SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the North Iron Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy our hero series where we dive deep into the lives of heroes in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning, North Iron Church.
SPEAKER_01: I am excited to be able to share with you this message this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If I haven't had the pleasure of shaking your hand or getting to know you yet, my name is Noah, and I'm the next gen pastor here at North Iron Church.
SPEAKER_01: And not only do I get to share a message this morning with you all, but I get to kick off our brand new series, Heroes of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm excited about this.
SPEAKER_01: And we are going to be in Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: So if you do need a Bible this morning, you can just raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: We have uh some Bibles here that you can use as a tool.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in having a physical Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You can leave them at your seat when you're done.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't have a Bible at home or a physical Bible, this is for you to take home.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to have, we believe in having a physical Bible, and that is important uh this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But also you can follow along with my notes on the church center app uh that your campus pastor mentioned this morning under uh the notes tab, and you can follow along this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but in Hebrews 11, we get a whole list of men and women who have done incredible things uh for God with their faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so we call this the Great Hall of Faith, hence why our series is Heroes of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so if I have any youth students in the room, they know they hear me preach about it all the time, but I love superheroes, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm a big hero guy.
SPEAKER_01: I love specifically Spider-Man.
SPEAKER_01: I think I preach about Spider-Man probably every other week for some reason.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a big Spider-Man guy.
SPEAKER_01: And I love his whole mantra, right?
SPEAKER_01: The whole thing with Spider-Man is that with great power comes great responsibility, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I think that just echoes in uh Christ's followers' life so much, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've been born again, I've been given the gift of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: That's great power.
SPEAKER_01: We have been given great power with fruit in the fruit of the spirit in our life, with the Holy Spirit working in us.
SPEAKER_01: That is great power.
SPEAKER_01: And also, as Christians, we have great responsibility to go and preach the gospel, to make more disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And so I I think I love heroes.
SPEAKER_01: I love heroes of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I love this list.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look through the list, there's like some amazing heroes in this Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There's some amazing people, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you grew up in the church like me, go in the, you know, go kids, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hearing Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Kim talking about some of those heroes.
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of times we can kind of look at this list, see these iconic names, and kind of think of them as almost superheroes or almost fictional characters, right?
SPEAKER_01: I think we get almost in a negative, bad habit of thinking of these people as almost main characters in a fictional story, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're just they're just superheroes in a comic book, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're just characters in a movie, they're just knights and kings and queens in a fantasy book, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're not actually real.
SPEAKER_01: But the thing is, they are real people.
SPEAKER_01: They are real human beings.
SPEAKER_01: These are real men and women in history who have done amazing things, amazing works of faith.
SPEAKER_01: They are people who have struggles, they're ordinary people who sin and are broken, just like you and me this morning.
SPEAKER_01: People who have had embarrassing moments in their life, yet they have done amazing things with their faith for God.
SPEAKER_01: And I think just these ordinary people, they all have these three things in common.
SPEAKER_01: They have three convictions in their life.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to go to Hebrews 11, 6 uh to start off.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna keep coming back to this verse in this series, but I want to read this that we get these three kind of beliefs from.
SPEAKER_01: But it says, and without faith it is impossible to please him.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
SPEAKER_01: I think from this verse that is the cornerstone of our series here, we can get three things, three beliefs from each of these uh people on the list.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is God is real.
SPEAKER_01: They all believe and have a convention that God is real, right?
SPEAKER_01: Obviously.
SPEAKER_01: Two, he will keep his promises.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, seeking him is worth it.
SPEAKER_01: It's worth the effort, it's worth the work.
SPEAKER_01: And then this year's heroes of the Bible, each one of these people have used faith in a very different way.
SPEAKER_01: They all have faith in God, but they use it in a different way to accomplish different things for God.
SPEAKER_01: Think of faith as a nine-sided diamond, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we're just gonna be looking at a couple of those sides to see how these heroes use their faith to do great things.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to go back to kind of get a premise of what faith is, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about faith, what really faith is, and we can see this in Hebrews 11.
SPEAKER_01: So Hebrews 11, 1 through 3 says, now faith is confidence in what we hope for.
SPEAKER_01: Confidence in what we hope for, assurance about what we do not see.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is important, right?
SPEAKER_01: Faith is believing in something that you can't see, right?
SPEAKER_01: Faith is having an awareness that in a world, that a world exists that you can't see with your physical eyes.
SPEAKER_01: That a real God is working, even though we cannot see, that we can't hold God's hand, but God is working here in this room this morning, right?
SPEAKER_01: That the Holy Spirit right now is moving.
SPEAKER_01: He was moving this morning when we're worshiping God, he's moving right now in this room.
SPEAKER_01: That a very real God is working.
SPEAKER_01: I like to think of it kind of like the internet, right?
SPEAKER_01: You can't see the internet, right?
SPEAKER_01: God is kind of like the internet, and I think the I'd like to think of the Holy Spirit as like Wi-Fi, okay, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're probably all using Wi-Fi, you're all on your phones using it.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're Snapchatting someone, you shouldn't be, you're texting people right now.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a good person, you're on the church center app following along with my notes, right?
SPEAKER_01: But we all use Wi-Fi, you're using it.
SPEAKER_01: There's you know, radio waves going above our heads.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're sending this to different campuses throughout the UP.
SPEAKER_01: Like, we know that Wi-Fi exists, that we use it, we believe in it, you just can't see it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And radio waves existed before the late 90s, but it just recently in the late 90s, that's when we started using it and we had the sensors to understand to use Wi-Fi.
SPEAKER_01: Faith, in the very same way, is like a sensor for us to pick up on a spiritual world.
SPEAKER_01: It's a sensor for us to hear from God, to pick up from different data.
SPEAKER_01: If we go to the second verse, right, and it says this this is what the ancients were commended for.
SPEAKER_01: Ancients, meaning everyone in that list, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament Bible heroes, men and women, um, and they were commended for it.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning they were given affirmation.
SPEAKER_01: They were validated.
SPEAKER_01: If they weren't validated here on earth with like a miracle, they had their validation.
SPEAKER_01: They were commended in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of these heroes got physical, like amazing miracles, signs that they made the right choice, right?
SPEAKER_01: Moses partying the Red Sea, sign that God was with him, that they he's making the right choice.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel and the lion's den, he didn't get eaten up.
SPEAKER_01: But some of the heroes, they didn't get that, they didn't get that affirmation here on earth, but it was later in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna actually look at one of those heroes later.
SPEAKER_01: But nonetheless, they all still made that right decision.
SPEAKER_01: Then we jump down to verse 3, right?
SPEAKER_01: By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
SPEAKER_01: Listen again, we can't prove that God exists scientifically, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We can't use science to prove that God exists.
SPEAKER_01: But what I love is that personally, I think if you look at science, the science of the human body, the science of the world, it's like a big neon sign pointing to God.
SPEAKER_01: Human DNA alone, I just read this, human DNA alone is a three billion letter sequence.
SPEAKER_01: Three billion letter sequence that makes up our genetic instructions for operating like our human body.
SPEAKER_01: Like that, that's like insane.
SPEAKER_01: That's not from nothing, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's from a creator, that's from intelligent design, right?
SPEAKER_01: Physical science, right?
SPEAKER_01: The physical science teaches us that the world isn't infinite.
SPEAKER_01: That you can't keep pushing the physical causes for things backwards in the infinite regress.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning basically, nothing times nobody doesn't equal everything, right?
SPEAKER_01: Everything can't come from nothing, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_01: And now we use our faith as a sensor to hear past what we physically can see, our physical world.
SPEAKER_01: We hear it past what we can physically see, right?
SPEAKER_01: Faith helps us to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Faith helps us to hear from God, the words of God, the voice of God, as he speaks through creation, as he speaks through his creation in the physical world.
SPEAKER_01: And so we can hear from God multiple ways, right?
SPEAKER_01: Even in verse 3, it says the universe, the universe was framed by the word of God, by the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God is the primary instrument of faith.
SPEAKER_01: So not only does faith help us hear from God, but also faith is built by hearing.
SPEAKER_01: Not only does it help faith help us hear, but once you keep hearing, once you keep pursuing your faith, is building, your faith is building with God.
SPEAKER_01: I think we can hear from God in multiple different ways.
SPEAKER_01: Um one of them it speaks to the beauty and the magnificence of creation, Psalms 19.
SPEAKER_01: It whispers to us in the quietness of our conscience, beckoning to us in the moments of joy, screaming at us and moments of pain, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like at Romans 1.
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, God, I believe God speaks to us not only through the Holy Spirit, right?
SPEAKER_01: But also through the Word of God, the living, breathing word of God, the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And also, most of all, the word is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the very word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in these next couple of verses in Hebrews 11, we're gonna look at those different examples of faith and those different heroes and how they utilize their faith and the amazing things they did for God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first of that we're gonna talk about is Abel on the list.
SPEAKER_01: Abel.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna read in verse 4, says this in Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than his brother Cain, though which he was commended as righteous.
SPEAKER_01: God commended him by accepting his gift through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a good example of someone who didn't get the earthly miracle here on earth, but he did later in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know who Abel is, Abel was Adam and Eve's the first human beings ever, second son, and he was famously murdered by his brother Cain.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna kind of recap the story in Genesis 4.
SPEAKER_01: God had commanded early on, the first human beings ever, he commanded Adam and Eve from the beginning to offer to God the first and the best of their provisions.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Right away we see God saying, like, hey, giving and tithing, this is a command from me as I declaring their dependence to him.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that Cain was a farmer, so he would offer grain, he would offer veggies to God.
SPEAKER_01: We see that Abel was a shepherd and he brought livestock, he brought lambs to God.
SPEAKER_01: And the writer of Genesis says this in verse 4, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of doesn't give us like a lot of details there, right?
SPEAKER_01: He regarded Abel's, he didn't regard Cain's.
SPEAKER_01: And so the question is, where do we see faith in Abel's offering, but we why don't we see it in Cain's offering?
SPEAKER_01: And I I personally like to think God is just like a big meat guy, right?
SPEAKER_01: He just he loves, he loves, he's on a carnivore diet, he loves protein, right?
SPEAKER_01: Obviously that's not it, right?
SPEAKER_01: He wants, God wants us to offer what you know they make their livelihood on.
SPEAKER_01: For us, it's it's monetary income, right?
SPEAKER_01: For them, it would make sense for Cain to bring grain, Abel to bring lamb.
SPEAKER_01: But I think there's two things that we can take from Abel's sacrifice that we can apply to us right now, this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The first is this Abel gave his offering in response to God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: It was a response, it was an act of worship to God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: If we look back earlier to Cain and Abel's parents, right, Adam and Eve, if you know the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, right when they sinned against God and they went against the commands of God, in an instant, if you know, they suddenly felt ashamed and naked.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly they realized they didn't have any clothes on, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I think I wonder sometimes, like, why do they feel naked?
SPEAKER_01: And our early church author, Augustine, said that it was because at this point, Adam and Eve, obviously they were already naked, but they had been clothed in love and acceptance so much from God.
SPEAKER_01: But now, having stripped themselves of that covering, they suddenly felt naked and ashamed, and shame and sin entered the picture into the world.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like one of those nightmares.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you have those nightmares where you're like late to school and you got a test or something, you show up and then suddenly you're naked in front of your class and then you're like scrambling to like put stuff on.
SPEAKER_01: For some reason I have those, but I'm always in Walmart for some reason, not school.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's just because if someone was naked in public, it'd probably be, you know, at Walmart, but you know, and those dreams you're just trying to cover up, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing with Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: They're like suddenly they're in this nightmare.
SPEAKER_01: They're they've ushered the world into a nightmare, they're entered into sin, and suddenly they gotta scramble and grab leaves, whatever they can because they don't know how to cover themselves up.
SPEAKER_01: And they're grabbing whatever they can to hide their shame.
SPEAKER_01: And God comes down one day to go on his evening stroll with his creation to hang out with Adam and Eve, and for the first time ever, he calls out to them and they don't answer.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: He goes looking for them.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, he finds them because he's God, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You can't hide from me, it's pointless.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you trying to cover yourselves up?
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me cover you up.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he makes clothes for them, he kills a lamb, he he makes clothes and gives it to them.
SPEAKER_01: And God made a promise to them.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first kind of echo of a promise of the gospel that we see in Genesis 3.15, echoing the gospel promised in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: God said, basically, one day through one of your offspring, I'm going to send a deliverer who will do more than just cover your sin.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to take away your suffering by dying for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to come and stomp on the serpent's head.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, what he's saying to them is, you don't have to try to cover up, you can't, you can't even do it, anyways.
SPEAKER_01: Let me cover for you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me cover your sin and wrap you for you.
SPEAKER_01: Take that sin and shame away.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we go back ahead back to Abel, Abel believed in God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: He heard about it, he knows about God's promises from his parents so much that his sacrifice, again, is a response, is an act of worship to it.
SPEAKER_01: He believes in it so much that when he gives his offering, it's an act of worship of saying, God, yeah, I believe that you're gonna send the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: I believe you're gonna wash away my sins.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm offering this as a response and belief that I am yours and you're going to cover me.
SPEAKER_01: That's an act of worship.
SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, Cain gave his sacrifice to earn the promise.
SPEAKER_01: He did it to try to earn it.
SPEAKER_01: If I was preaching at youth on Thursday night, I'd be like, Cain is a pygmy boy, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Like he's saying, God, like, you know, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all the stuff that I did for you.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I look at all this grain, look at all this good stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Like, am I earning it?
SPEAKER_01: Is it good enough for you?
SPEAKER_01: Am I earning it?
SPEAKER_01: Am I getting that goodwill for you?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Did I get it?
SPEAKER_01: How much is enough?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to earn it.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the main difference isn't the quality of the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even the amount, it's not even what it was, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's the heart posture behind the offering.
SPEAKER_01: God sees our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: He sees our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: One was given as an act of faith and gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: Act of faith and gratitude for having received God's favor.
SPEAKER_01: The other was an attempt just to earn it, just to earn God's favor.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, we all deal with that same kind of heart posture this morning, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's a heart posture that we have to deal with.
SPEAKER_01: It's something I see here at North Iron.
SPEAKER_01: It's something I've seen in the church that still happens all the time, right?
SPEAKER_01: Someone, maybe that this is you this morning where something bad has happened in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I don't know if suddenly your marriage is ending, your kids are hurt, something's wrong going on.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know if you lost your job, whatever it may be, something bad is happening right now.
SPEAKER_01: And to fix everything, suddenly you realize, oh, I need God in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly everything's wrong, and you're like, I need God now.
SPEAKER_01: And you try to, you try to fix it.
SPEAKER_01: So you you start coming to church, you show up every Sunday, you're trying to, you know, throw as much, you know, bills, remaining bills you have in the buckets as they're being passed, you're trying not to cuss anymore, you're trying to, you know, you're not drinking anymore, you're just trying to fix everything and try to look good, right?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: If this is you, if that's you this morning, if that's you, I just want to say, I'm glad you're here, first of all.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you're hearing this.
SPEAKER_01: I also want to tell you this morning that you have a cane heart, that you have cane motives.
SPEAKER_01: You're hoping through church attendance, through some offering, that you can make yourself acceptable to God.
SPEAKER_01: You're trying to earn it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Your sacrifice is church activity.
SPEAKER_01: You're being a good person, right?
SPEAKER_01: Having a squeaky, clean life.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna do anything bad anymore, right?
SPEAKER_01: You promise, and you're wondering like, how many months have come in the church in a row do I have to do till like I'm good with God?
SPEAKER_01: You know, how much money do I have to give to like suddenly my plate is clean and I'm good with God?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: It's this religious attitude, and it makes us and it's and it makes us resentful of the ables in the room who seem to have this assurance of God's favor, right?
SPEAKER_01: And can I tell you that's the bad news this morning?
SPEAKER_01: That's the bad news that if that's you, you have a cane heart.
SPEAKER_01: But there's good news this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You have to give the bad news first.
SPEAKER_01: There's good news this morning that if that's you, you can also change your heart right now this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a cane heart, you can change your heart this morning to an able, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just with belief, right?
SPEAKER_01: Belief is all it takes.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, it's faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's belief that God sent a deliverer, Jesus, here on earth to die for you, to take away your sin, that He has He has finished the promise that God gave, that He fully accepts you now, not because of who you are, but because what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't accept Abel's offering because he lived better than Cain.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't because Abel was a better Christian, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the whole point, right?
SPEAKER_01: You can't earn it.
SPEAKER_01: He accepted Abel's offering because Abel believed that God would do what he promised.
SPEAKER_01: And he made his offering trusting in that promise, right?
SPEAKER_01: The deliverer who would come to cover our sin debt, to take away our pain, to take away our transgressions, what we had done to come and stomp on the serpent's head has come, and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we can't attempt to earn it.
SPEAKER_01: Faith and trust have this kind of fusion to them where they work hand in hand, and we see that a lot in Abel's story.
SPEAKER_01: And that kind of leads me to the second thing that we can take away from Abel's uh Abel's sacrifice, and it's this Abel gave his offering trusting in God's provision.
SPEAKER_01: So we see that he did it as a response.
SPEAKER_01: He believes in God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: Now we see that he is trusting fully in God's provision.
SPEAKER_01: We can see this clearly in Genesis 4, verse 4 it says, and Abel also brought an offering, fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: You can highlight that for the firstborn of his flock.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot there, but the biggest thing that we can take away is the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, Abel didn't just give God the leftovers.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't just get he gave the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: His whole career is a being a shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: That's his job.
SPEAKER_01: That's like his small business or his big business.
SPEAKER_01: That's his whole life.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he gets paid.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he feeds his family.
SPEAKER_01: That's everything to him.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he had his first lamb, he didn't know if there's going to be more.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have eight lambs and then suddenly give him even the first one or the second or third.
SPEAKER_01: He had the first lamb and he gave it to God.
SPEAKER_01: You have to he had to wonder is there gonna be more lambs?
SPEAKER_01: He had to wonder like, okay, God, I'm gonna give you this.
SPEAKER_01: Is there gonna be more prize?
SPEAKER_01: Is there gonna be more later on?
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01: Yet he gave God the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give it out of an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: He gave it first.
SPEAKER_01: Probably wondering, God, are you still going to provide?
SPEAKER_01: I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you this, hoping that there's more lambs later.
SPEAKER_01: Hoping that there's more comes in later, right?
SPEAKER_01: Will my livestock, livelihood, income, will there be more after this?
SPEAKER_01: Abel gave trusting in God's provision for his future.
SPEAKER_01: In contrast, we see with his brother, Cain, it says this, if we jump back to verse 3, it says, In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, there's a clear omission in this verse, okay?
SPEAKER_01: There's a clear omission.
SPEAKER_01: There's a clear, there's no first, there's no first fruits, right?
SPEAKER_01: It gave Abel the first, right?
SPEAKER_01: It gave the firstborn lamb, but there's no first fruits in this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lacking of description in Cain's verse.
SPEAKER_01: There's also a lacking of trust in Cain to God, right?
SPEAKER_01: Cain gave after an overflow.
SPEAKER_01: Cain waited for the whole crop to come in and he gave out of an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Let me, God, let me just get it all.
SPEAKER_01: Let me get all my finances together.
SPEAKER_01: Let me make sure that you know I have a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just wait until like I'm really rich, so then I can give you a lot, God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just wait till I know I'm good, and then I'll and then I'll give you a bunch.
SPEAKER_01: Just wait, God, it's gonna be great.
SPEAKER_01: He gave out of an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give the first.
SPEAKER_01: Even if the first would have been smaller.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, Abel gave the first trust in God to provide the rest.
SPEAKER_01: Cain gave out of the overflow after he had he was sure that he had enough to take care of himself.
SPEAKER_01: And so the simple question this morning is which one are you?
SPEAKER_01: Which one are you?
SPEAKER_01: Which one better describes your offering, your tithing, your giving to God?
SPEAKER_01: And I know that makes us uncomfortable this morning, but we're just taking from scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes we say, like, our talent, time, time, talent, and treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Right now we're looking at treasure.
SPEAKER_01: How are you using your treasure, what God has given you, your livelihood?
SPEAKER_01: Which one better describes you?
SPEAKER_01: Are you the type to pay off all your bills and debts first?
SPEAKER_01: Then kind of give God what's what's left afterwards?
SPEAKER_01: Are you the type to finish your financial goals?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just pay off all the cars, and then you know, after that, oh, I gotta pay off the mortgage first, and then you know, God, just let, you know, I have this client coming in, and we're gonna have like a lot of money then.
SPEAKER_01: So just just, you know, let me figure it out first and get really like an abundance, and then I'll give you a ton, God.
SPEAKER_01: Just just wait.
SPEAKER_01: Or are you the one who gives God the first and best, fully trusting that there's gonna be more, that he's gonna give you the rest, that it's gonna show up.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, Abel believed that if God would keep his promise, this is this is if Abel believed if God could keep his promise to take care of his sin, that he would surely, surely he would trust God to provide for the rest of his needs.
SPEAKER_01: If God's gonna cover your sin debt, surely he's gonna cover your money, surely he's gonna provide for your family.
SPEAKER_01: Surely he's going to give you clothes and a place to sleep at night.
SPEAKER_01: Seems pretty straightforward, right?
SPEAKER_01: Seems pretty logical.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that that that's crazy to me, and a verse that really echoes this, is Romans 8.32 says this.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is, I can't even preach, I just gotta read this because this is this preaching alone.
SPEAKER_01: He who did this, did not, he who did this, did he not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: How will we not also, along with him, graciously wouldn't he graciously give us all the things?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't he just provide for the rest?
SPEAKER_01: He gave his son, he gave his one and only begotten son.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, recently I became a father, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't do much, so but I love her.
SPEAKER_01: Being a father has changed me, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of exciting things.
SPEAKER_01: You know, she's three months at this point.
SPEAKER_01: She's, you know, we might just have heard her giggle yesterday for the very first time.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of exciting things, right?
SPEAKER_01: Fatherhood has changed me.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that has changed is how I interpret and really read the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That has added like a whole nother level of spice almost to the gospel to think that God would give up his one and only son for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I have only one daughter.
SPEAKER_01: To think that I would give my one daughter for any one of you, and then for you to turn to me and not give me your everything afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: He gave us his one son.
SPEAKER_01: He covered our sin debt.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you think he would give us food on our table?
SPEAKER_01: So, how dare we as Christians accept that free gift of salvation and then turn to God and not trust him with our finances alone, and not trust him with everything that we have, with our livelihood, and not give everything to him.
SPEAKER_01: He gave his one and only son.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine how God feels after offering his firstborn, and we just we can't fully let go and trust him with everything that he has, without everything he gave us in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: So this morning, whether or not, it's really I'm just gonna say it straight, whether or not you are actively tithing or giving the first fruit determines in part whether you have a Cain or an able heart this morning.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Bible speaks and teaches on tithing the first 10% at minimum, right?
SPEAKER_01: It should be given as God as a to God as a declaration of dependence on Him.
SPEAKER_01: We see this throughout Scripture as a discipline to practice in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the deal Cain and Abel, they both believed in God, right?
SPEAKER_01: They were both religious.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, they were both going to church, they were both offering, you know, they were both sacrificing offerings to God.
SPEAKER_01: They both brought an offering.
SPEAKER_01: Abel's was accepted because it was given in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Cain was rejected because it was not.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, there's two types of people here this morning, even, right?
SPEAKER_01: In the American church and church in general, right?
SPEAKER_01: Even in this audience, there's the two people, the Cain and Abel's, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're dressed the same on the outside.
SPEAKER_01: They all show up, you both show up, you know, we look good.
SPEAKER_01: You get the same, they have the same tie, the same outfit, they hold the door open for ladies when they're walking through, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're giving offering, they're doing all the right things, they're memorizing scripture, they're showing up every Sunday, they're doing all the right things, they're raising their hands during worship, but on the inside, they're polar opposites.
SPEAKER_01: You're either a Cain or an Abel.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing is, they can cohabitate.
SPEAKER_01: We see this all the time, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not only with Cain and Abel, with Judas and then the disciples following Jesus, like Judas was like in the inner circle following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We see this with the group in Matthew 7 who at the at the end and the last judgment say to Jesus, Lord, didn't we do many wonderful works in your name?
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus responds to them, Depart from me.
SPEAKER_01: I never knew you.
SPEAKER_01: There are people sitting side by side, and both are making an offering to God.
SPEAKER_01: One is offering in faith, one is offering in faith, believing God has already paid for his sin.
SPEAKER_01: His this offering is an act of loving gratitude for that.
SPEAKER_01: The other makes their offering hoping it will earn God's acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: One gives his tithe, giving the first and the best, trusting the God to take care of him.
SPEAKER_01: The other he says, God, after I'm sure I'm good, I'll see whatever left over for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll see whatever's left over for you.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody here is either a Cain and an Abel, and the dividing line runs throughout our country, through our uh the American church, throughout even North Iron at some point.
SPEAKER_01: So which one are you?
SPEAKER_01: Which one best describes your your trust and your provision, your your worship to God?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to come to a to a close with this next person in line in the hall of faith, because I think it echoes a lot with Abel's story.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to talk about the next person in line in Hebrews 11, and that is my boy named Enoch, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It says this in verse 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, pause.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: This guy did not die.
SPEAKER_01: Like God took him before he could experience death.
SPEAKER_01: He could not be found because God had taken him away.
SPEAKER_01: He took him.
SPEAKER_01: For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
SPEAKER_01: That is so awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I was just like reading that and thinking, like, God loved hanging out with Enoch so much, he said, dude, let's just go back to, let's just go to heaven right now and like let's just keep hanging out.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like he was like, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I I love you, dude.
SPEAKER_01: Like, let's just keep this hang sesh going forever, for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Like, imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: That's like incredible to me.
SPEAKER_01: What's even crazier is that Enoch gets it is a is a crazy pick for the Hall of Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you look at all these people in the Hall of Faith, like some of these people not only have like books of the Bible named after them, some of these people have like movies and Hollywood, like made after, like there's movies, there's books named after them.
SPEAKER_01: And Enoch has a total in our in our Bible has a total of like around 10-ish verses.
SPEAKER_01: There's around seven in the Old Testament, or actually there's one in Jude.
SPEAKER_01: There's there's around seven that describe him in Genesis, and only five and a half of those verses, five and a half of those are just about his family and lineage.
SPEAKER_01: So only in the Old Testament or in Genesis, one and a half verses actually describe Enoch at all.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I'm gonna read you those verses that we know about Enoch, alright?
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 5 22 says, Enoch walked with God.
SPEAKER_01: And then we go down to 24.
SPEAKER_01: Enoch walked with God and he would and he was not, for God took him.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: That's all we got, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's all we got from Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: But I think there's a lot that we can take from that, so I'm gonna give you a little bit of a history lesson, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I think this is really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: But in the time of Noah, okay, Enoch lived 400 years earlier than Noah, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we know from the time of Noah that it was especially wicked, okay?
SPEAKER_01: People weren't living right, it was depraved, it was wicked.
SPEAKER_01: Very few people were walking with God like Noah was at the time.
SPEAKER_01: So we can assume that 400 years earlier, it probably wasn't a lot, a whole lot better, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we get from this description that he walked with God that obviously Enoch was someone who was set apart.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He was someone who didn't just follow in, didn't go with the man.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't someone who just walked and did what everyone else did.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't someone who acted and talked like everyone else did.
SPEAKER_01: He was completely different.
SPEAKER_01: He was set apart.
SPEAKER_01: He was he was set apart walking closely with God.
SPEAKER_01: So I think the first thing that we can get from Enoch is he was uh he was set apart by walking closely with God.
SPEAKER_01: The verse in Jude that I was talking about describes that Enoch testified and shared his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's another thing that we can get from uh from Enoch is that he testified to the coming judgment.
SPEAKER_01: That's the next one, uh Amy.
SPEAKER_01: He testified about the coming judgment.
SPEAKER_01: What's crazy is that Enoch, and I'm gonna say Enoch's son's name wrong probably, but Enoch's son was Methuselah.
SPEAKER_01: Methuselah, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And if you grew up in church going to a Bible quiz and forced to go to Bible quiz your whole life like I did, you would know that Methuselah was one of the oldest or the oldest human in history in the Old Testament or in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He lived 969 years.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That was his that he's the oldest one.
SPEAKER_01: And what's crazy is that his name, Enoch named his son, his name literally means when he dies, when my son's gonna die, judgment comes.
SPEAKER_01: His name means death.
SPEAKER_01: So Enoch didn't die, right?
SPEAKER_01: He was taken by God, but even after he was taken away, he was still preaching the gospel, testifying to people, being like, I'm gonna send my son as like a message in a bottle, being like, repent, because in 400 years or whenever he had his son, the flood's coming.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And what's crazy to think is that God, you know, I don't, you know, we can't, this isn't in the Bible, but like, you know, he's the oldest one alive.
SPEAKER_01: Like God kept him alive, kept this message going for all those years to try to reach as many people like repent, repent for it's coming.
SPEAKER_01: And what's crazy if you line up the Old Testament, he dies the same year that the flood happens on earth, which is just like incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And so the last thing that I think we can take from that is he made Enoch made walking with God, he made walking with God the defining reality of his whole life, the defining reality of his whole life.
SPEAKER_01: How powerful of a life that you must have lived to be included into the hall of faith, to be included and only be summed up by just four words.
SPEAKER_01: He walked with God, summed up with just four.
SPEAKER_01: All that's all it was.
SPEAKER_01: He walked with God.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the greatest four words to be summed up by.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the greatest four words to be described as.
SPEAKER_01: Like something, something bad is happening, and you're showing up to church, like we want to pray for you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Like, get up front, get prayed for by these amazing men and women of God up front.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, I just want to end with a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, are you set apart?
SPEAKER_01: I love that Enoch kind of life represented that because at North Iron Youth, that's our word of the year.
SPEAKER_01: We have like a word or a verse of the year, and so the word for the kids is being set apart.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want our young people to be different than everyone else.
SPEAKER_01: I want them to stand out than everyone else in their school.
SPEAKER_01: I want them to be different, I want them to talk different, I want them to act different because they're held to a different standard as Christ's followers.
SPEAKER_01: And so, my question for you adults is are you set apart in your actions?
SPEAKER_01: Can people just look at you and know they're different?
SPEAKER_01: They're not like everyone else.
SPEAKER_01: They're not just following.
SPEAKER_01: Are you getting your morals and what's right and wrong from TikTok or from scripture?
SPEAKER_01: That's an important difference.
SPEAKER_01: Do you walk and talk like everybody else?
SPEAKER_01: Next is do you testify boldly to the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Are you sharing, not just inviting people to church?
SPEAKER_01: That's easy.
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, come to North Iron.
SPEAKER_01: That's easy.
SPEAKER_01: Are you showing up?
SPEAKER_01: Are you picking people up?
SPEAKER_01: Are you are you sharing what God has done in your life to that person?
SPEAKER_01: Are you sharing your faith actively?
SPEAKER_01: Then again, going back to Abel, are you trusting and are you responding to God's promise, to his provision in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Are you stepping out and saying, God, I've received the gospel, I received this free gift you've given me, that you've you've changed my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm born again, and now because of it, I'm gonna trust you with my finances.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust you because I know you got the rest.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to do it as an act of worship to you, because I know you've covered me.
SPEAKER_01: You sent your son for me.
SPEAKER_01: So as an act of worship, I'm going to trust you.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, are you walking with God?
SPEAKER_01: Is that the defining, is walking with God the defining reality of your life?
SPEAKER_01: Is it the purpose of your life above everything else going on?
SPEAKER_01: Above all the craziness, above all the busy schedule, is following God, the defining reality of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: Above everything else in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in just a moment, I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: If that's you this morning, again, I want to remind you, it's as simple as believing it, accepting that free gift this morning, and say, God, I want you as my savior.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want you as my Lord and Savior, and I thank you for it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna pray for you, and then we're gonna close out a service.
SPEAKER_01: But if that's you this morning, just pray with me, Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: I just thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for your sacrifice of what you've done for me, Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for sending your one and only begotten Son for a sinner like me, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I just pray for that everyone in this room, Lord God, if they're here this morning, their world seems like it's in chaos, if it feels like everything is falling apart, that you would just come in, Lord Jesus, and that they would give their life to you, and that you would start moving in their life, you'd start that redemption work that you're known for, God.
SPEAKER_01: That again, we would give you everything, that the following you would be the defining reality of every single thing we do.
SPEAKER_01: From the extraordinary to the small to the mundane to the extraordinary, God, I just pray that that would be our heartbeat for you.
SPEAKER_01: I just pray and give that to you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this message.
SPEAKER_00: For past sermons, a giving link, and more.
SPEAKER_00: Check out the footnotes below or visit our website at northeiron.church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope to see you soon.