Seth, A Legacy of Faith

April 12, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

For an extraordinary God. The hidden servants, the hidden figures of the faith. That's really what I should have titled. Amen. But we'll go with ordinary faith for extraordinary God. Faithfulness in the shadows. That's what we want to lift up. And so our meditation text comes from 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10. It's the New Living Translation. I like that translation on this one. So if we can read this together, let us read. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Amen. One another. Amen. Alrighty. And our main text comes from Genesis chapter 4, verse 25 through 26. And I want to encourage you to read all of Genesis 4 as it forms the context for this particular passage. And this is the NIV, and here's what it says Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, God has granted me another child in place of Abel since Cain killed him. Seth also had a son, and he named him Enoch. And at that time, people began to call on the name of the Lord. I want to talk about Seth, a legacy of faith. A legacy of faith. Ordinary faith for ordinary people is the series. A legacy of faith. Without even thinking, most Christians have been trained to believe that the significant people in God's people, in God's kingdom, are only the stars of God's kingdom. Most Christians have been trained to think this way. That the people that God uses are the ones that are out front the most. This unwritten narrative, God only blesses and uses the superstars of the faith. But the regular people he leaves on the sideline. Put it another way, God only anoints the Abrahams, the Moses's, the Joshua's, the Davids, the Frederick Douglass's, the Harriet Tupners, and the Fannie Lou Hamer. They have something I don't have. God put something in them that he just didn't put in me. So many of us, we we live with this idea that when we see someone that is used of God, it must be because God is giving them something that He would never give me. And this narrative plays in our minds. I don't have the credentials they have. I can't pray like they pray. I don't have the education they have. I don't have the Bible knowledge or the theological depth they have. My faith story is not some super dramatic story. Matter of fact, I've never been down to my last dime. I actually do pretty good with my money. And my friends and family have never kicked me to the curb. I still got friends and family. Truth be told, I came to Christ because I happened to come to Christ's community, and Pastor Archie happened to preach, and I just trusted Christ, and that's my story. No drama, no main, no major deliverance, no no no deathbed confession. I just came the ordinary way. And many times when we when we have an ordinary experience with God, we think that God would never use us in a super extraordinary way. And we've been trained to think that way. And I want to suggest to you in this series that we're starting that God uses people of ordinary faith. God is not looking at your capabilities, he's looking at all of our availability. And whoever is available, that's who God uses. And you don't have to have your name in the lights for God to use you greatly for his purposes. Last Sunday we we talked about Paul and we talked about his nephew and how God would use his nephew to warn Paul that his life was about to be uh executed. And here Paul's nephew warned him. We don't even know his name to this day, but yet his name made it into the biblical record. Because God uses people of ordinary faith. Some of you probably never heard of Shalom and Hanum. These were two individuals who had two families who were a part of Nehemiah's workforce that built the walls around Jerusalem. Or should I say, rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem? And Shalom's family and Hanum's family. They were the family that worked on the dung gate. D-U-N-G dung gate. You know what dung is. I'm trying to say it nicely, y'all. Looking at me all holy. Don't make me say something profane up in here that my daddy said wasn't a cuss word, but I'll say it if I have to. But they worked at the dung gate. The dung gate was the gate where all the sewage from the city flowed out of. Most folk didn't go out the dung gate because it stunk too bad. But here were two families that said if God calls me to help put this wall back together, if I gotta work by the dung gate, I'm gonna do it for God's glory. Because they did work by the gun dungate, and I can imagine there's a whole lot of folks say, I love you, Lord, but I ain't working by the dung gate. Because they work by the dung gate, they got their names in the biblical record. Two more names are worth mentioning. Beeziel and Oholiah. Don't name your children that. We got enough creative names. Say amen. Who are they? Names we've never heard of. Yet the Bible says God anointed them with a spirit of creativity and design, and they would be the architects of the tabernacle that Israel would worship at in the wilderness. My point is the Bible is littered with individuals whose names are sometimes not even mentioned, names we don't even know of, and yet God used them in majestic ways for his purposes. And my word to you is that you're not too small to be used by God. Your name doesn't have to be in the lights to be used greatly for God. Listen to what the master said. I didn't say it, he said it. He said, Everyone who gives a cup of cold water in my name, they shall be rewarded. Surely you can give somebody a cold bottle of water. That's why our meditation text says that all of us have been gifted to bless somebody. And this is a word to all of us that God can use people of ordinary faith. That's the aim of this series. That's where I want to land this. And I want to start with this character by the name of Seth. Not a whole lot to be known about Seth. Most of us know his brothers, Cain and Abel. Yet it's Seth is the one that God would use. A man of ordinary faith that God would use for extraordinary purposes. Genesis 4 tells the tragic story of loss. Here are two brothers that couldn't get along, like a lot of siblings. And it would sadly lead to the demise of one and the banishment of another. It really leads to my thesis statement this morning, and here it is: regardless of the magnitude of the tragedy, God provides a path through it. I don't care what it is, I don't care how difficult it is. I'm not saying that God can always provide an answer, but does anybody know he'll provide a path through it? The Lord here blessed Adam and Eve with two sons, Cain and Abel. But something had gone terribly wrong between them. And you think it would be enough to lose one son to death. But then they would lose the second one to banishment. Two sons lost. They went from two children to emptiness in one day. That's a painful experience. And to add insult to injury, Seth has to live in the shadow of that. You are the replacement. You got to carry on the name. And as I said, I cannot most assuredly tell somebody that you won't have trouble. But I know God will be with you through it. I know God has a way of bringing you through the trouble. This world is filled with trouble. Job said, man born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble. Jesus said, In this world you shall have trouble. And if you keep on living, does anybody know trouble will find your doorstep? It'll find your email address, your cell phone number. It'll even join the robocalls that you get in your cell phone. It will find your way. But the good news of the gospel is that we never have to go through trouble by ourselves. God may not prevent the trouble, but he surely will be with us on the path through the trouble. And maybe that's why David said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow and death, I will fear no evil, because God is with me. We may not ever avoid the trouble, but God will be with us through the difficulty. And I believe that's the word we have here with Seth's story. Seth becomes the path for Adam and Eve through this trouble as he leads a legacy of faith. He's an ordinary individual. Not much is even said about him. We don't even know much about his life. And yet he leads a wonderful legacy here. And so I want to raise the question: what does that ordinary faith look like? Very quickly, we will discern from the story of Cain and Abel as to what that looks like. And number one, I'll start off and say this ordinary faith always involves worship. Ordinary faith always involves worship. Just regular, the regular routine of worship. Genesis 4 may very well be the first narrative articulation of what Jesus would call the greatest commandment, in which he says in Matthew 22, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. And here in this text, we we see an articulation of that where both boys bring an offering. That's loving the Lord thy God with all thy heart. But Cain left off the second part. He killed his brother where you're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. And I can pause right there because we live in a day where Christians think I can worship God and treat folk any kind of way. But look, if if if you can't get this right already, no, this one ain't right either. We are called to love other people, and the proof that we love other people, love God, shows up in how we treat somebody else. And so in this text, in this text here, verses two through four, we get the story of the birth of Abel and the birth of Cain. And Abel here, the text says he was a keeper of the flocks. Cain worked the soil. And in the course of time, it says that Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel brought an offering from the portions, some from the firstborn of his flock. And early on we see here that Adam and Eve taught their sons the value of worship. Bring an offering to the Lord from the increase of what God has given you. Adam and Eve basically said to their children, Look, you can do whatever you want once you get out on your own. But as long as you're in our house, we're going to church. And when we go to church, we give an offering. So my point is, you got to give Adam and Eve some credit. They did try to do right by their children. But I do need to say something to the parents that sometimes in life, even when we do our best with our kids, something can go horribly, horribly wrong. And in the text, there's nothing that would suggest or indicate that Adam and Eve did anything wrong. And I don't know what parent I'm talking to. Because I don't know of any parent in my days as a pastor that has intentionally tried to do their child wrong. But most parents with a modicum of common sense want the best for their children. But how many of y'all know, even when you give them the best, sometimes they just don't turn out the way you want. Adam and Eve understands where you are today. Yes, we make mistakes, amen. I'll be the first one to say, I've made many mistakes. And you know what you do when you make mistakes? You apologize, preach autrep. You sit them down and you say, you know what, daddy or mama shouldn't handle it that way. I tried to do the best I can, but I don't always get it right. But no, at the end of the day, I love you from the bottom of my heart. Please forgive me for not always doing it the right way. But I want to encourage some parent today, even on your best day, sometimes it doesn't always turn out right. But I know I could hear what somebody's saying. But didn't Solomon say train up a child in the way they should go, and when they grow old, they shall not depart. That's why you need my Bible study methods class right there. Yeah, I'm bragging. Because there's a difference between wisdom literature and promise literature. In the Old Testament, God does make promises. But in Proverbs, uh, Solomon is not reciting one of God's promises. God never promised that somehow, if we raise our kids a certain way, they will never have trouble or never go the wrong way. No. What Solomon is doing, he's giving us wisdom and a guide as to how we ought to raise our kids. And if you follow this guide, there's a good chance that things will turn out your way. That's the whole point. But it doesn't mean it always turns out the best. And so we got to do like Adam and Eve. We got to keep doing our best. Even when things turn to their worst. And I want to encourage some parent today, keep doing your best. Do your best the best way you can. And you never know God has a way of showing up and giving your children what they need. But ordinary faith worships God regularly. And there's a few things I need to say. Worship anchors our soul in the Lord. Because I know there's another Christian narrative out there that says I don't need to go to church. That's true, you don't need to go to church. But worship is where God anchors us. Salvation brings you into the family. But worship anchors you into the family. And worship has a way of anchoring my soul in the Lord. It's our response to God as the sovereign Lord, his presence, his character, his saving work in Jesus Christ. And a consistent experience of worship trains us to remember that God is great and God is sovereign. It reminds us of what God has done. It reminds us that our ultimate hope resides in Him. So if I'm consistently and regularly worshiping God, and when trouble comes my way, without even thinking, I say, but you know, He's still on the throne. I don't like what I'm going through. I don't like this tragedy, but God is still on the throne and I'm gonna still trust him. That's what worship does. It gives you fortitude for your soul. But also, too, the consistent routine of worship gives us a sense of wholeness in our health. There's something that is restored through the rhythm and the consistency of worship. And I've shared this before, and it's worth sharing again that many studies have documented that those who engage in regular worship live longer lives, they have better physical health outcomes, they live longer, they have better mental health uh outcomes, they have better family relationships, better uh personal relationships, and for the married folk, and for the married folk, and for the married folk, and for the married folk, one more time, and for the married folk, they have significantly better sex lives for the married folk. Tell your neighbor for the married folk, for the married folk. That oughta make you want to come to church right there. Preach, Pastor. I am, I'm trying to preach this. Regular worship extends life, it renews and refreshes our life. Read an article two weeks ago. They say if you have a dog or a pet, it will extend your life. Convicted me, because y'all know what I think about dogs. Pray for your pastor, he needs deliverance. I know. Say, all you need is a pet and it will extend your life. But then I read this week about how worship extends your life. I ain't mad at nobody. But when I stand before the Lord, I want to be said, I want to be able to say, Lord, it wasn't the dog that I had that kept me alive. It was the Lord my God that enabled me to live as long as I did. Worship will bless your life. Here's the last one. Worship is our personal declaration of faith. If the Jewish people can do the Sabbath and the Muslim can do Friday moss, then what is the Christian declaration? There's no such thing as a Christian Sabbath. Sabbath was something that God gave to the Jewish people. God didn't give us a Christian Sabbath. No, he raised Jesus from the dead on a Sunday morning. And the reason why we come to church on Sunday morning is because Jesus got up with all power. I've had folk argue with me on that. Well, we should still practice the Sabbath. I ain't mad at you if you want to practice the Sabbath. But the reason why I come to church on Sunday morning, because early on a Sunday morning, he got up with all power in his hand. And since the first century, the church has been worshiping on Sunday morning because they want to honor the God that got up with all power. We need worship. Ordinary faith just involves worship. Tell your name, just involves worship. Amen. But then also, too, ordinary faith involves discipleship. What do I mean? Discipleship is what I said. We're working out our salvation, we're growing our faith, we're getting stronger in the word, stronger in understanding God's purpose, his plan in the world, to cultivate a stronger faith in us. That's our vision statement, to help people become followers. That's God's goal in the world, to bring the world to Christ and to grow us, to grow the world in relationship with Him. Verse 4 through 7, chapter 4. And Abel also brought an offering, fat portions, some from the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering. But on Cain, his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was angry. And his face was downcast. He was depressed and anxious. Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. Desires to have you, but you must rule over it. Oh, rule over it. Discipleship is learning to trust God's spirit when he speaks. That's discipleship, and that's what's going on in this text. Give me a minute. Stay with me. Y'all need we need to get this ton of ink been spent on. Spilled on this verse. What did Cain do for God to look with disfavor on his offer? Whole bunch of ink been spilled just on that verse. The most prominent position says he should have brought an animal sacrifice, but he brought a grain sacrifice. So the argument goes: well, when his mama and daddy sinned, God killed an animal and then put coverings over them. And so he's being disobedient by bringing a grain sacrifice. His brother Abel is doing the obedient thing. He's bringing an animal sacrifice. And if he had been obedient, he should have brought an animal sacrifice. But wait a minute, the Levitical law also took grain offerings too. Israel could bring the produce of the ground as an offering. Matter of fact, if I can put it in our language, Cain brought, I mean, Abel brought cash. Cain brought bitcoin. And at Christ's community, we take cash and bitcoin. That's the difference. Wasn't no issue here. I don't think it was the offering. Because again, this is instructive for Israel as to how they approach God with their offering. So I don't think that's it. Second one, others say, no, Cain didn't give his best. In other words, he gave a mediocre offering. And he thought God would accept it. That sounds good. Sounds like a pastor trying to raise an offering, amen. But here's the issue: the text never tells us why. Because the text is not interested in that. Come to that in a minute. We always go with what the text is interested in. The text never tells us why, yet we got folk throughout history spin, spill all kind of ink on what Adam or on what Cain did. Another trans, another option is, well, it's the type of offering that he brought, it's not the type of offering that he brought, but it was his attitude. His attitude was not right. His heart was not in it. Abel's heart was in it. And that's an honest attempt to understand it, but there's nothing in the text that suggests that's exactly what's going on. Why? Because that's not the interest of the author. So the issue in the text is not why God looked at his offering with disfavor. No. The issue in the text is how do we respond when God shows up and speaks to us in worship? The issue in the text is that God was working in Cain's life. And the question becomes when God sees something and I'm in church and the Spirit of God moves, and it seems like the sermon was crafted for me and nobody else. What am I gonna do with it? Okay, am I the only one to ever go hear a sermon and seem like the preacher followed me around all week long and just told the whole church all my private business? I'm just asking. That's the point of the text. Cain came to church and the preacher was preaching about anger, and somehow he was convicted. And the question the text asks us that when we come to church and God speaks to us through the service, how will we respond? I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying. And God says, hold on, I know what they did was not right, but sin is crouching at the door. For somebody else, it's not bitterness. Watch this, it's jealousy. Because mama gave more, it appeared mama gave more love to this child than you, and now you find yourself struggling with a spirit of jealousy, never realizing what God has done for some. The text asks the question what is it saying to us? What is God saying to us? And how do we respond? In a word, here it is. It's the the twins of testing and temptation. God never tempts anybody, but he will test. It really is a remix of Genesis chapter 3. You just don't see the serpent in the passage. He's crouching now at the door. It's testing and temptation. And the question becomes in the context of testing and temptation, what will I lean on? Will I trust God? It's a word, it's a word. I'm gonna lose you right here. It's a word, it's a word about the doctrine of what is called hometeology, the doctrine of sin. That is, what happened in Adam and Eve in chapter three just passed on to the next generation. So what happened with Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three became murder in Genesis chapter four, and it becomes something else in five, all the way down to Pastor Archer to you and to me. What lives in Cain, don't fool yourself. Lives out so in me and lives in you. Oh, Pastor, I would never do that. Can I say it like I want to? I've said it before. If we knew we wouldn't get the death penalty, if we knew we wouldn't go to hell, and we knew we can get we can get away with it, it's a whole lot of folk that we be dead right now. Preach our trip, I am. They would, I might be dead right now. Because what lives in Cain lives in me. And I'm not making this up because Paul saw this years later when he said, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why we need redemption in Jesus Christ. He bears the sins of the world, he cleanses me and makes me whole. That's why I need the cross. At the cross, at the cross, when I first believed, that's where my redemption is. Ah. So how does God bring us through this? Watch this. The good news is, oh, I wish I had time to deal with this. The good news is, is that even though he messed up, he confessed afterwards, which is a good thing. Well, he kind of didn't confess, he kind of tried to remove his own responsibility. But God still gave him grace. Because how many of y'all know he deserved the death penalty? He killed his brother, but God didn't give him what he deserved. He gave him grace, he marked him and said, Can't nobody do to Cain what he did to his brother. Oh, I wish I can preach that. See, the only reason why some of us didn't get what we deserved, because God marked us. I wish you could see what the devil had in plan for your life. I wish you could see what life wanted to throw your way. But God said, No, I mark them. And even though they deserve what they ought to receive, because I've marked them with their grace, because I've marked them with my grace, because I've marked them with my mercy. You cannot touch them. Hear me. But here's his mistake. He should have been confessing that before he killed his brother. He gets the revelation, and what does he do? He keeps it to himself. And went out and killed his brother. What does that mean? He needs help. We all need help. We need help. Which leads to my last point. Then I'm gonna wrap this up because I've held you too long. Give me my last point. We all need help. That's my whole point on that point. Let me get to the last one. Here it is. Third one. Ordinary faith involves a legacy. And that's where Seth comes in. My point is this: look, the same thing that was in Cain is in Seth. Seth is susceptible to the same temptation, the same testing. Put him in the same situation, he might do the same thing. What's the difference? He cried out to God. That's what happened with what it says in the text. He had a son born. The son somehow got involved, maybe in some kind of ministry, and the text says for the first time, men began to cry out to God. That's what Cain should have done. That at the point where the conviction came, that's when you cry for your help. Don't wait and try to figure it out on your own. But cry out to God in that moment, and God will show up and provide a way of escape to get you through the struggle. He'll put the right people in your path. He'll give you the community you need to help you bear the struggle. So worried about how much we need help. So let me wrap this up. I'm gonna close with this. I've never told y'all this story. But I'm gonna tell you today. So most of y'all know I've had a lot of surgeries with my eyes. Some of y'all may know that. But I've had at least probably about nine surgeries with my eye. And it's not because of something genetic. It's not even due to any of a fault of my own. It goes back to something that happened to me when I was in seminary. When I was in school, they had a doctor, my doctor, that was on the board. And he wanted to do a gift to the students at the school. And his gift was I want to give a special surgery to all the students that qualified. And at the time it was called RK surgery. Kind of similar to what they do now, laser surgery. They don't even do RK anymore. But RK was cutting edge at the time. And so I went ahead and got the surgery. And the way the surgery worked, they put a slit, they cut a small incision in the eye, and the eye would open just enough, and by opening of the eye, it would actually increase your sight. So you wouldn't need glasses, you wouldn't need contacts, you can see far and near. And for 95% of people, the surgery worked perfectly. Never had a problem with their eye. But for me, it didn't work. Because I had a condition that was undetectable at the time called keratoconus. Keratoconus occurs when when you open, when you cut on the eye, it over-corrects. So instead of giving me more sight, y'all, I was about to be declared legally blind. Literally. And so, through a series of events, they sent me to my current doctor, Dr. Linda Burke. Dr. Clark, who's a member of this church, she does my glasses for me. Amen. Little shout out for my doctor. But my ophthalmologist, the one that does the work on my eyes, they sent me to Dr. Clark. Dr. Clark. I mean, I'm sorry, Dr. Burke. So anyway, when I went to her, she said, Well, I can put you in some contacts, but you gotta understand those hard lens contacts, they only gonna work for a while. I'm gonna have to do surgery. I'm gonna have to put a new cornea on your eye. Well, I was feeling a little kind of way, because this was new. We're talking about this pre-internet, pre- you know, you using stone tools and stuff like that. I don't know. You know, what you using, rocks and I don't know what you're using on my eye. So I was feeling a certain kind of way, kid you not, feeling a certain kind of way. So, so I knew I had to get the surgery. I'd gone reluctantly, I agreed to get the surgery, but before I got the surgery, my good friend Pastor Clark, he was pastoring in Austin, Texas, had me come down and preach to his church. I tell the church what I was going through in my fears. When I finished the sermon, show you how God works. When I finished the sermon, God came up to me after service and he said, Pastor Archery, I know you're scared, but I'm a living witness, the surgery works. I've had the surgery in both eyes. He said, I'm telling you right now, they know exactly what they're doing. In that moment, my fears, which was at about 100, went down to zero. Because God knew that's what I needed. Since then, like I said, I've had about eight or nine surgeries. I've had uh two stents put in, I've had uh a surgical patch put on, um, a number of different things. And and and I've had all this, and I've been so involved in her office, when I come to their office, they call me Pastor Altry. Come to me for wisdom. And and the reason why I it really it really turned me is what my doctor said after I came back from Austin with that brother's testimony. I told her about what happened. And she just looked at me and shook her head, and this is what she said. She said, Now, if you just stay with me, I promise you. I'm this is what she said. If you stay with me, I promise you, I'll keep you seeing. She said, the mistake most people make, they get a little bit of sight and they think they're good. And then they disappear. And she said, this is what they don't understand. When they disappear and come back, it's worse than had they left. You know I want to preach this. But then she said, Pastor Octry, if you stay with me, I will always keep you sitting. Pastor, what do you try to say? If you stay with them, if you gonna have some flip up, you gonna mess up, but God wanna keep you, God wanna put some. And for over 40-something years, my God is the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified and raised from the dead. Hallelujah. Come on, let's prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper. Come on, y'all. Here's my word. Listen to me. Get your communion out. Something's soft, man. Come on. Hear me out. Here's my word. It's a legacy that Seth left. If you had a chance to compare Seth's legacy to Kane's legacy, Kane's legacy brought about technology, the arts, music, all kinds of stuff, but it also brought violence and war.