Responding God's Way | Pastor Loren Covarrubias

I want to start with the Scripture in John's Gospel

chapter 14. Jesus is speaking here shortly

before he's going to depart from his disciples.

And he said, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Now we'll pray the Father, and he will give you another helper,

that he may abide with you forever.

And the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because

it neither sees Him nor knows Him.

But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.

This is a very important scripture for us because Jesus

Christ had a earthly ministry. He had 12 disciples that He led,

and there were many others that followed Him on a regular basis.

They had an opportunity not just to hear His teaching and hear

His preaching, but spent some time with Him, asked the Word,

asking questions. They saw Him able to do

miraculous thing so it must have been amazing for them and yet he

began to tell them I'm going to leave.

They were in a panic. And so he recognizes that and

says now I'm not going to leave you like you're an orphan.

I'm going to go away, but I'm going to come again on to you.

And what he was talking to them about is he was talking about

coming through the Holy Spirit. He said, I'm going to pray the

Father will send the Holy Spirit in my name and he will be a

helper for you. Now the word helper there is

from a Greek word that also can be translated as a comforter.

And when we think about the Holy Spirit, we should recognize

Jesus is saying, I want to be with you, I want to walk with

you because the word there literally means to call to one

side. Jesus wants to have a life with

you. He wants to walk right along

beside you. How many know that's an amazing

concept to think about. It should.

And that's why we should all be open to the Holy Spirit.

That's why I encourage people repent, be baptized, be filled

with the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants to walk with you.

And it's a great and wonderful thing to have a relationship

with the Lord Jesus Christ. I can testify that, and many of

you can as well. But when he comes as a helper

and as a comforter, sometimes he doesn't always come to comfort

us. I know when I was a kid, the

first thing I look for from God is the same thing I look for

from my parents. And that was a sense of comfort,

a sense of security, a sense that somebody is going to take

care of me. But as I walked in the Lord and

I grew in maturity, I found out that sometimes God wasn't there

just to comfort me. Sometimes he was there to help

me and to teach me and also to challenge me.

That's why for two weeks I shared the scripture with the

apostle Paul said, I have learned because he was learning

about Christ. He was learning about God just

like every one of us. And what he said is I've learned

how to be debased or even go through a period of humiliation

as I've also so learn how to abound.

But he said, I can also say that I found out I can do everything

through Christ who strengthens me.

And so as we're walking along with Jesus Christ, we should

know that sometimes He's right there beside our walk with him

so that he can comfort us and He can encourage us.

But there's other times when He's there to challenge us.

I think the best way we could look at it is when we think

about prophecy. The Bible says prophecy, which

is God speaking to his people, is for edification, exhortation,

and comfort. That means sometimes He's there

just to comfort me, but sometimes he's there to exhort

me. If you would and say, Lauren,

I'm going to get you through this situation, but I want to

strengthen you as a part of this process.

Sometimes strengthening doesn't feel comfortable, but don't

always look for the comfortable place.

Just always make sure you're in the place where you are with

God. And when you are in that kind of

a relationship with God, whatever you have need of, he's

there for you. But we also have to understand

He's there to strengthen us. Jesus also called it the spirit

of truth. Because the Bible says

concerning the word of God, you will know the truth and the

truth will make you free. It doesn't set you free, it

makes you free. That means sometimes when you're

walking in the Word, there's going to be something that

you're going to go through that God is going to use to make you

mature so that you can walk in the fullness of all the things

that God has for you. And so he is our comforter

helper and also our exhorter to bring us to the fullness of all

the things that He wants us to walk in in this life.

Having said that, I want to go to our opening scriptures today

as we look at each part of it to see in Genesis chapter 4 verses

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

one and two. And notice I'm cutting down to

verse 16, which is the end of the story because I want to

point out something very important here in these few

verses starting and ending. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and

she conceived him Borcain and said, I have acquired a man from

the Lord. Then she bore again this time is

rather Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep

but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt

in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

Now I want to begin with the idea of Cain's parents story

which is Adam and Eve and most of us are familiar with that

story. How that when God created man,

then he created him a wife because he said he needs a

helper. And then the Bible says he put

them in the Garden of Eden, a garden that he had planted

eastward of Eden. And he said that you need to

guard this garden, you need to cultivate this garden.

In the garden was the tree of life.

They had access to that tree of life.

So as long as they eat of that tree, they would have lived

forever. But also there was the tree of

knowledge of good and evil. God said don't eat of this tree

because the day you eat of that tree you're surely going to die.

Unfortunately, one day Eve is standing next to the tree and

the serpent comes to talk to her.

Now it wasn't literally a snake. The Bible says in the book of

the Revelation that in talking about a dragon, they said this

is also the serpent and it's actually Satan himself, the

accuser of the brother, our adversary.

So that's who was there trying to tell her.

Don't trust God. God just knows if you needed

that tree, you're going to be like him.

You're going to be independent and you're going to be able to

make your own choices. You need to either that tree if

you want the best that life has to offer you.

So the Bible tells us that after thinking about the situation and

then looking at the tree, she made what she would have

considered a logical choice because of her aspirations.

She ate of the tree and the Bible says she also gave to her

husband and he also ate of the tree.

Now, at that point in time, just as God had said, they were taken

out of the garden. They no longer had access to the

tree of life, and so they were going to die.

And it also tells us in that sense that because of their

mishandling of the responsibility God had given to

him, they lost their stewardship.

And So what happened is they were kicked out of the garden

because they thought they had a better plan than God did.

Now that brings us to the next story, which I'm going to talk

about the difference between objective and subjective

observation. The objective is when you look

at something like Adam and Eve did, they looked at the tree.

They knew what God said, they knew what the serpent said.

Also motivated by what they wanted, they made a choice.

We're going to disobey God. That would be considered in that

sense, an objective choice. But the story we're talking

about today is the story of Cain and Abel, and I mention it as

the second fall because it's another aspect of the same

story. Some people think that when Adam

and Eve were taken out of the garden that they were kicked out

of the presence of God totally. And that isn't what the Bible

says. They were in a garden eastward

in Eden. That's where the Lord had

planted it. But when they were kicked out of

the garden, they were still in Eden.

Because what does Cain say to the Lord?

He said, if you judge me like this, I'll have to leave your

presence. And obviously the very fact that

he's talking to God about the situation and the fact that they

had come and offered a second sacrifice means that they had a

relationship with God. And so it wasn't at the first

part of the story of Adam and Eve that we were fully cut off

from God. It continued with the second

aspect because God wanted to teach us something about

subjective things or making emotional choices.

And sometimes we make emotional choices and we don't even

realize that we're doing that says.

And in the process of time it came to pass that came brought

an offering the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Abel also brought the first born of his flock and their fat.

The Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect

Cain and his offering. And Kang was very angry.

And what happened? His countenance fell.

Now, this is a very important thing because in a narrative, if

you're writing a book or making a story in the plot, one of the

things you're going to talk about is the conflict there.

Because stories usually involve some type of a conflict that

through the story, the conflict's going to be resolved

or dealt with in some manner or the other.

Now, the interesting thing about this story is often times when

people read it, the first question they have is, well, why

didn't God accept Cain's offering?

And I know I've even preached messages about it and I know

it's a common question because people are wanting to know,

well, why didn't God accept Cain's offering?

Well, the Bible doesn't actually say, and we have to understand

that the reason for that is because that's not the conflict

in the story that God wanted to teach us about.

And so we can have all kinds of speculations if we want to, but

the fact of the matter is we shouldn't try to put more in the

story than what God has put in the story.

And I've seen that people who do that all the time, just like in

the first story and what people think about the devil, a lot of

things that people believe are just trying to put pieces to the

story that God didn't intend for us to know about church.

When you're walking with God, you don't always know everything

in the story. You will only know the part that

He wants you to be involved in. And So what we have to do is

deal with our conflict, deal with the life that we're facing,

and just find out, well, what is it that God is speaking about

concerning this situation? Well, in this situation, he's

talking about the conflict that Cain experienced after that God

came to him when he had been rejected in the offering that he

had given to God. So the conflict needs to be

understood to see the point of what God is wanting to do in the

story. Now, in this particular story,

we know that Cain's response was not the right response.

And I'm sharing this because I believe God still speaks.

He's been leading us by the way of Spirit.

He said in the very beginning, go the way of Spirit and you'll

possess things others have not possessed.

And so as we walk with the Lord all these years, I found out

that God has always been challenging us to go a step

farther right now on Wednesday night, Sunday, this a little bit

in different times and especially my new class I'm

writing, I'm going to talk about God's destiny.

He wants to take us to, and one of the things God wants us to do

is learn how to properly respond to the issues of our life.

And one of the ways I talked about it is how that God has

always LED us by his word. And often times over the years,

God has given me prophecies that I've shared with the church

having to do with what's happening in the world.

And those things certainly came to pass.

Well, one day I was like, Lord, I've seen how these things have

been fulfilled, but I don't feel like you're giving me a word for

now. And what should we be looking

for? And the Lord said, well, this is

a time of a change in your perspective because it's not

that you should know what's going to happen.

What you should know is how to respond to every situation.

And so I've been talking about the Scripture from First

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 2 that says, and he that is spiritual will

judge all things, yet he himself will be judged by no man.

Now we live in a day and age when people are very judgmental,

and if they're not judgmental about one thing, they're

judgmental about another thing. People are always pointing the

finger at each other and finding fault with each other.

That's just the world in which we live.

And Lord says, well, I'm looking for a people who will have a

spiritual response because if they have the spiritual

response, they'll be able to judge the situations and know

how to properly respond and they will also be mature enough to be

my emissary, says the Lord in First Corinthians chapter 13.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

It says we prophecy in part, we have knowledge in part, but when

that which is perfect is done away with, or when that which is

perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away with.

There's a whole lot of Christians who say, Oh yeah,

after we got the Bible, we don't need spiritual gifts.

No, that's not what it's saying. But it is saying that when you

mature and become spiritually perceptive that the gifts will

take on a whole new dimension. Not because the gift has got any

stronger, but your ability to understand what's going on is

better. And God wants us to be a keen

minded people in this time who can look out at the world and

say this is what God is doing. And this is the response that I

want to have. And this is a very good example

for us to understand how we want to be careful as to how we

respond. Now in Ephesians chapter 2, it

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

says this. And you He made alive, who were

dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according

to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the

power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of

disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in

the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the

flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of

wrath, just like the others. How many know you were once dead

and God has made you alive? Can you say Amen to that?

Well, the Bible says you weren't literally dead.

Obviously, you were walking around.

You felt like you were alive, but you weren't disconnected

with God. And whether you realized it or

not, you were under the influence of what the Bible

calls the God of this age, the spirit of this world that works

in the children of disobedience. We have to understand there's a

spiritual connection that we have to understand is in the

world. And when you're outside of God,

you're under the influence of the God of this world.

And when you're in the church and in the Lord, you need to

understand how you're to walk under the influence that God

has. But if we're not careful to

understand what exactly is going on, we're not going to be able

to discern the situations of life.

And I believe that we actually can if we allow ourselves to

become spiritual in our perception.

And we live in a world today that's very carnal in their

actions. But God's looking for a people

that would be spiritual in their actions, says the Lord, and also

in their reaction. And this is important to

understand. He makes it about you.

And this why I wrote my book. Why is the devil in your garden?

Because the devil doesn't try to get you on his side.

He tries you to get on your side.

And if it's not your side individually, it's a side that's

not necessarily a God side. And if he can get you out of

sync with what God is doing, then he has at least neutralized

you as a threat to his Kingdom and His power and His authority.

It's important. And I put that over that verse.

There's the macro and the micro, if you would.

There's your individual life and what's happening in the world.

And whether you care to admit it or not, the impact of the world

is pressing you every single day through the media, through

people that you're interacting with.

Everybody has an opinion. Everybody's trying to get your

mind to think a certain way. And God says, I want you to

understand who you are and what it is that I've called you to

be, says the Lord. So God is not of this world.

He's the God of life. Can you say, man?

And it's eternal life, but it's also life in this world.

And we need to be made alive, and we need to be representative

of life to our generation. Now, having said that, I want to

reference something I've talked about from time to time, and

that's the challenge of the mindset of the age.

There's two things I want to talk about, and that is #1

modernism, which is based on reason, and it says universal

truth, but it's based on what the person believes is the

truth. And postmodernism, which is to

be skeptical of objective realities, but also focusing on

individual perspectives. Now, I first started reading

about this like 50 years ago, and I've always read and tried

to be informed of what's happened in the world as

possible. And when it talked about

postmodernism, I'm like, how will this exactly pan out?

We're talking about the fact that there's a subjective part

to it. There's a feeling part to it.

I thought, well this won't work against the Kingdom, but I find

out whenever it's the age that the world is promoting, in the

end they're going to take a stand against God.

Modernism came about in the 131415 hundreds won't bore you

for a long time about history, but Western civilization came

out of Europe and at the time very few people could read and

write. There were very few books that

were available. There were no printing presses

and so books had to be hand inscribed in order for them to

be reproduced and and put in use.

So people couldn't read, they couldn't write, and what

difference did it make? There weren't too many books

available anyway, and so most people thought in terms of

superstitious thinking the church was all about the mystery

of God and not at all so much about learning about the Word,

etcetera. Well, as education began to

increase, his books began to be printed and all the sudden

science began to grow, education began to grow, research began to

grow. That's when modernism came about

and said, you know, even religion is just superstitious

and the world's just superstitious.

We got to understand it's time to come to the modern world.

So they quit having witch doctors and just had regular

doctors. If you would.

It's kind of funny, you can actually trace back medicine to

what we would consider hocus pocus type thinking.

But the truth of the matter is it started somewhere and it

began to advance and go farther along, if you would.

Modernism was very skeptical against Christianity because

they said that's just superstition and many times

they'd say there would be no God.

Now the way God used it is with the printing press.

The Bible became available. People began to see the word of

God and all the sudden people started throwing away a lot of

even Christian superstitions, if you would, and began to realize,

hey, God has a guidebook here that I can read and learn about

him and learn how to live my life.

So it was something that God used to advance his plan.

So there was the God part, and then there was a world part, and

unfortunately, often times the world part wanted to push God on

the sidelines. Now, when I was in school

learning, it was a modernist kind of thinking along the way

because everything was about promoting science and education

and learning and how all these things were for the advancement

of mankind and had been, but again, often times against God.

So when I started hearing about postmodernism, I couldn't quite

grasp what it was talking about. But we're now living in a time

of postmodernism. Where people often times are not

just aligning with what they would even consider objective

truths or certainly even facts. Often times people are motivated

by how they feel, how they personally perceive a situation.

And we talked about the personal feelings there.

It's very true. We live in a day when people get

offended very easily because it has a lot to do with how you

feel about not just truth, but about what you've been through

in life. So postmodernism has LED away

from modernism, if you would put an an emphasis on subjective

versus objective. And so we have to realize this

two competing things in the world in which we Live Today.

Now, in the COVID crisis that came upon our country, it was a

time that all the sudden the world went in a panic mode.

And one of the debates you'd often times hear is there'd be

the people that say, well, we're scientists.

This is the scientific method, if you would.

And I've shared before about how that was when my mom passed away

in 2 March of 2020. And when she first went to the

hospital, that's when the COVID situation was starting to

happen. And they told us we had to put

on a mask to visit her. And I got to look at him because

none of the people working there had masks on.

He says, oh, we know that's not going to work, but that's the

rule they told us about. Well, it wasn't about a few days

later and they were all wearing masks because it was forced upon

them whether liked it or not. But the sad part of the story is

then they put my mom in the side of the hospital called

palliative care, and they said, well, you can't come see your

mother anymore. There was a COVID lockdown in

the hospital and here my mom was dying.

The first day she was dying. They literally had to FaceTime

my sisters to kind of let them see mom at the end.

It was an awful thing. Fortunately for us, we had

somebody, but my sister knew who is in charge of security.

So hate to tell you this, disobeyed the rules and got in

the hospital and we were able to be with my mom in those passing

moments. But the nurse said to me, well,

this whole floor is filled with people who are just dying all

alone and their family members are at home knowing their loved

one is they're dying, but they can't even be in touch with

them. They were shutting down old

folks homes. There seemed to be some logic in

what they were doing, but there was also a lot of people that

were hurting emotionally shutting down schools.

There's still impacts in the world today that are really a

lot due to mismanagement of the situation, but it's really hard

to do to manage a panic situation.

So I'm not passing judgment on people, but I can say this, that

just because you have a degree or profession, you're scientist,

doesn't mean when you're in a panic mode, you're going to

think scientifically. How many know what I'm talking

about here? You'll know that concerning your

own training in life, you can have all kinds of training.

You can say, you know, the Bible even, and then you're in a

crisis and all of a sudden everything in your brain goes

out the window and in your pan you can make choices and you're

trying to pull them together with some scriptures.

And sometimes people will do that in their walk with God.

And so they're trying to desperately get control of the

situation. And it's about that time we have

to realize that God wants us to realize we are not in control,

but we have a God who rules over all things church.

Can you give them a praise on that?

But sometimes there is this process that we have to go

through to let God's perfect work be accomplished.

Having said that, continuing with our story, the Lord said to

Cain, Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and it's desire

is for you, but you should rule over it.

Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass

when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his

brother, and he killed him. Wow, what a tragic situation.

Now Cain was caught up in his feelings because he felt

rejected, and somehow in his emotional state he decided the

problem with his brother. Now again, the Bible doesn't

tell us too much about the story, but God steps in the

situation. How do you know?

He just gave me some logical advice.

Cain, don't you know if you do the right thing, it's going to

work out for you. You do the wrong thing, it's not

going to work out for you. How do you know?

That's pretty simple advice. So you might say, well, why

didn't God accept Cain's sacrifice?

Why, why? Why?

Well, I would assume from that conversation that Cain exactly

knew why. Maybe not, but the issue is, are

you going to be motivated by how you feel in this situation or

are you going to try to find out the path of truth so he can walk

in the proper way? Cain was pouting.

How many know what pouting is? God said to him.

Why does your face look like that?

How many know what it looks like?

The pout everybody put on your pouting face.

I have it my in my office. I have a bookmark.

My son Billy, when he was in Sunday school, I'm guessing he

was around 4:00, they made bookmarks and they had him bring

a picture from home, put it on the bookmarker.

So I've had it now for close to 40 years.

So I'm like, it's getting kind of wore out.

I'm going to put it in plastic so I don't lose it because it's

more precious now than of course it ever was.

But as I went and was talking to him about it, he's like, well,

Are you sure it happened then? Because I was pretty sure I knew

when the picture it happened. Whatever.

So I was yesterday in my 1 room and there was a photograph album

on the table that was from the year we went on the vacation.

I'm like, I can find out the timing of this.

And as I opened it, I saw a picture of my son, Billy, and he

was sitting on the step in our garage, and he was pouting.

He was very good at pouting when he was a child.

And of course, you know, I was taking a picture of him.

So how many, you know, that makes you even matter when

you're pouting and they're wanting to take a picture of

you. Now, when I was a kid, my dad

would say, if you're going to pout, I'll give you something to

pout about. My mom would be, honey, what's

the matter with you? So we had this kind of dynamic

going on, but it was funny because as I was looking at the

picture, I thought he has the same pouting face as his son

Lukai does. So I took a picture of it with

my phone and sent it and say, hey, look at Lukai.

Pouts just like you. It's iniquity.

Whatever it's in that Redditary passed along, whatever.

And it's kind of funny because we have this idea we're going to

pout and we're going to get rescued from the situation.

Like I said, my dad would be like, no, that's not going to

move me. So I remember once when I was a

kid, we had potato soup for dinner.

I didn't like potato soup. And there's no way.

I've always been a person. If I don't like it, I can't eat

it. I'll gag.

So I was about four years old at the time, and I'm like, I can't

eat this. Back in those days, if you

didn't eat what you were sitting before you on the table, your

parents would say something like, think about the kids in

China. You can't say that to your kids

today. They go, yeah, I think about

every time I'm on my iPhone. That's where it came from.

What? What are you trying to say?

But anyway, back then, it was like, you got to eat whatever's

in front of you. And I'm like, I can, I can't.

Well, my dad said, you're not getting up until you eat.

That's who. I was there for days, but not

exactly. But it felt like days anyway.

And then my mom come up and hug me and said, oh, honey, I

promise you I'll never make potato soup again.

And that was in 1958. So over a few years, I say, mom,

it's been 40 years. Thanks for not making any more

potato soup because she never made potato soup.

I remember once being in a restaurant with Pastorio

Melasic, and he said, hey, look, that potato soup on the menu.

I'm like, why would they do that to us?

Don't make any sense to me. But anyway, Cain was pouting and

he was going to be rescued in the situation, but God wasn't

going to rescue him at this time.

This was a time for Cain to face the reality of what he was

doing. He was rejected of God for a

very good reason and because he pouted and he kept on pouting.

We know the rest of the story in that scripture.

He literally killed his brother. How do you know what God had

told him? He should rule over himself, but

instead his emotion ruled over him.

Like I said, when I was a kid, I didn't like food that was given

to me. And if I didn't like it, I

didn't want to eat it. And when I went on mission

trips, you know, there's a scripture that says something

like you should eat whatever's put before you.

I can't exactly quote it because I don't want to.

I can memorize, I I can quote whole chapters of the Bible, but

what that verse says exactly, I don't know.

When I went to Lamar, this guy thought he'd impressed me.

He he wanted to take us out to eat because we had helped him

here in Michigan through Jose Aliaga.

And when I was there, he wanted to be nice to me.

So he took me to a restaurant. I knew it was on the ocean be a

beautiful view, but I didn't realize he would order seafood

for me. And I'm waiting for the menu.

And what they did is they brought out a sampling of

everything on the menu he had told them to.

And so all this seafood's in front of me.

And to me, seafood kind of looks like big bugs.

It's the only way I can describe it.

So I'm looking at all these bugs looking at me.

And he said, what are you going to eat?

And I go, is there any chicken here?

Ah, yes. I he, I'm a real.

Yeah. Thank you.

Jesus. Anyway, he went to Cuba and when

I went to Cuba, they knew I liked chicken, so they made me

chicken. Now I like all kinds of dishes.

I like Italian, Mexican, Cuban, Peruvian, but it all has to be a

certain kind of chicken. If you would.

And so they were so happy for me that they made some chicken for

me. And then later on that night

they said, and we're going to go on a picnic tomorrow.

Guess what, There was chicken left.

So you get to have chicken again tomorrow.

I'm like, I don't remember them even having a refrigerator.

And I have to admit I'm a little bit of a germaphobe too.

And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I hope they don't leave it out all

night and then serve it. And then when we're going on the

road trip, she comes out with the chicken and a bowl and sets

it in the back of the trunk. And it's a four hour drive and

90° weather. So I'm just praying in tongues

all the way there. Father, in the name of Jesus,

somebody just stopped his car and robbed us of the chicken.

Something like that, you know. So we're all sitting around in

this area. I'm sitting on a log and they

said, here's your chicken. And I'm like, Oh no.

So I look over my shoulder and there's a dog behind me.

Thank you, Father and Jesus. I'd even swear he was smiling,

he was so hungry seeing my chicken.

So I just threw it over my shoulder a little at a time

looking like this, because if I don't want to eat it, the idea

I'm going to eat, it's going to kill me, right?

So I don't have to rule over that because that's pretty minor

part of life. At least that's what I tell

myself at this point. But there are things in our

lives where we have to face the reality of the situation.

And if we're not careful, it will keep coming around because

God's going to say, well, you're going to eat this situation

sooner or later because for you, it's going to be some

supercharged energy if you're willing to do.

It's like the children of Israel going in the promised land.

The spy said there's giants in the land.

Joshua and Caleb said, that's just breakfast for us.

That's just food for us to eat. And church.

God wants us to have that kind of mindset.

Amen. But as we walk through life, we

have to be willing to walk with God in every situation because

see, there's a way that seems right to men, but its end is the

way of death. Even laughter of the heart.

There may be sorrow, but in the end of mirth may be grief.

So sometimes we think we know what a situation should offer us

and what the potential of it's going to be for the future.

But the truth is we're usually thinking short term, but God's

thinking long term. And sometimes things immediately

satisfy, but in the long run, they end up being against us.

And that's why we have to understand that God's always

thinking about the long term. We're thinking about the short

term. But that's why through the Holy

Spirit, he's kind of like, OK, today's not going to look too

good for you. But if you put your trust in me,

you're going to find out that all things work together for

good to those who love me, says the Lord.

And when you get through this situation, give them a praise on

that church. When you get through this

situation, you're going to find out there's life on the other

side. Therefore, putting away lie, let

each of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of

one another. Be angry and do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down in your wrath nor give place to the

devil. We should never feel condemned

about our emotions. That's just a part of the human

condition. But there are times when we have

emotions and we have to be careful that we're not stewing

on the feelings of the situation because what will happen then is

we'll start feeding the anger, feeding the fear, feeding the

anxiety. And with social media, there's

always somebody out there who can help you eat whatever you

want to eat. If you want their stews, they'll

give it to you, so to speak. And that's what happened to Cain

is he didn't listen to God's advice.

He just how did in a situation until it come to the point that

he was killing somebody and God says to the church, and this is

this week. Another thing is starting as our

life enrichment classes and that's one of the classes we

have and and we talked about making your anger your ally,

taking control of your life, controlling emotions, etcetera

because God says we got to learn how to deal with it.

One of the things I love about Jesus Christ, he always gives us

an example to follow in a postmodern world.

People take things personally. But you know when Jesus was on

the cross, you know what he said?

Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're

doing. And it was true.

Some of them were there just because they got up in the

motion of the crowd, got caught up in it.

Some people were there because they actually thought they were

doing God a favor by getting rid of Jesus Christ.

And of course, there were others there for the wrong purpose.

It wasn't really a matter to Jesus because he knew on the

cross what he was supposed to do Amen.

And this is a very important thing that we have to do is not

take things personally in our family.

We have members of our extended family for sure, who are not

serving the Lord. And I can love everybody no

matter what their lifestyle is. That's something I just believe

because they're family, they're friends, they're people.

I know I don't reject people, but in order to do that, you

can't take what they're doing personally.

And if you don't want them to take what you're doing

personally. Because I do what I do because

of God, right? So it's not personal from my

perspective. So if I want people to receive

me on that level after, the same thing for them.

And God's looking for us to be like Jesus, not trying to decide

who's guilty and who's wrong. Speaking the truth in love.

No question about that. We'll never stop preaching the

truth in love Church, but understanding all the time that

we have to be separate from the world so that we can be those

who will love others as God called us to.

That's why the Bible says for though we walk in the flesh we

don't work or in the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are

not carnal but mighty and God for pulling down strongholds,

casting down arguments, every high thing that exalts itself

against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into

captivity to the obedience of Christ and what being ready to

punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

That's telling me that if I'm really involved in spiritual

warfare I'm going to see it as an internal conflict.

I often times hear people talking about being in spiritual

warfare, but when you listen to what they're saying, they're

operating in a carnal mode, sometimes out of fear, sometimes

out of anger, sometimes out of emotions that really aren't

bringing spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is tear down

every thought you have, every emotion you have that would stop

you from fully obeying God. And when you do what God wants

you to do, he's going to work on your behalf.

That's why as a church, my goal is to be a church.

That's everything that God wants me to be.

Because I know that we're going to do that.

Guess what? We're going to do church.

We're going to be a people that are releasing the power of God

to our generation. And that's what God wants us to

do. When you till the ground, it

will no longer yield its strength.

You will be a fugitive in a Vagabond on the earth.

And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can

bear. Surely you have driven me out

this day from the face of the ground.

I shall be hidden from your face.

I shall be a fugitive in a Vagabond on the earth.

It will happen. Anyone who finds me will kill

me. Still caught up in your

emotions, aren't you? Went from anger to fear.

And one thing that you didn't do is accept responsibility for

your choice. You didn't say God.

I killed my brother. How could I have ever done that?

He didn't really understand that there should be consequences to

his actions. So he's asking God for mercy.

And you know what God did grant him mercy.

And this is amazing to me. He killed his brother, but God

granted him mercy. And it says, and the Lord said,

therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him

sevenfold. The Lord set a mark on Cain lest

anyone finding him should kill him.

But the sad story is is that Cain went out from the presence

of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, which translates to

a word that means just wandering around no home, no place outside

of the presence of God Church. We need to be a people that are

in the presence of God firmly establishing his word and we'll

be like those trees planted by rivers of living water and our

fruit will be healing for the nation's.

Can you say Amen to that? I believe it with all my heart.

Let's bow our heads before the Lord right now, before we

partake of the communion, because this communion meals

shows us how God's willing to be merciful, even willing to accept

the responsibility for our choices.

If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you

of your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

God is a merciful God. He is a forgiving God.

He's a God who's always reaching out.

He doesn't violate His word. He does speak truth, but he

gives us an opportunity to grow in him.

And God is saying to every one of us today, it's time to take a

step upward, a step outside of yourself.

Step outside of the thinking of this world that you would be a

help to the world. This is Pastor Lorne Coverbius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.