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| Amazing GraceText: Genesis 4:1-16
Title: A Missing Grace
Introduction
Today I will focus on grace. The title of our message this morning is, “A Missing Grace.”
Yes, God’s grace is amazing. But if we... + Full Story | Another Articles | |
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| Text: Genesis 4:1-16 Title: A Missing Grace Introduction Today I will focus on grace. The title of our message this morning is, “A Missing Grace.” Yes, God’s grace is amazing. But if we are not careful we will find God’s amazing grace to be a missing grace. Do you personally find God’s grace amazing? When John Newton speaks of “amazing grace,” it is this very quality that enchants him: “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” Newton is not reporting that when he was lost, he found the way home but that when he was lost, someone found him. The finding was not his achievement. The finding was God’s achievement. That is what makes his grace is amazing. Personal testimony: God’s amazing grace in my life. I know you too have lots of stories of God’s amazing grace in your life. Your presence here today is a proof to the fact that God’s grace is truly amazing in your life. But is it possible to miss or not experience God’s amazing grace in our lives? Is it possible for God’s amazing grace to be a missing grace? This morning I will tell you the story of a man who missed God’s amazing grace in his life. His name is Cain. Now let’s talk about Cain. He had everything going for him. When he was born it appears that his mother, Eve, thought he was the fulfillment of God’s promise. After Adam & Eve’s sin, God had said that someday the offspring of the woman would strike the serpent’s head. This must be the fulfillment! I have gotten it! Eve thought. When Cain was born she named him Cain, which means, “I have brought forth” or “I have acquired” (Footnote) or simply, “I have gotten.” (v.1) Eve had extraordinary reasons for thinking this child was special. In fact, when she and Adam had another son, Abel, Cain remained to have “gotten” a special part in her heart. I suppose the boys grew up with normal sibling rivalries. Each seems to be world apart from the other. Cain was a tiller of the soil and Abel as a keeper of sheep (v.2). Cain loved cultivating the soil, Abel loved tending the flock. Each of the boys follows different vocational choices. In time they brought there offerings to God. Naturally, they brought something from their kind of work. Cain brought “the fruit of the ground.” Abel brought from “the firstborn of his flock.” (v.3-4) Everything seems to be fine and expected except that the biblical writer adds a phrase in describing Abel’s offering; he bought the “fat portions.” I suspect this indicates that Abel was doing something out of the ordinary by giving God the choicest parts. And God was pleased. The writer to Hebrews called this faith. (Heb. 11:4) Do you give God more than the ordinary and more than what is expected of you? That means you go the extra mile. That means extending yourselves. That means making sacrifices for God. This is how Abel presented his offering to God and accepted his offering. But Cain’s offering he did not accept. What went wrong with Cain’s offering? I think that the issue here is not necessarily on the quality of the offering more than the character of the “offerer.” We can easily spot that Cain was competing with his brother. Competition has a place in life but not in worship. We should not compete to get God’s attention and approval. God will reward us all on the basis of our individual offerings to him. There is no place for competing in worship. In fact, true worship has little or nothing to do with the satisfaction of the worshipper or the giver, but the satisfaction of the recipient. This is where we often have the misunderstanding in worship. So frequently we judge worship by the pleasure or the fulfillment it gives us. That is wrong! Worship is not about me; it is always about God. When I become absorbed with how much worship benefits me, I make myself the object of worship rather than God I profess to adore. If in my worship of God I happen to be blessed, that is a happy coincidence. That indeed is a blessing. God and his pleasure is my object of worship. But most often we miss that. Like most of us, Cain missed that too. That is the reason why he was so angry when his offering was not accepted (v.5). You see if his attitude was right and his intention was to please God in his offering, he could have sought for other means to make his offering acceptable. He could have asked his brother Abel, “Hey bro, what is your secret? How did you do it? How come your offering was accepted but mine was not? Can you help me?” But Cain did not do that. Remember, he was competing with his brother in getting God’s attention. His heart was not right. His motive was not to please God but to please him instead. Cain was so absorbed with himself. That is why when he did not get what he wanted, he was so upset. He was so angry and his face was downcast. (KJV) “His countenance fell.” He began to pout. How does it feel to be around somebody pouting? We say to him, “Come on, get over it!” This is basically what God was saying to Cain, “Get over it!” Read: v.6-7. Cain has shown a very negative reaction over the whole turn of events. His heart was going far and far away from God. But God is pursuing him more and more. This is what Newton called, amazing grace. Although Cain was no longer reasonable, God dealt with him in a very rational manner. Look at v.7 >> “Cain, be reasonable. Don’t be carried by your emotion. Do what is right before it’s too late.” God in his grace keeps following & pursuing us. Until where does he follow us? Some people say that God follows us all the way to hell. But there’s another element in this divine-human drama, which is the element of our response. God respects our human freedom so much that he does not impose himself on us. Cain had another agenda to vent out his anger. He did not listen to God. He listened to his own feelings. Then he said to Abel, “Come, let’s go out to the field” (v.8). Cain rejected God and turns his back on his grace. Why did Cain do that? I think the reason why Cain rejected God’s solicitous offer is because he failed to acknowledge the horrendous quality of his deeds. We can never comprehend the wonder of God’s grace until we recognize the shame of our failings. Cain rejected the grace of God. V.16 – “So he went out from the Lord’s presence…” This is not a very pretty story, is it? All sinners are supposed someday to be sorry as every soap opera and every fairy tale ought to end, “And they lived happily ever after...” But life is not a soap opera or a fairy tale. It is quite sad to say that even grace has its limits. Specifically, let me say this as I close that: Truth: Grace can’t be grace until it is recognized as grace. No wonder theologians define grace as “unmerited favor.” It means, it is not about us – how good & how nice people we are. It is all about how good and nice God is. All our goodness apart from God is never good enough. In fact they are like filthy rags to him (Isaiah 64:6). Appreciate God’s amazing grace by first acknowledging your horrendous failings – your shortcomings, your sins. Do you find God’s grace amazing in your life today? Are you amazed that you are a Christian and a Christian still until today? Did it surprise you, thinking of your sinfulness that God still loves you and he died for you? Do you find God’s grace amazing in your life as an office person, as a businessman, as a student, as a parent? I submit that most of us no longer have that element of being surprised and amazed by God. Somehow we were made to believe that who and what we have become is something that we deserve. Let us be amazed and be surprised at God’s wonderful grace. How? By recognizing the horrendous quality of our failings, our shortcomings and our sins. The more we recognize how we have failed God the more we will be amazed of his grace in our lives. Don’t miss God’s amazing grace in your life. Recognize the degree of your failings. Then you will be amazed by the degree of his grace. Grace can’t be grace until it is recognized as grace. |
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