded you over and over that you can pick your sin, but you cannot pick the consequences of your sin.

Here, Jacob decided to settle in Shechem. What he did not know was that God had told him, Go back to your Father's house, which is a place called Bethel, the house of God.
He decided to settle in Shechem and his daughter was raped. God's Word is sure. Listen to God's Word.

2. GOD'S POWER WILL PROTECT YOU FROM BAD DECISIONS

Whenever I choose to obey God, I am submitting myself under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says, "Those that are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."

If I want the Spirit of God to guide me and I want to experience the power and blessings of God in my life, I need to totally surrender to obeying the voice of God because God is wiser than me.

When I choose not to listen to the Word of God, I am disconnecting myself from the power of God.

We have a generator at home and when NEPA decides not to give you light, you can always plug in the generator, but the generator needs diesel.

What happens when you decide to use petrol or kerosene and not diesel, it will destroy your generator because the manufacturer who made the generator decided that diesel, not kerosene not petrol was going to empower the generator.

Whenever you disobey God, you cut yourself off from the power of God to deliver you. Whenever you disobey God, you cut yourself off from the power and the protection of God. It is important that we obey the voice of God so that you can experience the power of God in your life.
God has commanded us, if you're not married don't have sex outside your marriage. A lot of us don't believe this. Think about how many young women that have destroyed their lives because they do not confess their sins and repent of sexual sin.

3. GOD'S WORD CHALLENGES MEN OF GOD TO TAKE WISE ACTIONS.

God's Word doesn't mean we don't take any action. Jacob didn't take any action when his daughter was raped. This is a sad day in the life of Jacob.

The Jacob we know is a man who takes action, the Jacob we know is the man who makes plans, the Jacob we know is the man who is intense, he doesn't wait for things to come to him.

But how can your daughter get raped and not do anything about it? In fact, later in the passage, a tragedy happened because his sons went and murdered those people.

It is not God's will for you to ignore his word and not take action. God wants you to take action in whatever God has called you to do.

If God has called you to be a Pastor, you need to study the Word of God well, so that you can preach the Word of God passionately.

If God has called you to be a school teacher, you need to write your lesson notes well in detail.

If God has called you to be a business woman, you need to know your numbers, you need to know your sales, you need to know who your customer is.

If you don't know this, you need to take action. You need to write your sales goal down. You need to write whatsoever you learn from your coach down.

Don't be arrogant and ignore the ability to take action. Whenever God shows you a problem, you need to take action.

Jacob showed us here that he's not a man who listens to the Word of God because when his daughter was raped, he did not take action.

One of the reasons why we need to obey God is because He's a catalyst to push us to take action.

4. THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT OBEYING GOD IS DANGEROUS!!

When I choose to obey God, I experience the light of God in my life. The light of God provides the blessings for my life, the light of God propels me to enjoy God, the light of God encourages me to appreciate the goodness of God in my life, the light of the Word of God gives me direction and peace.

When I choose to disobey God, I experience the darkness of depression, the darkness of self-destructive behaviour, and the darkness of God being absent in my life.

When I don't obey God, I find myself sitting in the seat I should not sit in. Why? I chose not to obey the voice of the Lord.

Bridge of Grace, Genesis 34 is a warning. What is the summary of Genesis 34? Dinah, the daughter of Jacob was raped. Jacob sons later commit murder. They killed the one who raped their sister and all the members of his family. Why? Their dad was passive and did nothing about it.

My prayer to us as a church is that we will not listen to the world, but we will let the Word of God change our lives, change our community and change us.

I have three questions for you as we close.

1. Are you daily reading the Word of God?
2. Are you allowing the Word of God change the way you behave and the way you relate with other members of the opposite sex?
3. Have you confessed and repented of sexual sins in your life? Or, are you living in disobedience to God?

Let's pray!

 

God is not a liar!!!

God is a promise keeper. He never forgets His promises to His children, and He has never forgotten His promises to the children of Israel or His various promises in the Bible. The Bible states that if you trust in God, He will protect you. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." If you trust Him in all your ways and acknowledge Him, He will take care of the problem. The issue is that most of us do not trust God; instead, we tend to talk to people about our problems. God wants us to talk to Him, not to people. So, when you talk to God, ask Him for wisdom, and when He gives you wisdom, take action. Don't just sit around waiting for a miracle; make plans, set goals, and develop habits that will help you achieve those goals.

Preaching with Excellence!

Family! God has been so kind to me lately!!!! He has been teaching me so much lessons about preaching with excellence. Church was awesome this past Sunday! The response to my preaching was very heartwarming from the people of God. It is so good to be given the chance to preach every Sunday this month at my home church (www.thebridge.church). Preaching great sermons demand that the preacher be a student of the word of God and a student of human beings in his geographical location. Anybody can give a talk but it takes a man of God to be the mouth piece of God. Good preaching takes work but great preaching takes great work.

The preacher must be studious standing on the shoulders of church scholars and theologians across church history begging God for the anointing and wisdom  to precisely communicate the heart of God to the people of God. When I first started serving there, my preaching responsibilities were only twice a month at one of three locations. Preaching is hard work.

But now I am scheduled to preach at one of our three locations every Sunday this month!!!! This happened in July 2020 when God challenged me to practice my sermons out loud at home before preaching them to our church family. I never used to practice my sermons. I felt just memorizing the outline was enough, but recently God has been challenging me to “preach” my sermons out loud before preaching them on Sunday. I resisted at first because it required discipline, patience and humility. God has helped me so much. I believe that practicing my sermons out loud before preaching them has made me an effective speaker. Family! Please pray that I sharpen my speaking skills and that I find a coach to help me with my pronunciation of difficult words.
Evangelist James Owolabi
President Grace for Life International 

Racism is not the solution to Racism!

Racism is not the solution to racism!  I tried that and it doesn’t work. This kneejerk response may feel good in the moment and even seems to be right and justified, but in the long term it eats away like a poison. Because of this the biggest disaster of racism is not racism itself; it’s the way it can turn you into a racist. Hate and bitterness will always lose.



When a person begins to hate because he or she has been hated on, the result, every time, is a heart of bitterness. Bitterness makes you ugly. Bitterness will destroy your children. Bitterness makes unattractive and nurtures a life of ungratefulness towards God.  This hardening of the heart is also a poison that will wreck a person. The danger of racism-driven hate is that a person can become like the people they are angry about in the first place. This leads to an insidious downward hate spiral where everyone loses. Hate always loses. Love will always win. 

God is our refuge, not the building where we gather every Sunday. God is my fortress not my Pastor.

Psalms 91-1:2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

God is our refuge, not the building where we gather every Sunday. God is my fortress not my Pastor. Hey Family! This is a great verse to read aloud every day. Everything needed for this present crisis is written in this scripture’s plan layout; where to go for refuge, who provides it and most importantly, how we get to it.. It’s all there! If there’s anytime followers of Christ need to trust God, it is now! God is our refuge, not the building where we gather every Sunday. God is my fortress not my Pastor.  Yes, we are going through a crisis but we have been singing songs for decades about the character of God that are still true. This crisis might be a gift to establish our claims of faith in the good and wise Father. God is our refuge, not the building where we gather every Sunday. God is my fortress not my Pastor. 

 

 We should be reminded that before and even during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Christ followers  all around the world that have and are still living in quarantine but this is not due to the virus. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ do not have the luxury to publicly and freely do what we have been able to do most of our christian walk.  They have been persecuted for openly stating they are christian, had their churches and bibles destroyed, and kept from freely gathering to fellowship and have accessibility to their pastors. We as Americans are temporarily being inconvenienced. It’s true, we can not go to our place of worship, physically fellowship with our church members and pastors but this is temporary. God is our refuge, not the building where we gather every Sunday. God is my fortress not my Pastor.

 

This is a great time to live out our faith in God and put in context our true plight.   I have alway taught, faith that is not tested should not be trusted. This is not a time for throwing in the towel, complaining, grumbling and whining because the world is watching. This is my time to walk out my faith and trust God. God is our refuge, not the building where we gather every Sunday. God is my fortress not my Pastor. 

Christmas Letter 2019 from Pastor James Owolabi

Merry Christmas Family,

    The holiday season is upon us and this is probably one of the busiest time of the year for most people.  It has been a year of amazing transitions and “mind blowing doors” for ministry. God has been opening great opportunities, orchestrating events and allowing these things to happen in order to increase my leadership capacity for ministry. The ministry Slingshots a teen after school drop in center (Slingshotschicago.com) that I formerly worked with is now going to be under the umbrella of Youth for Christ USA.

Starting next year, I will be leading this teen center on the Northside of Chicago, while continuing to host mentoring events on the southside of this beautiful city.

My home church on the north side of the city became part of a vibrant growing neighborhood church movement (the bridge.church) which retained me twice a month as one of their teaching pastors.

This will increase my ministry footprint and expand my influence in the Chicago land area. I also launched a website (www.jamesowolabi.com) under a new ministry  “Grace for Life” that will allow me to continue to travel and preach around the world.

 I consider it a privilege to be promoted to Director of City Life for the city of Chicago and to serve as one of the teaching pastors at The Bridge community church.

            I’m going to be spending the holidays with my immediate family, excluding my parents in Nigeria, right here in my home on the southside of  Chicago! The capacity to be the host this year is not something that I take for granted. I want to fully enjoy this space that God has blessed me with.I am excited to share the space with my siblings for Christmas. 

   This Christmas my best attempt to being a perfect host I started to plan and make a lot of lists to ensure that everything for the holidays would be perfect. You can probably relate; guest lists, when everyone is arriving, grocery lists, gift lists… and more. I realized in all of my movement and list making that I was losing sight of the true meaning behind Christmas. More importantly than having the “perfect holiday” and getting everything on my list was actually the need to focus on the original guest list of Christmas day; Mary, Joseph, and Jesus! 
    Jesus is the reason for the season of course, but as I reflect I couldn’t help but feel there was a lot to learn from His mother Mary! What can we learn from her? She’s not Jesus-- however she has a lot of qualities that I admire! Mary was a young Jewish girl who probably couldn’t even read or write, but yet she was seen and valued by God. He knew her heart and chose her specifically to be the person that would bring our Savior into the world! When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her of God’s plans she immediately said “I am you servant, let it be unto me”! Mary was a young Jewish girl that probably couldn’t read or write and yet, but her faith in God is unmatched! She reminds me of myself when I’i'm excited about what God is doing. Her response to the angel, “I am the Lord's servant let it be unto me”. Her willingness to let God hijack her life causes me to reflect. I'm sure she had dreams and plans, but allowed the Spirit of God to take her future reputation. The pregnancy was a scandal and disgrace in that society. A surprise pregnancy did not establish her reputation as Godly Jewish girl! She surrendered her personal life completely. Her response:

         “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”    

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:38‬ ‭

           Wow!!! What a response!!! The word servant is a word for a slave, a female born slave. Mary was offering her life as a living sacrifice. There are not many of us that would’ve been so willing and unquestioning. She gave up the potential of her relationship with Joseph. Although we know how the story ends, Mary had no clue what consequences or further sacrifices would have to be made. She was excited about marriage, fully betrothed and then BOOM -- an angel comes! This could have been tragic to her dreams as i’m sure all Jewish girls looked forward to the seal of marriage. That was everything a woman desired in that culture but, she gives her body and allows it to be used to bring forth the line of David. How complicated, crisis inducing, and uncomfortable, however to Mary it was exciting. 

 

Her reaction lets me know that she spent time in the Word of God. 

“My soul magnifies the Lord he has looked upon the humble.” - Mary

 

Instead of being further consumed with lists and scheduled, I’ve begun to slow down and focus on Christmas story and all that can be gathered from every piece and character involved.You my dear friends have given me visible examples of  the characteristics that Mary displayed. Thank you for your prayer support and your sacrificial financial support that has enabled me to serve Christ in this great country.

I always pray for you all every day. You have all been a gift all year long by being present in my life, and helping me sustain my ministry. I am so grateful to God for you. Merry Christmas!

 

Love,

Pastor James Owolabi