7/5/20 Hebrews 11:4-6 3 #19 Jesus > Everything Summer bio series
Abel’s offering was better than Cain’s. Instead of trying to rewrite what God asks for regarding offerings and sacrifices, why not just seek what He says is required?
In Ephesians 5:10 and 17. We are encouraged to seek what God’s will is, and what is pleasing to Him. This should be a chief goal of ours. My life’s motto is “Please God and Enjoy Doing It”.
Because I believe if I can make it my business to please God WHILE AT THE SAME TIME enjoy doing so, well it can’t get much better!
If God is pleased, what else is needed? So seek out today what is pleasing to the Lord, (and not to the most people or the loudest) and then what is His will specifically in the situation in which you find yourself. I came across this saying that I think describes a possible variable for us. “If you’re easily offended, you’re easily manipulated.” If this is true, could this be the trap that was set at Cain’s door?
Think about the rabbit trails we run down chasing offenses that take us away from focus on the kingdom and His righteousness…
How easily are you offended? Be careful, you could end up impulsively doing something you’ll regret for a long, long time, not unlike Cain. On the other hand, sometimes when we do what is right someone else takes offense and gets angry – whether justified or rightly targeted or not.
What might God be asking you to do - that someone like Cain will likely be angry about? We are often faced with choices. Choices that have consequences – often ongoing, for good or for bad. Someone taking offense might be one of those consequences.
This is all part of the unknown as we try and navigate what it means to “walk with God” as Enoch did. We don’t even know what all Enoch did that was so pleasing to God. It worked out really well for him, not so much for Abel. We don’t control results. That is part of faith – letting God take care of the results and or consequences.
Thinking about this after the sermon it hit me that it’s probably good we don’t know exactly what Enoch did or we would inevitably have an Enoch checklist trying to recreate his life in hopes of avoiding death as he did. We would be asking, What Would Enoch Do? and maintaining a cult of Enoch.What little we know is that he walked with God. Something we can do. How well and with what devotion and faith is up to us.
Let’s just try and please God as we walk with Him.
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