East Of Eden-- People Relating To God -- Part 2 Series

Once again please feel free to use any or all of this sermon

Power points available

I write like I preach so---

People relating to God—part 2

East of Eden

Genesis 4

Rebel

I had a dog for many years that I truly loved

His name was Rebel

My Patti and my youngest son Jacob

Brought him home for me as a gift

At that time in my life I was a very “dedicated” duck hunter

And rebel was a perfect picture of a black lab puppy

As he grew his appearance began changing

One day his left ear would stand up like a shepherd

The next day the right

Needless to say when he got just a bit older and both ears were sticking up

We knew that Rebel was not the lab puppy that we had brought home

That being said

I loved him and he was smart

Very early in his life he learned to retrieve ducks and he was good at it

Most of the time

But

There is always a but, Right

Rebel had a weakness’

He hated --I mean hated Nutrias

Those fuzzy beavers with skinny tails--Those oversized rats

He despised them- I don’t know if one had said something about his momma at one time

As he aged him could not help but kill them

I can’t tell you all the days that I screamed at that dog

Disciplined that dog

But I could not change his mind on how he felt and had little luck at changing how he acted

Until

One day

A particularly slow duck day

Rebel took off after a furball

I could not stop him no matter how loud I yelled

This time he caught one and killed it

He had killed lots of these critters before but this day he did something unusual

He retrieved his prize

Brought it right back to me

I won’t go into the details

But I removed the critters fur coat

Tied rebel up

And disciplined him with the pelt

It worked

Rebel never once chased Nutria but He would always look longing at them and then catch himself looking and look away

He got control of his mind and he was able to control his actions

That is the topic of today’s study

Getting control of our minds

We left off last week with Adam and Eve

Being removed from the garden

They were now east of Eden

East of paradise

And this new place was much different than where they started

As we continue our study of people relating to God this morning

I think it is important to build as we go

Last week in our Round pens we studied about Adam and Eve

Their creation

Their purpose

Their bad decision

Their altered steps

Their curse

And

God’s punishment and protection

In the first of our sermons on Genesis

We looked hard at Old Slicks

Evil plan to derail us

And prayerfully how we can avoid his trap by keeping our focus on God

This morning we began studying Cain and Able

Their sacrifices and the results of yet another bad decision

As I have already said my intent is to build upon each lesson

Prayerfully helping you and I become stronger in our knowledge of God

Closer in our walk with Jesus

And

More attentive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives

Learning how to use these words in our lives

And how to live as Christians

Let me quickly recap and paraphrase this morning’s lesson

Then we can dig in a bit deeper

Let’s start with Adam and Eve

God created them

God loved them

He gave them one order—don’t eat that fruit

They made a bad choice

They sinned

God called them on it the passed the buck/refused to accept the responsibility of their actions

God punished them

But

Then he protected them

And

He showed us as well as them his plan of redemption through the blood

WE pick up in chapter 4 with Adam and Eve outside of paradise and giving birth to a son

Let’s read Genesis 4

Now Adam[a] had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the LORD’s help, I have produced[b] a man!” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.

When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.