Living In The Shadow Of Another Star

Bunbury

Wed pm

29/06/2011

“Living in the shadow of another star”

Intro: One of the hardest things to do in all of life is to live in the shadow of another person.

Each & every one of us want to feel as though we are seen / recognised for the merit of our own abilities / talents & achievements.

But sometimes it just seems as though who / what we really are always seems to be overshadowed by a brighter shinning star than ours.

And it’s not even that we are living to be seen but ……. a bit of encouragement / recognition puts a lot of steam in our boiler!

In those times when everything we say / do / accomplish seems to be outshined by brighter lights we need to learn the virtue there is in living an effective life in the shadow of another star!

I want to preach tonight about how we can succeed while ‘Living in the shadow of a brighter star’.

Text: (Gen 29:15-25 NKJV) Then Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be?" {16} Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. {17} Leah's eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance. {18} Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, "I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter." 19And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.” 20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her. 21Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.” 22And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. 23Now it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. 24And Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. 25So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?”

# 1. Brighter stars.

A. Brighter stars are such a fact of life.

a. Let’s be honest about it they are everywhere!

i. Every one of us w/o exception has known what its like to live in the glow of someone who just seems to be able to do everything better than we can.

ii. We work w/ some of them, we go to school w/ some, we compete in sport against them, they often outshine us in academic fields or just plain common sense.

iii. They exist in our family / church / community / sometimes we live next door to them.

iv. They often outshine us intellectually / in personality / friendships / career / relationships / wealth / car / house etc.

v. But the bottom line is that they seem to shine so brightly & seem to get so much attention & favour.

vi. Brighter stars are everywhere in life which means that we are going to have to come to grips w/ the idea of living w/ them & amongst them.

b. The real problem w/ a brighter star is that they seem to get all the attention.

*** The brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy is Sirius …… its 8.6 light years from Earth & it outshines every other star in the Milky Way. It is located in the Canis Major constellation. Out of all the stars we see either w/ the naked eye or through a telescope Sirius is brighter. When you look up into the sky in the northern hemisphere Sirius is going to be the first star to grab your attention.

The name Sirius comes from the Greek word ‘Scorching’.

But an interesting fact about Sirius is that in 1844, F.W. Bessel used analysis of its motion to determine that it had a companion. This companion was confirmed by observations in 1862 and is now known to be a white dwarf. Sirius B, the companion, has received considerable attention itself, since it is the first white dwarf.

But …. Sirius B is always outshined & in essence lives in the shadow of the main Sirius star!

i. The fact is that there are people like that too! They just seem to shine brighter than everyone around them, they seem to always be getting the attention.

ii. We see some of these brighter stars throughout the pages of Scripture ….