Belong - April 9, 2014

Scripture: Genesis 4-7

5 The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
- Genesis 4
9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. 22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.

- Genesis 6

Message: 
Walking closely with GOD will make others jealous and jealousy or envy will entice even a good man to do evil. Your actions will determine to who do you really belong.

Observation/Promise:
When we walk closely with GOD, we will receive His favor and blessing. When we offer our best to the Lord, others notice it but not everyone will honor us or appreciate our sincere love for GOD instead others are jealous of it and some might even kill us for our devotion to GOD. It is indeed an evil world, ever since the beginning of time. But we can all be saved from letting evil consume us by taking control of our anger and lust. We can take control of it, GOD told Cain before he killed his brother that sin is already crouching at his heart but he can subdue it and be it's master. But Cain didn't listen to GOD so sin controlled him and made him kill his brother. 


Application/Command:
Take control over your desires, anger, feelings and lust. Do not let it control you.
There should only be one master in our lives and that is GOD. It cannot be our feelings or desires, our anger or lust. We have to know the state of our hearts, let GOD search it and be corrected by Him. This is how we can live in a close relationship with GOD.
Walk closely with GOD, desire His truths each day and let the truth set you free from every sin that may take control over you in the future. 
Listen closely to GOD's instructions and do it. It is either we are of GODs, or of the world. We are of GOD when we do everything GOD says, we are of the world when GOD is not our master. To whom do you belong?

Conscious Awareness

12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

- Psalm 19:12-14

Sin is unnoticable as the ants on the ground. Sin crawls into you without even knowing it or feeling it. Sin starts with our thoughts and when we dwell on the negative thoughts and emotions we are then pressured and pushed to do what is humanlike just to protect ourselves but hurting GOD or others. That is why everyday when we pray, we have to ask for GOD's forgivenss of our sins and HIS Spirit to search our hearts and reveal to us what is not right before Him so we can ask Him to cleanse and rid us of it. We cannot know when we are already sinning, human judgement is very poor. Only GOD can know what is right in the motives of our hearts.

When we depend on GOD's power to cleanse us from sin, to keep us from sinning, then we are acting wisely. For we could never be able to keep ourselves pure and blameless by our own strength and will. It is not humanly possible because humans are naturally frail. We make it a point to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" - 2 Corinthians 10:5 When we have this attitude of always acknolwedging GOD's ways and what HE thinks about the matters that occupy our hearts, then this is how we make our thoughts, words, and the motives of our hearts pure. This is how it means to walk with the LORD and what conscious awareness of the presence of GOD in our life means.