Cain and Abel: How You Can Bring an Offering God Respects

part three to this message this is something I learned it's how to bring God and offering that he respects now we see I want to go back to the very beginning of mankind on earth the very beginning of time you remember Adam and Eve and they had two children Cain and Abel and one day Cain and Abel decided that they would bring an offering to God Cain brought an offering Abel brought an offering now God accepted Abel's offering a Cain's offering he did not respect and so why was that there's a lesson here how could we bring an offering that God respects and let's let's work through this I didn't know I never understood this for years I read it over and over and always kind of scratched my head like okay I don't get it they both gave something to God so what's the big deal why was one accepted and why was the other one not but let's read the passage Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said I've acquired a man from the Lord then she bore again this time his brother Abel now Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground and in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat and the Lord respected Abel and his offering but he did not respect Cain and his offering and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell what what happened here there is there is a very strong principle that is illustrated in this passage and that's what we want to get to why was one offering accepted and respected but the other one was not so the teaching I heard first even you know when I would read it I would be confused but I heard a teacher explain at one time and it seemed to make sense he said something like this well they were bringing sin offerings before the Lord and we all know that sin can only be atoned for by a blood sacrifice and so Abel brought a blood sacrifice which had toned for a sin so God accepted him but Cain brought a grain offering and that was it did not contain any blood so it was not accepted well I went along with that for quite a few years in my understanding because I didn't have anything better but then one day I actually went to this passage and I began to look up some of the words in the original language and it says Cain brought an offering to the Lord and so I looked up the word offering and the word offering there is the Hebrew word minka and I looked it up it is that is not the Hebrew word for a sin offering it's far from it in fact that word for offering means a gift or a present or a tribute that you would bring to a great king and so Cain Cain's intention was to bring a present to the great king who was God now stop and think about this this is the first family these are the first two children of Adam and Eve Adam and Eve knew who created them the presence of the Lord was still around them and with them and speaking to them they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that all things came from gum now do you think they would have told Cain and Abel about the creation and how Adam named all the animals and explained to them that they came from God and Eve was taken from Adam's rib and and all of these things yes they would have explained that the creation itself was new and fresh and the animals very strong fact their pride they were probably even bigger and healthier than they are today because there hadn't been any decay going on in the earth and so when Cain brought an offering he knew he was bringing and offering to God but here's what happened there's a little word we know it was not a sin offering and I kept reading and rereading this passage and I finally beat began to see something here and it's in the phrase it says and in the process of time it came to pass the Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord wait a minute I saw the element of time in the process of time what does that mean I didn't know so there was a little footnote to the center column in my study Bible and it said literally in the process of time means at the end of days well in at the end of what days what days is he talking about and then you know God it's not an electronic God how many know that you know we're all tricked out with our techy stuff our tablets and our phones and our computers and all that kind of gods an agricultural God to understand God we have to kind of think agriculturally and for a guy who brought a grain offering it would be at the end of the days of harvest he had sown seed he had reaped a harvest and so Cain brought the New King James says in the process of time or literally at the end of the days of harvest Cain brought this offering of the grain well cool what's the matter what that well it's not what he brought but when he brought it is where the problem is now Abel on the other hand brought the firstborn of his flock now there is a word in the Hebrew language for firstborn and it's a word family it can include the firstborn of animals which is what Abel brought or it can include the firstfruits of the ground which is what Cain could have brought but the word for firstfruits was not applied to Cain's offering only to Abel's offering and so the difference between the two offerings was one was a firstborn or a firstfruits and the other was not a firstborn or a firstfruits so here's what happens Cain brought an offering but he brought it in a delayed manner at the end of the days of harvest Abel brought an offering a firstborn and he gave it right away after this little lamb or goat had been born he brought it and offered it to God now the Lord respected Abel and his offering and the question is not what they brought but the question and the principle is when they brought it Cain could have brought a first roots offering but he waited too long before he brought the offering for it to be considered firstfruits so here is the principle this is an unchanging principle which still applies today even though most of the earth is ignorant of it the unchanging principle is this the firstfruits belong to God now this is something God thinks now I may think the firstfruits belong to me wait a minute I worked I was the one who sweated I was the one that went to work I was the one that went to work in the rain when my car broke down when whatever was I was the one that got there did that and I earned this paycheck and God you keep your hands off my money right well that's not the way God thinks you know first of all he gave us everything he gave us the ability to work and so what God is saying and this is the way he thinks firstfruits belong to me the first and best portion of every harvest whether it's grain being gathered in or animals being born or a paycheck that someone hands us at the end of the week the first part of every harvest belongs to God now we can argue with God said well it shouldn't belong to you it should belong to me because I'm the one that worked for it but you know what he's old we're we're not gonna we can't we can't change his thinking on these things he says I am the Lord I changed not he is the same yesterday today and forever we can beat our heads against that wall all we want to but at the end of the day the first route still belonged to God because he thinks they do okay whether we bring in or don't bring it in God's mind they belong to him can you imagine you know how does God feel when he looks down at the planet how much of the firstfruits of the increase of the earth does God actually received I mean it's like he looks down on his children and how many are saying thank you not very many how many are bringing and offering to thank God for all that he has done not very many how would you respond if you were gone it's like Earth what plan what planning no seriously how does God feel about that he's enduring with long-suffering thank God for all of you in this room you know who have praised God see there's two things that God deserves there are two unchanging principles one is that the first roots belong to God and number two is our praise and our worship belongs to God even from the very beginning Robert is lettuce so eloquently in praising and worshipping God it's awesome but we also need to bring the first fruits of our increase to God these are two responsibilities that are incumbent upon every human being on the face of the earth whether they know it or not yes there is an obligation to praise God and there's an obligation to bring him the firstfruits see when Cain violated the firstfruits principle what did it do it revealed the condition of his heart see Cain did not put God first he put himself first Cain ate the firstfruits and brought God leftovers he gave God second best not the best at best he put himself first maybe he didn't know maybe he was ignorant and God said well Cain surely if you do well won't you be accepted in other words Cain let's go back start over you know next year's harvest you bring me the firstfruits and I will accept it but that was you know Cain was so angry that he went out and killed his brother and his life went downhill after that all over an offering because he didn't put God first and so this is what we've got to get into our minds is that our offerings reveal the condition of our heart are we bringing God firstfruits are we giving him leftovers amen now listen there is a dispensation for ignorance if you don't know this stuff you know God gives you a pass until we learn these principles and then we have to learn how to implement these principles into our lives but God isn't going to change the first roots principle will never change it is it's written it's gonna stay the same it's never gonna change so the one who needs to change is us we need to adjust our thinking to begin to honor God with the firstfruits of all our increase Abel on the other hand his offering indicated that he wanted to bring God the firstfruits his offering revealed his heart that he put God ahead of himself and that is HUGE that's why God respected his offering is that Abel put the Lord ahead of himself and ahead of his own needs and that's how we can bring an offering that God respects if we bring him the firstfruits before we use or touch any of it ourselves and so it's very important that we do that and in fact Moses who wrote the book of Genesis was aware of this principle of firstfruits and he and God managed to put that into the law which govern the conduct of the children of Israel why so that every time they brought an offering it would be an offering that God respected and so that Israel would be the most blessed nation on the face of the earth because they always brought their first fruits to God and that's why he put it in the law so in Exodus 23:19 it says the first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God and you shall not delay like Cain did to offer the first of your right produce and your juices the firstborn or your son's you shall give to me now imagine you want to impress your boss at Christmastime and maybe you don't know the boss very well so you think oh I'll buy my boss something so you you go down to the store and you look around you find this really nice box of chocolates and you you think I'm gonna wrap this up and give this to my boss yep so you you take it home and then what you're looking at that box you think gosh I really know how good those chocolates are I mean that's my you know those chocolate-covered caramels are just my favorite well you know what so you open the box and you take out three pieces your three favorite pieces then you wrap the box up and give it to your boss if your boss gonna be happy with the gift that you gave well in all likelihood probably not they'll be looking at like wait a minute what happened to the three pieces here in the middle those are my favorites too so this is what we do we bring a present to God but part of its missing it's not a true gift to God because we've already eaten the firstfruits out of it and we're given God's second best we've got to be careful what we're doing

Channel: Jubilee Church

Views: 18,462

Keywords: Cain and Abel, offerings, tithes, offering God respects, firstfruits, firstborn, Pastor Michael Christian, Jubilee on the Ridge Church, http://michaelchristian.us, Paradise California

Id: PF45uIlLQNo

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2016