Am I My Brother's Keeper? // Rev. Bob Cummings

``But what should surprise us here is not that there's a murder. What surprises us is that Cain doesn't want to be aware of where or what Abel's doing. He simply says, I don't care. Don't bother me with such trivia. I have more important things to worry about than the actions of my brother. And he's trying to deflect what's happened. And and the bible describes such deflection as an attitude as hard heartedness. The sin and selfishness of Cain's life has driven him deeper into himself as the only one important and purposeful person on the earth. And that then created this hardness of heart that is compassionless to everyone else. [00:11:28] (59 seconds)  #CompassionlessHeart

And we're aware there's something about the heart that has to be fixed. In fact, the heart, its attachment to the root of bitterness is spoken of in in Deuteronomy 29 and places like Hebrews 12, and there that suggests that such a thing as hatred and indifference and bitterness crowds into our hearts, and then it matures with a toxic top that poisons and paralyzes, rotting life from the inside until ultimately collapses in decay and death. And in the economy of God's kingdom, nursing bitter, contemptuous anger makes a person as morally guilty before God as someone who physically commits murder. [00:09:41] (50 seconds)  #RootOfBitterness

In truth, there are no self made millionaires, and there are no hall of famers who do it themselves. Yes. Each has an individual talent and they're important, but there are coaches and supporters and coworkers who live life together with them. And we really cannot do it our way without coming to a place of either destroying others or destroying ourselves or both. And we succeed in life when we are in life together, and we die when we are alone. [00:17:16] (37 seconds)  #NoOneIsSelfMade

Now, the English is a little bit skewed from the Hebrew text as the name Cain is derived from the word or acquired. And in the structure of what's there in Hebrew, not only does Eve acknowledge that her firstborn is a gift from God, acquired from God, and I think almost every mother and every father at the sight of their firstborn understand this. But the indication is that this little one, this first child will deliver what Eve recalls god promising them before they were expelled from the garden. She has the right idea, but the wrong orientation. A firstborn will be the deliverer of all humanity, but it isn't Cain. [00:03:20] (47 seconds)  #MisplacedDeliverer

And then they realized God had not forsaken them. That was in fact, God was inviting them back to him. And one day, they received Christ back in their heart. They realized they had value and purpose, and they have since offered that same reminder to many. And many of many of us, you you may feel purposeless and powerless as Cain does. Cain couldn't even use the very ground he had spent his life working on. He didn't know what to do. [00:25:36] (39 seconds)  #RestoredByGrace

And against such darkening dealings, spawning isolation and aimlessness, this shows us two things. First of all, we find both purpose and place in life together. May this is really God's plan for us. God creates us to share life together. And like his parents before him, Cain thinks life for himself is the best only to find that he really needs others. We need life together with God and with others to give us value and meaning. [00:23:06] (40 seconds)  #PurposeInCommunity

When we are not in relationship with God, we find a pattern of self aggrandizement and self destruction of the ever cyclical combination of wandering from place to place, seeking purpose and protection, and that continually eluding us time after time after time. People have talked about that, written about that, our culture reflects that. But this is where the chart that Gideon revealed to us last week is is pretty evident and practical. Distrust and disordered love leads to a displaced purpose, places, and persons. [00:21:10] (48 seconds)  #DisplacedPurpose

Both Adam and Eve have sinned and been driven from the garden and the fullness of life and life with God. Before this, they had such great fellowship with each other and more importantly with God that they had everything they could possibly want or need. And now even though they have sinned, they have not suffered the full consequences for their sin because they did not die immediately. Were suffering the spiritual death and slow death, but nor there have they been fully abandoned by God. But because by God's mercy, they are just outside the Garden Of Eden with a fringe fellowship with God. [00:02:17] (40 seconds)  #MercyOutsideEden