Genesis 4:3-8

“Cain and Abel”

Why do people sin?  Desire

What does the Bible say about people committing sins?  (James 1:15)  Desire causes us to sin, sin give birth to death.

Gyun moon seng shim – when someone has something and you want it. 

For example, we want a laptop and so we go eye shopping at Best Buy.  There, there are tons of computers and so we want them all.  But we don’t have money so we go back day after day to look at it, and eventually we have a desire to steal it.  And from this desire, if we don’t overcome it, it will cause us to sin. 

Desire causes us to sin.  So do all sins come from desire? 

Cain was the first murderer.  Why did Cain sin?  Jealousy and selfishness. 

Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd.  They both offered up sacrifices to God, but God only took Abel’s.  Cain was downcast and angry.  God said, “Why are you angry and downcast?  If you do what is right, would you not be accepted?  But if you do not do what is right, then sin is crouching at your door.”  God warned Cain to overcome sin before it gave birth to death.  But Cain ended up killing Abel.  So why did Cain kill Abel?  Cain killed Abel because he was mad at God.  He, of course, was mad at Abel too, but he thought God was being unfair since he took Abel’s sacrifices and not his.  Cain let out his anger towards God onto Abel.  Most situations cause us to sin because of desire. 

Say we have a friend, and this friend doesn’t come to church that much and lives life comfortably.  We think to ourselves, I pray more, I’m smarter and I live life more fully than him.  But then this other friend ends up going to a better college and getting a better job.  We can become very angry because of this unfair outcome.  This situation can turn into one like Cain and Abel’s.  If we do not overcome this hatred or unfair feelings toward God at this moment, we will end up sinning. 

This can take place at church too.  We can see others who do not serve God as faithfully or as diligently as us.  But we must not think of it as being unfair or else sin will come crouching at our door. 

So what is the right thing to do?  We must follow God’s word.  The words in the Bible are the decisions God made.  God not taking Cain’s sacrifice and taking Abel’s is righteousness.  But Cain, not recognizing that, sinned because he thought it was unfair. 

We spoke about judging others during Bible study today.  We tend to judge others according to our standards, but we must judge them according to God’s standards since they may not match our standards.  Christians tend to compare sins, thinking some are more serious than others.  When people run tests, we see that there are stats such as categorical stats and bell curve stats.  We judge others according to our faith but God judges us all according to His standards, which are all written in the Word.  He sees murderers the same as liars.  So it’s not about who is better than another, it’s about who sins and doesn’t sin. 

Abraham’s situation with Isaac was totally unfair.  But Abraham went even to the point where he was going to kill Isaac.  Some may think that Abraham was crazy, but he saw it as the right thing to do.

We sin because we don’t see God’s standards and we see our own.  We must remember to live our lives according to God’s standards, seeing whether God sees things as right and wrong, not according to whether we see it’s right or wrong.  If we follow His standards, we will be able to cause less sin and live more righteous lives.

Announcements

1. Our next prayer meeting will be held on Friday, March 3 at 8:15 p.m.  Please come on time to bless and be blessed!
2. Prayer cards are due!!  Liz will be handing out prayer cards if you've misplaced yours.  Please fill them out and hand them in so that you can receive prayer from our congregation.
3. Next month's small group meeting will be dinner and karaokeing.  We will meet at the Flushing Sam Won Gahk on March 17 and 8:15 p.m.  Dinner will be provided by the church, but please bring around $15 for plans after dinner.
4. Please pay your monthly dues on time.  It is through your dues that we can have monthly small group meetings.
5. Bible study is at 10:30 a.m. at Daniel's house.  Please join us for a great time of study and fellowship!
6. We are preparing for Easter, so if you have any ideas, please voice them!  We will be coloring eggs on Saturday, 4/15 so please mark your calendars.  Also, later that evening, we will be attending our bahn joo jah's graduation concert at the Manhattan School of Music.  Let's all try to attend to encourage her and congratulate her on her studies.

HAPPY THURSDAY!!  =)