February 19, 2023 / Life: From Conception to Birth

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth

for the life we're searching for. Well, I'm so happy to be back in the book

of Genesis today and if you'll take your Bibles and turn to that very first book of

the Bible, Genesis chapter four, is where we're going to be. Finding God in a Chaotic

World is the title of our message. We'll be walking through Genesis four through chapter

11 over the next few weeks leading up to Easter and I think you might have heard last week

if you were here, a number of times the statement was made, if you're looking for answers for

life's questions, begin in Genesis chapter one through 11. And I really believe that

with all my heart because there you have God's creative revelation. He's telling us everything

we need to know in those first few chapters of the book of Genesis. So Genesis chapter

four beginning in verse one today, as we begin, let me just ask you to imagine a highway for

life, a highway for life. And imagine for a moment that that highway for life has two

choices on it. One way is what we would call a narrow way. It's guarded by guard rails,

it's very paved, it's strong and solid and stable. It's got signs along the way, it's

got lights on this roadway so that no matter whether it's day or night you see the place

that you're going. It even has rest stops that you need along the way. It's got a map,

it actually has an active guide to take you as you go down this highway. That's one road.

But I want you to also imagine a different road, an exit off this main road, this narrow

road, we would call this a broad road. And no matter where you are you can get off the

main road and get on this broad road. Now this broad road is very different from the

main road, the narrow road. The broad road is not paved, it's not solid. You're not sure

what you're going to have on the other side of the hill that you're heading for. It's

not lit up, it has no lights, it has no signs, no maps, no guides, and you don't know where

you'll end up if you take that road. In a very real way Genesis chapter four is about

the story of two roads. One is one that God has given us, it's lit, it's paved, it's predictable,

it's clear, it has guard rails and you know where you'll end up. But the other road is

the road that anyone can choose to go on and it can lead almost anywhere. When you read

your Bible Genesis chapter one and two it's an amazing picture of God's creation and the

beauty of His creation, the clarity, the power of His creation, the power of who He is, and

the amazing provision that He gives us in those two chapters is just incredible. Seven

day creation, God is at work every day, He speaks and things come into existence and

they still go as they went when He created the heavens and the earth. Now Genesis three

is the picture of the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve are in the garden and they make choices

that God has forbidden them to make and temptation takes place and sin takes place and they step

off the highway that God has built for them and God comes and finds them in the garden

and makes provision for that sin and brings them back to a place close to Him. But Genesis

chapter four is the chaos man creates as a result of getting off the road and continuing

their own way. Genesis chapter four is that broad road. Genesis chapter four is a group

of people that move in a different direction from the direction God has given them and

you begin in chapter four seeing this road that ends in catastrophe and that many are

still on. It's really the story of Cain and Abel and the choices they make and how they

worship God and how they even came about. What you stand with me as we read Genesis

chapter four, I'm going to read 16 verses there. Now the man, that would be Adam, had

relations with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and she said, I've

gotten a man child with the help of the Lord. And we're going to spend some time in verse

one in a bit. Verse two again, she gave birth to his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper

of the flocks but Cain was a teller of the ground. So it came about in the course of

time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel on his

part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and their fat portion. And the Lord

had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and for his offering he had no regard.

So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are

you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well will not your countenance be

lifted up and if you do not do well, sin is crashing at the door and its desire is for

you but you must master it. 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. The Lord said

to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's

keeper? He said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from

the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground which has opened his mouth to receive your

brother's blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground it will no longer yield its strength

to you. You will be a vagrant and wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment

is too great to bear. Behold you've driven me this day from the face of the ground and

from your face I will be hidden and I will be a vagrant and wanderer on the earth and

whoever finds me will kill me. So the Lord said to him, whoever therefore kills Cain,

vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so

that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord

and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Father, in Jesus' name illuminate this for

us. Such an important part of this very first family and the directions they took. Help

us be warned, unencouraged about the right way we should go and we ask this in Jesus'

name. All God's people said amen. Be seated if you would.

Well, there's so many verses here it won't be possible for us to really cover all of

these the way we would like to but it is possible to hit the high points in this story, in this

text because it really is such an important thing. In this room today are two different

kinds of people. There are the people who embrace what God says in Genesis chapter one

through chapter 11 and who find answers and clarity for the reality of life in those answers.

There are those that are coming at worship in a different way who have their own ideas,

their own thoughts and they're part of that broad way that we spoke of just a moment ago.

But what I want you to do today, I want you to know that God makes it possible for us

to find him in even the darkest of situations. He makes it possible for us to find him in

true history and in true worship. Those two things are the priorities today. And when

I say true history I'm talking about the history of the creation of the world. You're going

to find some things out today about how important it is to understand and to lean into the creation

of the history of the world as we have this account from God that I bet you've never heard

before. There's some things that I'll say today that I did not know until this past

week. Some interesting insights and some important things that we have to hold on to. I want

to encourage you today to lean into the creation account that God gives us in Genesis chapter

one all the way through chapter 11 because the fluidity we have in this world today and

the absence of absolute truth and the morality that has gone in a different direction are

the result of not leaning into and leaning on what God says took place in Genesis chapter

one through chapter 11. We're even going to see how Abel and Cain have a different view

of how God created it even then at that time. I also want to say this. I think it's very

important for us to acknowledge that the majority view in populations today about creation is

not biblical creation. It is not God as creator but the majority view, the view that more

people have than any other category is the view that evolution has taken place that God

is not required to bring about the world that we have today and all kinds of philosophies

and theories about how it came into being are the majority view today. What that means

is that among us, the people of the Church of Jesus Christ, we must get behind, encourage,

especially our younger generation to find their answers in the book of Genesis and to

be equipped to have conversations with those that do not believe as we believe but have

conversations in a persuasive, loving way with our culture because we are outnumbered

in what we believe versus those who believe in a very, very different way. So let's go

to Genesis for just a few moments and see what we can find out about key questions about

how to find God in chaos and where to find him and how to be able to defend that.

Number one, this text tells us that you can find God in history. And when I say history,

I mean true history. The history of creating and framing the world that we live in by the

grace of God. Here at the end of chapter two, at the end of all these creative acts said,

not only was it good, but he said it was very good. And one of the biggest battles we face

today is the battle for the truth about true history, about this creative history. And

nowhere is it more evident than the issue of creation itself. The questions that our

culture is asking today is, did God really create the heavens and the earth? Or did they

come about by evolution, a Big Bang Theory and some other things that created the world

that we have today? Or is it some mix of the two? Is there a God who somehow allowed evolution

to make it take place so that it all happened but also science is right as well? And I just

need to tell you today that science will position itself against the God of creation and the

revelation of scripture. You're going to have to make a choice. Because when you blend those

two, the Bible becomes impossible to truly understand. If you're really trying to read

in evolution to the creation account, there's no way you can see exactly what God is saying

and what he is doing and what he has for us. It's so important for us to come to the place

of leaning in on what God said. Now the Bible, God's word was written so that we might have

an accurate history of the world from the beginning and to believe in the God who created

it. I'm going to link those two truths together today in a very, very important way because

the Bible helps us to understand how God created but he also helps us to understand that he

created the heavens and the earth so that we can not only worship him for all of his

power and all that he did but we can see why and how he did all this and how we then interact

with people around us. I have to tell you that atheist and scientist and others who

want to create doubt about the historical record of creation have not succeeded in eradicating

the creation account. All they've succeeded in doing is creating skepticism and doubt

among those that wrap their minds around that. But if you buy into the man-made view of the

creation of the world, you'll struggle to find God in it. In fact, you'll struggle to

find God anywhere. If God didn't create heavens and the earth, then what right would he have

to interfere or intervene into it? If life is not about God's purpose and plan, then

where do you find a purpose and plan in life? If there is no meaningful reason why things

that are difficult happen to us, then everything is chance. Nothing is worth living for. Is

he going to find it difficult to worship a God, the God of creation, if you don't lean

into his creation account? And that creation account is taught at churches, the pillars

and grounds of truth. It's taught in homes where truth is passed on to the next generation.

It's taught in certain schools that embrace this idea of biblical creationism. All these

things are so important, but we are in the minority and we need to know how to defend

our faith. Here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to come to the

place where you acknowledge that many just will not buy into the creation account, therefore

they will not believe your answers and believe your understandings of how God created and

what it all means. And I'll answer a few of those questions that come up over and over

based on Genesis chapter four, just a moment, but you're just going to have to accept the

fact that not everyone will agree with you. And not everyone will agree with the Bible.

But you also have to accept the fact that all of our choices and all of our consequences

and all the fluidity that we find in life with every subject on the planet have to do

with not being willing to buy into, to leaning to God's creative history and the word of

God itself, the truth. So here we go today as we begin to look into this, you can find

God in history. We have a biblical worldview and this is the view that informs us with

all the answers we need to have. So what does this true history tell us? Well go to chapter

four, verse one, let's read that again very slowly. Now the man had relations with his

wife Eve. Now please keep in mind Genesis one through three, God has given us great

details about creation and the world and the earth and Adam and Eve and now he's giving

us further detail about how the families of the earth move forward. Now the man had relations

with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I've gotten a

man child with the help of the Lord. Now if you and I are going to lean into biblical

history, we're going to find answers to cultural questions right here in verse one. If you're

going to lean into the account that God gives us in the book of Genesis, we're not going

to be confused about what the rest of the world says about things like marriage and

sexuality and gender and all the confusion and fluidity we hear today. We're not going

to have questions, we're going to have answers. We're going to know what God's design is.

Let me give you an example of that. There are four questions that I believe this text

answers for us today and in doing so we can see God's presence in what he says to us.

First of all, what does this text say about biblical marriage? Now if you go back to the

verse and answer the question, what does this text say about biblical marriage? It says

that God designed for one man and one woman to be married and that's the pattern God gave

us from the beginning. The original man, Adam, had relations with the original woman created

out of Adam, who's Eve, and she conceived and gave birth. Now that says that God has

a pattern. One man, one woman for life and he designs for them to be together. Now 4,000

years of human history passed between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Lord

Jesus walking on the face of the earth. And one day Jesus is in conversation with a group

of people who ask him about divorce but he answers a question in a different way than

they imagined and he affirms the creation account in doing so. Matthew 19 verse 4, Jesus

Matthew 19:4

said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and

female? In other words, from the beginning God created marriage to be one man and one

woman and from the beginning that's been true. So what Jesus is doing is he's affirming

the true and indisputable creation and design for mankind. He's simply saying this is what

I created marriage to be and this is what it should be. Then he answers the second question

in Genesis chapter 4, what does this say about sexual relations? And it says that the man

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

had relations with his wife Eve by design. Heterosexuality is enormity, it's a predetermined

plan that God had for mankind. In fact, it's the only plan God had for sexuality. It's

not one of many on the ranges of a spectrum of sexuality or gender but again Jesus affirms

this in Matthew chapter 19 again 4,000 years ago. Now just imagine for a moment 4,000 years

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

going by, hundreds of millions of people being born and living and dying, all these philosophies,

all these different kinds of ideas about marriage or sexuality and after all this time passes,

Jesus again refers back to creation and says no, this is the only design that God has.

Matthew 19 verse 5, it says, and he said for this reason, a man shall leave his father

Matthew 19:5

and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they are no

longer two but one flesh. Now I know we live in a culture that asks a lot of questions

and they don't always start from the same place we start from when we start from the

Bible. They come from a perspective of relativism or atheism or they come from the perspective

of just secular thought. So their ideas about these questions are going to be very, very

different. That doesn't mean that we can't love them. It doesn't mean that we can't have

a conversation with them. But what it does mean is we're going to have to agree to disagree

but we need to know why we disagree. We disagree because the Bible tells us one way and the

world tells us a very different way. And until a person is willing to come to the place of

seeing what God did and why God did it, they may never agree with us completely. But we

can lovingly tell them this is the creation account that God gave us, this is where we

stand and we love to reach out to anyone else that disagrees in any way with that. It's

very important for us to have an incredible witness in the world with people that will

vehemently disagree with us. Now there are times when I've had conversations where people

would say that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality or homosexual marriage but when

they say that and when they ask that they forget that marriage is affirmed by Jesus

as exclusively a man and a woman. And by virtue of that it excludes every other kind of marriage,

not his design. Jesus very clearly said there are two genders in marriage and these are

the two genders that he created, male and female. And only this marriage in the eyes

of Jesus Christ is one flesh. Nothing else is acceptable to God or the Scripture and

God of course is that creator. So we have that answer. Then there's another question

we can ask. What does this say about biology and childbirth? Do you notice what the verse

says, verse one? She conceived and gave birth and of course that's not unexpected. We know

that's one of the primary purposes for sexual relations between a man and a wife but it

also goes on and says with the help of the Lord. Now there's something being communicated

here for us today. These words imply the miraculous and sacred acknowledgement that God is in

this whole process of conceiving and giving birth and that bounds a marriage. Really a

beautiful powerful picture. Somehow in our world we have so devalued conceptions, so

devalued children and childbirth and that whole process that we don't see them as being

with the help of the Lord. It's not just a biological miracle, it's the fact that God

weaves people in the womb. He creates and weaves us in the womb it says in the book

of Psalms. If you go through the Old Testament you're going to find Hannah talking about

how she conceived with the help of the Lord and the psalmist talking about that powerful

miracle that goes on inside of the womb. Let me just say to you today, you're not an accident

of birth either. No matter how it was you were conceived, God was aware, God knew he

wove you in the womb, you are a valued being because God was involved with that process.

Aren't you glad that's true? But our world would say that it's not true. Our world would

prefer to think there is no value and that therefore anything conceived is not truly

a person, not truly valuable. I remember when we first had our first child I was so mesmerized

by the whole process and I know I'm the guy and I know the woman is the one that actually

gives birth, there's no question about it. She has the harder job. But I remember being

in that birthing room, this was during the era where they were first starting to let

men in that birthing room and I'm telling you I got so excited about it I was really

asking questions. After our daughter was born I actually said can I help somebody else do

that? Can I see this again? And I meant right away. I didn't mean another year down the

road. I meant right away. They had to correct me and say back off, you're a little bit

too overcome with joy there in the moment. But what a miracle. Our child with features

from both my wife and myself, an amazing thing. What an incredible miracle God does in giving

us birth and it goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 4. Listen, if we can affirm that and

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

see the beauty of that in Genesis chapter 4 verse 1 why cannot we embrace all the other

Genesis 4:1

parts of that? They all go together. They all go together. God speaks about biology

and childbirth. Every child is a child from conception and is valued and to be preserved.

What an important truth for us. A fourth question this verse answers is what does this say about

gender clarity? Notice immediately the biological birth of a boy leads them to declare the gender

at birth. I have gotten a man child with the help of the Lord. Gender is not a decision

to be made later on. Gender is an acknowledgement and a declaration of exactly what you have

when that child is born. Our culture would say something entirely different but here's

why we disagree with that. Because from the beginning it's been clear that God wove that

child in the womb and at birth, sometimes today before birth we know the gender of that

child and at that moment we simply declare what that child is. I've gotten a man child

from the Lord. Listen, when we stay on the road that God has placed for us there's a

lot of clarity. But when you get off that road you make your own way, your own rules,

your own ideas, your own thoughts, your own gender, your own sexuality, your own everything

else. You have no idea where that destination goes but it's a way from the direction of

the Lord. You can find God in history, in true history when you go back and when you

look at how he created the heavens and the earth. But this text is not just about that.

Verse one lays some great truths down but this text is really about true worship. You

can find God in worship. This is the story of Cain and Abel and the difference in how

they worship God. So the Bible says in the course of time they came and brought an offering

to the Lord. Now we've got some presumptions here. I presume and most scholars presume

that Adam and Eve's experience with God after they sinned God slew an innocent animal, blood

was shed, sin was covered, relationship was restored. That that truth was passed on to

Cain and Abel in the course of time. So when they came they understood that original pattern

of worship, the original pattern that God had with Adam and Eve and they came in the

way they came to God having had some information about that. That's presumed because it doesn't

actually say that. But it seems logical to be able to pass down to your children the

most important thing that you can do in worshiping God. I'm sure Adam and Eve did that well.

But here's what the Bible says when these two came to the Lord with an offering. In

verse four and five it says, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for

Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain became angry and his countenance fell.

Now if you read the Bible you're going to find many, many instructions about how to

worship God and the spirit in which you worship him, different commands about what you do

when you worship. And it begins with that seventh day of rest when God rested and called

man to just look at all of creation and marvel at what God had done. And that was a day of

rest. And so God has built worship into the fabric of our week as a regular devotion to

the Lord in life. That's just part of what God laid down in the beginning. And let me

just say it to you. I know I'm preaching to the choir today in a sense because you're

in the room. But how important it is for you to be in the room corporately worshiping God

with other people. How important it is for us to marvel together our powerful God and

how he works and intervenes and how he loves and reaches out. It's so incredibly amazingly

important for us to be standing next to people side by side worshiping him with our whole

hearts. It's so encouraging but it's so important to you because you know you're never alone

and you know your God is working in your life. You experience his presence in your life.

It's such a big deal. But these verses here tell us that God will look favorably upon

some worship and he will look unfavorably on other types of worship. And you're going

to need to know this. This takes up such a huge part of our lives. Since worship and

service are all we can offer God, worship is vitally important. And we can assume several

things about this worship experience but here's what we can know. We can know that the scripture,

the words we've just read, emphasize the person before it emphasizes the manner of worship.

Go back and see what it says again in verses four and five. The Lord had regard for Abel

and his offering, for Cain and his offering he had no regard. In other words before we

actually worship we should offer our heart, we should offer ourselves to the Lord. Before

we offer our songs, before we offer our offerings or anything else we offer ourselves to the

Lord. And realize the worship experience is really about sinful man coming to worship

a holy God. And remember we don't do this casually, we don't take this lightly. It's

a very, very serious privilege we have of being able to worship God and really be able

to connect with him. But let's learn some lessons from Cain and Abel. First of all Abel

worshiped by faith, Cain did not. Abel worshiped by faith, Cain did not. Now the reason we

know this is because this worship experience is also repeated several times in scriptures

and referred back to. If you go to the book of Hebrews, the hall of faith, that great

chapter, chapter 11, it says this about Abel. It says for Abel he offered to God by faith

a better sacrifice than Cain. The American standard begins with the words by faith. By

faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice. Now if you want to know the difference between

the two, here's where you start. Because the New Testament clarifies why this sacrifice

was so different. It's such a simple line. But I think what you're going to find is that

it opens the door to significant worship in your life or it closes the door to significant

worship in your life. Abel brought an offering to the Lord with a pure and worshipful heart

and his faith and his trust within God and not in himself. We know that much because

he came by faith. Now if you take Hebrews chapter 11 and read verses 1 through verse

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

4, you're going to find out how that's defined in Cain and Abel's situation. So let's go

back and read verse 1. Now faith is the assurance that things hoped for, the conviction of things

not seen. For by it the man of old gained approval, referring all the way back to Cain

and Abel. By faith we understand, guess this, that the worlds were prepared by the word

of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith Abel

offered to God a better sacrifice. Don't miss this. Do you see the connection between

his worship and his view of creation? Do you see a connection between his worship and his

view of who God was? He believed that God created his world and himself. And therefore

because of that kind of faith in this God who created not only the world but himself,

he leaned on God, he trusted God, he sought God, he listened to God, and he would be changed

by that worship experience with God. He acknowledged that God was the creator, that he is able,

that he is all powerful and all wise. His worship revealed so much about his heart,

he considered that the God he worshiped made the worlds out of things which are not visible.

So powerful. In Luke chapter 16 along about verse 31, Jesus is talking about the man in

Luke 16 · chapter mention

hell in Hades. And the man in hell in Jesus' story appeals for someone to go tell his brothers

about the Messiah. And Jesus in Luke chapter 16 verse 31 said this, if they will not listen

Luke 16:31

to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen if one comes to them from the dead.

But in other words, if you can't believe Moses, the cat of creation, if you can't believe

the prophets that point to Jesus, then you're not going to believe if Jesus comes to you

from the dead and appears in front of you. You need to believe the whole revelation of

God. You need to believe the picture of who God actually is. And Abel was able to do that.

He looked at his world and the creation that he was placed in and he basically said the

world is yours and I am yours. I bend my knee to you. And Cain did not. Cain did not.

We're told by that contrast that Cain did not worship by faith. So his view must have

been the opposite of that, which is this world is mine and my life is mine. I'll acknowledge

you however I want, but my life is mine. Let me tell you, that's so common today for people

to come to God and say, well, you are who you are. I'll give you what I want to give

you. My life is mine. This world is mine for the taking. But there is a certain kind of

worship that God approves of and a certain kind of worship that God does not approve

of. And that was Cain's approach to God. You know, worship is incredibly important and

we see that here in this passage. Not only was faith the difference maker, but Abel worship

and obedience in Cain did not. Genesis doesn't say a great deal about Cain from this point

on, but 4,000 years later the New Testament church in the book of Jude does. And it describes

what we know as creepers in the book of Jude. False teachers, people who are going their

own way, who are trying to corrupt the New Testament church. And the word they describes

those people. But in Jude chapter 1 verse 11 it says, for they, those creepers, have

Jude 1:11

gone the way of Cain. In other words, that phrase by now has become an acceptable and

understandable phrase of what went wrong back then in Genesis 4. They have gone the way

of Cain and for pay they've rushed headlong into the era of Balaam and have perished in

the rebellion of Korah. So stay with me here. Jude describes people like Cain who disregarded

God's command and made their own way, made their own worship. They were making a show

of worship but their hearts were far from God. In a word, Cain was simply rebellious.

His refusal wasn't accidental. He intentionally and fatally ignored God. And not only did

God, did Cain fail to have faith in God and obey God, Cain's way of dealing with God

became a downward spiral for everything else in his life. I mean this is heartbreaking.

How can the first child of the first two human beings look at creation, look at God, look

at himself and all the animals and plants and everything in the world and say, I'm going

to go my own way. I don't need to worship that God. I want to tell you today it's difficult

for us to grasp why sometimes our own children in 2023 don't follow the Lord. Some of you

have grief in your heart. I know what that's like. I know what that feels like to have

kids that we've taught the truth about who turn their backs on God for one reason or

another but can you imagine that in the very first generation? Can you imagine that with

the very first son that Adam and Eve had? If you go even further back, can you imagine

even Adam and Eve deciding to disobey God in the Garden of Eden? What does that say

about the free will of man and what does that say about just the grief of going our own

way and moving off the road that's narrow but true that God has given us to walk on?

But here's an encouraging thing in the middle of it all. Look at God's appeal to Cain. I

love this. Sometimes I weep about this. In Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sinned,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

God came looking for them in the Garden. Isn't that a great picture? Because God was going

to do everything to give them the opportunity to be restored and he did restore them. He

does the same thing to Cain. He reaches out. He says, if you do well, verse 7, will not

your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

It's desire is for you, but you must master it. Here's the appeal of a merciful God, a

loving God, and the kind of appeal that we need to have for people all around us. Don't

you know you have a choice to make? God offers you a choice so that you can come back to

him. But in spite of personally conversing with Cain, Cain ignores God. Cain goes his

own way. And the rest of his life can be described in four quick statements. Cain became

angry. Cain killed Abel. Cain lied to God. Cain is judged. What a horrific ending that

didn't have to happen, but did because this man would not worship God. Listen today, we

have so many that have to make choices today, and it all comes down to worship. Who will

we worship? Who will we lean into? Who will we trust? Who will we obey? Who will we worship?

And how we worship affects everything in our lives. Everything. What you believe about

the Bible affects you whether you know it or not. And throughout the Bible there are

these encouraging lines that I want to remind you of today. Lines where God consistently

says, seek me and you'll find me when you search for me with all your heart. And almost

every one of those times that those words are spoken, they're spoken into a dark time,

dark cultures, most going in the wrong direction. And then there's this invitation, just like

in the Garden of Eden, just like with Cain for us in those times. I want to remind you

of some of those. David told his son Solomon at the beginning of his reign, if you seek

him, he will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Solomon

later wrote the Proverbs and affirmed this about God and about wisdom. I love those who

love me and those who diligently seek me will find me. You can find God in darkness. God

spoke to the prophet Jeremiah. This is a famous text, chapter 29, verse 13. You will

seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. What an encouraging

word. And then Jesus said the same thing in that, in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven,

ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be

open to you. Grab hold of this. Walk away with this statement. When you consistently

seek God in true history and true worship, you will find him and you need to find him.

And when you find him, he will walk with him and you will find joy in him and you will

find trust in him and you will find favor in him. My dear friend, find God in true history,

find God in true worship. He's there. Seek him and you will find him. And not only that,

on the highway that he's built for you, complete with lights and signs and rest areas and maps

and guides and the destination where we all want to end up with him, home with him. Here's

the road. Walk in it. You know, today you may need to make some decisions about your

beliefs. It may be today you need to say, look, I can't play around anymore with what

the scripture says about creation. I've got to make a decision. Will I embrace that?

Will I lean into that? Will I have clarity instead of confusion? Will I be able to rest

on what's true even though I don't understand at all and I don't know how science syncs

with that or doesn't sync with that? I don't have all the answers, but I do know that I

want to worship this God. And I do know that the scripture tells me to lean in on his creation

account and know him well. You may need to make a decision today about your beliefs.

You may just need to make a decision today that you put your faith and trust in Jesus

and you've never done that before. You need to seek him with all your heart. And I'm going

to tell you today, I mean, times are such that urgency is required. Don't walk away

out of here casually thinking it doesn't matter. It matters so much today more than ever before.

Today, seek him while he can be found. We have these decision stations that are available.

I want to give you three invitations today. Number one, go to the decision station today.

If you have questions or you need to make decisions today, we're there for you and we

want to talk to you and we want to appeal to you to stop by on your way out. We made

it so convenient for you to do that. But today, you need to have that conversation stop there.

Number two, I invite you to our guest reception room where I would like to talk with you more

about Cross City Church and how we can connect with you and walk with you in the future.

Then the third invitation is bring somebody with you today. Engage with your world. It

doesn't have to be an argument. It's an act of love to reach out to them, to bring them

back and to walk with them as they work through their questions that they certainly will have

about faith and about God and about creation. I promise we'll treat them well. You take

them, bring them with you. Would you stand with me as we close in a word of prayer today?

Father, I am so very grateful that you give us clarity and we stand on and lean into this

clarity. Lord, I thank you that we can embrace your creation account and we can embrace the

fact that you came as God in the flesh to walk among us. We can embrace that Jesus died

on the cross to pay for our sins and we can have salvation. Father, thank you for loving

us so much that you lead us to that decision and ultimately to eternity. Father, I pray

today for those in the room who need to decide. Father, I pray that you'll help them have

courage and boldness to take those steps of faith. And Lord, give them the ability to

do it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed.