11.20.22 (Genesis 4 – Then They Began)
Order
Pre Worship Music
Leave Screen Share On from Opening Songs through Passage Reading
Opening Songs: Lynn
O Worship The King
Thank you
Call to Worship Response and Lord’s Prayer Pettys
Reading Rick
Song: Lynn
10,000 Reasons
Message Genesis 4 Rick
Song: Lynn
There is a Redeemer
Community/Closing Peace Rick
Benediction Rick
Post Worship Music
Music
Oh Worship The King
Verse 1
O worship the King all glorious above
And gratefully sing His power and His love
Our Shield and Defender the Ancient of Days
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise
Verse 2
O tell of His might O sing of His grace
Whose robe is the light whose canopy space
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm
Verse 4
Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite
It breathes in the air it shines in the light
It streams from the hills it descends to the plain
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain
Thank you Lord
For all that you’ve done I will thank you,
For all that you’re going to do.
For all that you’ve promised and all that you are
Is all that will carry me through
Jesus, I thank you.
And I thank you, thank you, Lord.
And I thank you, thank you, Lord.
Thank you for loving and setting me free.
Thank you for giving your life just for me,
How I thank you,
Jesus, I thank you.
Gratefully thank you.
Thank you.
(repeat)
Call to Worship/Lord’s Prayer (Slides)
Leader: In the beginning, God…
Response: God was present.
Leader: God created.
Response: God is the creator.
Leader: God gave life to creation.
Response: God breathed life into creation.
Leader: In the beginning, God walked among creation and those God created.
Response: God’s created chose to not walk with God.
Leader: God’s created chose to walk on their own rejecting the creator.
Response: Our ancestors chose to walk apart from God.
Leader: What was holy was now unholy, peace turned back to chaos, hope disappeared into violence. Darkness shaded everything that God had created.
Response: In the beginning there was God. God is Love.
Leader: Still, God was present, God did not quit creation.
Response: Still, God is present.
Join me in voicing the words of the prayer of Jesus.
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.
And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Reading (Slides)
Adam and Eve conceived and gave birth to Cain, and Eve said, “I have given birth to a boy with the help of the Lord.” Then Eve gave birth to Abel. Abel became a rancher and Cain became a farmer.
Cain brought an offering to the Lord from his produce. Abel brought an offering, from the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.
The Lord was pleased with Abel’s offering but not with Cain’s offering. Cain became very angry and he began to pout. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why are you pouting?
You know that if you do well we will both be pleased. Remember if you do not work to do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you – you must master it.”
While Cain and Abel were in the field Cain killed his brother Abel.
The Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain said, “I do not know. Is it my job to keep track of him?” The Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.
Now you are cursed from the ground, which has sucked up Abel’s blood that was spilt by your violence. When you farm the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you; you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.”
Cain cried to the Lord, “My punishment is too great! You’ve taken farming from me, you have hidden your face from me, I can now only be a wanderer and a drifter, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
The Lord said to Cain, “Whoever kills you, I will take vengeance on them seven times as much.” And the Lord placed a mark on Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him.
Cain left the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden, and built a city there. Cain’s great great grandson took two wives, which is the beginning of polygamy.
The great, great, great, great, grandsons of Cain were Jabal whose descendants lived in tents and had livestock; Jubal whose descendants played the lyre and flute; Tubal-cain whose descendants forged implements of bronze and iron.
Adam and Eve gave birth to another son, and named him Seth. Eve said, “God has given me another child in place of Abel who was killed by my son Cain.” It was during this time of Seth that people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Then Seth and his wife had a son & named him Enosh. (Genesis 4)
Music
10,000 Reasons
Bless the Lord O my soul O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name
Verse 1
The sun comes up it’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes
Verse 2
You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger
Your name is great and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find
Verse 3
And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore
Worship Your holy name
Lord I’ll worship Your holy name
Ending
Sing like never before O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name
Worship Your holy name
Worship Your holy name
Message – Immersive Faith
Genesis 4
[slide #2] In the beginning… God.
[slide #3] Although there was not really any punctuation practiced when this was first written, an ellipsis does belong after the third word.
If you are not acquainted with the grammatical punctuation mark of an ellipsis, as I was until a short time ago, an ellipsis is a punctuation mark of three dots (. . .) that shows an omission of words, represents a pause, or suggests there’s something left unsaid.
[slide #4] In the beginning… God. The beginning was not a kick off for God’s actions. Instead, in the beginning, in our beginning, God was there, God was already present. God was God, God is God. Long before actions, long before creation, there was God. So, three simple dots miraculously convey the eternal past, present, and future.
In the beginning…God. It is really simple actually. God was present. It was the initial reality of the consistent reality…In the beginning, God. In the present, God. In the future, God. In eternity, God.
Simple but not simplistic. God is the first character of our story, God is the first presence of our creation, God. There is no introduction, no explanation, no background or motivation, only God. Later Moses attempts to introduce God, asking for God’s resume, to which God explains – just say ‘God’.
[‘remove screen share’]
It is amazing, then, that a story with such a simple beginning can be so muddled up by us religious vocational religiousists. We take the God who was there in the beginning and attach all kinds of our own stipulations and interpretations. Sometimes, though, God calls us back to God. Back to God’s simplicity, back to God’s compassion and mercy, back to God’s grace, back to our God who, at the core, is love.
So, we come to Genesis chapter four, in which we witness our world get messy and complicated. It is our first observance outside of the garden and our first hint at the direction of humanity as seen in the first ancestral lineage is documented.
As chapter three ends, as humans have chosen to walk apart and away from God – the tree of eternal life, the hope of the tree has now been replaced with imminent catastrophe. For humans, who were by choice, apart from God, the eternal life is not a hopeful state it is an oncoming brutal catastrophe. This is one of the reasons they had to be removed from the garden. They were not ready for eternal life, at this point they would do good to survive earthly life.
Chapter one of Genesis tells of creation, chapter two gives us another tale of creation, and then chapter three accounts for humans’ rejection of God. Today we are looking at chapter four which gives us the experience outside of the garden and God’s redemptive act on our part as evidence in a newborn birth.
[Slides/screen share through slide #13]
Population began to grow as we begin with the thread of Adam and Eve with two births. First Eve birthed a son named Cain, a feat made possible, as Eve proclaimed, “I have obtained a male child with the help of the Lord.” This is the last proclamation of God by humans until centuries later when a much older Eve gives birth to her last son. After the birth of Cain, Eve gives birth to his brother Abel.
[slide #6] Next, we witness the first offering of thanksgiving to God as Cain and Abel make a praise offering to God. We do not really know what prompted this offering, or even their knowledge of God, but, both men separately gave an offering.
[slide #7] As God accepts Abel’s offering but rejects Cain, we see the first act of jealousy, violence, and murder, as Cain murders his brother Abel. Cain is exiled and his vocation of farming is taken away from him.
As Cain complains to God about the consequences of the murder, we see the first act of God’s grace outside of the garden. This is also the first the first moment outside of the garden that we witness the compassion and mercy of God. God places a mark on Cain that will protect him from the brutality of others who may seek to harm him. This is an interesting detail of the story, who are the others that Cain is fearful of? Is Cain afraid of the retribution of his own family tree?
Cain scatters further east of the garden. His parents had left the garden by the east exit of the garden, now Cain goes even further east from the garden. Humanity is moving further from God and the place where God was present. Going east is a constant metaphor in the old testament for leaving the presence of God. Later, when Lot departs from Abraham he goes east, the children of Abraham’s concubines are sent east, the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Menashe choose to dwell outside and to the east of the promised land. Symbolically, east is usually considered unholy and away from the garden, west is holy and back towards the garden.
[slide #10] Cain builds a city and names it after his son Enoch. A city marks the first lasting human claim on earth. No longer will the forbidden garden be the reference point for humanity, now it is a human established place. Humans have now placed their stake in the ground created by God. However, this place has no reference to God, it is actually named after Cain’s son Enoch. Now humanity is not only not speaking of God, now they are exalting the name of a human.
[slide #11] The practice of Polygamy is established as Lamach, Cain’s great great grandson takes two wives. The practice of multiple wives becomes a constant throughout the old testament but the practice is never endorsed and seemingly violates God’s singular tense about marriage in Genesis 2:24.
[slide #12] Humans find Earthly Definition in work. Up to this point humans did what needed to be done for survival while finding a work that suited them. Cain was a farmer, Abel was a rancher. But now we begin to see humans, as groups, become identified by their work, their vocation.
[slide #13] Arrogance and Entitlement. Cain’s great, great, grandson, like Cain commits murder and his response is not remorse but Arrogance and Entitlement. Not only does he justify his actions but declares that he deserves even more mercy, compassion,and grace, from God than was given to his ancestor Cain.
[End slides/screen share]
This is what humanity has come to. Depicted in just twenty-four verses we go from Eve’s proclamation of God’s part in her birthing Cain, to murder, to the human collectives’ praise of a human, to complete arrogance and entitlement.
However, that is not the end of the story. Before chapter four is over, in just a mere two verses, we see a new branch sprout from the family tree of Adam and Eve. This is the branch of God’s deliverance, the hope of all humans, the lineage of the Messiah begins.
[Slide #14 – Screen Share through Slide #20]
‘Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, Eve said, “God has given me another child in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.”
[Slide #15] To Seth also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then people began to call upon the name of the Lord.’ (Genesis 4:25-26)
To Seth was born Enos, to Enos was born Kenan, to Kenan was born Mahaleel, to Mahaleel was born Jered, to Jaren was born Enoch, to Enoch was born Methusaleh, to Methusaleh was born Lamech, to Lamech was born Noah, to Noah was born…to Mary and Joseph was born Jesus. The end and fulfillment of the lineage of Seth, and his parents Adam and Eve.
[Slide #16] ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
[Slide #17] In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person.
[Slide 18] He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him.
[Slide 19] But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.
[Slide #20] And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:1-5, 10-14)
A redemptive branch, a root of righteousness, a tree that shall weather the storms, a lineage that will not squander truth but seek and search for it. A call to an imperfect people, a lineage made up of imperfect people, but the God of grace, the God of deliverance, the God of redemption, the God of mercy, the God that is Love.
I think I say this every year, but for those of us who are blessed with freedom, we who are prone to selfishness, arrogance, and entitlement – for those of our nation, for us, it is no accident that our official time of remembering and giving thanks comes just a month before our official time to remember and give thanks for the arrival of God’s instrument of God’s grace – Jesus. In giving thanks, we remember God’s past present acts, which then clears our minds and our hearts so we can recognize God’s merciful redemptive provision of a lineage that gives us Jesus. Which reminds us of our God of grace, a reminder that we are to hold on to for the 365 days that follow.
May this too, be the time when we, and all, ‘people began to call upon the name of the Lord.’ (Genesis 4:26)
Music
There is a Redeemer
There is a Redeemer Jesus God’s own Son
Precious Lamb of God Messiah Holy One
Chorus
Thank You O my Father
For giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit
Till the work on earth is done
Verse 2
Jesus my Redeemer name above all names
Precious Lamb of God Messiah
O for sinners slain
Verse 3
When I stand in glory I will see His face
There I’ll serve my King forever
In that holy place
Community
- [Slide] Next Sunday, ‘Unexpected’ Advent 1, 11.27 Unexpected Unexpected (Im)possibilities, Luke 1:1-38
- [Slide] Advent Bible Study begins Wednesday, November 30 at noon, three weeks. We will have an evening study if there is interest expressed (speak with Rick)
- Thanksgiving Dinner, Today, Sunday, November 20, following worship at Not Your Average Joes
- Christmas Season Dates –
Advent Begins next Sunday, November 27
Advent Bible Study begins November 30
Brief business gathering December 4
Christmas Eve Worship Gathering at 6pm
No Worship Gathering on Christmas Day or on New Years Day
Closing Peace
May the Peace of the Lord go with you. And also with you.
Benediction
“May God give you the grace not to sell yourself short, grace to risk something big for something good, grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but Love.”
(William Sloane Coffin)
Order, Words, & Voices 