Faith, Hope, Love - Faith As an Offering

In the Faith, Hope, Love series, Pastor Scott Wiens looks at Hebrews 11:4 and Genesis 4 to examine Abel’s offering and the faith that made it acceptable to God. This is not a message about God being picky over religious rituals; it is a searching look at the heart behind what we bring to Him. Abel’s sacrifice still speaks because it flowed from faith, while Cain’s offering reveals the danger of half-hearted worship, wrong motives, and resistance to correction.

Scott walks through the major ways Christians have understood why God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s. Was Cain’s offering rejected because it was not a blood sacrifice? Was the issue that he brought from the end of his harvest rather than the firstfruits? Or was the deeper problem the heart behind the gift? Hebrews points us to the central answer: “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.” Abel’s outward offering was evidence of inward faith, while Cain’s anger exposed a heart unwilling to repent.

From there, Scott connects Cain’s response to the New Testament warnings about “the way of Cain.” When correction comes, Cain does not humble himself before God; he becomes angry, jealous, and eventually violent. His story warns us what can happen when we refuse repentance, let sin crouch at the door, and protect the parts of our lives we do not want to surrender.

Scott then brings Abel’s example into everyday Christian life by asking what it means for us to offer ourselves to God in faith. Romans 12 calls believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. That means our faith is not limited to church attendance or religious moments; it touches our marriages, parenting, work, relationships, finances, service, and even how we respond when obedience costs us something.

This message also addresses giving with faith rather than compulsion, trusting God with our physical treasures, and using the gifts He has given for the common good of the body of Christ. If you sense conviction over areas where you have held back, Scott closes with a simple path forward: repent, ask God for increased faith, and immerse yourself in His Word, because faith comes by hearing through the word of Christ. Watch or listen and consider where God is inviting you to bring Him your best in faith.

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Transcript

Opening Banter And Series Setup

Scott Wiens 0:04

For those of you that were here last week, there's a hazard preacher. Uh Neil got stuck in a stall in the bathroom. I think we had to get the jaws of life or something to get him in. So I didn't go to the bathroom before this, so uh I it might be a shorter message than normal. That's great. Oh, that's so great. Brother, you know who you are. Yeah, there's no one behind you. By the way, I want you to pay attention to me for the next little bit, but Paul Queen is in the house. See, now you're gonna get mobbed. I love it. So, anyways, but I I didn't want almost didn't want to tell you that because I'm like, no, no one's gonna pay attention to me. So, all right. Well, we are in the beginning parts of a sermon series that we've called Faith, Hope, and Love. And I really appreciated the introduction Tyler gave to it last week. You know, we don't just throw a dart at the Bible and say, let's preach on this. We don't do that. We actually prayerfully go before the Lord. And we usually do this during our retreat, our pastor's retreat in October. And last in last October, when we really, it was really good. We spent a lot of time praying, and we got this phrase that strengthened Christians are best equipped for crisis. And that's really been driving everything we preached about. In fact, a lot of you remember, should remember, hopefully remember, the series we just went through, the book of Ephesians, in Christ. And that was really powerful. Foundational stuff. Foundational stuff. And so we really believe that faith, hope, and love, these are the pillars of our faith. These are pillars of every Christian. And so we're going through a series on that. And Neil did a great job of kicking that off last week after he got out of the bathroom stall. Uh just a wonderful job. And and and I love the three points. He said, faith is being fully persuaded, faith trusts, and faith works. And by the way, if you missed last week, I got to tell you something. It's a little secret. You can go online and listen to the sermons after. I mean, they're on Facebook, they're on YouTube, they're all over the place, right? So they're on our website, you can get a link there. So please look at go and listen to those messages because they really build on each other. And in fact, what he taught about last week will really come into play when we talk about today's message. So

Hebrews 11 And Abel’s Example

Scott Wiens 2:40

we are focusing on the faith part, and our key text is Hebrews 11. Now, in chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews begins by giving the reader a definition of faith, and Neil really set that up beautifully, right? And it was really good. And he he referred to it the term the hall of faith, the hall of faith. And that's all these people that the writer of Hebrews now talks about as examples of what faith is. And that's exciting, by the way. And I get to speak about the first guy, and this happens to be Abel. Abel. He's one of the sons of Adam and Eve. And so we're going to talk about Abel's faith today. Now, the writer focused on faith, Abel's faith in relation to the offering that he brought to God. And he contrasts that with his brother Cain's offering. Of course, a lot of you are already familiar with that. You understand that. So I want to read the first four verses of Hebrews. Again, we're going to focus on verse four, but I want to read the whole part just to get in context. It won't take long. So, Hebrews 11, verse 1. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. Why, we need to tell a lot of people that one, don't we? By the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. And then verse 4, our key text. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous. God commending him by accepting his gifts, and through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. You know, today what we're going to do is we're going to look closely at the faith of Abel. And what we're going to do to do that, we have to go back and actually look at what this the writer of Hebrews is referencing, which is Genesis chapter 4. And by looking at this, we're going to first see clearly why Abel's offering was considered an act of faith. And secondly, we're going to see how, as believers today, we can also demonstrate the same faith as Abel did as it pertains to our offering of our lives, the offering of our treasures, and the offering of the gifts God gives us. You with me? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for this hall of faith. Father, too many people are venerated in our society as being great and they're not. But we have preserved for us in this chapter the beautiful examples of people who acted in faith so that we can read and learn from them and in turn play that out in our lives in our faith with your strength. So, Father, I pray that we all become convicted by this truth and we give you the gracious glory for the fact that it's preserved for us. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Everybody said, Amen. Amen. All right. So if you've got your Bibles, you don't need it because it's going to be on the screen. Just kidding. Bring your Bibles out. Open them up. We're going to go straight and talk about the story of Cain and Abel. And we want to get a clear understanding of why the writer of Hebrews said this was an example of faith. So, by the way, you have to understand that the writer of Hebrews, we always say the writer of Hebrews because we really don't know who that is, right? Everybody's got their theory, but we don't know. But he had something that you have. He had the Torah. And that's what we have. So what we're going, we're literally reading what he read, okay? But because what he said here was inspired by God, we know that it was an act of faith. So we're going to go and look what he read and why he said what

Genesis 4 Retold With Key Details

Scott Wiens 6:24

he did. So in Genesis 4, verses 1 through 5, we're going to read this. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. By the way, there's some commentators believe that she actually thought that this baby, this first child she had, was going to be the Messiah. And that's one of the reasons she said this. Obviously, that didn't work out. So verse 2. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. Verse 3 In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and fell on his face. So let's set a little bit of background here. The first thing you need to remember, and we all need to remember, is that this is actually the first time in God's word we see any reference to man worshiping God through sacrifice. It's the very first time we have that. In fact, in chapter three, chapter three ends with that terrible day, Adam and Eve's fall, when they're banished from the garden, and that flaming sword is put on the east entrance. Have you ever thought, by the way, why did it say the east entrance? That kind of indicates there might be a north, south, and west. I've always wondered that, but the Bible doesn't tell me. But I that's one of my questions I want to ask God. Could they have not snuck in the south entrance? No, I think there was a sword there too. But listen, one of the things we can pull from this is that apparently between the time that they were driven out and the time of this story, God had somehow communicated to mankind how they were supposed to worship him.

unknown 8:22

Yeah.

Scott Wiens 8:22

Because they brought an offering. I don't think they just sat around one day and said, you know, we should do try to placate God. Let's let's kill something. I just don't think that's what happened. I think there were instructions because they both did it. I think Adam and Eve did this. And I think Cain and Abel grew up watching Adam and Eve give a sacrifice to the Lord. So it's obvious then that they would have been taught to do this. Um, and we also know that the instructions about the offering must have been commanded to bring them the fruit of their labor because that's what they had, right? There was, there was, I don't think there was any money around at this time. Obviously, it was what they what they what they grew from the land. And remember, God's instruction to Adam was go and you know, you're supposed to, you have dominion over the land, right? To be fruitful and multiply, not just in children, but of course in the land itself. So it says that Cain was a worker of the ground. He was a farmer, basically. Now, a lot of you probably know I grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada, in some of the richest farmland in the world. So I grew up with crops being raised all around me. Our house literally was just surrounded by fields of grain, canola, all you name it, flax. We had all kinds of grain crops that were being grown. My sister, by the way, married a farmer, and they're very successful. In fact, we went there uh uh back in May, we went and got to see them again, and it was just a lot of memories when you go back to your old place, right, and see all the all the things that were familiar growing up. By the way, you do know the definition of a farmer, right? Farmer is a man outstanding in his field. That's the only dad joke. That's the only one I'm doing, Tyler. Don't don't hit me for that. Just one. That's all I got. I'm allowed one. Yeah. Now, who was Abel? What did he do? Well, Abel was obviously a shepherd, and that's why he brought the first fruits from his. So, so what does the text kind of tell us about these offerings?

Three Views On Cain’s Rejection

Scott Wiens 10:28

Well, within the kind of Christian theological circles, there's really three positions that people take with regards to this whole reason why Cain's offering was not accepted and Abel's was. And the first one is actually pretty popular, and that is it's the blood sacrifice position. And basically, this position states that Cain's offering was the wrong type of offering, and that's why it was rejected. So the position suggests that God had already established with Adam and Eve, although we don't see evidence of this in the script, but that an offering must be a blood offering. And by the way, I understand that. We are saved by the blood of the Lamb, right? So we understand, and it even says, without blood there is no forgiveness of sins. So it's understandable why we would go to that position, but I just want to kind of throw a couple of questions at you about that. You know, when we read the Mosaic Covenant, it talks about um, you know, what what that blood sacrifice should look like for the sacrifice of sins. And by the way, some people even say that when God killed the animal to make skins for Adam and Eve, that that was his first sacrifice. But of course, why would God sacrifice to him? It it's you know, it's just, I'm just saying it's a little bit of a stretch, but that's okay. And by the way, it's important to understand there's many words for the word offering in God's word. You know, we say Eskimos have like 50 different names and words for the for snow. We just call it snow down here, but even where I'm from, it's sleet, it's all you know, all kinds of slush. We have all kinds of names for it. Well, it's the same thing with offering. There were multiple names for Hebrew names for offering. And the word that was used for offering, for Cain's offering, was actually a different Hebrew word than the one that was used for Abel's. And it's interesting because Cain's was a grain offering, and it was it's a Hebrew word called mincha. And basically it means a gift or tribute, often used for grain, cereal, or food offering that does not involve blood. It was very specific. And for Abel's, of course, it was a different Hebrew word, and that word basically meant a blood offering. Okay, so we can see that both offerings were identified as the type of offering that they were brought. But I need to ask this question: if God was requiring a blood offering, then why was Cain surprised when his was rejected? Just think about that. He brought his offering, expecting it to be received, as did Cain, but his, or it as did Abel, but his was rejected. And that's the problem I have with this theory that it was just the wrong type of offering, because it makes the assumption that it was supposed to be a sin offering. And by the way, if you take that position, it's okay. It's okay. I just want to show a different, I kind of a different view of this. The second position taken about why Cain's offering was rejected is the quality of the offering. And this I think has some actual merit. Have you ever read through scripture and suddenly you have the same scripture you've read dozens of times, you stop and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I never saw that before. Well, that's what happened to me when I was studying this. I was actually reading it and then I read a commentary and I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I never saw that before, and it made a lot of sense to me. If if you look carefully at what um, if you look carefully at that word that's used there, uh let's see, it's right here, in the course of time. In the course of time, that is really significant. And I read over that many times. In the course of time, like, oh, eventually, you know, he brought an offering, but that's not that's not what happened. If you think about it, Abel brought the firstborn of his flock in the fat portions, right? That's what he brought. Okay. And you'll notice it was firstborn, which by the way, that's the most precious part of you know, you're you were instructed to bring the firstborn. And the fat portions, again, if you look at the Mosaic law, you'll realize that that was part that he should bring too. So that lines up with what we know the Mosaic Law had. But Cain's was a little bit different. It says, in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. What does that mean in the course of time? Well, the Hebrew word used for this phrase means at the end of days. Now, look at that a little bit differently now, don't you? Wait a second. At the end of days? At the end of what days? Well, the New Living Translation actually translates this way when it was the time for harvest. Okay. Now, I grew up. When harvest started and harvest ended, was not on the same day. If it did, those are really bad years. Really bad years, right? So there was a course of time that the harvest went on. Thinking logically, Cain could not bring any offering of his crops until the harvest started, right? But it says in the course of time, it would take time to fully gather this all in. So it seems like from the description of Cain's offering, that the text seems to indicate, because you notice it doesn't say Cain brought his first fruits. It just says he brought from his harvest, he brought an offering of grain. So it seems that you can make a really strong case for the fact that Cain did bring an offering, but it wasn't from the first part of his harvest, it was from the end. And he used the stuff, the harvest from the beginning. And when you begin to think about that, you begin realizing, okay, maybe we start to get a clearer picture of why his offering was rejected. Because number one, he didn't, if he truly didn't, and again, it doesn't say the first fruits of his harvest, so it seems to indicate he didn't bring that along. Now, this story takes place long before the sacrificial laws were given to Israel as part of the Mosaic covenant. However, just thinking about this, it would only stand to reason that some of the core requirements that God gives and gave in the Mosaic covenant would apply to here. Why would God change between what he told them and what, you know, what he told Adam and Eve versus what he told the Israelites? And in Leviticus 2, Moses tells the people that God's expectations for a grain offering were very, very specific. I know we've, if you've read the Bible through, we all love going through Leviticus, don't we? But it says in Leviticus 2, he goes into great detail about the grain. He talks about fine flour and oil and frankincense. And then look what he says in verse 12 of Leviticus 2. He says, as an offering of firstfruits, you shall bring them to the Lord. The context is in the grain. So it's pretty evident that in the Mosaic law, when you brought a grain offering, it had to be the first fruit, the first part of it. It was symbolic. And again, I think because of that, it was pretty evident that we have Cain bringing an offering that wasn't of the first fruits. And so over that course of time, he did this at the end, and that shows a heart. And I think this position has more scriptural backing. However, it really only deals with the result of, I think, an even bigger problem with Cain. And that leads to the third

The Heart Behind The Offering

Scott Wiens 18:16

position. And that third position is called the heart and faith position. This position states that the primary reason Cain's offering was rejected was because he offered it with an evil heart and no faith. And I'm telling you, there's a lot of evidence for this. I believe the core text in Hebrews really talks about that. If you look again at Hebrews 4 or 11, verse 4, he says, By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. By faith. Through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. God commended him by accepting the offering. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. I think the writer of Hebrews making it very clear that Abel's faith was what made his offering more acceptable. Not only was it the right offering, according to the laws that God had given them about offerings, but it was in faith. That whole verse is sandwiched with faith. I mean it starts with, by faith, Abel offered to God. And then at the bottom, at the end of that verse, it says, Through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. It's faith is just saturated in this in this verse. Because of course the whole chapter is saturated with faith. But that's what he's saying, what was important about the offering. So I believe the account in Genesis also ports this based upon what it says at the end of verse 4 and going into verse 5 of Genesis 4. Now listen to this really carefully, because I read over this a couple of times too fast. Genesis, the end of Genesis 4, verse 4 is this, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. Think about what he said. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. And he had no regard for Cain and his offering. Do you and I not know that God can see our hearts? God can see their hearts. God can see their hearts. And that's important. The emphasis of the writer of Hebrews is not necessarily fixated so much on the offering itself, but on the faith of the one giving the offering. And I think about the widow with two mites. That's all she had. And she gave it in faith. And that's why Jesus pulled it out. She was not going to get anything for that. She wasn't getting any recognized recognition from anybody there watching the money going in. She gave it in faith. Her last, probably her last two mites of any. I mean, that's all she had. I believe this verse is making it really clear that Abel's offering was accepted by God, not because it was the right sacrifice, although it was, because he gave it in faith. You know, put this in kind of a metaphorical sense, you know, the whole cart before the horse. We hear that metaphor all the time. Don't put the cart before the horse. Well, I think this is kind of the same thing. Abel, Abel's offering didn't make him righteous, he was already righteous in the sight of God. And therefore his offering was given in that heart with that faith. John Calvin, in his commentary on Hebrew, says Abel's offering was merely the outcome. Evidence of internal faith. And to further prove this through scriptures that speak about Cain, I'm going to roll out a couple of scriptures in the New Testament that are, let's just say, are not very favorable to our friend Cain. The Apostle John. So in 1 John, we know the Apostle John was the apostle of love, right? Everybody talks about that, right? So in 1 John 3, verse 12, he's talking in 1 John 3 about loving the love for one another that we should have. And look what he says. See the significance of this statement, and then what we read is that Cain was already in a degenerative state way before the offering. Way before the offering. He had somehow allowed himself to go down that path where the enemy had been working on him and working on him. And you know, we know that we see what happened in the Garden of Eden. We know that Satan and his demons weren't going to let you go. And he had that fallen nature now to deal with. And all of that pounded onto him. And he was in the wrong mindset when he first even brought the offering. In fact, when he selected the offering, he he got the wrong one. He brought the wrong, he brought the stuff at the end. He brought the wrong offering and he brought it with the wrong heart. And it's so clear. It's so clear. How about Jude? Hey, Jude. Okay. If you look at Jude, by the way, Jude doesn't pull any punches, you guys. If you've read the epistle of Jude, it's really brutal. And the short book of Jude really blasts false teachers. I mean, really comes after false teachers. He calls out fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah, unholy people. And then right in the middle of this, he literally uses Cain to describe a corrupt mindset. This is what he says in verse 10. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. He's literally calling them animals. I mean, he's just calling it what it is. And then he says in verse 11, Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. Talk about rolling out of a trio of non-heroes. I mean, Cain's right there. But what's significant about what he says there is the way of Cain was his heart. He says nothing about the offering. He doesn't say, don't be like Cain or brought the wrong stuff. He literally says, He's of the evil one. His mind is corrupt. And that's something for us to understand. If you want further proof of this corrupt heart, just look at how Cain responded to God after his rejection of his offering. In verse 5, it says, But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. You know, one of the things I can tell you, having kicked around the kingdom for a long time, when someone receives correction, you watch how they respond. And by the way, correction's never fun to receive. I get it. I've received it. If you've never, you're weird. But everybody receives correction, right? But I'm telling you, it's hard to receive. But if you humbly receive it, God can work with that. He can work with a repentant heart. But that's not what we saw from Cain. He didn't, he didn't, he wasn't humble. He didn't, he didn't respond in a humble way and like, I'm sorry, Lord, I got that wrong. I'll be honest, my heart's not in the right place. Forgive me. He didn't respond that way. In fact, if you continue to go down the path, what did he do after that? And by the way, God goes on and says literally, sin is crouching at the door. If you do right, you'll be accepted. Watch out, Cain. Sin is crouching at the door. The God of the universe is talking to you one-on-one and he's giving you a warning, and you run right through that red light, and you get matter and matter, and you kill your brother. Are you telling me that happened? That he was fine before he brought that offering? No. His heart was wrong a long time before. And of course, if you contrast Abel's offering, it's night and day. Abel brought the correct offering as an act of faith. It's his faith that motivated him to please the Lord. And that's the faith that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. Now, how about us?

Offer Your Whole Life To God

Scott Wiens 27:06

How about us today? You might say, Scott, that's pretty cool. Thanks for that little bit of insight. But how does that apply to me? Well, I'd like to posit that the story of Abel's faith is an example of how we should live our entire life as an offering to God. From Abel's example of the offering of faith, I really see three ways that we can offer our lives as an offering of faith like Abel did. And the first one is offering our lives in faith completely. Completely. And this first point is an umbrella over the other two, but it's I wanted to point this one out because it's so important. Romans 12, Paul says something that really is hard to accomplish. He says to the Romans, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now, there's a lot of beautiful terms in this scripture that ties in with Abel and his offering. He said, present, present. Brethren, you have to willingly go before the Lord and present your life to him and say, It's yours, God, use it as you will. We acknowledge that God's our Father and He's worthy of our praise and worship, and most importantly, he's worthy of our whole lives. The word sacrifice is in there. True believers are willing to sacrifice our will to God. Holy and acceptable. I just love that. Holy and acceptable. Just as God received Abel's offering because it was the right offering and because it was given with a right heart, God will accept our lives as an offering if we turn our lives over to Him totally and become bondservants. We taught about this concept of bondservants in the Ephesian study. Paul calls himself a bondservant to Christ all the time. And what is a bondservant? A bondservant is someone who literally gives themselves over to their master and says, I live now to serve you. Dying to self. It's a radical concept, isn't it? If you're not a believer, this is radical. You're looked upon kind of as a man, you're crazy. But that's what we're called to do. We're called to be bondservants. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians refuse to believe fully and present themselves in an incomplete way to God. Some claim to be Christians because they show up at church twice a year, believe that they're doing enough. Doing enough to make it. I've heard people talk like that before. Some people talk to God only when they're in a desperate place, desperate position. They cry out, they want rescue. And some are Sunday morning saints and six-day heathens. I made that one up myself. I'm really it's really sad though. I've seen people like this. They keep one foot in the word, one foot of the faith, and the other one totally in the world. And they literally live, they're they're Jekyll and Hyde. Truly offering your life to God in faith means you have to die to yourself. And we've got a great example of this. And Tyler mentioned this, and we've had a front row seat of this with Derek and Megan. Don't kid yourself. Derek wasn't all fired up when God started putting this in his path. He's like, wait, this is where I am. This is where God's, this is where God's trained me, discipled me. This is where I've loved on people, and this is my family. You're telling me to do what? When you obey God in faith, it's often going to require something of you. And it's going to require a sacrifice. And if you've never sacrificed for your faith, then maybe you haven't been listening to God because almost always He requires a sacrifice. And sometimes it's with selfish things, right? I don't want to stop doing black, black, black, you know, I don't want to stop that. I love telling jokes. When I was, when I walked away from God, I was doing, I was, man, I was the life of the party. I'd go out on business trips. I could have a table howling because I had funny jokes, and half of them were off-color. But I was good at telling them. And when God convicted me, I quit doing that. I quit being the life of the party, you guys. But that was okay. But it was hard at first. I missed that. It was all selfish, but I didn't want to do it anymore because that was not who I was anymore in Christ. That's just you all have sacrificial examples you can give. Giving yourself sacrificially can be hard. But just like Derek and Megan are taking the step of faith, they're trusting that they're hearing from God. They've confirmed that, and they're walking in it, no matter how difficult it might be. And that's that's an example of truly walking in faith. And we really admire Derek and Megan for that. You know, the definition of what an all-in believer is often defined as again is a bondservant, and we see that all the time. And I really believe, I'm convicted that every morning I need to tell God that I'm his bondservant. I love Phillips, Craig, and Dean. There's a song that they sing called I Am a Friend of God, and He calls me Friend. I love that song, but I think that song you have to be cautious because our definition of friend, it was like, He's my buddy. No, no, he is the God of heaven. The God of heaven. And you, he is my friend, but he is someone who I worship and venerate, and I fall on my face and bow before him, and I give my whole life to him. He's the God I worship. He's not my buddy. And I I every morning I pray that I say, God, I want to do your will today, not mine. I am your servant today, not me. You want to really pound that in? Start praying for other things other than yourself. You'll quickly come to understand that. It's that's not that's not what we're supposed to do. So the question is, are we exemplifying our faith in our relationships? Are we exemplifying the faith that Abel had in our marriages, the way we raise our children, our jobs, when we drive in Knoxville traffic, when we interact with the lost. It's a sacrifice. Our faith, like that of Abel, is played out in every part of our lives. Secondly, our offering our physical treasures

Trusting God With Money And Giving

Scott Wiens 34:18

to God in faith. And I appreciated what Josh had to say when he was introducing the offering. Can you imagine what it would have been like if you could have been there to watch Abel prepare his offering? Abel, you know, if you if you tend sheep, if you tend animals, if you're a shepherd, you love these animals. Although sometimes, and I appreciated your series on shepherding, sometimes it drives a little crazy. But he he must have remembered watching that. Let's just say it was a lamb. Watch it being born and knowing this is God's. Then watching it grow, and when the time came to offer, he went through and he picked that lamb up. And although it was gonna be a little hard for him because he loved that animal, he knew it wasn't his, it was God's. And he prepared that. He did it in faith. He did it joyfully, he brought it to the Lord joyfully. I think that's that's what his heart was. One of the greatest tests of our faith is how we faithfully give back to God a small portion of what he's given us. We all say amen when you say it's all God's, anyways, right? Oh, yeah, amen. And then we look at our budgets. This room could be filled with testimonies of people, because I know a lot of you that you gave to God even when it didn't add up in your quicken account. But you still did. That was faith that drove that. And by the way, when I were was a part of a church that was more of a legalistic church, I remember giving legalistically. I mean 10%, exactly 10%, but I gave it in a legalistic sense, but yet I still wanted to give it. And when grace came on us and we began to receive grace and understand grace, I can tell you this we still gave that 10%, but now 10% didn't mean that much. Because sometimes God said, Hey, I want you to give sacrificially, and we go, Oh, really? Yeah, oh, you sure? My wife and I have had some interesting conversations about that. But yet it was with joy that we gave. And I got something to report to all of you. I have never successfully outgiven God. I just want to let you know that I'm gonna go on record. I've tried it, it doesn't work. So call him in, you know, put him to task on this. Remember that scripture? It says, put me to the test in this. He's saying, demonstrate your faith in how you give of the treasures that really aren't yours, anyways. Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in Luke 6, 38, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put onto your lap. For the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. The King of the universe, the Son of God Himself, your Savior, says, Give and I'll give back and I'll blow your mind. Do you believe that? Because that's what faith is, it's believing when you read things like this. Josh already mentioned the scripture in 2 Corinthians. Thanks for that, Josh. Appreciate that. I'll actually read the whole scripture though. 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 7, Paul says to the Corinthians, he's talking about the offering to the saints in Jerusalem, and that's the context of this. And he says, the point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now we focus on this, God loves a cheerful giver, and that's true. But really, what he's saying is if you give in faith, you will be joyous about it. You'll be experiencing joy, your countenance will change. You won't go, you know, someone grabs you on the end of the check and you're pulling. No, you're joyously giving. That's what Abel did. He joyously gave. Faithfully putting God first in our finances can be hard. And let me just say something really to make it real clear to all of you. We, as the elders of this church, will never use this pulpit to beat you over the Bible with the head with the Bible and scripture to try to guilt you into giving. We don't pass a bucket around. We don't pass that around at all. We tell you there's three ways to give, and then we pray over the offering. And the reason we do that is because if you give out a compulsion, God doesn't want your money. And what Josh said is really true. God doesn't need your money, He wants your faith. He wants your heart. He wants your life. He wants all of that, and the other stuff will follow. It will follow. So we'll that's one of the reasons we never talk about that. I remember telling one pastor of a church we were talking, I said, Yeah, we don't pass the bucket around. We just, you know, he went, What? I said, Yeah. He said, Oh, I'd never do that. I'd go hungry next week. I'm like, well, where's your faith? Where's your faith? And the last part, offering our gifts to him in faith. When

Using Your Gifts For The Common Good

Scott Wiens 39:54

I say gifts now, I'm talking about the gifts that he gives every believer. Okay, so in the New Testament, gifts are listed, and there's really two categories of gifts. There's what we call service gifts. Those are gifts like serving and supporting, you know, administration, gifts of administration, uh, leadership. Those are gifts God gives us to give. And then the other gifts are more the spiritual gifts, or what called the speaking gifts. And those are things like the ability to communicate God's truth, maybe teaching, you know, prophecy, a word of knowledge, all those things. So he gives us those gifts. Everyone in here, I've looked it up and it says it in Scripture: every one of you has at least one gift. Some of you have more than one, and that makes us a little jealous. But you all have a gift. And God expects you in faith to use that gift. But unfortunately, a lot of us, we sometimes we don't do that. And the church would not be what it is today if you didn't use your gifts. We're supposed to use that, those gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 7 just basically talks about all the variety of gifts that are given. And I love it, it says, now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. There's a variety of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but the same God who empowers them all to everyone. And listen to this: to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The only reason that any church functions as the body of Christ is everybody should be giving of those gifts. We shouldn't have that 80-20 rule going on in a church where 20% of the people do 80% of the work. That's one of the reasons we want you to get plugged in. And you might say, Oh, yeah, I just want to use this as slave labor. No, we don't need that. What we need you is walking in what God's gifted you in. And you know when you see somebody doing that, which you get to see every week up here with these worship people. You ever watch Brooke Brook Brooke sing? Does she look like she's struggling? She's serving, she's loving what she does. I love seeing people in our coffee bar. They're smiling, they're having a good time, they're laughing, they're getting my order wrong. No, they never get it wrong. They never get it wrong. I always say, hey, I want the usual, and they've gotten used to me now. But they they love what they do. God wants you to cheerfully serve. And when you do that, you're the you're the most at peace. And so we can show the faith of Abel and how we steward the gifts that God's given us in faith. So I'm going to conclude here real quickly.

Repentance And Growing Your Faith

Scott Wiens 42:38

You may have been sitting here getting a little convicted. And may you might say, you know what, I have not given my whole life. Maybe you're struggling with submitting all of your life to God. Maybe you got your one foot outside of your faith. Maybe you're struggling with trusting God with your finances. Maybe you're being selfish with the gifts God's given you, and you're just coming to church and leaving, and you're not serving the body. Whether inside the church or outside, you're not serving and using those gifts God's given you. And let me just say this: I am certainly not throwing stones up here. Because the reality is we can all do better at this. And the other reality is through my life, I have definitely not done any, all of these three, I've not done them well at different times in my life. But I'm striving to. And so if you're feeling convicted, don't feel shame. Feel the conviction and say, I want to do something about this. I want to have the faith of Abel. I want to be in the hall of faith. Not because you want to see your name in lights, but because you want to be like Abel. That's why it was preserved for us to be convicted of that. Do you want to see your faith increased? It might seem like a simple question, and one of those duh, like, of course, Scott, I want to see my faith. Faith increase. Well, remember, it might come with a cost. It might mean you have a stronghold that you're going to have to tear down. But he'll give you the strength to do it. He's the one that can empower you to do that. Because here's what I know faith comes from God. It's a gift from God. And so here's a few things you can do if you want to grow in your in your faith. The first thing is repent. What Cain did not do. Do. When you're convicted of something, when you're convicted that, wait a second, I've not been serving the Lord. I've not been, I've not had the faith of able to give faithfully. I've not had that. I've kept part of my life out here. If you're in that person, just repent. But do do it genuinely and ask God to convict you of that. And then ask God for more faith. Faith is a gift. It says that in Romans 12, verse 3. Faith is a gift from God, it's a measured gift to us, and it can grow. And how does it grow? Well, you just immerse yourself in God's word. That's what Romans 10 tells us. Romans 10, verse 7 17 says, So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. That faith that we continue, that the word of God that keep pouring over top of us, the closer and the stronger your relationship with God, the stronger your faith. And the more trials and troubles and things you bounce through and you come out the other side because God dragged you through it, it builds your faith. That's why I love our older saints in this church because they've been through it and they're still here. And they will tell you about the times they struggled in their faith, but they'll also tell you that God came through and he continues to come through every time. And us as younger people, I'm including myself in there. We need to learn from that. That's why Abel, his example is taught to us here. We can learn from Abel. He will bring us through that. He's faithful. Please stand to your feet if you don't mind.

Prayer And Invitation For Prayer

Scott Wiens 46:07

You know, we're told that we should pray for one another and encourage one another. And I really want to encourage all of you. If you want prayer for this, we will have a prayer team after we pray for Derek. We'll have a prayer team up here. But if there's someone, just a brother or sister in Christ, that you just say, I need someone to pray for me, grab them. Take them in the corner and say, I need prayer. That's what we're supposed to do. And God answers. That's a good prayer. Because God will answer that. Let me pray over all of us right now. Father, I thank you for the faith of Abel. I thank you in the face of someone like Cain with his evil heart and his wrong offering and his countenance that was just so opposite of what you wanted, that we have a beautiful example of faith in Cain. Or in Abel, Father. I just thank you for Abel. I thank you for his faith, and I thank you that we were able to learn from that. And Father, I pray right now in the name of Jesus that you impart to all of us a greater measure of faith. That we would walk forward, that we would give our lives totally and completely to you, Lord, that we would not be hindered by the bills or the numbers that we would just faithfully give to you, knowing that you will provide. And that, Father, the gifts that you've given us so beautifully, those gifts to serve and to teach, the word of knowledge and prophecy, God, that you would just give us the faith to use them, to use them for the common good of your body. Lord, saturate this church with your faith that we might bring glory to you in everything we say and everything that we do, Lord. And it's to your name we give all the glory. Amen.