Sermonette: Shane and Integrity

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Given 24-Sep-16; 18 minutes

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'Shane,' the 1953 feature-length motion picture, stars Alan Ladd as Shane, an enigmatic gunslinger who rides into a small Wyoming town, hoping to settle down and escape his past. Soon, he is forced to take sides in a land war between cattlemen who want an open range and homesteaders who want to fence in the land to grow crops and feed livestock. In one moving scene, Shane, who has been hired by one of the homesteaders, gives a lengthy soliloquy on integrity to the homesteader's son, Joey, who has bonded to him as a role model, cautioning him that a man can never escape his past, but must carry it with him perpetually. If the past is good, the present can't hurt you, and if the past is bad, it will haunt you. In Wordsworth's words, "The child is the father of the man." If one's life is based on a consistent framework of principles, he will have a harmonious and productive life. Job's righteous character was formed early in life; God did not punish Job for his faulty character, but refined Job, transforming fragile human righteousness into durable godly righteousness. Like Job, we are God's children, given trials to refine our integrity to be just like His.




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