How Cain Showed Us What Not to Do

Introduction:

Read Genesis 4:1-15.  What Cain did was absolutely terrible and disgusting.  But as unsettling as it is, Cain has given us many examples of what not to do.  We can learn a lot from him so that we do not repeat his mistakes.

I want to focus on three mistakes of Cain from which we can learn.

Text:  Genesis 4:1-15

Body:

I.             We cannot murder another human.

This one may seem obvious, but we must always keep this in mind; especially in this world we live in, a world growing more and more violent, with greater occurrences of random killings and mass murders.

·         Leviticus 24:27   Capital punishment, killing those who murder

·         Exodus 20:13   One of the ten commandments, few words but very clear

·         I John 3:15   Even hating a fellow Christian is considered murder. 

II.           We must be willing to offer good and proper sacrifices to God.  Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted by God.  We ourselves need to make our sacrifices acceptable.

·         Hebrews 13:16   We must always be on our toes to do good works and share our time, resources, talents, and love with those in need and those around us.

·         Romans 12:1   We must sacrifice our bodies in a holy and spiritual way.  We must be at the ready to worship and serve, even if it physically hurts us.

We must always strive to sacrifice whatever we can in service to God.

III.         We must be our “brothers’ keeper.”                                                        In Genesis 4:9, Cain tried to dismiss his responsibility as Abel’s brother.  Sadly, many Christians do this to one another.  We must not get caught up in this negative attitude.

·         I Samuel 2:3-16   Jonathan encouraged David despite his own father trying to kill David.  We must encourage our fellow Christians, despite the biggest obstacles.

·         I Thessalonians 5:11   We are commanded to build each other up, and that we must always do.

Conclusion:

Maybe you need to be encouraged or give better sacrifices to God.  Maybe you need to put on Christ in baptism and start encouraging and sacrificing. 

Zane Berner                                                                                                        

May 4, 2014