THE COST OF DISOBEDIENCE | Dianna Nepstad

How many of you have brought your Bibles?

Lift your Bibles.

Okay, I'm gonna get you into the habit of bringing your Bibles, and this is the reason why.

It's because this is the truth of God's word.

It's I don't want to see it in your library just collecting dust, but you need to activate what God is saying to us in these days.

This is the foundation of truth in your lives, the foundation of the world.

And that right now the world is raging a war against the very book.

This sacred desk is called the pulpit.

It's found in Ezra, the book of Ezra.

It's a prophetic scripture where the priests and the teachers would teach the people of God how to research, how to hear the word of God.

And the only way that you would know what the Bible says is if you actually open the book and read it for yourselves.

And so I want to encourage you.

You want to have the best marriage?

It's in the book.

And the and other faiths, they call us the people of the book.

And we are.

We are the people of the book, meaning the sacred scriptures.

And I want to encourage you, if you want to be sold out for the Lord, dive into the word of God.

Can I hear a good amen?

This is strength for our bodies, strength for our souls, strength for our minds.

This is a way where we honor God, train our children.

And so today it's my distinct honor and privilege to share what the book has in store for us.

And so we're diving into the first five books of the Bible, which is called the Torah, the law.

And it is not corrupted, it is actually an oral tradition set before by the Jewish people through the prophet Moses.

And Moses, in his time, through oral tradition, had it in his mind to write down everything from beginning all the way up to the point of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the laws, the precepts of what the Word of God says.

It's the foundation of what sin is all about, the Garden of Eden, the first male and female.

And right now, what we're seeing in the world is an erosion of people are forgetting what the word of God says.

And so it's my job to re-establish the baseline of truth.

And so we're gonna go through the book of Genesis.

And we're the book of Genesis, it's all the study and the and the visuals, the storyline of not characters of a story, but actual people that lived on this planet.

And it's through the patriarchs.

We have the Torah, the first five books, and so we're diving into the character study of Cain and Abel.

Turn to your neighbor and say, uh-oh.

Turn to your other neighbor and say, Oh, these brothers, man, these brothers.

They are brothers, Cain and Abel.

And these are the offspring of Adam and Eve.

And so we're gonna dive into this story of sin and humanity, the cost of disobedience.

And so I want you to see on the screen with me what we're gonna dive into.

We Pastor Sean laid out the foundation of the creation story.

In the beginning, God.

And so through the Jewish people, he began the story telling the whole world, I am God and you are not.

The first boundary.

And out of out of the world, when darkness covered, he breathed life and began the days, began to orchestrate the stars, moon, sky, the earth, the animals, all the creation story that we know of.

And do I believe in an actual seven-day creation story?

Absolutely, yes.

And how he created Adam and Eve.

So Pastor Sean already developed the storyline.

Now we're gonna go into the story and the life of Cain and Abel.

These lives is it's actual depiction of how sin entered humanity and the consequence is the curse.

Sin cannot dwell with perfection, meaning the garden.

That's why Adam and Eve, when they took of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they actually took part in something that God said, do not touch.

And many of you are asking, well, why did God put both trees in the garden?

Because he was trying to establish that we can live with boundaries.

And when you refuse to live with boundaries, sin enters in.

God knew a redemptive plan must be enacted.

It must be put in play.

And so he did not want Adam and Eve to eat of the not only the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but he also did not want them in the state of fallenness to take of the tree of life and have them frozen in sin forever.

That's why he drove them from the garden.

So let's begin here, Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Oh, yes, you're gonna catch up on all your Bible reading in one month.

So it begins here.

It says, Then the Lord God asked the woman, meaning Eve, What have you done?

The serpent deceived me, she replied.

That's why I ate it.

And then the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, he's talking to the serpent, you are cursed more than all the animals, domestic and wild.

You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.

That's why you see snakes, serpents.

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, meaning her offspring and your offspring.

Does the devil have offspring?

Oh yes.

And it's coming into play.

And between your offspring and her offspring, he will strike your head, meaning the offspring of Eve, and you will strike his heel.

And you see it through the um the crucifixion of Jesus.

Then he said to the woman, I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy.

So in the Garden of Eden, before we even ate fruit, we did not have birth pains.

And now, because of the curse, we have entered into the pain of childbearing.

And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.

That's part of the curse, too.

That's the struggle right now that we're seeing on planet Earth, male and female, eroding male men in our realm, and actually diminishing female identity as well.

And to the man, he said, Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is now cursed because of you, meaning it's going to be hard labor.

From the sweat of your brow you will produce.

All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.

By the sweat of your brow you will have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made, meaning we were made from the dust of the ground, and we will return as dust to the ground.

For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.

Then the man Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.

And the Lord God made clothing from the animal skins, meaning the first sacrifice, the first sacrifice, animal skins for Adam and his wife, because they clothed themselves in fig leaves.

Verse 22.

Then the Lord God said, Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil, but we were human.

Remember that.

What if they reach out and take from the tree of life and eat it?

Then they will live forever, meaning they will live in that state forever, in sinfulness.

So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had made, had been made.

After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim, that's an angel, to the east of the Garden of Eden, and he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

And so this is the foundation of judgment.

Say judgment.

Sin requires judgment, justice.

And this is the foundation of what God did in order to confront our sinfulness.

Adam and Eve were the first ones to disobey God.

And now, because of it, they embraced the consequences of that sinfulness.

So when disobedience happens, it's called sin.

You see, the curse entered the garden.

Since sin drove them away from perfect fellowship with God, you see, before we even took of the tree, Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship.

It's unbroken.

We were able to walk with him in the cool of the day.

We were able to talk with God in the day.

We were able to call creation and have dominion.

But once we took of that tree, the fallenness of man came into being.

Sin ushered the curse of death in our sin and dejection from God's presence forever.

So this chasm broke through.

And in the garden, you cannot have sin dwell with perfection.

And that's why he drove them out in order to protect them from taking from the tree of life that will leave them in the state of fallenness.

And that was the devil's plan all along.

So we're gonna dive into the story of Cain and Abel, Genesis chapter 4, verses 1 through 16.

Genesis 4:1–16

Just remember, you can follow along in your Bibles, you can highlight, you can, you know, write your notes.

I encourage you.

And even put a date next to it because you will revisit it many times over, and the Lord has a way of kind of highlighting new things to you.

Every time I read the word of God, there's always something new that God reveals.

It's called revelation.

Genesis chapter 4, verses 1 through 16.

Genesis 4:1–16

This is another set of scriptures.

Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant.

And when she gave birth to Cain, she said these words, With the Lord's help, I have produced a man.

So this is her first time seeing that she was able to create life with her husband.

Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.

And when they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.

And this will be distinct roles that you'll see that God begins to put value on things.

When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord.

And Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.

Just remember that.

The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift.

And you'll see why.

This is not about favoritism, this is about the value of offering.

This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected.

Have you ever made someone mad?

Have you ever seen their face fall?

Have you ever seen them irritated at you with their facial, you know, uh uh uh expressions?

Well, this is exactly how Cain was feeling at that time.

He was very angry.

Why are you so angry?

God said.

The Lord asked Cain, why do you look so dejected?

You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out.

Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it.

In other translations, it describes this word as overcome it.

You must subdue it, overcome it, and be its master, meaning sin.

One day Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields.

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.

Afterward, the Lord asked Cain, Where is your brother?

Where is Abel?

I don't know.

Cain responded, Am I my brother's keeper?

But the Lord said this, What have you done?

Listen, your brother's blood begins to cry out to me from the ground.

And this is why blood is so sacred to God.

You'll see the value of it.

Now you are cursed and you're banished from the ground from which which has swallowed your brother's blood.

No longer will the ground yield good crops for you.

No matter how hard you work, from now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.

Cain replied to the Lord, My punishment, it's too great for me to bear.

You have banished me from the land and from your presence.

You have made me a homeless wanderer.

Anyone who finds me will kill me.

And the Lord replied, No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.

Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him.

And so Cain left the Lord's presence.

That's a phrase that you do not want to be said of you.

And settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

So the land of Nod is to the east of the Garden of Eden, what you would consider like Saudi Arabia area.

The desert.

So the main idea is this, friends, is that sin gives birth to sin.

From the story of Adam and Eve, the Lord is trying to lay a groundwork to identify what does not please the Lord.

In the garden, we were meant to be, we were meant to collabor with God.

It was supposed to be a land of complete perfection.

We had relationship with God.

We could talk with God, and now the curse is coming into play today.

We don't need men.

That's what the world is saying.

In fact, we'll self-devour, we'll mutilate our men, our women, our children, destroy them, abort them, exterminate them.

We will do away with all men.

We will be like God, our own wisdom, our own way of living, and God's design is now replaced with demonic design.

This is the Antichrist image, trying to replace God's image, meaning male and female.

Don't you hear the serpent hissing?

You see, sin gives birth to sin.

Humanity is fallen, and our Lord is trying to redeem humanity back to himself through what?

Our free will.

It's our choice.

We get a choice.

Free will.

We get to choose him or not choose him.

So number one, I want you to write this down.

Just some thoughts.

Some thoughts that I kind of like saw in the scriptures of the story and the lives of Cain and Abel.

Number one, offerings.

Offerings.

An offering that God accepts.

In order for us to see and understand what God accepts, you must learn from what's being displayed.

And here Cain had the opportunity to watch and learn, but instead he grumbled, complained, and got angry.

Genesis chapter 3, verse 21, it says this, and the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

Genesis 3:21

You see, this was the first sacrifice.

You don't get animal skins from living animals.

You actually have to kill the animal and replace the fig leaves with animal skins.

So this was the first sacrifice that was instilled.

And also in Genesis chapter 4, verses 4 through 5, you see it magnified more.

Genesis 4:4–5

Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.

So you're seeing this common framework of lambs, lamb that are sacrificed, even in the tabernacle system, which you'll get to learn as we move through the storyline of the people of God, meaning the whole uh Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, you'll see the installation of the tabernacle system.

And so the Lord accepted Abel and his gift.

Why?

Because it was an animal sacrifice, an animal, the best portions.

He's showing the value of this is what's acceptable to bring to me.

There are grain offerings, there are um uh harvest offerings, but what he esteemed higher was a blood sacrifice.

But he did not accept Cain and his gift, and this made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

You see, here our Lord God gave the first sacrifice when he clothed Adam and Eve, and the brothers were being taught by God himself the value of offerings and worship and sacrifice on earth as it is in heaven.

Worship and offerings go hand in hand.

There is a system up in heaven that the Lord is trying to manifest here on earth.

Abel didn't realize that the animal offerings please God, but he heard God say, Oh, I accept your offering.

And from there, Abel understood, okay, this is what pleases God.

And with Cain, when he offered harvest offerings, the first of his crops, the Lord God said, He didn't hate Cain.

He never said, Oh, Abel is my favorite.

He never said that.

All he said was, I'm not gonna accept yours.

And from that, something entered into Cain that manifested in sin, which was anger, jealousy, hatred, bitterness.

And Abel wasn't the favorite, but what he brought pleased the Lord.

Cain grew angry to such a degree that he harmed and killed his own brother.

How many sibling rivalries have you ever heard that would lead to this?

Number two, anger and sin.

Write this down.

Anger and sin.

You're gonna see what God began to highlight in Cain's life.

Genesis chapter 4, verses 6 through 8.

Genesis 4:6–8

It says this, Why are you so angry?

The Lord asked Cain.

Why do you look so dejected?

You will be accepted if you do what?

What is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out.

Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you.

But you must subdue it.

In other words, overtake it, overwhelm it, and be its master.

You must control that.

In other words, verse 8, one day Cain suggested to his brother, ah, come on, let's go out into the field.

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.

How many jealousies have we hidden our heart against someone else?

Anger, bitterness, they look better because they have this.

I'm so irritated by them.

They always have this, they look like this, and this is the world right now, groaning in such a way that we would have jealousies to strike at one another in bitterness, hatred, angst, and even actually murder one another.

You see, the Lord God already saw what was in Cain's heart, his motivation, and he cautioned him, Ah, I see that what's in your heart.

Oftentimes we would conceal it.

We think no one can see what's in our mind.

See what's in our heart.

But in actuality, God sees everything.

You know, when my children were being raised in my home sitting around the table, I would see some rivalries pop off in the playroom or in the piano room or you know in the rooms.

I hear the back and forth and all of that.

But it takes a mother and a father to know their children.

And then you begin to see and say what you see.

Some common threads.

Ah, don't say that.

Ah, work it out.

If you don't work it out, mama's gonna work it out.

But you see, this is the same tone of the father.

You see, father, God, he is a father, loves you so much that he won't allow you to get away with stuff.

He's very kind in his long-suffering and his tenderness towards you, but there will come a day where he will have to deal with the stuff in your heart, the things you thought of, the things that you want to do.

You see, it is like the Lord to give us a warning before you do something dumb, right?

To walk it back and choose the right path.

We're one step away from, and the word is dumb, being dumb, being just a numbskull, that we can go into our own uh appetite, our mind, and make decisions and actually justify them.

And all the while the Lord is saying, What are you doing?

I don't want you to turn out this way, I don't want you to choose this path because I love you.

But here he had to deal with what's in Cain's heart that produced something which was murder.

This is the first lesson of how to repent, friends.

He gave a caution, he gave a warning to turn in the opposite direction of what you desired to do and not be mastered by your instincts to do great harm.

Yet Cain continued and did not heed God's correction, God's instruction.

And in fact, the curse was this the the land beneath you will be so hard to toil.

And oftentimes for us, when we reject God's word, reject correction, what happens is the areas that we struggle with will get hardened under our hand.

It won't be soft, it won't be easy.

The work that you're doing will not produce anything under your hand.

And that is the voice and the warning of God.

Number three, and this is last.

Sin drives Cain from God's presence.

I never want it to be said from God's own lips or God's scriptures that sin drove Diana from God's presence.

Genesis chapter 4, verses 9 through 16.

Genesis 4:9–16

It says this afterward, the Lord asked Cain, Where is your brother?

Where is Abel?

I don't know, Cain responded.

Am I my brother's guardian, my brother's keeper?

But the Lord said, What have you done?

Listen.

There is a voice crying out right now in the world, too.

The blood of people, millions of people crying out to God.

And here, God could hear Abel's blood crying out to him from the ground.

Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother's blood.

No longer will the ground yield good crops for you.

No matter how hard you work, from now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.

Cain replied to the Lord, My punishment, it's too great for me, too great for me to bear.

You have banished me from the land and from your presence.

You have made me a homeless wanderer.

Anyone who finds me, they're gonna kill me.

And the Lord replied, No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.

Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him.

And so Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

You see, here the lesson of God's judgment is to sin.

The sin brought the curse, and the curse impacted our closeness to God.

He's teaching us what pleases him, what worship and offerings are, and the greater value in offerings, he's giving us ample warning, he's giving us enough time to course correct, and here Cain decided to do what he thought he would never do.

And he brings justice to sin in his presence.

You see, in this world right now, they they feel that it is a leash that has been unleashed, that we will never encounter the face of God, the hand of God, when we sin in his presence.

But there is a day, my friend, in front of glory, in front of King Jesus, when all sin will be ruled, all sin will have a judgment, all the hearts and the thoughts of man will not go hidden, it will actually be uncovered.

Everything you thought of, every heart thought, every intended thing that you wanted to do, he will judge it and weigh through his hands.

You see, he's laying the groundwork through Cain and Abel for what consequences are for sin, sinful actions.

This was a shadow of his kingdom.

He can't allow unholy behavior to go unattested.

You see, this was a shadow of heaven, worship, and also consequences to our choices.

Lesson is this that Cain had fellowship with God, still after the garden, being driven out.

Now he is entertaining and going before God, bringing offerings, and yet he was still with God's presence.

And as soon as he sinned, he committed the sin that drove him away from God's presence.

It isn't that he caused it, the Lord had to judge it.

And he mourned being driven away from his presence because of his own sin.

So, what's the conclusion?

The conclusion is this sin drives humanity from God.

And Christ was sent to redeem humanity from the curse of sin, separation, and death.

You see, throughout the Torah, you're gonna find more and more stories how we have drawn near to God and what drives us away from God.

You're gonna hear how God draws near to us, but at times when we make poor decisions, we actually drive ourselves away from God's presence.

And in our world today, in the 21st century, there is a rivalry, a sibling rivalry right now that you have no idea, but it is prophesied through revelation that we're going to see the biggest sibling rivalry rivalry, but also reconciliation.

God is going to redeem his people to himself once again.

And when he does, mark my words, there will be a great feast in heaven where all of us will sit at the banqueting table of God and no longer sibling rivalries, animosities, sickness, sin, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, anger, anguish, wars, and rumors of wars, all of that will be cast away, all because of one man, and his name is Christ Jesus, our Lord.

I love the word of God, and what you can grab from this is this value him, love him, read about him, and you can actually experience him.

The blessed hope is this is that for many of us we felt like Cain.

And the beauty of us right now in our day and time is that with one reaching out to God, a hand reaching out, a heart reaching out, our minds reaching out, that we surrender everything to God, and he does the ultimate act that is supernatural, which is that he forgives all of our sins.

He forgives, transforms, he changes our mind, he changes our lives.

I've seen murderers give their lives to Jesus, I've seen prostitutes surrender their all to the Lord Jesus and preaching the gospel.

I've seen businessmen, women surrender everything that they have, all for the sake of the glory of God.

Because, and you want to know why?

Because God is real, God lives, God rules, God reigns, and this is who He is.

He is the King, He is our Lord, and He takes humble people and transforms them from the inside and out.

So let's bow our heads and pray.

Friends, we are all sinners in this room, and like Paul, I am the chief of sinners, and by the blood of Jesus, he has washed me clean, and now I come to you, a humble woman, asking you, will you surrender your all?

Will you surrender the debt that you owe to the Lord?

There's a sin debt that has been accumulating over time.

The lies, the cheating, the worry, the angst, the bitterness, the hatred, all of that is sinful behavior, murder, thought in our hearts, the anger, the anguish, and you have been restless, wondering, Lord, what shall I do?

You come and sit here thinking it's for others, and actually the Lord is telling you, actually, I'm here for you.

I'm here to change you.

And if you hear my voice, I'm asking you right now on the count of three.

You want to surrender your life to Jesus and feel the forgiveness of all your sins and be at rest and knowing that your entrance into heaven is sealed and secure, then raise your hand on the count of three.

One, two, three.

Lift your hands, lift your hands if you want your sins forgiven.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

I see you.

I see you, I see you.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Thank you.

Keep your hands lifted, close your eyes, all people.

Let's begin to pray and say this out loud for our friends who are wanting more from God.

Say, Lord Jesus, I give you my heart, I give you my mind, I give you my whole life.

I want to be a Christian, I want to be a follower of the Lord Jesus.

Forgive my sin.

Wash me clean, give me a brand new life, and I will honor you all my days in the strong name of Jesus.

All God's people said amen and amen.