“Really, I know what I am doing . . . Oops, Sorry!”
Growing through our Mistakes.
Introduction:
Learning from our mistakes:
1. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea".
2. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into German only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had a use
for the "manure stick".
3. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa),
the shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).
4. Pepsi’s "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave", in Chinese.
While visiting in West Berlin I stopped at Kennedy Platz, the site of President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech. The tour guide was recalling the climax of that impassioned address -- the part when the President paused and then cried, "Ich bin ein
Berliner!" The crowd that day in 1963 was swept up in the emotion of his words and ignored their meaning until later. Kennedy had wanted to say, "Ich bin Berliner!" or "I am a Berliner!" But what he actually said was, "Ich bin ein Berliner!" or "I am a jelly doughnut!" - Contributed by Kathleen Flood, Reader’s Digest
I.Learn from your mistakes. (Gen. 4:3-5a)
A. What was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice?
1. It was not a blood sacrifice.
a. Blood for the remission of sin.
b. There is question of whether that sacrifice
was implemented or not.
2. It was not the “first-fruits.” (v.3-4)
a. Cain brought “some of the fruits”
b. Abel brought the “fat portions from some of
the firstborn.”
c. Abel gave, “bikkorot.” Cain should have
given, “bikkurim.”
B. The problem was with Cain’s heart.
1. Why did God accept Abel?
Heb 11:4 “By faith, Abel offered a better
sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was
commended as a righteous man, “
2. Cain had no faith in God. (Read vss. again)
a. Abel gave of the best that he had.
b. Cain kept the best for himself and gave God
the leftovers.
C. Ask ourselves: What can we learn from our
mistakes?
1. How many of our mistakes are the results of a
lack of faith in God?
2. Faith Illus.
"The following letter was found in a baking-power can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada’s Amargosa Desert: "This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. P.S. Don’t go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you’ll git all you can hold." "
Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, The Edge of Adventure
II.Admit when you are wrong. (Gen. 4:5b)
A. What did Cain do?
1. Rather than admit that he was wrong, he grew
angry. (v. 5b)
B. Men and asking directions: My “drive” to
Lancaster. Got lost but didn’t stop for
directions.
1. I trusted my "amazing sense of direction."
2. I kept saying,” Columbus (Ohio) is that way,”
until I saw the sign that said, “Welcome to
Lancaster.”
3. I was 1.5 hrs from home with no gas and no
money.
4. Until we can admit our error, we will continue
down the wrong road.
C. Admitting you are wrong does two things.
1. It takes you off the wrong road.
2. It sets you toward the right road.
3. Beverly Sills Illus.
"Being general director of the New York opera took a toll on Beverly Sills; she ballooned into obesity. "It made me sick to look at myself. I’d reached the point where I didn’t want to have my clothes made anymore. It was too embarrassing. Eventually Sills was forced to face the problem. "I woke up one day and realized I was really ill." She went to see a specialist. "He put me on the scales. When the read the scales she gasped, ’I cannot possibly weigh that much!’. And the doctor said, ’Please look down. Are those two feet on the scale yours or mine?’" Beverly smilesd. "Once I accepted the problem, I was on my way." -Phyllis Battelle in Ladies Home Journal, quoted in 6-86 R.D.
III. Work toward Improving. (Gen. 4:6-7a)
A. What is God telling Cain?
1.Don’t give up!
2. While disciplining my son, David, he would get
mad at me. I would say, “Don’t get mad at me,
you disobeyed”
B. How do we do this? Value the process more than
the event.
1. Event: Seminars, retreats, books.
- “Microwave, drive thru” philosophy
2. Process: Daily routine.
3. “The secret to our future is hidden in our
daily routines”
a. A man wants to be good husbands, so he buys
his wife flowers.
b. Buying flowers is not bad, but it is an
event, not part of a process.
c. We must value the process of developing a
good marriage.
d. This is done on a daily basis.
4. Events are great, (giving flowers are great)
but we must realize that it is the life that we
live day to day that, makes the difference
between growth and stagnation.
IV. Master your Sin.(Gen. 4:7b)
A. What Cain did in with his offering was not a sin.
1. There was no punishment for it.
2. God is not chastising him here.
3. It was a mistake on Cain’s part.
B.God was warning Cain about sin.
1.Sin is a beast crouching to devour us.
2. Sin is a seductress, seeking to beguile us.
(James 1:13-15)
a. It begins with a desire.
b. It is born as sin.
c. It grows to death.
3. It is not only the death of Abel, it is also
the death of Cain. (v.10-12)
C. All sin has a punishment. (v. 13-14)
1. It destroys our lives. “driving me from the
land.”
a. Farming was Cain’s livelihood.
b. He destroyed that with his sin.
2. It destroys our relationship with God. “hidden
from your presence.”
3. It destroys us. “whosoever finds me will kill
me.”
V. Know that there is always Mercy. (Gen. 4:15)
A. What is mercy?
1. Not getting what we do deserve.
2. Cain deserved to die for the murder of Abel.
3. God showed mercy on him.
B. We can be confident that no matter what mistakes
we make, God will always have mercy for us.
Mercy
A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. "But I don’t ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy." "But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied. "Sir," the woman
cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." "Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman’s son. (Luis Palau, "Experiencing God’s Forgiveness", Multnomah Press, 1984 )
C. God has put His mark on us.
1. Protects us from death.
2. That mark is the mark of Jesus Christ.
a. We all have sin to pay for.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.”
b. We deserve a punishment for our sins: death.
Romans 6:26a “For the wages (payment) of sin
is death . . .”
c. Christ took the punishment for us.
I Peter 3:18 “For Christ died for sins once
for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God.
d. All we must do is accept the “mark.”
1. Not a literal mark.
2. Acts 3:19 “Repent, then and turn to God,
so that your sins may be wiped out, that
times of refreshing may come from the
Lord.”
3. Repent is a U-turn away from sins toward
Jesus Christ.
Jealousy/evny
There is a distinction between jealousy and envy. To envy is to want something which belongs to another person. "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, his wife or his servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." In contrast, jealousy is the fear that something which we possess will be taken away by another person. Although jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possessions, or our reputations, the word more often refers to anxiety which comes when we are afraid that the affections of a loved one might be lost to a rival. We fear that our mates, or perhaps our children, will be lured away by some other person who, when compared to us, seems to be more attractive, capable and successful.
Dr. Gary Collins in Homemade, July, 1985
