God And The Sinner

I want you to turn in your bibles to Genesis

Genesis chapter four this week, just share briefly of God's

word this morning about what God, what the center seeks.

It's kind of my message and what God seeks, you know,

this morning this week. I was just got back yesterday.

We took our seniors from our academy to New York

for their senior trip, and so I was their little

van driver. And you know, there's a lot of stereotypes

on New York City. And I don't know if you've

ever been, but there is a lot of stereotypes that

it's dangerous and you shouldn't get on subway, should walk

the streets, alan all those different things. And and you know,

some may even ask where there was a time that

you were scared? Was there time that you felt uncomfortable?

And I'll tell you there was a time. We actually

had our group of guys and we were we were

walking down the street. I think we were we had

went to one shop and the girls that went to

another shop, and we were headed to meet those girls.

And it was just us guys actually from the seniors,

and we were walking down the street and I was

looking into a shop. It was in the middle of

the day. It was like four o'clock. I think I

was looking into a shop. I'm trying to see it

was a it was an electronic store, and I was

kind of just trying to see what they had. And

as we were walking and as I was looking, someone screamed.

I mean, I'm not just talking about a little like.

I mean, they screamed to the top of their lungs.

You know, I'm not expecting it, and so I was,

you know, I jumped, you know, as I'm walking down

the street. And then I looked and saw where the

scream came from, and it was a man and he

was you could see in his eyes he was hurting.

And we just kept walking on the street, and he

kept walking on the street, but I noticed as he

went by me, every few blocks he would scream again,

and he would screaming again. And he was screaming again

to the top of his lungs. And we were all

talking about it later, all the students or all the guys,

and I said to I think Devin or someone you

can see in his house. He was really hurting, you know,

and when he screamed it everybody around heard his cries.

You know. The sad thing is about New York City

is as I walked through the city, you see a

lot of people are hurting, but there's only one person screaming.

Can I tell you today, they're hurting just as much

as he is. It's a homeless man that we walked

by in the middle of the street one night and

he was taking the cardboard that was taken from the

street where the people were coming to collect the cardboard.

And he's taking the cardboard and made him a little

cardboard shelter against the wall of business shop just to

get a little bit of warmth as he slept that night.

You saw it over and over and the different people encountered.

There are people all over, millions of people in the

New York City and they're all hurting, but there's only

one crying out. They're hurting in secret. They have the

same pain that he has. He was the only one

that was crying out. Can I tell you today? As

we just talked about, we know statistically, there was a

study that was done in It's called National It was

by the CDC actually National Survey Family Growth. I mean,

it was a survey done from twenty fifteen to twenty

nineteen and it said twelve percent of women between thirty

two and forty nine evangelical had abortion. It's one in five,

I'm sorry, and one in five of those have had

more than one abortion. The same statistica are about Catholics

twenty eight percent. And it's not just people who just

like they say they're evangelical or they say they're Catholic,

but they don't go to church. These are actually one

in ten amit of going to church weekly. Those who

are tend maybe one or three, two or three times

a month, the statistics are twelve percent. Those numbers tell

us that they are those within our bodies, and they're crying.

They're silently crying out. They're hurting, and they're suffering, and

they're crying out just like that man on the street,

but they're crying out silently. Today, I want to look

at God's word. I want you to see in Genesis

chapter four, we see the first the first life taken.

We see a brother who kills his other brothers, the

first murder life taken, however you want to describe it in scripture.

And I want you to see, as we look at this,

we know he's a murderer. But he is a sinner,

just like you and I. But I do want you

to see what he seeks and what God seeks. So

let's look at this passage quickly together. It's just this

chapter four steven with me in less read God's were together.

It's one justis four one through sixteen that says, now

Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain,

I've gotten a man from the help of the Lord.

And again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was

the keeper of the sheep, and King was the worker

of the ground. In the course of time, came brought

to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.

And Abel brought of the first born of his flock

and their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for

Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering

he had no regard. So Kin was very angry, and

his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain, why

are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If

you do well, will you not be accepted? And if

you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door.

It's desire for you. You must rule over it. Cain

spoke to Aboy's brother, and when they were in the field,

Cain rose up against his brother Able, and he killed him.

The Lord said to Cain, where is your brother? And

he says, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?

And the Lord says, what have you done? The voice

of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

Now you are a curse from the ground, which has

opened its mouth to receive your mother. Receive your brother,

your brother's blood from your hand. When you work to ground,

it shall no longer yield to you its strength, but

you shall be a fugitive and a wonder of the earth.

Cain said to Lord, my punishment is greater than I

can bear. Behold, you have driven me away from the ground,

and from your face. I shall be hidden. I shall

be a fugitive and a wonder of the earth, and

whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said

to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall

be taken on him sevenfold. And Lord put a mark

on Cain at least anyone who found him should attack him.

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord,

and he settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Let's pray together, Lord, We pray Lord, as we talk

about Lord, those in our maybe in our church, those

in our maybe in our family, who have hurt, who

have committed sin, whether it's abortion or something else. Lord,

May we look Lord to what they seek. May we

see Lord, how you seek them today? And God, may

we be a church body Lord that seeks to demonstrate

grace as you demonstrate it. Lord, Will we pray that

you'd use your word today to speak to our hearts

about our own sin, not just the sin of others,

but the sin that we've committed against you. God. And God,

may we Lord seek forgiveness from you today. In your name,

we pray. Amen, you may be seated. Want you just

see as we look at this passage of scripture what

the sinner seeks. As we see this passage of scripture,

we actually see the first life that's created. Right. God

commanded Adam and need to be fruitful and multiplied, and

they do that. They have two sons, Cain and Abel.

The Bible says at the very beginning God gave the life.

The Bible says, when she conceived, she said, I have

gotten a man with the help of the Lord. You see,

Adam and Eve knew that life was given by God,

and God should receive all the praise for giving life.

They knew conception that God was the one who gave life.

He's the author of life. It was his work, not theirs.

And so we see that we see these two image

bears born, Cain and Abel. But as we see in

this passage of scripture, not long after that, the scripture says,

Cain brought an offering. We see in verse two, Abel

was a keeper of the sheep. Cain was a worker

of the ground. And we see in verses three and

four that Cain brings an offering to the Lord from

the fruit of the ground, for the fruit of what

he does. Abel brings offering to the Lord from the

first of his flocks. And the Bible says in verse five,

but Cain's offering was accepted by God. But I'm sorry

Able's offering was acceptable to God, not Caines Verse four says,

for the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering,

but Cain his offering he had no regard. The Bible

says that as you look at this passage of scripture,

here they bring this offering to the Lord Ables that

accepted Cain's is not as you think about this passive

scripture we see the Bible shows us that Cain is upset.

God comes up to him and says, why are you upset?

If you will do well right, you will be accepted. Hey,

there's a path for you. But what does he say,

sin is crouching at your door? What was the sin

that Cain was seeking? What was seeking Cain? Cain had

a sin of envy? He was envious that his brother.

What God, I imagine when when God accepted Able's offering

his Mam and Dad's been that, son, I'm so proud

of you, worked real hard. Look at what you've done,

and you gave your best to God. Man, You've done great.

Look at you and befoor there Cain was there and

his was not accepting. Now, son, you've got to do

better now. He got the praise for mom and dad,

he got the praise and the admiration of others for

what he had done. But Cain did not. And Cain

wanted the praise of man, and he wanted the praise

of others, and he wanted success that his brother had

received that he did not and so what he saw

that day was envy. Envy for the worship of me,

look at what I have done. He wanted the worship

of him himself being God that received all the praise,

instead of God being the one who received the praise

for what he had done. He wanted the recognition. He

wanted success, He wanted his success, He wanted his happiness

in his life. And that the heart of this scripture

tells us what he to do. Speaking with his brother,

he killed his brother? What did he do? Why did

he do that? Because he was envious and he wanted

so much to be first, and that he would be first,

he received all the praise, he would be successful. He

removed what stood in the way of his success. He

removed the obstacle that hindered his success, that hindered him

getting the attention that he felt like he deserved. So

when we think about abortion, many times, as we talked

about different reasons, many people who have end planned pregnancy,

whether they're young or old, right there are first circumstances

and it might hinder them financially, it might hinder the affection,

the attention they may receee from family members to hear

that they have this baby, or they may receive unwanted

attention of getting pregnant out of wedlock, and that is

an obstacle that's hindering them for being successful in their life,

whether it's financially, whether it's career, maybe even finished to school,

whatever it may be. They see the child is standing

in the way of their success in their future happiness.

And so just as Cain removed the threat, many who

have an abortion remove what they see as an obstacle

to their futures. That says to their future and at

the heart of a center, a center seeks to worship

self and success. And we may look at that and

you may have never experienced their abortion. You may think,

how could someone do that? But don't we do that

with every sin in our life right, whether we're we are,

whether it's someone committing an abortion, or whether it's us

doing something lying or whatever it may be. It's ultimately

what we want to be our own God, and we

want to what, disobey what God has for us and

want to do what we want to do what because

we want to our own success, we want our own happiness,

and we want to do it our way, not God's way,

and by the way. Scripture says it right. I love

what Isaiah fifty three says, we all all, we like sheep,

have gone astray. Listen to this. We have turned everyone

to what to his own way. Cain did not want

to do it God's way. He wanted to do it

his way. And you and I, whether we commit a

sin of abortion, or whether we commit a sin of lying,

whether we con the sin of gossip, whatever it may

be in our life, it is saying God, I don't

want to obey your way. I want obey my way.

And we turn away from We all have sinned. And

a sinner seeks to worship his self or success above God. Secondly,

the sinner seeks to hide his sin. The Bible says

that God goes to Cain. Verse nine says the Lord

said to Cain, where is able your brother? And listen

to what Cain says. He said, I do not know?

Am I my brother's keeper. We know that Cain buried

his brother in the field because scripture says that God says,

your brother's blood is crawling out from the field, so

he hid his bodies. He killed his brother, hid his

body in the field. God knows. God comes and says,

where's your brother? And what does he do? What do

I know? Am I his keeper? Am I supposed to

keep track of him? We know that there is this

desire for all of us, right will you send? We

want to hide it. We will no one to know

about it. Proverbs twenty eight tells us twenty eight thirteen

whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who

confesses will forsake them and obtain mercy care Net, which

is I think someone maybe reference that it's a local

organization that works with pregnant support services across North America.

It's about oney one hundred pre support centers throughout North America.

And they say in their statistics four and I'm sorry

four and ten women have had an abortion where church

goers when they ended the pregnancy, three fourths of them

seventy five percent say that the church had no influence

on their decision to terminate the pregnancy. In the study,

it said that two thirds or sixty five percent of

the church members say that the church members judge single

women are pregnant. Fifty four thinks church over sympathize the

decisions about pregnancy option in fewer than half forty one

percent believe churches are prepared to help with the decisions

about unwanted pregnancies, and the last attention they give us

three and ten think churches given accurate advice about pregnancy.

These statistics tell us that the churches, I mean, these

ladies don't feel like the churches will love them if

they talk about an unpregnant pregnancy. They don't feel like

the church is welcoming. They feel the church won't care,

the church will give them, as we may be alluded

to the scarlet letter if they find out they're pregnant,

and so to avoid the shame of their sin and

to hide it, they have an abortion church. We've got

to do better than that. We've got to show our

community that we're sinners just like they are, and that

we too are sinners who have seeked our own successes

in different ways. We too are sinners who also try

to hide our sin, and we've got to speak light

into the darkness. I want you to see, just very quickly,

how does God respond to this sinner quickly? This morning?

Genesis four, none sens God seeks the sinner. Listen, God

sought the first murderer. And if you today, have had

an abortion in your past? Listen, God seeks you. God

seeks you. Don't you love that. God hears the first

children that were born to Adam and Eve, and there's

there's one that's dead and there's only one alive. And

you would think God would say, Okay, let's let's capital

punishing him and let's start all over Adam and Eve.

This just didn't thirst. Two didn't work out. No, God

sought the sinner. God came to Cain and said, Cain, Cain, hey, beware,

be careful. Cain sends crouching out your door. Be careful, Cain. Cain,

has he committed a sin? Cain, what happened? Tell me?

Tell me? I know. I hear your your blood, the

blood of your brother, calling out, Cain. I know, tell me, Cain. Listen.

Today God is telling you, who maybe are crying out

in silence. Today, God's calling out to you, and he says, listen,

come listen. I'm not Even though you might think you

can push me away and push this away, listen, I

am coming after you. What you've done from great too

small today in your mind, listen, God still seeks you.

I think this is so impactful for me is because

I've seen church members I'll never again. And I tell

you the story every year, and I will tell you

probably every year for the next seven years of a

man in my church. He was like in his sixties

and he was saved, and he was very avid church member.

But he would tell me privately, the preacher is one

sin that I don't know if God forgive. He would

tell me about how he wife got pregnant and they

already had one son, and they were older, and financially

they couldn't afford it at that time, and he told

her to go take care of it. And he would

say to me, Preacher, I just hope one day when

I see the Lord, he will forgive me. Listen, God forgives.

There's no sin that he doesn't forgive. This passage of

Scripture in Romans eight thirty eight. For I am sure listen,

neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor present

things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights

nor depth, nor anything and all creation will be able

to separate us from the love of God. And Christ

is our word. Listen, there's no sin that can separate

you from the love of God. And this God who

created you and who created that child is the God

who can continues to seek you. I love the story

of the woman that the well. Jesus comes to her.

She says, why do you come to me? Why do

you come to me? And in John chapter four, he says,

he offers her what living water de cleanse her for

all her sins. And he says, to what go go

tell your husband and come and and she says, have

no husband. He says, you're right, I have five, You've

have five. You remember. She receives the Lord and listen

and goes to the village and tell all the people

that she found Jesus, and Jesus saved her. And this

is what she proclaims at the end of that Listen

for mey Samaritans came from that town belief because of

the woman testimony. He told me all that I ever did. Listen,

Jesus knows all that you ever did, even the secret things.

And God cleanses you with living water from all your sins.

He seeks you today. Can I tell you and only

that God seek the center. But God saves the sinner.

You know, as you come to this passage of scripture

in levitical law later on that God would give Moses.

God would instruct Moses that whoever takes a human life

in Leviticus twenty four to seventeen, whoever takes a human

life shall surely be put to death. That was God's

law that would come later on. But here in this

passive scripture, even Cain knows that. He says that I'm

cursed and I will surely die. But listen, God provides

a provision of what salvation. God saves him. He spares Cain.

This is what scripture says. In verse thirteen, he says

in King said the Lord, my punishment is greater than

I can bear. Behold, you've driven me away today from

the ground, and from the face of it shall be heaven.

I shall be a fugitive and a wonder of the earth.

And whoever finds me what will kill me? He knows,

because he taken a life that he deserves what death.

But listen, God spares Cain. The Lord said to him,

not so. If anyone cares Cain, vengeance shall be taken

upon him sevenfold. And the Lord listened to this put

a mark on Cain. Least anyone who found him should

attack him and kin went away from the prince's lord

and settle in the land of Nod. Listen, Cain knew

because of what he'd done he deserves death, He deserved

capital punishment. But listen, God provided salvation for Kin. He

put a mark on him that everyone would see, and

that way his life would be spared. His life would

be saved. Listen. Scripture tells us that all who put

their faith in Jesus Christ, what will be saved. You know,

we are all sinners, Scripture says in Romans three twenty three,

for all of sin and fallen short with the glory

of God. All of us have sinned, just like King.

We may not have killed someone, we may not have

done some different things, but we have all sinners, no

matter everyone in this room. None of us escaped that,

and all of us too deserved death. Scripture says in

Romans six twenty three. For the wages of sin is

what death, But the free gift of God is eternal,

eternal life in Christ Jesus. Not if all of us

are sinners like King, but we all deserve death. But

the good news is what God provides salvation forgiveness for all,

no matter what sin we've committed against God provides salvation,

a free gift of salvation to us. And in Romans

ten nine is it's because if you confessed with your

mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead, you will be

saved with a heart. Won't believe that is justified. With

the mouth, one confesses and is saved. Listen, The sinner

seeks the worship self and success. The sentner seeks the

high of sin from God. But God seeks the sinner today.

And listen, God's provided away for salvation for you today.

You know, the beautiful imagery of that passage in kin

Listen to me, is that God put a mark on Cain,

that no matter where he traveled, there was a mark

that said that his life shall not be taken. That

God spared his life. Do you know Scripture tells us

in Revelation, listen to me that God's chosen people. Listen

to me, that He's spared from his judgment. He's put

a mark on them. You know what that mark is.

It's the mark of the Holy Spirit. Listen to me today,

child of God. You've all, all of us have sinned

against the God, all of us God. God has given

us the option to receive the free gift of salvation.

And if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, listen,

the Holy Spirit will come in you and He'll forgive

you of your deepest, darkest sins, to your small sins.

He'll forgive you by the work of His Holy Spirit.

And that Holy Spirit that forgives you, that cleanses you,

the Holy Spirit that heals you from that hurt, will

be the Holy Spirit that marks you. That when Jesus returns,

that he'll see that you are saved and you're one

of the Today. Can I ask you, have you received

the mark of the Spirit? Have you been saved by

Jesus today? Have you been forgiven of your sins? If

you've committed against the Lord, have you found listen, peace

with God, a relationship with Jesus and healing that only

he can give. Would you pray with me? Lord? We

thank you Lord today that your word says, if we

confess our sins, that you are faithful to forgive our

sins and cleanses of our righteousness. Lord, I pray that

you would help us love the sinners. We're all in

this room, Lord, a body of sinners. There's no great

sinners or small sinners in your sight. Lord. We're all

lords sinners in your sight, and we all desperately need

Lord You. Lord, today you're seeking, just as you salt cain. Lord,

you're seeking those who are sinned. You're called in sin

right now. Lord, No matter how big or small it

is in their minds. Lord, it's all sin in your eyes. God,

and Lord, I pray today that as you seek them, Lord,

I pray today, Lord, they would seek you for forgiveness.

They would confess their sins before you, Lord. Or I

pray there'd be some today that has been hiding some

sin for a very long time. If never confessed, Lord,

sins before you, what they've done the days and today, Lord,

I pray they'd be those who would not conceal their sin,

but could fast Lord to you and find forgiveness and healing. Today.

Or I pray lead us in this time of invitation.

I pray somebody need to come to the altar. God,

I pray you lead them to do that. If I

can pray for some Lord, I pray you lead them. Lord.

I pray this would be a time Lord, we were

we would answer her call to us or we love you.

We thank you Lord for this morning and your name.

We pray Amen Jesus