0:01

God , we give you thanks this morning for your presence here

0:03

. We thank you for , yeah , this amazing

0:05

story , for all these

0:07

stories , and we ask God that you

0:10

would yet again make

0:12

them come alive to us this morning

0:14

. Thank you for all of our young ones here who've been helping out we're

0:17

so grateful to have young people in our midst

0:19

and thank you for all the old

0:21

wizards in the room for helping these young ones know

0:23

what's going on . I

0:26

pray for all of us this morning and

0:29

, god , would you , yeah , by your spirit

0:31

, come to us , you reveal

0:34

the deepest parts of us that often

0:36

want to remain hidden , and

0:40

would you heal us in all the ways we so desperately

0:42

need it ? And

0:44

by your spirit , yeah , would you do those things and liberate

0:46

us this morning in Jesus' name . Amen

0:48

, and may you be seated Good morning

0:50

. Well

0:53

, we are in the middle of our how Did we Get here ? Series

0:55

. Before I mention what that's all about , I

0:57

do want to say coming up in the summertime , we have our

0:59

next series , not for a while , but we're

1:01

going to start taking suggestions , questions

1:05

and ideas now . Every summer , we do a series called you pick , or , yeah

1:07

, you pick , and we want to just answer

1:09

any questions that you have that are kind of arising

1:12

for you theological questions , not

1:14

about like cooking or something , but like bible

1:17

and theology questions or topics you want

1:19

us to talk about , or maybe a bible verse you want us to preach

1:21

on you can submit . Submit that you can email them to

1:23

Rachel or to me , or you

1:25

can drop a question in the offering globe

1:28

and then we'll try to answer

1:30

as many as we can . We love doing it and it's kind of like a way

1:32

for you to be involved in the sermon

1:34

series that we do Now . Today

1:36

we're in , I think , week three of

1:38

our how Did we Get here ? Series . As I mentioned before

1:40

, the primary story of the Hebrew

1:43

Bible is the story of the Exodus

1:45

, and it's when the people of Israel , the children

1:47

of Israel , find themselves in Egypt and

1:49

they're slaves under the Pharaoh , and

1:51

the Pharaoh was not a good ruler at this time

1:53

. So they're a slave , they're worked to the bone and

1:55

it's just a bad deal . So they cry out to God and

1:57

God comes and liberates them . As

1:59

we know , god is the God who hears the cries

2:01

of the people and he sets them free , and

2:04

so it's a great story . It's referred

2:06

to a ton in scripture , and then Jesus comes

2:09

, as , by the way , god sends Moses

2:11

, a

2:15

man named Moses , and Miriam , his sister , and Aaron , his brother , and they're the ones that helped

2:18

liberate the people , and later on , jesus is even called a new Moses

2:20

, like . It's like a new deliverance

2:22

from slavery going on in Jesus , but but it's like the primary

2:25

story which raises the question , though how did they

2:27

get there ? How'd they get into Egypt

2:29

enslaved ? How'd they become slaves ? What are

2:31

they doing in Egypt anyway ? Like , why are they in

2:33

Egypt ? That's not where they are supposed to be

2:35

. And what are ? What is Israel

2:37

anyway ? Why do they call themselves the children of Israel

2:39

? What's what's going on there ? So to understand

2:42

, you have to . You have to . How did we get

2:44

here ? Well , you rewind and you read the book of

2:46

Genesis . I also think Genesis

2:48

has profound insight into

2:50

how we got where we are , how

2:52

are we the way that we are , and what are

2:54

the things these ancient texts might

2:56

tell us or suggest to

2:59

us ? So today is the Cain and

3:01

Abel story , and today the sermon is called

3:03

go

3:05

ahead for me , sarah , where is your brother ? And

3:08

it's this question that God comes to . Cain

3:10

asks him where is your brother , and it's oddly

3:12

familiar , sounds a lot like a couple

3:14

of chapters , actually one chapter earlier , when

3:17

God , which is where we left off last week . So

3:19

Adam and Eve eat of the fruit , the

3:21

tree of the knowledge of good and evil . They're not supposed to and

3:23

they do it . And then they're naked and they recognize

3:26

it and they're ashamed and they go and hide . Because

3:28

that's often what we do when we feel ashamed is we hide

3:31

. And God comes to them and says hey

3:37

, where are you ? He asks Adam and Eve , which I think is a hilarious question , like where are

3:39

you ? Where have you gone ? What are you doing ? What are we going to do now ? So God asks

3:41

Cain that same question , but it's sort of different when

3:43

is your brother Now

3:49

to pick up where we were last week ? So they're hiding and then God begins to provide for Adam and Eve

3:51

and he provides clothing , animal skins . This is the first time that we

3:53

have a death in the Bible . These animals

3:55

had to give their life for Adam and Eve to

3:57

be covered . And also , this

4:01

story never mentions the word sin

4:03

. We call it sin , but it's never mentioned

4:05

in the Bible in this Genesis 1 , 2 , or 3

4:07

. Sin does not come onto the scene as a word , until

4:09

the story today , which is the story of Cain and

4:12

Abel , and we'll get to it in a minute , so try to spot it if you can

4:14

. But we call this a

4:16

sin , or the fall or the rebellion of Adam

4:18

and Eve . And they are now clothed

4:21

in animal skins . They had sewn together fig leaves

4:23

, they were trying to

4:25

do their best and God provides for them animal skins

4:27

. Of course , there are other consequences to these kinds of

4:29

things . So they're removed from the garden

4:31

and they're distanced from their homeland

4:34

. You might call this an exile . Exile

4:36

or being separated from your homeland

4:38

, where you belong , where you feel called to

4:41

, where God and you walk together . This

4:43

kind of a thing Freedom , abundance

4:46

, resources that's what you might call home

4:48

. There's this theme in

4:50

the Bible where we're often exiled

4:52

from our home , and then the

4:54

question is how do we get back there

4:56

? And so Adam and Eve are exiled it's the first

4:58

exile in the story from

5:00

the garden , and God puts these angels

5:03

in front of the gateway

5:05

back into Eden to protect them from going back inside

5:08

. And they have to make a way

5:10

on their own outside of the garden

5:12

. And so you know , adam

5:15

and Eve do what many families

5:17

try to do when they lose everything

5:19

, and they try to start their

5:21

lives again and start over

5:23

and they try to make a way

5:25

forward for themselves , like

5:27

many of us do . When we lose everything , we just try

5:29

to put one foot in front of the other and make a way

5:32

forward . And there's hope

5:34

embedded in the story . Remember , a lot of these stories

5:37

are deeply symbolic . I love

5:39

it that it's after the fall or after

5:41

the rebellion that Adam names

5:43

his wife . And you remember from two weeks ago , I'm sure it wife . And you remember

5:45

from two weeks ago , I'm sure it's burned in your memory , from two weeks ago

5:47

Adam names her . What

5:49

Eve ? It wasn't a

5:51

trick question . Yeah , and you're like

5:54

, I think it's Eve , maybe it's

5:56

Josephine . No

5:59

, it was Eve , and Eve

6:01

means the mother of all living

6:03

or the mother of all life . It's an indicator

6:05

, I think , embedded in the story , that , hey , life

6:08

will go on

6:10

. I know you're hiding because you're

6:12

ashamed and you're naked . You've been

6:14

exiled from home , removed

6:19

from the place where you walked with God in the cool of the day , where there was an abundance of resources , and now you're out there

6:22

in God knows where

6:24

. But

6:28

there's going to be life , life will go on . There's hope . There's

6:31

hope embedded in this story . Somebody in

6:33

here this morning just needs to hear that life

6:35

will indeed go on

6:37

. There can be a better life

6:40

tomorrow than there was today . In

6:42

fact , I love this story in Hiroshima

6:44

. After the bombing in Hiroshima , scientists

6:47

and experts predicted that it would

6:49

take 75 years for

6:51

anything to ever grow again in

6:53

the city of Hiroshima , because the contamination

6:56

was so bad in the soil . It would take 75

6:59

years to grow anything , but

7:01

just later that spring buds

7:04

begin to form and plants begin

7:06

to grow up out of the soil . Yeah

7:09

, life will go on yet again

7:11

. And so Adam calls his wife Eve

7:14

the mother of all living

7:16

, because there's life certainly to

7:18

come Now . It says in the text

7:20

. Adam knew Eve and

7:23

they conceived and bore a child named

7:25

Cain . Now , I don't know if you

7:27

took eighth grade biology class , but

7:31

just knowing somebody , that's not how this works

7:33

. Okay , I don't know what's going on

7:35

in the text here , but well

7:38

, here's the reason the word new and you're going to have

7:40

a bit of a heavy dose of Hebrew this morning the word

7:42

new in the Hebrew is the word yadah . Everyone

7:44

say yadah and

7:46

it means to know . Oh , here I'll show you . Here's the definition

7:48

of yadah . Yadah

7:56

means to

7:58

, it's boring or empty talk . Listening

8:00

to a lot of yada . No , that's yada , yada , yada

8:03

, sarah , that's the wrong definition . There we go . Okay , thank you , sarah

8:10

. What am I going to do with her ? Oh my gosh , just kidding , that was my fault . I was trying to

8:12

be funny , it was a joke . Yada means to know or be known . But it's not just

8:14

an intellectual activity , it's

8:16

not just a description of an objective reality

8:18

. It's something much deeper , much

8:20

more experiential , much

8:22

more emotional , an intimate

8:25

connection , a relational connection

8:27

between two things Adam

8:30

knew his wife Eve , and

8:32

they bore a child . So knowledge

8:35

, or to know something , to yada something in the

8:37

Hebrew Bible , it means something more , like a relational

8:39

, intimate , experiential connection . This

8:42

is why , when I ask my kids for the third

8:44

time , please empty

8:46

the dishwasher , they're like yeah , dad , we know . I'm

8:49

like do you know ? Because

8:52

the dishes are still not emptied . This is the third time

8:54

I've had to ask you . Just

8:56

kidding , just kidding . Kiddos Love

9:01

you guys . By

9:10

the way , too many folks think that they know God or that they

9:12

know the scripture . But

9:15

there's a difference between like an intellectual , like oh , I know about that thing

9:18

, or I know that thing and like a deep , relational , intimate , experiential connection

9:20

, to really know something . So

9:23

Adam knows his wife , eve

9:25

, and they bear a son , or she does , rather

9:27

, and they call him Cain , and

9:31

Cain comes onto the scene and then Cain later

9:33

on has a brother and his brother's

9:35

name is Abel . Everyone say Abel , good

9:38

job . Now , in the Hebrew the word

9:40

is actually the word Havel . Everyone

9:43

say Havel . Anyone

9:45

recognize that word ? Well

9:47

, I gave a deeply moving sermon a couple of

9:49

years ago on it . Apparently it's stuck in there

9:51

somewhere . Thank

9:54

you for the three that recognize it . Havel

9:56

is this word in the Hebrew that's used later

9:58

on , but here it means in all the places

10:00

. It means something like breath or

10:03

fog or mist or

10:06

vapor

10:09

. Oh

10:11

, yeah , now you know . Oh , now you got it . Okay

10:13

. So there's

10:15

this indication like . The brilliance

10:18

of this text is unbelievable . There's

10:20

an indication that Abel's life will

10:23

be something like that . There's

10:26

an indication that Abel's life will be something like that and we know

10:28

, looking back , it is brief , here and then gone . Life for

10:31

Abel , of course , the writer of Ecclesiastes

10:33

, the sermon I gave many years ago , says

10:36

that not just Abel's life is like this

10:38

, but everything is like this

10:40

. Everything it's here and

10:43

then it's gone . This is your life

10:45

too , by the way , your

10:49

life . Everything is , he says , meaningless in some

10:51

of the English translations , but the original Greek

10:53

or Hebrew is the word havel . It's

10:58

here and then gone . And it raises the

11:00

question yet again what will you do

11:02

with your brief life

11:05

that's here and then gone ? As

11:08

you walk onto the stage of life and the spotlights

11:10

are on and you begin to make your way off stage

11:12

, what are you going to do with your life ? What

11:15

will you do with it ? So Abel is

11:17

born and has two brothers , and

11:19

these two brothers have different occupations . One

11:22

of them is a shepherd . Abel

11:24

is the shepherd . He takes care of goats or flock

11:26

of some kind , and Cain grows

11:28

things . He's a farmer , and so they bring

11:31

an offering to God . They each bring an offering

11:33

to God . Cain brings an

11:35

offering from the ground he's a farmer , after all

11:37

. He brings things like I don't know

11:39

, the text doesn't say it , but I imagine

11:41

maybe a pineapple . Great fruit . The text doesn't say it , but

11:43

I imagine maybe a pineapple , a grapefruit with some sea salt

11:46

. Oh , it's perfection . Maybe he brings

11:48

some bananas Another wonderful

11:50

fruit Comes with his own carrying

11:52

case . How fantastic

11:54

is that ? Maybe some

11:57

lemons , I don't know . Throw those

11:59

in your water in the morning . Maybe a cutie

12:01

or two ? They

12:04

named these after my wife Aw , thank you . It's . Maybe a cutie or two . They named these

12:06

after my wife Aww , thank you

12:11

. And then

12:13

Abel , forgive

12:16

me , abel brings some

12:18

of the flock and this is not a

12:20

real goat , just in case you were nervous . It's not real

12:22

and there's no animals hurt in this sermon

12:25

this morning but he brings the fat

12:27

portions from his flock and

12:29

he brings it as a sacrifice , as an offering to

12:31

God . And here's the crazy part about

12:33

this story God

12:35

prefers Abel's offering

12:37

over Cain's . And

12:43

if you look at the text closely enough , it never tells you why . It

12:45

doesn't say All this is like yeah , god

12:47

prefers or God approves

12:49

of Abel's offering , of the flock

12:52

, the fat part of the . Maybe God's a

12:54

fan of ribeye steak , I don't know the fatty part of the but

12:56

God approves of Abel's offering

12:58

and not of Cain's . And we never know why . Now many

13:01

scholars or people just try to read

13:03

back into it . Maybe it's because God

13:05

prefers shepherds to farmers

13:07

and all the farmers in the house said

13:09

boo , or is Penny

13:12

, is Penny ? I saw Penny earlier . Yeah

13:14

, penny's like no boo , penny's

13:16

a farmer Whole family . But

13:22

people , maybe that's like a profession of choice that God chooses

13:24

like shepherds over farmers . Some people think , oh no , god prefers maybe meat over

13:27

vegetables . Yeah , all right

13:29

, yeah yeah . And

13:31

all the vegetarians in the room said boom

13:33

, I'm just kidding . This is Elk River . There's no

13:36

vegetarians in the house today . I'm

13:38

kidding . I'm kidding . There's maybe a couple

13:40

. We love you anyway . I'm

13:49

getting in trouble this morning . Maybe that's it . Maybe it's that some people think there's an

13:51

indication that like what Cain brought was like a second best

13:53

, like leftovers and

13:56

if you're a child and have had leftovers , you know why

13:58

God would be mad about that . Like leftovers

14:00

, are you kidding ? Come on , luke

14:02

Beatty grabbed me and goes hey , I love leftovers

14:05

at the 830

14:07

. Fine , but no one knows why

14:09

. God prefers the animal , the

14:11

fatty portions of this flock , over

14:13

Cain's offering of the

14:16

ground . We don't know why . And

14:19

so God tells them . And then it says that Cain

14:22

is not happy about it . In fact

14:24

, in the Hebrew the word is hurrah . Everyone say hurrah

14:26

, hurrah . Now

14:29

, this is an interesting word . It's not exactly anger

14:31

, it's actually more like this

14:33

. It means to glow or to grow

14:35

warm . Yeah , yeah

14:37

, yeah , maybe you've been there , cain

14:42

is beginning to glow or to grow warm

14:44

. He distressed , he's

14:46

displeased , he's upset

14:48

, maybe a bit depressed . His head is

14:51

hanging down low , he's despondent . And

14:53

God comes to him and says this says

14:55

hey , dude , why are you so hurrah

14:58

? Why is your face

15:00

so downcast ? What's the problem ? Buddy

15:02

, and notice the context

15:04

. The context is not his offering . He

15:07

doesn't say why'd you bring me this crummy

15:09

offering ? He doesn't . That's not what he's talking

15:11

about . He says hey , why hold on for me , sarah

15:13

? Not . Yet he says go

15:15

back for me , sarah , please . Yeah

15:18

, he says why , hey , why are you so hurrah

15:20

? Why is your face so downcast

15:22

? I think it's an invitation

15:25

here to reflect on what's going on deep

15:27

inside of Cain , like

15:29

God's like hey , dude , what's the problem

15:31

? What's going on down

15:34

there ? You ever stop and ask yourself

15:36

that question , like when you experience

15:39

a certain emotion that you're like beginning to glow

15:41

or grow warm . You're like , wait

15:43

a minute , why am I responding like this ? Just

15:46

a couple of weeks ago , maybe a couple of days ago , I was talking to my wife . I

15:48

came home and I was telling her a story about

15:50

this interaction with somebody I had had , and

15:52

I was telling her and I meant to just tell her the

15:55

story . But as I'm telling the story , I start going like

15:58

and then this , and then they said this I

16:01

was getting like fired up . I got like feeling

16:03

like , and

16:05

Katie's like like

16:08

what's the problem , ryan ? And

16:10

then I'm like , oh , I feel like I've got some energy around

16:12

this . Yeah , you do , you got some energy

16:15

around it . You

16:18

ever have energy around something that you're like you're talking or you're like

16:20

in the car , like why do I have like all this ? Like why

16:23

am I glowing or growing warm ? What

16:25

in the car ? Like , why do I have like all this ? Like

16:27

, why am I glowing or growing warm ? What's the deal ? Then you just stop and ask

16:29

yourself , like why ? Why ? I have a neighbor who was , or

16:32

a friend sorry friend of mine who was mowing his

16:34

lawn and his neighbor

16:36

came over . It's 8 30 at

16:38

night , so not quite midnight . Okay

16:40

, 8 30 at night , summertime

16:43

, july , which know , no one should

16:45

go to bed in July before midnight . Let's be honest

16:47

, it's July in Minnesota . Let's keep going , let's party

16:49

all night long . And the neighbor comes over and just screams

16:52

at him what are you doing ? I can't believe you . He

16:54

just like lays into my friend as he's mowing the lawn

16:56

and he's like whoa

16:59

, what's the problem , dude ? Like

17:01

this is what I always call . I call like a level 12

17:04

reaction , like a level two infraction

17:06

, like the anger is disproportionate

17:09

from the crime , like he's like really angry

17:11

. What's the problem ? Why

17:18

are you so hurrah ? Maybe you could ask , maybe it's you and you're like anytime a certain

17:20

person comes into the room , you're like and you feel it . Maybe

17:24

you're at the gym and a certain person or group

17:26

of people walk by and you're like or

17:30

maybe that group of people will show up on the news

17:32

. That's

17:36

something that you ought to

17:38

pay attention to . What's

17:41

going on down there ? Why

17:43

are you reacting that way ? Why

17:46

are you so hurrah , upset , why

17:48

are you glowing and growing warm ? What's

17:50

the problem ? Carl

17:53

Jung thought that everybody had what's called the

17:55

shadow side . There's a part of us

17:57

that we just don't know about ourselves . So it's

17:59

a shadow . It's the unconscious . It's

18:01

a little different , but there's a part of you that you

18:03

don't know about it and

18:06

because of that , there are things that are existing

18:08

in that shadow that impact

18:10

your daily life and the decisions . You make , choices

18:13

, you make things that you do , and you don't know

18:15

it because it's in the shadow . It's

18:17

like what's down there , what's

18:20

in the shadow ? Might

18:23

do well to ask ourselves that . I've

18:26

got this bucket that I love it

18:28

goes in my garage . I literally didn't change

18:30

anything about it , I just grabbed it out of my garage and put

18:32

it in my car and drove it here this morning . But

18:35

this bucket collects all kinds of stuff

18:37

and I have no idea what's

18:39

in there and I love

18:42

it . Like once a year I'll kind of go through like what is going

18:44

on in here , like what's in here . So

18:46

we got like a ripstick that nobody

18:48

has ridden since like 1984

18:51

. I'm kidding . Probably

18:58

10 years ago , though , we got an Easton baseball bat . That can't be regulation . This has got

19:00

to be an illegal bat for somebody somewhere . No one's probably used that in

19:02

a long time . A skateboard

19:05

, but not just any skateboard , a

19:07

white fang skateboard , let's

19:10

go . Then we got a single

19:12

snowboard boot that

19:16

doesn't fit anybody in the house , no

19:18

kidding . We got a basketball

19:20

that's really not in good shape like

19:24

my nuggets , and we got a wiffle

19:26

ball . We got all kinds of stuff down here . I

19:28

got a catcher's mitt , and here's the thing it's

19:30

a Mizuno catcher's mitt . None of my kids

19:32

caught in baseball . I don't

19:34

know where it came from . Oh , check

19:36

this out , I got a bolt . That's why my garage

19:39

door doesn't work . Probably I don't know what's going on . That's

19:41

why my garage door doesn't work . Probably I

19:45

don't know what's going on , like

19:48

what's in there ? Like , yeah , that's like Cain , there's

19:51

all this stuff down there . I

19:55

don't know if he knows what's going on in there

19:57

. This is maybe like you and I . There's things going on deep inside of

19:59

ourselves and our psyche , our soul . And if God

20:02

were to ask you , why are you so upset ? What's

20:05

down there ? Because here's

20:07

the deal these things down in there can

20:09

begin to cause problems for you and

20:11

they can manifest in symptoms , like

20:14

behaviors , and

20:16

so your behavior is impacted and affected by the

20:18

things that are going on deep down in

20:20

your soul , and oftentimes you don't even know

20:22

it . What's

20:24

down there ? This is why alcoholics

20:27

will say things like oh yeah , alcoholism

20:29

is not the problem , it's the

20:32

solution to the problem . See

20:35

, alcohol and drinking too much alcohol is not really

20:37

the problem . There's something else deeper beneath

20:39

the surface , going on down in here somewhere

20:42

. That's the problem . The

20:44

alcohol is simply the solution

20:46

to the problem . So

20:49

we would do well to ask what's the

20:51

problem ? What's going

20:53

on deep beneath the surface . Things

20:56

like drinking too much or numbing

20:58

out with medication , or even anger

21:00

or lust , or an incessant drive

21:03

to work more , or Sex , or

21:05

whatever your thing is eating too

21:07

much , meditating these are all solutions

21:09

to the problem . What's

21:12

the problem ? Here's the thing too

21:14

, though these things , when they manifest these

21:16

symptoms , they have a message

21:18

embedded within them . If you can find it , that

21:20

point to the problem

21:22

. The thing in your life is just not working

21:25

. It's down

21:27

there . So we might ask ourselves what's

21:30

not working in our lives . I

21:37

have a good friend of mine from Colorado . I

21:39

was on the phone with a couple of my buddies and

21:41

we were talking and like I'm 44 now

21:44

, so I'm like losing the capacity to kind of just

21:46

, I don't know , not care about deep

21:48

things anymore . So like hey , dude , just I don't know , not care about deep things anymore . So

21:50

like hey , dude , I

21:54

go , hey , how's your marriage ? And

21:57

my friend you know the

21:59

two of them we were talking one of them goes , man

22:02

, it's just a struggle , man . I

22:04

said , well , talk to me about it . So we're talking a bit about it . And I'm

22:07

no expert in marriage , I just wanted to talk to him about it . So we're talking a bit about it and I'm

22:09

no expert in marriage , I just wanted to talk to him about it . And so after

22:11

a while I go hey , maybe you guys could use some counseling

22:14

, you could talk to a counselor . And he

22:16

says , ryan , I don't want to go to a counselor . And

22:18

his reason was not because he's

22:20

actually from Minnesota . I'm a Minnesotan and

22:23

I can just do it . Minnesota , right , man

22:25

, I don't need no counsel , I can do it myself . Let

22:28

me go to the garage and get a hammer . That

22:32

doesn't always work . But

22:36

this is why he said it . It wasn't because

22:38

he didn't want to , he

22:41

thought he'd fix it . He said because if I go down there

22:43

with her , I'll

22:45

uncover things that I'm afraid we

22:48

won't make it through it with her

22:50

. I'll uncover things that I'm afraid we won't make

22:52

it through it . Like

22:55

there are things in our closet , there's skeletons in there , and if we start digging around

22:57

in there it'll wreck the marriage . What is he saying ? He's like

22:59

Ryan , there's things down in here . I

23:02

don't want to deal with them and we can't . If

23:04

we do , if we encounter them and face them

23:06

, it could wreck the marriage . Let them

23:08

lie . There's skeletons

23:11

or dragons or demons or something

23:13

like down in there , like let's just leave it be , otherwise

23:18

it'll kill the marriage . I said , dude , I get it and

23:20

that's heavy , but

23:25

if you don't go

23:27

down there , the marriage will die anyway . What's

23:31

down there ? What are the things in our lives and these , by the

23:33

way , are not like oh , when I was 12 , I got yelled at by a teacher . It

23:35

could be that I don't mean like past things

23:38

, I mean things right now that you don't even know

23:40

of , that you're repressing , that you aren't aware

23:42

of , that you don't want to see , that are manifesting

23:44

as symptoms in your life , that are wrecking life

23:47

for you . What's

23:51

not working ? Maybe you get angry because

23:54

your marriage isn't working . Maybe

23:58

what's down there is that you

24:00

actually hate your job . So

24:02

when that guy cuts you off in traffic , you're like , oh

24:04

, oh , oh , like

24:07

, what did that guy do ? Maybe

24:14

you just hate your job . Maybe you're deeply lonely and that's why you

24:18

drink too much , because you're lonely . Yeah , what's

24:21

down there ? And Cain , why are

24:23

you so hurrah ? What's down there

24:25

, cain ? And

24:28

then God tells Cain , I love this . He says this to

24:30

him Go

24:32

ahead for me , sarah . He says if you do well , will

24:35

you not be accepted Like

24:37

dude . Hey , just respond , cain

24:40

, we can work through this . You're

24:43

not too far gone , let's make this , but

24:45

if you don't , sin is at

24:47

your door . One translation

24:49

says it's crouching at your door and

24:52

it's a desire is to have you

24:54

, it wants you and you

24:56

must master it . By the way

24:58

, I love it . This word desire , and the hebrew

25:00

is the word tashuka . Everyone say tashuka . This

25:03

is the root word , for it desires

25:05

to have you . Now , tashuka could mean the desire

25:08

that a woman has for a man or

25:10

that a man has for a woman , like the sexual desire

25:12

. It also can mean the desire

25:15

that a craving , wild

25:17

predator beast has for its prey

25:19

. Dude

25:22

, be careful , cain . Sin

25:24

is crouching at your door . It desires

25:26

to have you , it wants

25:28

to eat you . King , this

25:31

is no joke man . This

25:34

is a malevolent , malicious force

25:36

. In post-biblical um

25:38

writings , like especially the dead sea scrolls

25:40

, they write about sin less

25:43

like individual deeds , like less

25:45

about stealing a candy bar or middle

25:47

fingering , the more about like

25:49

this force that's at work in the world

25:51

, that inspires people's

25:53

behaviors and it desires to

25:56

govern over people and

25:58

it desires to have them . Be

26:01

careful , sin is

26:03

no joke . It's crouching

26:05

at your door and

26:08

it wants to have you . And

26:14

one verse later we read this he

26:17

went to the field and Cain rose up against his brother

26:19

and he killed him . Man

26:21

, it

26:26

got him . It got

26:28

him . And notice , too many times

26:30

we think about sin like , oh , it's just

26:32

me , I'm not gonna hurt anybody . No

26:35

, it's not true . Unless you live on

26:37

the moon , your sin will spill

26:39

over into the lives of people around

26:41

you . His own brother dies because

26:46

of what's down there . He

26:49

kills him . Sin

26:52

always spills over

26:54

. It's this craving , ravenous

26:57

beast that desires to have

26:59

you and

27:01

he kills his brother , his own brother . And

27:03

then God comes to him and he asks him the question

27:05

where's your brother Abel ? Where

27:09

is he ? It's

27:11

sort of like where are you , where's

27:13

your brother ? God knows where he is . What kind of a question

27:15

is that ? Here's what Justin

27:17

Martyr says . I love about this text

27:19

. He says it wasn't for lack of understanding or

27:22

knowledge on God's part when he asked Adam

27:24

where he was or Cain where Abel was , but

27:26

to convince each what kind of

27:28

person they were . It's

27:30

like God's like dude , hey , hey , hey

27:40

, what's down there , man ? What

27:43

have you done ? And

27:47

what are we gonna do now ? I

27:50

need to heal some things in there , cain

27:52

? What's

27:55

in there ? And then Cain's response

27:58

. If you read it , he says this . He

28:01

says am I my brother's keeper ? I

28:03

don't know . Am

28:05

I my brother's keeper ? Cain says

28:07

I don't know

28:09

and he lies to him . And he says am I my brother's keeper ? Cain says I don't know and

28:11

he lies to him and he says am I my brother's keeper ? Turns

28:16

out yes , he is his brother's keeper . Wanted

28:20

him to care for his brother . Jesus

28:22

, many years later , says something like hey

28:24

, the summation of all the laws to love

28:26

the Lord , your God , with all your heart , soul , mind and strength and love

28:28

your neighbor as yourself . You

28:30

are your brother's keeper and your sister's

28:33

keeper . And then later on

28:35

, of course , cain is terrified

28:37

that he's gonna die

28:39

. There are some consequences , by the way , to this sin . So

28:41

open your Bibles in Genesis 4

28:43

. There are some consequences , by the way , to this sin

28:45

. So open your Bibles in Genesis 4 . And it says this or

28:48

I can just read it to you if you don't have time

28:50

to open it . It says I don't know . Am I my brother's keeper ? The Lord says and what

28:52

have you done ? Listen , I love this . The

28:54

writer is so brilliant here . Your

28:59

brother's blood cries out to me from the ground . Remember that God is the God who

29:01

hears the cries of the oppressed , and

29:04

God answers those cries . He

29:06

hears the cries

29:08

it says your brother's

29:10

blood cries out . Now you're under a curse

29:13

and driven from the ground , which opened its

29:15

mouth to receive your brother's blood from

29:17

your hand . When you work the ground

29:19

, it will no longer yield its crops for

29:21

you . You will be a restless

29:23

wanderer on the earth . So

29:27

there's consequences

29:29

. He's like you're going to be , hey

29:31

, you're going to be a restless wanderer . When

29:33

you go out there and Cain

29:35

finds himself in exile

29:37

, away from home , and Cain's

29:40

terrified and he begs God

29:42

hey , will you protect me

29:44

? And

29:46

God says yes , I will . And he marks

29:48

his forehead to

29:51

protect him . Wait a minute . God

29:53

protects this murderous , selfish

29:56

brother killer . Yeah

29:59

, he does . He marks

30:01

him , he protects him . And , as Terence Fretheim

30:03

suggests this very poetically , it

30:05

turns out that God is in fact , abel's

30:08

brother's keeper . God

30:11

takes care of Cain , even

30:13

in his brokenness and his sin . And Cain's

30:15

response look at this in verse 13, . I have it on the

30:17

screen . Cain says this my

30:20

punishment , this punishment , is too great

30:22

for me to bear . My punishment

30:25

, this punishment is too great for me to bear

30:27

. In fact , in the Hebrew you could also

30:29

render it this way . You could

30:31

also say it that Cain

30:33

says to God is

30:37

my sin too

30:40

great to be forgiven ? Maybe

30:43

you've been there Like this , is it I finally have

30:45

done enough ? Like , once

30:47

my husband finds out , once my neighbor

30:49

finds out , once my coworkers

30:52

find out , once the pastor

30:54

finds out , once God finds out I'm

30:56

done Like

31:02

, my sin is just , it's too great , it's

31:04

too great . And if that's you now

31:06

, I want you to open your Bibles , page 989

31:08

. I'm going to grab your copy of the Bible . So

31:11

turn to 1 John . And

31:14

this is how we're going to end . Page

31:17

989 . And

31:20

actually , would you please stand ? That

31:36

question resonates deeply , god , have I finally done enough that you're ready

31:39

to be done with me ? Like , listen , no doubt

31:41

sin has dramatic , devastating

31:44

consequences . I bet you could list them yourself

31:46

, I

31:49

bet your neighbor could list theirs , I could list mine . I

31:51

got it . No doubt Sin

31:53

is a destructive , venomous

31:55

, vitriolic , murderous thing

31:57

. It can wreck lives . It's wrecked many

32:00

lives . The question is is there any way

32:02

to go through it ? Is there any

32:04

way back from the edge ? What

32:06

am I done for ? Well

32:09

, I'm going to read from the Bible , 1

32:11

John much later . This is after

32:14

Jesus has come , has died

32:16

, and we're told in the Gospels he

32:19

does this as a response to sin . So

32:22

there's something there . But then the author of 1

32:24

John writes this in verse nine

32:26

uh , first john one nine

32:28

actually , we'll start in verse eight says

32:30

if we say that we have no sin

32:32

, we deceive ourselves

32:35

and the truth is not in us . Does

32:37

that sound familiar to anybody ? Yeah

32:39

, it's from our confession

32:42

liturgy . But if we confess

32:44

our sins , he who is faithful

32:46

and just listen to me , look

32:49

at me in the eyeballs If you are not faithful

32:51

, there's somebody who is On

32:53

days you're not faithful and

32:56

there might be more of those days than otherwise . You

32:58

need to know there is somebody who is always faithful

33:00

. In Romans we're told that we are saved

33:02

by faith in Christ . It can also be rendered

33:05

. We're saved because of the faithfulness of

33:07

Christ . Christ

33:09

remains faithful even when we're not . I'm

33:12

not saying celebrate your unfaithfulness . I'm

33:15

saying celebrate the faithfulness of Christ

33:17

Because

33:19

he's faithful . And on days when you're

33:22

asking yourself this question , read this

33:24

If we confess

33:26

our sins , he who is faithful and just

33:28

and just in

33:30

the Hebrew , by the way . In the Hebrew mind to

33:32

be just didn't mean you were a judge with

33:34

scales . It meant that you would do what you promised

33:37

to do . A person who's just

33:39

, is someone who does what they say

33:41

They'll show up on time , they'll give you their . Is someone who does what

33:43

they say . They'll show up on time , they'll give you their . Whatever they promise

33:45

they'll follow through with that . So this

33:47

person Jesus he's talking about

33:49

, is faithful when we're not

33:51

. He's just . He'll

33:56

keep his promises when we don't and he

33:58

will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from which unrighteousness

34:00

. What does it say ? God

34:03

, you guys ? Yes

34:06

, the answer is yes , he

34:08

will forgive you . Or rather , the answer is no , it's

34:10

not too great to be forgiven , it's

34:12

not . Sin

34:15

is destructive , no doubt , and

34:17

don't forget that . It's crouching

34:19

at your door ready to devour you . Take

34:22

that seriously . But

34:24

, friends , also take seriously the

34:26

cross of Christ that

34:28

reaches deep into our brokenness , the

34:30

most broken , shameful , forgotten , god-forsaken

34:34

places ever . That's where it goes , right into there . And

34:38

it's for free . I

34:40

mean , it costs something , but

34:44

Jesus offers that to you while

34:46

you were yet a sinner in Christ . We're

34:48

going to close in this way . And then we got one

34:50

more thing to do , but we're going to close . We're going to do confession

34:52

. So I want to allow for like 60

34:54

seconds for you to close your eyes

34:57

and just pray and ask the Spirit

34:59

, god , what's down there ? What's

35:01

down there ? And

35:04

, by the way , you might need some help , because

35:06

if it's the shadow , you can't see

35:08

it , or if it's repressed , you

35:10

won't even know you're repressing it . You

35:13

might need the help of a friend who can have eyes

35:16

to see the things that you don't want to see . Ask

35:18

them . You need a pastor

35:21

to come and help you . I'm available Sonia

35:23

, kirsten , any of the staff , ben

35:25

, someone

35:27

in your house church . You might need a therapist

35:29

to do some stuff . It's fine , what's

35:34

down there ? Pray , even , just ask God , what

35:36

is in there that I need to have healed ? Show

35:39

me , because

35:41

those things need to be healed . God wants to heal you

35:43

and liberate you . And

35:45

then also , we're going to ask God what sins

35:47

do you want me to confess this morning and

35:50

bring them to God , and , dare

35:52

I say , boldly bring them to

35:54

God , Not to brag about them , but like , hey

35:56

, the

36:00

cross of Christ reaches , even this , the cross reaches and bring them to God

36:02

. So if you're a guest guest , you've

36:04

never done this before just close your eyes and kind of follow

36:07

along and and just just

36:09

pray and ask is there anything that you

36:11

would want to confess ? You don't just say it out loud , just we're going

36:13

to do it in silence here and then we'll

36:15

do this at the end . So let's just take 60

36:17

seconds in silence here to confess

36:19

our sins . Amen

37:08

. Let's confess our sins together . We'll use

37:10

the words on the screen Most merciful

37:12

God . We confess that we

37:14

are in bondage to sin and

37:16

cannot free ourselves . We

37:19

have sinned against you in thought , word

37:21

and deed by what we have done

37:23

and by what we have left undone

37:25

. We have

37:27

not loved you with our whole heart . We

37:30

have not loved our neighbors as ourselves

37:32

. For the sake of your Son

37:34

, jesus Christ , have mercy

37:36

on us , forgive us , renew

37:39

us and lead us so that

37:41

we may delight in your will and

37:43

walk in your ways to the glory

37:45

of your holy name . Amen

37:47

. So may you hear the good news this

37:49

morning that God loves you , god

37:53

forgives you of all of your sins

37:55

and God wants to

37:57

raise you from the dead . In the name of the

37:59

Father , son and Holy Spirit , amen .