by Mike Mondragon
Cain did not get himself in trouble, when he killed his brother, he was already in trouble.
There were signs previous to his deadly and murderous encounter with his brother, which showed Cain was not right with God, and he was not obedient to God.
Short and to the point, are we right with God tonite? You see, regardless of what we believe, there is no such thing as a little sin or big sin. All sin is equal to God.
There are people sitting in prison tonite who are there because of the choices they made. And I don’t mean just physical prison. There are mental prisons, there are spiritual prisons. Some People are divorcing, they are losing homes and jobs and cars and relationships because of the dishonorable choices they make. There are those things which weigh us down so much, we can’t and don’t operate the way God wants us to. What is weighing us down tonight?
See Cain was operating under a curse he placed upon himself. He thought he was doing everything he was supposed to be doing. He was working and paying his tithes, he was doing everything he thought he was supposed to be doing to serve God, but you see the Father can see what is crouching at your door.
You see if you claim Christ, the enemy is out to kill and destroy and steal from you. See when God says NO to something in your life, those things he wants you to stop doing, and you say no to God, because of disobedience, you curse yourself! Not only that but you may curse those nearest to you as well.
See Cain also brought offerings of first fruits to the Lord. He must have had some kind of spiritual life, he believed he knew God, and he brought his “tithes and offerings” , but you see Cain was putting on spiritual lipstick. He was using holy rouge and makeup, trying to please the Father. He was going through the motions. There are lots of christians these days, putting on spiritual makeup. Many of us believe we are doing God things. See, You can preach and teach and do visitation, sing in the choir and do other good works, there are a whole bunch of these works we can do to powder up our” religiosity “but are your spiritual activities all Cain like.? It’s entirely possible, because You do not have a faith filled love centered, relationship with God!
You know how many christians get mad at god, because he is not blessing their works. Some are Working 50 to 60 hours a week and not making ends meet. Mortgages are not being paid on time, struggling with finances and children and bosses and all sorts of drama. We go through this life, Experiencing baby mama drama and no good daddy problems. We have issues with family and moms and dads and teenagers, and all sorts of trouble and then we end up being angry with God! Telling God in our prayer time, how can he bless that other person, that doesn’t even go to church regularly, and not bless you. Come on you know it’s true.
Extra extra…I hate to tell you this, but I have learned that God does not favor everyone. The Bible says God looked with FAVOR upon Abel’s offering but not Cains. Both of them were doing God things, but You are not blessed because you do good things, or act like you are doing them in God,s name. In order for God’s favor to rest upon you, you must do those things BECAUSE you posses a displaced heart. Are you doing what God has told you to do? Favor is fair! See we want to blame God for our troubles.
I really don’t know how to say this, but, Some of Gods people are favored and some are not. If you are a born again Christian, you are going to heaven, yes, but we are not walking in the favor of God, receiving the blessings of paid bills, extra money for offerings, not having to compromise on our tithes, because of our heart condition. We don’t get favor from God just by just naming it and claiming it or singing a song about it. You get favor by doing God things with a changed heart.
Hebrews says in 11:4 BY FAITH Abel brought God a better offering than Cain. God doesn’t care what type of offering you bring, it’s the condition of your heart with faith AND obedience and love for and to God. Faith brings obedience and obedience brings favor! Favor is just evidence that you are pleasing God!
You must intentionally do things through faith to please God. You see I’m trying to impart some wisdom to you, that I had to learn the hard way! We get all religious and say, I’m saved and covered under the blood! And walking in God,s favor…..GOOD! GOOD! That’s a start. Come on God is a person, and expects more from us. He expects us to these things because we love HIM! Because of our relationship to Him. Because WE LOVE HIM!
If your heart is not set to please God, by doing what God expects from us, and do it in love, and faith to obedience FOR God, , we ain’t getting it right.
We cannot please God through religion, there has to be a love thing going on. Jesus said if you love me you will obey me. It just going through the motions!
Focus your attention on falling in love with God and your relationship will be the type of spiritual act God provides favor upon, does that make sense. You see it says if you don’t do it right sin is crouching at your door!, ready to snatch you up! Sin! The questions we should ask ourselves is:
Lord search me and know me. What’s crouching at my door what is the enemy trying to use to place the curse in my life. What’s going on in my heart?
The definition of crouch states 1. Is to bend close to the ground like an animal preparing to spring or pounce 2 to crouch or cringe in fear. See sin will respond to your heart position. What will the enemy do when he rolls up on you? Before you let sin make you crouch or cringe in fear, get your heart right tonite. Sin desires to have you but you must rule over it! Salvation gives us the power to rule over sin and fear, we must get the devil crouching and cringing in fear! The enemy knows we have the power over him, but he roars LIKE a lion to get you in fear. He is not a lion. See Grace is the tool we use to defeat sin. We can fail, but we have the GRACE which gives us the POWER to rule over sin. When sin gets the best of us, we have the grace to get up and try again. God is not mad at you..It is Gods love for us. Jesus died to remove punishment for sin, but we must be the master over sin. We must die everyday to sin. Holiness and purity costs us something. Spiritual Blood sweat and tears, but it’s necessary to gain God’s favor!
Start by embracing the grace God has already provided for us. We are not under the law but under grace! Let’s give God our heart before our service, and the favor of God will follow us all the days of our lives! The only holiness and purity i possess in my life, is because I have fallen in love with God!
My challenge to you tonight is, Are you willing to put in the work.? Are you ready for God’s favor, simply because you have fallen in love with Jesus, and are we ready to do the things he asks of us because we love Him?
His favor will abide with us if we seek purity and holiness and to please Him in every area of our lives.
I encourage you tonite to ask him to show us what is crouching at our door.
What sin has beset us.
What is it that we either need to do, or stop doing, in order to gain favor with God . How do we obtain his favor in our lives!
God wants to place in order, and give us favor in the things He has ordained for us. Oh Father, we come humbly in the name of Jesus and pray:
Search us Lord and show us the errors of our ways. Change our hearts and draw us nearer to you, remove and rebuke the curses we have placed upon ourselves with our unbelief and faithlessness, cleanse us and renew a right spirit within us, and show us the way to your favor, We Thank you father for your unfailing grace And mercy, in Jesus name!
Amen!
