Give God Your Best In Faith - James Woodley and The Upper Room Church

Let's praise the Lord. Hallelujah. It was the blood that

reaches way down in the lowest valley. Hallelujah.

All of us was in the valley at one time.

But the blood reached way down. Praise God.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

We praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

My soul is very happy this morning to be in

the house of the Lord among.

The people of God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Praise God. Hallelujah.

We thank God for another opportunity to come together with

the people of God.

Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Hallelujah. Glory to God.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Hallelujah.

We thank God for those that are here, those that

are on the phone line, listening in. We thank God

for Those, praise God, for the opportunity to come together

and talk about the Lord.

Talk about Jesus, what he's done. Amen. Praise God. The

Lord laid upon my heart.

Praise God, when we was in the 11th chapter of Hebrews,

the Lord laid upon my heart for me to stay there.

To stay there in that chapter 11. Praise God, because God,

people need faith. We all need more faith. We need

our faith. We got the faith, but we just need

to activate it.

Amen.

So indulge with me for the next for the rest

of the year. That's going to be focusing on faith.

Amen. Praise God. Hallelujah. And the 11th chapter of Hebrews,

we talked about that. Amen.

It says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for.

The evidence of things not seen. And the Bible in

basic English reads like this. Now faith is the substance

of things hoped for. The sign that the things not

seen are true. Amen.

Praise God. Amen. And it says, for by it the

elders attain a good report. Amen.

And through faith we understand that the worlds were framed

by the word of God so that things which are

seen were not made of things which do appear.

That's what we ministered, I think, last time we were together,

I believe. Amen.

But what I want to focus on this morning is,

it says, by faith Abel offered unto God a more

excellent sacrifice than Cain. By which he obtained witness that

he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts. And by

it he being dead. Yet speaking. And how he is

yet speaking. Praise God. Is through his blood. The blood

that was shed. And.

His blood. Is still speaking to us. And the scripture

says he.

Offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.

You know, praise God, Cain and Abel.

Were the children of Adam and Eve.

Amen. Abel was the firstborn and Cain was the secondborn. Amen.

And matter of fact, I'm going to go back to

Genesis chapter 4, because this is where this is referring to.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

And I want to talk to you about the faith

that Cain had. In Genesis chapter 4, it says, Adam

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain

and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

In verse 2, it says, she bare his brother Abel.

And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was

a tiller of the ground.

Cain was more, he was in agriculture. And Abel was

A keeper of sheep.

It says in the process of time, it came to

pass that Cain bought of.

The fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

Praise God. Amen. This offering, praise God, that you shared

with God this morning. Praise God.

I want to know, praise God, did you offer it

unto God in faith? Or did you just throw it

in the pan and say, okay, I'm just getting rid

of this.

I'm just getting rid of these dollars or two or

three dollars. Amen.

But what I take from this, when God, praise God,

when we give unto God, we need to do it

in faith.

Believing that God is going to bless it and receive it. Amen. Hallelujah.

And so Jesus.

Said when he was here, he said, it's more blessed

to give than to receive. Our minds can't compute that.

Our brain just go haywire over that term. But it

says in the process of time, it came to pass

that Cain bought of the fruit of the ground and

offering it to the Lord. But it says Abel also

brought of the firstling of his flock of the fat

thereof and the Lord had.

Respect unto Abel and his offering. So we see here

two people.

Going to church, putting their offering in the church. But

God had respect unto Abel's offering.

Amen.

And so we don't know. It doesn't specifically say why

God did not accept Cain's offering. But it says unto

Cain and to his offering, he had no respect or

had no respect. And Cain was very wrought and his

countenance failed. In other words, Cain got mad. Now, we

don't know why.

God accepted Abel's offering.

But I got a little clue that I want to

put in and it's just my opinion. But when the

writer says, listen to this, when the writer says in

the process of time it came to pass that Cain

bought his fruit of the ground.

As an offering to the Lord.

In other words, he showed up that Sunday morning at

church and he bought some fruit from his God. Abel

Bought some fruit. But I want you to listen to

what the writer says. Cain, he says, Abel bought the

firstling of his flock. And I think that's the operative

word right there.

First thing. Glory to God. Hallelujah. When you get, when you,

praise God, when you sit.

Down to do your bills, do you think about God

first before you pay your bills?

Amen.

Do you pull out your 10% of your offering or

whatever you're going to give? I'm going to go and

take care of this because I'm going to give to

God first.

Hallelujah. Is that your mindset? Praise God.

And I noticed, praise God, it says the first sling

of his flock. In other words, off the top, he

gave God. He gave an offering to God from the top.

But it didn't say Cain did it. I don't know

if it was cucumbers or tomatoes or what. I don't

know if he bought the rotten woods that God offered

to God.

I don't know what it was.

But I just think that because the scripture says that

Abel bought the firstling of his flock. In other words,

he bought the very best. God wants our very best.

Praise God.

When we come before him, do you take your very

best or are you taking to God, praise God, your leftovers?

And you know what?

The very best that you and I can give to

God is ourselves.

Amen. God wants you. Your offering is good, but he

wants you. Thank you, Jesus.

But unto Cain and his offering, God had no respect

and Cain was very, very mad and his countenance failed.

And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth?

Why is thy countenance fallen? You know, it's your attitude.

Praise God expresses your faith. What kind of faith do

you have? Because it will manifest itself. And so the

scripture says, if thou doest well, this is God talking,

if thou doest well, shalt.

Thou not be accepted?

In other words, God's given him an opportunity to straighten

it out. Get yourself together. You know, sometimes when your

child is acting up and you say, oh, get yourself together.

Because you're gonna get some punishment so god is talking to.

Him he said if thou doest well thou shalt not

be accepted if thou doest well sin lies at the

door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou

shall rule over him praise god hallelujah so when you

get mad the scripture tells us, praise God, be angry

and sin not.

Amen?

But when you take action on that anger, praise God,

that gets you into a different territory. And so the

scripture says, Taught with Abel his brother. And it came

to pass that they were in the field. That Cain

rose up against Abel.

His brother. And slew him. Praise God. And I think

there was no reason to kill. His brother. But he

was so angry. He was mad. Because God. Had respect

unto his brother. And so the scripture says.

The Lord said unto Cain. Where is Abel, my brother?

And you know what Cain said? I'm not.

I know not. Number one, he says, I know not.

Then he got a little smart mouth with God and said,

am I my brother's keeper?

He got the smart mouth with God. And God says,

what hast thou done?

The boss of thy brother's blood cried unto me from

the ground and knocked art thou cursed from the earth

which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood

from thy hand and went thou to the ground and

shall not his forth yield unto thee that her strength

and the future and the vagabond shall not be in

the earth. Or as God passed judgment on him because

he killed his brother.

But I don't want to focus so much on Cain.

I want you to know that Abel, the scripture says,

thy faith, Abel, offered a.

More excellent sacrifice. Yes. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God.

And this morning, I want to know, where is your faith?

When you come before God, where is your faith this morning?

Praise God.

And give God, praise God, give God the priority that

he's supposed to have in your life.

Praise God. Hallelujah.

We as natural people, praise God, we put God on

the back burner, but God wants to be number one.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Hallelujah. Those of you

who are married or in a relationship.

You want your spouse to make you number one.

Praise God. You don't want him going all over town.

Praise God.

Taking care of everybody else's house and everybody else's children

and buying food.

For their house. And then you show up. Praise God. Amen.

That won't go well with a lot of us guys,

will it? Won't go well with a lot of us girls.

Praise God. Your husband's sitting at the house, but you

all over town. Praise God. Take care of everybody else.

Then you show up.

But God wants to have priority in our life. And

I take note of the fact that, praise God, Abel

provided the first fruits of his labor.

God wants the first fruits of our labor toward him.

Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

And so the faith that Abel had, that he took the.

Best, God wants your best. Amen?

God wants your best, not according to the world's standard,

because you know the world got a standard, praise God,

that's opposed to God. But the scripture says, present your

bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy.

Yeah.

Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

It's reasonable for you to live holy. It's reasonable for

you to live right. It's reasonable. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

It's reasonable for you to walk upright, praise God, and

lean on Jesus.

Praise God.

And so this image, praise God, you know, in our world,

in our culture, folks are just killing and shooting and

carrying on.

Praise God on the news.

We heard about the woman, praise God, who killed her

three children, her three babies. And it's all on the news.

And that's bad enough. But when I found out that

she was a pediatric nurse.

God knows.

I'm thinking to myself, the devil is just, he's just

busy and he don't care.

Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God.

And before this evening, go out when we wake up

tomorrow morning, we can probably hear about some shooting somewhere.

Because that spirit of murder, that spirit of anger, praise God,

makes people, praise God, hallelujah, go off on the deep end.

The devil will take you, praise God, further than you

want to go. Praise God, make you stay longer than

you want to stay. Because, praise God, you just feel

like you owe it to yourself.