Sunday Morning “When So-So is a No-No” Genesis 4:1-7
- The offering is one part of the service that gets the least preparation.
- We have two ushers come up to the front, I usually ask one of those to pray.
- They pray, “Lord, please bless the gift and giver.”
- We walk down the isle, and for those who did not give during the Sunday School hour, gives during this time of the service.
- This is our offering as individuals to God and to God’s Church.
- We really do not prepare too much for this part of the service.
- I do not know if anyone here talked about this part of the service yesterday with their spouse.
- I do not know if anyone here talked with their children about the offering.
- What I do know is that I did not talk about it with Nicole.
- I know that I did not focus any of my preparation time yesterday or this morning on this part of the service.
- But I do know that it is an important time to God.
- You see the time of giving our tithe and our offerings to God’s storehouse is truly a time of devotion to God.
- We are called to give from the heart and that is what is expected from God.
- Now, I have no idea what anyone here in the house of God gives to the God through the offering to the church and I do not want to know.
- Friends, what we give is a direct reflections on relationship with God.
- You are already tuning me out, allow me to prove this point to you.
- Let’s say it is your wife’s birthday.
- And husband your wife knows what you make on your paycheck.
- And for her birthday, you get her a pack of Big Red Chewing Gum.
- Now, you wrap it up in a pretty package, and give that to her.
- One of two things will happen.
- One your wife is going to get extremely mad and tell you what you could do with that chewing gum
- Or either she is going to laugh at the gage and ask for her real gift.
- Brethren, God knows everything about us.
- And he knows if we are giving from the heart, if we are giving Him a true offering a true gift or a gage gift.
- Brethren, I am here to tell you, if a dollar is a sacrifice for you to give, then you give that dollar and the Lord is pleased.
- But if you pay more for your cell phone each month, than you give God, then God is not going to be pleased.
- Brethren, please understand what I am trying to say.
- I am saying that what we give God, is going to b a direction reflection of our relationship with Him.
- A mother had a bright idea of correcting her two boys problem of despising each other.
- Both boys were secretly given twenty dollars to spend on the other brother.
- One brother, thought what can I get Him that he will not like. I know.
- I will get Him a bottle of Brut cologne and replace the cologne with fishing stink spray.
- The other brother thought of Brut cologne too, but he was sincere about his gift.
- The mother asked the boys to bring their gifts to her and she would wrap them and present them to the other brother.
- The mother wise idea was to give the boys the gifts that they bought for the other brother to themselves.
- The boys opened up their gifts and saw that they had both bought the other Brut Cologne.
- The wicked thinking brother said, Lets both spray some on at the same time.
- The second that the wicked brother sprayed His cologne, He could smell the stink spray.
- But he was shocked to notice that it was sprayed on him.
- The mother taught a greater lesson that she anticipated.
- The wicked thinking bother learned a great lesson.
- Never give a gift that you would be ashamed to receive.
- We have introduced this message with the offering we make to God and with Gifts.
- So what is the message really about.
- I titled this message, “When So-so is a No-No!”
- Turn with me to Genesis 4:1-7(READ)
- When So-so is a No-no.
- You may be relieved to know this message is not going to be about the money.
- But one application of the message can be about the offering.
- The purpose of this message is about the total offering that we make to God.
- This life offering, this talent offering is more important on this side of the cross than the money offering that we make.
- We will look and see why Cain’s Offering was not accepted and why Abel’s was.
- And as we look at this I believe we will find some very simple yet very important applications to our lives.
1st – So-so is a No-no because of the Attitude behind it.
- Brethren, Cain’s offering was a so-so offering.
- It was not rotten fruit, is was basically good.
- But the attitude behind Cain’s offering was he wanted to believe that he was basically a “good person.”
- He did what was morally right or in other words He was not completely bad.
- He didn’t do those things that would make people really think that he was a loser.
- No one would want to admit that they are basically a bad person.
- Cain was bad from the core out, and he gave God his fruit offering with a rotten attitude.
- You know, we all would like to believe that the bad things that we do are the exception, not the rule.
- God’s Word tells us a different story...
- “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23
- “Both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin.” Rom. 3:9
- “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin…” Gal. 3:22
- How did this happen?
- “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world…” Rom. 5:12
- Adam’s original sin in Eden brought sin into the world. How am I guilty?
James 2:10-11 answer that “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”
- Cain had an attitude that he was basically Good, even though we are not at all good in comparison to God.
- So he thought that His So-So offering was Good enough.
- Friends, Can I ask you a question that get all of this from Cain to us?
- What is your attitude about the things that you do for God?
- Do you give your offering, to you come to church, to you witness, with the attitude of I got to or the attitude I want to?
- There is a big difference.
- God will not accept a so-so offering of I got to therefore I will.
- Friends, I do not preach because this church pays me to do that.
- I do not give my tithe because I am suppose to.
- I do not witness to people that I have never met, because I am told to do so.
- Friends, I preach because I want to. I give my tithe because I want to, I witness because I want to.
- And I want to do all of those things because I love Jesus.
2nd – So-so is a No-no because it is not based on Faith.
- READ FROM LUKE 18:9-14.
- Man wants to talk about what he can do for God.
- God’s Word talks about what He has done for man.
- We want to get to heaven on the work of our hands.
- Yet, salvation only comes through the nail-pierced hands of Jesus.
- But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags… Isaiah 64:6
- And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: Philippians 3:9
- But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Heb 11:6
- Cain’s offering was brought without faith, his offering was brought His own Righteousness.
- And God said that it was not good enough.
- What we have to bring without faith is nothing?
- If Abel brought that same firstling without the Faith that God would accept on His righteousness, it would have not been accepted either.
- Friends, we can not do anything for God, until we understand by faith that God must do those things through us.
- I have faith that God is going to accept those things that I bring to Him.
- Now, let me give you an example.
- If I get up here and preach without faith that God can use it, so I try to preach harder and harder and harder.
- And you know what, nothing happens, Robert does not even get up to go to the bathroom.
- But I can preach that same message, and I can think I did not do what I was suppose to, but with Faith I deliver it thinking God is going to use it.
- And bang something happens for His eternal good.
3rd – So-so is a No-no because it does not require Blood.
- Abel’s sacrifice was based on the blood of the lamb.
- Cain’s sacrifice as based on his own blood, work and effort.
- The Bible says that without the shedding of a lambs blood there is no remission, or forgiveness.
- We are justified by Jesus Christ’s shed blood.
- Justified means to declare righteous.
- The original Greek word means to pronounce or announce a favorable verdict.
- This is in direct opposition to the judgment of God’s wrath.
- Therefore, the offering that Cain made was declared unrighteous, because the offering needed no shed blood.
- Abel’s Offering was pronounced favorable to God because their was the shedding of blood.
- Now, listen, if you can offer something to God that is not worthy of Jesus Christ shed blood than, God will not accept it.
- Let me explain.
- We tend to think that we can come into church and type on our cells phones and think that we have been to church.
- And we think that we have done something worthy of the Blood of Christ.
- Nope, we come to church to worship the one true God, not the God of the World today.
- We offer God our pocket change in the offering plate, and God made the ultimate sacrifice of His only begotten Son.
- Those things in which I offer to God, must be things that Jesus Christ shed His Blood for.
- Obviously, we can not go watch a Rated-R movie and think that we have offered God something.
- We must offer God things that Only a born again believer would or could do.
- This is why the offering of an unbeliever can not accepted by God, it has not been covered in the Blood of Jesus.
4th – So-so is a No-no because it is not God’s Way.
- Church, in the long run, we can follow the more popular path, or we can follow God’s path.
- Proverbs 16:25 – “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
- Church, has God ever given you something that was So-so.
- Has God ever blessed you with something that in the long run did not bring Him glory.
- God is not a God of the So-so.
- John 10:10 says “The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
- Brethren, God is good to us and yet we give Him a so-so church attendance.
- God is so good to us and yet we give Him a so-so offering.
- God is so good to us and yet we give Him a so-so effort at teaching Sunday School.
- So-so is not God’s Way.
- Brethren, what God had given Abel, He also had given Cain.
- God had blessed Abel with animals that had reproduced. His flock was growing.
- God had blessed Cain with nice crops. His fields were producing fruit.
- God had given them both the equal amount of blessings.
- God’s way was to give things that would bring them a blessing.
- And yet Abel returned the offering with great show of his love and thanksgiving.
- And Cain returned that blessing with a so-so offering.
5th – So-so is a No-no because it is just getting by.
- “Modern man has become a spectator of world events, observing on his television screen without becoming involved. He watches the ominous events of our times pass before his eyes, while he sips his beverage in a comfortable chair. He does not seem to realize what is happening to him. He does not understand that his world is on fire and that he is about to be burned with it”. – “Billy Graham, World Aflame”
- We have been mellowed out by the attitude of today.
- He want everything to come to us without working for it.
- Do ya’ll remember what popping pop-corn was like before the microwave.
- You use to have to get the pop with the empty pie crust pan, and shake it until they where all popped.
- Now, we put the bag in the microwave, hit the popcorn button, then start, and it is ready when the pops are about three seconds apart.
- We would not dare pot corn the old way again, it is too much work.
- We want our oil changed in ten minutes, for twenty dollars.
- We do not want to get our hands covered in oil.
- We want to get our fast food the second we pull up to the window, and if we have to wait it is bad service.
- We do not want to work, we do not want to get our hands dirty, and we want what we want now.
- This type of a world has caused us to do our service for God the same way.
- We do not want to work hard for God, so we do just enough to get by.
- Cain’s offering to God was doing just enough to be doing something.
- And yet still he was upset when God did not accept it.
- Friendship, there are some people that show up to church once a month and are mad if I do not recognize them at the beginning of the service.
- The last time I checked, we are suppose to come to church, I am not going to praise you for showing up one Sunday out of the last six.
- We want to do just enough to get by, and yet still be mad that it is not accepted.
6th – So-so is a No-no because it is not our best.
- Sacrifice means offering nothing but the best.
- Sacrifice is going to cost us.
- If it costs us nothing, it is not a sacrifice.
- 2 Samuel 24:24 - “Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.”
- Sacrifice means putting to death the old ways and loosening the bands of sin by identifying with Jesus’ death.
- This is done with our mind, heart and body.
- Romans 12;1-2 – “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
- Friends, if what we bring to God could be transformed into a blood offering, some would be a one legged rooster with no wings that can’t crow.
- I know that Some of the time mine wouldn’t even have one leg.
- We are to bring God our best, just as Abel brought God the firstlings of the flock.
- We are to bring God that which is off the top, not that which is left over after we get through with it.
- We are to give God our best in everything that we do for Him.
7th – So-so is a No-no because it separates us from God.
- If all I ever give Nicole was so-so, I promise you that she would leave me.
- And she should and no one would fault her for it.
- Do you give your family and friends, those things that are so-so?
- I am sure that you do not because if you did it would cause them to separate from you.
- I have seen this happen many times, one child will sense that a father is not giving them the best love that He can.
- And that child will emotion detach from that Father.
- And the very moment that that child gets to physically detach from the Father they will do just that.
- You see the same happens when we offer God those so-so things.
- It is not because He detached and leaves us, our love for Him is decreased and we detach and move away from God.
- You can make me blind, death, and dumb,
- you can put me away in prison for the rest of my life,
- you can hang me upside down,
- you can do anything you want, but do not separate me from God.
- And I pray that you will not separate yourself from God, because of your so-so offerings to Him.
As we conclude,
- Brethren, do you know what being separated from God forever is,
- That is what we know as Hell.
- Hell, is the only place in which you are separated from God for eternity.
- And our attitude with our offerings to Him, can turn our everyday lives into hell on earth, if we allow it to.
- Here is some application before I pray.
- We will be having a Nominating Committee Meeting later today.
- If you are called and if you accept that Nomination to some church office, do not simply do it because you were asked.
- You may be saying this is such a small task compared to others, but in the eyes of God there is not any small task or large task, big offering or little offering, it all has to do with the way we present that offering to Him.
- I plan to give it all that I have.
- Now, that may not be much, but it is my best.
- May I ask if your life has been offered to God?
- You may be here this morning and you have never given your Life to Christ.
- May I say, that I plead with you and the Holy Spirit pleads with you to give your life to Christ today.
- During this invitation, you will be given an opportunity to respond to God message to you.
- That may mean saying to God, I will be giving you my best for here on out.
- That may mean saying to Jesus, I want you to come into my life as My Lord and Savior.
- Whatever way that you feel the Lord leading you to respond to His message, you will be given an opportunity as the invitation hymn is sung.
- Church, Friends, So-so is No-no, He deserves our Best.
LETS PRAY
- Three young sparrow were perched on a branch that stretched out over a lake.
- The adult sparrow got along side them and began to push them towards the end of the branch.
- The first young sparrow, fell off and about four feet down the wings, began to work and it was off to flying.
- the next young sparrow, fell off and sure enough those wings began to flap and flap and before long it was off.
- The last young sparrow was determined to stay on that branch, it was security, it was safety.
- The young sparrow flipped down under the branch and held on for dear life.
- The adult sparrow began to peek at the talons until the young sparrow let go.
- As the sparrow let go, it too began to fly.
- The mature sparrow knew that the chicks would fly even though they did not.
- Flying is what sparrows were designed for.
- Sparrows are not doing their best until they are flying.
- Christians we are the same way, we can do a lot of things, but until we are giving God ourr best, then we are not doing our best.
