GENESIS 4:1-11 NASB
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord.”
2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought AN offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had REGARD for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no REGARD. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.
11 Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Murder They Wrote
Cain and Abel
The word “________________” or the word “__________________” in Hebrew means, “paid attention to.” God paid attention to Abel’s offering but Cain’s offering he did not pay attention to.
5 Reasons We Become Angry
1. We are ___________________________________
2. We use it as _______________________________
3. We are ___________________________________
4. We have __________________________________
5. We are ___________________________________
The Progressive Decay Of Anger
1. Anger begins with the _____________ of our effort
2. Anger absorbs ____________________________
3. Anger leads to ____________________________
4. Anger avoids the __________________________
5. Anger brings a ____________________________
Questions to Overcome Anger
1. Is my anger or jealousy selfishly motivated?
2. Will my anger or jealousy bring peace or pain?
3. Could I have given a better effort?
4. Is my anger righteous?
We can be DEEPLY religious
We can be ABSOLUTELY pure in our doctrine
We can be RIGHT ON TARGET with our Sunday morning worship
But, if we fail to love others… Then we’ve failed.
GENESIS 4:1-11 NASB
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord.”
2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought AN offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had REGARD for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no REGARD. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.
11 Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Murder They Wrote
Cain and Abel
The word “REGARD” or the word “FAVOR” in Hebrew means, “paid attention to.” God paid attention to Abel’s offering but Cain’s offering he did not pay attention to.
5 Reasons We Become Angry
1. We are SELF-CENTERED
2. We use it as PROTECTION
3. We are STRESSED
4. We have DISAPPOINTED EXPECTATIONS
5. We are JEALOUS
The Progressive Decay Of Anger
1. Anger begins with the FAILURE of our effort
2. Anger absorbs RESENTMENT
3. Anger leads to REJECTION
4. Anger avoids the TRUTH
5. Anger brings a CURSE
Questions to Overcome Anger
1. Is my anger or jealousy selfishly motivated?
2. Will my anger or jealousy bring peace or pain?
3. Could I have given a better effort?
4. Is my anger righteous?
We can be DEEPLY religious
We can be ABSOLUTELY pure in our doctrine
We can be RIGHT ON TARGET with our Sunday morning worship
But, if we fail to love others… Then we’ve failed.
ILLUS. JOKE. IWOULD GLADLY GO TO HIS FUNERAL
A woman testified to the transformation in her life that had resulted through her experience in conversion. She declared, "I’m so glad I found Jesus. I have an uncle I used to hate so much I vowed I’d never go to his funeral. But now, why, I’d be happy to go to it any time."
ILLUS: PEANUTS
In one of “Peanuts" comic strips Lucy says to Shroeder (the boy she’s hopelessly in love with)
"Guess what...If you don’t tell me that you love me, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to hold my breath until I pass out!"
Looking up from his piano, Shroeder says, "Breath-holding in children is an interesting phenomenon. It could indicate a metabolic disorder. A forty-milligram dose of Vitamin B6 twice a day might be helpful. I think that’s probably it... You need Vitamin B6. You might also consider eating more bananas, avocados, and beef liver..."
As he goes back to his piano, Lucy sighs, "I ask for love, and all I get is beef liver!"
APPLY: Love is a powerful need in people’s lives
ILLUS: Back in the 70’s one psychiatrist wrote:
“In my practice at the Atlanta Psychiatric Clinic, people sometimes ask me what psychiatry is all about. To me, the answer is increasingly clear. Almost every emotional problem can be summed up in one particular bit of behavior: It’s a person walking around screaming, ‘For pity’s sake, love me.’ Love me, that’s all. He goes through a million different manipulations to get somebody to love him.”
ILLUS: DART BOARD JESUS
I read of a teacher once who was known for his elaborate object lessons. One day, when his students came to class, they saw a big target hanging on the wall, and a number of darts on a nearby table.
The teacher told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry . . .and he would allow them to throw darts at the person’s picture.
One girl drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend.
Another student drew a picture of his little brother.
Still another drew a picture of the teacher, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing.
When they were all finished, the teacher hung their pictures one at a time over the target and the class lined up and began to laugh and enjoy themselves as they threw their darts at their particular picture.
Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. At last, as the class was nearing its end, the teacher had the students take their seats… and then he began to remove the underlying target from the wall. The one over which the students had hung the pictures they had drawn.
And underneath that target… was a picture of Jesus....
A complete hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced out.
The teacher then said only these words, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” (Matthew 25:40)
ILLUS: TONGUES OR OBEDIENCE
I recently spoke with a man who told me he “prayed in tongues”. And, as is often the case, he began to tell me that I needed to “open myself up” to the possibility that God would allow me to have this same experience in my life as well.
It became obvious that he believed that how much a person prayed in tongues was the “gas gage” of how much of the Spirit a person had within them.
I explained to him that the Bible never used “tongues” (or any other spiritual gift) as a measuring stick of spirituality even when tongues existed in the early church. The “measuring stick” of how much of God’s Spirit we have in our lives is LOVE REFLECTED THROUGH OUR OBEDIENCE… nothing more, nothing less.
ILLUS: GIFT WRAPPED BAT
After spending 3-1/2 hours enduring long lines, rude clerks and insane regulations at the Department of Motor Vehicles, Glenn Vaughan stopped at a toy store to pick up a gift for his son. “I brought my selection - a baseball bat - to the cash register,” he said. "Cash or charge?" the clerk asked. "Cash," He snapped. Then apologizing for his rudeness, he explained, "I’ve spent the entire afternoon at the motor vehicle bureau." The woman sweetly replied, "shall I gift-wrap the bat…or are you going back there?"
ILLUS: SPELL CHECK FATHER-IN-LAW
About 4 years ago my mother-in-law asked me for a manuscript of a sermon that I had preached. They don’t listen to my sermons, so it surprised me and I was very much complimented that they would ask. I sent it to them. The next time we went to see them my father-in-law had circled in red all the times I had misspelled a word. It was the word “used.” Like, “I used to be angry.” I was spelling it “u-s-e.” No big deal, I say it the same way, but he wanted to point that out to me.
ILLUS: F.B. MEYER JEALOUS
The story is told of a great English preacher, FB Meyer, and his struggle with jealousy. When another great English preacher, G. Campbell Morgan, returned to England after being in America, Meyer said to some friends, “It was easy to pray for the success of Morgan when he was in America.
But when he came to England and to a church near mine, it was something different. The old Adam in me was inclined to jealousy, but I got my heel upon his head, and whether I felt right toward my friend, I determined to act right.”
QUOTE: ANGER
William Penn said, “It is he who is in the wrong who first gets angry.”
ILLUS: DAVE STONE I WAS INVOLVED IN MINISTRY
I had to take Greek as part of the course requirements in college. I don’t know that I can say I really took it, saying it took me would be more accurate! In our second year, after we had learned the language (supposedly!) our teacher, Mr. Friskney, required us to turn in our study time. In college you are supposed to study 2 hours for every hour that you are in class. Since we were preaching students, he expected us to be honest, so he just had us give our study time as he called the roll. It was especially interesting on Monday. When kids would say 2 hours or more we would lay it on them … “teacher’s pet” “Oh, come on, get a life.” I can remember Dave Stone being called on and saying, “I was involved in ministry this weekend, leading people to Christ and visiting the sick.” We all laughed and Mr. Friskney correctly said, “I’ll take that as a zero!” You could see a lot of jealousy. Much of it was good-humored jealousy, but it was jealousy.
And that’s where we find Cain.
QUOTE: Thomas a’ Kempis summed it all up in these words: "Whoever loves much, does much."
CLOSING ILLUS: SING LOUDER NAZI
Diet Emam (Diet Eman is a Dutch Resistance worker during World War II and author of the book Things We Couldn't Say.)
Told the story about a rail line that ran nearby and was used by the Nazis to transport boxcars jammed with Jews and other “undesirables.” They were on their way to the death camps in the east. Many times, the trains were sidetracked for hours while the miserable people begged pitifully for food, water and mercy. There were no bathroom facilities for the journey, which could last four days or longer. Nearby, I’m told, was a small church located close enough to the rail line to hear the cries coming from within the boxcars. The church people attending services were deeply disturbed by these mournful “distractions,” and so, they began singing more loudly so they wouldn’t have to hear them.
These were “religious” people.
That’s the type of world we grew up in.
NO WORLD OR CULTURE EXISTED AT THAT TIME
NATURE VS NUTURE
THE EXAMPLE OF GOD DEALING WITH ADAM AND EVE
We replay the incident in our minds
BUT we’re not just retelling the story
we’re RELIVING the story
we’re re-FEELING the emotions – the pain and hurt and the rage
