Genesis 4:1-9 - WHAT HAS GOD GIVE YOU TO KEEP

INTRODUCTION:

We read the story of two men who are keepers of two gifts, both men are from God and both gifts are from God. We see the picture of two covenants one is of the flesh and is the first covenant and the other is of the spirit and is the second covenant. We hear the story of two men who are given something to keep from the Lord. The gifts are precious to the Lord, they are good in the Lord's eyes, and the Lord trusted each one enough to give them something special to keep.

God's plan for them both was big, God's investment for both was bold, and God's expectations for both was the best blessing possible for the keeper. God always gives big, God always makes room, God always has confidence in you, and God always gives you something to keep.

WHAT HAS GOD GIVEN YOU TO KEEP?

A precious gift, a renewed call, an opportunity for a new start. Does God want you to be more faithful in church, to be honest in your tithing and financial giving, to read the Scriptures and diligently pray?

You may say Pastor I feel OK with all those things and I am trying my best but somehow I feel there is something. Do you know that God has given us all his precious love to keep for him and share with others?

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT IN 2008?

ILLUSTRATION:

Christian Cheong

From Sermon Central Online - Offer up Your Gift - Antonio Stradivarius

A young boy Antonio loves music, but his voice was high and squeaky, and so he did not make the tryouts for the Cremona Boy's Choir. When he took violin lessons, the neighbours persuaded his parents to make him stop. Yet Antonio still wanted to make music.

His friends gave him a hard time because his only talent was cutting things up. When Antonio was older he served as an apprentice to a violin-maker. He learnt to cut out wood and developed the skill of carving. His hobby became his craft. He worked patiently and faithfully. By the time he died, he left over 1,500 violins, each one bearing a label that read, "Antonio Stradivarius." They are the most sought-after violins in the world and sell for more than $100,000 each.

Antonio couldn't sing or play or preach or teach but he used his ability, and his violins are still making beautiful music today.

Our potential is God's gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to Him.

What God has given you is precious, what you keep and what you give away will determine how you are able to both be blessed and be the blessing God has intended you to be.

God intended both Cain and Abel to be a blessing to their parents, to each other, to the entire creation of God, and to God himself.

But they chose to be keepers of different things. Cain was a tiller or keeper of the ground and Abel was a keeper of sheep. Cain was a keeper of that which produced fruit of itself from its own seed. Abel was a keeper of that which reproduced by procreation whose life was in the blood and whose seed was in the father.

WHAT HAS GOD GIVEN YOU TO KEEP AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?

ILLUSTRATION:

Douglas Vincent - From Sermon Central Online

Erwin Mcmanus asked a highly educated UCLA graduate what he was planning to do with his life. Looking for clarification he asked, "you mean to pay the bills?"

Erwin answered with no small amount of passion, "No, not to pay the Bills" He went on to explain to him that if his only goal was to pay his bills, he would be living a nauseating, self-indulgent life. Some people live the kind of life where survival is a daily struggle, others, at their best can barely pay the bills.

However those who have be privileged with a healthy upbringing and great education have to embrace more responsibility than paying the bills.

"If it were within his reach to produce wealth, to create jobs for the unemployed, if he had been entrusted by God with the skills and capacity to improve the quality of life for hundreds, if not thousands, it would be sin for him to do anything else.

You see Brothers and Sisters you can have a pay the bills attitude in 2008, just get by the best way you can, and try your best to deal with your issues as they come. Or you can call 2008 blessed of the Lord and give it your best. You can choose to pay the bills and just get by or you can build up both spiritual and material wealth and give life and help to those who are in need.........It is up to you because God has given you something to hold for him.

V1 - Eve rejoiced when she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord.

She must have thought Cain was the promised one because it was as though you could hear her shout the drought is over, the fields will bare us good fruit again, surely the blessing of the Lord will be upon us.

Maybe Adam and Eve pushed Cain to be a tiller of the ground because God had cursed the ground because of their sin. Maybe Adam and Eve was trying to work out their Salvation instead of looking upon the innocent blood that would have to be shed for their sins.

Gen 3:17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Gen 3:18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Yes Cain was a tiller or keeper of the ground and no matter how hard he worked the ground was cursed and could not satisfy the huge debt sin had already accumulated. No matter how hard you work you can never free yourself from your sin, you will never be able to satisfy the hunger in your soul by the natural means, or from your material wealth.

The seed that Cain was sowing was good but the ground was cursed. Your works may be good but your sins only have one remedy and that is the precious blood of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God. Cain kept on keeping that which could never be a blessing until things were made right with God.

You can keep on keeping on and you will never be happy. You can keep on struggling but you will never find peace. You can keep on being a keeper and it may smell good, it may taste good, it may look good, and it may feel good....but God will never accept what you can give until you give yourself unto the Lord.

V5 - Cain had lost his joy

V6 - God came to Cain but Cain refused to answer God

V7 - Sin lied at the door

V8 - Cain murdered his own brother

V9 - Cain surrendered to being a keeper - Am I my brother's keeper

V10 - Cain had rejected the blood and now the blood was crying out in judgment from the ground

ILLUSTRATION: Sermon Central Online

In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church's integrity problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior." He goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation, without repentance."
- C. Swindoll, John the Baptizer, Bible Study Guide, p. 16.

Brothers and Sisters the biggest lie the devil tells us is that we can be a keeper of sin rather than a keeper of the commandments of God. When you repent things change in your life but it is up to you to be a keeper of the things of God.

As a Christian you have the power, you have the authority, and you have the right to live a victorious life. God has made you a keeper. Now in 2008 what are you going to do with it?

V2 - Abel was a keeper of sheep

V4 - Abel brought the firstlings of the flock and had the respect of the Lord

V10 - Abel's blood cried out unto the Lord from the ground

MT 23:35 - Jesus said Abel's blood was righteous

Heb 11:4  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 speaketh.

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

CONCLUSION:

Anonymous - Sermon Central Online

"I wish it [procrastination] were no worse than a thief. It is a murderer, and that which it kills is not time merely, but immortal souls."

Saint Augustine - Sermon Central Online

"God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination."

Thucydides - Sermon Central Online

"The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not graven only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives."